stars Archives - JDaniel4s Mom

Star Number Recognition Puzzles

November 17, 2023 By Deirdre

The Star Number Recognition Puzzles have four different layouts. First, some puzzles match objects to numbers in B/W. That same type of puzzle is in color. Second, there is a layout that matches numbers to tens frames. Last there is a set that matches numbers to tally marks.

Getting the Star Number Recognition Puzzles

First, you download the set.

Star-Number-Recognition-Puzzles Download

Second, if you don’t have Acrobat Reader please download it. The set is an Acrobat Reader PDF file.

Third, go to your download file and open the set.

Reusable or One Time Use

The puzzles can be laminated so that they can be reused. If you want to use them like a worksheet, just print them out and give them to your children to use.

Uncovered Puzzles

The uncovered puzzles are easy for children to help you cut and are great for one-time use.

Covered or Laminated Puzzles

Covered puzzles can be used over and over again. It will be great to put in the math center for children to explore.

Making the Puzzles Reusable

If you plan on using the pages over and over again, you may want to laminate them. Below I have suggested products that you may want to use to cover them.

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

Scotch Brand PRO Thermal Laminator, Never Jam…$54.68~~$128.93~~ (11154)

Scotch Thermal Laminating Pouches, 100 Count-P…$15.98~~$24.68~~ (63556)

Scotch Thermal Laminating Pouches, 200- Count-…$27.99~~$42.99~~ (23612)

Hammermill Printer Paper, Great White 100% Recy…$17.00 (4917)AllAds by Amazon

More Math Activities

A set of Thanksgiving themed pattern block mats has just been added to my TPT shop.

Building Cards with a Magic Theme

Woodland Animal Pattern Block Building Mats

Preschool Star and Firefly Activities and Worksheets

November 12, 2023 By Deirdre

Preschool Star and Firefly Activities and Worksheets are fun to explore when exploring light, summer, or items in the sky. There are five sets in this series and each one explores number recognition. One set will be shared each week day the week of November 12th. Please stop by and check each one out. The posts sharing these activities will be linked to their description below.

Preschool Star and Firefly Activities

This firefly-themed set invites children to count and trace fireflies. There is a page that focuses on the numbers one to ten. The set also features pages that focus on each of the numbers from one to ten.

The firefly-themed roll and cover activity will be fun to explore. Each of the jars on the page features a number and a firefly or firefly that matches that number. There is a color and B/W version of each mat. While it was designed as a number recognition activity, it could be used to work on addition facts.

The Roll and Cover Star Themed Game Boards are also available in color and B/W. They feature the numbers one to ten. Just as you can use the firefly mats for additional facts you can use the star mats too.

The Firefly Number Recognition Worksheets set features the numbers from one to ten. Each mat invites children to do several things. First, they will color a number. Second, they will trace a number. Third, they will find a picture that displays that number of objects. Fourth, they will search for the number in a row of numbers. Fifth, children will fill out a tens frame with a drawing representing the number. Last but not least tally marks will represent numbers.

The Star Number Recognition Puzzles have four different layouts. First, some puzzles match objects to numbers in B/W. That same type of puzzle is in color. Second, there is a layout that matches numbers to tens frames. Last, there is a set that matches numbers to tally marks.

More Number Explore Activities

Counting Apples Mini Book

Valentine’s Day Counting

Counting Bees Algorithm Game Boards

Star-Themed Alphabet Tracing Mats

November 8, 2023 By Deirdre

Alphabet tracing mats are fun to explore. This set of tracing mats has a star-theme. There are three versions of each letters mat. First, there are uppercase letter mats. Next, there are mats that feature lowercase letters. The final set features both uppercase and lowercase letters.

The star outline can be traced on the dotted line. Each letter can be trace on it’s perimeter or outline. It can aslo be draw or written inside the outline. You can decide what you want your children to do with each letter.

