Back to School Archives - Page 2 of 2

{Read.Explore.Learn.} Is Your Buffalo Ready for Kindergarten?

August 23, 2013 By Deirdre

Is Your Buffalo Ready for Kindergarten?Well, is he? The buffalo in this wonderful book by Audrey Vernick thinks he is ready and so does friend. Kindergarten does have some challenges for him. He doesn’t cut well with scissors. He does eat grass at recess and have trouble fitting on a swing. He can’t finger paint due to not having fingers. He can hoof paint though.

Is Your Buffalo Ready for Kindergarten Activities

Other things he can do well. He can take turns and cooperate. He can keep his cool when called names for being clumsy. He can share with others. He is big enough for everyone to sit next to a story time. A buffalo has all the skills he needs to start and stay in kindergarten.

I love the humor in this both. Both the words and illustrations share ways that new kindergartners might find challenges in a way that will make them giggle. Being able to giggle when your anxious about something new is a very good things to be able to do.

What did we do to explore Is Your Buffalo Ready for Kindergarten??

Painting with Hoof Prints

I took a sponge brush and cut out a triangle from it to make the brush look like a hoof print.

JDaniel used the hoof shaped brush to paint on a card board pizza circle. (The buffalo had hoof painted in the book and I thought it would be be fun for JDaniel to hoof print too.) He had been given white, brown, yellow and black paint to blend and paint with. The paint was layered over and over again on the cardboard circle. The hope was that is would look like fur when it dried.

For some reason he started by layering single colors that were not brown first. Once he had established a foundation of black and white, he did add layers and layers for brown. All different shapes of brown ended up being created when he started to blend them.

When the pizza circle was completely covered, we set it aside to dry.

Cutting Practice

While the painting project was drying, we moved on to some cutting practice. One of the things JDaniel was supposed to have worked on this summer was cutting. His preschool teacher said we needed to work on it.

I drew the parts of a buffalo we were going to need to add to the pizza circle head to create a buffalo. There were ears,a nose, a beard, and a tuft hair. I drew them onto brown paper bag paper so, they would be easy to cut.

JDaniel did a great job of cutting out ear curves, an oval and the zigzagged beard and hair. There were a few slips of the scissors, but not many. I think he will be ready to cut out objects when he is given them at school.

Made a Buffalo Head

After JDaniel had cutout all the brown paper pieces, I add outlining if needed to them with a black marker. I also cut out some eyes, a smile, nostrils, and some horns to add to the facial features we would need to decorate the pizza circle to create the buffalo’s head.

Then arranged them on the circle to see how they would look. When we had the pieces just where we wanted them, we glued them onto the card board circle.

I think he can out well. He looks a little different than the main character in the book Is Your Buffalo Ready for Kindergarten?, but not that different.

Counting Hoof Prints

Since we already had a hoof print brush, I thought it would be good to practice our number recognition skills. JDaniel was asked to put the correct number of hoof paint brush prints in to the space that had that number in it. The spaces were a little narrow and ended up with overlapping hoof prints in them.

He also had to push the brush down to make the pointed area of the brush show up on paper.

Conclusion

I believe that not only the buffalo in the book is ready for kindergarten JDaniel is too.

I have decided to ask you to link your posts to the Read.Exlore.Learn. Facebook page instead of running a link up. I hope you will stop by and share your children’s book related activities there.

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New School Year Prayer

August 22, 2013 By Deirdre

Up until this month I have been with JDaniel most of the day. This month he has started kindergarten at a big elementary school. He is so excited and I am too. There will be so many wonderful things that he will learn and encounter this year. Still my mother’s heart has concerns and worries that I know I need to hand over to God.Last Sunday I sat down and made a list of the worries and concerns I have. After creating the list, I decided to write a prayer that I could say after I dropped him off at school. It could probably use so more work, but I wanted to share it with you today. You may have the same concerns and worries. I thought if you did you might want to pray the prayer too.

Back to School Prayer

Lord,

My son is starting elementary school for the very first time. Many others will start school today too. Some will be in a new class with a new teacher. Others will be starting at a new school just as my son is.

Please help the children feel your peace when they get nervous, worried, or scared. There are so many new things and new people they will encounter this year.

Please help the children find success this year. Some will not excel in the same way others will, but I pray they will all be successful in their own unique ways. Help them to feel and cherish those achievements.

Please help the children find a friend to sit with at lunch and play with on the playground. It can be so lonely surrounded by people you don’t know in a new place.

