Sight Words List

I found a really great website with lists of sight words. The lists are divided by difficulty level so you can move up with your child as they progress. Here is the beginning list that I plan to use for my 4-year-old to start with:


a
and
away
big
blue
can
come
down
find
for
funny
go
help
here
I
in
is
it
jump
little
look
make
me
my
not
one
play
red
run
said
see
the
three
to
two
up
we
where
yellow
you

Double Dipped Egg

Multi colored eggs are fun to make. All you need is an egg, some food coloring and vinegar, and some masking tape.

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Here's how. Make a dipping solution by putting enough vinegar to cover an egg in a cup with about 12 drops or so of food coloring in as many colors as you'd like to make.

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For your first color cover the parts of your egg you'd like to keep white or save for another color with masking tape and dip your egg until it is the color you would like.

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Remove from the dye and remove the masking tape (drying it while you go so the dye doesn't leak!).

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Completely dry the egg and then reapply masking take where over all of the color and white areas you'd like to keep. Leave a little for dying the second color.

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Ok you get the picture ba bye!

Candy Starburst Plumeria

I made this mini plumeria from a Starbust candy. It is really easy.

Here's the step by step

1) Mold a Starburst until it is soft enough to flatten on a hard surface. Take the cap off a ball point pen and break of the point. Use the cap to cut out 5 little circles in the flattened Starburst.

2)Remove one of the cut circles

3)Press it slightly with your thumb and finger.

4)Pinch one end

5)Repeat steps 2-4 until you have 5 petals.

6)Press the petals together.

It's that simple!

I thing this pretty little flowers would look great on top of a cupcake at a Luau or something.

Picture Puzzle

This picture puzzle mosaic is a craft to help kill some time. It is fun personal and unique way to display some of your favorite photographs!

It was fun to see the look on my daughters face when I asked her to cut her pictures up! She was very concerned and proceeded with caution just to make sure she was hearing me right! It was kind of funny!

Toilet Paper Roll Flowers

We are always trying to find new uses for old things in our family. Here is what we did with a used up toilet paper roll!

Nature Walk Rock Necklaces

My little girl is always finding cool rocks and showing me them. So we decided make necklaces with her favorites so she could show them to everybody! She liked this one because it was shaped like a diamond.

This project is fast and easy but a four year old will need an adult helper to wrap the wire around the rock. All you have to do is find some bendy wire (we used the floral kind) make a loop and then take pliers or your hand and twist the wire around the end. Then wrap the wire around the rock securely. Return to the loop you made wrap the wire again then cut it with scissors. Use your pliers to pinch in the pokey ends. Walla you're done!

My little girl made one for her and her Grandmother. It's so much more fun when you share the fun.

Color Etchings

We went to an author signing at our public library and there were lots of kids activities set up. I liked this one because I used to make these crayon etchings as a kid. These were bookmarks from oriental trading that have black wax or something on top and you scratch them off to see colors but you can make your own. All you need is a magazine cover and a black crayon.

When I was little I would take a piece of paper and color it with lots of different colors. Then I would color the entire paper with black crayon thickly so that I couldn't see the picture anymore. I would then scratch off the black to see the colors underneath. When I tried this again as an adult I was a little disappointed with how dull the colors were so here's the trick! Use the cover of a magazine (not the inside pages they are too thin and not as glossy), cover it thickly with black crayon and then scratch it off to revel the colors underneath. This method worked nicely and produced excellent results.

Happy coloring!

String and Sugar Creations

This little yarn creations was a product of a mishap while trying to make sugar crystal candy! Which by the way if you have been successful at please email me.
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When I pulled the string out of the sugar water I noticed how hard and rigid it was when it was dry. So then I thought why not make something with it.
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My daughter made this little piece of art by soaking yarn in sugar water and then letting it dry. In my experience I've found the more sugar the better and the more string piled on top each other the sturdier the creation. It takes 3 to 5 days to dry depending on how wet everything is so understand that this project requires patients. It is a virtue right. Just not one I claim.
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Our sugar water was really thick like syrup. Sorry I didn't measure I'll try and be more specific in my next posts. I boiled a almost equal parts of water and sugar together until it was clear.

