Play it Smart and Have a Ball

Today for Play It Smart, I kind of have a mix and match of ideas, but let's start with this sight words ball:

I just took a $1.50 ball from Walmart, wrote sight words all over it...

And let my boys toss it back and forth. When they caught it, they had to say the first sight word they saw (or the first one they recognized in the case of my four year old who is still learning them).

This next one is also geared toward the kindergarten age range, but is fun for any age.

Simply toss a ball and see how many rhymes you can come up with. Of course, this yielded all sorts of nonsense words and laughter, but it there was good rhyming happening too.

That is... when a little ball thief wasn't trying to take advantage of missed catches. :)

*Note: We did these activities last weekend. I have since played the ball games again with Reid and more learning definitely happened when I played with him. ;) Probably because he took it more seriously with me.

Eventually, we ditched the balls and played a round of Red Light, Green Light. Instead of red and green we used odd numbers for stop and even numbers for go. It worked great. They picked up the change in rules without missing a beat. It also got violently competitive though, so maybe this isn't one for siblings? ha.

I think it would be great to do nouns and adjectives this way for older kids. Oh, or vowels and verbs!

We are lucky enough to have a community pool to go to this summer (that opens next week - too excited over here!). So I bought some dive toys to use. The rings are from Walmart and the squids are from The Dollar Tree.

 I am sure there are more clever things you could come up with, but I simply encased a worksheet in a plastic, zip top bag (you may need to trim it down to make it fit) and assigned the answers to the dive toys.

You can use masking tape or washi tape and a permanent marker. That makes for a lot of waste though.

So, I tried using a dry erase marker. If your child can avoid touching the writing, it works really great! Even after taking a dunk in water, as long as the numbers weren't touched, they remained.

You can achieve this same effect with the dive rings by looping some packing tape around a ring. Write the answers on the packing tape in dry erase marker and then erase it as needed.

Or loop the washi tape around the rings. Most preschool worksheets have the same answers over and over again, so you won't have to change out the tape that often.

Then, have them dive for all the toys and then match the answers to the plastic protected work sheet problems. Easy! :)

Oh and I didn't try it yet, but later found this dry erase crayon. I bet it would be a little more touch resistant and definitely water resistant.

That's all for today. Come back tomorrow for a great guest and super fun creative writing exercise (I can't wait!).

And as always. Please comment and/or leave links if you have some great fun learning games to share!

Play it Smart with A Lemon Squeezy Home

I am super excited to have Christie from A Lemon Squeezy Home with us today!

Christie is a mom of three beautiful children and has another little girl on the way in just a matter of weeks!

Although she mostly sews on her blog (check out this bike basket tutorial or this diy stuffed animal net), she also shares some great stuff that she does with her kids.

My favorite thing that she does is science camp. She and the awesome Sabra (who will be my guest on Thursday - yay!) take their kids away for a week filled with science experiments, learning moments and camping fun every summer. Talk about great moms. See HERE, and HERE for all their science camp adventures. Be sure to scroll down, because there is a series of posts for each of those links.

She also hosted a cousins sewing camp (I mean come on - so cool), see HERE for that. And a Mad Scientist Gift idea. What boy wouldn't love THIS.

She makes cool things for and with her kids.
Crayon Art she pinned. Homemade butter. A bunk bed fort. A week of fall kid crafts.

And the fun parties she throws? She's done a Ninjago party, a butterfly party, Star Wars party...just to name a few. They are all AMAZING and totally geared toward kids and what they'll like. Go HERE and scroll down to see them all.

She is a great mom, full of wisdom and always an inspiration to me.

Today, she is talking about the states of matter with this really fun science experiment.

I can't wait to do this with my boys!

Go HERE to see the experiment.

Play it Smart: With Chalk! Six Simple Ideas

I'm kicking off my Play it Smart series with chalk!

So, let's take it to the sidewalk.

In the summer we seem to spend inordinate amounts of time playing outside on the sidewalk with bubbles, bikes, and of course sidewalk chalk.

Of course, we aren't going to fill all of our time with "learning" activities, but my goal this summer is to read lots and lots and do at least one daily learning activity with each kid in addition to all our trips to the pool, summer movies and water balloon fights. Not too stressful and very doable I think? Especially when I can make it fun. :) ...Which means we will actually do it.

Reid is almost five and has been picking up a few sight words as we read. So, I thought this fly swatter sight words game would be perfect for him. It helps with his sight word recognition and is a lot of fun.

Simply write out a few sight works in chalk, call out a sight word, and let them smack the words as hard as they want!

Our fly swatters came in a two pack from the Dollar Tree. Simple, easy and way more fun than a worksheet. :) "Play" with your child along to help amp up the pressure and fun!

This can easily be adapted to letter recognition, letter sounds (what makes the "ta" sound, etc.), or use numbers instead!

Or...bust out the water guns!

You can have them soak it until it's gone (which is actually harder than it sounds) to add another element of fun.

Speaking of squirting water. Why not bring out your spray bottles and spell...

...with water? You can you use your squirt guns but we found that it didn't work as well.

If you touch the spray bottle nozzle to the ground and squirt while your write, it works best. Do spelling practice, math problems...the sky's the limit!

Since the water dries quickly, your child might have to race the sun depending on how hot it is where you are!...which = even more fun.

