Preschool Resources

Looking for good Preschool-Kindergarten teaching resources?

 I was and am so excited with all I found.

The teacher in my has been itching for these years to come and now with a very interested 4 year old, we have started Preschool.  

He loves it and he loves "practicing" at home.  

So I have searched all over the internet and Pinterest to find free and quality printables for Toddlers, Preschool and Kindergarten work.

And these were some of my favorites. 

Oopsey Daisy Blog 

This Site is full of great Learning Packets.  They include printables, activities, songs, snacks, and so much more.  It plans everything for you!

1 Plus 1 Plus 1 Equals 1 

has a For Tots page, with great resources. The Totally Tots section is full of printables and units for every letter and lots of fun themes.

Confessions of a Slacker Mom 

This site has tons of great printable units full of worksheets that also integrate religion.

Preschool Printables from Owens Family-Gwyn

has creative printables from books, by season, and topic. It makes planning the year simple and fun.

Preschool Alphabet  

This site has great printables and units, as well as, a year plan, with calendars and simple lesson plans already laid out.

Living Life Intentionally 

has tons of fun free preschool packs.  All types of homeschooling ideas.  It is an excellent resource.

Confessions of a Homeschooler.  

Her title says it best.  She has all kinds of great ideas and printables, with plenty of experience.

Mine for the Making  

a great site with lots of toddler and preschool printables.

Wild About Teaching 

has fun printables, projects, book based lessons for free.

But she also offers Large Packets for purchase.

Creative Preschool Resources 

great collections of printables.  Fun units with letter practice, sorting, cutting, numbers and much more.

Super Mom Moments 

has free worksheets, fun activities and printables for everything even kid parties.

Education.com 

offers tons of worksheets & activities or all ages and subjects.  The one drawback, you must register.  Registration is free, but it is just less convenient than some other sites.  But the quality and selection of the resources, makes it worthwhile.

Kids Learning Station 

has tons of great worksheets, varying levels and subjects.

Amazing Worksheets 

This site is full of worksheets for every subject and level...not just preschool.  A wonderful resource for all of your kids.

Rockabye Butterfly 

is great for young learners, lots of hands on learning, with printables and activities to teach beginning basics and discovery.

Little Family Fun 

has great learning games, art, and projects for Toddlers and Preschoolers.

Lessonpix Blog 

is a great website with lots of resources.  Their blog has free ideas, lesson plans, activities and printables, and if you want to be a member of their website, they only have a small membership fee.

I hope these are helpful and be sure to let me know if you have any great sources you love for Preschool ideas, resources or printables!

Christmas Scripture Advent Calendar and Printables

I love Christmas and everything about it.

I remember one year as a kid we had a candle with the numbers 1-25 on it and each night we burned it while we read a few verses from the Christmas Story.

So for a Christmas lesson I gave this year I decided to make just that.

 For this lesson each girl was given a Christmas Scripture Count Down,

a type of Christmas Advent Calendar, including a Candle, a Jar of Hershey Kisses, and list of Scriptures. 

 Each night they were to light the candle, savor a Hershey Kiss, and read the day's designated verses.

The scriptures chosen tell the story of Christ's Birth.

I also made a Printable Scripture Paper Chain. No candle needed.

Just tear off a link each day and read the scripture listed.

Printables Below.

There are some great tutorials for printing on candles here and here.

But, my printer jammed up each time I tried to print on the "tissue paper taped to regular paper"

since I was on a time crunch I didn't end up printing on my candles.

 So here are the printables.

Click to Enlarge:

The first two are 8.5" x 11"

Count Down of Scriptures from the Bible:

 Count Down of Scriptures from the Bible & Book of Mormon:

Four to a Page:

Paper Chain Printables:

Harry Potter Daily Prophet & Quibbler Tutorial

So a few more details from the Harry Potter Mystery Dinner Party.

I was trying to make the whole house feel like part of the Wizarding World.

So, having plenty of Daily Prophet newspapers and Quibbler magazines around seemed appropriate.

I also pinned them up all over the walls, layered them under books and as floor coverings under the owl cages, etc. 

I first thought I would have to make them from scratch myself, so I perused the internet for images of them as inspiration and ideas to duplicate.  But then I found these ideas from, Grace's Scrap Attic...I mentioned her in my first Harry Potter Party Post, found: Here. 

So, to make them I just found several images off the internet and blew them up, printed them off, trimmed and glued them together...it was really quite quick and simple.

The Daily Prophet printables can be found: Here

The Quibbler printables can be found: Here

For the rest of the Harry Potter Murder Mystery Dinner Party details, printables, and tutorials look: here

And for the original Harry Potter Party with tons of printables, recipes, and much more look: here

Harry Potter Flying Key Tutorial

For our Harry Potter Mystery Dinner Party I thought it would be fun to bring in some extra details from the different books to help create the mood and atmosphere of the party. 

And flying keys were a simple addition.

Some old keys, then the Wings Print Out,

a little glue, tape and string.

And they even spun as they hung, so it was great.

Here is the printable: Harry Potter Flying Key Page

For the rest of the Harry Potter Murder Mystery Dinner Party details, printables, tutorials and the Murder Mystery Dinner Script look: here

And for the original Harry Potter Party with tons of printables, recipes, and much more look: here

Harry Potter Banner Tutorial

These banners were one of my favorite decorations of the entire Harry Potter Party.

Luckily they were pretty simple to make too.

I have explained the sewing steps and needed materials below, but

before you begin you need to make the House Applique and House Name Applique.

For mine, I found some images on the internet I liked from Nicholas Hyde found here.

