new ideas for halnew ideas for halloween treatsloween treats teachmama.com
halloweenholidays

new ideas for halloween treats: alternatives to candy

by Teach Mama
written by Teach Mama
Halloween is traditionally a time for sweets, sweets, and more sweets, but who says kids must eat candy from dawn till dusk just because that’s how it’s always been done?
This year, though my kids will certainly have their fair share of sweets (we are a sweet-tooth family after all), I’m really trying hard to think outside the box a bit as far as Halloween treats are concerned.new ideas for halnew ideas for halloween treatsloween treats teachmama.com
Thanks to my friends from Melissa & Doug, I’m stretching the limits of treat-giving and treat receiving, and I’m going for small, hands-on toys that encourage creative play and fun.

As a Room Parent for one of my kids’ classes, I’m not planning on handing each child yet another bag of sweets to shove in their backpacks on the very day they’ll walk the streets of their neighborhood, grabbing more candy than they can hold. Not this year.

Instead, I’m mixing it up. Thinking outside the Halloween treat box.  Thinking about some alternatives to candy.

I’m handing the kids a few new Halloween treats: bubbles, stickers, tattoos, crafts, and small toys. These are sure to be items that the kids–and parents–will be happy to see, as they won’t mean more sugar for our kids’ little bodies.

Here’s the skinny. . .

New Ideas for Halloween Treats  — Alternatives to Candy:

Some of newish ideas for Halloween treats for home or at school. . .

new ideas for halloween treats scratch art

 

Scratch Art: I think any of the Scratch Art Classroom Kits would be a great crafty activity for Halloween at home or Halloween class parties.

In particular, the Gold and Silver Scratch Art Trading Cards are super-cool for making Jack O’ Lanterns that look like they really glow!

new ideas for halloween coll 1

Or kids could get funky, creating Scratch Art to complement their costumes!

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new ideas for halloween treats

 Tattoos! Kids love, love, love tattoos, and the great thing about these My First Temporary Tattoos sets are that each comes with over 100 tattoos!

We easily tore apart the tattoos on each sheet–jewels, flowers, and more in the Jewelry Set and sports, trucks, animals, and more in the Blue Tattoo Set.

new ideas for halloween treats

new ideas for halloween treats

These are super for goodie bags, for handing out to the Trick-Or-Treaters, or as a ‘Tattoo Station’ at a class party.

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new ideas for halloween treats

new ideas for halloween treats

new ideas for halloween treats

Snakes, Bugs, & Lizards:  Yes, snakes, bugs, and lizards are super fun additions to Halloween if you ask me.  As a family that prefers silly over scary, these little guys are perfect for hiding around the house and seeking for extra Halloween fun or for adding to goodie bags or baskets.

They come in packs of six (Sack of Snakes), ten (Bag of Bugs), and seven (Litter of Lizards), so they totally work as affordable Halloween goodies.

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snake turtle butterfly bubbles

Bubbles! Kids love bubbles, and they’ll especially love these bubbles with silly animals on top. For the extra-special Trick-Or-Treaters in your life, the Mombo Snake Bubbles would be a great replacement for that larger-sized candy bar or treat!

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new ideas for halloween treats

new ideas for halloween treats

Scratch Art Light Catchers: These totally rock.

They really do.

I think they’d be awesome as a Halloween class party activity.  No matter the shape, kids will love doing this non-messy activity (and teachers and Room Parents will, too!), and kids have a sweet end product to take home and display.

Melissa & Doug has anything from Flower Light Catchers to Dolphins, or Butterflies to Sailboats, and honestly, kids won’t care what they have. I’m willing they’ll just be excited to grab a stick, grab a sheet, and start scratching!

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 That’s just what we’ve got up our sleeve this Halloween season. I’m totally thrilled.

What new ideas for Halloween treats do you have? What are your super-fab alternatives to Halloween candy? Please share!

 

 

 

Want a few more fun halloween party ideas?

 

fyi: Some of the links in the post above are “affiliate links.” This means if you click on the link and purchase the item, I will receive an affiliate commission. Forever and always I recommend only products or services I use personally and believe will add value to my readers. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.” For more information, please see teachmama media, llc. disclosure policy.

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easy cotton ghost: halloween craft for little ones
holidays

pulled cotton ghosts: halloween craft for little ones

by Teach Mama
written by Teach Mama

post contains affiliate links

 

pulled cotton ghost

 

The following guest post is written by the incredibly busy Theresa of Capri + 3.  Theresa is a mom of four toddlers, and her family’s story is an amazing blessing. Her blog chronicles their adventures.

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I am stopping by from Capri + 3 to share a fun and easy Halloween craft, perfect for little hands.

I love the change in the weather, the aroma of cinnamon and pumpkins and festive fall decorations.  We have three boys and a girl who will turn three in November and they love to do arts and crafts projects.

Since Halloween is approaching, I thought it would be fun to make fluffy pulled cotton ghosts.  We have made pulled cotton ghosts before and glued them onto black paper. This year, I decided to shake things up and make them three dimensional using recycled toilet paper rolls.

That way they can ‘haunt the mantle’ or greet goblins coming to ‘trick or treat’ on Halloween night.

  • Pulled Cotton Ghosts–Halloween Craft for Little Ones:

 

You will need:

First, set the TP roll on edge and draw a circle larger than the roll and cut it out (or have your older child to this).

Ghost--TP Roll with paper on it

Then, cut slits around the circle and tape it on one end so that it blocks the hole in the cardboard tube.

 

Give your children cotton balls and have them pull them apart to make fluffy cotton.  This is a great fine motor activity and can also be very relaxing if you want to get in on the fun!

Ghost--Pulling Cotton Ryder

 Capri making her ghost

Then, add glue all around the cardboard tube and on the white paper located on the top.  Have your children glue the pulled cotton onto the ghost.   The great thing about this project is that the cotton can be layered so that it no longer resembles the shape of the cardboard tube (just add more glue).  Then, have your child glue on the eyes and mouth.

Our little ones love to look up and see their pulled cotton ghosts ‘haunting’ the mantle.’

 

capri plus 3Theresa and Greg struggled with infertility and were fortunate to have a happy outcome to their journey.  Theresa started Capri + 3 as a way to share their infertility success story to bring hope to other couples facing challenges in starting their families and to document their children’s childhoods.  It has morphed into a blog about parenting multiples, arts and crafts activities for children and so much more.  Capri, Grayson, Xayden and Ryder  were all born in November of 2010.

Facebook  |  Google+   |  Pinterest |  Twitter 

Thank you, thank you, THANK YOU, Theresa,  for sharing!

Looking for more activities for ringing in Halloween (and sneaking in a little learning) with your littles?

Stop by and follow these great educational Pinterest boards:

Or check out any of teachmama’s Halloween posts!
fyi: affiliate links are used in this post

 

 

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paper plate math puzzles
mathnumbers

paper plate puzzles: fun number learning for kids

by Teach Mama
written by Teach Mama

paper plate puzzles: fun number learning for kids

The following guest post is written by mom of five, Annette of Tips From a Typical Mom.   Annette covers everything under the sun on her blog, and it’s all done well.  Check it out.

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Hi Everyone!  I’m so excited to be doing a guest post for Teach Mama.

I am a preschool teacher, and one of the hardest things for me to find are manipulatives that have to do with learning numbers.  So I decided I’d make my own.

  • Paper Plate Puzzles–Fun Number Learning for Kids:

These cute paper plate puzzles are so inexpensive and easy to make, and your kids will love to play with them.  I have made them in black and white, so you can either leave them that way or color them.

You can print them with a colored background for easier matching.

My 2 1/2 year old son is just learning his numbers, so I colored around the outside of the printable so he could match the pieces easier.  He knows all the yellows go together!

Then I count the dots, tally marks and pictures with him and help him trace the number with his finger.

These are so easy to make!

All you need are:

  • the cheap flimsy paper plates,
  • glue,
  • scissors and
  • the printables.

Just print, glue, and cut.  You’re done!

 

 


Do you want to make Paper Plate Puzzles for your little ones?

 

Annette is a blogging mother of 5 over at Tips From a Typical Mom.

She is also a preschool teacher, photographer, soccer mom and loves her Paragliding Hubby!  She loves to share freebies, recipes, parenting tips, and household tips on her blog.

You can find her on Pinterest, Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

Thank you, thank you, THANK YOU, Annette  for sharing this cute and clever activity!

Looking for more activities that make math hands-on, fun, and engaging for your little ones?

Stop by and follow these great educational Pinterest boards, filled with more fab sneaky learning ideas:

Or check out the following math-happy posts:

What’s your favorite, hands-on way of helping kiddos learn numbers? Please share!

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readingword consciousness

5 great reasons to read words OUT of context

by Teach Mama
written by Teach Mama

5 Great Reasons to Read Words OUT of Context

The following guest post is written by Becky Spence of This Reading Mama. Becky is a busy homeschooling mama of four littles, and she constantly shares super content on her site.  I’m always in awe of her.  Do take a peek!

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  • 5 Great Reasons to Eead Words OUT of Context:

It is important to “marinate” young children in books. You may have even seen the poster that lists the top 10 ways to help kids become better readers ~Read, Read, Read… But as important as it is to read words in context (within the text), it is also a good idea to pull words out of their context and ask readers to study them. This is especially true for young readers and struggling readers.

Here are five great reasons to read words out of context:

1. The Reader Relies too Heavily on Context

Have you ever noticed your reader using the picture or the context of the sentence to figure out unknown words?

This strategy is a normal part of literacy development (and is encouraged when kids are young), but it can develop into a problem if those young kids grow into older kids who are not equipped with proper strategies to decode unknown words. In this way, relying too heavily on context negatively impacts fluency and comprehension.

