Printables Archives - Page 45 of 46

Math Solver-Geometry Riddles Solved with LEGOS

January 30, 2015 By Deirdre

$Math Solver- Geometric Riddles Solved with LEGOS$

I shared with you early this week a craft activity we did for geometry practice. Today I want to share with you another learning activity that works on the same geometric concept. This activity starts with reading shape riddles and ends with children creating the shape described in the riddle.

Children could easily draw the shape described in the riddle with crayon or markers. My son is really into LEGO so; I had him built each shape using LEGO.

It took a little time to sift through all of his many LEGOS to find the ones we would be using for this project. I shift through them while watching television one night. You may want to have your children do the shifting for the bricks. If you do, you may want to set out examples of what they need to look for or place pictures of what they need to find beside your brick bin. It would be like going on a treasure hunt.

Here are the bricks we used:

Red 2×2 bricks
Red 1×1 bricks
Long narrow bricks with one row or two $Math Solver- Geometric Riddles Solved with LEGOS$

The red bricks will be used for the corners or vertices. My thought was that using the same color for the corners was important. Using the same color for the sides didn’t seem as important. You may decide that it is important to the long sides of a rectangle the same color and short sides of it the same color. It may turn out not to be important to you, but it is important to your child as they work as a math solver.

Once you have bricks that you need, you are ready to put out the geometric shape riddles. When I was putting the riddle cards together, I was torn as to what terms to use for the sides and corners. I read through several primary grades state standards and common core goal sites. Some used the term corners and a lot called them vertices. Some sites said that shapes had side while others said that had edges. I went with the words vertices and sides.

$Math Solver- Geometric Riddles Solved with LEGOS$

If you use the other terms or totally different terms, you may not want to download my set of shape riddles. It would be totally easy to look at the layout of my cards and create cards of your own for your math solver.

$Math Solver- Geometric Riddles Solved with LEGOS$

Here are some other geometric learning activities we have done that your math solver and explorer may enjoy:

Shapes in a Sandwich

Geometric Alien Craft

Shape Sheep

If you do try this activity with your kids, please leave me a comment below telling me about it or share a picture of it on my Facebook page.

LEGO Valentine’s Day Cards – Printable

January 10, 2015 By Deirdre

Last year my son was into Minions so, I made Minion Valentine’s Day cards for him to pass out to his classmates. This year JDaniel is into LEGO. I search high and low to find ideas for a LEGO Valentine’s Day cards. I found one on Pinterest I really liked, but it has just been uploaded as picture. There was not a link to the card’s creator or blog post. I decided to make my own version of the yellow action figure head LEGO Valentine’s Day cards for JDaniel to take to school.

The version I found on Pinterest was a yellow head printed out on white paper. I made a version of that, but it kept printing out gold on my color printer. I decided to create a LEGO Valentines Day Card- Built to Be Friends card. Then I printed it out on goldenrod colored paper. This version looked more like a LEGO figure’s yellow head to me.

The Valentine’s Day message was placed on a second LEGO head with the words upside down. The idea was that the two LEGO heads could be cut out together. They could be wrapped over top of a box of candy hearts or on top of clear plastic bag filled with treats.

Do you have to keep the two LEGO Valentine’s Day card pieces together?

You could cut them apart and glue piece to the back of a box or candy and a piece to the front.
You glue the face to one side of an index card and the back of the head to the back of the card. This could be your card.
You tape the tops and bottoms of the LEGO head together. Then you could slide a bunch of pencils or a candy bar through the open sides.

There are probably dozen of ways to use this card.

Wait! What are you going to do with each of our LEGO Valentine’s Day card?

We are going to attach each of the sides to an index card and tie it the top of clear plastic bag. We haven’t decided what to put in the bag yet. Here are some of the things I am thinking about placing in the bag.

The links below are affiliate links.

- Candy Blox
- Pencils
- Homemade LEGO crayons made with Minifigure Multi Building Bricks Ice Cube Trays & Candy Chocolate Molds
- Erasers from the Dollar Store
- Sweet Tarts ( My son loves them.)
- Necco Candy Buttons cut into LEGO bricks

I hope the LEGO lovers in your life will enjoy passing out these LEGO Valentine’s Day cards.

