mousehouse 'ABC suitcase' giveaway

I absolutely love anything to do with the alphabet- typographical artworks, abc books, alphabet posters, abc games and puzzles…I don't know if it's the teacher in me or just the simplicity of the alphabet but I have built up a bit of a collection of games, books and puzzles plus I love making my own ABC activities as well.  And I think children having some knowledge of letters and sounds before they start school is really beneficial- not in a flash card/rote learning type way, just building on their natural curiosity and interest in letters and the ABC's by reading, playing games and puzzles, and talking about letters and sounds in daily life. So I thought with Stella starting school this week I would finally sort out and share my ABC giveaway that I have been planning for ages now.  And Jasmine from Bubbalooz kindly donated one of her lovely mini suitcases for the giveaway which was perfect to keep all of the items in. I used a piece of scrapbooking card to decorate the underside of the lid of the suitcase and have filled it with a few things for one of you to win….

In the suitcase I've put...

*'My First Book of Letters' board book by Alain Gree - I love the vintage style illustrations in this book

* ABC ice cube or chocolate molds

* Aluminium Alphabet water bottle

*A sheet of my favourite ABC little house stickers

*A roll of ABC wash tape

* A lollipop pen to practice all those abc's!

So if you would like to win this all you need to do is leave a comment below telling me how old your children are (you don't need to write their names if you would prefer not to) and what they are interested in eg: reading, writing, numbers and counting, lego, pirates, dinosaurs, fairies, art, sport, space, animals…. If you don't have children you could tell me what you are interested in, don't worry about your age though ;)

Giveaway will be open until next Tuesday the 1st April.

International entries welcome.

For extra entries you can like my Facebook page - just leave a separate comment telling me you have (or already do.)

You can also follow me on Pinterest for another entry

http://www.pinterest.com/megsmousehouse/

There are other ways for gaining entries on my Facebook page as well...

Thank you for reading 'mousehouse' and good luck :)

Megan 

Decorative tape ideas in the classroom

One of the things I really love doing (and something I hope to do more of this year) is helping teachers set up and organise their classrooms. Last year I got to help a teacher at the end of the year declutter and sort all of her classroom stuff as she was moving classrooms and I loved it. I only wish my work with the Scotch Expression Tapes Promotion had started a bit earlier as I would have had a ball using the new Scotch tapes in her classroom! So for this blog post I've had to search pinterest and blogs to find images for all the ideas I've got for using decorative tapes in the classroom... maybe someone will let me do a bit of decorating in their classroom if they read this blog post ;)

* This is a cute idea for organising your supplies so you can change the labels if you change the use of the containers- use small pegs decorated with washi tape to attach labels to the containers



http://www.miss-kindergarten.com/2013/08/scotch-expressions-tape-organization.html

* Decorate boxes or small tins with washi tape and attach magnets to the back so you can attach it to your whiteboard

http://www.miss-kindergarten.com/2014/01/scotchexp-magnetic-supply-organization.html

*Use washi tape or the Scotch magic tape to organise and divide spaces on your whiteboard

http://applesandabcs.blogspot.co.nz/2013/10/scotch-expressions-tape-classroom-diy.html

http://www.craftinterrupted.com/2012/09/washi-whiteboard-calendar-w-magnets.html

*Decorate teacher clipboards with washi tape



http://www.craftaholicsanonymous.net/washi-tape-clipboard

*Style up your filing cabinet with duraseal and washi tape edging

http://myowntwistonthings.blogspot.co.nz/2013/08/crafting-in-classroom.html

*I love using old cans/tins for classroom supplies- nice and sturdy, and free! Use washi tape to decorate them and fill with supplies. You could also decorate old boxes for supplies as well.

