Age 4-6 - Always Learning

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Caps For Sale by Esphyr Slobodkina is such a wonderful and timeless tale which I can recall reading when I was a young child. I have passed on this fun tale to my daughter however we have purchased the updated book and CD version which also includes some fun tunes to go along with the story.

To get into a monkey mood we are going to bake some banana bread cookies and read some other monkey stories including Five Little Monkeys Sitting On A Bed and Curious George.

And as my daughter loves hat we are going to decorate a paper bag to turn it into a gorgeous paper hat creation.

If you are after some more ideas, check out these links:

Hubbards Cupboard
Teaching Heart
Teachers.Net

For those with very young children, I must confess that my favourite Monkey book has to be the gorgeous Usborne title - That's Not My Monkey.

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Posted By: Michelle Sweeney - Category: Age 3-4, Age 4-6, Books, Craft, Reading

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Play With Me

January 25th 2010 18:34

Following on from our animal theme we have been reading the charming book, Play With Me written by Marie Hall Ets. It features a little girl who ventures outside to play with the wild animals only to discover that at first they are too frightened to go near her. The text and pictures are charming in this book and is one of my daughter's favourites.

Homeschool Share provided us with some book related suggestions, the favourite one of my daughter being the Guess Who Animal game.

We stumbled upon a fun birdcage craft and my partner and daughter even built a birdhouse and feeder from a $5 craft pack we discovered in a supermarket.

For the younger children we found a dot painting frog as well as an alphabet dot to dot.

For those that like fingerpainting here were a couple of animal fingerpainting ideas which gave us some inspiration.

For turtle lovers, here is a fun turtle craft as well as an easy turtle to colour.

And let's not forget the paper chain snake.

A book like this provides lots of opportunities for animal spotting, although as it is winter at the moment, our animal spotting is diminished slighly with only some squirrels and a few birds - however better than nothing.

Springtime is a great time of year to visit this story however any time of the year is great to read inspirational stories to your children.

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Posted By: Michelle Sweeney - Category: Age 3-4, Age 4-6, Age 6-8, Books, Craft, Reading, Social Studies

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Animal Classification Cards

January 5th 2010 03:27

My daughter and I had an enjoyable afternoon reading some animal classification cards - some which I discovered on the internet (see previous post) and others which I created along the same vein. She enjoyed animal spotting in her books and then locating the cards with a random fact that was placed on the bottom.

Fun yes - educational - double yes. Win win for sure!

We also continued on with the Australian theme and looked at Australia on the map, sang Waltzing Matilda and read one of my favourite books from my childhood, The Bunyip of Berkeley's Creek.

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Posted By: Michelle Sweeney - Category: Age 3-4, Age 4-6, Books, Computer Based, Reading, Social Studies

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Katy No Pocket

December 26th 2009 19:37

We are going to have some fun with Katy No Pocket over the next week or so. Katy is a kangaroo, born without a pocket and is struggling to carry her baby like all the other animals in the countryside. Katy, desperate for a pocket, goes to the city in search of one and meets up with a kindly construction worker who helps her out.

We are going to make an easy pocket apron for my daughter to wear as featured in the story and based on the Fold and Learn ideas provided by Five In A Row. As my daughter and I are originally from Australia, we are going to enjoy this one in particular. We have seen many kangaroos in real life so while we are not going in search of any (a bit difficult in Canada), we are going to attempt painting them in aboriginal dot art style. To carry on the aboriginal theme, we are also going to make our own didgeridoo craft.

A kangaroo can jump at least 9-10 metres so we are also going to attempt to measure our own kangaroo jumps. And we are going to discuss the other animals featured in the book and the habitats in which they live.

We are also going to improve our tool knowledge with the help of these cards as well as this easy but fun pocket sorting activity.

For extra assistance, here is a link which shows some animal classification cards for Katy No Pocket as well as other Five In A Row stories.

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Posted By: Michelle Sweeney - Category: Age 3-4, Age 4-6, Books, Computer Based, Craft, Reading, Social Studies

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We Wish You A Merry Christmas

December 18th 2009 16:15

Before we commence into rereading some of our favourite Before Five In A Row books, we are going to spend this week doing some simple yet fun Christmas activities.

We have managed to find some black and white templates of Santa, a gingerbread man and a Christmas tree which we are going to decorate with buttons, cotton wheel, glitter and other fun stuff.