They made some pretty cool Harry Potter Banners, but they weren't quite the style I was going for, but they were part of the inspiration.  So I blew the images up and cut out the animals. The printable link is below.  

Then for the House Name, I hired my neighbor, who has an embroidery business and at excellent cost, so I just went through him.  But, had he not been around, I was going use Iron On letter.  So be creative.

Harry Potter House Mascot Pattern Printables found: HERE.

(it doesn't show a preview image, but they are just black and white images. 2 pages per animal, so it will print 8 pages)

Then for the banners, they were the easiest part of the whole process, here are the steps:

(you can click on the image and save it to your computer to print out)

For the rest of the Harry Potter Murder Mystery Dinner Party details, printables, tutorials and the Murder Mystery Dinner Script look: here

And for the original Harry Potter Party with tons of printables, recipes, and much more look: here

Harry Potter Wand Tutorial

You can't be a Wizard without a wand.

So, for our Harry Potter Mystery Dinner Party I made a bunch of wands for out Olivander's Wand Shop. This way, the guests could get a wand if they didn't come with their own.

But I was more than impressed with all the wand people brought.  Some were authentic to match their character, others were just cool hand made ones, and we also found "originals" you could buy online, for most every character.

Either way I decided to have some wands.  Most are just generic, not fit for exact characters, but they were still so much fun. I got my inspiration from these two websites:

 http://www.instructables.com/id/Make-an-awesome-Harry-Potter-wand-from-a-sheet-of-/

and

http://canwehaveanewwitchoursmelted.blogspot.ca/2012/06/harry-potter-wands-for-kids-easy-peezy.html

But in the end, I used what I had on hand...again keeping the price of this party down, since it was getting extravagant and everything adds up.

So I used Chopsticks, paper, foil, pipe cleaners, beads, string, tape, etc.

Plus a whole bunch of hot glue!  Then I just painted them up and let them dry.

There was very little rhyme or reason, I just did whatever looked fun as I worked.

For the rest of the Harry Potter Murder Mystery Dinner Party details, printables, tutorials and the Murder Mystery Dinner Script look: here

And for the original Harry Potter Party with tons of printables, recipes, and much more look: here

Harry Potter Broom Tutorial

So, I personally loved these!  And I was so excited to make them, because even after our Harry Potter Mystery Dinner, I will still use them in the future for Halloween Witch Broom decorations, or for a witch costume, etc.  One of the few decorations from our party I will get to use more than once.

This was also a simple project, and very inexpensive.

In fact, the hardest part was finding a long stick for the broom stick.  I ended up using some old Tiki Torches I bought this summer at the Dollar Store.

But otherwise, it was a little wrapping/tape job, painting, and gluing.  The longest part was waiting for the paint on the sticks to dry.

You can paint these with spray paint or craft paint, I used both.

Also, for the twigs, I just got them from my sister's tree, but any will do.

Instructions for making witch/wizard brooms:

For more Harry Potter Mystery Dinner Party details and printables check: HERE.

For the rest of the Harry Potter Murder Mystery Dinner Party details, printables, tutorials and the Murder Mystery Dinner Script look: here

And for the original Harry Potter Party with tons of printables, recipes, and much more look: here

Harry Potter Wood Signs Tutorial

Some of the "extra" decorations that added to our Harry Potter Mystery Dinner Party, were the Wooden Signs.  For me it was all of these little extra details that added the most.

Luckily these were another inexpensive project.

I had the wood, paint, and tools on hand.

I got the wood for free before on Craigslist, so I would bet you could find some free too.

But if not, or if your wood isn't old, I added some links for aging the wood below.

I just "eyed" this project, cutting my wood based on the sizes I had on hand.

I also, just free hand painted the words, but you can print it off, and trace it onto the wood to make it easier.  Or I have a some links below for some added tips and ideas. Both would probably look way better, I was just in a big hurry so I didn't bother.

How to Age Wood Link:

http://sugarbabyboutique.blogspot.com/2012/08/how-to-weather-age-wood.html?m=1

Painting on Wood Links:

how to trace and paint on wood- http://thatsmyletter.blogspot.com/2011/07/f-is-for-food.html

how to transfer printed letters onto wood- http://www.domestically-speaking.com/category/how-to

For the rest of the Harry Potter Murder Mystery Dinner Party details, printables, tutorials and the Murder Mystery Dinner Script look: here

And for the original Harry Potter Party with tons of printables, recipes, and much more look: here

Printable Elf on the Shelf Notes

The Elf on the Shelf seems to be getting more and more popular, so I figured there might be a few of you out there that would like some Elf Notes. I have been making lots of little notes each night as I set out our Elf and so I figured I would share some of the generic ones.

Hope you are enjoying your Christmas Season, because we sure are!

Just click on the image to save and print.

Harry Potter Platform 9 3/4 Tutorial

For our Harry Potter Mystery Dinner Party, we had to have a Platform 9 3/4...so after a little thinking this was the easiest idea I could come up with.

This was a really simple project and very inexpensive project.

I went to the dollar store and bought a black plastic table cloth,

a set of sponges, and some dollar paint at Walmart.  (Country Barn Red, Craft Paint)

The whole process took me about 45 min, but I was watching a movie as I worked.

So it definitely slowed me down, but I would say it should still take about half an hour, unless you can get someone to help sponge at the same time.

Here are the Instructions:

For the rest of the Harry Potter Murder Mystery Dinner Party details, printables, tutorials and the Murder Mystery Dinner Script look: here

And for the original Harry Potter Party with tons of printables, recipes, and much more look: here