Preschool Ideas

I recently started preschool coop with some friends. There are 6 children, 3 boys, 3 girls. Each mom teachers 1 week, every six weeks. We meet 2 days a week for 2 hours. I plan on posting my lesson plans as well as some of the activities we do when I teach. If I find other preschool ideas those will also be posted here.

Welcome Bucket

I found this bucket a few weeks ago at Walmart. I purchased it without having a purpose for it. I know I shouldn't do that, but I was drawn to it!!! It's rubber and very light weight.

I decided to get some fun yellow mums and liven up the entrance to my house. I started by throwing some used plastic bottles in the bottom. This meant less soil and it wouldn't be as heavy when it was filled (disregard the fact that those are all Dr Pepper, I know I have a problem!).

Next I threw some soil in and then the mums.

I finished it off with some vinyl!

I'm ready for fall, but not quite ready to put up my fall decor. This is just enough to brighten it up a bit!

Recipe Review: Double Chocolate Zucchini Muffins

I have generous neighbor that recently gave me a few large zucchinis. Generally we slice them, marinade in italian dressing and grill. Today I decided to do a little baking and found this recipe on Jamie Cooks it up! I made only a few changes from her recipe and the kids are gobbling them up!

Double Chocolate Zucchini Muffins (adapted from Jamie Cooks it up!)

3 1/2 C white flour

1 C Wheat flour

1 1/2 C sugar

1/2 C cocoa

1 t baking soda

1/2 t baking powder

3/4 t salt

1 t cinnamon

1 1/2 C oil

1 1/2 C milk

3 eggs

2 t vanilla

2 C shredded zucchini

1 1/2 C semi sweet chocolate chips

Mix wet ingredients (including sugar & zucchini). In a separate bowl mix dry ingredients. Mix dry with wet until just combined. Add chocolate chips.

Bake at 350 for 15-17 minutes for standard muffins, 13-15 minutes for mini muffins

Yield: 24 standard + 48 mini muffins

These were moist and chocolatey, just like you want a chocolate muffin to be. My kids had no clue there was a healthy dose of zucchini (which is exactly what I wanted!).

Super Simple Sugar Cookie Tarts

I first saw this concept over at Joy's Hope. I loved the idea and Father's Day was a great opportunity to try it out! She called them Puffs, but for me there were a little more like a tart. I also slightly changed the recipe to fit my needs.

Sugar Cookie Tarts with Fresh Fruit

To make these you need:

• 1 package of refrigerated sugar cookie dough. I used the tube of dough because that was available.


• 1/2 block of cream cheese, softened


• 1/2 Cup powdered sugar


• 1/2 container of cool whip, not frozen

Mix thoroughly

• fresh fruit sliced thinly or in small chunks: peaches, strawberries, blueberries, etc.

Also needed:

• 24 mini muffin tin


• non-stick spray (Pam)


• mini tart shaper (it is made by pampered chef, I'm not sure what else could be used but a great friend lent me hers!)

Start by thoroughly spraying your mini muffin tin with Pam. Next unwrap your cookie dough and slice off a round about 3/4 inch wide

and cut into 4 pieces.

Place each piece in the muffin tin

Bake at 350 for about 8 minutes. This is less time than the package directs, but you need them slightly undercooked.
Pull out the cookies and they should be puffed up in the muffin tin.

As soon as you take them out use the tart shaper to push the cookie down into the muffin tin, forming your tart crust.

Let cool and then carefully remove. I needed to slide a knife around the edges to release them from the tins.

Now fill a ziploc bag with your cream cheese mixture and cut the corner off. Pipe the filling into each cup.

Place your fruit ontop and enjoy!

These were super simple and super yummy. They would be awesome for a finger foods party and were a great use of some fresh fruit I needed to use.

Homemade Threading Game

I love things that keep little fingers busy. I love them even more if I can make it myself! I saw this threading game on minieco a few weeks ago and fell in love with it. I didn't have have large sticks around so I improvised!

I used a scrap piece of 2x2 and cut it to about 6 inches. Then I drilled holes randomly through it. There was no rhyme or reason to the holes! After that I sanded it down. For the string, I used mason string (it was cheap and strong, a shoelace, yarn, twine, whatever you have would work fine). I threaded it through one hole and the onto a button and tied it off. Then on the other end of the string I threaded a blunt needle (plastic needles would be best, but our local Walmart happened to be out!!). Threaded it on and burned the end so the needle can't come off.

It's not perfect. A woodworker would mostly be appalled. It's simple, easy and fun for kids. That's really all that matters to me!!

 

Number Wheel

Finding fun and educational toys for preschool age kids to do in the car, at church or at home can be a challenge. I found a fun idea for a number wheel and thought I would give it a whirl!

This number wheel will help your preschooler recognize numbers, count, match and practice fine motor skills. What you need is:

• a copy of  a pie chart divided into 10 with dots representing numbers, printed on card stock (one can be found at the bottom of this post)


• Laminator (this is optional, but will really help your number wheel last much longer)


• 10 clothes pins


• A fine tip permanent marker

After you print, cut out and laminate your number wheel you need to number your clothes pins. I chose to put both the number and dots on one side and just the number on the other.

The whole thing fits nicely in a quart size ziploc bag.

Linking up here:

Just a girl



 

Summer Daily Schedule

Summer is almost upon us! Our last day of school is Thursday. We have loads of trips and activities already planned, but the day to day that we're home I wanted something fun for the kids to look forward to. I came across this idea on Pinterest and was taken to one of my favorite blogs: Somewhat Simple. The idea was originally posted back in June of 2010 when she was featuring some summer boredom ideas. I wanted to rework it  a little bit. I think it's perfect for my kids!

Each weekday there is a different theme that allows you & your kids to plan the week ahead. My kids like to know what's coming. I wanted to be able to write it down for them (and me!) to see what we had planned. So I made it into vinyl and added the words off to the right.

I put it on the top of my fridge and now I can simply use a dry erase marker and write down our weeks activities!

When the summer is done I will take down the words (make something Monday, etc) and use it as my meal calender!

For those interested in a paper copy I have a down-loadable version as well.  This is my first time doing this, so be kind. It would be simple to print and write in each week, or laminate and reuse!

Summer Daily Schedule

I'm linking up here: