Here in the USA, Thanksgiving is almost upon us! There are so many different winter holidays celebrated around the world. Around here Thanksgiving and Christmas is about good food, family, and friends. Thanksgiving is a lot though. My husband and I have several different family members' houses to go to during Thanksgiving. We have to pace ourselves because several different places to visit also means several different Thanksgiving meals! It is wonderful having the time to visit family because we don't always get to see them as often as we should.

This year I got inspired by a Pinterest recipe. I was going to make pumpkin cheese cake pops.  Of course, I had to try these out first, and they turned out to be a Pinterest fail! How many people have had Pinterest fails?  Nailed it, am I right?! That didn't stop me though! I decided to chill the filling and put the filing in waffle cone bowls. This turned out great! I have my Thanksgiving recipe after all.  It turned out so great that I am going to share the recipe with you. This recipe is easy enough to get kids involved too!

No Bake Pumpkin Cheese Cake Waffle Cup Treats

Ingredients:
1 tub of Philadelphia No Bake Cheese Cake Filling
1 can of pumpkin
pumpkin pie spice
cinnamon
a bag of semi sweet baking chocolate
Graham Crackers
waffle cone bowls

Directions:
Scoop cheese cake filling and pumpkin into a mixing bowl. Mix with a mixer until blended well.  Scoop the mixture into a large container. Place in the fridge to chill for several hours. While the mixture is chilling, scoop several handfuls of chocolate into a microwave safe bowl. Microwave the chocolate until melted but not burnt. Take the mixture out of the fridge. Use an ice cream scoop to scoop the mixture into the waffle cone bowls. Spoon some chocolate over the mixture that is in the bowls. Take a Graham cracker, and place it in a Ziploc baggie. Crush the cracker; sprinkle the cracker over a cheese cake waffle cup treat. Continue crushing and sprinkling Graham crackers over treats until all of the treats have Graham cracker toppings. Grab some spoons; serve!

I feel passionately about art and creativity, so I would like to take a moment to speak about open ended art and process art versus cookie cutter arts and crafts. What is cookie cutter art? It is when you give children an art or craft project to do, but you do not allow for creativity. It is when all of the children's art looks the same; the art looks like it was created from the same mold AKA cookie cutter.  Why do adults hoover over children to make sure that they are creating something that looks like the example? Why do adults sometimes even do children's art for them? Isn't the main goal of art to be CREATIVE? How are children being creative in these situations? So what is open ended art? Open ended art is art that is created with a variety of materials. Give children access to a wide variety of material; allow children to use these material to create whatever they wish. What is process art? Process art is playing around with different art materials in order to understand the process of art; it does not focus on a finished product. It is very important for young children to explore and to experiment with different art materials before they begin thinking about actual art projects to create to completion. Process art many times also allows children access to sensory experiences. Sensory experiences are very important in early childhood.

Are crafts bad? Is showing an example bad? Is themed art bad? Not at all! 

Part of the reason I feel so passionately about allowing children to be creative in art is because that I love being artistic myself; the other reason is that I have studied Early Childhood Education, and I understand the importance of open ended art and process art. I don't have much artistic talent, but I LOVE playing around with art. I've created art AND I've done crafts. My house is decorated with bottles that I have spray painted or food coloring and mod podge painted; that is crafty. However, no one told me how I must craft these bottles; I enjoyed the creative process! I would hate it if someone told me how I MUST create my crafts; I would especially hate it if someone told me how I MUST create my art!

You can still be creative with a craft.  I love doing crafts especially for holidays. When I do crafts with children, I always allow for as much creativity as possible. I will show them an example of the craft. I will answer any questions they may have. I will also tell them that they may use other materials that are NOT on my example. I will also encourage them to make the craft their own! What about a theme? I always have a theme for each day; that theme is carried over into math, literacy, dramatic play, etc., and ART. Guess what? Process art can be themed, but don't be upset if the children choose not to follow your theme. It is their art, and it is their choice. Suggest a theme; if the children decide to create according to your theme, that is wonderful! If they decide to create something completely different, that is wonderful as well! If they do not have a finished product, that is perfectly fine! Don't allow your craft or themed art project to be the only art for the day. Always allow access to open ended art materials for maximum creativity even when you have projects for arts and crafts. As long as children are experimenting with art, being creative, and being unique, they are being artists!