2. Focusing on Word Patterns

Teaching phonics by patterns is my absolute favorite way to teach phonics. I love to use words sorts because they are hands-on, developmentally appropriate, explicit, and flexible. To prepare a word sort, words are pulled out of context and studied by the pattern that they share (for example: rain, braid, train, and maid all share the AI pattern). Other word patterns, such as AY, are compared to the first pattern. This way of teaching phonics is so effective because it equips readers of all ages to look for patterns as they read (a.k.a. reading by analogy), the strategy proficient readers use.

3. The Reader has Memorized the Book

Sometimes, our children pick up books and “read” them to us. We begin to wonder, “Does she really know the words or has she just memorized the book?” This is especially true of early reader books with predictable text. Pulling the words out of context helps readers slow down and really focus on the words. One of my favorite activities to help young readers do this is writing down the words from a few sentences in the book (or the entire book, if it’s shorter), cutting them apart, and asking your young reader to re-build the sentences.

rebuilding sentences from an early reader

 

My son (at age 4), an early reader, loves doing this on our pocket chart. We rebuild sentences from texts quite a bit. He even likes to make a game out of it! (If you have an early reader, my Reading the Alphabet curriculum has this activity built into every lesson.)

4. Building Fluency

When readers recognize words by sight (within one second of seeing the word), they are more fluent readers. When readers are more fluent, their minds are freed up to focus on the meaning of the text–the purpose of reading. It’s a chain reaction. Am I saying that we should teach all words by sight? Absolutely not! (refer to reason #2). But some words are better learned by sight, especially those common words that kids see all the time in reading, such as the, of, have, etc. Teaching words by sight words does not need to be boring or even include flash cards. It can be fun and interactive! When you can make it multi-sensory, all the better!

5. Supporting Readers Before and After They Read

Sometimes, certain words need to be pulled out of context and introduced before reading. This is especially true of:

1-longer words that the reader would not know or have the strategies yet to figure out on his own or

2- words that, while the reader can figure them out, he does not understand the meaning.

To do this, I glance through the book ahead of time and jot down about three to four words that jump out at me as being difficult words. I jot them down on a dry erase board or piece of paper. Before my second grade son reads the book, I display and read those words to him. We discuss the meaning of the words and/or the features of the word.

Words can also be pulled from the context of the book after reading. For example, if your child continuously read a word incorrectly (without changing the meaning of the text), jot that word down. After your child finishes reading, display the word from the text and the word he said instead side-by-side and talk about each word. For example, if your child read steps instead of stairs, talk about what a good mistake he made because these two words share the common feature of st. But be sure to go a little further in the word. Explore how the middle and ends of those words are different. Doing this helps readers slow down and focus on the patterns within words.

 

While there are some great reasons to read words out of context, please hear me shout it from the rooftop that kids need to be taking what they learn out of context AND applying it to real reading and real writing (in context)!

The ultimate goal of reading and writing words out of context is to help readers comprehend and create texts in context. That sounds like a great goal to me!

 

HeadshotNew-150

Becky Spence a homeschooling mama of 4 little blessings. She is the author of This Reading Mama, where she shares reading and writing activities as well as free literacy curricula and printables. You can connect with her on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and Google +.

 

Thank you, thank you, THANK YOU, Becky,  for sharing your reading expertise with us!

 

Looking for more activities for building strong reading skills in your children?

Stop by and follow these great educational Pinterest boards:

Or check out the following early literacy blog posts:

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teaching left handed kids to write: grasp, stages, positioning
tripod gripwriting

teaching left handed kids to write: grasp, stages, positioning

by Teach Mama
written by Teach Mama

post contains affiliate links

 

teaching left handed kids to write

 

The following guest post is written by Christie Kiley. Christie has the job I find amazing and awe-inspiring: an Occupational Therapist.  The work of these professionals is absolutely incredible. Christie is an O/T and mom of two teeny-tiny ones; she writes MamaOT.com. Check it out.

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I am so honored that Amy invited me to share some tips with you today about how to teach lefties to write!

As a pediatric occupational therapist, I work with kids on handwriting all the time. I have found that people are often intimidated or confused about how to teach left handed children to write. To be honest, there really isn’t that much difference between teaching right-handed and left-handed children to write, though there are a few important things to keep in mind. If you are teaching a left-handed child to write, don’t be scared!

Here are a few tips for teaching left handed children to write:

  • Teaching Left-Handed Children–Developmental Stages:

 

teach left handed kids to write

 

1) Remember that hand dominance is not expected to fully develop until the Kindergarten years, between ages five and six. If you have a toddler or preschooler who is exhibiting a left-handed preference, it’s possible he could still switch over to become a fully right-handed writer by the time he reaches Kindergarten and begins formal writing instruction. Don’t “force” your kiddo to be left handed because you’re afraid of what might happen if he ends up switching to the other hand. If you allow him opportunities to explore using both hands, he will most likely develop a preference and eventually dominance that utilizes whichever hand demonstrates the greatest skill, strength, and dexterity.

2) If your child truly has established a left-handed dominance, make sure he knows and can verbalize the fact that he is left handed. Sometimes well meaning classroom volunteers and even teachers will switch kids’ pencil to their right hand because they may just assume the child is right handed. This can obviously impact kids negatively and confuse them, so teach them to be able to communicate the fact that they are left handed.

  • Teaching Left-Handed Kids–Grasp:

3) Encourage use of the “tripod” grasp (pinch pencil with index finger and thumb, rest it on the middle finger) just like righties do. This will help with developing dynamic finger movements and proper wrist position later down the road so your child is less likely to “hook” his wrist like lefties are known to do. Children in our current educational system often are not taught how to correctly hold their pencil. Many right handed kids can figure it out just fine but because positioning is a bit trickier for lefties, they may be more likely to develop bad habits that will make it harder for them to grasp and control the pencil as they get older and the writing demands increase.

left handed kids

4) Teach your lefty to hold the pencil in that tripod grasp about 1 to 1 1/2 inches above the tip of the pencil. When lefties move their fingers up the pencil a little higher, it allows them to see what they’re writing so they are less likely to have to hook their wrist in order to have a good view. This should also help them smudge their writing less. If your child keeps forgetting or doesn’t know where to place his fingers, put a sticker at the height he should pinch the pencil in order to provide an easy visual cue.

5) There is no need to purchase any sort of “special” pencils or grippers for your lefty unless it has been specifically recommended by an occupational therapist. Lefties are fully capable of grasping the pencil as maturely and efficiently as righties. However, it’s important for lefty kiddos to use left-handed scissors because of the way the blade is oriented; it allows kids to see where they are cutting and lefty scissors cut cleanly rather than folding or bending the paper. Don’t have access to lefty scissors? Just flip your right-handed scissors upside down in order to switch the blade orientation. This isn’t ideal as far as finger placement goes (thumb will then go in the large hole and the fingers will cram in the little hole), but it’s a quick fix if your lefty needs it. You can purchase left handed scissors by clicking here.

  • Lefties–Arm and Paper Position: 

6) As your lefty kiddo gets older and starts to write more (such as at the end of Kindergarten and moving into first grade and beyond), encourage him to angle his paper with the left corner pointed up. Righties tend to angle the right corner of their paper up, and lefties should do the same with the left side. It places their writing arm in a natural position to be able to write on the lines as they move from left to right without having to excessively hook their wrist.

7) Teach left handed writers to place their paper to the left of their body so they can see what they’re writing. When they finish writing across an entire line, their hand should either be slightly to the left of their midline or just in front of it. This allows them to move more naturally as they keep their wrist straight (rather than hooked), minimize smudging while writing, and see what they are writing.

left handed kids and writing

8) Encourage your child to utilize the right hand as the “helper hand”. Teachers do not always explicitly teach children to stabilize their paper with their non-dominant hand and, for some reason, this is especially true for lefties. The more consistently they stabilize their paper, the less likely it is to slide around and cause frustration while writing.

9) When teaching lefties to copy letters and words, make sure their model is either above where they are writing or directly to the right side of where they are writing so they can actually see it. Most worksheets place the model letter or word on the left side and then leave a blank space on the right for the student to write the letter or word. This is difficult for lefties because their left arm automatically covers up the model, so it may take them longer to complete or may lead to more mistakes because the model is covered up the majority of the time. Not fair to them! The popular handwriting program “Handwriting Without Tears” recognizes this unique need when it comes to the positioning of models and they have customized all of their worksheets so that they are accessible for both righties and lefties. Thank you, HWT!

  • Teaching Left-Handed Children to Write–Letter Formation:

10) Letter formation is generally the same for lefties as it is for righties. Be sure to teach your child to write the letter “o” in the same direction as righties, which is in the counter-clockwise direction. This will help him with his overall speed and fluency of writing later on down the road. The only real difference in formation is that lefties can “pull” their little lines backward to cross their letters (like for lowercase “f” and “t” and for capital “A” “E” “F” “H” “J” “T”) by going from right to left rather than “pushing” from left to right. This is really just to make it less likely that they will tear the paper but if they are able to draw those little lines from left to right like righties, it will also help their writing speed and fluency in the long run.

Regardless of whether your child is left handed or right handed, kids in the preschool years should be focusing mostly on fine motor play as opposed to actually using a pencil and writing letters. Be sure to focus on activities that encourage him to pinch with his thumb and index finger (strengthening those tripod muscles), coordinate the use of his right and left hands together (cutting goes in this category), and generally develop the foundational fine motor strength and skill needed for later writing. Crayons, markers, chalk, paintbrushes, sponges, and other non-pencil writing utensils should be preschoolers’ main tools for coloring and drawing. Additionally, short non-pencil tools are preferred because they help develop that good tripod grasp by naturally encouraging children to pinch with those tripod fingers rather than using additional fingers or a fisted grasp.