Toss and Serve Ice Cream

My daughter watched a how to video on Nick Jr. on how to make Ice Cream in a bag. She has been dying to make it with her brother since. At first I told her she couldn't because she is allergic to milk but then I decided to improvise and came up with my own non dairy recipe.

We all put on gloves and then tossed our bags of ice cream, course salt, and ice until the ice cream looked like soft serve. It was a lot of fun tossing the bag but it was slippery so it was hard for my 2 yr old to catch. We switched it up a bit to help him out and put it in a large beach towel me on one side and the kids on the other and tossed it. That was easier for him and made everyone happy!

Here is the Nick Jr. how to link http://www.nickjr.com/food/seasonal_treats/ice_cream.jhtml their video link isn't working right now.... sorry.

If you are in the same boat as me I used a young coconut and blended the meat and coconut water in the blender. Then I sweetened it to taste with agave and added some real vanilla extract. My son wanted his strawberry so I added them to his. They both turned out tasting OK. The kids liked it and it was good for them too. That makes me happy!

Tumble Bumble Bugs

These little bumble tumble bugs are one my favorite crafts we have done so far. They are pretty easy to make and you would be surprised how they tumble about so much like little bugs. The most fun is when we took off our couch cushions put them at a slight incline and had tumble bug races!!!

I got the idea from Family Fun. Here is the link for the instructions. http://jas.familyfun.go.com/arts-and-crafts?page=CraftDisplay&craftid=11739

Just a note: I used tape instead of glue to put the bugs together. I wasn't to sure of my gluing skills and besides my kids wanted to play with their bugs right away not wait for the glue to dry!

Cupcake Crayons

Don't you hate it when you get crayons and your kids break them so fast. Well here is a really fun way to make them new again. All you need is a mini cupcake pan of some sort, pieces of crayons, and an oven.

Here is a link for the instructions from Family Fun.

http://jas.familyfun.go.com/arts-and-crafts?page=CraftDisplay&craftid=11585

In the instructions it says to bake them at 250 for 10 to 15 minutes. This completely liquefies the crayons so I would suggest melting crayons with like colors so that they don't all melt down into brown crayons. Another tip I might add.... don't get impatient and put them in the freezer they will crack. I guess that is to be expected. You can however wait until they are pretty solid and then put them in the fridge there is minimal breakage there. Oh last comment.... don't use a cupcake pan you really love it does leave a little of crayon reside. I didn't use liner though. Maybe I should have.

Straw Airplane

I can't take credit for this ingenious idea--it came from the baby-sitter. This airplane is made using a straw for the body and another straw for the wings. Then masking tape is used to keep everything together, make the tail and add depth to the wings. My son was so proud of it! He also made another airplane with a straw for the body and a Popsicle stick for the wings.

Home-made laptop

My four-year old son likes to make a craft every day. Usually this requires that we search endlessly on the internet for some pattern or directions for a craft that matches the idea he has for what he wants to make that day. I'm pretty proud of myself for coming up with the idea for a laptop on my own. All you need is some colored paper, folded in half. Then a piece of white paper, cut into squares and glued on as the keyboard. My son used another colored paper cut in half to be the screen. Pretty simple, and it kept him occupied for a long time with cutting, gluing, then writing the letters for the keyboard.

Play Dough

I have recently fallen in love all over again with play dough. It is so much fun. It can be used for a variety of things. Just this week we used it to sculpt airplanes, flowers, igloo's, and more.

We also used it to practice making our numbers and letters. And since we had the newspaper out we pushed it on the newsprint and then looked at the letters in the mirror to read them the right way again.

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My mom brought us some play dough for church last week and it thoroughly entertained my 4yr old for a good portion of the time.

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In the past we have made it into a volcano for our baking soda and vinegar experiments.

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You can also mix colors to make new ones!

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All in all play dough is a preschooler must have!

Easter Egg Maracas

My little girl is so creative. She is always inventing things! She came up with these Easter egg maracas all on her own one day! I thought it was quite ingenious! She's such a smartie pants!