What is the lesson here? Crafts are wonderful! Themed art is wonderful! Cookie-cutter, exactly the same, copycat arts and crafts is not so wonderful. Just remember to allow for an abundance of creativity!

This bumpy pumpkin was created by adding salt to paint. We used acrylic paint for this art project, but you can also use tempera paints. This was a themed art project, but it had a textural element and allowed for creativity.

This monster was created by giving a child access to various art supplies. It was open ended art! Crayons, googly eyes, pipe cleaner, pom-poms, glitter, glue, and tape were used to create this amazing monster!

This picture of heart and butterflies was created by giving a child access to water color pens.

This totally creative work of art was created by a child using markers and glitter.

These trees were created by using white and pastel colored crayons. The artist gave herself smiley faces for a job well done! All art deserves smiley faces in my opinion.

This is process art! This art is bubble art.  Bubble art is created by adding food coloring to bottles of bubbles. Next, you blow bubbles onto paper. What a cool effect!

More process art! This is marble art. To create marble art, place a piece of paper into a foil tray, add dots of paint to the paper, place a marble in the tray, and move the tray allowing the marble to roll around. Another wonderful effect created by experimenting with materials!

This string art was created by dipping several strings into different colors of paint. The strings were moved along the paper.

All three of these string art creations were created by the same five year old. These were created by dipping string in paint, placing the string between two papers, placing a book on top, and pulling the string out from between the papers. This five year old decided to experiment with different amounts of paint on the string and different papers to create different and unique effects.

If you are looking for lessons that include creative art, process art, or open ended art, all of my lesson plans include creative art. Check out the links below.

This blog is going to be short and sweet, but I just wanted all my lovely readers to know that I am now on Tip the Teacher! This is an Australian based website that allows educators to upload teaching resources, blogs, links and more to share with other educators. Tip the Teachers allows educators to give advice to each other, and allows educators to receive gift card tips as well. Tips are a great way to help fellow teachers, but I think that the advice tips are the best. I am always looking to draw advice from teachers. It is yet another way to connect with fellow educators! I love when I see websites/companies looking out for teachers as well. This website is doing a great thing by supporting teachers!

I love Teachers Pay Teachers and TES resources, and I am so happy to have found yet another way to connect with others! The more platforms that I use for my resources, the more of a chance there is that teachers will find my resources; the more of a chance they will get more of what they need!  Since Tip the Teacher is Australian based also, I am uploading my resources mainly according to their seasons because most of my resources are seasonal.  Of course, Australian educators can also look on my Teachers Pay Teachers and TES shop for their seasonal resource needs, and American, Canadian, Latin American, European, etc. teachers can follow me on Tip the Teacher and download from there as well. However, I thought listing my products according to seasons in another area would be helpful; they will be listed more in the order that they are needed. It's wonderful to be able to connect with educators all over the world! I can not wait to see what other educators have to offer on Tip the Teacher have as well!

Right now, I have $1 to $3 spring resources as well as a $1 owl resource on Tip the Teacher, but look for FREEBIE resources from me soon; I will have my freebies up on this website too!

Click the links at the bottom to check out Tip the Teacher.

It's getting so close to fall!  Children and teachers have just started back to school, or they are going to start back soon. It's still hot here, but the nights are getting cool.  Fall is on the way!  I love fall.  I love pumpkins, pumpkin spice, apple cider, fall clothes, fall leaves, bonfires, and the lovely fall weather. What do you love about fall?

My kiddos love engaging in fall activities too. The pumpkin patch is always a favorite! We love painting pumpkins, and also Halloween is such a fun time that happens to be in the fall. Of course kids love Halloween! Leading up to Halloween, there are so many fun activities you can do!  So what can you do for fall themes for September? Do activities about trees, fall leaves, owls, bears, hibernation, pumpkins, apples, and more! Create fall tree activity boards. Create fall themed lacing cards. 

I'll link my fall resources below if you would like to see if any will be helpful for you. My kiddos and I are so excited that fall will be here soon! I hope you have a lovely fall, and I hope these activities help you prepare for fun learning with your own kiddos!

Our pumpkins from another year. This was taken before the glue dried of course, but they turned out lovely! 

Click on the links below for some awesome, hands on fall activities!

