Preschool Practice: Printable Dolch Site Word Worksheets

Sight Words.

An important step in early reading.

Sight words are often referred in two categories. 

1. Commonly used words (so readers should be able to recognize them by site, to speed up their reading)

2. Non-decodable words (tricky words that can't be sounded out)

My little preschooler is not a fan of sight words.  He doesn't like something he can't figure out (sound out) on his own.  So I made a bunch of worksheets to help him practice and get more familiar with them.

This set of sight words includes the most commonly used sight words and the "non-decodable" words.

Since the Dolch Sight Word lists includes many words he can sound out, I first want him practicing those that he can't.  Because to me, these are the most important for beginning readers.

This Set, comes with 2 worksheets.  Additional posts and links below for my other worksheets that include all of the Dolch Sight Words.

For those of you working with little ones at home or at school I uploaded the printables to share.

Use them for Preschool, Homeschool, Teaching, or Co-ops, but please don't redistribute. 

Download printable Basic Site Word Worksheets: here

The whole collection and other worksheets check my TeacherPayTeachers Shop: here.

For more posts Education Resources and Worksheet Printables check: here.

2 Ingredient Chocolate Frosting

The other day I got a bit behind getting ready for a party and needed a fast solution for frosting.

I gambled on trying something totally new and something I had never heard of...but knowing it would be super fast, I figured if it flopped it wouldn't set me back but a minute.

So I tried it.  Cool Whip plus some Instant Chocolate Pudding.

And it totally worked!

It actually tasted really good.  Light and whipped with a mousse texture. 

I will definitely do this again and trying other flavors of pudding as well.

2 Ingredient Chocolate Frosting

1 Tub of Cool Whip (Frozen whipped topping) 

1/3-1/2 of Chocolate Instant Pudding Mix (3.5 oz package)

Directions:

Thaw Cool Whip. Fold in pudding mix until combined.  Pipe onto Cupcakes and chill.

(after chilling for roughly an 1 hour, they hold up fine at room temperature)

*Store brands for both the whipped topping and the pudding work just as well.

P.S. this little Wilton Cupcake Caddy...is definitely the way to go for transporting cupcakes.
I love that all the frosting doesn't bump and smear on the surrounding cupcakes.
It's definitely worth a try!

Linked to these Parties: Here

Check out all the projects they have to share.

Funfetti Birthday Cookies.

These are the simplest cookies around and for some reason the funfetti and white chocolate chip combination is always a huge hit!

Plus, the festive color is perfect for a Birthday.

Funfetti and White Chocolate Chip Birthday Cookie Recipe

Ingredients:

1/2 c. butter, melted

2 eggs

1 funfetti cake mix

1/2 bag of white chocolate chips

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Mix melted butter, eggs, and cake mix together.  Once combined mix in the white chocolate chips. Bake for 8-10 minutes.

*use parchment paper for a fast clean up

Easiest cookies around!

German Chocolate Cake

I must confess, I only make German Chocolate Cake once a year.

On my husband's birthday.

Having not been a huge fan of the frosting, each year I try a different recipe hoping for something a bit better.

This was the year.

The frosting wasn't too dry nor too runny.

Since we aren't huge fans of nuts in our desserts I usually leave them out of the recipe, but this year I tried candied pecans and what a difference!

And to avoid the overly sweet effect, I used a chocolate cake recipe using cocoa instead of a milk chocolate recipe.

And the result was delicious!

German Chocolate Cake Recipe

Ingredients:

1 c. butter

1/3 c. cocoa

1 c. water

2 c. flour

2 c. sugar

1/2 c buttermilk

1 1/2 tsp soda

1 tsp vanilla

1 tsp salt

3 eggs

Directions:

Grease pans. Bring butter, cocoa, and water to boil. Cool. Mix in flour and sugar.  Then add buttermilk, soda, vanilla, salt and eggs. Bake 25 min. at 375 degrees.