Here are some more Valentine’s Day cards you will love:

Printable “You are one in a Minion” Cards

Penguin-Themed Valentines

Tangram Heart Valentine’s Day Cards

Christmas Party Ideas- Juice Box Covers And More

December 19, 2014 By Deirdre

I signed up to send in juice boxes for my son’s holiday class party. Rather than just send in the juice boxes as they are I decided to make juice box covers for them. After searching through Pinterest for Christmas party ideas, I decided that most people seem to make Rudolph juice box covers. I decided to try and make Rudolph, a snowman that looks like Olaf, and a Christmas tree. After creating the Christmas Juice Box Covers Juice Box Covers I decided that they could be used in several other ways during the party.

Update: I have updated this set. The pictures are close to the original, but they are not exactly the same.

Christmas Party Ideas With Printables

Juice Box Labels

The Christmas party printables I created were originally designed to go on juice boxes. I made each of the pictures on the printable sheets long and narrow. There are a wide variety of sizes of juice boxes. My thought was that you could print out the pictures at a percentage of the size that would fit the juice boxes you have purchased for your Christmas party. I didn’t want to make them just the right size for the boxes I made. They are super narrow. You may not buy the same brand of juice I did.

Before placing the Christmas labels on a box of juice I placed a narrow band of brown paper from a paper bag around the juice box. I thought it would add another design element to the juice box and cover some of the text. I was able to get about 10 narrow bands from each of the brown paper sacks I cut up. You may decide that you like the Christmas party idea of adding texture and color to juice boxes but want to use something else. I think that ribbon, construction paper, or wrapping paper would be great alternatives.

Gift Tags

A teacher at my school saw a printout of these holiday-themed pictures and thought they would be great gift tags. Many students make a gift to take home to their parents at school. These would be great to use as gift tags for those presents. Many teachers give their student’s a gift at Christmas time. These would make great gift tags for those gifts too.

Concentration game

Another fun Christmas party idea for these printables is to use them in a concentration game. Students can each be given a couple of Rudolphs, a couple of snowmen, and a couple of trees to use to play the game.

Dress Up the Pictures

There are two ways you can dress up the pictures. You can have the students decorate them at a party station as a craft. You can decorate them yourself prior to adding them to juice boxes or using them for one of the other Christmas party ideas. We added foam circles created with a hole punch to add Christmas balls with texture to the trees. We added wiggly eyes to the snowmen. Finally, we added red pom-poms to the Rudolphs. You could put a wide variety of materials and see what each of the children came up with.

I bet you can come up with even more Christmas party ideas that use these fun printables. If you do please let me know by placing a comment below or leaving me a comment on my Facebook page.

Art Projects For Kids- Four Calling Birds Craft and Coloring Page

December 4, 2014 By Deirdre

Counting down to Christmas is a whole lot of fun! We have been working on counting down with memory boxes and blessings. Here is yet another way we have been working with counting and Christmas is to count the 12 Days of Christmas. We are exploring the 12 days of Christmas with several other bloggers. Each of us has selected a couple of the days to create art project for kids or fun theme activities. Today I am sharing activities for four calling birds. (You will find a list of other blogs sharing art projects for kids and activities at the end of this post.)

I confess I had a hard time deciding how to make calling birds. I created a Four Calling Birds smart phone or cell phone coloring page with four birds displayed on the monitor. This really didn’t seem all that Christmassy though. I decided that I had to think of something that was craft related.

After digging around in our crafts closet, I found some materials I thought would make really cute birds. (Four really cute birds actually.) Four really cute birds that aren’t calling to anyone is what I came up with. Well, maybe they could be calling to you to make them. This is one of those art projects for kids that you will really want to make.

How did we create them?

Supplies

Small paper plates (2)
Paper doilies (2)
Wiggly eyes (4)
Yellow construction paper
Scissors
Glue sticks

Steps to Create the Birds

Cut each of the paper plates in half.
Cut each of the doilies in half.
Glue a doily half onto half of the paper plate. The doily wing should be sticking off the flat section of the paper plate to make it look like the bird is flying.
Glue a wiggly eye near the front of your paper plate.
Glue the beak on the back of the paper plate near the top of your plate.

We glued our four calling birds to a piece of blue construction paper when we were done. I think you could put holes through top of the plates and make them ornaments. You could group them together on your Christmas tree. There are a number of ways you can display these art project for kids.

Welcome to day 4 of the 12 Days of Christmas Series, a kid-friendly activity to celebrate each of the 12 days! Be sure to stop by your 7 favorite bloggers for each of the 12 Days of Christmas Series. You will find amazing art projects for kids, cooking activities, learning fun and more.

