Felt clover art

Before you read any further... check out my wreath giveaway!  Who doesn't like free stuff?  Now on to St. Patty's Day business.

I had a TON of fun making this little project.  So bright and cheery! I used this Pinterest Pin as my inspiration.  I covered an 8x10 piece of cardboard with a great green fabric, then I made 5 of the cute felt shamrocks.  I promise you felt is easiest...  I made them with paper, with fabric and then with felt as shown on the pin.  Neither the paper nor the fabric worked well.  I then hot glued the shamrocks down, removed the glass from a picture frame and popped it in.  I love the way it's 3-D and adds great color to my St. Patrick's Day mantel!

Linked up at:

Brassy Apple

Every Creative Endeavor

Creations By Kara

St Patty's Day Banner Sewing Tutorial

My banner is the finishing touch on my mantel.  I had so much fun sewing it.  I am NOT a seamstress, but I can sew a straight line which is exactly what is needed to make the banner.  As long as you have access to a sewing machine and can sew a straight line, you can make one for yourself too!

Dental Health

Did you know February is dental health month?  With all of the Valentine's candy consumed, I suppose it makes perfect sense.  To help my kiddos remember to brush regularly I created a week long calendar for them to mark their morning and nighttime brushing.  After completing it they get to return it for a special prize.  PDF Download Some good prizes would be:  tooth eraser, pencil, kids flossers, new toothbrushes etc.

We will also be discussing

Wreath GIVEAWAY

I love my St. Patrick's Day inspired wreath so much I'm giving away a mini version of it!    It really is an "anyday" color scheme, so who cares when you put it up.  In fact, when I'm done with it on the front door it will go perfectly in my downstairs bathroom!The mini version is approximately 10 inches in diameter and will have 3 small "clip on" flowers just like the original so the wreath could be interchangable for another season.  I'm all about being dual multi-purpose!  Here is the mini one.  I'm sorry I don't have a fancy camera and this was the best shot I could get this morning.

How to enter to win:

Leave a comment for each of the following {giving you up to 2 chances to win}:

1.  Leave a comment that you Follow Creative Preschool Resources by e-mail {make sure you actually do}

AND/OR.

2.  Leave a comment that you follow Creative Preschool Resources on Facebook and share the giveaway with your friends on Facebook.

You must actually follow Creative Preschool Resources by e-mail OR by Facebook to win the prize.  Giveaway available for people living in the continental United States only.  The contest will end on Sunday, March 4, 2012.  A winner will be chosen at random on March 5, 2012 so check back to see if you won!  The PRIZE will be shipped on March 9, 2012.  Good luck!

Dr Seuss Birthday - March 2nd

What school year would be complete without celebrating Dr. Seuss' birthday on March 2nd.  We spend the day wearing pajamas and reading LOTS and LOTS of Dr Seuss books, like Cat in the Hat, Green Eggs and Ham and One Fish, Two Fish.  These books allow for lots of great integrated learning!

*Please note: All free printables are only for readers of Creative Preschool Resources . If you enjoy this printable, please take a second to "follow" us to recieve email updates {top sidebar}. Thank you!

Make "Cat" hats like the one worn in The Cat in the Hat.  Print this out onto red construction paper.  PDF downloadON THE BACK SIDE have kids add white stripes.

Dr Seuss Tag

I love Dr. Seuss and celebrating his birthday with my class.  I made this easy to attach tag to give as a little "favor" for each child.*Please note: All free printables are only for readers of Creative Preschool Resources . If you enjoy this printable, please take a second to "follow" us to recieve email updates {top sidebar}. Thank you!

Simply print the tag out and attach it to a baggie of goldfish or Swedish fish.  PDF tagEnjoy!

The book "One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish" is actually a yellow book which is why I made the tag yellow.  If you'd like a more traditional "Dr Seuss" color scheme check this one out!  Download the PDF here

Check back or BETTER YET, follow this blog for more great Dr Seuss ideas later this week!

Fish graphic by Kelly Medina at mygrafico.com

Linked up at:

Every Creative Endeavor

Brassy Apple

Whipperberry 

St Patrick's Day Tracing and Cutting

Happy Friday!  Woo hoo!  Here are some great tracing and cutting printables to use with your little ones.  Learning to trace top to bottom and left to right is an essential skill in learning to write.  In addition, cutting practice is a very important fine motor skill.  Practice cutting daily!