Deciding How to Use the Alphabet Tracing Mats

Each mat can be used like a worksheet. Your children can use a writing tool (a pencil, pen, marker, or crayon) to trace the star and the letter .
Each mat can be laminated or placed in a plastic sleeve so it an be used again. If you plan to use it again usin a washable crayon or marker would probably be best.

Getting the Alphabet Tracing Mats

First, you will need to download the set.

Star Themed Alphabet Tracing Mats Download

Second, if you don’t have Acrobat Reader you will need to download it. The set is an Acrobat Reader PDF.

Third, you must go to your download file and open the page. You won’t have to hunt for it in your download file if you open it right away.

Making the Tracing Mats Reusable

If you plan on using the mats over and over again, you may want to laminate them. Below I have suggested products that you may want to use to cover them.

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

Scotch Brand PRO Thermal Laminator, Never Jam…$54.68~~$128.93~~ (11154)

Scotch Thermal Laminating Pouches, 100 Count-P…$15.98~~$24.68~~ (63556)

Scotch Thermal Laminating Pouches, 200- Count-…$27.99~~$42.99~~ (23612)

Hammermill Printer Paper, Great White 100% Recy…$17.00 (4917)AllAds by Amazon

Exploring the Alphabet Letter Mats

There are a number for ways to explore the mats. The mats can be placed in a writing center. The mats can be explored in a small group. While the mats don’t have place for your children’s name, they would write their names on them and use them for morning work.

More Letter Activities

Building Letters with Crayons

Learning Letters with Plastic Eggs

Fireworks Display in a Sensory Bag Activity

June 26, 2019 By Deirdre

Sensory bags are a great way for children to work on their fine motor skills. This cool sensory bag features a fireworks display theme. Your children will have fun moving the red, clear and blue stars along the tracing lines on the bag. Once they have moved one star along a line and onto a star, they can work on adding stars to the other lines. The hair gel in the bag makes it easy to move the stars.

Building an Understanding of What Fireworks Displays Are

I like to share a book that relates to an activity before we start it. Below you will find some wonderful books that have 4th of July or fireworks theme.
Links below are affiliate links.

Putting the Sensory Bags Together

These sensory bags are so easy to make. You really only need seven supplies to put them together.

Supplies

Print Out of Fireworks Outline for the Sensory Bag Activity Bag Page
Clear Hair Gel
Permanent Marker
QuartSize Zipper Bags
Star-Shaped Patriotic Pony Beads

Directions

You will need to download a copy of the Fireworks Outline for the Sensory Bag Activity page. Then you will trace the robot onto the bag with a permanent marker.

Next, you will fill the bag with the contents of a bottle of hair gel. The hair gel should be about 1/4 of an inch thick in the bag.

Finally, you will place the star beads into the bag. (It is okay to keep them at the top to start with.) Then seal the bag.

Exploring the Sensory Bags

There are several ways your children can explore the bag. Here are a few we thought of:

Drag the stars along the lines to get to the stars at the ends of the lines.
Drag the plastic stars from the stars down the lines.
Try dragging or pushing the stars with a finger on your non-dominate hand.

If you like this 4th of July Activity, here are some more you will love:

Exploring Patriotic Words in Binary Code

Magnetic Games for Kids- Fireworks in a Jar

Binary Code Bracelet That is Out of This World

February 17, 2018 By Deirdre

Binary code is a number system made up of zeros and ones. Every letter, number, and symbol on your computer keyboard is represented by eight digits or a byte. Each of those digits is either zero or a one. Your children will have fun exploring binary code by creating a bead bracelet. They will string the beads in three bytes or groups of eight to form the word star.

I have created a planning and reflection printable that will walk your children through this activity. Below you will also see a Get Coding! book displayed that would be great to share with your children. It further explains coding. I hope your children think the printable and the bracelet are out of this world!

Binary Code Bracelet

Gathering the Supplies

The first thing you will need to do is print out the Binary Code Bracelet That is Out of This World STEM Activity Printable. You will need one for each of your children. (Here is another binary code planning printable.)

