Ant Observations

Pesky little ants!  They love to get into my kitchen this time of year.  For me, a pain, but for little man- pure excitement.  So the teacher in me had to turn my inconvenience into some learning fun. 

After catching our little subject, we put him in a small container to observe.  Here are a few of Little man's observations...

He's running around.
He's black.
He's cute.

Remember little man is only two, so I thought these were some pretty good observations.  Great discussion for language development.

We also made an ant with construction paper, counted the legs, talked about how the word ant started with the letter Aa and the different parts of an ant- such as the antennae and body.

Spell Outloud recently shared a wonderful ant activity post: Ant Activities and Ant Nature Journal. Stop by for more ideas!

Enjoy your Monday!
Jen

The Three Little Kitten Activities

The Three Little Kittens they lost their mittens and they began to cry... Who stole their mittens? Swiper the Fox! Okay, that was my version the other night when I was putting little man down to bed. He loved it, so the next day, I decided to share the "real" Three Little Kittens rhyme with him. He kept looking for the fox in the story. I had to explain to a two year old that only Mommy's story has Swiper the Fox. Don't worry, he enjoyed the activities that we did even without Swiper. I guess I could make a felt board Swiper character for him to add!

To act out the story, I made these little kitten along with felt little mittens attached to string. These cuties were found at Sweet Clip Art. These can be made into puppets with Popsicle sticks or used on a felt board.

For a matching game, I created these felt mittens.  So easy to make! 

Ideas across the Web..

Enchanted Learning- Rebus poem

Speakaboos- Animated Story 

Mrs. Kilborne's Kiddos-ABC mittens printable

Danielle's Place- Paper Plate Kitten Craft

And of course you'll get hungry after doing all of these activities with your children, so you MUST have some pie!!

Jen

Welcome to Our Italian Ristorante!

Ciao! Welcome to our ristorante!

Menu

Appetizer

 Fried Mozzerella with Marinara

Soup

 Italian Wedding

Fresh Garden Salad with Vinagrette

served with Warm Bread

Entrees

Ravioli with Marinara

Linguine Alfredo

Dessert

Tiramasu

Beverages

Sparkling Water

Reisling Wine

Coffee

A Very Special Birthday Guest- Dad

The kids loved pretending for Dad, but when it was time for dinner, Peanut had enough of the mustache!  Her face above is priceless!

A Very Happy Birthday to my Wonderful Husband!!

Jen

 

Create a Multiple Intelligences Center

My storage room is filled with teaching supplies from my good old teaching days.  This comes in handy when working with my own children.  One of the gems that I pulled out recently was a Multiple Intelligences center that I used with my former students. 

Each pocket is labeled with the different intelligences and gives a short description of what each intelligence means. Inside each pocket are activities that focus on that particular intelligence. The theme for this center is friendship.

My original center included mathematical and linguistic intelligences as well.  I just decided to focus on these for now.



Here are a some of examples of the activities...

Spatial Intelligence: Create a map that shows how to get to your friends home.

Interpersonal Intelligence: List 8 qualities of great friend.  Create a flower and label each petal with a quality.

Intrapersonal Intelligence: Have you ever hurt a friends feelings?  Describe how you felt.  Create a story or cartoon to share.

Bodily/Kinesthetic: You haven't seen a friend for a long time.  Act out what you will say. Create a cheer to great your friend.

Naturalistic Intelligence: How are things in nature like friendship? Come up with one or more ways. 1. friend/butterfly  2. friendship/bumpy road 3. friendship/ flower

(I'm not 100% sure where I got this activity- possibly Challenge Magazine.)

If you'd like to create your own MI center and need ideas for activities, I found a great chart. Teacher Vision also has a helpful chart with activities that tap into each intelligence.  I think the first step would be coming up with a theme and then planning from there.  Also, please feel free to drop me an email if you have any questions.  I worked as a Gifted Support/Enrichment teacher and enjoy coming up with ideas!

Have an awesome day!
Jen

Cc is for Clouds

This week we focused on the letter Cc! 

Clouds are so much fun to learn about, so we focused on this theme. 

Little man with his cloud puppet.

He enjoyed gluing the cotton balls on his cloud. 

We also sang the song from my last cloud post.

The cirrus clouds we observed were pretty!