Enchanted Homeschooling Mom ~ Stir the Wonder ~ JDaniel4’s Mom ~ 3 Dinosaurs ~ P is for Preschooler ~ ABC Creative Learning

Are We There Yet? – Travel Countdown For Kids

November 23, 2014 By Deirdre

If you have been on a car trip with kids, you have probably heard that dreaded question “Are we there yet?” asked. My son tends to ask it multiple times during a trip. Rather than respond by asking the same question “Are we there yet? back to him, I created a travel countdown. It features those dreaded words I said kids ask “Are we there yet?”

I created the “Are We There Yet?” sign to hang on the back of the passenger seat of the side of the car JDaniel sits on. The sign had holes punched into so I could thread ribbon through it. Each of the ribbons was attached to the metal rods that support the chair’s headrest.

Other ways to attach the “Are We There Yet?” sign

metal rings
shower curtain rings
twist ties
yarn
paper clips

We chose to use ribbon because it wasn’t very bulky and could easily be untied at the end of the car trip. We may not want to have it up in the care while we are visiting with relatives. It can easily we retied to the head rest rods when we head home.

“Are We There Yet” Count Down Strips

Our “Are we there yet?” travel countdown has colored post- it notes. We had the Post-It notes on hand so we used them. It was really easy to cut each of the Post-It notes half vertically and place a number on each strip. A whole Post-It note would have taken up too much room. As it worked out we needed each of the half strips, we are going on a long trip for Thanksgiving.

By using Post-It notes we had a way to stick the strips to the “Are We There Yet?” sign. I did some brainstorming and I think clothes pins or paper clips with a number attached to them would work too.

How We Will Use the Sign

After each hour of our trip has gone by, we will have JDaniel take down the largest number on the sign. The strips that have been taken down will be placed in the plastic bag so we can use them on our way home.

We may end up hearing “Is it time to take down a strip?” during our trip, but I think this will be a fun way to countdown the hours until we reach our destination.

You can Are We There Yet- Travel Countdown Sign for your family.

Do you have favorite car trip game or activity? If you do, please me leave a comment below or on my Facebook page.

Fun Math Games With Number Turkeys

November 10, 2014 By Deirdre

$Fun Math Games Number Turkeys$

There are a number of fun math games and activities that you can play using these printable number turkeys I made. Let me walk you through each one of the games I have come up with. You may find that you have dozens of other uses for them. If you do, please leave your ideas in a comment below or on my Facebook page so that others can do them too.

$Fun Math Games with Turkey Numbers$

Ideas for Fun Math Games

Number Order

You can have your children put the the turkey numbers in order. We put them in two rows so they would fit in the picture above. You will probably want to have children put them into one really long row.

$Fun Math Games with Turkey Numbers$

Sorting By Even and Odd

Children can place the even numbered turkey numbers in one row and the odd numbers in another. We did this activity without using the foam turkey feathers that we used for some of the other fun math games. It might be helpful to use the turkey feathers if you are just introducing the concept of even and odd numbers. Children will be better able to visualize that the odd numbers have one feather that doesn’t have partner. They will also be able to see that the even numbers do have a partner.

One to One Correspondence

After placing a few of the turkey number cards out, children can add the correct number of feathers to them. The turkey with the number one would get one feather and the turkey with the number five would get five feathers. You don’t have to have children use foam feathers for this math game. You can have them used buttons, pom- poms or any small objects.

$Fun Math Games with Turkey Numbers$

Creating Number Sentences- Adding

This fun math game can be played two different ways. Children can place the correct number of feathers on each number in the number sentence. Then they can count out the feathers for the two numbers they are adding. Next they can check and make sure that the sum or answer has the same number of feathers.

Another version of this fun math game has children place the correct number of feathers on the two numbers being added. Children can pick up the feather from the two turkey numbers and place them on number that is the sum.

You can create the plus and equal sign with construction paper or draw them on index cards.

Creating Number Sentences- Subtracting

For this fun math game children can place the correct number of feathers on the large number they will be subtracting from. Then they will pick up the feathers and place the correct number of feather on the number they are taking away from the big number. The number of feathers remaining in their hands should equal the difference or the answer.

Fun Math Game Supplies

You really don’t need much to put together any of these games. Here is what we used:

A set of turkey-numbers (They are free to download.)
Feathers cut from foam
Construction paper or index card to make the +, -, and = signs.

More math activities can be found on my Early Learning Math Pinterest board.

Please stop by my Facebook page and share you idea or leave a comment below.