Schools will start back in just a week around here! For those educators who are getting ready for back to school, I'm sharing a few stories, tips, and resource links!

I hope you have been enjoying the summer! I had my girls for a sleepover last weekend. We had so much fun! It's important for educators and children to enjoy the summer break; make the most of it! We created lasers with ribbons; the  girls crawled under and tried to avoid the "lasers." We experimented with art supplies. We played games; Candy Land is a classic and a favorite with us! We took a trip to the library. The girls picked out a Sponge Bob book. I'm not thrilled about Sponge Bob books, BUT it was their pick. It is important that children pick out their own books sometimes. If they are to get excited about reading, then they must be read to from books that interest them. I added This is the Sun Or is it? to our reading too for a bit more educational reading. How else did we spend our Blast Before School Starts Back sleepover? We made chocolate chip muffins of course! Believe it or not, this was more than just fun before school begins; the girls were also engaging in skills that are helpful in preparing them for back to school. They were engaging in gross motor activities. They were using critical thinking skills. They were following directions, listening to stories, taking turns, and engaging in many social skills. Whether you have students entering your classroom who have had practice with these skills or students who need a lot of practice with these skills, you can create a learning environment and goals to help students on every level. You can meet children where they are; you can set each child up for success. You, dear lady or sir, are an educational rock star! Read on for back to school tips!

Ready for back to school tips?
My tip #1 Don't stress! Enjoy as much of the summer as you can, but be excited about back to school. You are getting ready to embark on an adventure with a new set of children. It is another chance to be a wonderful influence and to impact children!

#2 Be as prepared as you can be. Have decorations for your room that are welcoming, warm, and inviting. Create a classroom space that will be pleasant to you and your students. I always get a bit overwhelmed by overstimulating rooms. Remember, you will likely have children with autism, ADHD, learning disabilities, etc. Also, all children benefit from stimulating but not OVER stimulating environments! Prepare to meet the needs of all children in your classroom. A little less is more sometimes.

#2 Think of some easy first week activities that will help the children transition well. Some suggestions that I have are to do getting to know you games, do all about me activities, have parents send family photos for their children to ease the transition, and read books about school, friends, and families. Start planning a few activities! If you want to wait until school is just about in session to plan, that is fine; I would at least start writing down a few ideas though!

#3 Have things that will help you stay organized. Stock up on labels, calendars, dry erase boards and dry erase markers, binders, storage bins, etc.

#4 Write or type up a procedures plan. What basic school rules and procedures do you want your students to learn? The two priorities of the beginning of school year are smooth transitions and learning rules and procedures. You want children to feel comfortable and transition well, and you also want them to learn what is expected in school. Focus on teaching rules and procedures the first few weeks. After the first few weeks, begin to focus on your lessons. If you get procedures taught from the very beginning, you will not have to reteach this all throughout the year. Let's face it; Early Childhood children will have to be taught classroom rules over and over; they will have to be reminded, but getting them used to the rules early on will set everyone up for a successful year. There should be less need to remind if rules are established early.

#5 Take advantage of open house. Every school is different. You might not get to get to know parents and children very much during open house, but connect with them as much as you are able!

#6 Have a good mindset! You have got this! You are an amazing educator! Remember why you got into education in the first place. You have the tools within you to educate and to be a positive role model for young children. You can help set your students up for success. There will most certainly be bad days, but think about the good to come! The school years are FILLED with good things.

I'm including a scholastic article for you to read as well for more tips! Some of the tips mirror some of my own, but some are different tips. It's helpful to read things put in a different way anyway. Click the link below if you want to read more helpful tips. The article is entitled How to Prep for the Start of the School Year by Jill White.

If you are interested in some back to school activities that might be helpful to you, click the links below.

Check out Back to School Cootie Catchers by Brighter Day Classrooms.

The product description says:
"Using cootie catchers to get students interact with each other and to help them get to know their classmates better is always a great idea, so why not use them as a back to school activity?

These “Back to School Cootie Catchers” are a fun ice breaker and team building activity. They will get your students interact and learn fun facts about each other!


This file includes:
- 3 different cootie catchers (each has 8 questions for a total of 24)
- Color and black and white copies (your students can color the black and white cootie catchers, after they are done with all the questions)
- 2 blank templates to make your own review games (one color and one black and white)
- Instructions on how to fold cootie catchers"

Check out my Back To School Bundle. You can get this as an entire bundle, or you may click on whichever resource you need to just download that resource.  This bundle includes posters and bookmarks, Families lesson plan, and Back to School Packet.

