News with Naylors

Xylophone Craft : After watching a Youtube video of someone playing a xylophone, we made the xylophone craft below. I would do a line of glue (to show Easton where to glue the pieces) and have Easton glue down the pieces himself. I let him decide where he wanted each of the colors. I thought it was so cute watching him pretend to play his xylophone with the mallets (picture one). Notice how we glued the mallets to make an "X" (picture two). Again, we hung this picture on the fridge to remember our letter this week. Xylophone Size Order & Color Sorting Activity : This activity teaches so many great things! I've been saving toilet paper and paper towel rolls for the entire month. I cut the rolls into different sizes and had Easton order them from smallest to biggest. Then he helped me tape strips of colored paper onto the toilet paper/paper towel rolls. You have to make sure the strips of paper you choose match the colors of pom poms you have. After taping on the ...

1)  Envelope Craft   from No Time for Flashcards: This was a fun way to review the Letter E. You'll need: Four  long envelopes   Crayons (markers would work as well) Glue Construction Paper (color of choice) Have your child color all four envelopes. Help your child glue the envelopes onto a piece of construction paper, making a letter E. Ask your child to identify the letter. 2)  Envelope Sorting  from Toddler Approved: I love this idea, because there are so many sorting options. We focused on colors, but you could also sort shapes, numbers, letters, animals, food groups, etc. My three loved pretending to be the mailman and sorting "letters" (construction paper squares, pictured in a bowl at the bottom of the page) into their matching envelopes. 3) Write a THANK YOU letter to the Mail Man from Preschool Alphabet:  Write "THANK YOU Mail Man!" on a piece of white paper and let your child decorate it with stickers, crayons, s...

Choose one of the following crafts: 1a)  Inchworm Craft  from Nancy Nolan's Kindergarten: Dip a green fork in green paint and stamp it on the bottom of your paper as grass. Dip a potato in green and yellow paint and stamp it in a line creating an inchworm. Glue on googly eyes. 1b) Nuudle Inchworm Craft :  White Paper Green Paper Toddler Safe Scissors Magic Nuudles Black Marker Cut a long strip of green paper to use as the grass. Have your child practice cutting small slits in the grass with a pair of toddler safe scissors.  Glue the grass onto the bottom of your white paper. Draw a black, curved line (resembling an inchworm) as a guide for your child to place the nuudles on.  Have your child dip a nuudle in water and stick it on the black line on your paper. (picture to come) 2) The Inchworms Home  from Sugar Aunts: This is a great fine motor exercise! Empty Parmesan Cheese container (green can) Straws Cut th...

Farm Magnets : We used these on our refrigerator, but you could also use a magnetic cookies sheet. Here are some ideas to do with these magnets: Name all the items and talk about the animal sounds. A lot of Pretend Play. Sing Old MacDonald while placing an animal on the fridge. Form the Letter F with the animals. Sort the animals (big & small, wings & no wings, white & colored, etc.) Count the animals (ie: how many animals are by the barn?" Place the animals in size order from smallest to biggest 2)  Farm Animals and their Byproducts  from Joyfully Weary: Watch "What do you get from that?"  and do this activity. Easton wasn't in the mood to do it, so we moved on. I think it would help to use toy animals instead of the animal picture cards. We'll try again another day! 3) A Day in the Farm Activity Stations: Talk about what farmers do in the day with these farm activity stations. I'll place our farm beanie babies in a basket an...

1)  Fishbowl Craft  from Walking by the Way: I found this idea on the Letter F Crafts list on the Measured Mom blog. I knew we had to do it the second I saw it! Here's what you need: White Paper Black Marker Tempera Paint - Blue & Red Foam Brush Paintbrush Glue 1/2 cup of cornmeal Goggly Eye Use a black marker to draw a large fish bowl on a piece of white paper. Have your child use a foam brush to paint the entire paper blue. Let the paint dry overnight. Option: Use blue construction paper instead of painting the fish bowl. Paint your child's hand red and help him/her stamp hand in the fishbowl. In a small bowl, use a paintbrush to mix together 1 tablespoon elmer's glue and 1/3 cup water (this is an estimate) to form a paste. Paint the paste on the bottom of the fish bowl. Help your child dump cornmeal onto the wet paste. Move the paper from side to side until the paste is completely covered in cornmeal. Glue on the goggly eye. 2)  Fishy ...

Fizzing Candy Canes : The first picture below is where I got the inspiration for our project. Click here for a tutorial of fizzing candy canes . Of course, we didn't have candy canes today, but we did have a lot of peppermint candies. I used a muffin pan and filled each tin with baking soda (snow) and peppermint candies. Then, I filled three plastic cups with vinegar and used food coloring to color the vinegar - blue, red and green. We initially used a medicine dropper to fill with vinegar and squirt into the baking soda. After a while, we just poured the cup of vinegar into the baking soda. Easton kept wanting to do more and more. We'll just say baking soda and vinegar are on my grocery shopping list.  Easton LOVED this. See the bottom picture to see the fun we had today. Candy Cane Color Matching : We did some color matching today. I found the candy cane color matching, size ordering and numbers from the same Christmas Pack. Click here to print . Candy Ca...

We had extra time today, so we did a few more things than normal. Today was a lot of fun! Easton was so interested, we spent over an hour and a half doing these activities. The following ideas are all from the Letter P activities on the Measured Mom blog. Prickly Porcupine : We watched a little youtube video on porcupines today, so Easton knew what they looked like and about their quills. Afterward, we glued our porcupine body onto a piece of white card stock and used a plastic fork to stamp brown paint onto our porcupine. Click the title "Prickly Porcupine" for a tutorial. (Easton's Porcupine) Pom Pom Painting & Color Sorting : There are so many ideas online of activities to do with Pom Poms . I bought a set from the Dollar Store and we used them to paint today (see first picture below). We used a clothes pin to hold the pom pom in place. Next, we did a color sorting activity with pom poms. I found a set of colored bowls at Ikea and they happen to match ...

1)  Tissue Paper Duck  from The Measured Mom: I thought this craft is adorable. You can find and print a  duck outline by clicking on the title "Tissue Paper Duck". You could glue on white feathers instead of tissue paper if you'd like. Here's what you need: Yellow Construction Paper w/duck outline Goggly Eye Orange Beak White Tissue Paper - we bought ours at the Dollar Store Elmer's Glue 2) "Where's the Duck?" Color Game: I think Easton will love this game! You could use this activity with a magnet board or flannel board, but it would be just as fun on the floor. You'll need: Paper Duck Cut Out Colored Paper or Colored Flannel Sheets (choose 6 or more different colors to review) Black Marker Use a marker to draw a barn on each piece of colored paper - it can be a simple door and window. Lay the barns on the floor and hide the duck under one of the barns, without your toddler watching. You can lay out two barns or as man...

Turkey Craft : I found the cutest idea on Pinterest for a Turkey Craft. I love using Easton's handprints in crafts, so I'm sure that's why I love it so much.   Click here for a tutorial. Turkey Feather Matching Game : This is one of my favorite math Thanksgiving activities. It's great for a variety of levels - it comes with numbers 1-10 and 11-20. Kids can match number to number or quantity to number. This would be a great file folder activity. Click here to print.   Turkey Size Ordering : I printed and cut out the turkeys pictured below. Easton is able to order the turkeys from biggest to smallest with some help. I laid all the turkeys out in front of Easton and asked, "Which on is the biggest?" And we set it at the top of our art table. "Now which one is the biggest?" And we set it next to the one at the top of the table. We continued doing this until he ordered all of them. Click here to print this activity from a Thanksgiving Tot ...