Back to School-Chore Charts for Before and After School

August 13, 2014 By Deirdre

Sometimes it is hard getting back into Back to School Routine. Your family may have some bumpy mornings or times after school. Things that need to get done may get forgotten in the hustle and bustle of daily life. These chore charts for before and after school along with bedtime highlight tasks that when completed will help remove some of the bumps in your routine.

Why These Chores On The Chore Charts:

I tried to place some chores in the bedtime routine that will help the morning routine go so much smoother. You will notice that there are a few items on chore charts that are repeated at bedtime and in the morning. Making sure that children’s backpacks are ready for the school day seems really important so, I mentioned it more than once.

There are probably some chores that you would do in a different order than we do like homework. I like to get it over with as soon as we get home. As the evening goes on we seem to get more tired and grumpy while doing homework. We tried it a few times when we had to do something else right after school. I know as a teacher that kids need to play after school. When we get homework done, we all have more time to play. That is what works for us.

After homework and play, emptying out my son’s backpack so, I can look through notes and papers from school and my son can clean out his lunch box are most important. I truly don’t want fungus growing in his lunchbox.(We didn’t see any last year, but I dread the thought that we could.) You may like to wait until your children go to sleep to sit down and look through papers and notes.

I placed getting clothes out and ready at night. There are some of you who like to do it in the morning. I go to school before my son does and my husband drops him off at school so for us having the clothes out ahead a time has worked. If you like to do it in the morning, that is great!

Why Use Chore Charts?

Last year my mom spent seven weeks in the hospital, my son started full day school, and I went back to work as teacher. We had to set up a routine to get through each day and be ready for the next.

Having a chart that we could quickly refer to really helped us . Having a chart that shared with all the members of my family what we needed to do ensured that we got everything done. My husband could easily do everything I was doing when I had to rush to hospital or be at a school event.

This Year’s Chore Charts

I created the chore charts in this post after a year of trying various charts and routines. These chore charts follow an order that has worked for my family. If you would like a copy of them, you can click on the links below. The chore charts are free so, download and print out as many as you like.

Backpack Checklist Back to School-Chore Charts for Before and After School

Getting back into a Back to School Routine can be tricky and challenging. I hope there charts will help your year start out smoothly.

{Free Printable} Checklist for Kids Backpacks

August 12, 2014 By Deirdre

Yesterday I shared with you tips for selecting kids backpacks. Today I want to share with you a free printable I created to help insure that kids backpacks have everything that they need in them when your children head to school every morning. Two amazing things about this printable copy of the Backpack Checklist are that it can be attached to your kid’s backpacks and that it includes all the major items that need to be in their backpacks.

Wait! You may be thinking I don’t need all of these things in my kids backpacks. They really need to have x,y, and z in their backpacks instead. That maybe true. Rather than create a list that would just work for my son or one that was really long and includes tons of items I tried to keep this list pretty general. I didn’t list the things that will go into his backpack from time to time. There are probably some things like a jacket or extra clothes that may be in my son’s backpack during the year. I did create a space to write in an additional item space for those times or for an item I might have left off.

Using the Checklist for Kids Backpacks

Placing it on your kids backpack

I am simply going to hang the backpack checklist onto my son’s backpack. For right now I am using a metal ring that I threaded through a hole punched into the top of the backpack checklist. Before hanging it on the metal ring I did laminate the checklist. You could easily put the kids backpack checklist in a luggage tag to keep it clean and tear free and then attach the luggage tag to your children’s backpack. We didn’t have one at home so, I went ahead and laminated the checklist. I think it will stay clean and tear free this way too.

To Check or Not to Check

We may actually put check marks in the boxes beside each of the items for awhile at the beginning of school and again later after school breaks. Once we get into the school year, we will probably just run down the list together. If you have an older child or a very independent mature child who would like to run down the checklist on their own that is great.

Using the Checklist After School

The kids backpack checklist can be used when you are unpacking too. You or your kids can quickly empty their backpacks in the order listed on the checklist to make sure they have brought everything back home (except notes and money that you have sent in.).

Here is a printable copy of the backpack checklist. You can click on the backpack checklist link to the left or the one above. The printable contains four backpack checklists. You can use them for your kids backpacks or you can give some to a friend.

This post is part of a Back to School series I am running this summer. Here are some of the other posts in this series:

12 Back to School Clothing Shopping Tips

Back to School Picture No-Nos

Tips for Selecting Kids Backpacks

Update

After sharing this wonderful checklist, I was asked to create a backpack checklist that could be used for going home from school. I recently have created the “Going Home” checklist. Now there are two backpack checklists available that you can laminate back to back. (You can select the one that you feel your child needs most instead of having one on the front and one on the back if you like.) Both the “Going to School” and a “Going Home” checklist are on the same Free Printables Backpack Checklists PDF document to download on the Free Printables Backpack Checklists post.