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I hope these tips are helpful for you and your child as you dive into the world of left handed writing!

00mamaotChristie is a mama to two precious kiddos (a newborn and a toddler) and an OT to many. Join her on her blog (MamaOT.com) where she shares helpful tidbits learned from life as both a mom and a pediatric occupational therapist. Want even more helpful tips? Then swing her Facebook, Pinterest, or Twitter (@mamaotblog) to find even more helpful tips and tricks.

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Thank you, thank you, thank you, Christie, for sharing!

Looking for more activities to promote fine and gross motor in your little loves?

Stop by and follow these great educational Pinterest boards, filled with indoor fun ideas to engage children in fun activities to promote the development of these foundational fine motor skills:

 

fyi: affiliate links are used in this post

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ten apples up on top
booksreading

math and writing: ten apples up on top

by Teach Mama
written by Teach Mama

post contains affiliate links

 

ten apples up on top

 

The following guest post is written by Jackie Higgins, of Ready-Set-Read. Jackie is a great friend and longtime we teach member, now a member of the we teach advisory board.

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I’m Jackie, an early literacy blogger, reading specialist, and mom of preschoolers. I’m also a book-a-holic. According to my husband, I have too many children’s books. Is there such a thing?

In our house, I use books to teach basic preschool concepts as well as connect to our experiences. This fall my boys have experienced visiting an apple orchard. We’ve read books about apples and done much of our learning at home based on apples. I prepared for our thematic unit by finding many wonderful picture books about apples at my local library.

You can view my complete list of apple books in my apple unit.

After I found the books my boys loved, I created activities using math, science, and language objectives. As Amy would say it was a great way to “sneak” learning into our day.

Plus, research shows that using thematic units helps kids to connect to what they are learning in a meaningful way.  I’m so thrilled to be here today on Teach Mama to share one of our faves from our apple unit, Ten Apples Up on Top by Dr. Seuss.

Ten Apples up on Top Book Review

Ten Apples up on Top by Dr. Seuss is a rhyming counting book. In the story, a lion, a dog, and a bear compete to see who can balance the most apples on top of their heads. Most kids think this story is so funny. It has a loud, crazy ending. Your kids will join right in with the “kaboom!”

This is a great book for helping kids learn to count objects to 10.  The rhyming text and use of high frequency words makes it a great choice for beginning readers as well.

 

Book Activity for Ten Apples up on Top

apple unit math activity

 

After reading the book, Ten Apples up on Top, we decided to challenge ourselves to see how many apples we could stack on top of our heads. I created apple bean bags for this activity. I cut red felt in circles, stuffed it with beans, and sewed around the circle. The beanbags were pretty easy to make with basic sewing skills. With a little imagination, any size or color of bean bag can be an “apple” up on top, though.  There’s no need to create apple bean bags unless you really want to.

We even created a few “challenges” similar to the book. We tried balancing our apples while hopping, while walking, and while dancing.

After a few tries, the boys recorded the number of apples they were able to balance. We used those in our counting and writing activity.

 

Math and Writing with Ten Apples up on Top

 

apple unit math activity

After our balancing apples challenge, we created a math craft. The boys glued apple clip art on top of a boy face. They carefully counted out the apples to match their score from the game above. Then, they practiced writing numbers.

They are preschool and kindergarten aged so I provided a print out of the sentence. “______ had ___ apples up on top.”  I helped my youngest fill in the blanks with his name and number, but my kindergartener was able to practice writing his name and practice number formation.  My preschooler really wants a beard, so he added that as well! More advanced children could practice writing a complete math sentence to describe their pictures.

I provided my kids with faces to color for their project, but many kids would be able to draw themselves with apples up on top. If you are interested, all of the clip art is included in my apple unit.

 

Extending the activity

The week after we completed this project at home, my son’s kindergarten class read Ten apples up on Top and did a similar activity.  His class was learning to compare numbers. They chose how many apples to put up on top. Then they compared that with a partner. This would be a fun way to introduce math terms such as greater than, less than, equal/same.

Fall is a great time to explore apple themed books and activities. Books can simply be enjoyed together or parents and teachers can work in learning activities to extend the learning. We loved learning about apples and learning basic concepts through our apple unit. Next month we are off to the pumpkin patch, so I guess I better head back to the library. After all, you can never have too many great children’s books!

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Looking for more book activities?

Stop by and follow these great educational Pinterest boards:

 

ready set read buttonCome visit with Jackie at Ready-Set-Read for more ways to engage your children with books. You can also find Jackie busily pinning on Pinterest, tweeting on twitter, and chatting about the best Children’s literature on facebook and Google+.

 

Huge and happy thanks to the amazing Jackie Higgins for sharing her expertise with us! Please check out her blog, follow her, friend her, and favorite her–you’ll be glad you did!

 

 

fyi: affiliate links are used in this post

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signs for early literacy learning
environmental printreading

street signs for early literacy and math skill building

by Teach Mama
written by Teach Mama

signs for early literacy learning

I’ve shared time and again the importance of using what is around you–environmental print–for early literacy and math skill-building.

Signs are everywhere, and they’re free.

And they can really help our little ones to become excited about reading.

Don’t believe me?

Try it.

I’m over at Scholastic Raise a Reader chatting about some ways you can use signs for your own little ones’ early literacy learning.  Check it out: Signs–Easiest Reading Your Kids Should Ever Do.

Want a little more?

Here’s the skinny. . .

  • Street Signs For Early Literacy and Math Skill Building:

Check out these few posts about the same subject.

 

alphabet and reading on the roadAlphabet & Reading on the Road

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street signs for learningSigns, Signs, Everywhere are Signs

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street sign mathStreet Sign Math

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Happy street sign reading!!

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make rainbow loom bracelets without the loom
Best Of Teach Mamafamily funfamily life

how to make rainbow loom bracelets without the loom

by Teach Mama
written by Teach Mama

Join over 5,000+ subscribers who receive fun, free ideas

for making learning FUN and meaningful each week!

post contains affiliate links

 

make rainbow loom bracelets without the loom

 

In our little space in this big world, Rainbow Loom bracelets are all the rage.

They’re everywhere. They’re all around.

Boys, girls, moms, dads, grandmas and grandpas, cousins, aunts, uncles, and pets are wearing them.

And boys, girls, moms, dads, grandmas and grandpas, cousins, aunts, uncles, and pets are making them.

And for a long time, we stayed back. But now? We’re knee-deep in Rainbow Loom bracelets.

But before we had the actual Rainbow Loom, we made Rainbow Loom bracelets without the loom. Simple, easy, and a lot of fun.

Takes a bit of learning, but after kids get the hang of it, they’ll be making them 24/7. And teeny, tiny rubber bands will be all over your house too.

Here’s the skinny. . .

  • How to Make Rainbow Loom Bracelets Without the Loom:  All you need are a few things.

You’ll need:

And that’s it.

The idea behind Rainbow Loom bracelets is that you’re simply looping teeny bands together. Like the cool kids back in the ’80’s did with the gummy bracelets.

Step 1:  Gather your materials and lay out the colors you’ll need.

rainbow loom bracelets without the loom step 1

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Step 2:  Place one band inside the C-clip.

rainbow loom bracelets without the loom step 2

 

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Step 3:  Place the first band inside a popsicle stick. (Sounds strange, but the popsicle stick makes it easier for small hands!)

rainbow loom bracelets without the loom step 3

 

 ——————————————————

Step 4:  Grab a second band. New color. Woot!

rainbow loom bracelets without the loom step 4

 

 ——————————————————

Step 5:  Pinch band two and slide it under the first band.

rainbow loom bracelets without the loom step 5

 

 ——————————————————

Step 6:  Pinch the two ends of band two together.

Slide your finger through it and take the stick out of the first band.

rainbow loom bracelets without the loom step 6

 

 ——————————————————

Step 7:  Slide the stick through the second band, just like you did in

 

rainbow loom bracelets without the loom step 7

 

 ——————————————————

Step 8:  Reapeat, repeat, repeat!

And when finished, join the ends with the C-clip. Easy peasy.

rainbow loom bracelets without the loom step 8

  ——————————————————

Finished bracelets?  So cute.

Are they perfect? Nope. But the kids love them, are proud of them, and love making them for friends and family.

And that’s been so fun to watch.

rainbow loom finished bracelets

Bracelets and rings. . .

rainbow loom finished bracelets

. . . bracelets and rings. . .

rainbow loom finished bracelets

 . . . and more bracelets and rings.

And the most fun part? Organizing all of the bands in a fancy, schmancy (totally inexpensive!) little plastic box or craft supply organizer.

We bought ours at a local dollar store. So fun. And the kids absolutely loved decorating and personalizing theirs.

rainbow loom maddy's box

rainbow loom maddy's box

rainbow loom avery's box

And that’s it. So fun.

So simple. And all the rage.

Still need convincing? Check out 5 Reasons Kids Should Have the Rainbow Loom and Parents Love It.

Already loving the Rainbow Loom but want a few cool ideas for bracelet-making? Check out 9 Band Bracelets for Kids to Make from my friends at Kids’ Activities Blog! 

Check out Homemade Name Necklaces for Girls and Boys!

fyi: Affiliate links are used in this post, which means that if you’re into getting your kids set up with Rainbow Loom bracelets and want to use these links, awesome. We get a itsy-bitsy, teeny, tiny cut and every little bit helps!

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school RULES! super-silly lunchbox joke notes
family lifelunchbox love notes

school RULES! super-silly lunchbox joke notes

by Teach Mama
written by Teach Mama

It has been such an amazing summer.  I am desperately, terribly, incredibly sad to see it go.

But here we are.  Marching forward.

school rules lunchbox joke notes

At my kids’ request, I whipped up another batch of lunchbox love notes.  This time, they’re silly, wacky, crazy, funny, and giggle-inducing.

They’ve asked for more jokes.  So fun.

And since school’s starting in a minute (waahhhh!), what better way to ring in the new school year than by celebrating their good, ole school days with School RULES! Lunchbox Joke Notes?

Right?  Right.

And really, the jokes help to keep things light for this mama who has a hard time with change.

Here’s the skinny. . .

School RULES! Super-Silly Lunchbox Joke Notes:

During our last summertime library trip, we grabbed a boatload of joke books, and I added the ones that were school-related to this 3-pager joke printable.

They’re funny.  I must admit.

school RULES lunchbox joke notes

school RULES lunchbox joke notes

And because Cora loves the pictures–and can still really benefit from using them to help her decode the text, as an early reader, I tried to add related art for each joke.

Amazing to think that last year’s Wordless Riddles Notes were mostly photos because she couldn’t read as much. Incredible what happens during that Kindergarten year! Our babies learn to read!

There are 24 superstar, hilarious, fabulous notes on these pages.

school RULES lunchbox joke notes

Cut the notes together if you have more than one kiddo. . .

school RULES lunchbox joke notes

then write a little love. . .

school RULES lunchbox joke notes

. . . and fold it so that the answer to the joke is hidden!

To make it easier for cutting (so I’m not spending three hours standing and cutting, standing and cutting), I simply grab three copies of the first sheet and cut those–three pages at once. Then I do the same for the second and third sheets.

I stack them in our cabinet so I can easily grab the first three on the pile, write a quick ‘Maddy, I love you! xoxo love Mom’ on the note–something short and sweet–and toss them in the lunchboxes.

The school RULES lunchbox joke notes are here to download and use for your own kiddos if you so choose. If you would, feel free to share with a buddy so that all kids get a little something silly in their lunch this year!

Print them here after throwing your email in the box below:

school rules lunchbox notes | teachmama.comschool rules joke lunchbox notes

I try to put the same note in each child’s lunch so I can make sure there aren’t repeats through the month, though that doesn’t always work.  Just clip them together in a little stack so they’re easy to grab when I’m making lunches two seconds before they leave the house.

I wouldn’t worry if your kiddo isn’t reading yet; you can still add lunchbox love notes and have your child ask the teacher to read it to him or her. I did that when Maddy, Owen, and Cora were teeny, and I really think that it helps kids build confidence, patience, manners, and communication skills.

Though teachers are super-busy, and we all know that, most likely he or she can find 15 seconds to read a silly note to a student.

And that’s it. Just a little something silly to get us moving in the right direction next week when school starts. Keeping it light for a few weeks of change.

Want a look at all of our lunchbox looooove notes? Here they are:

Need more awesome Back-to-School lunchy ideas? Definitely check out:

Here’s to a rockstar 2013-2014 school year and many more to come!

fyi: feel free to use the links below to more joke books if you’d like more silly  jokes in your life

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math, literacy, and creative summer learning: tabletop surprises
family funfamily lifeindoor activities

math, literacy, and creative summer learning: tabletop surprises

by Teach Mama
written by Teach Mama

math, literacy, and creative summer learning: tabletop surprises

We’re week three into our tabletop surprises, and this week, we rocked some sneaky math, literacy, and creative thinking.

The kids woke up to some easy activities and ones that required more thinking—and two that required more movement. Sign language was one of the week’s activities.

The basis for tabletop surprises is just to let Maddy, Owen, and Cora find their own time to do these little activities that sneak in a little bit o’ learning and fun into their days.

They take all of five seconds to set up and prepare, and it’s a whole lot of pulling from resources that are around the house—from our own focused learning at home, or from my previous classroom teaching experience.

Fun stuff.

Here’s the skinny . . .

  • Math, Literacy, And Creative Summer Learning– Tabletop Surprises:   Set up and then go. That’s it.

We’re three weeks in. Here we go!

tabletop surprises sudoku

  • Sudoku: That’s right. Sudoku is hard. Number sense and critical thinking and logic all wrapped up into one pretty, griddy package.

Sudoku puzzles are logic-based number puzzles.

I found mine on KrazyDad, where I found the mazes a few weeks back.  Free. Tons of them. So worth checking out. I totally heart KrazyDad.

sudoku tabletop surprises

sudoku tabletop surprises

I printed some Easy ones for Monday’s tabletop surprises.   Even some of  Easy level ones were tough for the kids.

I’ll definitely throw Sudoku  in the mix again before the end of the summer because the puzzles were that hard for the kids. I’m not sure how we hadn’t tried them before, but Sudoku was on my mind from the cool outdoor Sudoku on this year’s we teach: summertime learning eBook.

Maddy, Owen, and Cora solved the Kid ones quickly—and they should have. They were super easy. But the Easy ones really challenged them. I think I need to learn more about how to solve them, some of the tricks and logic strategies myself, and then I’ll give them the skinny before trying this activity again.

My plan? To read up on the Sudoku Space site which has a pretty detailed explanation behind the puzzles.

tabletop surprises sign language cover

  • Learning With Sign language: I got these great sign language cards from a friend who moved a few years ago, and every so often I pull them out for the kids.

For our tabletop surprise on Tuesday, I simply gave them the following challenge:

1. Put the cards in ABC order.

2. Learn your name in sign language.

3. Learn two more words of your choice in sign language.

4. Show me what you’ve learned!

sign language cards tabletop surprises

sign language cards tabletop surprises

Owen ran with it and impressed Maddy, Cora, and I while we ate breakfast. He’s my early bird and usually gets his tabletop challenges finished before the girls finish breakfast.

Maddy and Cora move a little later, usually tackling the challenge after lunch or late afternoon.

Consensus was they liked this one.

Want to give it a go? Download and print one of the free sign language cards from the ASL site or these little sign language alphabet printables from abcteach.

tabletop surprises day money

I think the problem was that I didn’t have a lot of money out for them to play with—we didn’t have a ton of coins to actually play with or fill the coin wrappers. I get it. It’d be hard to spend time counting coins and then not actually have $2 in nickels to fill a wrapper completely.

Anyway, it was out on Wednesday, and they enjoyed sorting the coins from the non-coins (Chuck-E-Cheese tokens, foreign coins, random small, coin-like objects).  I think you can grab coin wrappers at any bank (at least you could a while back), or you can find them very inexpensive on Amazon.

tabletop surprises letter writing

  • Letter Writing: The other day, Cora received a little ‘hello’ note from one of her classmates, and it reminded me of how much kids—mine, especially—enjoy getting mail.

So on Thursday, I put out some note paper, pens, and envelopes and a little note that said:

Send a little ‘hello’ to

-Nana! -Cousins! -Grandparents!  -Friends!

tabletop surprises letter writing

tabletop surprises letter writing

letter writing tabletop surprises - 4

What got them stuck was the envelope and how to address it properly.  I made a little sample, and it helped a bit.  Spelling their cousins’ names? Also tough.

Clearly we need to do more practice here or at least I should update our Family Playing cards.  I’ll add it to my list.

I just liked how this got Maddy, Owen, and Cora thinking, writing, and sending a little love.  We need to do it more often, for sure.

tabletop surprises descriptive writing

  • Descriptive Writing: Inspired by our Stop, Observe, and Write activity from last summer’s Everyday Journals, I threw a card from the Everyday Journals on a clipboard along with some journals and notebooks.

We had breakfast out on the back porch, and then the kids took some time to find a quiet spot and write.

descriptive writing tabletop surprises -

descriptive writing tabletop surprises -

It was quick, it was easy, and my hope was that they would be able to tune into what they saw, heard, smelled, felt, and maybe even tasted as they sat, listened, and wrote.

The key? Modeling. You sit and write with them, sharing what you wrote so that they hear what descriptive writing sounds like.

And that’s it. Just an average, thoughtful, summer week.  And along with some trips to the pool and nearby parks, some errands and chores, it was a pretty sweet week.  Though it’s crazy, and I’m behind on all of my work, emails, and cleaning, I am thankful and blessed.

Stay on top of the Tabletop Surprises by checking out the past few weeks if you’ve missed them:

Or check out some fun ideas from a our Smart Summer Challenge a few summers back.

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soap dough soap molds and crazy cool fun with soap
sciencescience experiments for kids

soap dough, soap molds, crazy cool fun with soap

by Teach Mama
written by Teach Mama

post contains affiliate links

 

soap dough soap molds and crazy cool fun with soap

 

What happens when you put a bar of Ivory soap in the microwave?

Really. Ivory soap. Plain ole sweet-smelling, plain-jane white bar o’ Ivory soap?

In the microwave.

Try it.

Your kids will think you’re a rockstar, and everyone involved will be in awe.

Do it during a playdate, and your kids’ friends will forever tell tales of your awesomeness.

Children will think you’ve lost your mind and then will be starstruck by your science fabulousity.

Your disinterested, challenging kids will begin to respond to your every word, move, and idea.

The whole family will wait with wonder to see what you have up your sleeve next.

Actually, I can’t guarantee all that. But what I can say is that my kids, my husband, and I had a blast playing with soap ‘dough’–what you get when you blast Ivory soap in the microwave.

All you need is this soap, and you’re good to go. Inexpensive soap. That’s it.

Here’s the skinny. . .