http://www.thecraftedsparrow.com/2012/04/washi-tape-tin-cans.html

http://butterflyfish.de/2013/06/14/diy-freitag-die-schnelle-stiftebox/

* With all that time you have spare why not decorate your laptop- you could really push the boat out and decorate your cords to match as well :)

http://feltsocute.wordpress.com/2013/05/04/washi-laptop/

http://deliciousspaces.blogspot.co.nz/2013/01/washi-tape-cords.html

*And this could be really handy in the classroom for all the different cords you need for the digital camera, ipad, phone etc- label each cord using washi tape


http://dabblesandbabbles.com/organization-with-washi-tape/

*Make your day planner a bit more appealing and fun to look at by using washi tape to highlight events, things to remember etc

http://take2theyresmall.com/my-calendar-from-overloaded-to-energized/

*Use the Scotch decorative duct tapes to mark out areas on the classroom floor (maybe check they will easily lift off the carpet first before going too crazy though!) Mark out areas for your mat, childrens seating or construction play areas etc. Also, if you have to have cords running across the floor use duct tape to tape them down.

http://www.aspecialsparkle.com/2013/07/visual-solutions-for-staying-in-your.html


http://www.montessorimessy.com/2012/05/how-to-make-ellipse-on-floor.html

This would be pretty cool if you have a vinyl area in your classroom- make a little town or car track using tape.

http://lejardindejuliette.blogspot.be/2012/09/washi-tape-car-track.html

All the best to all the awesome teachers out there who have been working hard these holidays getting their classrooms all ready for their new students, have a great first day tomorrow.

And don't forget to to check out the Scotch® facebook page and app 'Make it Amazing' to be in to win an i-pad mini with your own creations!

You can check out my other Scotch® Expressions tape posts here...
Getting Crafty with Scotch® Expressions tape

Washi Tape Craft Party

Washi Tape Kids Art and Crafts

Washi Tape Back to School ideas

Megan

Picture Books for 5 year olds

A mousehouse reader Stephanie asked me last night for some ideas for good picture books for her 5 year old daughter who has started reading by herself but would still like to listen and read along to some picture books as well. My 6 year old likes to read her own books now (waaaaay too much Rainbow Magic) plus other short chapter books and her readers from school, but as she shares a room with Stella (4) she still loves listening to picture books as well. So here are some of Amelie and Stella's favourite picture books- most of the these are also the tried and true ones I grab if I am doing a days relieving in a classroom- all of them are popular with boys and girls around the 5/6 age group but there are a couple that particuarly appeal to girls from this list. 

Colour the Stars by Dawn McMillan- this is a lovely story about a little boy who is blind and his friend who teaches him what stars look like

Guji Guji by Chih-Yuan Chen- this is really a cute story that kids love with lovely illustrations

I Had a Favourite Dress by Boni Ashburn- this is one for the girls all about a girl who has a favourite dress and as she outgrows it her mum sews it into different items- Amelie loves this

A Lion in the Meadow by Margaret Mahy- a classic story written in the 70's and still just as popular today- I love this story

The Tiger Who Came to Tea by Judith Kerr- another classic story by a wonderful author

The Paper Dolls by Julia Donaldson- this is Amelie and Stella's (and mine) favourite picture book at the moment- such a cute story, lovely illustrations and a good book to read aloud

Princess, Fairy by Penny Dale- Stella's favourite- I'm pretty sure it is a take on the fairy tale The Frog Prince but with the very appealing characters to young girls princesses and fairies!

The Princess and her Panther by Wendy Orr- another book Stella lovese especially about 2 sisters who dress up and have an adventure using their imagination

Harry the Dirty Dog by Gene Zion- another classic story I think written in the 50's or 60's- a lovely story of a dog who really doesn't like having a bath, lovely retro illustrations

The Smallest Turtle by Lynley Dodd- always a good one to read aloud, lovely simple story with beautiful language- hard to find online though :(

What good luck What bad luck by Remy Charlip-  I found this at an Op Shop- when I read it to a class of 6 year olds they absolutely loved it and wanted me to read it again straight away! Can also be found printed as 'Unfortunately'. 

The Nickel Nackle Tree by Lynley Dodd-a neat counting book, again with great language and illustrations- appeals to all ages

Mouse Mansion By Karina Schaapman- this isn't a picture book as such, more a chapter book presented in a picture book format- Amelie loves this book especially the detailed photos

Well I know there are so many other wonderful picture books out there but these are the ones I could think of straight away- would love to hear of any of your or your child's favourite picture books too.

The other stories I would recommend reading is any fairy tales you can get your hands on- op shops seem to always have one or two when I take a look.

http://www.pinterest.com/pin/196962183674898958/

These are some of my favourite ones...

Cinderella

Dick Whittington

The Elves and the Shoemaker

The Emperors New Clothes

The Frog Prince

The Gingerbread Man

The Goose that Laid the Golden Eggs

Jack and the Beanstalk

The Little Match Girl

The Little Mermaid

Little Red Riding Hood

The Ugly Duckling

The Pied Piper of Hamelin

The Princess and the Pea

Rumplestiltskin

The Dancing Princesses

Snow White

Stone Soup

Thumbelina

The Boy who cried Wolf

I'll write another blog post with some of my favourite chapter books as well, basically anything by Michael Morpurgo plus a few of my other favourites :)

Happy reading!

Megan x

Sesame Street Alphabet Songs on Youtube

Sticking with some of the ABC stuff I've been sharing on my Facebook page  I thought I'd share these alphabet songs and clips I've found on youtube- most of them are probably 20+ years old and still captivate my kids - I'm sure yours will love them too. There's a phonics song at the end- not as cute/retro as these Sesame St ones but good for learning letter sounds. Hope your kids enjoy them :) Megan

Sesame Street: The Alphabet with Elmo and India Arie


Sesame Street:The Alphabet Song with Lena Horne


Sesame Street: Ray Charles Sings the Alphabet


Sesame Street: Patti Labelle Sings the Alphabet


Sesame Street: Big Bird ABC-DEF-GHI Song


Sesame Street: Grover and Alphabet Soup




Classic Sesame Street animation: Boy fishing for the alphabet


Phonics Song

Rainbow pencil holders

Here are the details of the rainbow pencil holders for my classroom...the idea came from this article in the NZ Herald Sunday magazine by Greig Morgan back in January I think. I loved the rainbow idea as my classroom is going to have a bit of a rainbow theme (hopefully without being OTT as the rainbow theme can look fun or look too much if you know what I mean!) 

My hubby got a piece of the wood below from Bunnings- it's about 50mm wide and was about 150mm long- I can just read from the article that it's called dress gauge pine. He cut out the rainbow shapes after using a plate to draw the circle shape on the wood.

Then he used the electric sander to soften the edges.

 

Next he painted them with a coat of undercoat and drilled the holes for the pencils. He forgot to not drill the holes too deep though so I'm going to have to put something in the holes or once the kids sharpen their pencils a few times their pencils will be lost down the holes! (in the article it says to wrap a piece of tape around your drill bit so you know when to stop drilling down). Then I painted them the rainbow stripes. Next time I would definitely use paint test pots to do this as I used kids acrylic paint so each rainbow stripe needed A LOT of coats- took forever!!

When they were dry I painted on a layer of modpodge to seal them - varnish would work the same.

This would be a fun school holiday project too if you have older kids...dad (or mum!) cuts the shape out and the kids can paint them- a cute desk accessory for their bedroom :)

Megan x

Humpty Dumpty

When Amelie started school last year she came home with spelling words in her homework book called 'Humpty Wall's'.  Basically they are 12 walls of words, each wall having about 6-8 words on it.

Each week or two (or whenever they master the wall they are learning) they move up to a new 'humpty wall' which is a great motivator for them.  If your child can read these words easily he/she will find reading larger pieces of text a lot easier, and the same goes for writing- mastering the spelling of these high frequency words means they will be able to write far more easily and with confidence, and can also then think about using more interesting and challenging words in their writing.  Confidence is so important in the early school years so things like this really help to boost that. Don't worry about getting the flashcards out yet though, I personally don't believe in flashcards or anything that formal before school -some knowledge of the ABC's is very helpful though (which is a whole other blog post....!)

Anyway, not the most riveting blog post so far but here's something cute to make up for it...I came across this super cute Humpty pattern over a year ago and filed it away as something to make one day, and then after getting my teaching job I thought it would be a cute thing to have in the classroom to promote the Humpty Walls, plus act as a class mascot type thing, or something to cuddle when mum or dad leaves in the morning...

The pattern doesn't include many instructions so it was a bit of a trial and error to get him made (I didn't make the arms and legs removable like in the original pattern)-wish I could be bothered making another one as my kids have taken a major shine to him, taking turns having him in their bed at night even:)  I am one of those crafters though who loves making something for the first time and then pretty much has no interest in making whatever it is again once it's finished!!

feeding Humpty

taking him for a walk :)

I bought a bag of wooden blocks last year from a second hand kids shop (which was a great score as I had been wanting some for some other crafty projects) so I printed out the Humpty Wall words and modpodged them onto the blocks so the kids can have fun making a wall and hopefully reading some of the words at the same time!

I got that idea after seeing something like this on a blog ages ago using words stuck onto duplo blocks...

 

(found this one on pinterest to show you)

...if you do have younger kids you could put the abc's on your duplo...there are lots of Duplo bulk lots on TradeMe if you are wanting some.

Next project is a cute pencil holder... 

Megan x

Fine motor skills activity- nuts, bolts and screws

I'm planning on having a quite a few fine motor skills activities in my classroom...they are fun to make and kids enjoy them too, and they are great for those kids that are 'do-ers' and like to keep busy!

What are Fine Motor Skills:

Fine motor skills involve the small muscles of the body that enable such functions as writing, grasping small objects, and fastening clothing. They involve strength, fine motor control, and dexterity.

How Fine Motor Skills Affect Learning and Living Skills:

These skills are important in most school activities as well as in life in general. Weaknesses in fine motor skills can affect a child's ability to eat, write legibly, turn pages in a book, and perform personal care tasks such as dressing and grooming.

I've seen variations on this  'nuts and bolts' activity on lots of blogs, especially ones that are into Montessori teaching materials. This one is such a good one for developing fine motor skills plus it's awesome for problem solving, maths, learning new vocabulary and lots more.  Also it can be a pretty budget friendly activity as you only need to buy the nuts, bolts and screws (if you don't have some already.)  Here are the details for my one (my hubby Ben made it for me.)

Fine motor skills 'Nuts, Bolts and Screws' board

You will need

-piece of wood- this one is about 1.5 cm thick and approx 25cm x 15 cm size

-bolts no longer than the thickness of your piece of wood

-screws - as above- I used flat head screws but it would have been good to have some Phillips ones as well so the kids learnt the difference between the 2 types of screws and had the challenge of matching the right screw driver to the right screw as well (although Ben isn't sure if they actually had Phillips ones)

-things that you use to screw the screws or bolts into the piece of wood- I don't know what they're called but you'll find them with the nuts and bolts -see pic above.  I'll call them base pieces-when Ben went to Bunnings he found individual base pieces already matched to a bolt or a screw which was handy 

-screwdriver the right size for your chosen screws (a short one with a large handle like the orange one on the pic below is easiest for younger children)

-spanner that fits your bolts (Super Cheap Auto had spanners for $1.50 when I went in yesterday)

What to do

1. Drill holes into the piece of wood where you would like the screws/bolts to go

2. Hammer in the base pieces

3. Screw in your bolts and screws

Nuts and bolts sorting and matching activity

One of the things I am always on the lookout for when I go op-shopping is any sort of small divider type bowls like the one below- this one was $1 but I've picked up plastic ones for as little as 20c- they are so handy for kids to sort things into and organise little things.  I got the nuts and bolts from Bunnings- each bolt was 50c - $1.50 approx and the nuts were from 15c - 50c approx.

For this I just bought different size nuts and bolts plus a wing nut and a carabina type thing.  Children will enjoy things like matching up the right size nuts to the bolts, ordering the nuts and bolts from smallest to biggest and also counting how many they can fit onto each bolt.

 

Another thing you can do with these nuts and bolts is write letters on the faces of each nut and encourage older children to see how many word they can make- great for spelling and learning rhyming words. I just used a sharpie to write the letters on so not sure how long they will last but this post explains how to make them with little stickers and mod lodge- don't know where I'd find those little stickers here in NZ though? Another idea would be to get enough nuts so you can write the letters of their name and they have to spell out their name. 

This post has a good idea too- write a word on the end of the bolt and have the children find the nuts with the right letters to spell the word. 

I've got a few more fine motor skills activities to make so will share those soon as well :)

Megan x