News with Naylors

Watermelon Craft : I found this  Watermelon Craft  on Counting Coconuts. I cut two letter W's - one red and one green out of construction paper. Easton dipped his finger in black tempera paint and made seeds on our red W (see first picture below). When the paint dried, we glued the red W onto the top of our green W, making our letters resemble a Watermelon. Then, we glued our watermelon onto a piece of white card stock (see second picture below). Watermelon File Folder : I printed and made our  Watermelon File Folder  from Preschool Printables. To make this more fun, I hid the watermelon pieces (with seeds) around the room. Easton found a watermelon, counted the seeds and placed it on the corresponding number. Watermelon Cloud Dough : I found a tutorial for  Watermelon Moon Sand  on Growing a Jeweled Rose. However, I bought the wrong kind of sand, so this didn't work for us! I improvised and decided to try a version of Watermelon Cloud Dough....

Umbrella Craft : I've always wanted to use cupcake liners and pipettes for an art project and this was was a winner. Easton glued on cotton balls for the clouds and a cupcake liner (folded in half)/pipe cleaner for the umbrella. I filled a container with water and blue food coloring and Easton used a pipette to drip "rain drops" onto our art project. The inspiration for this project comes from a  similar idea  using craft glue for the rain drops from Family Crafts (second picture). Pretend Book Play : Easton came up with this idea on his own today - he LOVES to pretend play. After reading through our Umbrella Books from our Letter U Booklist, Easton re-enacting the stories using our plastic toy figures ( rainforest TOOB  for "The Umbrella" by Jan Brett and  Savannah TOOB  for "The Umbrella" by Ingrid & Dieter Schubert) and  drink umbrellas . This was Easton's favorite part of the day!  Umbrella Shape Puzzles : I found and...

Unicorn Shape Craft : I love this craft! Easton identified shapes as we glued them together and he helped me hole punch and string yarn through the holes to make hair. Easton played with his unicorn around the house for a while afterward.Click here for a  tutorial  from Sugar Aunts. Unifex Sort by Color : We did a lot with Unifex Cubes today! I chose five colors to sort. I presented the divider tray with one unifex cube in each section and Easton sorted the remaining unifex cubes. See picture below. This idea and most others below are from the Letter U Math Section on the measured mom blog. Unifex Counting Towers : We didn't do this, but I love this idea from Kindergarten Smarts  (see picture below). Identify the number and build a corresponding tower. Unifex Numbers (comparing sets) : This activity didn't last long. Easton placed the unifex cubes on their correct color and we made towers to see which one was taller (or had more cubes). We'd then count th...

1) N is for Nuts : Have your child glue nuts onto a letter N. 2) Sort Nuts  from The Measured Mom: We only sorted three different kinds of nuts - peanuts, almonds and walnuts. He didn't last long, but it was a good start on sorting and nut vocabulary. 3) Help the Squirrel : Easton loves to help "feed" animals, so this was a good activity for him. He was 20 months when we did this activity, so we only used numbers 1-3. He identified the number for me, and I helped him count three peanuts to place on the mat. "Look! You just fed the squirrel three nuts..one, two, three." Click the link to print  Free Counting Mats  from The Measured Mom. 4)  Fall Math Game  from the measured mom blog: Again, Easton was very little when we did the Letter N. These cards come in three different levels, so we only did the beginning level.

I found so many great train ideas. Choose from the following: Train Craft (Zoo Animals) : I've always loved Easton's handprint art, so I thought it would be fun to incorporate it into our train craft today. Easton really loved this craft! Here's what you need: Large white paper Black Marker (for the train tracks) Construction Paper (we used black, blue, purple and yellow) Washable Tempera Paint (we used blue, brown, yellow and black) Pom Poms & Clothes Pin (for the train wheels) Small Goggly Eyes 1. Draw train tracks on a piece of large white paper. 2. Cut out engine and three train carts from construction paper and have child help glue them onto your white paper. 3. Paint child's hand and stamp desired animals onto the train carts - we did an elephant, lion and giraffe at Easton's request. 4. Attach a pom pom into a clothes pin. Dip the pom pom in black paint and stamp your paper to make wheels. 5. Glue on goggly eyes. Other Train Craft ...

