Summer Made Simple: Hiking Necklaces

Posted on June 7, 2012 by Creative Preschool Resources

Okay, so do you remember that I’m trying to be cheap this summer? Well, I am. We live in Colorado so what comes more naturally than hiking? We decided to hit the trail with some cute friends for a hike on Lost Lake Trail.

My kids always enjoy a scavenger hunt to keep them excited during a hike, but carrying a clipboard or a small journal or book just makes them get tired faster. This time I had a BRIGHT IDEA! Why not put our scavenger hunt list onto a necklace? And inside each “paper bead” I put a small treat {an M&M, Sweet Tart etc.}.

First I printed the paper “beads” on my computer. I cut them out and glued them 3/4 of the way closed, leaving enough space to slide the candy in. Let the glue dry. Add a hole punch to the top of each “bead” prior to adding the candy. Lastly slide the tiny treat into the bead and place on some colorful ribbon.

I explained to the kids prior to the hike what items they were looking for and once they found each thing they got to rip open the paper bead and eat the treat inside. AND, yes even the boys loved them! {In blue ribbon of course}It kept this crazy crew excited about the hike and looking at nature in new and exciting way. We also made sure that the paper beads were only ripped open half way ,that way we didn’t have to deal with keeping track of trash.

It was so fun! They are begging me to make them again the next time we go hiking {which I’m sure will be soon}.

If you’d like to download a PDF of the beads you are welcome to. I just ask that you follow along via Facebook or e-mail! Thanks! Happy hiking!

Summer Made Simple: Fishing

Posted on June 6, 2012 by Creative Preschool Resources

Who doesn’t love casting a line and hoping to catch a slimy fish? (I grew up fishing with my Grandpa, who I am sure is in Heaven fishing right now.) If you have kids in your house, I’m sure your kiddos would love it too. We are blessed to live in a beautiful community with a huge lake and park area.

Isn’t it beautiful? We’ve fished here with the kids the past 3 years and we’ve only caught 2 fish. It’s the experience that counts right? They have a blast!

My sweet girl with her “ladies” fishing pole. Last year they graduated from the little tiny kids poles to medium-sized poles.

My favorite 3 fisher people, with the exception of my Grandpa of course.

A trip to the park wouldn’t be complete without our Big Beast. His real name is Charlie, nicknamed Bubba, most often referred to as “The Beast”. We love him… sometimes.

If you don’t have fishing poles post a request to borrow some on Facebook. More than likely someone you know has some you can borrow.

Happy Summer!

Pinterest Taste Test {3}

Posted on June 5, 2012 by Creative Preschool Resources

Ahh… it’s summer break, I’m relaxed, it’s starting to get hot, life is good. What do you crave in hot weather? I constantly crave cold and sweet. I could seriously live off of ice cold soda, frozen grapes and slushies from Sonic. I recently pinned this great idea to give me something small, sweet and super cold in these warm summer months.

Yup, it’s frozen yogurt dots. YUM! They crunch in your mouth, they cool you off and yeah, it gives my body much needed calcium. What a deal! The idea was posted by Jillee at One Good Thing by Jillee. So glad she pinned to Pinterest or I never would have tried it! Please follow ‘pinning’ etiquette and visit her site directly if you’d like to pin this to your board. Thanks!

I had to learn to share these too. My kids decided they were as yummy as I thought they were.

One warning, make sure that you get them off the cookie tray and back into the freezer quickly and then take them out in small groups to nibble on. They melt fast and the whole purpose is to pop them in your mouth. If you can’t use your hands, what’s the point? 🙂 Most freezers tend to have an extra cold zone. Once you get them off of the cooking tray, just put them in a ziplock back while they are still frozen and put them in the “extra cold zone”.

Hope you and the little ones in your life enjoy these little frozen yogurt drops.

Summer Made Simple: Hot Rock Art

Posted on June 4, 2012 by Creative Preschool Resources

Ohh… my kids and I made one of my favorite new summer projects this past week. They are HOT GARDEN ROCKS. We found the idea at Eighteen25.