  • Soap Dough, Soap Molds, Crazy Cool Fun With Soap: I’ll be honest. Owen wasn’t digging the soap experiment.

soap dough soap molds and crazy cool fun with soap

He was over-tired and got frustrated with Cora in the beginning of the whole thing and so he went out front and shot some hoops instead of soapin’ it up with Cora, Maddy, and me. But he did keep coming around, sneaking glances, and trying to play but not really.

So it’s simple, and it’s not perfect, but playing with Ivory soap was something I’ve wanted to do with the kids for a while now, after catching a few fab pins on Pinterest.

It’s been sitting there on our neat-o, FUN, new things for us to try board, and finally, finally? We did it.

After a busy morning and after rest and after a whole lot of free-bird summertime fun, I said, Hey! Remember we had ‘Fun Science Experiment’ on the calendar for today? Who’s up for checking out what I meant?

soap dough step 2

Maddy, Owen, and Cora found me in the kitchen, and we got rockin’ and rollin’.

I said, So we’re going to do something a little crazy today with this. And I handed them the bar of Ivory soap.

I also got out the only other things we’d need:

I got a lot of Huh? and What? and Why? and Mom?

Maddy opened the bar of soap, and we all held it and smelled it and passed it around. And talked about how it smelled so pretty like Nana’s bathroom. (Because that’s the soap she uses and has used for as long as I can remember.)

Then I placed it on a piece of wax paper, put it on a microwavable plate, and stepped back.

soap dough microwave

What do you think will happen if we put this puppy in the microwave? I asked.

It might melt?

It will explode?

It will ruin our microwave!

I’m not sure you should do that, Mom.

I told them that I’d only heard about this experiment but never did it myself, so I was a little nervous. I pressed 1:30 on the microwave, and we all stepped back.

What happened was totally crazy and completely strange.

soap dough soap molds

soap dough soap molds

soap dough soap molds

We did it twice, with two bars of soap, and the ‘explosion’ looked completely different each time. It. Was. Nuts.

And though the edges were cool, the insides were HOT. Like hot, hot hot.

soap dough soap molds

soap dough soap molds

But the whole thing was light–like a cloud–when lifted. So the kids took turns holding it after it cooled. It was so totally fun.

After a bit of holding and observing, we took the fun outside.

I had read that you could break the soap apart, mix it, and form a sort of dough. Though I was not willing to throw it in our food processor or blender, I read that you could. We were going to put our kids to work and mix and mold on our own.

soap dough soap molds

We put the big lumps of soap on two trays, each covered with a piece of wax paper.

And then? We just broke it apart. We added a few drops of food coloring to each lump, blue to Maddy’s and green to Cora’s. (By this time, Owen was shooting hoops.)

We found that the warmer parts were more easily molded and moved, but with a bit of warm water, it became this awesome, smooth, soft, fragrant dough.

soap dough soap molds

soap dough soap molds

soap dough soap molds

It did take some work and a bit of muscle to get it into a working ‘dough’ and we had to go really, really light on the warm water. But after we found the right combo, we were able to use the cookie cutters to make fun, brightly colored soap shapes.

soap dough soap play with blue

soap dough soap molds

The O-Man even came back to get his hands in the dough after a while.

Maddy and Cora loved it. Though Cora set her sights on creating a soap mold princess crown and was disappointed that she couldn’t make it perfectly, Maddy went simple with cookie cutter molds and was better off.

Next time, I’d only bring out basic shape cookie cutters–our soap dough was a little choppy and chunky for detailed molds.

soap dough soap molds

soap dough soap molds

soap dough soap molds

So fun. So much soapy, doughy, moldable fun that we were beside ourselves.

The big question is why does Ivory soap behave this way in the microwave? I had not a clue. But my savvy-science friends do:

And that’s it. Some sneaky science and fine–motor sensory fun on a cool (thankfully!) summer afternoon.

Do you have any other cool and easy science-experiments for kids? Let me have ’em!

 

fyi: affiliate links are included for your convenience

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tabletop surprises week one | ideas for free exploration and play each day of the week
family funfamily lifeindoor activities

tabletop surprises: simple, summer learning fun

by Teach Mama
written by Teach Mama

post contains affiliate links

 

tabletop surprises week one

 

Summer is kicking us hard over here.

Actually, swim and dive are kicking us hard over here, like always.  And at five weeks in, between meets, practices, relays, pep rallies, and team events, our family has run a bigtime marathon.

So our Smart Summer Calendar and daily plan have morphed into something that is really, truly working out well for us: Tabletop Surprises.

Tabletop Surprises? Easy.

On their own time.  On my own time.

Creative learning and crafting opportunities for the kids on the craft room table.

Opportunities for open-ended play and learning–when it works best for them.

For now? It’s rocking.

Here’s the skinny. . .

  • Tabletop Surprises–Simple, Learning Fun:tabletop surprises button

What are Tabletop Surprises? If you follow me on Instagram, you’d know what I’m talking about because each day I’ve shared a quick photo of each day’s surprise each day of the week.

Tabletop Surprises are fun learning or creative thinking opportunities for the kids on our craft room table. Just sitting there.

Waiting for someone to come along and try ’em out.

How to I get the kids to actually sit down and do the activities?  A few ways:

1. The activities are fun and they want to do them;

2. At any given time, on any given day, I have been known to toss a few gems into the gem jars of people who have been spotted doing the activity. Not every day, but some days.

3.  I’ll join them. Kids–I truly believe–like to hang out with their parents. Especially if their parents are kinda cool or funny or at least act like they’re cool or funny. I like to hang out with my kids, so when they sit, if I can, I’ll join them.

Tabletop Surprises for this week:  Here we go. . . 

magnetic words

magnetic poetry tabletop surprise

 

That’s it. I started with a funny sentence on each tray, and I let the kids take it from there.

They liked it. Tried to sneak in a little potty talk, but lucky for us the set doesn’t really lend itself to such.

focus of this activity: creative thinking, reading, speaking

———————————————————————-

tabletop surprises shape blocks pattern cards

shape pattern cards

I put the cards out on the table, threw some shapes into three separate containers to avoid grabbing and arguing, and crossed my fingers. Owen hit the table without asking me to play Wii, and he sat and worked until breakfast. Win!

focus: geometry, critical thinking, fine motor skills

———————————————————————-

tabletop surprises perler beads cover

tabletop surprises perler beads

tabletop surprises perler beads

Kids can create patterns, letters, words, you name it, by placing the beads on the small pegs. When the creation is complete, you iron it to melt them together. Once it’s cool, it pops off of the pegboard and you have a little masterpiece.

focus: fine motor, patterning, creative thinking

———————————————————————-

tabletop surprises mazes

  • Mazes: I have fallen head over heels for KrazyDad and his amazing math site. Serious gold mine of printable puzzles, mazes, and so much more, it’s insanity.

All I did for today was dive into the maze area of his site, and I printed out mazes of varying difficulty.  I went for Easy, Intermediate, Challenging, and

Tough, and they all rocked.

tabletop surprises mazes

tabletop surprises mazes

Second day in a row that the O-Man chose unplugged fun vs the siren call of his Wii.

focus: critical thinking, fine motor, problem-solving

———————————————————————-

tabletop surprises magnets

tabletop surprises magnets

  • Magnets, Pipecleaners, & Paperclips: Easy, easy, easy. Magnets are so fun, and my kids have loved them forever and ever.

I used the disc magnets from way back when we made Bottle cap Ornaments, glass vase and some empty glass jars from the recycle box, colored paper clips, and pipe cleaners.

tabletop surprises magnets cover

tabletop surprises magnets cover

I cut the pipe cleaners into various sizes and threw them in the bottom of the glasses. I added some paper clips and scattered the magnets. Done. Invitation to explore.

Kids? Loved it.

focus: science, fine motor, critical thinking

———————————————————————-

Really? That’s it. So fun, so easy.

Next week we’ve got some really cool ideas up our sleeve for Tabletop Surprises.  Gotta love summer, and as the kids are yearning for more independence, I think this is the recipe for success.

Need some supplies for your own Tabletop Surprises? Click below:

 

fyi: affiliate links are included

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how to help kids choose just right books
reading

how to help kids choose just right books

by Teach Mama
written by Teach Mama

how to help kids choose just right booksIt’s hard to watch a child struggle trying to read a book that is too difficult, especially when the kiddo is adamant about plowing through it.  Whether the struggles be with decoding the words on the page, with reading fluently, or with understanding what’s being read, it’s hard to watch.

Because though for many of us reading comes naturally and without thought, for others, reading is a continual struggle.  A long and laborious, difficult and painstaking process.

That’s why book choice is so important.

Muy importante.

Like really, really, really important.

Though children do need to be able to choose the books they read, if the child doesn’t choose a book that ‘fits’, it can really be downhill from there. He or she can get into a pattern of choosing books that won’t fit, making reading difficult and unpleasant.

But there are techniques and strategies that parents can employ to help guide children into choosing the ‘best fit’ books for their kids—books that match the child’s own strengths and abilities.

Nothing fancy or difficult, just a few quick reminders that your child can commit to memory that will ultimately provide him or her with skills that will make trips to the school library, media center, or book corner a whole lot more meaningful.

Here’s the skinny . . .

  • How to Help Kids Choose Just Right Books: I say it loud and clear right here. . .

 

And if you want the bookmarks to use for your own kiddos or classroom, please help yourself.

Best Fit Bookmarks: best fit books bookmarks

best fit bookmarks | teachmama.com

best fit books bookmarks | teachmama.com

I’d appreciate a pin, link back, tweet, or shout if you do choose to use them.  And if you have suggestions, I’d love to hear ’em!

(And if you choose to share them, which we hope you do, please link to this post instead of to the attachment page! Thank you!)

How do you help kids choose just right books? Let me know what has worked for you in the comments section below.