The links below are affiliate links.

The next thing you will need to do is gather the craft supplies. You will need each of the following items.

Star Pony Beads
Blue Pony Beads
Gold Metallic Tinsel Pipe Cleaners

Creating the Binary Code Bracelet

Your children will need to place all the beads they will need to build the word star on top of the shapes beside the code for each letter. Children can work on one letter at a time or work on the whole word star.

Next, children will need to color in the shapes beside the code for each letter of the word star. By placing the colors in the shapes it will give your children a visual reminder of what beads they placed in each space.

Then they will need to thread the beads in order onto a gold pipe cleaner to spell out the word star. You can place a knot at one end of the pipe cleaner if you like to keep the beads from falling off. When all the beads are in place, you can twist the two end of the pipe cleaner together.

Finally, children will go back to their activity printable. It is time to gather data and reflect on the activity. Children will gather data by counting up how many of each type of bead they used to create each letter. After counting up the beads, they will record that number on the printable. Then they will need to reflect on any challenges they had. If they didn’t have any challenges, they can write about what they learned during the activity.

This activity is part of a series of 28 Days of STEAM and STEM activities. I am partnering with Left Brain Craft Brain and 29 other blogs to share with you almost 60 different activities. It is going to be a fun month. Please stop by my Facebook page. I will be featuring many of the STEM and STEAM activities there during the month.

Constellations for Kids – Printable Constellation Mats

May 8, 2017 By Deirdre

Even young children can explore constellations. This simple set of constellations for kids printable constellation maps will introduce them to some of the well-known ones. Children can use small stars to help recreate the constellations on each mat. Let me walk you through several ways children can use them.

Constellation for Kids Mat Activities

Getting Ready for the Activity

Before you can start the constellation for kids activities, you will need to print the Constellations for Kids Activity Mats There are ten constellations in this set. You can print all of them at once or print out a few at a time.

Next, you will need to decide what objects you want your children to use to recreate each of the constellations for kids. We used wooden stars that were painted yellow and gold.

Here are some other objects you could use:

Star Shaped Pony Beads
Pom Poms
Star Shaped Buttons
Wooden Stars
Play dough and star-shaped cookie cutters

Exploring the Constellations

There are a number of ways to explore these constellations. Let me share with your some of the ways that I came up with to use them.

A Star on a Star

You can put out just the number of stars your children will need to complete a constellation. Your children can simply place a wooden start on top of each of the stars displayed on the mat.

Count the Stars on the Mat

Your children can count the number of stars on their constellations for kids’ mat. Then they can take that number of stars out of a pile on the table or a bowl. Next, they will place the stars on top of the stars on the mat.

All Sizes of Stars

Children can place a variety of different kinds of stars on their constellation mat. You can encourage them to use stars of different colors and shapes.

The Virtual Book Club is exploring the book How to Catch a Star this week. Here are some wonderful star activities from this blog and others.

Solar System Sensory Bottle

Paper space shuttle

Edible Mars soil space experiment

Printable constellation mats for kids

Create a Star Stamps

Space STEM- Shooting Star Bottle

Constellation Activity for Kids- Cookies in the Universe

January 27, 2017 By Deirdre

During the month of January, I have bee working group created by Little Bins for Little Hands to share the STEM concepts from A- Z. Earlier this month I shared the steps in the STEM design process. Just last week I shared different types of quantitative and qualitative observations. This is the final post I will be sharing in the series. It focuses on delicious a constellation activity.

The universe is a vast area filled with challenging scientific concepts for children to learn. You will find that giving your children STEM hands-on activities will make understanding some of these concepts easier.

Let me walk you through the constellation activity we did recently at my house.

Constellation Activity

While I would love to say that I came up with this constellation activity on my own, I can’t. I found it on AstroSociety website. They called it Constellation Detective. You will find that we created the cookie mix differently than they did. We also focused on a few different constellations.