Letter Cc craft

Materials: paint, cotton balls, Cc template

Directions:I printed out a Cc template onto card stock.
Next, I let little man paint the Cc's. He used blue and purple paint. I
After the paint dried, I cut out the Cc's. 
Lastly, Little man and I stretched some cotton balls and glued them on the Cc's.

Happy cloud watching!
Jen

Clouds, Clouds, Clouds..

Our favorite cloud book...

Cloud books that we wish to explore...

Activities for Toddlers/Preschoolers

-Ideas for using Little Cloud in the classroom from The Official Eric Carle Website

-Make a Cloud Puppet

-Sing a song...

Clouds are Floating

(to the tune of Frere Jacques)Clouds are floating, clouds are floating,

Up so high, up so high,
Floating up above us, floating up above us,
In the sky, in the sky.

Activities for Older Children

-Discover and Observe Clouds

"Take A Cloud Walk teaches you how to identify the clouds in the sky, take field notes, and write a journal. Here you can even learn how to write your own book!"

Recommended for Grades 5-8- Free download for educational use.

Learn about different clouds from Enchanted Learning.

Study Weather Map Symbols



Enjoy your day,
Jen

Toilet Paper Roll Color Match

A HUGE THANK YOU to.... 

 for this awesome upcycle idea!

The Princess and The Tot: Toilet Paper Roll Sorter

My version is very similar, except I added a different feature on the back.   I listed the numbers one to five on the back for counting activities and number recognition.

 

If I can get more than one use from a manipulative, I'm all for it- saves time and money!

 

Little man is loving his new desk!  Isn't it adorable?

A special gift from his Aunt.

Be sure to stop by Princess and the Tot to see other great hands-on activities for little learners!

Jen

Yeah, It's Party Time!

It's that time of year- time to party around the blogosphere!  I've participated in UBP in years past and it's so much fun.  It's great to take the time and read new blogs, meet new cyber friends, and hopefully win big prizes!  If you've never participated in the Ultimate blog party, you'll have to check it out. 

If you are coming over from the UBP, WELCOME!!  Here is a little bit about me, my family, and my blog.

I'm Jen!

I'm a tad bit silly for my age- just playing charades with the kiddos!

Meet Sunshine and Peanut!

This is how litlte my girlies were when I started this blog! 
tear, tear...
just 5 and 3 years old!



Here they are today.. turning 8 and 10. Yikes!

This photo was taken right before a Taylor Swift Concert! See I can look mature, too. he, he!

Meet Little Man!

Loves to paint... age 2- a terrific two (on most days!)

AND now meet my better half... love for most of my life.
Met him when I was just about 15 years old.

Recent pic with little man on his baptism day- there's my hubby on the right! 
Met him in a grocery store in 1986. Yes.. 26 years ago!

Okay... now a litlte bit about Creative and Curious Kids!  What will you find here? 

-learning ideas for toddlers to Elementary aged kids

-fun ways to inspire creativity

-toddler fun (ABC,123,sensory, fine motor..)

-book suggestions with activities

-higher level thinking and activities that nuture curiousity 

I have a background in education and enjoy sharing with other parents and teachers. And learning from them, of course! Also, I school my kiddos at home via cyberschool, so I often share some of their learning experiences. I'm also the keeper of The Messy Nest (my new blog focusing on my organizational/decluttering goals) and I share Christian ideas/thoughts over at God's Shining Stars. So basically I'm one busy woman who you'll find all over the place!

Pinterest-http://pinterest.com/jenscreative/
Facebook-Creative and Curious Kids!
Twitter- @JenScreative

I enjoy writing weekly for ..


http://www.activity-mom.com/


I hope that you'll stay awhile and take some time to get to know Creative and Curious Kids! Lots of fun to be had over here in our little neck of the blogosphere. Let me know if you are stopping over from UBP and if you are a new follower!

So glad that you took the time to stop by!

Jen

Connect 4 for Toddlers

Little man loves to get into his big sister's Connect 4 game! Just the other day, I observed him putting the pieces into the game and I thought- "Wow, look at the concentration needed for him to keep with this task."

Do your kids have older siblings and if so, what games/toys do they get into that actually benefit their development?

Jen

Masquerade Birthday Party

The Masquerade Cake

Homemade Cereal Box Pinata

Presents!

Photo Booth Fun

My Happy Birthday Girl!

We love you, Sweetie!

For more masquerade party ideas, visit my Pinterest Board- this was so helpful while planning games and activities, etc.  http://pinterest.com/jenscreative/masquerade-party-ideas/

Jen