The All About Me Back to School Packet has many fun back to school activities. These activities will be a great way for children to ease into the school year while you get to know a bit about them and they about the other children. Let children engage in these many All About Me, Getting To Know You, and Back to School activities!

Snag a few FREEBIES!  Get some planners to help you stay organized!

Do you need even more back to school resources? As someone who offers resources on TpT and TES, and as someone who uses TpT and TES to find resources regularly, I highly recommend those sites to you of course. However, I also constantly search the internet and browse various sites to find great resources. As an educator, I take advantage of SO MANY different avenues to help with my resource needs. Another site worth looking into is education.com. I'm providing two FREE worksheet resources from education.com. If you have older students or Kindergarten students who need to get used to worksheets, these will be great resources for you! The worksheets come with fun graphics; there are no boring worksheets for students here. I just love the cheerful back to school kid graphic on these! Education.com has more than just worksheets; they also provide online games, guided lessons, lesson plans, hands on activities, and SONGS! Check out the free resources below which are provided in PDF to download, and click on the links to check out other resources education.com has to offer.  Good luck with ALL your back to school needs!

Parents, I'd like to share some tips with you! I have tips on avoiding the summer slide, and I have tips on how to engage your preschoolers in meaningful play over the summer in order to prepare them for Kindergarten. First, have you heard of the summer slide? Educators have been made aware of it, and I would like to pass what knowledge I have on the subject on to you. The summer slide is previous learning that is lost during the summer. So how much learning does your child forget over the summer? There is debate about that, and the research is continuing. However, it is known that there is definitely learning loss during the summer months.

According to NWEA, analyzing MAP Growth Assessment data can give some insight into the summer slide. From this data, "it appears that summer learning loss is fairly stable in terms of RIT points across grade levels.
But a more sobering trend is the pace of summer learning loss, which we calculated by estimating the ratio of summer loss to school-year gains for each grade. In the summer following third grade, students lose nearly 20 percent of their school-year gains in reading and 27 percent of their school-year gains in math. By the summer after seventh grade, students lose on average 36 percent of their school-year gains in reading and a whopping 50 percent of their school-year gains in math. In other words, summer learning loss increases with age through elementary and middle school – a troubling trend that should be examined further." --NWEA Summer Learning Loss: What We Know and What We’re Learning

Click the link below to read more about what NWEA has to say about the summer slide.

So now that you know that children lose learning over the summer, what can you do about it? Don't worry; there are things you can do to combat the summer slide! And most of this also applies to children preparing for Kindergarten as well.

Tip #1 KEEP READING!
Encourage your children to read, and you read to them! Let your children pick out books that are interesting to them. Take trips to the library. If your library offers a summer story hour, take advantage of that; take your children to story hour. By fostering a love for reading, you help along continual learning. Reading will help children prepare for Kindergarten as well as curb that pesky summer slide for older children.

Tip #2 ENGAGE YOUR CHILDREN!
Ask your children what their interests are. Create fun learning games based on their interests. Lots of fun, engaging learning activities can be found online. I will link a few suggestions at the end.
Take learning outdoors! Take trips to the museums and aquariums. Go to the park, and incorporate learning there. Make art, history, science, and math fun and hands-on!
Sign your children up for community activities in order to keep them socializing over the summer. Socialization is as important as academics. Children should be engaging in whole child learning. This means that ALL of their skills should continue to be developed.

Tip #3 REVIEW WITH YOUR CHILDREN!
Review whatever your children were learning during the school year. Remember those fun games that I mentioned earlier? Do more games with your children that focus on review work. They should be less likely to forget what they have learned if they are reviewing it in a fun way. For your preschoolers going into Kindergarten, you mainly want to focus on social emotional and self help skills, but you also want to review other preschool skills.

Tip #4 DON'T FORGET ABOUT THE POWER OF PLAY!
When children explore their world, investigate things, ask questions, and get messy while playing, they are actively learning! Maria Montessori said that "play is the work of the child." While electronics are important in the world we live in today, don't forget to limit screen time; make time for active play! Play is actually essential to learning especially in early childhood. Even older children learn best from hands on activities. Allow your children to have an active summer!

