Katherine Marie

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Go, Dog. Go!

Sight word fun… drive and match word car to doghouse! Car word idea via Pinterest!

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Eat like a DOG!

The cardboard boxes behind Frankie are the doghouses they used to sit in for movie night.  101 Dalmatians was our dog flick pick.

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Clifford’s Birthday Party Book Kit!

Activities:  1.  Open Clifford’s birthday gift  2. Find bones-words in the story   3.  Count and/or sort Clifford’s candles   4.  Make a paper Clifford  5.  Eat dog bones  6.  Find joke inside party blower  7.  Open Doggie Bag (I can’t remember what I put inside that one?!)  8.  Use birthday party tickets for a special turn to hold the book or read a page

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Harry the Dirty Dog Sensory Play!  We used spices (apple pie spice, cinnamon, cumin…) to make Harry SMELLY  and dirty.

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The aftermath.

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They were completely entertained my this one.

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Dog-gone fun for everyone!

xoxoxoxoxo!!!!

 

 Roll-A-Rainbow Snack

Best combo 3 + 6!  Worst combo 1 + 6!

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Colored Sand Rainbow Play

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Paint a Popcorn Rainbow

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Adding a drop of food coloring to light Karo syrup makes shiny, edible paint.   You can also experiment with  plain yogurt, vanilla pudding and sweetened condensed milk as an edible paint base.

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Rainbow Subtraction Sort

This activity can work for any basic math fact including number recognition, addition and multiplication.

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Rainbows from the archive!

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xoxoxoxox!!!

We woke up this morning to the most beautiful blanket of snow, freezing temps and best of all…

a day off school!!

You know what that means.

A SNOW-DAY-PARTAY!!

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Snowman Breakfast.

Get it– the toast shovel?!

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Snowball (Marshmallow) Painting

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 Afternoon Snack & Craft— a Mini Snowball Buffet!  Cups h/t Pinterest

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Kids can get pretty creative with marshmallows and play-dough… trust me!  :)

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Squishy Snowman h/t Pinterest idea via Mollie’s Mom!

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Beware this one can get messy!

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We ended the day with a SNOWBALL FIGHT!

 To play “Super Speedy Snowball Spelling” –  1.  Divide into two teams  2.  Team A makes up a word and hides each letter inside a snowball   3.  Team A throws all the snowballs to Team B  4.  For time, Team B opens up each snowball to find letters and attempts to guess the mystery word   5. Speediest team win the round

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I’m not-so-secretly hoping for another snow day tomorrow.  I might just like snow days as much as my kids…  Okay maybe even more!

Hope you get a SNOW-DAY soon!

xoxoxoxo!!!!!

One. Two. Three.  A Grinch for me!

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1.  ”To Make a Grinch Grin” idea via Kinder-Wife’s Blog   4.  Stuff-a-Grinch Ornaments h/t Pinterest!  5. Grab-and-Go Grinch Activities

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Blaise loved using a wooden soup spoon to mix and identify letters.  Free printables via Babbling Amy’s Blog!

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Open Grinch’s door (diaper wipe lid) to find the man-in-green.

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Grinchy pop up puppets and GRINCH interview sheet.

We haven’t done the interview yet, but I hope to get Mason on video interviewing Emerson dressed as the Grinch!  Maybe someday I will learn to share video on my blog.  :)

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We had a fog delay the other day.  It was the perfect excuse to work on some fun Grinch school stuff.  I love it when the kiddos go in late because it gives us time to play school!  :)

Grinch Adjectives idea via The First Grade Parade!

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Mixed Media Grinches!

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Grinch Pills (Tic Tacs!) h/t Pinterest via Craft Fabulous!  Grinch Candy Canes via Grinch Day at The First Grade Parade!

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His favorite thing to do in costume was to creep around the house and pretend like he was eating tree ornaments.

xoxoxoxoxo!!!!

I couldn’t wait a second longer to bring out the Frankie box!  When we first did a “Frankie theme” in 2010 our little Frankie wasn’t even on our radar.  Now we have a real-life Frankie to help us get in the mood for FALL!  Today I added some new surprises to our box and I checked out a couple of books at the library.  I like to introduce “monsters” early in season…  before all the ultra-scary Halloween decorations come out in the stores.  (Any excuse to start FALL fun is enough for me!)   Crafts and books really seem to reinforce that monsters and all the Halloween characters just PRETEND and just for FUN!

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Be afraid.  Be very afraid.  This monster is on the crawl.