Cinco De Mayo Taco- Fun Activity for Kids

April 28, 2014 By Deirdre

Cinco de Mayo is a celebrated May the 5th in Mexico and many parts of the United States. When I think of Mexican food I think of tacos so, I created a textured taco learning activity for young learners to explore while celebrating Cinco de Mayo. It uses office and craft supplies. I know you will love how easy it is to make.

What materials did I use?

Small yellow mailing envelopes
Green construction paper
Red, orange, green and black felt
Dark blue or black buttons
Glue
Scissors

How did we put it together?

I drew an arc onto the yellow mailing envelope and JDaniel cut it out. Given that the envelope has two sides and a connected base it made it the perfect taco material. If you don’t have mailing envelopes available, you could cut the arc out of a folded piece of yellow or tan construction paper. The corners of the taco were folded in to allow the tacos to stay open.

Then we cut wiggly strips out of the construction paper, felt, and foam sheets. Some materials were easier to cut them others. The felt was a little tricky and needed to be cut a single layer at a time. We were able cut several layers of the foam sheets and construction paper at a time. The hope was that the wiggly strips would look like shredded taco ingredients for our Cinco de Mayo activity.

Out of the red felt we cut small half circles. Each half circle had two triangles cut of it. The circles were supposed to look like small pieces of tomato.

Finally we cut cloud like shapes out of the green construction paper. The shapes were larger that the strips we had cut out.

I put buttons out for us to use for the textured taco too. (We use buttons a lot for learning activities so, we have bunch of them.)

Wait! I told you what the red felt half circles were supposed to be, but I didn’t tell you what the other textured taco materials represented. Let me do that now:

Tomatoes- red felt semicircles and full circles

Olives- dark blue or black buttons

Lettuce- green construction paper clouds

Cheese- wiggly cut strips orange felt

Hamburger Meat- black felt clouds

Constructing the Taco

This is a picture of the original Cinco De Mayo Game with black felt meat strips.

I had made a spinner that displayed the five taco ingredients. We each took turns spinning the spinner to see what we could add to the taco. If the spinner landed on an ingredient we had already added to the taco, we lost our turn. We kept playing until we had added one of each of the ingredients to our taco.

You can download the Cinco De Mayo- Taco Building Activity Spinner

The idea of this activity was work on cutting skills, interact with various textures, and work on taking turns. I am sure there are a lot of other skills we covered while creating it.

Building Background

You may want to read a book about Cinco De Mayo before starting the activity. Below you will find several wonderful Cinco De Mayo books.

The links below are affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.

Cat in the Hat Math Activity Mats

February 23, 2014 By Deirdre

The Cat in the Hat 3 Dice Mat is fun to take out for Dr. Seuss’s birthday or anytime you are exploring his books. Making math fun and trying a children’s book is something I have always tried to do.

After creating the hat mat with circles on every stripe for a patterning activity, I just couldn’t stop myself from creating a roll-and-cover math mat for young children. That led to creating one for slightly older children too. Finally, I just had to stop creating, but that doesn’t mean you have to. All of the Cat in the Hat math mats are free to download. I bet you will come up with dozens of ways that you can use them.

Building Background

If your children aren’t familiar with Dr. Seuss and his books, you may want to read him one of the books below.

Links below are affiliate links

Green Eggs and Ham

The Foot Book

Horton Hears a Who

Cat in the Hat Dice Roll and Cover Mats

$Learning Activities with Dr Seuss Characters$

This mat asks children to roll two dice and cover the sum of them. There are so many ways that you could cover the sum.

Here are some that I came up with:

Color the circles with crayons, marks, or colored pencils
Place a pom-pom over the sum
Cover the sum with a bean. Maybe a red bean for the red stripes and a white bean for the white stripes
Buttons would be great fun to cover the circles with
Construction paper squares would work
Bingo markers could be used to place dots on the dots

The early learning roll and cover math mat will have children using two dice and the version for older children has them using three dice. Children who need to be able to count on the numbers might benefit from using dice with dots on them. Children ready to work more abstractly could use dice with numbers on them.

Cat in the Hat math activity mats can be used by children rolling and covering numbers on their own or they can do them with a friend. Each can take turns rolling and covering numbers.