Frosting

Ingredients:

1 c. sugar

1 c. evaporated milk

1/2 c. butter, cubed (not margarine)

3 egg yolks, lightly beaten

1 tsp. vanilla

3-4 c. coconut

1 c. candied pecans, chopped

Directions:

In a sauce pan, combine sugar, milk, butter and egg yolks. Cook and stir over medium-low heat until thickened and a thermometer reads 160 degrees, or is thick enough to coat the back of a metal spoon.  Remove from the heat.  Stir in vanilla. Fold in coconut about a half of a cup at a time, until desired thickness.  Fold in chopped pecans.  Refrigerate leftovers.

Tip: Want to make beautiful cake decorating all that easier?  

Try a revolving round cake stand.  The sides come out smooth!  And you don't need to be a professional.

Salted-Chocolate Oatmeal Cookies

These are by far, my new favorite cookie.

They are sweet with a touch of salty, super chewy and absolutely amazing.

Chelsey from Housewife 2 Hostess brought this amazing recipe over and I'm still wishing we doubled the batch because they were so good...and they gone.

(Be sure to check out her blog found here, she is an amazing chef and decorator.)

Salted-Chocolate Oatmeal Cookies Recipe

Ingredients:

1 c. Butter

1 c. Sugar

1 c. Brown Sugar

2 Eggs

2 tsp Vanilla

1 tsp Salt (heaping)

1/2 tsp Baking Powder
2 tsp Baking Soda

2 1/2 c. Flour

2 c. Oats

1/2 package Milk Chocolate Morsels

1/2 package White Chocolate Morsels

Directions

Cream together butter and sugars, until just light in color.  Add eggs and vanilla and mix well. Add salt, soda, powder, flour and mix just until combined, scraping sides of bowl. Add oats and morsels and mix with wooden spoon. Bake on parchment lined baking sheets at 350 degrees for 8-12 minutes.

Harry Potter Party Divinations Printables

At our Harry Potter Murder Mystery Dinner Party, to create Hogwarts I staged a few of the classrooms.

One of these classes was Divinations.

Some smoke (or fog machine), old tea cups, candles, cobwebs, beads, crystal ball, and some taro cards did the job.

Printable Taro Cards found: here

Wall printables and classroom printables found: here

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

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

Harry Potter Mystery Dinner Trunk Printables & Sorting Hat Tutorial

Hogwarts wouldn't be official if there wasn't a Sorting Hat.

So for our Harry Potter Murder Mystery Dinner Party we had a Sorting Hat.

This was the only picture I remembered to take and you can't hardly see the face.

But it was an inexpensive and relatively simple Hat to make.

And with some Printables, a few plain trunks make perfect wizarding school trunks.

The printables are found at the bottom of the post.

How to Make Harry Potter Sorting Hat:

Materials needed- 

1 yard Muslin 

1 bottle Stiffy

Aluminum Foil

Masking Tape

Hot Glue & Gun

Brown & Back Spray Paint

Hat 

(I used a dress up Hat from the Dollar Store, 

with a large stiff round brim, but a which hat would be ideal)

Instructions

Step 1: Stuff the hat full of aluminum foil. Shaping the foil into a bent hat tip and plenty of wrinkles and ridges. Use masking tape to help secure the foil and its shape.  

(The foil gives the hat support and strength to keeps its shape and stand up under the weight of the fabric.)

*If you choose to make the sorting hat's face, be sure to shape the foil into a mouth, nose and brow bones.

Step 2: Secure the foil to the inside of the hat with the hot glue.

Step 3: Once the hat is sturdy and shaped as desired, 

cut Muslin into 4 inch wide by roughly 1 yard long strips.

Step 4: Dip strips of Muslin into a bowl of Stiffy.  

Then wrap/drape the soaked Muslin around the hat.  Begin with the brim. Then once the brim is covered, start at the top of the hat and work down.

Step 5: Let Muslin dry.  Secure any loose or lifting edges down with hot glue.

Step 6: Spray paint the hat with the brown, getting into all the cracks and folds of the material.

Step 7: Using the black spray paint, lightly spray edges and tips of wrinkles, to "shade" and "distress" the hat. 

*If you shaped a face on the Sorting Hat, use the black spray paint, to highlight the facial features.

For the Harry Potter Trunks:

Luckily, my husband found two trunks at a garage sale for $5 and they were perfect.

I had first considered constructing some out of cardboard boxes, or searching the internet for something inexpensive...but these saved the day.

