My DIY St. Patrick's Day Preschool Unit

I put together this fun preschool unit for Saint Patrick's Day and shipped a set over to our toddler nephew who lives several states away, so he could do "preschool across the miles" with us.  Not sure if it'll be us moms or the kids will enjoy it more, but I wanted to share all the goodies I compiled so others could join in too!

I used a bunch of printables (some free, some purchased) from Pre-K Printable Fun, ABC's of Literacy, Gift of Curiosity, Simple Everyday Mom and Preschool Play & Learn.  I laminate most so we can keep reusing them and they hold up to my 3yr old's "I can wreck anything with these" hands.

I found this FABULOUS butter slime recipe that all our smalls just love.  The consistency is like taffy, but it doesn't stick to things and is very easy to make.  Better than play dough because it doesn't crumble or dry out if it's stored airtight and is easy to roll out & shape.  I made it with green air dry clay and used a green apple scented activator to theme it for St. Patrick's Day:

I cut some shamrock shapes from card stock and stuck glue dots all over them so the kids could peel off the bits of paper and stick pom poms to make some plush shamrocks:

I got some bags of holiday themed foam stickers and glittery foam shamrocks for them to add to some foam craft sheets (all found at Hobby Lobby) that can be cut into wreaths or ornaments or photo frames:

Some shamrock scratch art cards from Hobby Lobby too, since they are fun and non-messy:

I found this adorable wind-up St. Patrick foam craft kit on Amazon.  It is SO hard to find actual saint-themed projects for the holiday so this sucked me in as soon as I saw it.  He's even got a snake!! I didn't need a dozen of them, but this wasn't a project I could easily DIY given the wind-up mechanism and detailing.  I also figured it'll be fun enough to do again next year with the extra ones:

Coins and plastic pots of gold from the dollar store to use for counting/markers for the activity cards and adding...

with cut up some bits of the deco mesh rope, extra pom poms & some plastic scoops to do a St. Patrick's Day sensory bin:

I also found a nice assortment of books on Amazon that looked fun and educational (and reasonably priced).  I sent one to my nephew and got all these for my smalls.  I especially liked having some that share the real info about St. Patrick and was able to get a few in board book format so my 3yr old can't destroy them easily either.

I'm really excited for our holiday unit and having my nephew experience it with us hundreds of miles away.  I hope these ideas help keep other toddler busy too!

Fun & Easy DIY Fall Sensory Bin

It's time for an Autumn Season Sensory Bin!  Fall is in full swing so it's a great time to explore the sensations of the season with the kids - pumpkins, wood, forest critters, pinecones, acorns & colorful leaves!

There are so many great sensory things about fall.  The colors and textures are really interesting and there's a lot of educational things you can do with them.  Toddlers love investigating with sensory bins and my little ones have had a ball with this bin:

 

My 4yr old even incorporated other toys to add new play options.  At one point he even stacked the logs to make a garage door and just like in our real garage, with his vehicle on one side, and, as he said, "a big pile of mess" on the other.  Touché my small friend.

In a more perfect world I'd have gone the real & found outside route with actual leaves, acorns, gourds, twigs & the like.  It would've been close to free that way, but practically speaking it's not an option with my own wild indoor animals (aka toddlers).  They have a tendency to crunch up or break those things outside, which would create more mess than I want to clean up several times a day.  And I know my 2yr old would have bitten any actual gourds because they do look like veggies I encourage them to eat.  The faux ones don't have the same "taste-me" appeal for her.  I was short on prep time so scouting out a bunch of craft stores to gather various faux items wasn't going to work either.  Instead I got a handy 166pc fall decor set on Amazon to fill most of our bin and it did not disappoint:

It has a nice assortment of real (and surprisingly strong) pinecones and faux acorns with real acorn tops:

It also came with lots of vibrantly colored silk leaves:

And a good selection of styrofoam gourds and mini pumpkins:

I found this fabulous set of forest animal figurines on Amazon too.  The assortment includes harder-to-find critters like a badger & hedgehog and the detail is top notch:

The sizes were ideal to play & hide within all the different forest elements:

I also added some Tree Block logs and rounds we already had.  They made a great textured woody section for the beaver, bear and badger to climb over:

I got a set of fine motor skill tools to add to the sensory fun:

I'm probably going to have to buy a second one because they both want to use the purple scissor-style scoop constantly.  To be fair, there is something really appealing about how it works and being able to see what's being scooped.  It's the perfect size for picking up the acorns, animals and pine cones:   

The set also came with some easy-grab tweezers and I added in some of our magnifying glasses too:

I found these little trays at the Dollar Tree, which are perfect for examining specimens and for activities like matching and counting:

There's a lot of investigative play to be had and it cleans up easily, which is always key for me.  I know we'll use all these items in other ways too, so it's become a great seasonal bin for us.  Easy fall fun = a win! 

DIY Frog Pond Sensory Bin

Keeping my smalls busy is key in these later days of summer. Not enough interesting things to do leads to mayhem, so doing some themed homeschool preschool weeks has been a godsend.  Especially hands-on fun like my latest DIY Frog Pond Sensory Bin: 

I threw this bin together with a combination of toy & craft stuff we already had, plus a few additions that will get more use in other projects down the road.  Really easy, and, best of all, not messy.  That's a critical aspect for me when it comes to sensory bins.  My kids can go from zero to wreck-the-room in about 5 seconds, so durability and minimal clean up are critical features when I plan my bins.  