This is how they are made. Plastic Easter eggs, beads or anything little that can shake, sticks to go in the bottom, and something to hold them shut while you shake them. I used tape but she liked the sticker idea better.

She's one smart cookie don't you think!

Cupcake Liner Flower Card - Mother's Day

My daughter came home from a church activity with this cupcake liner mother's day card. It was fun to see her happy little face smiling back. Just the thing to make mommy smile.

News Paper Sight Words

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My 4 year old has been working on learning sight words. She loves to find the word THE when we are reading books. So we play a little game with the newspaper and use crayons to highlight all the THE words we can find. This can be use with other common sight words such as SAID. Stay posted, I am going to post the sight words that all kindergartners at our local school need to know before entering 1st grade soon!

You can also use this little game for learning your letters and numbers. Just pick one go on a letter hunt through your newspaper!

Celery, Daisies, Food Coloring, and Capillaries!

A good way to teach kids about the capillaries in plants as well as humans and how it all works is a simple experiment using white flowers such as daisies , carnations, or Queen Anne's lace and celery! All you need is some food coloring and water!

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We tried celery and daisies after a few days their petals and leaves changed colors. My 4yr old kept checking them to see if it worked and when it work she ran in announcing with delight. They turned colors mommy, they turned colors.

When it was done we had a little science lesson on veins, and capillaries, and how plants and people work. I've included this scholastic/magic school bus link to help you better explain what is happening!

http://www.scholastic.com/magicschoolbus/simplescience/archive/labs/capillaries.htm or here is another good one as well! http://www.reachoutmichigan.org/funexperiments/quick/celery.html

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Obstacle Course

My kids were all crafted out and they didn't want to read books. All other suggestions to cure boredom were booed at until I said "Do you want to take the couch cushions off an jump on them?". Then there was a resounding YES!!! So we got a little creative and made it into an obstacle course! Ours was simple and consisted of a tunnel made from a laundry basket and a storage container. Next was the wiggly wobbly skate board, then onto the bouncy exercise ball! To top it of they had to climb a tower of couch cushions! The kids were happy and entertained and nobody even suggested to watch TV!

Obstacle courses can also be created outside with hula hoops, bikes, cardboard tunnels, and anything else you can conjure up! Its certain to be a great time that will keep their bodies busy, happy, and healthy! Have fun making your own and email your ideas to busybodiesblog@gmail.com and I may post some for you to see!

Doodle Pro = Diaper Bag Life Saver

I carry two mini doodle pros in my diaper bag at all times. My four year old loves practicing his letters and numbers one at a time on it and then quickly erasing and moving on to the next. This has saved me many a time--whether waiting at the DMV or needing a quiet activity at church. My two year old uses his to scribble and sometimes to completely fill the screen. Can't complain about a toy that teaches!

Strega Nona

Do you eat pasta? Well if you do this is and Excellent book for dinner and a story! It is an enchanted tale about a lady named Strega Nona and her magical pasta pot! Watch what happens when a little boy forgets to blow it a kiss! Ooooddddles of Nooooodles of fun awaits so get ready for a big big bowl of pasta and a really great read!

Hopscotch - Numbers

Hopscotch can come in handy when it comes to learning your numbers! It is very useful in counting forward, backward and by twos.

Draw your hopscotch squares from 1 to 10 or 10 to 20. However far you need to go! I'm not really sure what the official rules are but my daughter and I throw a small rock, jump and count on one foot all the way to our rock. This gets in a lot of practice and some exercise and her little brother can hop along too.

Polka Dot Hop - Letters

A fun thing to do for letter review is draw polka dots on the sidewalk and jump to them. My daughter and I take turns yelling out letters to each other and trying to see if we can find and hop on them! It's pretty fun and a great way to get your wiggles out!

This is also a good time to find out which letter the know and which ones they don't. Bring along a paper and jot them down. When they as why, just tell them your writing down all the letter they are really good at so you can show their daddy how good they are.

Drive your letters!

Writing letters can get really boring if you don't have lots of fun! The best way to frustrate a preschooler is to make them write and rewrite their letter with a pencil and paper. So to keep from frustrating your preschooler and yourself go outside and give this activity a try!