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New & Old Frankie Fun

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Paint Chip Frankie (2010)

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Before bed tonight we did a Franken-wrap.  I should have caught these guys on video, it was so funny.  I think this is their favorite fall game!

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Mason was gone for this and when he returned and spotted these pictures on the computer he immediately asked if we could do it again tomorrow!

“I can’t believe I missed that!!!!”  Who knew a roll of streamers could be so much fun?!

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Frankie’s Snack Lab (2010)

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My favorite Frankensteins EVER!

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Happy almost FALL!!!

xoxoxoxoxo!!

 

Brainstorming Idea Board!

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Crazy Cow Kit idea via Social Moms.

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Taste Test!

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The winner of this “taste test” was the french vanilla cinnamon concoction.  I originally wanted to do a blind test to compare whole-soy-organic-goat but I never seemed to have everything on hand at one time.  Milk and honey was the least favorite.  They loved this activity!

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Paper Plate Cows via Busy Bee Crafts 

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1.  Yes, these are cows!   2.  Cow Painting via dairy farmer Blaise   3.  Storty telling paper elements (for our magnetic board) from The Cow that Laid an Egg by Andy Cutbill 4.  Cow Chip Cookies AKA Chips Ahoy

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Cow Counting Tin  (Kids cut magnetic cow spots to store inside the Altiod tin.  They use the cow number cards and spots for math fun and number recognition.)

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I love Emerson’s yellow hay bales and long skinny cow legs (above right)!

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A Dairy Land Adventure!  This place is incredible.  They have a birthing barn (we just missed a birth but swooned over a calf who was less than two hours old), milking machine (like a cow merry-go-round), bus tour, string cheese maze and all sorts of other fun learning stuff.

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This is how I typically set up our crafts.  I make a sample tray and a ready-to-craft tray with all the necessary supplies.  This is pretty different compared to free art time where I just toss everything on a table and let them go crazy.

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I’ll leave you with three fun facts to wow your cow-loving friends (via Upmqua Dairy):

1.  Cows have an acute sense of smell.  They can smell something up to 6 miles away!

2.  There are approximately 340-350 squirts in a gallon of milk.

3.  It takes an average of 50 licks to polish off a single-scoop ice cream cone.

 Ice cream Lick-a-Thon anyone?

xoxoxox!

 

From the archives…

Seven days of picnicking!

Each day they got to “pick” a different picnic activity!

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[Puppet Picnic]

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 [PB&Js Picnic]

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[Pretend Picnic]

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[Painting Picnic]

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[Pizza Picnic]

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[Picnic Party]

I packed a picnic basket with surprises— books, games and treats.  That makes for a party in their book!

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[Pancake Picnic]

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I can’t believe that school starts in less than a month.  Just enough time to squeeze in some picnics this year!

xoxoxoxox!

This is the draft notification I left in Mason’s room the night before boot camp.  He showed up, dressed in a suit and tie, at 0700 sharp the next morning.  I didn’t think he would take the 7am thing seriously!!  Even though Frankie doesn’t typically fall asleep until 1 or 2AM, there was no way I could turn down his enthusiasm.  Next year boot camp starts at 0900!  :)

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Camouflage Training was a big hit.  I even let them camo me up (here on IG)!  That stuff is sure sticky on a 107 degree day!

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[Paint Patrol Soldiers]

Paint-chip craft idea via my wonderfully creative and mega talented friend at Love & Lollipops!  Her paint chip robots are too adorable for words!

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I have some funny grenade shots I’m hoping to share with you later!

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1.  Our basement was transformed into Fort Smiley for a week!   (okay- more than 7 days if you count the fact that I haven’t cleaned up yet!)  2.  The streamers in the background were for jungle training.  The recruits had to navigate missions while blindfolded.  3.  Ready-Aim-Squirt to erase the chalk board  4.  Boot Camp Journal  5.  Search & Find  6.  Private Frankie  7. The Range  8.  Soldier craft idea via Top Teacher h/t Pinterest.

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[Soldier Math]

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[Newest Recruit]

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[Army Snack Mat]

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[Tissue Paper BDUs]

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Time for PT!!

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Have you ever wondered what’s in a MRE (Meal, Ready-to-Eat)?  We sampled a breakfast and main course MRE.  The kiddos, of course, thought the food was appalling, but they loved the “oven!”  If your kids have never tried one of these it is a MUST DO!

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[Army Search & Find Vocab]

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Over and Out!!

xoxoxoxoxxo!