Have fun this summer, and have a wonderful upcoming school year as well!

Check out the following links for activities ideas. Some of these are free activities!

Empathy and Kindness Bundle -- Activities, Task Cards and Posters by Brighter Day Classroom

According to the product description, "by teaching our students to be conscious of other people’s feelings, we are encouraging tolerance, and kindness; contributing to their mental health; promoting social harmony; and reducing the likelihood of bullying.
By fostering empathy in the classroom, we are developing a more accepting, and respectful school community."

Examples included in the bundle:- Emotions Collage - a creative and fun way to learn different emotions and how we express them, with the help of our body language and facial expressions.

- Match and Draw - with the following feelings and emotions: happy / bored / surprised / exhausted / angry.
- Animals and Emotions - this activity will help children understand that animals also express emotions. It will also help them to develop an attitude of respect towards them.
- Body Language - children will learn that emotions can be communicated through body language and facial expressions.
- Coloring Pages
- Kindness inspires Kindness - 45 task cards that will inspire children to be kind, and to give back to society. It will also promote their mental health, while developing their social skills.
- Positive thinking cards - a lovely activity to start each day with a positive attitude.
- RAK Chart - great way to keep track of childrens Random Acts of Kindness.
- Smiles in a Box - a fun way to stimulate children´s creativity, while allowing them to make someone else´s day better.
- Helping Others - this activity will challenge children to pick up an item of their own and to donate it to charity. It includes a poster that can be used to decorate the classroom.
- Put yourself in their shoes - the activity includes 5 different situations. They will help children gain a deeper understanding of empathy by allowing them to put themselves in someone else´s shoes.
- How do they feel? - this set includes 32 task cards. Children are asked to respond to each situation, using kind words that would make that person feel good.

This next resource is FREE, and can be adjusted to fit any age child.  This is a checklist.  Engage with your children and find out their favorite things, their current likes and interests, what they enjoy about school; after you check off these things, set goals for the upcoming school year!
Check out Target Setting and Back To School by Cre8tive Curriculum!

I'm excited to share my sand recipes with you! This is a FREE resource that includes a science observation page. My kiddos love experimenting with science and sensory projects! I'm sure your children will enjoy these recipes as well. Put some science in action this summer.

Here is another freebie from me.  Create storyboards with your children!

Check out my Kindergarten Readiness Checklist!

Here is a link to a great summer fine motor skill practice activity!

And finally, check out this fun play-doh mat!

Follow me on social media, and sign up to my newsletter for updates and freebies!

On my last blog, I told you that I was excited to create Ocean Adventures Play-dough mats. I told you that I planned on printing some to use with the children in my care, and I would update you on how this activity went. Well, it went so well! We used three of the MANY pages. We plan to use more pages for even more Play-Doh fun! These children absolutely love Play-Doh, so they had a blast creating when I gave them even more options with these mats! Some of my mats are black and white, and some are very colorful and vibrant. The children LOVED the colorful fish and the bright purple octopus, but they also loved the black and white mermaids because there was SO much room for creativity with that one. They were following the directions and practicing fine motor skills, but they were also being creative. My kiddos were doing what we do best; they were learning through play. They probably didn't even realize they were learning to follow one to two step directions and improving fine motor skills. All they realized was this was a fun activity.

Here's a tip for you too; if you aren't able to laminate these mats, use page protectors. That's what I had to do. I will eventually laminate them, but I didn't have any laminator plastic left. Page protectors saved the day; they allowed us to do the activity while protecting the pages. Now we can do this activity over and over whenever we want because the pages are protected by plastic covers. Whether you choose to laminate or use page protectors, just make sure you save the pages for future use! If you want some of your own Play-Doh mats, click the link below to download.  Want even better news? Starting July 5th until August 1st, my entire TPT store will be 30% off excluding dollar deals. I will also have an even better deal on my bundles; I plan to have a summer bundle available by July 3rd, and my spring and summer bundle will be 50% off from July 5th until August 1st! This will be a wonderful deal that you don't want to miss because my bundles are already discounted; 50% off of an already discounted price won't happen too often.

Enjoy your summer!  My next blog will be very in depth. I am collaborating with other teacher authors to write about avoiding the summer slide and preparing your preschoolers for Kindergarten. Look for this very helpful blog for parents on JULY 1st!