Please help the children to find an advocate that will cheer for their successes and guide them through their challenges. Help the teachers, office staff members, custodians, and volunteers to seek out children they can be a buddy for.

Please help each teacher to find joy in their jobs. You know they are asked to do a lot on any given day. Their days can be long and very challenging, but their joy of teaching can help children find a joy in learning.

Please help each of the parents that are sending their children to school today to have listening ears that hear what their children want them to know about their days. Their words share the successes, challenges and joys they have encountered.

Please help the children to share with their parents what they need to know to help support and encourage them in their learning.

Thank you for hearing this prayer. You may hear it from me often this year. There will be new challenges and concerns so, this prayer may change. I am just glad you are here to hear it.

Back to School time means change for everyone involved with schools. Even if you don’t have anyone attending school this year I hope you will pray for those that do.

This post is linked to Mrs. Matlock’s Alphabe Thursday.

Kids Lunch Apple of My Eye Sandwich Sushi

August 19, 2013 By Deirdre

With school staring on Wednesday we have been field testing a wide variety of ways for me to pack JDaniel’s Easy Lunch Box container. One of his favorites was this kids lunch sandwich sushi meal with an apple theme. Part of the reason I think he liked it was that it had a fun name. I think he also liked that the foods were all compressed together in. The flattened bread tasted better to me than when it is fluffy he mentioned to me after he had eaten several sushi rolls.I am so glad he like it. Making sandwich sushi rolls is super easy and allows parents to sneak in new foods without their children knowing they are there.

Let me walk you through how I made the sushi rolls:

Roll a rolling pin over pieces of sandwich bread until it is the thickness you desire.
Spread or place the foods you want on top of the bread. We used apple jelly and honey baked ham.
Roll each slice of bread up to create a tube.
Slice the sandwich sushi rolls as thick or thin as you like.

I made apple and Colby Jack cheese apple shaped cutouts to place on top of the sandwich sushi rolls to dress them up a little bit. The outlines of the cutouts were placed in the upper right hand section of the lunch box. I sprinkled the apples with a tiny bit of lemon juice to keep them from going brown.

Kids Lunch Apple of My Eye Sandwich Sushi

Since the apple of my eye loves applesauce with a dash of cinnamon, I put that in the lunch too. JDaniel might not understand the phrase apple of my eye, but he really enjoyed having an apple themed sandwich sushi lunch in his kids lunch.

Oh! Another reason I like the sushi sandwiches in a kids lunch is that rather than having a whole sandwich or a half or even quarters is that this lunch has bite size pieces that kids can pop in their mouths. I think it might encourage kids to try new foods or eat more of a sandwich than being presented with big pieces of sandwich.

Back to School Traditions Link Up and Giveaway

August 13, 2013 By Deirdre

Back to School Traditions Link Up Information

We start school next Wednesday and some of you will be starting in the next few weeks. I am dying to know how you celebrate the beginning of school at your house or in your classroom. Please take a moment to add up to four of your Back to School Traditions posts below.

What can you link up?

Back to School Ideas
Family Back to School Traditions (special meals, new shoes, first day pictures, etc..)
Recipes for Back to School breakfast foods or snacks or lunch box meals
Parent Celebrations
First Day of School Themed Books or Activities
Reflections on a Favorite First Day of School for You
Ways to Remember the First Day of School
Great Ways for Parents to Share Your Child’s First Day

What you can’t link up?

Reviews for Back to School products or Giveaways

The link will stay open until September 8^th. Yes, I know it is a big window of time, but I want to give everyone an opportunity to share and some of don’t start school after Labor Day.

If you would include the badge below on your post or link about to this post, I would be very thankful.

21 Bloggers Share Salad Lunches For Kids

I will be linking my Back to School Related posts during next several weeks too. On Friday I shared a wonderful post called 21 Bloggers Share Lunches Without Sandwiches that could be served the first day of school or any day of the school year. I was given ideas and post to share with a variety of wonderful bloggers with first-hand experience at making children school lunches.

Last week we attended the New Student Orientation Meeting at JDaniel’s school. We don’t attend Meet the Teacher until two days before school starts kindergarten. (I can’t believe it.) Each event will probably have its own post.

I have exciting news for those of you that link up this year and for those of you that leave comments on below post. I have three prizes that I will be sharing with you.

What are prizes?

I really want to encourage you to visit the posts that are linked up so, one commenter who leaves a comment sharing a post you have visited and left a comment on will get a Kizmos gift pack of kitchen tools for kids. The winner will be randomly selected. You can leave as many comments as you like sharing posts you have visited. I will check to see if you have left a comment on the posts you say you have.