Deciding on the Constellations

Before you start the creation process, you will need to decide which constellations you are going to make on the cookie. We found an illustration of the winter constellations in the Northern Hemisphere. (The illustration we found was copyrighted and because of that I am not sharing it here.)

Hint:

After printing it out, we decided to create as many as we could on the cookie. That was probably a mistake. If you want to be able to identify the constellations easily after the cookie is baked, you will want to pick just a few. We ended up with a crowded group of constellations on our cookie.

Getting the Cookie Ready

You will need to spray some cookie spray on the bottom of a pan. Instead of making sugar cookie dough from scratch we used a pre-made cookie dough and pressed it into a pan. You can decide if you want to make the dough or buy it pre-made.

Creating the Constellations

The illustration we used had simplified versions of constellations. You may decide that you want to create more accurate constellation creations. We found that it made it easier to replicate the simplified versions.

The narrow end of a chopstick is a great tool for creating constellation dents in the cookie. You will not want to make them very deep or the chocolate chips will disappear into the cookie while it is baking. (We had that happen.)

After creating the spots or dents for each constellation, you will place a chocolate chip into each spot. We placed our chips in top down.

When you have finished creating, you will bake the cookie as directed on the package or according to your recipe.

If you like this STEM activity, here are some more activities you will like:

Act of Kindness Ripple Effect Experiment

STEM Engineering Design Challenge- Building a Basketball Hoop and Dunking Lever

Build a Dino STEM Challenge

Space Math- Moon and Star Muffin Tin Number Game

October 27, 2016 By Deirdre

$Space Math- Moon and Star Muffin Tin Number Game - Exploring Numbers with these Muffin Tin Priintables will be a lot of fun!$

Muffin tin math activities are so much fun! I thought I would make a space math themed muffin tin math activity to go along with the Time for Bed theme the Virtual Book Club is exploring this week.

If you decide your children would like to do more muffin tin math activities, I have created apple, leaf, and apple basket sets you will want to check out too.

Space Math Activities

Supplies

Star and Moon Counting Cups Printable
Star Shape Objects (Bead, Buttons, or Stickers)
Muffin Tin
Dice

$Space Math- Moon and Star Muffin Tin Number Game - Exploring Numbers with these Muffin Tin printables will be out of this world.$

Space Math Activity Ideas

Once you have printed out your space math star and moon number set, you will need to cut out the circles. Then you will place each one of them into one of the muffin tin sections. Now you are ready to play.

Count and Add

You can have your children place the correct number of stars in each numbered section. You will probably want them to start with the number one and count up to ten.

Roll and Count

You can have your children roll a die or dice. They will then have to place the correct number of star shaped items into the section of the tin that has that number circle in it.

Call Out a Number

Two people play this game. One will call out a number and then the other will locate that number. Once they find that number, they will place the correct number of object into that section of the tin.

The players can take turns calling out numbers and place in objects. One person could call out one number at a time until on the sections are filled. Then they can have the other person call out the numbers to them.

If you like these space math games, you might like one of the math games below:

Solar System Math Facts

Graphing Ocean Animals

$Space Math- Moon and Star Muffin Tin Number Game$

Fun Game for Kids – Counting Down Stars

December 28, 2014 By Deirdre

I know I shared a counting down activity with a New Year’s Eve theme just last week. This fun game for kids that I am calling Counting Down Stars was such fun I thought I would share it with you too. It could be played on New Year’s Eve, as part of a space unit or anytime you want to work on counting with them.

What You Need To Create This Fun Game For Kids

Blue cake size paper plates
Yellow construction paper
Magic Marker (Your choice of color)
Bean Bag

How to Put the Game Together

I have access to an Ellison press so, I was able to cut the stars out of the center on the blue plates. Then I taped yellow construction paper to the back on the plates. With the construction paper in place, I wrote the numbers one to ten on the the stars.

