End of School Party...BASEBALL THEME!

On the last day of school, we throw a fun outdoor and baseball themed party.  

We have a large water slide bounce house set up and the kids wear their swimsuits and we spend most of the day playing outside.

At the end of the day, parents come back and we show off a few of the things we've learned during the year, sing "Take me out tot he Ballgame"...then have hot dogs and popcorn...

But my favorite part of the day was this t-shirt...as all-American as baseball!!  It would also be a fun 4th of July craft to do with  your kids!

We gave each of the kids a bag with Big League Chew and peanuts and their t-shirt as party favors.

LOVE!  See you next fall!

Valentine's Party!

Today was our Valentine's Day Party in pre-k!

The craft I love the most of any we do is hand prints.

Can you imagine having a bunch of these and making a t-shirt quilt for your kiddo with his hand prints all over it??

To make these shirts, we fold each shirt with a piece of paper in between the front and back of the shirt so that the paint doesn't leak through to the backside of the shirt.  That also gives us a place to write the kiddos names.  Place a small heart on the shirt, where the middle of the palm is going to sit, and paint their cute, chubby little hand red.  (We use acrylic paint so that it will be permanent.)

Center their hand over the heart and push...make sure that you press hard enough to get complete coverage.

Lift the hand directly up...and VOILA!  Cute hand print!

Leave the heart on the shirt until the paint is dry so it doesn't leak under the edges.

And when you remove the heart...you have this!  Precious!

We printed off the "Blowing you Kisses" topper HERE...

And we bought the little bottles of bubble at the dollar store in packs of 6 (they were the wedding bubbles.)

We made good use of our construction paper and cut out a bunch of red and pink hearts...

...and the kids glued them onto white lunch sacks to make a simple Valentine's Box.

At the end of the day...parents came and we played a game of Valentine Bingo.  We got the free download from Jamie over at 

The Crafting Chicks.

Finally (whew!) each kiddo decorated their own heart shaped cookie (from Costco) with pink frosting (spread with craft sticks) and topped with conversation hearts.

Now I'm ready to go fall into a sugar coma!  

Happy Valentine's Day, y'all!

XOXOX, Andrea

SUPER CUTE Valentine's Party Favors

Today our MDO class had their Valentine's Party.

Ms. Janette and I always like to send the kids home with a cute party favor that is cute enough to save.  This year we saw a cute hand print cutout on Pinterest from THIS blog, and decided that it would be perfect!

We traced some small hand prints onto pink paper and used our handy trick to cut out enough for all our kids.

We also cut out some hearts...cuz, you can never have too many hearts at Valentine's Day!!

SOOOO darn cute!!

We took a sweet picture of each of the kiddos and got them printed at the CVS right around the corner...it literally takes seconds at their photo kiosk.

We added a couple of hearts and laminated them...

...and gave them their picture card along with some kisses and bubbles, with this cute download that says "BLOWING you KISSES this Valentine's Day..." that we got HERE.  We think it turned out adorable!! 

Super cute and fun favor...one for the kids and one for the moms!!

Chinese New Year...Year of the Snake

February 10, 2013, is Chinese New Year.  And 2013 is the Year of the Snake...so we thought it would be fun to celebrate with a couple of fun Snake Crafts (ewwwww!!)  

We read Stone Soup in November around Thanksgiving time, but it would be a fun Chinese New Year tradition also.  You can click on this link to get our Stone Soup recipe.  Stone Soup is about three Chinese Monks who go to a selfish village in an attempt to teach them what real happiness is.  They teach them that happiness is found in sharing with others.  We use the Scholastic version:

For the first "snake craft," you're gonna need some different colors of construction paper, cut into strips the short way:

You'll need some green construction paper, cut in a circle about the size of a mug.  In fact, we used a mug! 

Fold the paper in half and then in thirds, so that the circle is at the top of a stack of paper, and you'll end up with 9 circles.  Follow our "paper cutting trick" and staple the corners to keep it stable while you cut:

Now, depending on the skill level and age of your kiddos, you can make a small paper chain using staples, tape, or glue.  (We always use Tacky Glue, it is so much better than Elmer's for paper crafts!!)

Fold your green circles into a big snake mouth:

...And staple it to the end ring.  Then cover the staple with glue...

...for the tongue.

Cut some orange and red papers like this...and glue them to the back of the "mouth" like so...

Cut a small piece of white paper to look like "teeth" and glue them to the inside top of the snake's mouth...and add some googly eyes (of course!!)

And there you have it!!

A colorful snake craft for Chinese New Year's!!

Another fun project uses just a toilet paper roll and a small slip of red construction paper for a mouth.

Cut a head shape out of the top of the toilet paper roll and then follow it around with a spiral cut all the way to the bottom...making a skinny tail.

Then decorate it...depending on the age and skill (and patience) of your kiddos, you can let them paint, color with crayons or markers, glue dots or sequins on the snake...

We just colored it with markers.  But it would be cute with glitter, too.

Finish him up with a tongue glued to the bottom of his mouth...

...and add some googly eyes, and there you have Snake #2!!

What are you going to do for Chinese New Year?  We'd love to hear!

Christmas Party!!

Parties are our favorite...and Christmas is no exception.

We help the kids make their own Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer hand print t-shirt.  Using wash-proof acrylic paint, paint their palm light brown and their fingers dark brown.  Add dark brown or black eyes and a red nose.

For fun, we send them home with a bag of Reindeer Noses...8 Whoppers and a red gumball!

And who doesn't like a craft you can eat?

This year, we made Christmas trees.

You'll need a sugar cone for each one, green frosting, and candy for the "ornaments." 

We use craft sticks as "knives" for the kids to spread the frosting on the cone.  When the frosting is all on, cover it with little candies.  

Had to share one of my favorite parts of the day...the kiddos played with the Nativity Little People during centers.  Here's a picture of Lightening McQueen catching a ride with a camel to meet the baby Jesus.

We have a present exchange with the kids to end the day...so they all go home with a gift from a friend. 

Merry Christmas!