I think kids age 3-10 would enjoy this project. For the little ones, protect their hands using 2-3 old mismatched socks. I did this with a 6 & 8 year old and we had NO problems. I even touched the rocks with my own hands and I knew it was hot, but it wasn’t hot enough to actually burn my hand.

Here’s what to do:

Gather large rocks
Wash and dry the rocks
Heat the oven to 350 degrees
Place the rocks on a cookie sheet and “bake” for 15 minutes
Remove rocks from the oven and place on newspaper on a table or the ground.

LASTLY - Color/paint the rocks with peeled crayons.

The colors are so vibrant and fun. Once they cooled to the touch (about 30 minutes) we placed them around the yard. Super cute, super easy. My kids were begging me to make them again and really, why not? We had everything we needed already on hand.

So, are you going to make some?

You know your kids would LOVE to! 🙂 Happy summer everyone!

Linked up at: Skip to my Lou, Craft O Maniac, Sumo’s Sweet Stuff, Making the World Cuter, Keeping it Simple,

Summer Made Simple: Water Painting

Posted on June 1, 2012 by Creative Preschool Resources

Water painting with kids isn’t something new and most of your probably already do it, but I tend to get so busy during the school year that some of the simple things in life tend to get pushed out. NOT THIS SUMMER! Back to the basics…

To help my kiddos get creative I took out large white construction paper, white crayons and water colors.

At first, my Sweet Girl didn’t want anything to do with it. That was until she saw me sit down and start drawing my picture. Suddenly she became very interested in getting creative too.

Don’t our creations look great? Super simple, super easy, things we already had in our home. But, they were fun and we did them together.

My Big Guy made a picture of the solar system. I loved hearing him name all of the planets as he drew them and then explaining their colors while painting. BONUS: A little educational review and some fun, simple art. Wahoo!

Happy summer to you and yours!

Linked up at: Skip to my Lou, Craft O Maniac, Sumo’s Sweet Stuff, Making the World Cuter, Keeping it Simple,

Summer Made Simple: Intro

Posted on May 31, 2012 by Creative Preschool Resources

My kids just started summer break this past Friday. I quickly cut out and taped up this fun sign on the garage to welcome them home. They loved it!

Starting summer is exciting enough but announcing it to the neighborhood is even MORE FUN! Ice cream after school with the neighbors added to the excitement.

This is a summer of change for our family. Let me explain that in summers passed either my husband or I had a second job and a little extra income. In addition we were even luckier that last summer my husband worked part time for Delta Airlines. Not only did we have a little more moola, we also had flight benefits. We went to the Wisconsin Dells in January, Steamboat Springs, CO AND Orlando Florida in March and over the summer we went to Hawaii, Jamaica and California. Spoiled? Most assuredly!

This year, no money, no flight benefits. The kids keep asking when we’re going on a trip. It’s hard for them to understand that this summer we aren’t traveling. Yes, we’ll be doing a camping trip or two, our daughter will go to Girl Scout camp and church camp and our Son Lego camp, but we aren’t traveling (as they know it).

This year I’m committed to having a summer made simple (and cheap AND FUN). Since we’re both teachers, we will be having a short (45 minute) form of school each day to keep the basics fresh and we’ll spend time exploring local activities. The cheaper the better. 🙂

The Summer Made Simple series of posts is my attempt to share what we’re doing over here to inspire you anywhere to enjoy summer with your kiddos. Get out and explore or stay in and get creative with your kiddos.

Happy Summer to you!

Outer Space Activity Round-Up

Posted on May 29, 2012 by Creative Preschool Resources

We had so much fun during our outer space unit. I can’t wait to share a couple projects with you that we did, but also some more great ideas that I found out in blog land.

To begin the week we made personalized rockets for the kids to decorate however they like and attached them to “space paper”. We’ve also used the exact same rockets and simply stapled the two sides together to make an unattached rocket.