If you don’t have access to one (I probably wouldn’t if I didn’t teach at an elementary school.), you can create a cardboard star out of an old cereal box. You can use it as a template to trace stars onto the paper plates or the construction paper.( I did try cutting a stars out of the paper plates. It was a little challenging, but not bad.) If you want your children to help with the cutting it would be easier to have them cut the stars out of construction paper. No matter what way you choose to have the stars cut out you children could definitely write the numbers on them.

Ways to Play This Fun Game for Kids

There are a number of ways you can play Counting Down Stars. I will share with you the way we played it first and then a few other ways that you can play it. If after reading through these game ideas, you come up with a version of your own please leave me a comment below or share it on my Facebook page.

Our Version of Counting Down Stars

At my house we try to have the bean bag land on each plate in numerical order counting down. It was tricky. There is a lot of focus and eye/ hand coordination needed to try to get in on the right plate each time. It took several attempts to get it on each number.

Much Easier Version of Counting Down Stars

Have children try to toss the bean bag on a plate. Any plate will do for this fun game for kids. Then then have to countdown to zero from that number. If the bean bag lands on the ten there is a lot more counting to do then when it lands on the number one.

Tell You How Many Times to Count

Children have to countdown from ten the number of times that indicated on the plate they land on. You will probably notice them aiming for the lower numbers for this version of the game.

Changing Position

This fun game for kids doesn’t use a bean bag. Children will need to organize the plates in number order. Since this game is focusing on counting down, they would need to place the plate in order from ten to one.

Here are some other New Year’s Eve themed activities you can do:

New Year’s Activities

How to Make Noise Maker Shakers

New Year’s Eve Sensory Bin

New Year’s Drink for Kids- Firecracker Sparkler

New Year’s Eve Customs Sheet

4th of July Healthy Lunch Ideas in a Bento

June 29, 2013 By Deirdre

Summer time lunches at my house are filled with fresh fruits, fresh veggies and fun! Thankfully my son loves all of those things in his lunch! Thankfully he is open to my healthy lunch ideas! I made his this 4th of July bento meal and he couldn’t wait until lunch to eat it.That’s right he ate his 4th of July bento way before lunch. I created this lunch while I was making dinner last night. JDaniel came in and wanted to know what as making and I showed him this lunch. Needless to say he wanted it for dinner . I convinced him to wait by pointing out that I was serving one of his favorite meals.

The next morning I slipped upstairs to work online just as JDaniel was heading downstairs for breakfast. He must have immediately pulled this bento lunch out of the fridge and asked my husband if he could have it. My husband must have told him that he needed to ask me, because JDaniel called up the stairs to inform me that the sprinkles were melting and needed to be fixed.

I called back down that whatever sprinkles he was looking at could be taken care off. It really didn’t click with me what he was talking about at the time. When I saved what I was working on and headed downstairs, the bento box was sitting in the sink. The sprinkles he had asked about were in the cherry berry applesauce that had been a part of the 4th of July healthy ideas bento.

I had totally missed to opportunity to take a picture of him eating the lunch during breakfast. I was blessed to find that he had eaten every part of the lunch. My husband commented that he seemed thrilled with each food.

Maybe I need to start making him breakfast bento. He really seems to like them.

What was in his 4th of July Healthy Lunch Ideas Bento?

There was a whole grain bread star with a light mayonnaise star painted on it. A medium sized cookie cutter was used to cut out the bread. Creating the star on the bread was so easy. I placed a small star cookie cutter on the bread and spooned mayonnaise into it. Then I smoothed the mayonnaise around in the star. I kept the small star in place and put small pieces of grape tomatoes into the cookie cutter. The small star was then cleaned off and used to hold the blueberries in one of the lower sections of the bento box. It is amazing how cool a filled cookie cutter looks in a lunch!Cherry berry applesauce was placed in the final section and star sprinkles were added. Sprinkles like cookie cutters can really add to a lunch’s cool factor.

I hope you have wonderful 4th of July lunch filled with healthy lunch ideas!