Sight Word Messages

Two summers ago my husband was able to get his hands on a chalk board.  I was thrilled because I knew my kids would love using it outdoors!  You can check out all the fun my kids have had with our Outdoor Slate Chalkboard post.

My daughter has been working hard this past school year learning sight words.  I thought it would be fun to reinforce what she's learned by writing messages every day on the chalkboard.  My messages always include sight words from the list her kindergarten teacher has sent home, in addition to some new ones.

Here are some of the messages:

Every morning I change the message before my daughter wakes up.  Now that she knows they will be there every morning, she runs to the back door first thing to read her new message.  

I will continue doing this every day throughout the summer.  If you don't have something like this to leave messages on, simply writing on a piece of paper and leaving a  'note' for your child will be fun too and a great way to learn sight words!

Roly-Poly Egg Book and Craft

My daughter and I really enjoy our library visits and then reading all the books we find.  Some are real treasures like this one by Kali Stileman called, Roly-Poly Egg.  This is a cute book about a bird named Splotch who lays an egg, an absolutely perfect and beautiful egg of course.  But the egg rolls away and begins an adventure rolling, somersaulting and flying all while meeting some new animal friends along the way.

Besides reading books we also enjoy pairing them with crafts.  We both thought it would be fun to paint our very own Splotch and egg.  Here's what we used and how it turned out:

You will need:
Paper
Paint
Paint brushes
Googly eyes
Craft foam

We happened to have red paint just like the color of Splotch in the book.  But, if you do not have red paint,  you can make your very own unique Splotch with any colors you have on hand.  What's great about this painting is that Splotch is just that a 'splotch' or a 'glob' so really easy for even the littlest of kiddos to paint!

Start off by painting Splotch

Add some googly eyes

Next add the tree by painting the tree branch and some leaves.

My daughter also wanted to paint Splotch's egg AND the baby bird after it hatched.  We kept a page in the book open so that she could have something to work from.

The egg was fun to paint, especially sticking on the colored dots.  I cut out small circles from craft foam to use as the dots for the egg.

I wanted in on the fun too so I also painted a version of Splotch and his egg.

Mom's finished painting.....

Tiffany's finished painting.....

Teacher Appreciation Gift

My children's school celebrates Teacher Appreciation Week this week.  It's a wonderful opportunity to show our great teachers how much we thank them for all they do for our children.

I purchased this flower pot from Etsy and filled it with gift cards and scratch off lottery tickets.

Here's what I added and supplies needed:

• Floral foam 
• Skewer sticks
• Foam flowers
• Hot glue gun
• Tape
• Artificial grass

I cut the floral foam to size and placed it into the bottom of the pot.  Next, I cut out some flowers from craft foam and hot glued them to the skewer sticks.  I then stuck the skewer sticks into the foam and added the gift cards to the fronts of the flowers.  Finally, I topped it off by adding some artificial grass.

My hope was to give my child's teacher a gift that she would be able to enjoy now; the gift cards and then the flower pot, hopefully something she'll be able to use for years to come.  

Know though that showing your child's teacher appreciation doesn't have to cost alot or anything at all.  In addition to the flower pot I helped the children learn a quick and easy song to sing to their teacher.  I think the song was the real winner!!  

Lets remember our teachers!!