Groundhog Day Treasure Hunt and Crafts

This was one of my favorite "preschool" days ever.  Reagan loved everything.  We colored, went on a treasure hunt, and made special treats.  This was from a couple years ago and I'm pretty sure she doesn't remember any of it.  This year we are keeping it simple and repeating the treasure hunt. 

Popup Groundhog Craft- (idea and printable from here and link to printable here)

Paper bag Groundhog puppet-We found the idea here.  Link to the printable is in the middle of the post under Groundhog Day crafts.

 This puppet was her favorite.  She said it was her "baby Tyler."

Groundhog Treasure hunt- Found here.  She followed clues that lead to the treasure.  Along the way we learned about groundhogs...how much they weigh, what they eat, where they live, etc.

Our next two activities I forgot to take pictures of the finished product...oops.  The first one was a paper plate groundhog found here.

Image from Crafty Morning Blog

Finally we made our groundhog pudding cups.  They were tasty.  It was pudding, smashed up Oreos on top, and teddy grams for the groundhog.

23 Fun Holiday's to Celebrate with your Kids in February

We had so much fun with our January calendar. We didn't celebrate every holiday and many we did celebrate were quite simple.  I loved that it was a fun reminder to spend time with my kids, to slow down and create some memories.   I was putting this post together this morning and my 9 year old  was pretty excited we were continuing this new tradition. It works for a wide age range.

February is full of some fun and kind of quirky holidays.   I found some kid friendly ones that I think will be perfect to incorporate into our preschool plan or use it as a fun way to connect with my kids (I'm really excited that my older school aged kids can join in as well).  Simply download a copy of the calendar, print, and display.  You do not need to celebrate all of them (we probably won't) just pick and choose what works for you and your family.

Download your copy here

I'll be posting ideas as I finalize my plans and also as we celebrate some of these holidays.  My hope is that this will be something fun for your family and a way to create some special memories.  I'd love to hear your ideas and see pictures of your celebrations!

Holiday's came from here and here. 

Amazing graphics from

 Little Red, Teaching Happy Hearts, Lita Lita, Miss Pickle's Graphics, JB Designs, Elementary Lesson Plans, Speech Doodles, Creative Clips, Ta-Doodles Illustrations, Reading Teacher's Backpack,  Prettygrafik, Z is for Zebra, and fonts from Hello Literacy

Pete's Dragon Movie Night

Pete's Dragon is such a sweet story.  I loved the original as a kid and this one is different but so cute.  My kids enjoy it too so it makes a great family movie night choice.  

We often watch a movie over the weekend but this time I wanted to make it a little extra special.  When my kids got home from school I gave them their own movie pass and mini popcorn box.

How cute are these!  I'm not sure if you can read it but it says admit one and free popcorn on each ticket.  I printed them on cardstock.

 This is what your popcorn box printable will look like.  Fold on the white lines and tape.  They look small but they are actually a great size for popcorn or candy.

 We've been working on the Letter P during preschool so we also had pizza and punch with our popcorn.

While we waited for the pizza to bake we played one of my kids favorite games...Don't eat Pete.  However I changed the tittle just a bit :)

If you've never played here's a quick how to:  Print off the board game...cardstock works best.  Place one piece of candy (candy corn, m&m's, Cheerios, or whatever you have) on each dragon.  Send one person to out of the room and quietly decided which one is going to be Pete's dragon for that round.  Lets say you pick the one in the center.  Have the person come back into the room and eat one of the pieces of candy off each character UNTIL they pick up the one chosen as Pete (in this case the one in the center).  When they pick up this candy everyone yells "Don't eat Pete!" and their turn ends.  Add candy to the ones taken on the last turn and play as many times as you want picking a new Pete each time. 

Besides making the printables it didn't take much time to plan, print, and set up this fun movie night.  With our busy schedules its nice to take a break and just be together.  Adding these few fun printables made it a little extra special and something they are still talking about.

You can download your free Pete's Dragon Printables here (tickets and game) and here (popcorn box)

Adorable graphics from Prettygrafik design, clipartland, eudanedigital, and Instruct and Inspire. Fonts from Hello Literacy

Letter P preschool mini pack

Here are a few fun ways to teach the letter P.  I like to do these three activities with every letter I teach.  They do not take much time but are great for review and I find having some consistent activities work well for my little one.

The first activity is a Mini Letter Book.  Print in color or black and white.  Cut across the line and staple.  Cover page is included.  I keep all of mini books together for review and my little one loves that she can "read" her books.