All you need is some sidewalk chalk, and toy cars! Have your preschooler draw their letters and practice directionality (is that even a word?) - the right way to write them.

Have your child draw a pretty large letter on the sidewalk which will act as a road. Encourage your child to drive on their letter road in the right direction. To do this draw a green dot where they should start, arrows to lead them along the way, and a stop sign and the end. You could even print out street signs and place them along the way. This will make letter writing and learning to right way to write them seem more like play and less like practice!

Pretzel Alphabet

One day I heard my daughter say from her car seat "Look mommy I made a u". When I looked she was busily making letters out of her pretzels. I smiled because it reminded of

when I was a little and did the same thing!

So then one afternoon we along with my 19 yr old brother took on the challenge of making the whole alphabet! I mean I have always wondered if it could be done!

We started with our teeth and then my brother and I broke out the serrated knives and finished the whole thing.

Of course in the back of my mind I kept thinking "Yes honey this is what I do all day while you are at work........" Maybe I should include a behind the scenes picture of my living room and my laundry! But it was all worth it baby all the way down to letter Z.

Here is a picture of the entire Pretzel Alphabet. Impressive isn't it! I'm thinking of making my own font out of it or something!

Pink Cupcakes and Pinkalicious

We had some friends over for lunch and afterwards we had a Pinkalicious Pink cupcake decorating fest! It was so much fun! Even though it was three boys to one girl everybody was laughing and making lots of happy noise while we read this absolutely entertaining book about a girl who just can't get enough pink cupcakes.

You will be certain to find this book a favorite with all ages and genders. I must warn you thought if you enjoy it along with a batch of pink cupcakes you just might find your kids saying Pleeeeeease just one more ..... and you never know what could happen next!


Oh and one last thing. When the your kids come down an rare and acute case of Pinkitous here is a pink drink with a touch of green. Just mix Strawberries, Pineapple, Nappa Cabbage, Agave, and Water in a high speed blender to taste. The trick is not to let the kids watch you make it and they'll never know you made them something healthy! The best part is it's totally Pinkalicious Pink! Wow! A GREEN drink that's PINK!

String and Straw Leis

My niece made my little girl this beautiful Lei. I thought it was fun I have worn it for a few days at my daughter's request.

The construction is easy once you have the supplies. Some sort of yarn or string (this one is made out of poofy thick yarn and it helps the flowers and straw beads stay in place nicely!), paper flowers, and cut up pieces of a straw for beads. You will also need some tape to put on the ends of the yarn to make it easier to thread through the beads.

My daughter and I did our own version on this with small photos of herself and her family. It was a really fun charm necklace filled with mementos of our favorite outings. Quick tip though..... when we punched the holes they were a little bigger than the straws that we bought at the store and we had to use a larger straw like the kind you find at McDonald's so the straw's wouldn't slip through the holes we punched in the photos.

Here is another get idea for making flower leis
http://jas.familyfun.go.com/arts-and-crafts?page=CraftDisplay&craftid=10492

Here are some flower necklace printables from Wondertime Online as well. Click here for the link! As well as a How to on lei's thier way! Click here to see.

Paper Plate Monster Masks

As a child I absolutely LOVED this book. In fact I bought it for my children before the were ever conceived because I knew I would be reading it to them. When they did come and I had the chance they loved it just as much as I did! They loved turning pages even when Grover pleaded with them to stop!

This is a must read classic and if you haven't already I highly suggest you do. It will have your kids screaming, laughing, and being silly!

After you're done you can make yourself a couple of these scary paper plate monster masks.

Paper Mosaics

You can put all those scraps of paper you might have thrown away to good use by using them to make a paper mosaic! All you need to do is draw a simple shape or a picture and fill it in with glue and little pieces of ripped up paper!

This is the picture my 4 yr old made. One of her favorite things to draw is hearts and flowers. This was a way to put a new twist on an old favorite!

Milk Carton Birdfeeders

After watching a how to on Nick Jr. online my daughter just had to make this bird feeder! It was really quite simple and fun.

