First day of First Grade

Nathan started First Grade today. I swear we were just taking him to Kindergarten! And I know everyone says this but time sure flies.

{Like the sign? You can print your own at U Create}

He was as handsome as could be this morning, as you can see. He was only a tad nervous before bed last night so I prayed for him last night and daddy prayed for him this morning. I think he was feeling pretty confident as we were heading out the door. He even wanted to be a little silly.

Wonder what a first grader looks forward to? Let's hear it out of his own mouth:

Mommy made sure to pack a super healthy lunch to help his brain work overtime today as it tried to get used to a busy school schedule again. Peanut butter balls (with soaked steel cut oats, pepitas, sunflower seeds, and honey), carrots, celery, a banana {who sees the message?} and some rice leftover from last night (it was half white half black, hence the color):

Of course we couldn't do TOTALLY healthy today...we did a special Krispy Kreme run after school was done, mostly hoping the sugar high would help him be more willing to spill about his day (anybody else's school aged boys already barely talking? I need more details then "fine" when I ask about his day!).

Another first day of school in the books. I am willing to bet that this year will go even faster than the last and I will soon be writing another Kindergarten post as Jordan joins his brother at school next year. But until then, we are going to try to hold on for the ride and watch Nathan as he continues to learn and grow. Here we go!

Preschool Fun - Sorting

Ready for some more hands on preschool fun? I have to admit I may be having more fun making these than the kids are having using them! I am a teacher at heart and this kind of stuff is just IN me, you know?

On to the goods - this week we are doing some sorting so let me share with you 3 ideas I have used to get my toddler and preschooler excited about this skill.

Magnetic sticks and paper clips have been a HUGE hit! My 2 year old will sit for a half an hour at a time placing the entire box of paper clips onto the sticks {not by appropriate color yet, but who is going to argue with all that quiet time? Not me!} and my 4 year old loves anything magnetic so has enjoyed this as well. He is already exploring other uses for the paper clips so you will see those showing up in future preschool posts I'm sure. I chose to add a color tab at the top of my sticks but you could leave yours blank so that your child can sort however they want or you could even use Velcro to create interchangeable tabs for different categories (think colors, numbers, shapes, etc). Play with it and have fun!

For the next sorting project I used an old Easter Bingo set I had picked up at the dollar store and never used. This particular set came with large cards that had one of each picture and then I cut up the boards to create a bunch of smaller picture pieces that could be matched with the larger ones. From here there are tons of possible uses. I chose to use one of the serving platters I picked up in a two pack in the dollar section of Target and then have the kids randomly draw cards to fill each "well" and then sort the pictures that match. From here, my 4 year old can use those paper clips he loves and group the matching sets into piles. This can also be broadened into sorting by larger group sets - all bunnies, all insects, etc.

We have sorted by color and by picture, lets sort by shapes now. I used free printables from Mama's Learning Corner for this activity. I cut out all of the bigger shapes and glued them onto card stock to make them sturdier. I also included the name of the shape so that they would be exposed to the word each time they used it. The smaller pieces were also cut up and put onto card stock and then all of the pieces are ready to sort. I put all of this on a cookie sheet from the dollar store to make for easy grouping.

**As you can see by this post, I love scouring the Dollar Store as well as the dollar section at Target to create fun variations of these hands on projects without breaking the bank. It does NOT have to cost an arm and a leg to make these activities!