I usually print the black and white to save ink but also it makes a fun coloring book.  It a cute way to make their book just a little more personalized.  Don't worry there are no watermarks on the downloads.

Here's our letter poster.  I print and leave this out all week.  We go over each picture and say the letter sound.  For example parrot-p-p-parrot.  This also comes in black and white (makes a really cute coloring page) and a color but no boarder version to save on some ink.  Just print what you need.

Download the mini book and posters here

The third activity is our tracer page.  I don't really do a lot of worksheets at this age but my 4 year old thinks its pretty cool to have "homework" like her big sisters so this is perfect.  You can also laminate and reuse it.

Download the tracer page here.

Letter P Penguin Craft

This little guy turned out so cute!  I love using letter crafts to introduce our theme and its a fun way to recognize letters.  All of our letter crafts will eventually end up in an abc book and I'm excited to have this little keepsake.  

You probably don't need a tutorial for this one.  She wanted to paint snow so the day before she used my acrylic glossy white paint and a large sponge brush to paint her paper.  It gives it a shiny look and kind of looks like snow.

I had all the pieces up out for her and she glued them together.  

I love these quick and easy crafts that teach something!

Feed the Penguin Counting Mats

We are continuing our arctic theme and I decided to post some of our activities separate and then one large post as we finish up that will included all of these activities and any extra activities that do not have an individual post.  I'm hoping it will be easier to find and pin the specific activities you are looking for. We'll see how it goes.

For this game download your free counting mats, print, and cut (download is at the end of this post).  I printed mine on card stock and laminated.  We are using them for a few other activities so I wanted them durable.  

Grab some goldfish and start feeding your penguins.  If there is a number 6 have your little one put 6 goldfish on that penguin. 

Another great activity is to mix them up and have your little one put the cards in order from smallest to biggest or biggest to smallest.  

These cards might look familiar if you have already downloaded our Penguin Number Hunt game.   We used the same counting mats.  If not this fun game included in the download and you can check out this post to find a fun bonus game to use with these mats.

Adorable graphics from Prettygrafik design, and Krista Wallden-Creative Clips. Fonts from Hello Literacy

You can Download your Free Counting Mats here!

Beauty and the Beast Preschool Crafts

I remember watching Beauty and the Beast when I was a little girl and I love that my kids now enjoy it...the classic and new one.  When I asked my 4 year old what she wanted to learn about she quickly replied Beauty and the Beast.  So we spent a few days doing crafts and some learning activities.

Enchanted Mirror Craft.  

This was a favorite and they turned out so cute.  

I used this free download and printed on card stock.  I printed an extra to use as a template for the center of the mirror...not necessary but very helpful. 

Color and cut out the mirror.  Cut out the center of the extra mirror and wrap it in tin foil.  We just taped it to the back.  You can tape it directly to your mirror or...

Just tape the top so it can flip open.  They colored the center to show Belle sad.  My 4 year old went around saying "show me the girl" and flipping it open.

Enchanted Rose Hand and Finger Painting

This is one of those crafts that I had something in mind but my little creative girl wanted to put her own spin on it.  You can find the inspiration for this project here.  Its not always easy to let go of my ideas but it is so worth it.  She loved creating this picture and spent so much time making it perfect.  

Here's a quick how to...Paint your little ones hand and make sure to get everywhere!

Stamp it down on your paper.  I had her leave it there and I pushed around the top of her hand to make sure we got a complete hand print.  We learned this after our first attempt didn't work out so well.

Dip fingers into the paint and make falling petals.  From here you can paint your stem and draw your glass case

BUT this is where she decided it need more and the glass case would ruin her flower.

Here masterpiece!

Beauty and the Beast Preschool activities.  I often make several of our activities but I found so many cute ones that I decided to save some time and use their amazing printables.  

Beginning Sound Puzzle

Free Preschool Pack

Free Pack for Preschool and Kindergarten

I went through and picked some that were at her skill level and thought she would enjoy. 

Inventor's Challenge!

This worked perfect for my elementary aged kids but my preschooler was able to do it was well with some modifications.  

I gave them the assignment to find 5 items in the house and create an invention.  There were no other instructions provided.

Here's what they came up with.  It's a soccer game :)

As an extension to this activity I created this worksheet they can fill out before they begin their challenge.

 

You can download of a copy of it here.

We finished off our mini Beauty and the Beast unit with a movie night.  It was such a fun theme I think I'm going to have to let my little on pick more often.