Here's the link for the directions.

http://www.nickjr.com/shows/diego/crafts/dieg_bird_feeder_craft.jhtml?_template=print

here's a video link as well http://www.nickjr.com/video/index.jhtml?videoid=88784

We did our own thing but it was the same idea. We glued cloth to our carton and then cut a hole in the front for the birds. Then I poked a little hole to slide a kiddie chop stick through for a birdie perch. Our carton had a lid that screwed off so I poked a little hole in the center of the lid to string a ribbon through, screwed it back on and hung it from a tree.

I don't really think our bird house will brave the elements so I filled it with bird seed just to make the kids happy and hung it up outside for a little while and took pictures. Sorry birds!!! Our bird feeder was just for kicks and to fill and afternoon with something besides TV.

Pet Rock

When you run out of supplies and your kids are asking you "Mommy what are we going to do today" you can go out side and find yourself some rocks.

This is the newest addition to our family, our pet rock Mailei. My four year old really enjoyed creating this little creature and even gave her a name!

Making pet rocks is inexpensive and easy. You can use markers, paint, googly eyes, pipe cleaners for antennae or tails, and all sorts of other things. Get creative and make animals, insects, monsters and more.

Please share any ideas or comments, I would love to hear your thoughts and ideas!

Mother's Day Cookie Flowers

My 4 yr old daughter made me this fun flower cookie bouquet for mothers day! She worked really hard on it with her Grandma and she was just bubbling with joy to give it to me! I loved to see how much she really enjoyed making this gift to give to her mommy!

So in case the picture isn't enough, all you need are some round or flower cookies with holes in the middle, skewers, and gum drops. Just push a gum drop through the skewer and then the cookie, and last another gum drop to secure it and make it look pretty!

The Grouchy Lady Bug

I love to incorporate books however I can into our projects! It's fun for me and the kids to have a visual aid while we are reading and makes reading so much more fun! Grandma is responsible for this lady bug puppet! My little girl was so proud of her creation and bursting at the seems to tell me all about it!

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I really enjoyed reading the book The Grouch Lady Bug by Eric Carle! Not only was it the inspiration for this little lady bug it introduced telling time in a fun light hearted way. If you do read this book you will want to be ready with a clock! Here is a fun clock from Wondertime Online that you might like!

http://wondertime.go.com/create-and-play/crafts/first-clock.html

Just make a minute and second hand with a brad and walla you've got the perfect clock to accompany this book!

Apple Juice Jeweled Crowns

This activity is easy and fun. All you need is a gallon apple juice bottle some stick on jewels and and elastic for securing your crown. My kids absolutely loved pretending they were a prince and princess! To extend the project you can paint the inside of the crown. This keeps the paint from scratching off while you're fighting dragons, rescuing damsels in distress, or having tea parties.

My kids absolutely loved this activity and best of all they were able to wear their creations with pride!

Baking Soda Volcanoes

Baking soda volcanoes are always a big hit with the kids. I've tried it with kids of all ages it never fails to win them over! My kids will make their volcanoes erupt until they run out of ingredients. I remember when I was a kid one of my first science projects was a baking soda volcano. This is one of my fondest memories with my father as a child. He was always so excited to help me with science projects and I really appreciate the memories and the time he spent making them with me!

All you really need to make a volcano is baking soda, vinegar, and a container to put them in. To make ours we first made a play dough volcano with a small measuring cup from a children's Tylenol bottle pushed into the top. We then poured the vinegar and the baking soda into the cup and walla a mini volcano!

Here is a play dough recipe you can use. http://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/curriculum/PEP/playdo.htm

Another really fun thing to do is mix colors. Watch the clip above to see my daughter mix yellow and blue to make green.

Creature Capsules - An Lesson in Absorbtion

My little girl has been begging me to get these Creature Capsules for a prize her daddy promised her for doing a good job putting. She was so excited when she brought them home!! I thought oh good another experiment with absorption and dissolving I can post!!

Not only did we have fun watching the capsules dissolve and the dinosaurs emerge we were able to match the little sponges to the dinosaurs on the back of the package and learned their names.