Bee Crafty Kids- Polar Express Crafts

Welcome back to the Bee Crafty Kids link up that I am co-hosting with To The Moon and Back and Look! We’re Learning.

We had a great time making some Polar Express trains this week.

Hunter made a train using different shapes.  He also sprinkled glitter on his paper.  While that was not exactly planned (ha!) it looked like falling snow.

Hunter’s finished train.

Hailey used oil pastels to draw a train.

She colored it in using Christmas colors.

Hailey’s finished train.  She also sprinkled glitter on her paper to look like snow.  She didn’t use glue, she just sprinkled it on and it looks great.

Be sure to like me on Facebook and follow me on Pinterest so you don’t miss any of our fun activities.

Now it’s your turn! Link up and share what you and your kids have been busy making. Grab a button so others can join in the crafting fun too 🙂

<div align="center"><a href="http://ourcraftsnthings.com/" title="Our Crafts N Things"><img src="http://i1165.photobucket.com/albums/q594/dustybug83/BeeCraftyKids3_zps44074ad6.png" alt="Our Crafts N Things" style="border:none;" /></a></div>

Rules are simple:

~Enter the direct link to one or more of your own posts that showcase a craft or hands on activity for children.

~A link back with the above button is appreciated, but not required

~Try to at least comment on one or two of the other blogs that took the time to share and join!

SchoolhouseTeachers.com Review

I am super excited to announce to everyone that I have been selected to be part of the Schoolhouse Review Crew!  Just in case you are not sure what that is, it is a group of homeschooling families who get to check out a variety of homeschooling products, use the products with their families and then share with their readers their thoughts about the products.  So, I am super excited to get to be a part of this group!!  And guess what- today I am going to share with you the first product I was able to review!

I have been able to check out SchoolhouseTeachers.com and see what it has to offer to homeschoolers.  I was given the Yearly Membership Option and I have spent quite a bit of time looking around the site.  So, what exactly is SchoolhouseTeacher.com?  You might be familiar with The Old Schoolhouse Magazine– well, SchoolhouseTeacher.com is a division of The Old Schoolhouse Magazine, so you know you are in good hands 🙂  Basically, it’s a site that is full of lesson plans and fun activities for all of your children.  There are things you can do with your toddlers right up through your high school aged students.  There are so many activities and lesson plans that you can even use it as your core curriculum.  Or, if you’re like us, and you already have a core curriculum, you can use the lesson plans on SchoolhouseTeacher.com to supplement what you are already using.  In addition to the lesson plans you will also find great planning help as well as ebooks.

We had a great time using some of the ideas I found on the site!

I think my absolute favorite part of the site is the Homegrown Preschool section.  There are amazing ideas for preschoolers!  I know I am going to be using this section a lot with Hunter (he’s a toddler, so a lot of the ideas can be used with toddlers too).  Plus, Hailey wanted to join in on the activities we did, so it’s fun for school aged kids too.  We decided to make the Glittery Peppermint Playdough!  We didn’t have any green playdough, but that was no problem, we just made our own.  Then I couldn’t find any peppermint oil to make it peppermint, so that was a bit of an issue.  I decided to just put some cinnamon in it instead and it smells super good!!  So, obviously you can modify the plans as needed.

Hunter worked on cutting up his glittery green playdough.

Hailey made hers into a Christmas tree.

Then we used the pegs from our Lite Bright game and added some decorations to the tree.

Hunter loved it!!  This kept him occupied for a very long time.

Hunter’s finished tree.

Hailey’s finished tree.

The next section I explored was Nature/Outdoors.  For the month of December there was a 4 week study about winter weather in cold climates or winter weather in warm climates, so no matter where you live there is content you can use.  The timing was perfect and we had a nice big snow storm on Saturday, so I did one of the activities with Hailey.  Don’t tell her that she was learning, she thought we were just having fun 🙂

We took a piece of black construction paper and put it in the freezer for about an hour.

Then we brought it outside so we could catch some snowflakes.

We took some pictures of the snowflakes we caught.  I wish I could take pictures like these absolutely amazing Wilson Bentley Snowflakes, but I think I have a bit of practicing to do before that ever happens.

So- what do I think about SchoolhouseTeachers.com?  I love it!!  There is a wealth of information and activities on their site.  I think it is well worth the price- SchoolhouseTeachers.com will let you try out their site for $3 for the first month.  If you like it, you can continue at a monthly rate of $12.95.  Or, once you see how totally amazing this site is, you will probably want to pay for a yearly subscription which is $139 which saves you 10% rather than paying the monthly amount.  Plus, if you sign up before the end of December- you will get a free 1 year membership to SchoolhouseTeachers.com to share with a friend!  The only negative I found was that it is a bit hard to navigate at first.  I was kind of overwhelmed with everything available on the site.  But, after spending a lot of time looking around, I really love it!

Want to check out the reviews from the other members of the Schoolhouse Review Crew?  Click below:

Bee Crafty Kids- Christmas Decorations

 Welcome back to the Bee Crafty Kids link up that I am co-hosting with To The Moon and Back and Look! We’re Learning.

We added a little Christmas tree to our classroom, so we have been busy making ornaments to put on it.

We used Model Magic and cookie cutters to make some Christmas shaped ornaments.  We let them dry for a couple of days and then painted them and put some glitter on them.

Hunter was very careful while he painted his Christmas tree.

Hailey worked on her stocking.

Our completed cut out ornaments.

We also made some snowflake ornaments.

One of the finished snowflakes

Hunter working on a cute snowman.

Completed snowmen

Our cute little tree full of homemade ornaments 🙂

Be sure to like me on Facebook and follow me on Pinterest so you don’t miss any of our fun activities.

Now it’s your turn! Link up and share what you and your kids have been busy making. Grab a button so others can join in the crafting fun too 🙂

<div align="center"><a href="http://ourcraftsnthings.com/" title="Our Crafts N Things"><img src="http://i1165.photobucket.com/albums/q594/dustybug83/BeeCraftyKids3_zps44074ad6.png" alt="Our Crafts N Things" style="border:none;" /></a></div>

Rules are simple:

~Enter the direct link to one or more of your own posts that showcase a craft or hands on activity for children.

~A link back with the above button is appreciated, but not required

~Try to at least comment on one or two of the other blogs that took the time to share and join!

Wacky Wednesday

A few weeks ago we decided to have a fun Wacky Wednesday.  I saw a friend on Facebook post about doing Wacky Wednesday with her kids, and it sounded so fun!

We started the day by Hailey making my bed and me making her bed.  We couldn’t decide if we should wear our clothes inside out or stay in our pajamas.  So, we wore our pajamas inside out 🙂

There were several surprises when we went into our classroom for the day:

Chairs tipped over at Hunter’s table

Chair tipped over at Hailey’s desk

Upside down word wall

Upside down clock

A shoe on the wall!  (There was one on the ceiling too)

Everything was turned upside down on our calendar

Hailey in her inside out pajamas.  Hunter would not even think about wearing his pajamas inside out!

Of course, we had to read Wacky Wednesday by Dr. Seuss.

Then we did our entire schedule backwards.  It was such a fun day!!

Be sure to like me on Facebook and follow me on Pinterest so you don’t miss any of our fun activities.