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FREE: Printable Monsters University Activities

May 15, 2013 by

Headed on a road trip?  Looking to get your kids excited about the upcoming Monsters University movie?  Are they already excited about it?  Printout and offer up these fun printable Monsters University printable activities!

If you click the large picture below you can download a zipped file that contains all the mentioned printables.  If you prefer to download each individual pdf, scroll on down below the image to find them by title!

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Monsters University Printables:

Mike Wazowski’s (voice of Billy Crystal) lifelong dreams of becoming a Scarer are derailed during his first semester at Monsters University when he crosses paths with hotshot James P. Sullivan, “Sulley” (voice of John Goodman), and their out-of-control competitive spirit gets them both kicked out of the University’s elite Scare Program.

MONSTERS UNIVERSITY releases in theaters on June 21st!

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Egg Match Up Game {Preschool}

March 26, 2013 by

Is your house overrun with little plastic eggs yet?  I know my house is!  We’re in the middle of a move, but I made sure to leave out our plastic Easter eggs so we could do some fun learning activities for toddlers this week with them.  We’ve already made a size sorter based on a post over at Tons of Fun.

Picture from Tons of Fun Blog

Here’s some pictures of our sorting fun:

Egg Sorting

I was surprised to find out that my 3 year old could snap the eggs back together (great fine motor exercise), so whenever an egg was found open, we handed it over to her to fix.  She was quite proud of her official fix-it job!

DSCN1063

The kids (ages 20 months to 3 years) all caught on quick and the egg sorting game turned out to be a favorite for a few days!

I also spotted a great egg matching activity over at The Preschool Tool Box: 

I didn’t want to invest in Wikki Stix (pictured), but I did love the idea of matching eggs.  Today, my three year old will be practicing matching with some fun patterned eggs I picked up at Walgreens (I think I also spotted some similar eggs at Kmart).

I am terrible at drawing (I might have mentioned that before), so I took the easy way out and took PICTURES of the eggs so she could match them up.   Walgreens will print your pictures out within half an hour of uploading them to the Walgreens site, so this seemed like a way better plan for me!

Here’s a few examples of the pictures I took:

Egg Matching

Egg Matching

Egg Matching

After the pictures were printed, Chipmunk would simply match up the eggs in the carton according to the picture.  I would check her work and then it was onto another picture.

Easter Egg Matching

She really liked the matching game and I think the pictures make it really easy to see the patterns.  It was the perfect activity for her too because she said, “This is pretty hard, mom.  But just hard enough for me.”

Egg Matching

A success!

What About You?

What things are you doing with all your plastic eggs?

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Q is for Queen

February 20, 2013 by

We’ve been learning about the letter Q this week, and today’s focus is “Q is for Queen”.  Did you know that the Jewish festival of Purim, which celebrates Queen Esther’s bravery, is coming up this Saturday?  Perfect timing!   Let’s get learning!

Dressing Like a Queen

To begin, we looked at the wooden letter Q from yesterday and discussed how Q also begins the word “Queen”.  I had recently picked up some Tutu’s at the Dollar Store, so the girls dressed up like queens.

Queenly Tutu

If you’re feeling really ambitious, you could even make your own tutus with this tutorial from A Crafty House.

Pipe Cleaner Q

We made the letter Q out of pipe cleaners, but the girls didn’t seem to be especially interested in this activity.

Q is for Queen

Queen Coloring and Glitter

To finish out our learning, we did a Queen coloring page I found over at Homeschooling.About.com.

First we painted the queen (purple for royalty!).

Q is for Queen

Then we added glitter!  Because, naturally a queen needs to be sparkly.

Q is for Queen

Then, my daughter painted some more, effectively making a real mess of the paint brush!  :)

Q is for Queen

Finished!

Queen

I swear there is a queen under there!

About the Author:

Lindsey Whitney is a blogger over at Growing Kids Ministry.  A blog designed to help parents, teachers, and Children’s  Ministry workers who want to help the kids they love grow in their faith.   You can connect with her via twitter or on facebook.

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Nativity Sequencing: Preschool Christmas Activity!

December 18, 2012 by

I can’t believe how quickly December is flying by!  How have you been spending your days?  We made an Advent Calendar for the first time this year, but I cannot seem to find a suitable place to put the thing!  I think we’ll work on a hanging one next year!

One of the things we’ve been doing with the Advent calendar is exploring a character or part of the Christmas story each day, following along in the Truth in Tinsel e-book (check out more details at my Growing Kids Ministry blog).  It’s been so much fun seeing my {almost} 3 year old Chipmunk retelling the day’s story each night for her dad at dinner time.  Of course, this gave me a great idea!  Reading through and talking about the Christmas story is a great to practicing sequencing and reading comprehension!

Let’s Get Started!

What You Need:

  • Children’s Bible or Christmas Storybook (we’ve been reading out of the Jesus Storybook Bible)
  • Nativity Finger Puppets (you can find some here or here) or Nativity Play set

What You Do:

Start out by reading the Christmas story together.  We’re big fans of the Preschooler’s Bible, but the Jesus Storybook Bible also has a great rendition of the account as well.  If you prefer a stand-alone story book, check your local library — there are sure to be plenty of books to choose from!

Make sure to point out characters as your read through the story, pointing and asking your child, “Who is this?”

After reading through the story once, tell the story to your child using the figurines or puppets.  Pause every few minutes and ask “What happened next?”  If you’re child doesn’t readily answer, refer back to the book for the answer in a fun and playful way.

Nativity Set

After completing the story via puppets or figurines, hand the toys over to your child.  Announce, “It’s your turn!” and get them started with a “A long time ago….”  If they get stumped, take a look at the storybook together to find out what happened next.

Review the lesson by telling another family member the tale as well!  If you’re kids are older, you can even use these sight words from Mummy Mummy Mum to help tell the story!

More Christmas Resources:

About the Author

Lindsey Whitney is a blogger over at Growing Kids Ministry.  A blog designed to help parents, teachers, and Children’s Ministry workers who want to help the kids they love grow in their faith.   You can connect with her via twitter or on facebook.

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Free: Solar System Printables and Activities

December 13, 2012 by

Solar System Printables & Activities

Solar System Printables & Activities

 

The Solar System is a very popular search and I know why!  With three boys, I am always looking for new and fun ways to get the solar system knowledge into their little minds.  I have literally spent hours upon hours trying to find GOOD resources for solar system printables and interactive guides.  Hopefully you find this list helpful!

#1 – Free Solar System Printable – scaled printable coloring page!

#2 – Build a Solar System – This neat page as TONS of free activities including a Solar System Model Calculator!  Simply enter the size you want to make your Sun and it tells you what size each of the planets needs to me.  Cool, right?

#3 – Free Solar System Teaching Materials – When you think Solar System, you think NASA and it is really no wonder!  This search helps you find all of the NASA Solar System free resources!

#4 – StarChild Project: Connecting NASA and the K12 Classroom – Cool on-line activities, information and video about the sun, planets, and stars.  This one is a fun solar system activity for kids!

#5 – Lunar and Planetary Institute – From Art Competitions to Explorer Series and Public Outreach – great site of free solar system printables and free solar system activities.  This site is a WEALTH of information!

#6 – Solar System Lesson Plans – Written by 2 First Grade teachers in Elizabeth Colorado, this Solar System lesson plan contains almost everything needed to teach your child in 9 easy lessons!

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