Here’s a free printable Thanksgiving ebook I found for you to share with your preschoolers.
It includes Thanksgiving coloring sheets and activities, along with a fewideas of how to make time for you on the big day, and even some know-how for how to cook that big bird.
Here’s the link to download your own copy to print out and enjoy with your own preschoolers.
I just found this link to Halloween printables for preschoolers.
You’ll want to review them first and decide which ones you want to use with your preschoolers tonight. They’ll love the Halloween finger puppets and the Pumpkin Maze!
You may want to print the Halloween picture frame and votives as a treat for yourself. 
These ghosts are spooky and delicious too! One year we make these as gifts for my son’s preschool friends. If you plan on giving lollipops to your trick-or-treaters this year, this is a fun way to decorate them ahead of time.
What you need for each ghost:
lollipop
tissue
tape
marker
What you do:
Cover the lollipop with the tissue so it looks like a ghost’s body. Secure the tissue in place with a piece of tape.
Draw a spooky or a happy face with the marker.
Enjoy!
These tissue ghosts are so simple to make and yet so cute! You can make just one or create a whole row of ghosts to decorate your window for Halloween night.
For each tissue ghost you will need:
2 tissues
twist tie
marker
What you do:
Crumple one tissue into a ball. This will be the form for the ghost’s head.
Cover the ball with the other tissue so the tissue hangs down like a ghost’s body.
Secure the tissue in place by wrapping a twist tie under the ball to form the neck.
Draw a face onto the head with the marker.
Have fun drawing different expressions and hanging them up for everyone to see!
by Tracy Zdelar
Don’t let the economy bum you out when it comes to having fun. Saving money should always be in fashion anyways. Get creative and think outside the box to spice up life. If you haven’t had to get creative before, now is a good time to start. Look for “free community” opportunities for fun times!
Earlier this year we made a purchase from a furniture store in the Akron area and became a “past customer”. This furniture store sent out flyers recently to their “past customers” inviting us to a free Fall Festival at their store. Details of the night included finger-food dinner from “their” cafe- (yes, this furniture store has a cafe), a free gift (choice of a pumpkin or a floor rug), a little bit of Halloween fun for the kiddos (trick or treating for candy) and if you were making a non-refundable purchase that night you could play musical chairs and get a chance to win up to $5000 off your purchase that night!
Other frugal ways to have fun:
~ While the weather is still nice, give the kids some paper lunch sacks and go for a walk. Have the kids pick up whatever looks interesting (and safe) and put it in the bags. Or, give them a list of things to hunt…a scavenger hunt! Acorns, gold leaves, pine cones, strange rocks…etc..
~ Teach them how to rake leaves. If they are young enough, they might actually “believe” it is fun!
~ Have a s’mores cookout on the grill or over the fire pit in the backyard. Get a bag of marshmallows, a box of Hershey bars and graham crakers. Just toast the marshmallows and stick between to crackers with a chocolate bar. You can also do this in the oven broiler. (Stand by and wait so it doesn’t burn!) Just put your crackers on foil, top with marshmallows- when those are toasty take out of oven and place your chocolate on top and eat! Okay, let it cool first.
~ Pick out different leaves, bring in the house, lay wax paper or plain white paper and use a crayon to color over to bring out the shape of the leaves.
~ Make a craft with your souvenirs you gathered from your nature walk.
Spending time with your family or friends is the key, isn’t it? That alone doesn’t have to cost money. So get busy thinking. You’ll be surprised to find the simple things you can do for “free” that may just net you “priceless” memories in the future!
Tracy Zdelar lives in Canton, Ohio and is a graduate of Liberty University with a bachelors in Interdisciplinary Studies. She’s enjoyed (more and less) working in a variety of fields from being a small newspaper “high school” news writer, fast food, management, teaching, and case management in the health care system (just to name a few). She now, like many moms, desires to work from home. This has been a journey in and of itself. Tracy has earned extra income from home by being in direct sales, offering childcare, selling on Ebay, and affiliate marketing - sometimes simultaneously .
As a wife and mother of two boys, Tracy now focuses on affiliate marketing, blogging, and promoting other WAHMs (work-at-home moms) as well as sharing her money saving ways, reviews and resources on her website http://www.HallofFameMoms.com
Article Source: http://www.wahm-articles.com
Fall is full of wonder for preschoolers. If you live in an area where trees lose their leaves in preparation for winter, here is an outdoor activity that will help them enjoy and explore the falling leaves.
What you need:
1 large blanket
Yard or park full of leaves
Energetic preschoolers
What you do:
Lay the blanket on the ground and fill it up with leaves that have already fallen.
Everyone grabs a corner of the blanket.
Lift the blanket together.