It’s the end of the year for our Pre-K students and they are getting ready for their Kindergarten career. We used two dice to complete rocket addition problems.

From Busy Bee Kids Crafts.com I found a cute Paper Planetarium project. So simple, yet adorable for preschool students.

From DLTK-kids.com I found a great toilet paper astronaut craft. The kids loved it!

Mrs. Karen offers a whole collection of space preschool ideas that are fabulous! I particularly love these space paintings.

Thanks for joining us for some fun Outer Space activities.

Canvas Wall Name Art

Posted on May 25, 2012 by Creative Preschool Resources

Happy Friday, happy, happy Friday! {Can you hear the tune? I can as I type} Anyways, do you remember the canvas wall I’m working on and the cute “Teague Family” signs? I promised a tutorial and here it is. 🙂 Can I just say that I love my growing canvas wall. I can’t wait to have this thing full of pics. It will be a show stopper.

I purchased these wonderful burned edge words from Pick Your Plum. Yeah, I’m a PYP junkie, sorry! They looked great, but the letters all run together making it a little big difficult to read. The letter “m” and letter “l” and letter “i” just look like one weird blob. It had to be fixed.

I chose to paint them, so if they ended up looking terrible I could just repaint instead of ruining them. I started by chosing a base color. I’m really enjoying teal right now, so why not? I also really love creating my own colors and personally I think I’m pretty good at color mixing to get exactly the shade I’m looking for. I used a turquoise, added a little green and a little black. Oh yeah, please don’t mind my ugly paint mat. I’m too cheap to buy a pretty one each time I paint just for blog pics. 🙂 Ha!I painted each word with several coats of the paint and let them dry. Then I had to decide which letter I wanted on “top” {notice the way the “y” is in front of the “l” and the “a” is in front of the “f”.} I used a black paint marker to make the front letter stand out.

After that I used a dry brush technique {put a tiny bit of paint onto a dry brush and on scrap paper wipe MOST of it off. Then “dry brush” whatever you want} to paint all of the edges and the distress the dark black lines I made with the paint pen.

I just love the way it turned out! It looks especially great in the hallway with the pictures.

Happy crafting everyone and happy Friday!!! My baby boy graduated Kindergarten yesterday and both kiddos have their last day of school today. Wahoo for summer!

Winner Winner!

Posted on May 24, 2012 by Creative Preschool Resources

Hi all! I am so excited to announce the winner of my necklace and silver case giveaway. Drum roll please…

The winner is Kelly T. who left a comment saying, “i recently found your site on pinterest and im hooked! i love all your preschool ideas. i do a homeschool prek with my boys 3-4 days a week all year long, so i love getting a different perspective and ideas for other moms! thanks!”

Kelly has been contacted by e-mail. I can’t wait to hear about her cute necklaces! Congratulations Kelly!

Preschool Scrapping

Posted on May 23, 2012 by Creative Preschool Resources

If you’ve wondered why I’ve been so busy lately besides all of the day to day things with my own kids, I’ve also been scrapping! Yes, I’m that weird teacher that creates a scrapbook of pictures and work for all 24 students. {When I taught first grade I helped them make their own}

My partner teacher and I spent hours just trimming corners and adding a background paper to each and every picture. The picture above and below shows only a small portion of the pictures that we worked on.

I warn you now that this post has TONS of pictures. I’m going to show you each page of one of the books. I love this project. It provides the parents with ONE book to keep for the year. It has pictures and work by their child throughout the school year. I hope you enjoy the pictures.

Are you tired yet? Ha! This is just October. Lots more to come, so pace yourself if needed. 🙂

I am already making a plan for how I want to do it differently next year. I want it to be a little easier for me, but still super cute for the parents. I’ll keep you posted on that as I work on it this summer. This last pic is the 2 piles of 12 books each.

Have a fantastic day! So, who is going to make these for their preschool? Do you give out or get a book like this from your preschool? There are so many creative teachers out there. What other great ideas do you have?