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summer reading book swap | teachmama.com
reading

how to host a summer reading book swap event

by Teach Mama
written by Teach Mama

Summer is almost in full swing, and for our family, there’s no better way to begin our summer fun than with a Summer Reading Kick-Off Party!

Each year, we invite a few friends over and turn it into an easy Backyard Book Swap.

summer reading book swap It’s a great way to ease into summer and to remind kids that they still have to keep their brains moving over the long, hot months.

We always make it super-casual, and we always keep it fun.  This year, we kept it even more simple by having Maddy, Owen, and Cora walk home with some swim and dive buddies, books in hand, ready to swap.

The cool thing is that anyone can host a Summer Reading Book Swap.  And the par-tay can be done in the backyard, basement, or playroom. It can be in the beginning of the summer, middle, or even the end of summer–morning, afternoon, or evening.

All you need are some eager friends and a few books.

Here’s the skinny. . .

  • How to Host a Summer Reading Book Swap: In my opinion, for any get-together, you only need a few necessities: food & fun people. That’s it.

But for the Book Swap, you’ll need a few books, of course!

We rarely send out formal invites–more of a quick email or phone call thing for us–but if you’d like, you can use the super-cute Summer Reading Book Swap invites below:

summer reading book swap invite

book party invite _ teachmama.com — Summer Reading Book Swap invites

You can make your Book Swap a potluck where everyone brings something to share, or you can do what we did–provide snacks.

Our pals packed the main courses of their lunches (a sandwich or bagel) and we had fruit, veggies, chips, and drinks to share. And of course, we had freeze-pops for dessert!

summer reading book swap

Decorations? Easy. Big posters.

I’m a huge fan of graffiti walls, so we did what we could. A few posters where kids could write down their favorite books and characters. That’s it!

summer reading book swap

summer reading book swap

Kids ate lunch when they first got here, because hungry kids post-swim practice are no fun for Book Swaps!  So with full bellies, we were ready to move into the swap.

How do eleven kids actually swap without having the event turn into a big, awful brawl?

They draw straws!

summer reading book swap

 I cut a bunch of straws in varying lengths. Everyone picked one, and I told them to hide it once it was picked. Keep the size a secret.

Then I said, Okay, guys, we have to figure out who has the shortest and who has the longest and everything in between. So take a few minutes, figure out who has what and put yourselves into perfect straw-size order. When you’re finished, tell me by clapping three times together.

They were excited about it and got rolling right away–it’s a fun activity for a big bunch of kids and cool to see who steps up to organize.

summer reading book swap

summer reading book swap

summer reading book swap collage

It was a lot of fun.

Once the kids put themselves in order from smallest straw to tallest, I gave each child a sticker with a number 1-10.

Then I reminded them about how to choose “just right” books, and we talked about what it means to choose a book that “fits” you.

summer reading book swap collage

our ‘best fit’ bookmarks will be great reminders for the kids as they read

Then I called numbers 1, 2, and 3 up to choose their first book.

After the first group, numbers 4, 5, and 6 went up.

Finally, 7, 8, 9, and 10 hit the table to choose books.

We went through the groups a few times so that each child could grab 3-5 books, and if they really wanted another, after everyone went, they could grab another.

It worked out great.

summer reading challenge scholastic

summer reading challenge scholastic

Once everyone was settled with books, we chatted about the Scholastic Summer Challenge. My friends from Scholastic sent along some fun Summer Challenge goodies–books, bookmarks, pins, stickers, and tattoos!–so the kids had seen news of the Challenge and were curious.

Many kiddos had already grabbed a bunch of the Summer Challenge bookmarks and shoved them into each of their ‘new’ books.  I showed them that the bookmarks explained a little bit about the Summer Challenge and included a website where participants could actually track their time reading.

I also told them: scholastic summer challenge

  • The Scholastic Summer Challenge is a fun summer reading initiative that really makes it easy and fun for families to read. 
  • Scholastic is doing what they can to help kids prevent the summer slide–when kids forget what they learn during the school year–and to help kids read at least 11 books this summer–11 is the ‘magic number’ people think kids should read over the summer, but we know it should be more.
  • If you log your minutes read on the Scholastic Reading Timer, you can help beat Scholastic’s World Record from 2012 of over 95 million minutes read. Some schools are even doing it together and the winning school will get a visit from the author of Captain Underpants!
  • The Challenge runs from May 6th- September 6th, so there’s still a LOT of time to get involved!
  • Kids can log their minutes read each day and win prizes!

I showed them the Reading Timer on the iPad, and after our guests left, I registered Maddy, Owen, and Cora for this year’s Challenge. It only takes a few minutes to sign them up, and I know they’ll love logging their minutes. I tied their time to their school–so they’ll also love watching that time change throughout the summer.

Knowing how close we keep our iPads and phones, I know that updating the times will take no time at all. Cool incentive for our tech-savvy kiddos, too, to be able to log on and log time after they read.

And that’s it! Just a fun–hot!–Summer Reading Book Swap made so much more fun with great kids and a fab program.

Our summer plan:

What do you think? How do you kick off summer reading with your kids? Let me know in the comments!

fyi: Many thanks to Scholastic for sharing some sweet summer reading goodies with us.  This is an unsponsored post, written only as an honest parent and educator who is grateful and proud to work with such a great company as a writer for the Scholastic Parents Raise a Reader blog.

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what to do when your child can't remember what he reads
independent readingreading

how to help your child remember what he reads

by Teach Mama
written by Teach Mama

how to help your child remember what he reads

Some children are able to easily read the words on a page but cannot remember a lick of what they read.

Believe it.

Whole paragraphs, pages, chapters can sometimes decoded–words read, even fluently–but nothing.  The child remember nothing.  Frustrating right?  Believe me, it’s not all that unusual.

And you can help!

  • What can a parent do?
  • What can a teacher do?
  • What should the child do?

Fear not.  There is help, and there are a handful of strategies that really do support this kind of struggle.

I covered what to do when your child can’t remember what he reads over on the Scholastic Parents blog this week, and I totally think it’s worth mentioning here.

Don’t get angry about the jump from teachmama.com to Scholastic Parents. It’s totally worth it.

See you there!

Here’s the skinny. . .

See you there!

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fun ways to practice math facts
computationmath

5 super-fun ways to learn math facts

by Teach Mama
written by Teach Mama

It’s actually hard for me to type this title after years and years and years of math drills that made my elementary-school head want to explode.

Can learning math facts be fun? Is it possible that learning these facts can actually be ‘super-fun’?

That may still be debatable.fun ways to practice math facts

But what these five ways do is mix up the ole flashing of the flashcards and trick out the rote learning of these guys.  Learning math facts is actually kinda fun.

Scratch that. It’s fun. Pretty darn fun.

Instead we use some movement, some flashlights, and some technology to up the fun factor.

And honestly? That may have been enough to move from totally awful to kinda fun for this gal way back when.

Here’s the skinny. . .

5 Super-Fun Ways to Learn Math Facts:

Like I said, super-fun is up for discussion but there is certainly some fun to be had with these math fact practices.

Let’s try it.

1.  Play with dice.  Really. Toss the flash cards and practice adding, subtracting, multiplying, and dividing using the numbers you roll on dice.

2.  Flashlight math.  Use the flashcards and flip two cards at a time. Kids shine a flashlight on the one they know and answer that one. Simple. Don’t have a flashlight? Make a math wand.  Bumblebee wand, perhaps? Use a stick or a light saber. Anything that works for your kid.

3.  Use electronics. We love My Math Flash Cards App on the iPad and Math Practice Flashcards on my android phone.  There are a gazillion flash card apps out there. I’m sure any would do the trick, and if you have five minutes and your kid says, ‘Can I play a game on your phoooooone?’ Say ‘Why yes you may! I’m so very glad you asked. . . ‘

4.  Write the answer.  Or paint the answer.  Water on cement or chalk on sidewalk or window crayon on window.  One person flashes the cards and the other guy writes.

5.  Math bingo.  Again, toss the flashers and play Math Bingo as a way to learn and practice these numbers.

Five of many more cool ways, my friends, but this is just a start.

math dice game

Okay a few more:

  • Answer races: Stand on one side of the room and make kids run to the other side of the room to write the answer on a long piece of roll paper on the floor or taped to the wall.
  • Go crazy. You flip the card and say it in one voice and the child says the answer in the same kind of voice (whisper, grumble, shout, squeaky, princess, etc.).
  • Skype or Facetime with family members and have them flash the cards and the kids say the answers.
  • Check out the Multiplication Post where we shared all of the things Maddy was doing.
  • Play Strike it Out to practice those facts and critical thinking.
  • Try Magic Triangles to really get the fun flowing.
  • Get nuts and try any one of these 3 hands-on math games.

As in anything  you do with kids, keep it light, keep the pressure off, and make it fun. As soon as your child starts reaching a frustration level, stop.

Need the cards? Desperate for some mini’s?

Here they are:

multiplication facts

Consider starting with one fact family or number set at a time.  And print the cards on brightly colored card stock so they last longer and look nicer.

fun-ways-to-practice-math-facts-sq

Most of all? Have a super-fun time.

 

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summer fun for kids | teachmama.com

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Want a little more math fun?

Check out:

Or follow our rockin math pinterest board:

Follow Teach Mama’s board math on Pinterest.

 

fyi: Some of the links in the post above are “affiliate links.” This means if you click on the link and purchase the item, I will receive an affiliate commission. Forever and always I recommend only products or services I use personally and believe will add value to my readers. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.” For more information, please see teachmama media, llc. disclosure policy.