I just collected some Quiddich, Hogwarts, and other Wizarding Images and trimmed them to size.  Then just print, cut, and glue them to the trunks!

Download Harry Potter Trunk Tag Printables: Here

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

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

Harry Potter Mystery Dinner Party Hogsmeade Printables

Hogsmeade!

Hogsmeade was a blast. 

For our Harry Potter Murder Mystery Dinner Party the main floor of the house was "transformed" into Hogsmeade.

With shops, street signs, street lamps, newspapers, broom parking, and the train station.

For the walls, I thought it would be cool to add Wanted Posters and Newspapers...things around to help set the scene.  So I searched the internet for Daily Prophet Newspaper Images, Harry Potter Movie Posters, Wanted Posters, etc.

Some were amazing, others I had to fix up and/or create...but they added a lot.

So, I uploaded them to share.

The very middle image is a fun poster.  It has tons of facts about the books, movies, J.K. Rowling...and so much more.  Great for the party and for conversation.

Some of these Printables Posters and Signs are two or three pages.  So just print, then trip and paste them together to create large posters and newspapers.

These Newspapers can also be rolled up around a regular newspapers.  Then secure with a rubber band and place them all around Hogsmeade for some "light reading."

Printable Harry Potter Posters, Signs, Wanted Posters & Daily Prophet Newspapers found: Here

For more ideas, details, Murder Mystery Script, printables, tutorials, etc

check out the Harry Potter Murder Mystery Dinner Party: here

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

Harry Potter Mystery Dinner Party Printables

More about the

Harry Potter Murder Mystery Dinner Party...

The details were what made this party so much fun.

Lots of late nights, and random projects all coming together.

For the Dining Hall we decorated the table with dusty, old, antique books, lots of candles, and cascading fruit and vegetables...and a few rat and birds.

The ceiling was covered in lights and tulle to give the feel of an "Enchanted Ceiling".

I tried several ideas for floating candles, all of which failed or wavered on a fire hazard.

And with a fog machine, some Hogwarts House banners, sconces, and a roaring fireplace...it seemed magical!

But my favorite room had to be the bathroom.

It wasn't much...a trail of spiders to the faucet with little sign, plenty of cobwebs and a Ministry of Magic Sign on the toilet lid.  BUT MY FAVORITE DETAIL, was the hidden ipod with clips of Moaning Murtle playing on repeat.  Just a little surprise for any guests coming into the restroom.

The house had plenty of signs and printable labels all around.

And of course Hogsmeade was full of Printable Labels.  So find the download link below.

But for all of the party details check the post: Here

Download Harry Potter Mystery Dinner Party Printables: Here

Ministry of Magic Download found: Here

This download also includes other Signs and the Food Labels. 

As seen in the pictures below.

Tons of ideas, tutorials, printables, recipes, invitations, Murder Mystery Script and more...
The Original Harry Potter Murder Mystery Dinner Party post found: here

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

Harry Potter Mystery Dinner Party Hogwarts Printables

To Decorate for the Harry Potter Murder Mystery Dinner Party we had, 

I collected and made a bunch of Printables.  

These Printables include, Hogwarts Signs, Classroom Labels, Potion Directs, Potion Labels,

Herbology Pictures, etc.

Download Harry Potter Hogwarts Printables: Here

Hogwarts Class Printables from Frosted Events found: Here

Additional Potion Printables found at these links:

Over the Big Moon has these Harry Potter Potion Printables: Here

Fantasy Jr has these Harry Potter Potion Printables: Here

For Tons more Harry Potter Party Printables, Details, Recipes, and Murder Mystery Script

check this post: Harry Potter Mystery Dinner Party

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

Harry Potter Mystery Dinner Script & Parts

Thanks to a few comments requesting the Harry Potter Mystery Dinner Party Script...I got it all edited and uploaded.  With the business of the holidays, I had taken a little break from all the Harry Potter Tutorials, but now I am finishing them. Everything should be added this week, so keep checking back.

Here is the Mystery Dinner Party "Script."

To Download, click on links at the bottom of page.

Included is:

-the Part of the Host (Professor McGonagall)

-the "Script" of all the parts

-Printable Parchments for each Character of their Parts

(includes Interdepartmental Memos, Parchments for each Course of the Meal)

-Printables of the Evidence documents

This Mystery Dinner is totally family friendly, no adult or suggestive content.