  Since we're learning about frogs, our "frog pond" themed bin has lots of textures and colors, plus all the key goodies...like a lovely little pond complete with frogs in all stages of life, lily pads and dragonflies:

Some real wood logs for their frogs and salamanders to climb on:

And a large grassy area for all the creatures to crawl and hide in, plus magnifying glasses and tweezers from the kids to practice their fine motor skills with:

There are even some cut wood "stumps" for creatures to hide under and hop to and from:

I started with a piece of green felt as the base.  For the "water" I got these blue acrylic ice rocks from Amazon.  

A 3lb bag filled my pond area and I can see using it for more water-themed bins in the future, so it seemed like a good bin supply investment and much easier to clean up than water beads or rice.

I also found these foam lily pads there too that were perfectly sized:

Everything else was stuff I already had.  I'd bought some plastic grass squares from the craft store a long time ago to use as a background when I photograph small items for my shop.  Two of them was perfect for my section of land next to the pond:

We already had a bunch of little plastic frogs, insects and this lifecycle set to use in it:

We also still had a set of Tree Blocks from when my now teenage kids were small, so I pulled out some small logs and smooth wood circles to use (but you could easily find some free ones outside too):

 

I arranged the various areas and sprinkled the wildlife throughout and our sensory bin was now a nature nook:

Their eyes lit up when I took the lid off for the big reveal and they immediately got into inspecting the pond life:

And of course the magnifying glasses made my mini limnologists (people who study ponds) want to inspect all the details and feel more scientific:

It's been fairly easy to keep clean and I know most of the elements will get more use in other themed bins and preschool activities down the road.  But for now, we're loving our little indoor pond:)

DIY Post Office Play Fun for Preschoolers!

Boy has this summer been busy!  Time for crafting has been pretty short, but one area I'm trying to make time for is stuff that keeps my smalls learning & having fun.  I put together a Post Office Preschool Theme week recently that was too fun not to share!

My 2 1/2 & 4yr olds favorite time of day is when our mailman comes to bring the mail and pick up my bin of outgoing shop packages.  They hear the truck coming and immediately shout his name and come running to peek out the window and wave to him.  They even make a point of getting out a cold bottle of water to put out for him on hot days.  He is a complete superstar in their eyes (and in mine too since he's the best mail carrier we've ever had).  So naturally doing some activities all about the post office & mail carriers seemed like the ideal topic.

 I got some blank blue hats and tote bags at the craft store and used my Cricut & some heat transfer vinyl to make some simple DIY uniforms:

I got some fantastic little books about mail carriers & the post office (here & here) to start.  I set up a little post office station with them and some empty mail packaging and some fantastic themed pretend play printables from Pre-K Printable Fun here.  It saved me SO much time printing those and laminating them instead of trying to spend ages drafting up my own:

I did two sensory bin themes to go with it.  The first was a packaging station.  I lined it with big bubble wrap (which they love to pop), a few air pockets, and some small empty package boxes.  I also added some packing peanuts, scoops and pretend stamps.  My youngest is past the "put stuff in your mouth and on your face" phase, but just to be safe they only used it supervised.

I glued the oversized stamps page from the printable set to some thick craft foam and cut them apart so they'd have something more durable and tactile than just laminated paper in the bin:

To make the bin more colorful and fun I used these non-toxic, corn-based craft puffs that are the same thing as recyclable packing peanuts, but more interesting looking.  I bought a bag a while back and these things are great!  They go by a lot of names, but the Magic Nuudle ones seem to be the best (& the cheapest!).  I got mine here.  If you moisten them, they stick together for crafty kid's projects with next to no mess, but we just used them dry.

My little ones had a ball packing things up with them and then delivering their packages and letters:

The second bin was a little town where they could do some mini mail delivery.  I used a sheet of green felt and added some town themed blocks we had for the buildings, plus a doll house mailbox from Hobby Lobby (here) and a die cast mail truck:

The mail truck is an exact replica I found on Amazon here.  I like that the doors and back gate really opened.  It was perfectly sized for the set of doll house letters & packages found at Hobby Lobby (here).  The only downside was I didn't think to buy TWO trucks and the usual sibling tug-of-war over it ensued.  Lesson learned!

I also couldn't resist getting them a plastic mailbox.  I'd seen some toy mailboxes for kids online, but a lot of reviews mentioned how tiny & flimsy they were.  My smalls are also incredible rough on stuff, so DIY-ing one with cardboard or fabric didn't seem like a good idea.  I wanted them to be able to put real envelopes and packages in it, not just some dinky play ones, so we got this one from ACE Hardware.  With their big brother's employee discount it was literally the same price as the toy ones, but this one's more durable, holds lots and can be used for actual mail if we ever need it:

As you can see my little mail guy enjoyed it and took his deliveries seriously.  Our at-home post office was a hit and seeing our mailman's face when they stood in the window in their "uniforms", waving their deliveries was priceless.  Looks like these little mail carriers will get a lot of use out of everything!