For my four year old, I had him trace letters. I drew it with chalk first and then let him copy with the water bottle.

You can talk about all the things that start with that letter and the sounds it makes while he works as well.

Another fun and easy thing you can do is make a sun dial. Write your day's schedule and the clock out in chalk. Add a can of pebbles with a stick in it in the middle, we used our paper towel roll holder, and you've got your organizer for the day.

Your kids will love checking the "clock" to see what comes next.

Next, how about a math race to the finish?

Take those timed math problem tests, and write the problems out on a looong sidewalk. See how fast he can solve them as he bikes or scooters along. Have him do them again and again to improve his time.

I used  math problems for my second grader. For my four year old, I wrote numbers and shapes down for number and shape recognition and very basic equations. You can easily personalize any of these activities to your child's age and abilities, or use sight words, colors, letters, etc.

For the last chalk activity, I wrote out numbers and and letters and we played sidewalk Twister.

I tailored each question (off the top of my head) to each child. For my oldest, I asked him a complicated math problem and asked him to put his right/left, hand/leg on the right answer. For my four year old I made it simpler with number recognition and letter sounds.

This was a great game for tailoring the difficulty level to each child while still making it possible for them to play at the same time.

I admit that this was the least liked game though, probably because it started to rain (it's still technically Spring here). My youngest also didn't like twisting his body into uncomfortable positions. :) We'll have to give it another go when it's warmer. ;)

That's it for today! Come back tomorrow for some fun science!

And if you have fun learning ideas for summer, please comment or leave links in this post. I might include your ideas in my round up. :) Thanks!

All-Occasion Chalkboard Banner

I admit it. I like to get the most bang for my buck.

And that's what you get with today's project. 

It's an...

Made from chalk cloth vinyl by Moda, it is erasable, and appropriate for almost any celebration. 

An un-birthday...check.

Because you're beautiful...check (I didn't intend for this font to make us see double...my apologies).

Because it's Tuesday...why of course. 

I know I'm not posting this on a Tuesday, but it just seems to be the cutest, most ordinary of days. :) And a day like that, deserves a little hoot and holler!

(* Disclaimer. I know this is not a novel idea. There are many version out this is just my version. :))

There is also space for Happy Birthday, Merry Christmas, Happy Halloween and Happy New Year to name a few.

Want to make one?

You'll need:

Chalk cloth (Chalkboard Vinyl) - 1/4 yard is plenty (I used a 1/3 yard cut, split in half)

chalk

black thread

high quality felt (not wool) - 1/4 yard

3 yards ribbon, bias tape, trim (whatever you want to string your banner with)

First things first...You need to cure your chalk cloth. Don't skip this step. It will keep your chalk cloth looking nice. If you write on it without curing it, any drawings will be permanent or will leave an etched look.

You can try rubbing the side of your chalk all over, but if your chalk is new or has snags, it will leave etch marks. I found that it was faster and easier to load up a piece of scrap fabric with chalk dust and rub it in that way.

 Now, add felt to the back of your chalk cloth. I like to glue it to the felt first so it doesn't shift while sewing. A line of glue to the perimeter of the chalk cloth should be plenty.

 If you want to use the pennant shape I used, I have a free pattern HERE.

You will need at least 14 pennant shapes.

Quilt the felt and chalk cloth together. You need to sew a line on either side of the drawn lines so that you can cut each pennant out later. Roll the fabric to help it fit through the arm of the sewing machine so you can get the whole area quilted.

Now if you're worried about the vinyl sticking to your presser foot and being difficult to sew, don't fret! The felt on the bottom and the cured chalk dusted vinyl on top will help it glide almost effortlessly through your machine.

TIP: To turn the fabric, crank your needle in the down position, lift the presser foot and spin your fabric as needed. Replace the presser foot and resume sewing.

This can take some time, but it's worth it. You're making something intended to last after all.
Now cut out each pennant by cutting carefully in between the lines you sewed (and through some sewn lines at the tops to get the pennants separated).

Now it's time to add your ribbon/trim/bias tape. I used some gold single fold bias tape and hot glued it on. You can sew it if you like. I found that gluing it allowed me to keep some of my pennants (which I didn't sew the top of) open like pockets. 

Perfect for adding little flowers to...

...or maybe a tiny stuffed animal perched inside?

Too fun.

**Just be sure to add five pennants to the top banner and nine pennants to the bottom.**

Also, keep in mind that this step, even with hot gluing, is not quick. Take your time to get the pennants lined up just right and even with the top of the bias tape edge. I would say I took about 15 minutes to glue the bias tape to the pennants.

A couple tips for using and re-using (cool right?) your chalkboard banner:

1. When you erase it, use a chalkboard eraser or scrap piece of cloth/fabric. You may have to add a little persistence and elbow grease to your rub to get it completely erased.

*Do not wash with water. If you want to clean it with water, re-cure it after it is completely dry.

2. Try to use a blunt tipped piece of chalk. It helps to use the end of the chalk that you rubbed into your cloth for curing. Using a sharp piece of chalk could permanently etch the cloth, even if it's cured.

And there you have it. A pretty banner for any celebration, big or small.

Or even just for a pretty spot in your house...

...because it is. (a good day)  :)