***Printables by Theme***

Below is a listing of my printables grouped by theme.  This is not a complete listing of available printables.  For a complete listing, go here.

ANIMALS…

• RACCOON SHAPES CRAFT:
• PANDA BEAR SHAPES CRAFT:
• DINOSAUR ACTIVITY PACKS:
  • Which Dinosaur is Different? (Part of Letter D lapbook):
  • Dinosaur Pattern Strips (part of Letter D lapbook):
  • Dinosaur Poem and Stick Puppets:
  • Stegosaurus Shapes Craft:
  • Color Sorting Dinosaurs with Color Wheel:
  • Dinosaur Lacing Card:
  • Dinosaur Upper and Lower Case Letter Matching Puzzles:
• Bird 3-Part Cards:
• Butterfly Nomenclature 3-part Cards (Parts of a Butterfly):
• Bird Shapes Craft:

CHARACTER ACTIVITY PACKS…

BOB THE BUILDER:

• Game Cards:
• Scrambler Size Sequencing:
• Trucks Size Sorting:
• Counting and Comparing Flip Book:

HOLIDAYS…

CHRISTMAS:

• Ornaments for Stringing and Spelling:
• 2010 Jesse Tree Schedule, Prayers, and Ornaments (Advent):
• 2009 Jesse Tree Schedule, Prayers, and Ornaments (Advent):
• Christmas Song Book:

THANKSGIVING:

• Tree Template:

VALENTINE’S DAY:

• Valentine Count and Clip Cards:
• Heart Pattern Strips (part of Letter H Lapbook):

EASTER:

• Color Sequencing from Light to Dark with Jellybeans (part of Letter J Lapbook):
• Chicks in Eggs Game (using plastic Easter eggs):
• Easter Basket and Eggs Counting File Folder Game:

NATURE…

PLANTS:

• Flower Nomenclature 3-Part Cards:
• 3-Part Flower Names Cards:
• 3 Part Tree Nomenclature Cards:
• 

AUTUMN:

• Autumn-themed Play Dough Mats (Numeral Formation, Counting, and Fine Motor Skills Work):
• Autumn Tic Tac Toe:

Preschool Music and Fingerplays

Do you know about the Little Fingers That Play blog??  Deborah is the author of the blog and she has tons of preschool songs and poems.  They are amazing, even more so because many of them are her original creations!  I’m just crazy about this site and wanted to share it with everyone.  You know I am on this new kick about bringing more music into our home and part of this is learning new songs and rhymes (action rhymes are especially fun, and it would be easy to add actions to many of these).  There are so many great ones to choose from on Deborah’s site, and I can’t wait to show some of them to M.  They have the cutest graphics and little videos to go along with them.  It’s such an awesome resource and I know many of you love to learn new songs with your kids too!  Go check it out!!

Have a beautiful day! :)

The Art Box – Dec. 28, 2009

Well, no picture of the Art Box this week because it didn’t even come out of it’s hiding place once.  Why?  Well, because of the window crayons.  Yep, window crayons that M received at the big aunt/uncle/cousin get together the weekend before Christmas. 

So, here’s a taste of what every. single. window. in my house looked like this week.That’s just one little door.  Why take pictures of every. single. window. in the house if they all look like this?   Just think – 11 upstairs window + 1 mirror all prettied up!  You just run out and buy some window crayons for your little ones now and your house can be pretty like mine. :)

He also worked on his “treasure box” that I surprised him with.  It was on clearance for $1.00 at Michael’s and for some unknown reason looks like a book, a fact that totally escaped M, but that everyone else notices.  He painted it red outside and orange inside…

Then fancied it up with some lovely globs of glitter glue:

He keeps his rocks in it. :)  He’s a boy! (Even despite the glitter glue obsession.)  :)

Let’s see what your little ones created; link up below!

Have a beautiful day! :)

Guidecraft “3-D Feel and Find” – Giveaway!!

