Just a Few Gems

 We Made Our Own Book of ABC's! Easy. Fun. Worth it. I LOVED this activity! I have always wanted to write a book (and have started but not finished many books, many times) but this time, I will actually finish one! Granted, this particular work may not be what you would consider a literary masterpiece and the editing was a breeze (hehe), but it is a book nonetheless and one that our whole family is excited for.  What We Did The prep was incredibly easy.  DAY 1: "A"is for Apple I drew out a capital letter "A" and a lower case letter "a". We talked about the letter, traced it with our finger, and talked about the sound it made. We used items we had around the house to help us to trace the letters. For the "A", we used stamps that G really likes. We then talked about words that began with the letter, such as "Apple" and "Animal". We took a photo of G with an apple and a photo of the letter sheet. I then edited them together t...

Sensory Bin Ideas for Early Childhood "A sensory what?" I was first introduced to the words "Sensory Bin" at a driveway distance visit with a friend. Having taught in mostly the junior division, I was aware of the idea behind it; play based learning and use of the senses, but I didn't have much experience in the area. The goal was to create some easy, fun, and educational bins for G to play with and explore, that could be stored afterward to be reused in the future. We had such a fun time putting the bins together and then playing with them. I had lots of ideas for bins; Here are just a few gems: DAY 1: Wash the Toys! All we did was put out two bins; one to wash with dish soap and water, one to rinse with water only, and then a towel to dry. G loved this! It was so simple but she had so much fun playing in the water and cleaning any toys from outside that she deemed worthy. Did this Mama sit back and have a coffee? Yup. Win - win! DAY 2: Play Dough Ice Cream Bin...