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3 all-time best games to play with sight words
early literacysight words

3 all-time best games to play with sight words

by Teach Mama
written by Teach Mama

how to play games with sight wordsWhat games do you play with sight words?

Sight words are words that we all need to be able to read quickly and automatically in order to be strong readers, and the more we allow emerging readers to interact with these words, the better!

There are tons of hands-on ways to play with sight words, but these three games are total winners in our family’s book.  We’ve played them year in and year out with sight words so that Maddy, Owen, and Cora learn these little–but important!–words.

And the great thing? Play them with spelling words, vocabulary words, any words your kids need to learn and know.  Mix it up and play it with numbers and numerals. Bam.

But wait. How do you know which list of sight words to use?

Where do you get the cards that you need in order to play these three games?

Glad you asked.  It’s all right here.

Here’s the skinny. . .

  • 3 All-Time Best Games to Play with Sight Words:  Here are three fun and easy games that get your kids playing with–and learning—these important little words.

3 of the All-Time Best Games to Play with Sight Words

 

 

So there are just three of my kids’ all-time favorite ways to play with sight words.

But where are the words themselves?

In order to pick up some freebie word cards for playing sight word games, click on the photo of the post to grab some word cards:

 

go fish--sight words

Go Fish! A fish out of water–games for playing sight words

sight word memory

Sight Word Memory  –All of the word cards are here, including ABC cards

wordo sight words

WORDO! A game for word-learning

Wait. Sight words. High frequency words. Early emergent words, fluency words. Word wall words.

What in the world is the difference?

Essentially, they’re all focusing on words that all readers must know, and commit to memory, in order to be the best readers they can be. That’s it. Many school districts and counties offer their own specific list, or maybe they go with the Dolche or Fry list. The Dolche list is older, the Fry list is more updated.

Word Walls? What? Word Walls are walls in a classroom used as a tool to help teach young readers new words.  Word Walls are just that—words filled with words! Words are placed in alphabetical order and are introduced to children throughout the year, and after introduction, the child needs to lean and know the word.  These words include word family words (-at, fat, cat, mat, etc) and high-frequency words, many of which are sight words.

Need or want more on word wall words?

Need or want more on sight words?

The main thing?  Don’t sweat it. Your kids will learn these words eventually–and the best way to ensure that is to read early–and often!

And okay. . . play some games with sight words as well.  Questions? Let me have ’em!  I’m happy to help!

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beautiful homemade flower barrettes
crafts

beautiful, easy homemade flower barrettes

by Teach Mama
written by Teach Mama

beautiful homemade flower barrettesWhile we were at the craft store this past weekend, picking up some supplies for Maddy’s after school club and for Cora’s Butterfly Birthday Playdate this weekend, we stumbled upon this AWEsome springtime craft.

Beautiful, easy homemade flower barrettes.

So beautiful. Like really, gorgeous and WOW! Beautiful.

So easy. Like made in under five minutes easy.

Maddy and Cora and I are in love with them.

And they will make the little loves in your life smile huge this Spring Break if you make ‘em. Promise.

Actually, make ’em any time and you’ll find love fast.

Here’s the skinny. . .

  • Beautiful, Easy Homemade Flower Barrettes: So pretty, right? I know.

You only need a few things to make these babies, and one trip to the craft store will do it.  Any craft store will have ’em but if you want to use these links, feel free:

Believe it. That’s all you need.   Maybe, if you want to get really fancy, you can add some gems and bling, but you don’t need to.

Now the whole deal, the start to finish, how-to-make-beautiful-easy-homemade-flower-barrettes is here in a quickie little vlog:

I love how beautiful these flower barrettes are but how totally simple they are to make.

I love that Maddy and Cora could ‘shop’ for their flowers and then wear them in their hair the very same day.

I love that my girls are not afraid to wear big, gorgeous, gaudy flowers in their hair to school, to the park, to anywhere.  Because it just really makes me smile.

Talk about a fun, simple, sweet springtime–or any time craft!   If your kids are old enough to help you with the glue-gun or help you with the cutting, it’s great fine motor skill work; if not, then put them to work in the choosing of flowers, arranging of leaves and petals, or blinging with some gems!

Have another idea for gorgeous barrettes? Have success adding something else totally cool to your own barrettes? Let me know! We’d love to add to our collection!

 

fyi: Amazon affiliate links are used in this post. Please feel free to use them–always appreciated because every little bit helps!

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helping kids use powerpoint
computer timedigital literacy

helping kids use PowerPoint for presentations and serious learning fun

by Teach Mama
written by Teach Mama

helping kids use powerpoint It’s Spring Fair time, Science Share time, Reader’s Tea, Poetry Share, and International Night time at schools all around the country.

Kids are sharing their learning, and they’re learning about sharing. Or at least they could be!

My kids are a bit technically-savvy, love anything laptop, iPad, or DS–so for International Night this year, I took a little time to show my kids a few things about PowerPoint.

And honestly? They loved it.

It wasn’t all that involved–it was by no means the end-all PowerPoint intro. Just a touch. Just a taste.

And instead of making double work for us, we used the PowerPoint slides we created to decorate our France board.

Here’s the skinny. . .

  • Helping Kids Use PowerPoint for Presentations and Serious Fun: I suppose the ‘serious fun’ part may be a bit of an exaggeration, but the bottom line is that using PowerPoint for our France presentation for our school’s International Night sure upped the kids’ interest factor.

And doesn’t that count for something?

Last year, we did Madagascar for International Night. This year? France. Naturally. Maddy’s choice.international night poster

The kids love using Pixie, so Owen jumped right in and made us a France flag to include.

I started off by asking Maddy, Owen, and Cora if they wanted to try something a little bit new for their project this year–if they wanted to use a bit of technology alongside our poster for International Night. They did. So we got rolling.

I said, Okay, well we’ll try a tool called ‘PowerPoint’ that I’ve used for many of my own presentations and that Daddy also uses for his presentations at work. With PowerPoint, you can make slides that show your information. And then you can print your slides.

I thought it would be cool to make a PowerPoint presentation that we could play during International Night and use the slides to decorate our big poster. Does that sound okay to you?

It did. Phew.

So we began:

1. We built background knowledge on the format. I showed them a really quick example of a PowerPoint presentation I used for a meeting I had a few months ago so that they knew how a PowerPoint presentation could look:

 

 

2. We started fresh. I opened a new presentation [File -> New Presentation].

power point theme change

I showed them all of the ways we could change basic format and fonts.

We chose one that we thought would be simple and clear but bright and cool: Newsprint.

power point presentation newsprint

 

3.  We brainstormed.  We wrote down all of the topics that we wanted to include in our presentation, trying to cover all of the things people would want to know about France. We came up with: Intro, flag, food, clothes, language, people, art, buildings, history, school, and sports.

international night poster brainstorm

Then I showed them how to create new slides: [Insert–> New Slide OR Insert–> Duplicate Slide].

Maddy set us up with a new slide for each of our topics.

power point new slide

 

4. We researched.  We jumped over to PBS LearningMedia. We used KidRex. We used Time for Kids and Kids National Geographic.   The kids came up with the search terms, something that we’ve done quite often in the past.

We went simple, and we found what we needed: France map; food in france; france and clothes.

 

international night research

 

international night research

 

5. We created. For the sake of time, we added information to the slides as we found it. We did our best to read information, put it into our own words by summarizing it, and then typing it into each slide.

Because our focus with this was simply to get them some basic information on France and to get them familiar with PowerPoint, I didn’t worry too much about proper citation of photos and information. Believe me, as a former high school English teacher, I totally understand how important that is; however, I had to choose my battles here.

Instead, I created a ‘Resources’ page at the end of our slideshow, and anything we took from the internet, we added to that page. I felt it was enough to emphasize the importance of not just grabbing from the internet, but it also emI showed them how to

When we needed images, I showed them how to change our search terms on Google from ‘Search’ to ‘Images’ and drag the ones we wanted to use to the desktop.

google search

Then we could easily insert the new images into our presentation.

6. We added transitions.  In a really basic way.  Since I knew we’d keep our presentation on a loop, I knew I wanted to have the transitions advance after a few seconds, so we changed that, and we unclicked ‘on mouse click’.

power point transitions

7. We moved slides. I showed Maddy, Owen, and Cora how to view the presentation with the slides on the left side [view–> normal] OR [view–> slide sorter] so that we could easily move slides into a different order.

We moved them around in a way that we thought made the most sense.

france ppt full screen

8. We saved it. We saved it as a movie [file–> save as –> movie] so that it would loop while we stood at our booth.

9. We added, edited, and revised. And soon our presentation totally rocked the house.

10. We printed. We printed each slide four on a page because we thought that was the best size for our poster.  We followed [print –> preview –>images per page –> four], but I’m sure there are a million other ways to do it.

11. We blinged our board.  We covered it in France’s colors: red, white, and blue.

http://kids.nationalgeographic.com

We added letters at the top: FRANCE.

http://kids.nationalgeographic.com

http://kids.nationalgeographic.com

We cut out our slides with fancy scissors.

http://kids.nationalgeographic.com

international night poster

And we mounted each slide on another piece of construction paper.  Because doesn’t everything look so much more beautiful when mounted on colored paper?

http://kids.nationalgeographic.com

http://kids.nationalgeographic.com

international night poster

And we blinged a bit more, signed our work, and we were finished.

international night poster

international night poster

12. We gathered our French materials.  Thank goodness for our good friends whose grandmother is French and for my husband who has some French connections at the school where he works because our French display rocked.

We had flags, children’s books, a beret, French money, posters, and more. And we picked up some croissants at the grocery store, cdigital kids teachmama.com buttonut them in thirds, and gave our friends a little (teeny) taste of authentic France. Or as authentic as we could muster with us not being very French for real.