Count to three. On “three” everyone throws up the blanket so the leaves fly up and come back down.
Try to catch the falling leaves!
by Rachel Paxton
Making placemats from fall leaves is a fun activity for kids of all ages. Even toddlers will have fun collecting leaves and creating their own placemat. For this craft you will need:
Roll of contact paper
Fall leaves
Scissors
This activity is very inexpensive. The only item you will have to buy is the contact paper, and you can pick this up for about $5 a roll. One roll will make many placemats.
Have your kids go out in the yard and collect some fall leaves. Have them look for a variety of colors and shapes. If the leaves are dry you can use them right away. If they are wet, let them set on a piece of newspaper to dry before you start the craft project.
Before you sit the kids down cut some pieces of contact paper into the shape of placemats. I used the width of the contact paper for the width of the placemat so I would only have to make one cut for each placemat. You will need two pieces of contact paper for each placemat. You can make the placemats any size you choose.
After the contact paper is ready, sit your kids down at a table and have them spread out the leaves in the center of the table. Give them a piece of contact paper with the backing paper removed. Let them arrange their leaves on the sticky side of the paper. After they are happy with the arrangement of their leaves, take another piece of contact paper and carefully lay it on top of the leaves so that the sticky sides of both pieces of contact paper are together. Carefully use your hands to smooth out any bubbles or wrinkles. You won’t be able to get them all out, but don’t worry, a few wrinkles will not be noticeable when you are done.
When you are finished you can use the scissors to trim around the edges to make sure they are all even and straight. This is an easy project that can be completed in about an hour. Remember the younger the child, the shorter their attention span, so if you are making very many you may end up finishing them yourself! My toddler boys spent about 15 minutes on theirs and they had a great time.
Don’t forget to proudly display your fall leaf placemats on your Thanksgiving table!
Article Source: http://www.wahm-articles.com
Photos of finished fall leaf placemats: http://www.crafty-moms.com/fall-leaf-placemat.shtml
Rachel Paxton is a freelance writer and mom of four. For scrapbooking, card making, gift-giving ideas, and more family memory-making activities, visit http://www.crafty-moms.com.
Paper Plate Scarecrow Craft by Rachel Paxton
Kids love scarecrows, and fall is a great time to do scarecrow crafts with your preschool aged child. With a paper plate and some other items you may already have laying around your house, you and your child can create this scarecrow craft in no time.
Supplies needed:
Paper plates
Google eyes
Brown construction paper
Orange construction paper
Raffia
Red pipe cleaner
Craft feathers
Scissors
Rubber cement
Glue gun (optional)
Note: Many of the above items can be substituted with things you might already have. For instance, you can use felt or craft foam instead of construction paper, or straw or shredded paper instead of raffia. Your child could also draw the face with markers instead of gluing it on.
To get started, cut several pieces of raffia about 3-4 inches long. This will be the scarecrow’s hair. Next glue the raffia to each side edge of the plate, toward the top. The hat will cover the top edge of the hair. I chose to use hot glue for this step and did the gluing for my children. The hot glue works the best to get the raffia stuck on there quickly.
Next use the scissors to cut a hat out of brown construction paper. You can make any shaped hat your child would like. If your child is old enough to cut out a shape, draw the hat on the paper for him and let him cut it out himself. Then have your child brush some rubber cement on the back of the hat and glue it
on top of the scarecrow’s hair.
After you have the hair and hat in place, have your child brush glue where the eyes will go and have him stick the eyes on. Next cut a small triangle from the orange construction paper and have your child glue the nose on the scarecrow’s face.
Next cut a red pipe cleaner in half, have your child shape half of it into a mouth, and then have him glue it on the scarecrow. Last but not least, have your child place some glue on the end of a feather and have him slide it under a corner of the scarecrow’s hat.
That’s it! Your preschooler will be so proud of his scarecrow, he won’t be able to wait to show it to everyone!
Rachel Paxton is a freelance writer and mom of four. For
scrapbooking, card making, gift-giving ideas, and more family
memory-making activities, visit http://www.crafty-moms.com.
Article Source: http://www.wahm-articles.com
by Rachel Paxton
Preschool-aged children love to play with worms (at least my boys do!). You can turn their curiosity with worms into a science project with just a few items from your house and garden. Here is what you’ll need:
Empty two-liter pop bottle
Exacto knife
Dirt
Small shovel
Sand
Grass clippings
Kitchen compost (apple peelings, etc.)
Worms
Before you let your child loose in the garden, you will need to use the exacto knife to cut off the entire top of the pop bottle.
Help your child create a label for the container that has the child’s name and “worm farm” printed on it. You can make it by hand or on the computer. Tape the label to the front of the container.
Go out to the garden with your child and let he or she shovel a couple of inches of dirt into the plastic container. Pat the dirt down so the next layer of sand won’t filter through. Explain to your child that they need to be careful not to shake or jar the bottle or the sand and dirt will become mixed up.
Add a thin layer of sand, and then continue with a couple of inches of dirt and another thin layer of sand. The top layer should be dirt. Leave an inch or two of space at the top of the bottle.
Next add a few grass clippings on top of the last layer of dirt. The worms will need food, so add a few pieces of fruits or vegetables in with the grass, such as apple or orange peelings.
If you are lucky enough to have worms in your yard, help your child dig for a few worms for his or her worm farm. If you can’t find any, go to your nearest bait shop and buy a small package of night crawlers.
Let your child play with the worms before putting them in the worm farm. Help them make observations about their worms. Check out a book about worms at your local library or search for information online about worms. Talk to your child about how a worm’s job is to eat waste and mix it into our soil to fertilize
it.
After your child places a couple of worms into the worm farm, they will be able to see for themselves how worms mix up soil. When the worms dig through the container, they will leave a trail of sand behind them that your child will be able to see mixing into the dirt.
For the most worm activity, place the worm farm in a dark place or tape a piece of paper around the worm farm to keep the light out. Worms do most of their work at night.
Your preschooler will have a lot of fun creating his or her worm farm. From digging in the dirt, to playing with worms…what’s not to like!
Rachel Paxton is a freelance writer and mom of five. For resources for the Christian family, including parenting, toddler and preschool activities, homeschooling, family traditions, and more, visit http://www.Christian-Parent.com
Article Source: http://www.wahm-articles.com
by Rachel Paxton
If you are doing preschool at home, or even if you are just doing some extra preschool activities with your child from time to time, you probably have a lot of papers and craft supplies taking up space on your countertops and closet shelves.
It was hard for me to get excited about doing preschool activities without being organized first, so I set out to go through all of our supplies and set up an organized storage system that works for me.
Flash Cards and Card Games
I store all of my boys’ flash cards and card games in a small plastic storage container. This container is kept up in a closet where only I can get it down for them. It only took one time of me putting all the cards back in the boxes to realize they couldn’t handle getting into this container on their own!
Art Supplies
Most of our art supplies are stored where my boys can get to them. I purchased a three drawer plastic storage container that works great for art supplies. One drawer holds their crayons, colored pencils, scissors, and glue. The second drawer stores a variety of painting supplies. The third drawer stores miscellaneous items, such as felt pieces for the felt board and plastic letters for the magnetic board. This plastic container is kept near the kitchen table where my boys do their art projects. This keeps it within easy reach when they want to color, paint, or do some other art project.
Craft Supplies
I have a separate plastic storage container just for craft supplies. Most of these supplies aren’t used unless we are doing a special craft project, so the kids don’t need to get in there every day. This container stores things like google eyes, pipe cleaners, crepe paper, etc. This is also where I store the ink pads I don’t want them getting into by themselves.
Worksheets, Workbooks, and Project Instructions
If you like to collect preschool craft and activity ideas like I do, you probably have a lot of piles of paper that need to be sorted and organized. I purchased several plastic file folder storage boxes for all these papers, and they have worked great so far. I sorted my papers into categories like Christmas, Thanksgiving, spring, animals, alphabet, etc. I combined several categories together in one container, and then labeled each container so I would know exactly what is in it. I also placed all of our workbooks in these containers. It’s nice to have a place to put all those miscellaneous papers I always seem to run across. If I cut out an article from somewhere, or photocopy an idea from a book, I have a place to file it away where I can always find it again. You can put away the containers you don’t currently need and just leave out the ones you are currently using.
Preschool Manipulatives and Puzzles
Hopefully your preschooler has a lot of math manipulatives and puzzles to play with. These items should be set out where they can just pick up when they are bored. All of our puzzles are stored inside of benches we have around the table in our kitchen. When our boys want to do a puzzle, they can get them out themselves. Our math manipulatives are stored on a shelf in our entertainment center. Again, the kids have easy access to them and often pick them up when they are bored. We have sewing cards, patterning and sorting activities, and several number, matching, and reading games. I love to see my boys reaching for these great learning activities when they want something to do.
The preschool years are a fun time for you and your child. Whether you are doing preschool at home or your child attends preschool, make sure you have lots of stimulating activities for your child at home that are organized and ready to use when you need them.
Rachel Paxton is a freelance writer and mom of five. For resources for the Christian family, including parenting, toddler and preschool activities, homeschooling, family traditions, and more, visit http://www.Christian-Parent.com
Article Source: http://www.wahm-articles.com
