Foam Shapes and Numbers!

Foam shapes are such a fabulous tool to get children to count, learn shapes/colors and to build their imagination.

My main objective for the kids while doing this activity was to help them to count but it brought out many other aspects of learning and that made me very glad.

I simply gave children some foam shapes and asked them to create something out of it. They used their creativity and made many designs.

I encouraged them to copy their designs on paper because I wanted to record it but you can eliminate this step if you like.

After they finished making their designs (give them plenty of time to complete), I asked them to count the shapes used in making the designs. Some of them even recorded the number.

A transformer!

A bow!

A BMW!

A lion!

If you note, children even attempted to write what they had made. So we were able to incorporate literacy too!

It is a simple activity with no preparation but brings out beautiful results. Do try it out with your class.

Big Pumpkin Story Sequencing Cards

I love the story- Big Pumpkin by Erica Silverman. Its a great book to read aloud during Halloween and is perfect for practicing retelling skills. The repetitive text makes it easier for young children to comprehend the story. Its  also a fun story to enact during assemblies or class presentations.

I made a set of sequencing cards that goes perfectly with this book. Use it during guided reading or simply place them in your literacy center.

Encourage young children to look at the pictures, arrange them in an order and retell the story in their own words. Emerging readers can even attempt to read the simple sentences written on the cards. 

Get the cards from my TPT STORE.

Ramayana Puppets.

I wanted children to understand why we celebrate Diwali and so the story of Ramayana had to shared with them. The book by Bhakti Mathur was useful in explaining the story to the little ones as it has bright illustrations and rhyming text.

We made some cute puppets to retell the story. I gave them cutouts and paper bags and all they had to do was assemble them together and add features.

Puppets of Lord Rama!

Puppets of Goddess Sita!

The Brave Hanumanji!

Ravana!

It was great fun to see children enacting each character from the story. They thoroughly enjoyed the process and so did I!

Diwali Gift Idea!

If you are looking for a simple and cute Diwali gift idea, look no further. All you need is a diya or a tea light and some transparent coloured paper. Involve your children by letting them colour the elephant.
I would suggest printing the elephant template on card stock as the diya has to be placed on the elephant.
 Stick the diya with double sided tape after the elephant has been colored and you are ready to wish your loved ones Happy Diwali!

Diwali Literacy Pack

I admit that three months is a long time to have gone missing from the blogging scene but life had its own plans for me and blogging took a back seat . But I was quite active on Facebook and posted a lot of fun stuff for little kids . So if you follow me there , I am sure you didn't miss me too much  :)

October is a great month for me, for many reasons . It's the month of fall(That lovely nip in the air, always make me happy), I get to celebrate birthdays of people close to me and it has two of my favourite holidays: Diwali and Halloween. And this post is going to be full of Diwali goodness. 

I am sharing my Diwali literacy pack and it is packed with a lot of learning material for your little ones.

It includes Bingo sheets which you can print and use with a small group.

Use the memory cards from the pack to play a memory game, build vocabulary and talk about the various symbols of Diwali.

Stamping Fun!

Syllable practice for building those essential early reading skills. 

A creative writing sheet!

All this in one pack.

 So what are you waiting for? Grab this pack and give your little ones the gift of literacy, this Diwali.

Click HERE to go to my TPT STORE.

Rhyming with Ten Apples up on Top!

Splat those delicious apples! We read the adorable book "Ten Apples up on Top" By Dr Seuss and couldn't resist making these yummy, deep red and soft apples. Ok! they are not edible but they turned out so nice, that I actually wanted to take a bite out of them. I got my inspiration from SUGAR AUNTS!

 Now I am going to deviate a bit and talk about mentioning or giving credit to people from whom you take inspiration. All it takes is a few words and social media has made that job so easy for us. Even if you don't want to stress the muscles of your mouth by saying that "I loved your activity" to the person concerned, you can only press few buttons on your keyboard and type a few words and let them know. Easy Peasy! Somehow I never get why people find it difficult to appreciate. After all, teachers learn from other teachers. You don't lose anything by expressing your gratitude!

Enough said on that. Back to the apples. All you need is flour and water and some red food colouring. Mix them all up and throw in some cotton balls. Let children mix and bake them in an oven for an hour.

Add some pipe cleaners and leaves. I just made holes in the leaves and passed the pipe cleaner from it. Then pressed it on the baked apple.