We set our France Presentation on autoplay, and we were good. To. Go. Woot.

Want a few more advanced PowerPoint links for your Digital Kids?   Check out:

 

And really? That’s that. The kids had fun. I had fun. And they were proud of their display.

Was it perfect? Hardly. Is this PowerPoint tutorial perfect. Far from it.

But it’s here to prove that with a little bit of effort, we can give our kids a taste of something more technologically advanced than they may think they are capable of. And perhaps this little touch of PowerPoint may give them more confidence when it comes to doing another presentation down the road.

 

Next up: iPad Notes–fun family interviews

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how to build a stage | teachmama.com
christmasholidays

an easy-to-build stage for the performers in your family

by Teach Mama
written by Teach Mama

how to build a stage

That’s right. A stage.

So your kids can totally rock it out during your spring break Staycation.  Or so your house becomes THE house for playdates.  Or so you and your husband can John and Olivia to some Summer Lovin’.  Or whatever floats your boat.

Think: a stage for plays, songs, acts, dances. Lots of pretending, lots of imagining, lots of dreaming.

Maddy, Owen, and Cora woke up Christmas morning to their very own homemade stage–a gift that came complete with rockstar karaoke machine and superstar lights. And it was–hands down–a big win for everyone.

We’ve had kids on stage, parents on stage, grandparents and aunts and uncles on stage. We’ve had cousins on stage and friends on stage and pets on stage.   And that’s only the beginning.

Here’s the skinny. . .

  • An Easy-to-Build Stage for the Performers in Your Family:  I’m going to let my amazingly talented father-in-law take over here, since he and my husband were the masterminds behind this awesome stage.

They did the hard part. The planning and heavy lifting. I embellished.

——————————————–

from planner & stage builder, Tom Mascott:

Last fall our son asked me to help him build a simple stage for his and Amy’s three kids, ages 5, 7, 9.  Like most kids they love to do skits, sing karaoke and dance.  They thought a stage would be fun to highlight the kids’ performances.

We designed an easy-to-build 4’x6’ stage made up of two, independent 3’x4’ platforms, which can be used separately, or bolted together to make one larger stage.  Two platforms have the advantages of being lighter to move and being able to use only one when floor space is limited.

The kids love it.  Turns out to be fun for the entire family, including Grandma and I who perform a mean karaoke number.  On stage is a great place to spend fun time together with the family.

how to build a stage finished

Material list:

  • 4-  2”x6”x8’ pine*
  • 1-  2”x4”x8’ pine*
  • 1-  4’x8’x 5/8” plywood- good one side
  • 1¼ “ flat-head wood screws
  • 3”  flat-head wood screws
  • 2-  3½”x1/2” dia. hex bolts, four washers and two hex nuts
  • 8-  1½ “ corner brackets and approximately 35- ¾” round-head wood screws**
  • Wood glue
  • Linoleum or other flooring material and appropriate glue
  • Wood filler
  • Paint, we used interior, high-gloss enamel, latex black paint

*It is important to select framing lumber that is straight, without being bowed or twisted.

** We used ¾” sheet metal screws, which worked just as well.

—————————————————————–

build a stage tools

Tools required  

  • Power circular hand saw
  • Hand power drill
  • 10’+ tape measure
  • Carpenter square
  • Phillips head screw driver
  • Hammer
  • Selection of small drill bits, ½” flat drill or round drill
  • Counter-sink bit to drill for counter sinking wood screws.  You can use a standard, round drill bit but be careful not to drill too deep a hole.
  • Two clamps
  • Tools required for installing the type of glue and flooring you choose
  • Medium grade (60-80 grit) sand paper
  • Sanding block
  • Paint brush
  • Wrench to tighten bolts and nuts

—————————————————————–

Instructions:

1.  Cut the tops of both platforms.  Cut two 3’x4′ pieces from the 4’x8′ sheet of plywood.  All corners must be square.

build a stage: wood

cut framing lumber

2.  Cut framing lumber.  From each 2″x6″x8′ cut a 35 15/16″ piece and a 44 15/16″ piece.  (The 1′ length remaining from each 2″x6″ will not be used.) Use a carpenter square when drawing cut lines.  Place the 2″x6″s along the edges of the plywood to see if they are the correct length.  The longer pieces will fit inside the shorter ones. The 2″x6″s should fit just inside the edges of the plywood.  If they fit properly, they’re ready to be attached.   (see photo)

3.  Screw plywood to framing lumber.  The “better” side of the framing 2″x6″s should face out.  We preferred to screw the plywood to the frame using 1 1/4″ wood screws, 8”-10” apart, before screwing the frame together, however either order works.

Later, the two platforms will be bolted together along the 4’ sides.  Identify which 4’ sides will be fastened together.  It is critical that the 2’x6”s NOT stick out past the edge of the plywood along these sides.

build a stage

fasten one 2’x6′ at a time (photo 3)

Fasten one 2’x6” at a time.  Pre drill and counter sink screw holes in the plywood.  Spread wood glue on the top edge of the 2″x6″s before screwing down plywood.  The 2″x6″s should be attached just inside the edges of the plywood. (see photo 3)

4.  Screw the corners of the 2″x6″s together using 2- 3″ wood screws in each corner.   Pre drill and counter sink screws.

 

build a stage photo 3

install corner brackets (photo 4)

5.  Install corner brackets.  Fasten the corner brackets to each inside corner of each platform, up approximately 1″-1 1/2″ from the bottom edge of the frame using 3/4″ round-head wood screws.  Pre-drill screw holes.  (see photo 4)

 

build a stage photo 5

cut and attach 2’x4′ supports (photo 5)

6.  Cut and attach 2″x4″ supports.  Turn both platforms upside down.  Cut the 2″x4″s to fit snugly inside the 3′ sides of each frame.  Apply wood glue to one edge of the 2″x4″s.  Place the glued edge down on plywood half way between sides of frame.  Screw in place with 2- 3″ wood screws at each end.  Pre drill and counter sink screws.  Turn platforms right side up and screw plywood to 2″x4″s with 1 1/4″ wood screws.  Counter sink screws.  (see photo 5)

7.   Prepare frame for painting.  Fill the groves between plywood and 2″x6″s, and the holes in the frame with wood filler.  Also, fill all screw holes in frame and plywood.  Sand wood filler when filler dries.  Refill any holes that remain and sand.  Also, sand any splinter edges on the plywood and frame.

We primed and painted the frame before installing linoleum.

8.  Install the flooring to the top of the platforms.  The surface of the plywood should be smooth with no screw heads sticking up and free of dust and debris.  Cover each platform separately. Refer to manufacture’s instructions when gluing flooring to plywood.

If you use linoleum, cut 2 pieces, each piece at least 2″ longer and wider than the platform.  If there is a pattern in the floor covering, be careful to cut and install each piece so that when the two platforms are side by side the pattern is repeated from one platform to the other.  Remember, platforms will be attached along the 4′ sides that you identified in Step 3.

 

build a stage photo 2

trim excess flooring (photo 2)

After glue dries, trim excess flooring back to edge of plywood.  We used a utility knife to trim our linoleum.  (photo 2)

 

build a stage photo 6

fasten two platforms together (photo 6)

9.  Fasten the two platforms together.  Stand up the two platforms on the 3’ sides such that the two 4’ sides that will be bolted together are next to each other.  Clamp the two platforms together.  Check to be sure that the surface of the platforms are flush, as well as the 2”x6” sides.  If adjustment is necessary, loosen the clamps slightly, adjust the frames as needed and re-tighten the clamps.  (photo 6)

 

build a stage photo 4

drill holes (photo 4)

Drill two ½” holes through the double 2”x6”s, each about 8”-10” from the end.  Put a washer on each bolt, tap the bolts through the holes, slip on a second washer and turn on a nut.  Tighten snugly.  Remove clamps.  Lower top edge of stage to floor.  (photo 4)

how to build a stage: bottom

My husband (and Brady) tighten up the stage before we set it out. . .

how to build a stage: decorate - 01

. . . and now it’s ready to go!

Your stage is finished!

—————————————————————–

Do you want the Easy-to-Build Stage Directions to download and print? Here they are: Easy-to-Build Stage Directions.

Have questions as you’re building? Feel free to tweet with my father-in-law: @TMascott

Thank you, thank you, Tom for doing an incredible job with this!!

—————————————————————–

 Now? Make that stage even more beautiful than it already is! Decorate!

how to build a stage: decorate - 04

taping our mirror plates

how to build a stage: decorate - sheers

We hung two plastic hooks on the wall for the ‘curtain’. . .

how to build a stage: decorate - ribbon

. . . and secured it with a fancy-schmancy ribbon.

These may not be exactly what we used, but they’re pretty darn close. 

The possibilities are endless–I’d love to see what other people come up with, so do please share your photos here or on our facebook page!

 

how to build a stage--finished

My dream was a curtain that opened and closed, but that was just too much for us with the holiday crunch. Maybe soon!

 

And that’s it–an easy-to-build stage for the little (and not-so-little) performers in your family.  Something that will yield hours of fun family time, loads of memories, and (okay, I’ll be honest) maybe a headache or two. . . but it’s so worth it.

What are you waiting for? Get the stage plans printed, get to the hardware store, and start building–then watch those creative-kids go!

 

fyi: Affiliate links are used in this post.  Many thanks for your consideration in using them!

Huge, huge, huge and happy thanks to my husband and his talented dad, Tom Mascott,  for their hard work in making our stage dream come true! Thanks also to Tom for writing this detailed and difficult post with easy-to-follow directions. You both are amazing, and we are s lucky to have you!  What’s that next project going to be, I wonder? . . . 

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