Gingerbread Playing Cards

I found these playing cards at the Target Dollar Spot a few years ago and used them with my students.  I came across them the other day and lined them all up 2-Ace and A chose one card at a time from a bowl and matched the number (or letter).

This was a great activity and it took a nice amount of time.  I like that she had enough concentration and it kept her interest. 

What are we doing for Advent?

For Advent this year we are simply following along with this book, Countdown to Christmas.  I've been embracing the idea of simplifying things, and this little book is a perfect fit for us.  Each day there is a short reading, prayer, Bible verse and activity.  

Our first activity was to make a paper chain to count down the days until Jesus' birthday.  (we are just using ours as a decoration)  Notice the tape dispenser?   It's one of those hands-free gift wrapping tape dispensers.  We used to use them at the preschool I used to teach at.  So easy for little hands to use!

Felt Christmas Tree

Last night I went to a "Mama's night in" and we made these cute felt trees and ornaments for our kiddos.  It was really simple and we all enjoyed admiring everyone's creativity.  I showed A right away this morning and she had fun putting her ornaments onto the tree.  We used templates from these sources:

My Fantastic Toys
Homemade by Jill
Juicy Bits
Skip to my Lou
Bugs and Fishes
I found all of the templates on Pinterest.  I'll add my Pinterest button soon!
*spray adhesive was applied to the back of the felt tree to make it stick to the wall, but I needed to use painter's tape to really keep it stuck to the wall. (I love my painter's tape!)

Homemade sticker pages

A is LOVING stickers and sticker books right now.  I have a bunch of foam stickers laying around, and we are usually just making foam sticker collages.  Today, I decided to trace around the stickers and have A match the stickers to the outlines.

I think we'll be doing this all day long.  The nice thing about this is that she has to do a series of steps:

-peel off the back

-put the peeled paper in a trash pile

-find the matching shape

-place the sticker in the correct spot

I don't know what we'll be doing with dozens of sticker pages around here, but it's all about the process, not the product.  We'll hang them up all over for a while since she's so proud of her work!

I also plan to make pattern strips  where she not only has to match the stickers, but then continue the pattern with no outline to help her (I'll post that when we do it!), as well as cards where she sees what is on the top and she needs to duplicate it on the bottom (we can cut them and turn them into memory cards)

Alphabet girl!

A has always been interested in letters...letter names, letter sounds, letter songs!  It comes as no surprise that one of her favorite things to do with play dough is to sit with Daddy and have him make letters with it.  He'll make a letter and she'll tell him the name and the sound.  They do this with pancakes too!

Artist Books

I love these books!  Each one focuses on an artist and their paintings.  My favorite part about the book is that it reads like a picture book.  A really likes them too.  She actually saw one of the paintings somewhere and said, "Van Gogh!"  Yes, honey, that is a Van Gogh. :)

best sensory bin ever

I saw this sensory bin on someone's blog...I can't remember where!  You put popcorn kernels, magnetic refrigerator letters and a scoop in a shoebox.  I used alphabet stickers and put them on three separate pieces of paper and laminated them.  A scoops the letters out and matches them to the letter on the paper.

When we started this, I kept the letters in three separate bags and we only did one page/bag at a time.  Now A has enough interest and attention to do all three pages at once!

*TIP* When doing a small sensory bin like this, place it on top of a blanket.  That way, when the little pieces (popcorn kernels here) fall out, all you need to do to clean up is roll the blanket and pour the pieces back in!