Hello fellow educators!  Happy Teacher Appreciation!  I remember teaching preschool.  I gave so much of myself.  I loved, loved my career.  I loved teaching and loved the children.  However, many days it was so much!  It was so very heartwarming when children made gifts, parents sent gifts or cards, or just said "We really appreciate all you do."  The gifts were nice, but the kind words were the best!  It is always wonderful to be told you are appreciated!
Educators everywhere, I appreciate YOU! Thank you for all you do to educate AND care for the children.

What is also great? Things that help in your classroom!  Gifts and deals for the classroom was always appreciated.  When I began in home child care and all money for the children came out of my pocket, I appreciated donations even more.  Well, I have a deal for you Early Childhood educators.  If you need a deal on resources for the rest of the school year, teachers pay teachers is having a teacher appreciation sale tomorrow and Wednesday.  Everything in my store will be 25% off including my top sellers, dollar deals and my bundles!  My spring bundle is already at a discount so this sale would be the perfect opportunity to grab it.  Summer resources will be available by tomorrow as well.

I know I will be going through my wish list and purchasing things for the children in my care.  Being able to get new hands-on resources is always so great!

Truly, thank you for all you do! I've been there; I'm still there. I have to admit part time is less stressful.  Those of you that teach full time and even you part timers like me, you are doing such a great and important job!  Keep up the good work!

Mother's Day will be here before long! How are you celebrating this special day? I'm not a mother myself though I hope to be some day. I'm not going to go into the struggles here in this blog. I know one of the purposes of my blog is to open up to my readers. However, I don't want to open up on this subject too much other than to say, I shall see what the future holds; there are always options to be explored.

Those of you who are mothers, treasure that! What a wonderful experience it must be! I do feel motherly towards the children in my care, and I feel blessed to be a part of their lives.

It is so sweet when children make something special for their loved ones on holidays such as Mother's Day. I love the sweetness of the children as they show their Mothers or caregivers their gifts, and I love to see mom or grandma or whoever is the recipient's face light up with such love.  It is a privilege to share the joy with these families.

This Mother's Day, I will be celebrating with my sister and my mother and grandmother. We will probably go out to eat somewhere of my mother and grandmother's choosing. Of course, we will give gifts. My mother and grandmother both love their gardens; they love planting flowers. I don't share this green thumb! My sister and I usually get mom a flower to plant on Mother's Day for this reason. Sometimes we get something different, but she really loves her flowers.

 In honor of Mother's Day, I have several Mother's Day activities on my teachers pay teachers and TES shop. I have cards, bookmarks, etc. If you haven't thought of things for your students or your own young children to make for Mother's day, these are sweet activities if I do say so myself!

I love literacy!  I love reading.  My favorite genre is historical fiction, and my favorite author is Philippa Gregory.  I guess I'm a bit obsessed with British royal history romanticized, but these books are seriously so good!

Literacy is so important.  Right?!  I can not imagine if I weren't able to read books.  Literacy is something a lot of people take for granted.  Not everyone is graduating from high school being literate.  Not every child has access to books at home.  Educators, such as myself, need to make sure children are getting various literacy opportunities.  Give the children access to books!  Read with them!  Make learning letters and words fun; create literacy games!  One of our favorite literacy games is sight words blocks.  I write sight words on blocks using dry erase markers, and the children match up the letters to create sight word matches.  Sometimes the children use dry erase markers to write their own sight words on the blocks.  You can see the game pictured above.  Fun games help sight words stick in their minds better than just reading sight words.  Next, we find sight words we know in books.  The kids are so excited when they read a word they have learned!  I also read to them all the time.  You can see our lovely bookshelf pictured above; it holds just a portion of our beloved books.  Do you see Where the Wild Things Are in the bookshelf picture?  That was one of my favorite books as a child, and I love reading it to the children in my care!  I love passing my love of literacy on to children.

I am happy to announce that I will be participating in #loveliteracy sale on Teachers Pay Teachers.  My Baby Animals booklet will be on sale!  It will be 25% off the regular $2 price.  The sale will be a one day only sale on April 15th!  Look for more #loveliteracy sales on Teachers Pay Teachers on the 15th of every month.  Please consider my booklet as well as the literacy resources the other wonderful teacher authors have to offer.  Share the love of literacy with your children!