Now start the game.Print out the rhyming cards. The words are from the book “Ten Apples up on Top!” By Dr Seuss.

Encourage children to tell you a word that rhymes with the word on the card. If they come up with a correct word, let them take an apple from the basket and splat the apple. Whoever splats the maximum apples, is the winner.

I loved how this game out. It was pure fun and  great learning time for kids. Printable of the game coming soon.

The Very Hungry Caterpillar Game

I love it when my kids are active,can move their bodies and learn something. We just finished reading "The Very Hungry Caterpillar" and I wanted my kids to practice retelling the story but I was bored of the usual retelling activities. 

So this cute idea popped in my head and I went scooting for some ping pong balls. 

I attached pictures of food that the hungry caterpillar ate in the book on the ping pong balls and put them in a basket. I then asked kids to find the food he ate, in order and prompted them to talk about the days on which he ate a particular food.

 After they finished arranging the ping pong balls , we got up and aimed the balls in another basket aka the caterpillar. 

There was a lot of excitement, cheers and joy while playing this game which of course, made me a super happy teacher!

Linking up with

Summer- Ocean Fun!

Summer is at its peak and there is no better way to cool off than to dive straight into the ocean. Well, I cant do that literally, thanks to the landlocked city that I stay in but there are other ways to feel better about it. And one such way is to do an ocean study with the little ones! Ha Ha... I think this kind of thinking is called positive thinking and sometimes it can make you happy.

We took out one of our favorite ocean books - "The Hermit Crab" by Eric Carle and dived straight into learning all about crabs.

We practiced retelling the story with the puppets.

We also added some math into our unit and sang "Five Little Crabs" by Dr Jean.

We made a 'C' shaped crab and did some math sums.

It was a short study but surely a fun one!

Check out other activities that we did with the book "The Hermit Crab" by clicking HERE.

10 fun and engaging activities for the summer holidays!

The summer heat has become unbearable and to step out of the house is really not an option. So how do we keep our little ones occupied constructively to avoid the learning loss? I have gathered 10 super easy ideas for you all to try, in the comfort of your home. All of them have been kid tested and approved, so you wouldn't have to worry about them not being a hit with your kids. They are low prep and wouldn't consume too much of your time.

Make puppets! Always works with kids and they can be used for story retelling or singing or enacting. In this picture, we made pig noses after reading "The Three Little Pigs". We used egg cartons, painted them with pink paint, attached ribbons and then

pretended to be pigs.

Dinosaur fossils will get your little paleontologists super excited . Read THIS POST on how to make them.

Nothing like the old charm of pretend play and kids thrive on it. Set up a dramatic play area for your kids-whatever they fancy, doctor's clinic, a pizzeria, an ice cream vendor etc. Click 

HERE to read more about it.

Get your little chefs to come up with recipes of edible animals. Here we made a spider with Oreo cookies, M&M's and chocolate sticks.

Do a letter match with magnetic letters. Put up an alphabet sheet on the fridge and let children match the magnetic letters. Get your alphabet sheets from HERE.

Keep the hot temperatures down by freezing some ice cubes with paint and letting children paint with them. It will give them a great sensory kick!

Another amazing idea to beat the summer heat is to make blue colored jell-o with the kids. Involve them while making the jell-o. Add gummy fish or fish crackers to turn it into an ocean snack.

Make a huge cutout of a cow and attach a rubber glove at the back. Make tiny holes in the rubber glove and pour some milk from the opening. Teach children to milk the cow. Great activity to teach new vocabulary words like udder and concepts of how the milk reaches us from the farm.

Books are the best boredom buster. Read several books and invite children to become authors and create their own stories using simple story maps. You will be amazed by their creativity.

Invite children to make words with magnetic letters-real and nonsense words should be allowed. In the picture below, I gave the little boy a muffin tray and lots of letters to play with and make his own words. This really promotes thinking and encourages children to read words without any pressure.

Hope you find the ideas useful. If you try them out, do let me know.

Mother's Day Gift Idea!

Mother's Day is around the corner and I have come up with a sweet gift that is absolutely low prep. 

Just print out the cards and use any heart shaped candy/cookie to place on the heart shape. If children want, they can even color in the heart to make it more personalized.

 I wrapped up the cookie in a plastic wrap and secured it with a scotch tape.

Get it for free from my TPT STORE.

Do check out my other Mother's Day Unit too!