Preschool Treasure Maps


Well, this turned out to be a little bit of work on my part, but it was my own fault.  I was trying to be lazy, but my four year old would not have it.

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5 Ways to Celebrate Ice Cream Month Preschool Style

July is National Ice Cream Month and we're such big fans that we've been celebrating all month year long. 

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Kid's Co-op: 5 Ways to Play with Sand and Mud (including making your own!)

There's nothing my kids like more than making a mess and last week's Kid's Co-op was full of great ideas for messy sensory play!  Check out these fun ways to play with mud and sand (even if you don't have any mud or sand.  These ladies are that awesome!):


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6 Things You're Already Doing to Help Your Child Become a Better Reader


We parents often don't give ourselves enough credit.  We are teaching our kids all the time.  Even when we don't realize it.  For example, the other day I overheard my two year old tell my four year old that he was pissing her off.  I'll have to tell my husband to watch his language.  Ahem.  Anyway...

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Dissolving Rocks


We recently checked out the Kids' Guide to Building Cool Stuff from the library.  It's got eleven fun projects that kids can do.  When my four year old pages through it he says, "Can we do that?!" for almost every one.  The projects are fairly easy to do and don't require anything too fancy, but mostly they are FUN!  The results of most of the activities are impressive enough that it would hold the interest of an older child but not so complex that preschoolers can't make a significant contribution to them.  This book would make a great gift for those boys that are hard to buy for.  The only critisim I have is that they didn't really include the scientific explanation and when you've got a four year old always wanting to know why, that comes in pretty handy!

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Ice Cream Sandwich Sharks



One of our favorite books is Shark Trouble!  Jess and George are two little chimps stuck on two different islands, Banana Island and Coconut Island.  They'd like to be together, but the ocean between them contains sharks who thwart all their efforts to cross the water while singing:

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Magic Beans


The most amazing thing happened the other day.  We were reading our copy of Jack & the Beanstalk when I suddenly remembered seeing a packet of magic beans in our junk drawer.

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Scissor Practice and a Red Ripe Strawberry: July Virtual Book Club


In preparation for the July Summer Virtual Book Club, I checked out lots of Don and Audrey Wood's books from the library, but the one that the kids asked me to read over and over was The Little Mouse, the Red Ripe Strawberry, and the Big Hungry Bear.  In fact, they had it memorized in the first four days we had it. The narrator follows a little mouse who is going to pick a red, ripe strawberry.  The narrator warns the mouse that the big hungry bear loves red ripes strawberries and will come looking for it no matter how the mouse tries to hide, disguise, or guard it. The narrator tells the mouse that the only way to keep himself safe from the bear is to cut the strawberry in half so they can share it. 

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Ice Cream Play Dough

Since we had so much fun with our ice cream literacy and math, we checked out another ice cream book from the library by one of our favorite authors, Mo Willems.   Should I Share My Ice Cream? is an Elephant and Piggie book in which Gerald must decide if he should share his ice cream with Piggie.

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Kid's Co-op: 10 NEW Takes on Summer Classics!

From bubbles to playgrounds to sidewalk chalk, there were lots of new takes on classic summer activities in last week's Kid's Co-op!  

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Alphabet Hunt and Match

My kids love to look for things, so we set out to look for the alphabet.

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Natural Ice Boats

When I first saw ice boats made with drinking straws and paper sails, I knew my kids would love them.  But since we wanted to float them on a lake, I had to come up with a way to make them that wouldn't leave litter behind.

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Kid's Co-op: Free and Cheap Books!

I loved all the ideas shared last week.  I especially liked these ideas for building your library with free and cheap books!

KC Edventures shared an awesome list of resources for finding free childen's books online, including books for the iPad, Kindle, Nook and laptop.  And also some great finds for audio books and online videos!
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Handprint American Flags


My son brought home this adorable 4th of July shirt from preschool.

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Summer Virtual Book Club Author for July!

Some of my favorite kid bloggers have teamed up to host the Summer Virtual Book Club.  Each month we choose a different author, read at least one of his or her books, and do an activity relating to the book.  Then we celebrate with a big link party.  We hope you'll join us!!  If you missed the Mo Willems link up in June, you have to check out all the amazing ideas that were shared! 

We have more than 20 blogs participating, so not only will your blog get great exposure, but you'll also get lots of ideas to keep your kids excited about reading this summer!  Are you ready?....

The authors for July are Don and Audrey Wood!  The link up will happen on July 16, so pick your favorites and get started!


(And if you like to plan ahead, the author for August is Kevin Henkes.)



JuneSummerVirtualBookClub

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