DLTK also provided us with a Twas The Night Before Christmas mini book to colour and read.

We are going to attempt an easy Christmas word search, a couple of Christmas mazes and a Christmas themed crossword.

Our World Wide Classroom gave us some great art inspired ideas such as this fun Christmas patterning and even offering a free printable to do the task. We also loved their foam craft Christmas tree and snowman picture and are going to use their examples as inspiration to make our own Christmas craft.

We are also going to attempt this fun handprint shaped Christmas tree and as the ground in covered in snow and we are looking to do more indoor activities, we are going to create some snowflakes.

That should keep us busy for at least the next few days for sure.

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Posted By: Michelle Sweeney - Category: Age 3-4, Age 4-6, Craft

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Sand Art Brownies

December 17th 2009 18:00

If you are looking for a great homemade gift to give out on behalf of yourself or your children, consider Sand Art Brownies. They are a practical gift which don't necessarily cost a lot and they make fun gifts.

You will require one wide mouth quart jar with lid

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Posted By: Michelle Sweeney - Category: Age 4-6, Age 6-8, Age 9-11, Cooking, Craft

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The Gift of Giving

December 16th 2009 17:51

For many children, Christmas all too often focuses on the gift of receiving rather than the gift of giving.

As my daughter is starting to understand more what Christmas is about, I set her a couple of easy tasks. The first was to make some Christmas cards for some of the children in her class. We purchased some blank cards and envelopes and some Christmas themed stickers. She combined the stickers with her artwork and my handwriting and between the two of us we had some Christmas cards which she felt very proud of

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Posted By: Michelle Sweeney - Category: Age 3-4, Age 4-6, Age 6-8, Age 9-11, Craft

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A Pair of Snowmen

December 14th 2009 09:41

This delightful pair of snowmen are adorable and will have you in the festive spirit in no time at all. They are made from a pair of mittens and while it is a great craft for the older children, it can be suitable for the younger child with more parental supervision.

Visit All Free Crafts for the full instructions on how to make your snowmen - namely Mr and Mrs Mitten.

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Posted By: Michelle Sweeney - Category: Age 4-6, Age 6-8, Age 9-11, Craft

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Three Fun Christmas Crafts for 3-5 year olds

December 3rd 2009 21:03

Christmas is a fun time of year for children and it also means that there are a great number of easy and accessible crafts that you can do with your child

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Posted By: Michelle Sweeney - Category: Age 3-4, Age 4-6, Craft

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Coraline

November 20th 2009 01:26

My daughter loves the animated movie Coraline so loudly announced that it is Coraline week in our house giving me about five minutes notice to organise some activities for us to do.

Thankfully Coraline.com came to our aid and we were able to button eye images of both myself and my daughter as well as create online button flowers. There was also a fun print image in which the circus mice could also spell out my daughter's name

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Posted By: Michelle Sweeney - Category: Age 4-6, Age 6-8, Age 9-11, Books, Craft, DVDs, Reading

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Easy Cranberry Squares

November 12th 2009 18:54

Taken from the fun story, Cranberry Autumn, my daughter and I decided to bake this easy Cranberry Square recipe this afternoon as follows:

Cranberry Squares

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Posted By: Michelle Sweeney - Category: Age 3-4, Age 4-6, Age 6-8, Cooking, Reading

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I'm Thankful For My Craft

November 4th 2009 14:26

If you are looking for an easy Thanksgiving craft then look no further. All you need is a little bit of preparation time to find some typical Thanksgiving images such as pumpkins, squash, turkey, leaves and carrots.

Once you have your images, you need to remove the inside of a paper plate so you are left with the rim to stick the images to

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Posted By: Michelle Sweeney - Category: Age 3-4, Age 4-6, Age 6-8, Craft

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Arthur on Speakaboos

November 1st 2009 02:42

For those looking to find some fun tales for children to listen to should stop by and visit Speakaboos. They have added a good selection of Arthur tales read by an interesting mix of celebrities including Tom Arnold, Kevin Bacon, Kelly Ripa and Clay Aiken. The stories include Arthur's New Baby, Arthur's New Puppy, Arthur's Chicken Pox and Arthur's Computer Disaster,

You can choose to watch them for free online, buy an individual track for 0.99 or purchase an entire album for 8.99

[ Click here to read more ]

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Posted By: Michelle Sweeney - Category: Age 3-4, Age 4-6, Books, Computer Based, Reading

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