** Click on the PDF link to download a PDF of each practice page!**

*Please note: All free printables are only for readers of Creative Preschool Resources . If you enjoy this printable, please take a second to "follow" us to recieve email updates {top sidebar}. Thank you!

Top to Bottom Tracing PDF



Left to right tracing PDF

Letter T - Teddy Bear Day

Today we get to bring our favorite teddies to school!  Don't you just love cuddling with something soft and squishy?  To honor our teddy bears on teddy bear picnic day we'll be reading several stories:  Teddy Bear Picnic,  Brown Bear, and Goldilocks and the 3 Bears.

Every preschool kiddo loves a great hat so today we're making hats!  Get the PDF hat here.

Have fun and happy cuddling!

I also found wooden bear shapes

St Patty's Day Inspired Wreath

Oh my GOSH, do I love this wreath?!?!?  Yup, I most certainly do!

I took my Valentine's wreath and turned it into this.  Although it's not overtly St Patrick's Day colors, it was inspired by the holiday.  I have a feeling it will make it's way back to my front door in May/June after my Spring one comes down.  I really does look "every day". 

Letter T - Teddy Bear Sorting

Whew!  We're cruising right along with the alphabet and amazingly made it to letter T already!  With our focus on teddy bears we'll be doing some gummy bear sorting and graphing.  To practice our fine motor skills we'll be using tweezers to do the sorting.

*Please note: All free printables are only for readers of Creative Preschool Resources . If you enjoy this printable, please take a second to "follow" us to recieve email updates {top sidebar}. Thank you!

PDF Version of the gummy bear sorting page

To get the gummy bear graph just click here.

Happy sorting, counting and graphing.

Do you love integrating language arts with Math as much as I do?  Here's a PDF printable for the chant Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear turn around.  Use this to teach the kids the poem/song or print off a copy for each child and allow them to color it and search for letter Tt in the chant.

Hope you enjoy some teddy bear fun!

Bear graphics by Black Leaf at mygrafico.com

St Patty's Day Mantel

Ohhh... the next holiday is coming and I get to take down V-day and move on to the next fun I found!  St Patrick's Day...  although my maiden name IS Reilly, I'm not much into beer and don't actually believe in luck or leprechauns, but I can still enjoy the holiday with my family.  Here is a peek at my St. Patty's Day mantel.  I'll be posting pics and tutorials over the next 2ish {don't think that's a word, oh well} weeks on how I made each thing!  So excited to share with you.  I hope you think it's as adorable as I do!  If you want to know why I'm not lucky check back.  I'll explain it, or better yet, follow along via Facebook or e-mail.  :-)  Now to keep my plants alive for an entire month! 

Linked up at:

Whipperberry

Somewhat Simple

Sumo's Sweet Stuff

Keeping it Simple

Brassy Apple

Digital Scrapbooking

Skip to my Lou

Fave Font Friday

Lovin' my new favorite fonts!  Hope you enjoy them too!

Download them free here:  Mineral Oil...  Singer Mears...  Space Out...  Sybil Green

If you like these check out this Fave Font Friday post

Letter S - Shaving Cream Snowman

I love letter S.  So many things start with the splendid letter!  We just got TONS of snow making SNOW our key word for letter S.  We made these wonderfully PUFFY 3-D snowmen to celebrate.  3-D is all the rage, so why not add some to our art!  :-)

Mix 60ish% shaving cream (non gel kind, I prefer Barbasol) with 40ish% white glue and allow children to form 3 "blobs" on their paper. Allowing them to use their fingers adds extra squishy fun!  1 Dixie cup of the mixture per child was enough to make the example.  Let dry overnight.  It really does keep it's "PUFFED UP" shape!  Give students markers, construction paper, pom pom balls, whatever you have around the house/classroom etc. to decorate their snowmen!  Enjoy!  Download the PDF version of the printable here.

Letter S Snowflake Graph

Snow, snow everywhere!  I just love this time of year.  I know some of you loathe snow, but being a California girl {for 25+ years}, I still find it fun to have Colorado snow in my new wonderful state!  To continue our graphing skills {money graphing, heart graphing}, this week we will be sorting snowflakes by size and then graphing our results.

I love allowing the kids to pick-up, move and manipulate the items they are graphing rather than counting items from a picture on a worksheet.  I always attempt to use REAL things they can touch to make it mean more.  You can get the snowflake graph here.

Letter S snake

We love making things out of alphabet letters.  It not only teaches the kids the names of the letters but also helps them identify the initial sound of the words.  For letter S we made a snake {surprise, surprise}.  Here's the cute little guy we came up with.  Made with construction paper, paper straws, yarn and google eyes.  I just love the way his little tongue sticks out almost as if he's hissing at you!

