Halloween Countdown Calendar

I was browsing Pinterest {anyone else frequently find themselves starting their sentences that way too?} and actually looking at Christmas advent calendars when the idea hit me - why wait for December when October is here and has a perfectly fun holiday worth counting down to! So I did a quick little search for inspiration and came across an adorable Countdown to Halloween at Tailored Pages that was made using a cookie sheet from the Dollar Store. I happened to have an extra on hand from our road trip {remember the activities I made for the kids?} so I took the idea and ran with it.

I started by raiding my stash and grabbing goodies I already had laying around. I have a friend who snagged a bunch of Halloween craft stuff on major discount last year and was kind enough to share some with me so I knew this was a great opportunity to use some of that. Here is most of what I started with:

After the kids were in bed I sprawled out on the floor and in no time had whipped up this cute hanging Halloween Countdown:

The marker is a cute little spider attached to his web (he has a magnet on his back to keep him stuck to the tray):

I think the kids will get a kick out of this and it will be a fun new addition to our Halloween decor. I am excited that it cost nothing and we will be able to use it year after year!

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!