The Kizmos gift pack contains two scrub brushes, a salt, and pepper shaker, a set of nesting measuring cups, measuring spoons, and a big spoon.
The creator of one of the linked up posts will randomly be selected to in a set of four Tiger Tales Books.
A commenter will randomly be selected to win a CamelBak Water Bottle

jdaniel4smom_camelback

The link up will be open until the first week in September. At the end of the first week of September. The winners will be selected using Random.org and the prizes will be awarded.

Last year the Back to School Traditions Link was my highest visited post. I hope that you will join me in making this year post even bigger.

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Disclaimer: The Tiger Tales Books and Kizmos sent me products to review and share with you. CamelBak contacted me about reviewing one of their bottles. I already had one and love it. I knew one of you would too. If any of these products are calling you to purchase them, you can find them all on Amazon.com.

Dig Into Treasure Hunting- Back to School Learning Bins

August 6, 2013 By Deirdre

This is the final Dig Into… post this summer. Previously I have shared {Dig Into Gardening} M.O.M. Container Garden, and Dig Into Construction Sites with you. This final post in the series called is {Digging Into Treasure Hunting} Back to School Learning Bins.

Why I Made Back to School Learning Bins

Bethany of Kidding Around Greenville invited me to join her at a Back to School event at our local mall. I helped her share information on the wonderful blog she and her friend Susan run. I was also able to bring some hands-on activities to share with parents and children that stopped by our table. Knowing that I wanted to create a treasure hunting post with you this week I decided to make I Spy Back to School Learning Bins.I created two bins to share along with I Spy sheets for each bin. The children and parents had a blast digging through the bins to find the objects JDaniel and I had hidden. They had fun finding the objects and they also enjoyed re-hiding them.

Some parents were already working with sensory bins at home. Many were excited about trying them at home. Once I explained how I introduce learning skills through questions as we explore bins, they were really excited.

General Questions to Ask After Exploring BinsHere is some I ask JDaniel:

Can you tell me about the object’s shape?
What color is the object?
What is sound does the object start with?
What is another word that starts with that letter?
Can you find an object that is smaller than this one?
We found three paper clips. What object is there more of in the bin?
What vowel sounds do you hear in the object’s name?

What I Put in the Bins

As I mentioned I made two Back to School learning bins to dig into just as you might dig for treasure. I selected plastic bins that were big enough for two or three children to dig into. Into each bin, I placed shredded brown paper bags. My original thought was I would use brown paper bags since I took my lunch in brown paper bags to school. After some thought, I realized that children might not do that anymore. JDaniel and I had already shredded every brown paper bag by then so, we went ahead and used them. Then we added the objects to be found in each bin.

I Spy Letter and Number Sensory Bin
Into the Letter and Number Back to School Bin I put the letter and number cookie cutters, we have used in in the kitchen. (We happened to have letter and number cookie cutter, but you could easily use letters and numbers from a puzzle, a magnet set, cut out from magazines, noodles or a foam bath play set.)Then I made a worksheet titled Alphabet Sensory Bin Hunt. The worksheet contained all of the alphabet letters and the numbers 1-9. (I guess the worksheet should have been titled Letter and Number Sensory Bin Hunt. Ooops! I will redo it if I get to share the bins again.)

The goal was for the children to find each of the letters and numbers and cross them off as they worked.

I Spy School Supply Sensory Bin

Into the I Spy School Supply Sensory Bin we placed a bunch of school supplies from the Office Depot Back to School Giveaway I offered recently and some school supplies we had around the house. There were probably fourteen objects in the bin.

I made an I Spy School Supply sheet that featured a collage of school supplies that I made on PicMonkey. It was super easy to place pictures the school supplies into the collage and insert it into a Word document.

When JDaniel did a trial run of the activity, he placed the objects on top of their picture on the I Spy sheet. It was interesting to watch the children at the mall. Some of the children just put a check mark on the picture and threw it back in the bin. Some laid it on the picture as JDaniel had and some lined the found objects up on the outside of the bin. One family of four girls worked together to find all the found objects and they had to discuss how they would display the treasures they had dug out of the shredded paper.

