100 days of love

Today was our 100th day of school! Yeee haw!!!
{it goes by SO fast}

One activity we did to celebrate this special day
was make this lovely heart mosaic...

As you may know, I love mosaics.

Cutting snips alone strengthens fine motor control.
But, if you combine YOUR snips with all your classmates' snips
and make a giant mosaic,
you strengthen the whole community.

TLF, ya know?

First, you need a simple outline of a heart drawn on a big piece of paper.

Then, you need to gather these supplies:
scissors
glue
paint swatches {we wrote the numbers 1-100 on ours}

Have everything? Now cut and glue!

Three children worked on the mosaic at a time.
They were sometimes the most unlikely trio, too.
{I love when that happens!}

This mosaic was finished in one morning work period,
and now it hangs by the snack table for everyone to enjoy.
The children love looking for "the 100."

counting valentines

Sung to the tune of Michael Finnegan {listen to Michael Finnegan here}:

1 red, 2 red, 3 red valentines
4 red, 5 red, 6 red valentines
7 red, 8 red, 9 red valentines
10 red valentines!
10 red, 9 red, 8 red valentines
7 red, 6 red, 5 red valentines
4 red, 3 red, 2 red valentines
1 red valentine!

I love using felt manipulatives to go along with the songs we sing at line time, and counting these felt hearts has been quite a hit! In the past, I only used the manipulatives at line time, but now I make them available for the children to use during the work period, too. As you can see, they LOVE singing the song and moving the hearts all by themselves!

The hearts were cut from red felt. I numbered and decorated them with fabric paint and sequins. {This was my favorite part!} If you wanted to be really profesh, you could glue on the same quantity of sequins as the number on the heart. {the 4 would have 4 sequins, etc}

After the decorations were dry, I hot-glued magnets to the back of the hearts. The magnets I used are almost too burly for the felt - smaller magnets probably would have worked better.

At the beginning of the song, I stick the magnets to the back of a baking pan. As we count up, I bring each number to the front of the pan, and as we count down, I move each number to the back of the pan. When the song is over, the children always beg to see where the hearts are hiding on the back of the pan!

busy hands

grinding up chunks of dry bread

{a new twist on the ever popular bread grating lesson}

The child in this photo is 4, but this lesson is perfect for 3 year olds, too.
This activity helps develop organization, fine motor control, and problem solving. Children love the grinder and the sound the dry bread makes as it's being crunched up.

What does one do with a bag of bread crumbs?

Here are our most favorite uses:

• feed them to the birds
• sprinkle them on a salad
• nibble on them - straight out of the bag - at the snack table

{That last use makes me laugh at least once or twice a day!}

Read more about grating lessons here.

a display of spheres

The children often use the geometric solids to go on shape scavenger hunts around the classroom.

Other shapes include:

• cubes
• cones
  
• cylinders
• rectangular prisms

This activity is enjoyed by all ages in our classroom, especially the 3 and 4 year olds.

Buy geometric solids here or make your own set {I bet you could!}.

reading 3 letter words

The word is on the front and the picture is on the back, so the child can challenge himself AND double check his work.

To play the game:

The first child reads the word on the top of the stack. If she's right, she keeps the card and passes the stack to the next child. If she gets the word wrong, she she puts the card back in the stack and tries the next one.

The children in this picture are 5 years old and just beginning to develop accurate word recognition. We play LOTS of word games before we present readers with books.

Find awesome reading materials and info here.

clipping carabiners together

This lesson builds concentration and strengthens fine motor control.

Ta da!

The 3 year olds cannot get enough of constructing this chain. I think you can find inexpensive carabiners at most sporting good stores.

Have a great weekend!

Edit: The grinder used in the bread grating lesson is a nut grinder I found at the thrift store. Ebay has several, too. Here's the link!

excuses, excuses

Hello out there! It's the long lost itty bitty love - alive and well.
{Thank goodness, right?}

Some of you have noticed it's been a YEAR since I've last posted.
{Really? A whole dang year? That's crazy.}
I'm not really sure why I stopped blogging...

I guess it was due to a combination of things -
LIFE itself being the biggest.


I'm sort of an all or nothing kind of gal,
and I once I started putting my all into other things,
I lost track of the itty bitty love blog.
I just couldn't get back into it.


I told myself,
It doesn't matter.
I let all my bloggy relationships go.

If I let myself dwell on the fact that I'd abandoned itty bitty love
AND all of my friends,
I felt SO SHEEPISH,
I just kept on hiding out.

But I want to come back!!!!
I love to write and take pictures and share ideas and
geeze louise, I want to keep blogging!!!

SO, please forgive me for being a jerk and going MIA for a year.
I don't think I'll be posting as much a I once was,
but I just don't want to feel like a stranger in my own house,
if you know what I mean.

I hope YOU are all alive and well, too!

♥

PS: Hubs is just as great as ever - he's the one who took all the glamor shots of me in my new hat!

busy hands

using tongs to transfer "ice cubes"
between a bowl & an ice tray

bead work
A brief description of bead work:
The child arranges the tiny beads on a peg board shape.
{Some children just fill the board,
and others select certain colors to make patterns.}
When the board is full, a teacher irons it -
the beads melt together, holding the shape.
I can't emphasize enough how much the children LOVE this work!
Check beads and peg boards out here.

using a screwdriver
to screw bolts into a board
Check the slotted bolt board out here.
{I'm sure you handy types could easily make a homemade version!}

tower built with The Pink Tower & The Broad Stair
{No extension cards were used in its construction!}

balancing marbles on top of golf tees
{idea courtesy of the lovely Pink & Green Mama
and Jo A Bit of This and A Bit of That}

Hope you're all enjoying your weekend!
It's been snowing here!
{Yee haw!!!}