Happy Valentine's Day

HELP ME WIN!

Hi all!  So I entered a contest on EveryCreativeEndeavor.com to win free craft supplies, and now I need votes to make it to the next round!  Would you take 30 seconds to scroll down, find my projects and click "like"?  Pretty Please???  Here's the link to the contest.  Just click on the picture just below and scroll down to number 152 & 153 and click "like".  The two projects are Valentine Wreath for Me and Pink Globe Decorations.  I'll keep you posted if I make it to the next round.  Thanks for your help!

Sock Snowmen

Isn't this the cutest little snowman ever?  It's super easy and fun to do with kids.

I love the way he adds winter cheer to the room.

Supplies:

• sock {I use girls size small}

Valentine Popcorn

Well, I made my preschool crayon Valentines and my daughter's paper flower Valentines weeks ago.  While thinking about Valentine snacks for my preschool kiddos my son decided that he wanted to take pink Kettle Popcorn to school for Valentine's Day.  Great!  Valentine's day treats in 15 minutes!  Woo hoo!  Download PDF below.

Personalized Clipboard

Ever feel like you are running a rat race?  Well, every Tuesday and Thursday we get in the car as soon as the kids are home from school {snack and homework in hand} to head to swimming.  We are constantly doing our homework in the car...  Since the kids need something firm to write on they keep stealing borrowing my clipboards that I use for work.  Well, it hasn't taken long for me to be OVER not know where the clipboards are.  I went to Hobby Lobby, got 2 plain clipboards for around $2 each, used Mod Podge and scrapbook paper I already had and created these cuties.  Originally I wanted to do more layering of paper and colors and then realized that it would make the writing surface bumpy and just decided to go "plain".  Simply cut the paper to size, apply mod podge to clipboard and lay the paper down.  Smooth out the bubble before it dries with a flat card (like a credit card)  My kids LUV them and I love knowing where MY clipboards are when I need them.  I plan on adding some cute ribbons to the top, but haven't had the time.

Valentine stained glass heART

Each year I make these stained glass hearts.  They make the classroom look so festive!  Here's how I make them with my class!

1. Copy the provided image {at end of post} 

Some Bunny Loves You card

This is a Valentine's card that kids can make!  I love creating these with my Preschool cuties!  Free Printable at bottom of page!

Fold on the light grey line.  Use the kids thumb for the bunny face and their pinkie finger for the 2 ears.

Bible Story

For some reason each year the story of Zacchaeus {the Wee Little Man} is always a favorite among my students.  I don't know if it's the fun song we sing, or that we get to act out being a tiny little tax collector, but they LUV it!  {By the way, we've been studying money to correspond with this story since he was a tax collector.  See the connection?}

Anyways, here's a super cute project we made.  Simply trace the students forearm and hand onto brown construction paper and cut it out, or allow the children to depending on their cutting skills.  Glue it on to blue background paper, add Jesus and green construction paper grass.  Sponge paint the tree.  Glue Zacchaeus into the tree.  Happy Bible story telling!

Coin sort and graph

We have continued practicing coin recognition by sorting the 4 main coins {penny, nickel, dime & quarter}.  I made simple sorting mats and a simple graph.  Students get hands-on practice by sorting the coins, counting how many of each they have and then showing their results on the graph.  You can download the graph here.

Valentine Globe Decorations

Don't you love cute things hanging from the ceiling?  I do!  I made some Valentine decorations that I just LOVE!!! 

Every time I see them a smile breaks out across my face

Comments & Feedback

Okay, so this is a new blog and I just LOVE knowing what you like and will actually use in your home, with your family or at school.  If you see something  you like, please take a second to:

• "Like" posts {ones that you like and will use} AND/OR...


• Make a comment - I LOVE hearing from people AND/OR...


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Thanks all!  I love sharing what I'm doing with you and I hope you enjoy it too!

 

Valentine Math

I LOVE Valentine's Day and anything fun to do with hearts.  There are a million ways to do math for Valentine's Day, but here are a few of my favorites...

Candy Heart Sorting - pdf version

If you'd like to download a simple candy heart graph just click:  color version...   black/white version

Candy Heart Patterning - pdf version

Cut/Glue Hearts in order - pdf version

I made these into a fun garland for the kids.  They water painted them first.

Enjoy the free printables!  Happy counting, patterning graphing and sorting!