Classroom Valentine's Ideas!

Valentine's Day is right around the corner! Here is a fun and original idea for your kids' class parties - AND it's allergen-free! Put together 3 of our double-sided wipe-clean cards with a valentine and a dry-erase marker! Our wipe-clean cards come in packs of 50 for just $9.99 - that's 16 Valentines per pack (only $.62/Valentine!) Each set of cards include a dry erase marker, lots of puzzles to solve, pictures to draw and things to spot. The best part is that wipe-clean cards can be used again and again. Here are the card packs we have to choose from. Just click the image below for more info! 

*TIP: Dollar Tree sells 4-packs of dry-erase markers!
       

 

Another fun, original, and inexpensive Valentine idea is to use our Fold & Fly books to create paper plane Valentines! We have several different titles in our Fold & Fly series for just $7.99/each! Each book contains 100 (or more) Fold & Fly planes, spaceships, bugs, etc. and that's just $.08/per Valentine! Here are the fold & fly books we have to choose from. Just click the image below for more info! PLUS I'm going to give you TWO free printables of the Valentine's Cards - a set for the Wipe-Clean cards AND a set for the Paper Plane Valentines! Just click the button below to grab yours!

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Resolve to Read in 2019

EEEK! It's January and that means our 2019 January - June Catalog is officially out and with it are TONS of brand new titles! You can view the online catalog here! Have you made any "READolutions" for the new year? "READolutions" are goals that encourage a love of books and reading! And they are much more fun than your typical new year, new you resolutions, I promise! Plus there is the added bonus of helping your favorite readers fall in love with books- there are infinite benefits to having enthusiastic readers. Here are a few "READolutions" ideas to kick off 2019:  Read to children a minimum of three times per week. Studies show that reading to children increases their vocabulary. Add 5 minutes of reading time each night. Reading to children can strengthen your bond with them. Encourage your reader to research and read more about what intereststhem. Children often take a liking to reading when they can read about topics/subjects that spark their attention. Start a Book Club within the family or branch out and invite friends to join too! Book clubs are a great way to encourage reading and accountability. Plus they're FUN! Read together as a family. Reading together can create an environment of unity, oneness, and closer bonds. Here's an awesome printable reading challenge from Brightly to keep your READolutions on track!

Snowshoe Dino Tracks!

Here’s a fun idea! Print this Dino track out and trace it onto some cardboard. Make sure the size is big enough to fit your child’s shoe. Cut a few slits in the middle to tie some yarn through to tie the foot print to the shoe! Now you have Dino Track Snowshoes! Go outside and make BIG tracks!! 

Print your Dino Track here!

How We Made Our Fairy & Dinosaur Gardens

The holidays are over and we are READY for spring! Unfortunately for us we still have to wait a few months, so we decided to do a spring-y craft instead. We've been wanting to make fairy and dinosaur gardens for a long time, so when I came across these Fairy Garden accessories at Dollar Tree the other day, I loaded my basket! We already had two planter pots full of soil on our back porch that needed something so I designated one of them a fairy pot and the other a dino pot. I am only mildly "crafty", so I was winging it for the most part. I got out my trusty (and yet rarely used) hot glue gun and created a little picket fence for the fairy garden and a wooden pathway for the dinosaur garden out of popsicle sticks AND I only burnt myself once! I really wanted the kids to own their gardens, so I let them design them their own way and just helped with the trickier parts. We used materials we already had on hand (popsicle sticks, beads for Darby's "colorful road", glass marble beads, little dinosaurs, some old Jurassic Park cake toppers, a little paint and glitter...) and made our creations! I think they turned out pretty good! We still need to add some moss and a few plants. Dollar Tree actually had some fake moss with the fairy garden stuff but I would rather have the real thing. We used our Usborne Gardening for Beginners book to choose the plants we like best. We also plan to add in some fairy lights to top it off! Aven thought red glitter might look like lava on the volcano. I'll update with more pics when we've finished them up! Have you made a fairy garden or dino garden? What would you add?