What school supplies went into the bin?

a marker (taped shut)
an empty glue stick
a penguin pencil sharpener
three index cards
five pencil top erasers
crayons
three paper clips
a ruler
two pencils
a pencil pouch
brass fasteners
a paint brush

Disclaimer:
I wasn’t sure what to put in the school supply learning bins. I really struggled with what would be safe and kids friendly. Members of the Kid Blogger Network Facebook Group shared their wonderful ideas with me . Kristin of Sense of Wonder shared a link to her Back to School Bin during that discussion. Her bin featured the Eye Spy Chart that my I Spy sheet was based. While both my bin and I Spy sheet look different from her’s I think it important to share that the post on Sense of Wonder inspired this post.

I want to thank Erin of Royal Baloo and Jodi of Growing Book by Book for co-hosting with me in this link up.

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This Year’s School Supplies List- More Than Crayons and Glue

August 23, 2012 By Deirdre

This Year's Supply List- More Than Crayons and Glue

When I first started teaching decades ago, the school supplies list had maybe ten times on it. Most of the items lived in the student’s deck. A box of quart size zip lock bags and a box of tissues were collected and used by the class as needed.

With budget cutbacks due to a tough economy school supply lists seem to have gotten longer and they no longer contain just the items a student will keep in their desks. Many of the items are for the teacher and classroom.

JDaniel’s preschool class list includes things like Clorox wipes, thin washable whiteboard markers, cardstock, and baby wipes. These items for the whole class and I totally understand they are needed.

Another trend that I have noticed is the listing of very specific items and brands. I get that there is a reason for that. There really are some brands of crayons that I favor over others and I always loved when a particular brand of tissues was sent in. Sometimes it can be hard to find them though.

JDaniel’s school supplies list contained mostly brand specific items. As I mentioned some of them I understand. Some seemed like a personal preference. Given that they were the teacher’s preference I bought them. I know teachers deserve the best.I bought everything on the list. It took me visits to two store to find the right items with the right brand names. Thankfully some of the items were on sale. I did search briefly for coupons and price matches for the remaining items, but wasn’t able to find any.

While at Walmart searching for a specific type of marker with the help of a Walmart clerk, I showed her my list and asked her if she had seen any of these on items on sale. She commented that she hadn’t even seen price matches for them in the paper.

“You are probably one of those handful of parents that will buy all those items in the brands they are asked for. You are blessed to be able to afford to,” she pointed out. She also mentioned that she had been blessed to be able to afford the supplies on her list too.

Many of you have been rushing around to find the school supplies on your children’s lists. Your list was probably not as specific. Many of my friend’s children’s list weren’t either although. I bet there may be some of you that do have this kind of list.

When I asked some of you on Facebook about this issue of growing supply list and my list in general, I got wonderful responses. Many pointed out the schools need the supplies and if we can afford them we should give all that we can. Others shared how expensive the school supplies were getting. Still others pointed out that what I spent for school supplies isn’t anything compared to what they are having to spend.

I thought I had spent a lot. Last year I spent around $30 for JDaniel’s K3 school supplies. This year due to my not doing a great job of searching more than two stores and not having coupons the cost of supplies was $50. I still have to buy his handwriting book so the total will go up.

My cost isn’t typical of what my friends have spent. Several friends have children that go to a school that just asks parents to sent in $25 for supplies. What do you think about this? Has your school supply request list grown longer and longer?

Did you have any unique supply items on your list?

Trail of Tears at the Grocery Store

August 31, 2011 By Deirdre

I have read many tips for moms sending their children to school for the first time. One of them was to avoid the grocery store. I think this tip is really for mom’s whose children are starting in a public school.

The problem with going to the grocery store on a first day when many emotion filled moms seems to be there is the fact that they will all be crying. Every aisle could possibly be filled with teary eyed moms and seeing all those other moms crying may lead you to crying or to crying harder than you have been.

I am guessing these weeping mamas didn’t want to go home to an empty house and they decided to go someplace filled with people and maybe cross grocery shopping off their to do list.

The stores probably do a great business on that first day of school. There must be tons of impulse buying by moms walking aimlessly down the aisles. I think there must be a lot of customers purchasing opened bags of Oreos and tissue boxes that are missing several tissues. The bakery probably sells a lot of cupcakes and donuts that day. There should probably be specials on them offered to moms.

Given all the drama going on in the store. There probably should be signs setup in the parking lot reminding senior saints and everyone else outside this demographic that it is the first day school. These informed shoppers may decide to wait a day or come back later in the day. Unless they are looking for a tear duct cleanse themselves.

Another alternative might be to sequester the mourning moms in an isolated section of the store. The store could offer them coffee and doughnuts while providing them with a cooking demonstration or just place to hang out.

