During the first week of school we make "all about me" books and read them at circle time so the children can get to know each other a bit better. 

The book includes the following pages:

cover page - child colors person to look like them

my name Is - write and decorate name

this Is my picture - glue picture of child

this Is my handprint - trace around and color or paint and press

my favorite colors - color in the three circles

I know these letters - cut and glue letters child can identify

I know these numbers - cut and glue numbers child can identify

I know these shapes -cut and glue shapes child can identify

I know these colors - cut and glue colors child can identify

this Is my family - draw and color a picture of family

my favorite foods - cut and glue images (magazine or internet search)

my favorite animals -  cut and glue images (magazine or internet search)

You do not need to complete all of the pages of the book especially with younger children.  I intentionally left out a page for the child's phone number as well as an address page to protect the child's identity in case the book gets lost. You can grab the book pattern below:

all about me book

I am so excited to announce my color clip cards download is now available in the download store!!  There are 51 sets of color clip cards designed to work on color recognition and fine motor development.  Each set comes in b&w as well as color and with two color level choices for printing. 

Simply print the color clips on cardstock paper ... cut them out and laminate. Children clip the correct color on each card with a clothespin or paper clip.

To learn more please visit the color clip cards information page.
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I made Gingerbread Roll and Cover for early learning math skills and fine motor development. I printed the patterns on cardstock paper and then laminated them for durability.

You will need to have a dice and something to use as cover-ups on the mats. We used buttons but you can also use pom poms or playdough. I made three different types of mats ... one with blank circles ... one with numbers 1-6 ...  and another with numbers 2-12.

In this activity children roll the dice and cover up the same number of circles on the mat if using the blank mat. Children continue to roll the dice and cover the circles until all circles have been covered. Once the mat is full children can then roll the dice and remove the same number of cover-ups that is on the dice. 

For the numbered mats children roll the dice and cover up the same number on the mats. For the mat with numbers 2-12 children roll two dice and add the two together and then cover up the number on the mat.

​You watch video of this activity by clicking the image below. As of 2022 this activity can be found in the member's section.

We made paper plate gingerbread and they really turned out super cute. Not only did the children enjoy making this project but they also got lots of fine motor practice. 

You will need to have:

paper plates (we glued two together)
white yarn
black yarn or pipe cleaner
brown paint
paint brush
scissors
black and pink craft foam or construction paper
white sequins (optional)

The first step is to paint the paper plate brown and let it dry. While the paper plate is drying we cut out two circles from the black craft foam and two from the pink.  You can also use construction or cardstock paper if you do not have craft foam.

We glue the black circles on for the gingerbread eyes and formed a smile shape with a black pipe cleaner and also glued that on (you can substitue black yarn if you do not have pipe cleaners). We then glue a pink circle on each side of the mouth to from the gingerbread cheeks. 

The next step was to apply glue around the edge of the paper plate and press the yarn on to make the gingerbread icing.

We went around the the paper plate twice with the white yarn.  To add an optional sparkle we then pressed white iridescent sequins on the glue as well adding more glue dots if we need them.

You can see a video of this project by clicking below:
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We made tissue paper scrunch eggs for our fine motor project this week.  I printed the pattern on cardstock and cut the egg out.  I cut various colors of tissue paper into long strips and the children cut them into small squares.

The children applied glue drops to the egg and then scrunched up pieces of tissue paper and pressed them on to the egg.

This project is wonderful for fine motor development because the children have to separate the tissue paper squares ... scrunch them ... and then press them on to the glue drops.  You can download the egg pattern for this project below:

tissue paper scrunch egg pattern

This is one of our favorite shamrock projects to make! I printed the shamrock pattern on cardstock paper and traced around it on a piece of green cardstock paper. After the shamrock was cut out the children applied glue drops and pressed sequins on the glue. For easier use of the glue I put glue into small cups and children dip a q-tip in and then dot the glue onto the shamrock.

You can see a video of this project by clicking here or below: