Creative Family Fun

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Terri Thompson

A Week of After School Activities Plus the After School Linky Party – Week 11

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It’s After School Linky Party time! I love seeing all the great ideas you link up every week. You are still sharing a lot of fun Thanksgiving ideas, plus you’ll find crafts, math, pretend play and more. I’ve pulled together some of my favorite ideas from last week in a handy after school planner. Hope you have a lot of after school fun this week.

(Pictured left to right.)

Day 1: Make light-up Thanksgiving turkey. You can find all the instructions on Left Brain Craft Brain.

Day 2: Create with nature. Make beautiful painted acorns with Art Club Blog.

Day 3: Play a math game. Use this free printable to play Number Sentence Roll and Write from Math Geek Mama.

Day 4: Play with candy cane play dough and pretend you are in grandma’s kitchen with this fun invitation to play from EDventures with Kids.

Day 5: Create fireworks! Use spin art to make this fun firecracker artwork. You can find all the instructions at Science Sparks.

Check the linky below for even more great ideas.

Make sure to visit all the After School Activities Hosts:
The Educators’ Spin On It
Planet Smarty Pants
Boy Mama Teacher Mama
Mama Smiles
Relentlessly Fun, Deceptively Educational 

Check out the link up below for even more great after school ideas. If you’re a blogger, please link up any ideas for elementary-aged kids (ages 5 and up). 

A Week of After School Activities Plus the After School Linky Party – Week 10

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It’s After School Linky Party time again! I love seeing all the great ideas you link up every week. This past week I found a ton of great Thanksgiving ideas, service projects, and science projects. There are plenty of great ideas to fit every family. I’ve pulled together some of my favorite ideas from last week in a handy after school planner. Hope you have a lot of after school fun this week.

(Pictured above, left to right.)

Day 1: Plan and do a family service project. EDventures with Kids gives you all the tools you need.

Day 2: Make number bond rainbows. Find all the details at Math Geek Mama.

Day 3: Do the unpoppable balloon experiment. Check out Relentlessly Fun, Deceptively Educational for the instructions.

Day 4: Make a fall painted leaf wreath. Mini Monets and Mommies shows you how to make this pretty kid-made decoration.

Day 5: Make a rainbow. Science Sparks shows you how to do this fun science experiment.

Check the linky below for even more great ideas.

Make sure to visit all the After School Activities Hosts:
The Educators’ Spin On It
Planet Smarty Pants
Boy Mama Teacher Mama
Mama Smiles
Relentlessly Fun, Deceptively Educational 

Check out the link up below for even more great after school ideas. If you’re a blogger, please link up any ideas for elementary-aged kids (ages 5 and up).

Holiday Classroom Treats for School Parties

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Are you a room mom?

I’m not this year, but I have been in the past. (It’s quite the sought-after job in my girls’ school!)

One the the biggest jobs of the room mom is the classroom party.

I’ve worked with teachers that have definite ideas about the party, but sometimes it’s left completely up to the room mom.

Planning the party can be hard, especially planning the food! Your school may have rules about what food you can bring. In addition, there may be allergies to accommodate.

Luckily, I’ve got you covered.

Here is a roundup of holiday classroom treats that all the kids will love and will work with all of the rules that are in place.

If you're planning a classroom party, you and the kids will love these 10 fun school-approved holiday classroom treats for Christmas parties.

Disclosure: This post contains Amazon Affiliate and other affiliate links. Please see my Disclosure Page for more details.

Prepackaged Holiday Classroom Treats:

Many schools have rules that you can only bring store-bought treats. That doesn’t mean you can’t make the store-bought treat special. Here are some fun ideas:

(Pictured above from left to right.)

Make Polar Express Treat Bags from East Coast Mommy. Package up a jingle bell and small packages of candy along with the free printable gift tag. Easy and fun.

Simple As That has a fun tutorial to turn paper cups into a snowman, Santa, or a reindeer. Fill these with store-bought treats for a simple holiday treat.

You can also turn mini Styrofoam cups into reindeer to fill with store-bought treats. Check out MollyMoo for the tutorial.

Do you want something that’s not full of sugar? Check out this idea from No Biggie to turn string cheese into cute snowman treats.

It’s a quick transformation to turn apple sauce cups into reindeer. Check out this healthy holiday snack idea from The Melrose Family.

You can make any treat festive when you use one of these fun sets of Christmas Paper Plates that would be fun for kids. 

If you're planning a classroom party, you and the kids will love these 10 fun school-approved holiday classroom treats for Christmas parties.

Holiday Treats to Make In the Classroom:

By far, one of the most popular activities during either of my daughters’ classroom parties is making their own holiday treat. The kids have a blast constructing all the bits and pieces to make their own special treat. Any of these would be perfect to make in the classroom.

Special Note: Many of these ideas can still work if your school has a store-bought treats only policy. Most local bakeries will be willing to sell you a batch of undecorated cookies or cupcakes. All you have to do is ask! Then bring along unopened packages of the embellishments.

(Pictured above from left to right.)

Rudolph’s Snack Mix from Sunshine and Hurricanes is a simple no-cook treat that the kids can construct in the classroom. It only takes a few packages of store-bought treats.

Bring along undecorated cupcakes and a few supplies and let the kids make these cute Santa cupcakes from The Joy of Boys.

You could also bring the undecorated cupcakes and the kids can turn them into reindeer. Check out Life at the Zoo for the instructions.

Buy some undecorated cookies and let the kids turn them into snowman faces. I love this idea from The Joy of Boys.

Start with a base of Oreo Cookies, add some embellishments and turn them into reindeer. The kids will love making this Simple Reindeer Snack from Childhood 101.

For even more ideas and advice, you can download the Classroom Christmas Party Guide from Pre-K Pages. It’s a great resource.

These classroom treats make the job of room mom easy. Which one of these holiday classroom treats are you going to bring along to the Christmas party?

If you're planning a classroom party, you and the kids will love these 10 fun school-approved holiday classroom treats for Christmas parties.

Please check out the other posts about classroom holiday parties from the Public Education Blogging crew:

You may also like one of these Christmas posts:

20 Fun Christmas Math Activities

Paper Plate Christmas Tree

Scented Gingerbread Man Ornaments

Healthy Christmas Treats for School

DIY Sight Word Memory Game

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Practice sight words with this simple sight word memory game. It's easy to make and can be personalized for any set of sight words.
My 1st grade daughter has been working hard at reading. That means I’ve been working hard right along with her. She still has some areas where she stumbles and one of those areas is sight words. I took note of some of the words she was struggling with recently and made a simple sight word memory game.
This game is completely customizable and only takes about 10 minutes to make. What could be easier?
Let’s get started!
Disclosure: This post contains Amazon Affiliate links. Please see my disclosure for more details.
 
Practice sight words with this simple sight word memory game. It's easy to make and can be personalized for any set of sight words.
Supplies Needed
Colored card stock
Ruler
Pencil
Scissors
Markers
To Make the Game: Use your ruler to create a grid on your card stock. I made squares that were 2 inches by 2 inches. This size was perfect for a game, plus I was able to get 20 squares per sheet of card stock with little waste. Once you have your grid, cut out all of your squares. I found that 20 squares was the perfect amount for the game.
Practice sight words with this simple sight word memory game. It's easy to make and can be personalized for any set of sight words.

Decide on your words. I chose 10 words that my daughter needed to work on. I selected from words that were on a take-home sheet from her teacher along with a few that she had been struggling with while we read together. I used a marker to write the words on the card stock squares. You’ll want two copies of each word, so I needed 20 squares for my 10 words.

Special Note: Use your kid’s washable markers to write the words. Permanent markers, like Sharpies, will bleed through the card stock and
you’ll be able to see the word through the back side. I learned that the combination of colored card stock plus washable marker will insure that you won’t be able to see the words when the game pieces are upside down.
Practice sight words with this simple sight word memory game. It's easy to make and can be personalized for any set of sight words.
To play the game: Mix up your cards and turn them all upside down. Player one turns over two cards. If they match, player 1 keeps the cards and plays again. If they don’t match, turn the cards back over and it’s player 2’s turn. Keep playing until all the matches are made.
The rules are identical to the rules of the classic Memory game. Your child can focus on having fun and reviewing sight words without having to learn new game play rules.
My daughter had a blast playing and so did I. It really is a fun way to practice sight words and a great way to connect with your kids after school.
Practice sight words with this simple sight word memory game. It's easy to make and can be personalized for any set of sight words.

A Week of After School Activities Plus the After School Linky Party – Week 9

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It’s After School Linky Party time again! I love seeing all the great ideas you link up every week. They’re so inspiring! I’ve pulled together some of my favorite ideas from last week in a handy after school planner. Hope you have a lot of after school fun this week.

Pictured left to right.

Day 1: Practice estimating, grouping, and counting with corn kernels. Find all the fun ideas over at Gift of Curiosity.

Day 2: Do you have a lot of leftover Halloween candy? Use Skittles to create patterns. Math Geek Mama has some fun free printable pattern cards to help you out.

Day 3: Practice multiplication with a fun weaving wheel. Check out School Time Snippets for this great idea.

Day 4: Practice sight words with a fun game. Head over to The Jordan Project for instructions and printable game board.

Day 5: Learn about bones! A Little Pinch of Perfect has so many fun ideas in this post.

Check the linky below for even more great ideas.

Make sure to visit all the After School Activities Hosts:
The Educators’ Spin On It
Planet Smarty Pants
Boy Mama Teacher Mama
Mama Smiles
Relentlessly Fun, Deceptively Educational

Check out the link up below for even more great after school ideas. If you’re a blogger, please link up any ideas for elementary-aged kids (ages 5 and up).