Maybe the moms would meet other mom friends that they could meet elsewhere for coffee and donuts in subsequent weeks.

For those of you that having school starting in your area after Labor Day consider yourself warned. The grocery store can be a very emotional place on the first day of school.

This post is linked to Mrs. Matlock’s Alphabe Thursday!

Muffin Tin Monday- Back to School

August 29, 2011 By Deirdre

JDaniel starts preschool tomorrow! I thought a Back to School Muffin Tin would be a perfect way to celebrate.

His tin has cheese bus with mini Oreo tires and Chex windows on crackers. There is also a Rice Krispy treats apple with a grape leaf. Finally there are tiny carrot sticks shaped into numbers on a slice of turkey and a cupcake tin of grapes.

While I would love to take credit for all ideas in this tin, I can’t. The apple recipe came from a wonderful blog called Gourmet Mom on The Go.

If you wrote post about Back to School foods, please link them up to my Back to School Traditions link up.

What special things to you serve to celebrate the first day of school?

Read.Explore.Learn.- Back to School Worries

August 26, 2011 By Deirdre

Welcome to week four of the Read. Explore. Learn Summer Reading Challenge- August! This meme was designed to be a place for you to share the learning opportunities, crafts, field trips, and other activities you have done this week that tie-in to children’s books. I look forward to seeing ways you have learned with and explored books.

Remember each post you link up counts as an entry in the the August edition of the Summer Reading Challenge. One post linked up to Read.Explore.Learn during the month of August will selected to win a reusable bag and books.

Steps:

Link your activity below.

Please place the Read.Explore.Learn. badge on your post or create a link back to this meme.

Please try to visit at least three of the other people that have placed links below and leave a comment. I will visit each of you and leave a kind comment.

If you are not linking up an activity and are just visiting, please try to stop by a few of the links below.

My Book Tie-Ins of the Week:

JDaniel starts preschool next Tuesday. He walked right into his new Sunday school class last week without a tear. All summer he has had to be peeled off of me. We don’t know what will happen next week when he starts preschool. He could walk in and be ready to learn, play and explore or it could be traumatic.

This week I selected two books about characters that weren’t so sure about going to preschool to share with you.

The first book is called Llama Llama Misses Mama by Ann Dewdney. Llama Llama seems ready to start the school in the book. He gets all his morning things done. He doesn’t seem to worry until his mama gets ready to drop him off. Llama Llama feels shy when Mama goes away.

The newness of everything and the unknown make him hold back from joining the other children in play. His teacher tries to engage him in activities and he doesn’t want to read, play or eat snack.

What he really wants is Mama, but he decides to try to play and get to know the other kids when the teacher promises Mama is coming back.

By the time Mama comes to school to get him, Llama Llama has lots to show and tell her.

This story reaches into little ones fears and probably some Mamas. I love how it is honest about feelings that really plague children about starting school.

The second book is called Billy and the Big New School by Catherin and Laurence Anholt. Billy his mother decides is like a bird that doesn’t want to leave the nest, but wants to fly. He wants to go to school, but something in his belly makes him feel he wants to stay home.

Billy’s loves birds. He draws them, plays outside with them, and even talks to them about his feeling about school and his new shoes that are hard to tie.

One day while out in his yard Billy finds a bird that is hurt and being picked on by the other birds. Billy’s mother helps him bring in the bird and take care of it.

While Billy looked after the bird in a special box bed they made, Billy’s mother gets ready for the first day of school.

The night before school Billy dreams in his the injured bird being picked on. His mother has to come and give him a hug and tells him it is okay.

The next morning the little bird is ready to fly back into the outside world and Billy has to go to school.

Billy has a wonderful teacher that tours him around the room. Billy starts to feel better. He feels even better when he finds a book on birds in the classroom library. He reaaly feels better when he finds a friend.

That night Billy has a dream about flying freely with the bird towards his school and the dream isn’t scary.

Billy’s new found confidence and new friend really help him feel better about school.

I love this book. Billy learns that his feeling are real and have merit. He also learns that over time his feeling change and the way he views his world changes too.

What did we do?

Painting a Worry Stone

When I was visiting the Grand Canyon, they had worry stones in the gift shop. I thought they were the greatest thing. The directions that came with the rock suggested that you carry it in your pocket when you were going into a stressful situation. When you started to worry, you were to rub your thumb on the rock.

I thought it would be great for us to make one together and then put it into JDaniel’s backpack for school. He says he will rub it and send the worries to me.