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

Valentine's Day Hand Print T-shirt

This week we will have our PreK Valentine's Day Party...YAY!!

Here's a sneak-peek at my favorite craft we do that day...

This sweet hand print is made by sticking a small heart sticker on the t-shirt and then after painting the kiddo's hand red...place it over the heart and voila!!  Sweetest hand print ever.

We are also making this cute "Blowing you kisses" favor for each of the kids, too.  

You can download the topper really easily HERE.

Who doesn't love bubbles and chocolate??

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!

Give Thanks!! :)

So much to be grateful for when you have a class full of cuties at Thanksgiving!!

We start out with our Thanksgiving t-shirt...a TURKEY, of course!!  Dark brown palm and thumb, red, orange, yellow and green fingers.  Add a red wattle and orange beak and feet...all in laundry proof acrylic paints.  I love anything handprints...they grow up way too fast!

The kids always like to play BINGO and Thanksgiving is no exception...

We got ours here but you can Google Thanksgiving Bingo Cards and choose from others.

And then our parents join us for a Thanksgiving feast, complete with all the fixin's.

We have so much to be grateful for.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Halloween Party!!

Love a good Halloween Party!!

One of the keepsakes that we love to make for the kiddos is a hand-print t-shirt.  For this year's Halloween Party we did spiders.

I LOVED the way they turned out.

We always fold the shirts and put a piece of paper in between the two sides of the shirt so that the paint doesn't seep through to the back.  Also, be sure to use a laundry proof paint...one that won't wash off or out in the laundry.  We use acrylic.  We drew the "web" on with a sharpie, and used a red acrylic paint to dot the eyes on.

We also have each of the kids bring a treat to share with their classmates, so each kid goes home with a treat from each of their classmates.  They all bring a trick or treat bag and we divide them out!

Of course we give them some treats, too...Pumpkin and Ghost poop.  (Preschoolers think poop is hilarious!)

So fun to eat the scary food!  We had Mummy Cupcakes and Hot Dog Mummies.  Yum!

Four year olds are also getting good at playing games and Bingo is a favorite.  A couple of years ago we downloaded this Bingo Game from Jamie @ The Crafting Chicks.

They can use Skittles, M-n-M's, cereal, or marshmallows as markers for the game.  And they love to eat the treats at the end!

Happy Halloween!  Have fun with your little ones!