spring crafts & free printables...

today's activities feature two of my favorite things... free stuff and food! :) 

what could be better than that?! ;-)

if you missed yesterday's post featuring a dot-to-dot bunny, scrap paper egg, and an educational egg hunt, click HERE for all the details.

now, on to today's projects...

first up, an m&m graph! my girls love, and i mean loooooove m&m's. i think laney would live off of them if we let her. and i'm pretty sure she thinks it's borderline abusive that we don't allow her to have m&m's as a meal. ;)

anyway, the m&m graph uses m&m's to help teach math skills. of course, you will probably want to make sure you have some extras on hand.... learning can work up quite the appetite! 

Easter M&M Graph (FREE printable at the bottom of this post):

(link to graph printable at bottom of post)

Easter/Spring Memory and Patterns: (FREE printable at the bottom of this post)

libbi loves playing "memory"... she doesn't love playing by the rules - ha! but she still loves playing just the same. these memory cards are a great way to reinforce following directions and to work on recall skills. we also used these cards to work on making patterns. some of them we glued down to another piece of paper, others we just practiced making on the floor over and over (and over and over....). this activity was a little advanced for laney, but the cards were a great way to work on her vocabulary. she enjoys saying "egg" (she says, "A-gg") and "bunny" every time she sees a picture of one. 

 

(link to FREE printable at the bottom of this post)

Bird's Nest Recipe (FREE printable at the bottom of this post):

the final activity in today's post is a fun recipe! libbi enjoys helping me in the kitchen; laney just enjoys the fruits of our labors. ;-)

this is an easy recipe that is perfect for little helpers!

PRINTABLE LINKS: (click on the text to open link)

M&M GRAPH

EASTER MEMORY

RECIPE CARDS

as always, feel free to email me if you have any comments or suggestions. and please let me know if you have any trouble with the links! 

tomorrow's post will feature a few more fun and educational projects for the preschool crowd! 

easter and spring for the preschool crowd...

i'm so excited to share some of the fun things we've been up to! you may have read yesterday's post where i explained that this week would be dedicated to spring and easter activities for the preschool crowd OR maybe you just stumbled upon the blog today and have no idea what i'm talking about! :) 

if so, click HERE for the details on this week's lineup. 

now, let's get started, shall we? 

DOT-TO-DOT BUNNY:

if your kids are anything like mine, they love glue. and they love marshmallows. actually, libbi loves marshmallows AND glue. laney just prefers glue. ;-)

making the dot-to-dot bunny combined both of these things and my girls were in heaven! i just freehanded the outline of a bunny onto a piece of construction paper, but i'm sure you could find some clip art on line if you didn't feel comfortable drawing your own. my bunnies weren't perfect (in fact, at one point, libbi asked my why i was drawing cats) but hey, they got the job done. 

Scrap Paper Egg:

this was a pretty simple activity that didn't require much preparation or clean-up (sounds good to me!) i had some old scrapbook paper in my craft closet, but you could use any type of paper for this - even solid colors! 

apparently we do our best crafting in our jammies ;-)

Hunting For Letters: 

this activity has two different versions and many extensions and/or modifications if you so choose. libbi (3.5yrs old) was able to do all of them and enjoyed even the "simple" version that i created for laney. laney was mostly able to follow the directions for version 2 of hunting for letters with a bit of assistance. 

Hunting for Letters...version 1 is the more advanced activity. 

Hunting for Letters...version 2 is the modified activity for younger children or those that may need more assistance. 

an example of eggs from "version 1"

an example of a collection from "version 1." libbi drew the egg labeled "blue" so she found all blue things to collect in her basket. 

examples of "version 1" collections (right) and "version 2" collections  (left)
libbi chose the letter "P" so she collected mrs Pots, a Potato, a Plate, a slice of Pie, and a Pot.
laney chose the color green so she found all the eggs labeled "green"

examples of eggs from "version 2"

hope you enjoyed day one of spring activities for the preschool crowd! please feel free to email me if you have any comments, questions, or suggestions! come back to tomorrow to see what else we've been working on. happy tuesday friends and happy crafting! :) 

*don't forget to order your easter placemats...click HERE for all the details.

and TODAY is the last day to enter to win the $50 minted giveaway. click HERE to enter!! 

easter crafts and activities...

**don't forget to enter the minted giveaway. click HERE and enter to win a $50 minted credit!!**

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some of y'all know that before having babies,  i used to be a kindergarten teacher. i graduated from the university of georgia with a degree in early childhood education. while i may not be in an actual classroom every day teaching 20 five and six year olds anymore, i'm still surrounded with plenty of opportunities to put my teaching degree to good use. i'm with my two favorite "students" all day long and believe it or not they are actually pretty receptive to my teaching. especially if there is glue or markers involved. and if i throw in some candy? they are star students - ha! :) 

i don't know if it's the "teacher" in me or just some sort of corny mom gene, but i love a good themed activity or craft. it's really a win:win, because my girls love crafting and creating, too. most of the time they don't even realize that they are working on actual skills, not just cutting/pasting/tasting/spilling. ;-)

i'm so excited for my next few posts, because i'll be sharing some of our favorite easter and spring activities. most of them are very cost effective (aka cheap or even free!) and involve items you more than likely have around your home or (free!) printables that i will be happy to share. these activities are easter and spring related, geared towards toddlers and preschoolers, but can be modified for younger children or extended for older children. i'm sure you've probably seen many of these crafts around the interwebs or may have even completed some of them with your children before. i'm not claiming that these are original ideas, just some tried and true activities my girls and i love that provide fun and serve a learning purpose at the same time. 

with each activity, i'll share the materials needed, the project goal, and the developmental elements involved. please feel free to share these activities with friends, just remember that they are for personal use only. you can email me any time if you have any questions, comments, or suggestions. and a little heads up, if you do not have children, hate bunnies and chicks, or can't stand "themes" - then you'll probably want to skip the next few posts. 
but if you're interested in having fun with your children and helping them learn important skills at the same time, then please join me!

the first post featuring activities and (printables!) will be up tomorrow morning. make sure to come back and join me. in addition, i'll be linking all of the individual posts at the bottom of this one, so you can easily find them all in one place. 

CLICK HERE for DAY ONE: dot-to-dot bunny, scrap paper egg, and hunting for letters...

one more thing... i'm guest posting over at one of my favorite blogs today, lamberts lately! 
stop by and check it out. :) 

hope to "see you" back here tomorrow!