Healthy Eating Activities (in action)

For those of you who seen the healthy eating activities we had set up in the school room here is a follow-up of the trays in action. 

Practicing great fine motor skills slicing these fruits in half! Also a great time to learn the names of the different fruits from our basket.

Closer look at the wooden mini fruits.

Another great fine motor activity! Check out the tong work!

This part killed Luke to sort the fruits based on similar types and having mixed colors in one area :)!

Photography by Luke! Some Angry Bird toy in the healthy eating shopping cart. Ironically, it is from a McDonald's Happy Meal! 

Checking out his selection! Fruit, Vegetable or Sweets?

Of course he chose sweets! Good timing for these healthy eating activities! Great fine motor practice again!

Thank you for following along!

-Ashley

Fall Tray Activities

 Here is a look at some of the tray activities we had out from fall last year. This were mostly independent trays once introduced, which was great for me while helping prepare for Thanksgiving!

Simple expiration tray! Magnifying glass with mini pine cones and pumpkins, the pumpkins pictured are not real but we did explore a real one later.

This was a great math tray. Roll the dice and transfer the amount using the tongs to the leaf container. All pieces of this tray are either from Dollar Tree or Target's Dollar spot.

Great fine motor skills, putting felt stickers from Target's Dollar Spot onto a paper plate wreath! The empty grey container was for the backing paper of the felt stickers.

You can't get any simpler than this one! A turkey baster from Dollar Tree and a tub with water! More fine motor practice too!

Getting ready to explore our REAL pumpkin! Someone was so excited!

Ready to get dirty! All hands in!!

UNTIL he realized he hates the slimy feel of the pumpkin guts!! This activity was short lived :)!

Thank you for supporting our page!

-Ashley

Pumpkin-Cano

This science experiment was a HUGE hit! Luke was my tester and then I used this while I was doing student teaching and the kids loved it as well. This is from last fall, obviously when pumpkins are in season ;)!

Here is our set up: mini pumpkin already hollowed out, small bowl and spoon with baking soda, pouring container for the vinegar, and clean up clothes.

My lovely assistant, safety gear and all! 

Carefully spooning the baking soda into the pumpkin opening. Great fine motor practice!!

Now pouring the vinegar. The suspense is building here! What will happen when it is poured in?!

THE EXPLOSION!! His reaction says it all! He repeated the whole process at least 10 more times!

Final step, the clean up! The microfiber clothes from Dollar Tree soaked up a ton of overflow.

Thank you for stopping by!

-Ashley

Lil' Explorer's Club Meet

This nature is probably our favorite as it has many different elements to choose from, not pictured on our map. We chose the trail with a boardwalk as some families need strollers for younger siblings. 

Here is our map for this trail. Our art activity was very simple yet educational. We used duct table and put it on our wrist sticky end up and began collecting any pieces of nature we found interesting.

The balance beam near the exercise path. Great practice for our gross motor skills and balancing.

This trail had so many different outlook views. The one of the creek was our favorite!

Checking out some bugs that landed on our bag. I always carry a bag with a few magnifying glasses and half sheets of paper and recycled crayons from restaurants (many are triangular) for tree rubbings.

Here is a look at one of our bracelets! The mini pine cone was so cute :)!

Thank you for stopping by!

-Ashley

Lil' Explorer's Club Meet

This was our Lil' Explorer's Club's first meet back in February 2016. 

I made maps for each family showing them the trail we were following, what animals to keep a look out for and the activity we would be doing. I also included a Geo cache that was on the trail.

Here is the set up for the children to make their pine cone bird feeders. They used pine cones, peanut butter and bird seed.

Luke checking out his map before heading out on the trail.

Each child got to hang their feeder anywhere on the trail.

Since this trail was for the month of February I made necklaces with each child's name so they could use their name recognition skills during the scavenger hunt. Once they found their name they got to take it off the branch and wear it.

Thank you for viewing our posts!

-Ashley 

Tray Tasking Activities

Here are a few of my tray activities from last semester as I finished up my degree. We used the Tray Tasking book by Victoria Folds. I LOVE this book!

In this activity the child would put the colors in order either from lightest to darkest or darkest to lightest. These a just paint samples I got from Home Depot that I laminated and cut.

On this tray the child is to sort the bugs by those that fly, under the sky blue arrow pointing up, and those that crawl, under the grass green arrow point down.

This tray allows children to practice their seriation skills, ability to order by size. 

This is one of the most popular trays for the children because it includes magnets. The child would use the magnet wand and test all the objects and place them under the correct card. 

On this tray is a printable I made for the children to use to match the object in relation to each other. For example, the fish and the water. There are brads and yarn for the child to use more fine motor skills to twist the yarn around the brad.

This tray task is having the children use their fine motor skills, which help prepare them for their handwriting skills, by using the tongs to transfer the rocks from the basket on the left to the basket on the right. Note: Activities should always have the child moving from left to right to prepare them for reading and writing, you would adjust this if you are in a country that reads from right to left :)!

Play-Doh is always a favorite for the kids, so why not make the learning fun! The child would use the play to form the letters of their name. 

This tray the child would practice their early writing skills by tracing this lines.

For the last tray, the children are practicing their seriation skills again!

Thank you for checking out this post :)!

-Ashley

Zoo Day

We have the best zoo in town for extending any lesson. Took the classroom outside today at the Brevard Zoo! If you are local and don't have an annual pass, then you need to go and get one! Best investment :)!

This turtle has been in the zoo since I was little! Great memories!

Checking out the Touch Tank! He is holding the hermit crab and the horseshoe crab! This is one of his favorite parts of the whole zoo!

Exploring the Petting Zoo! They are braver than me as I don't get that close to the alpacas :)!

Somebody found a new friend! The Brevard Zoo has an awesome meerkat enclosure! 

Thank you for supporting our page!

-Ashley

Dramatic Play -Grocery Store

This is to practice our healthy eating shopping experience. Mind you my son also helps us while shopping in the real grocery stores as well. We use the self check-out lane and he scans all of our items and uses my card to pay. This grocery store/lemonade stand is from Melissa & Doug along with food and shopping cart. Hanging to the side is my old Publix uniform from when I was a teenager. 

Close-up of the food and prices! If only this was real life!

Our Learning Resources cash register. I laminated the play money so it would last. Then we have our play credit card again from the samples in the mail.

Another angle of the store. We are still working on stocking our food shelves ;)!

Thank you for checking out our healthy shopping area!

-Ashley