We recently received this toy from CSN Stores’ online toys site, and boy, was it a hit with both myself and M! It’s perfect for developing his sense of touch as well as a sense of size and space.
I have to be honest, there are not a lot of pictures to go with this post, which is a little disappointing because I’d love to share with you how much fun we had with this. However, it is something M needed assistance with, and it’s hard to hold a bag with a 3 year old’s crazy hand in it, and take a picture at the same time. :)
First of all, I love the look of the toy’s pieces – all the shapes are made from wood and painted in bright colors. There are 20 shapes in all and 20 wooden tiles to match them to. Everything seems to be very well constructed! The wooden tiles have the shapes cut into them and the recessed area (and backing for the wood) is textured hardboard. A cloth drawstring bag is included for playing “Feel and Find”.
However, I just knew at first look that there would be many great possibilities for playing with this toy.
First we set the tiles out in rows and M matched the shapes to them: As you can see there are several animal shapes and several geometric shapes; there are also two people shapes (one is a bit more “robust” than the other) and two tree shapes (a narrow one and a wide one).
We talked about each shape and identified the animals and other shapes by name.
Then we began playing with the wooden shapes in the drawstring bag and the tiles in a stack. He picked a tile from the top, then reached into the bag to see if he could *feel* the correct shape. M was very, very excited about playing the game and eager to get everything perfect. However, with 20 fairly unfamiliar shapes in the bag, it was a pretty challenging game for him (which is a good thing, since it means we will get a lot of use out of this as his skills develop!). So, remembering to set him up for success, I decided to change things up a bit before any discouragement or frustration set in, by sorting the pieces into three groups of shapes and tiles.
We grouped all the animals together, the two people and two trees were grouped together, and the third group was all of the geometric shapes.
Then, beginning with the small group of trees and people, we took time to look at each one and note the different characteristics. Then we stacked the tiles, put the 4 shapes into the bag and proceeded to play “Feel and Find”. :) M did a fabulous job! And his confidence soared! We continued the same way with the other two groups and handed out high fives each time he found the right shape. We were laughing, M was excited, and we were having a great time. We spent about 45 minutes total with this our first time, and it felt like time flew by. We’ve played several fun games since then!
Once he is familiar with the toy and knows all the shapes, I want to play a game with him using just the tiles. Since they are textured, I’d like to have him close his eyes while I set a tile in front of him. Then, using just his fingers (eyes still closed or possibly blindfolded), I’ll have him feel the textured area and see if he can guess which shape it is. This is only one of my ideas for extension activities with this toy. :) It’s such a great way to get a good sensory workout.
And, the wooden shapes all stand up on their own, and would be fun for creative play time too – I’m thinking of building block play or adding them to sensory tub playtime. As his fine motor skills develop they’d also be great to use for tracing around and then drawing in details. (You knew I’d find something artsy to use them for, didn’t you?)
Oh my goodness, I have a feeling you’ll be seeing a lot of this toy in our Tot School posts! ;)
Ok, thanks for reading such a long post… but here’s what you are really waiting for… the GIVEAWAY portion. ;) CSN Stores is graciously giving away an award-winning Guidecraft “Feel and Find” toy to one of my readers!
This giveaway contest will begin now and end at midnight (CST) on Thursday, and is open only to US and Canadian readers. On New Year’s Day I’ll announce the winner! Be sure to check back here to see if it’s you! If I don’t hear from the winner within 24 hours of posting, I’ll pick someone else.
Rules for entries:
1. Mandatory first entry – go to CSN Stores’ online toys site and pick your favorite game, puzzle, or creative play toy, then come back here and let me know what it is in a comment.
2. For an extra entry, write a post on your blog about this giveaway and link to this post as well as to the online toys site (and leave another comment).
3. For another extra entry, if you are a follower or subscriber to Tired, Need Sleep, let me know (and leave another comment!). You can subscribe or follow now, but please only if you really like me, hee hee. I don’t want to buy any friends with a giveaway. :)
Good luck, everyone!!
Have a beautiful day! :)

Tot School – Dec. 27, 2009

M is 40 months old

Tot School was pretty much non-existent this past week, but we managed to get a few things in…
Snowflake matching:
I printed the snowflakes from here, cut them into cards and M tried matching them up in our pocket chart. He did pretty well with this considering some of them were pretty tricky.
No picture for this one, but I printed some snowman grid gameboards from here, and we took turns rolling a die, then putting that number of cotton balls on our game cards. We went top to bottom and left to right. Whoever filled their card first won.
M’s cousin S came over for the day on Tuesday and we made homemade playdough. I didn’t add any coloring (it was a little off-white due to the brownish vanilla I put in it), but we did add silver glitter and vanilla extract. Yum! And pretty! I set out a tray of goodies: There’s buttons, googley eyes, ribbons, pipecleaners, and various lids here.
And the kids had a great time making snowmen:
Aren’t they adorable? And if you’re wondering which child used the pipecleaners for super-long noses… well, that would be my child, hee hee. ;)
We also used up our green playdough that was getting a little old. We used cookie cutters, glass pebbles, colored pasta, buttons, and glitter glue to decorate them. M gave these to grandparents and godparents for Christmas.
On Christmas Eve we had about 8 inches of snow dumped on us. I grabbed a couple of buckets and M played (well over an hour) with real snow and his little cars on the kitchen floor.I’ve noticed that if I occupy him with this kind of thing, he is quite happy to play on his own as long as I’m sitting at the table, cooking, or just hanging out in the kitchen. We explored how snow melted into water and then we set it back outside. Saturday morning he remembered it and we brought it in and he played with the ice!
I hope you are all having a Merry Christmas (remember, Christmas has just begun - it lasts for 12 days!!!). :)
For more tot school, go here!