Choose from a variety of turtle activities: Turtle Shape Craft : I found this idea on the Letter T Crafts list on the measured mom blog. I taught Easton what a dome is (shell) and Easton identified the remaining shapes as we glued them on. Paper Plate Turtles : We had extra time today, so we made two paper plate turtles. Turtle #1 : Easton used Do-a-Dot Markers to stamp the dot colors on the first turtle shell. He loved stamping the colors together to make a new color - yellow and red make orange! I cut out the turtle head, arms, legs and tail from green construction paper which we glued onto the back of our paper plate. We topped it off with two goggly eyes.  Turtle #2 : Easton used different shades of green tissue paper for the second turtle shell. I put globs of glue on the plate and Easton chose which color of green to place on the shell. Again, I cut out the turtle head, arms, legs and tail from green construction paper which we glued onto the back of our paper plate...

Marbled Shark : We made Marbled Christmas Trees last month. I loved how our trees turned out, so I thought it would be fun to add a marbled craft onto our Letter of the Week series. You'll need a cookie sheet, shaving cream, acrylic paint (we used blue, washable liquid watercolors), a straw (we used a skewer stick), a popsicle stick and a piece of white card stock (I drew a shark image on ours beforehand) for this activity. After our marbled paper was dry, I cut the shark images out and glued them onto black card stock.  Click here for a tutorial. Shaving Cream/Shark Sensory Play : Once we were finished marbling our shark, we played with the colored shaving cream. We added our play sharks, a separate bin with water, and our play kitchen toys (measuring cups/spoons, spatula, whisk, etc). I'm glad we were in the bathtub for this activity! Shark Matching : I printed the remaining shark activities from a Shark Pack by 3 Dinosaurs. We started with a matching game. I pr...

1) Jar Stamping  from The Measured Mom: Easton really loved this activity! Two baby food jars Washable Tempera Paint (colors of choice) White Paper 2) Bugs in a Jar  from the Measured Mom: Print bugs and jar printable (from link provided) Large Die - from the dollar store  Have your child roll the die and add the same amount of bugs into the jar. 3) Jar Manipulatives from Lakeshore Learning: My kids both love these! These are great to practice find motor skills, colors and sorting. The set comes with three jars - buttons, pegs and foam shapes.  4) Tornado in a Jar : I showed Easton a few pictures of tornados online and explained a tornado in very simple terms. Easton and Connor loved watching the "tornado" spin. My husband was so intrigued when he got home, he had to gave it a whirl. Here's what you need: Water Bottle - 3/4 full of water Dish Soap Add a squirt of dish soap (around 1 tsp.) into a water bottle that is 3/4 ful...

1) Egg Stamping : Draw a block letter E on a piece of paper. Have your child dip the top or bottom half of some plastic eggs in tempera paint and stamped it onto your letter E. 2) Oviparous Egg Hunt from Preschool Mom: Before reading "Chickens Aren't the Only Ones" from our Letter E Booklist ask your child if he/she knows any animals that lay eggs? Read the book and do the activity afterward. You'll need: Oviparous Animals Pictures 15 Plastic Easter Eggs A Large Egg (cut from construction paper) Glue Stick Place the animal cards inside the eggs (one per egg) and hide the eggs around the room. Have your child go on a hunt for the eggs. Once he/she finds an egg, open it up and glue the picture onto your large egg. Talk about the animal. Repeat until all the eggs are found. 3) Egg Wiggle Game from Preschool Alphabet: This is a spin on charades. You'll need: Oviparous Animals Pictures Eggs, cut from card stock (you could also use foam e...