This was a fun party we used for Halloween, but you could use it anytime of year.

Note: These are free.  They are not perfect, sorry for any typos, and I do not own the rights to any Harry Potter Material, so these are just a homemade Mystery Dinner for personal use. Not Professional.

In this Mystery Dinner, the Characters include:

1 host and 14 characters.
Plus 2 optional helpers.

Host: Professor McGonagall

Guests: Harry Potter, Ron Weasley, Hermione Granger, Ginny Weasley, Luna Lovegood, Draco Malfoy, Professor Snape, Mundungus Fletcher, Gilderoy Lockheart, Rita Skeeter, Doloras Umbridge, Bellatrix Lestrange

Kitchen Help: Filch (caretaker) & Mrs. Weasly

*Guest Characters could swap names for the sake of gender, or number of guests, etc

*Kitchen Help Characters are totally optional and not needed for the Plot.

Free Mystery Dinner Printables and Parts:

                                  Harry Potter Mystery Dinner: Host Part     (*updated to PDF 1/13)
                                  Harry Potter Mystery Dinner: Parts/Scripts     (*updated to PDF 1/13)
Harry Potter Mystery Dinner: Interdepartmental Memos
Harry Potter Mystery Dinner: Parchments Set 1
Harry Potter Mystery Dinner: Parchments Set 2
Harry Potter Mystery Dinner: Parchments Set 3
Harry Potter Mystery Dinner: Evidence Printables

You need ALL of the Downloads above for the complete Mystery Dinner.

The Memos and Parchments are Printables to hand to the guest for each of the 4 courses of the meal.
Some of these are seen in the pictures above.
(You can simplify this and not do separate courses, but that is just how I had it set up)
The Host Part comes with a schedule, directions and tips for conducting the Mystery Dinner.

The Invitations and Character Invitations can be downloaded:
Here and Here,
but for Details and Instructions/Tutorial for the Invitations check this post:
Harry Potter Mystery Dinner Invitations

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

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

Harry Potter Mystery Dinner Party Invitations

For the Harry Potter Mystery Dinner Party I had two rounds of invitations.

The first set, was delivered as an Owl Post invitation.  

This invite was general, inviting them to a Murder Mystery Dinner with the Date and Time and asking for a quick RSVP.

Then once I received their RSVP they were sent an official Murder Mystery Dinner Invitation.

This had their new "Identity", or character,  for the party.  

It also instructed them on their part, costume suggestions, and where to find more information about their role.

Inside this invitation was an Insert with instructions on their arrival, a Hogwarts Express Ticket, Polyjuice Potion, and some Fingernail Clippings or Ear Wax of the Identity/Character they were to become.

Here are the Printable Invitations & Instructions.

For the first set of invitations, 

Download Harry Potter Murder Mystery Dinner Owl Post Invites: Here 

1. Just add your information in the blanks.

Then Print (both sides), cut, and seal.

2. Two owl pictures are also included.

Cut them out, glue to balloon with string.

Attach the invite to the end of the string

And deliver!

For the second set of invitations.

Download Harry Potter Murder Mystery Dinner Character Invitations: Here 

1. Add their name to the outside.

2. Print (both sides) invite, ticket, insert, etc.

3. Cut and assemble

For More ideas, Printables & Tutorials and the Murder Mystery Script

Check the original post: 

Harry Potter Murder Mystery Dinner Party

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

Valentine Printables

Time is flying...and to think the Valentine's Day preparations are beginning!

 I am determined to be on top of things this year...one of many new year resolutions.

So here is a simple Valentine's Day Printable for you:

Click on the image to download the free Valentine Printable.

The download comes with two pages, one as Valentines (with the the "to & from")

and one as Valentine Tags.

For more Valentine's Day ideas check: here.

Linked to these Parties: Here

Check out all the projects they have to share.

A little Updating

A little Blog Updating has been long over due.

Now I am finally getting around to it and making a few changes to my blog and it's set up...just cosmetic stuff.  

So things might look a little jumbled, but thank you for your patience and understanding during the process!

It should all be done soon with new posts coming.