Our family goes on a lot of walks. Especially now that we have an adorable 2 year old dog. On these walks my daughters often find things that interest them and ask me to hold on to it. It could be a leaf, a little flower that fell, or even a wood chip! They love nature and never want to leave anything behind. We’d get home and I would have a handful of things that I didn’t know what to do with.
I wanted to encourage their exploring nature, so I made them magnifying glasses that would allow them to keep their little treasrues safe. They love looking into the magnifying glass to see what they can find as we walk around, and get so excited when they find something to stick to it.
What I really love about this magnifying glass is that it is a great way to teach your child about nature. They may see things through their magnifying glass that they can’t collect, but may be curious about. They will be full of questions as you walk around.
Here’s how we made our magnifying glasses.
What You’ll Need:
Cardboard
Sharpie
X-ACTO knife
Press’n Seal
Scissors
How To:
- Draw a magnifying glass onto the cardboard.
- An adult can use the X-ACTO knife to cut it out.
3. Place the magnifying glass onto press’n seal. Sticky side up.
4. Cut the press’n seal so that it is only behind the circle.
5. Cut a small circle in the middle of the press’n seal so your child can peek through to find their treasures. ( Look at the finished magnifying glass at the top of this post to see how to make the little circle)
That’s it! You can write on your magnifying glass, color it. Whatever you would like. I hope your little one enjoys playing with this as much as my daughters’ do.
Comment down below with your thoughts. Looking forward to hearing from you.
*Adult supervision is required*
When your mom is a teacher, you never know what is going to happen when you see her take out a muffin tin and some baking cups. She could be baking something delicious, OR she could be making a learning game. Today, I decided to save the baking for another day, and made a learning game instead. My daughters were slightly disappointed until they got to play the game. They were completely engaged which was nice to see and forgot all about baking. If you would like to see a video of them playing, visit my Instagram @thiscraftygirlmom
What You’ll Need:
Muffin tin
Baking cups
Marker
Pom poms (two different colors)
Index cards
How To:
So, for this game you can review any skill. Letter recognition, sounds, sight words, even math, to name a few. Today, we decided to review sight words.
- Write 12 sight words in marker on the baking cups and index cards.
- Place the baking cups in the muffin tin.
- Hand out the pom poms and place the index cards between both players.
- Each player gets a to pick a card and place their pom pom in the muffin tin that shows the same word. The first player to get three in a row wins!
I ended up writing all of the sight words for their age on a bunch of baking cups and index cards, and we kept switching them out. They played until we reviewed them all! Mom win for sure!
Sight Word Palm Tree
What I love about this sight word craft/activity is that it is completely personalized. Your child gets to use their handprints as leaves, and you can include only the words they really need to review on the coconuts. My daughters enjoyed tracing their hand and trying to figure out how to place the rectangles so it looked like the tree was leaning. They had a fun time which is a positive when they are completing a learning activity.
What You’ll Need
- Green, brown and white construction paper.
- Scissors
- Glue
How To:
- Trace your child’s hand and cut out the handprints.
- Cut out little rectangles to make the tree bark
- Cut out circles (coconuts).
- Write the sight words on the coconuts.
- Glue down the tree bark first onto the white paper, then add the handprints and coconuts.
You do not need to glue down the coconuts. Your child can simply place them on the leaves, say the word, and then remove them to work on new sight words as they learn more.
That’s it for today. I hope you like these activities. Comment down below. Looking forward to hearing your thoughts.
*Adult supervision is required*