School Readiness |

Encouraging Young Writers

September 17, 2015 By Callie 6 Comments

Did you know that children, young children can be set on the path of loving to write? So many of us struggled through school loathing writing. As a former Kindergarten teacher I was always looking for tricks and tools to help encourage children to love to write.

The quickest and easiest way to engage writing in children of all ages is to offer them a variety of options to write with. It really is that simple. I really want Row to have a love for writing. Toddlers can be encouraged to write through drawing. That’s right because we know that the purpose of writing is to communicate an idea and drawing can in fact do that even for the youngest of children.

I am always on the lookout for super cool writing tools. Ok so I have been pretty much obsessed with pens, pencils, erasers and pens since I was in utero. I was really disappointed when I would go shopping and just couldn’t find anything cool. Something I know Row would love and want to use. Maybe I could use it too-just saying. I stumbled upon the company International Arrivals and was AMAZED by what they had to offer!

First up the left and right crayons-now these are cool. Easy to grip and smooth to color. Row loved these especially since she shows left handed tendencies. The colors allowed her to grip and use easily. Oh and the lollipop pen! It smells like orange when you write and so does the poof. How adorable.

Oh and yes that COLOR IN Book is from International Arrivals too. The paper is so much nicer and thicker than a regular coloring book and it’s bound on a spiral. This book is every 8 year old girls dream. Row uses it as a book as well, flipping through pages and pointing to animals. We had to take it to lunch yesterday.

Have an older child? A college kid? Check out this cool monster highlighters….and they are scented.

I told you I had a thing for erasers…..

International arrivals has tons of gel pens to match any kiddos love-boys and girls. I love that they carry such a variety of writing utensils so kids of every shape and size will love their products. Put these out at your writing table and watch the kids flock!

International arrivals carry so many different items and all in one place. I have even been eyeing some things for stocking stuffers oh and our next door neighbors birthday. What 10 year old wouldn’t love this……

Check out that puffy!

That’s right those are puffy pens-what does that mean exactly? It means you write, let dry, and then come back with a blow dryer and bam-puffs right up. I am sad-not sad-to say these babies are mine!!!!

What’s that you say? You need some of these goodies in your life right now…I know. Well the wonderful people over at International Arrivals are offering a $50 gift card to one reader so you can go crazy buying cool things from their site.

Warning you may spend more….What do you love to write with?

This is a sponsored post. I received items to review however, all thoughts and opinions are entirely my own.
a Rafflecopter giveaway

Apple Printing

September 15, 2015 By Callie Leave a Comment

It’s Fall! Now for those of you in my beloved New England that means apple picking. For those of us in the deep south that means buying some apples at the store.

I decided to break out the apples and the paint to get us into the swing of Fall and Row loved it.

This was an activity I did every year in Kindergarten. I’ll share all the ways you can squeeze learning into this fun craft.

Simply gather an apple and split in half. I like to put Popsicle sticks through the centers so that they are more easily held for printing.

Place paint on your plates and dip. I also love to use a large restaurant sized cookie sheet for painting because it holds the paper in place as well as the mess.

It’s fun to press each apple onto the paper and lift to make a print and for toddlers it’s also fun to paint.

This simple activity lasted about 30 minutes-not to shabby for a 2 year old.

Now let’s bring the teacher out and talk about all the amazing teacher points you can hit on during this craft. We spoke about the colors of paint and I asked Row to dip in specific colors as we painted=color recognition. We talked about the way the apple felt=attributes-small, large, color and weight. We talked about the mass=weight, heavy and light.

How can you enrich this activity for school aged children? Add more colors and talk about primary and secondary colors as they print/paint. Talk about plants and discuss the parts of an apple, the skin, flesh, seeds. Discuss the plant life cycle. Oh and have fun!

Snowman Sensory Bag

December 5, 2014 By Callie Leave a Comment

This week was our final Kindermusik class of the semester. Row and I wanted to make sure all her toddler friends had a special surprise to receive at her class. I decided on making snowman sensory bags. We have done shaving cream sensory bags in the past and they’re a favorite. I loved it because it was developmentally appropriate, fun, and easy!

Supplies-

Ziploc bags-I usually use the gallon size but wanted them small for favors-I used snack size but if I make them again I would use quart size.

Foam in black-for the eyes and orange for the nose. Found at craft stores…only 89 cents a sheet!

Electrical Tape-to seal the top-and because it’s black like a top hat

Shaving Cream-dollar store!

Cut triangles for the noses out of the orange. Make them the easy way-cute a long strip and traingle them out!

Cut squares for the eyes out of the black. I made them into squares because SUPER EASY!

Fill half the Ziploc bag with shaving cream, add the nose and eyes. Seal. Add tape. DONE.

How easy! Roughly 20 minutes. Mind you Grandma was over and I do get so much done when she’s here and during nap time. Praise God we still have nap time!

Row loved them! They’re fun and a great sensory activity. You could add glitter and make it into a melting Olaf! Older kiddos would love it too! We also talked about body parts before we played and discussed where our eyes and noses are. We also talked about the color white, black, and orange. We used our five senses especially the sense of touch and discussed how the bag felt as we squooshed it.

Oh and Darcy the giraffe almost came with us to music-she loves those things!