Pirate Birthday Party & Treasure Hunt

If you've been reading our blog for a while than you know we love all things pirate. It was only a matter of time until one of the boys asked for a pirate themed party. So with Big Brother turning 7 - and asking for a treasure hunt - it was the perfect time for this theme. And of course, we were excited to again team up with The Oriental Trading Company and their awesome party supply resources to create this event!

This party took a lot longer to arrive than we originally planned. First, Big Brother wanted it outside, which meant waiting for the snow to melt. Then, everyone in the house got the flu - as did several of the expected party guests - which meant pushing the party out another week. And the day we finally were able to host the party? A pretty mixed weather day with several rainy spells - which made all our plans a little tricky.

But despite the delays and the weather - the party was a huge success for both the guests and the birthday guy himself.

Dinosaur Birthday Party

This month Little Brother turned 4, and if you've been reading with us for a while now you know that we love fun birthday themes over here at Kitchen Floor Crafts! For this birthday we decided to go with a "Dinosaur Birthday Party" theme!

For this post we were excited to team up with Oriental Trading Company to come up with some great favors, paper goods, and more! We also created some favorite old activities that fit perfectly this birthday party theme.

Fall Scavenger Hunt

On this chilly and rainy weekend, it's hard to remember back a week to the gorgeous fall days we've been having up until now. But, really, we've been pretty lucky this fall season. We've had so many incredible weather days.

It was on one of these beautiful days that the boys and I took a quick walk up a local trail after school. As we hiked we used this printable scavenger hunt to collect some fun fall items! 

Science Tool Kit - A Homemade Gift

We gave this gift a while ago to a good friend of ours, but I loved how it turned out so much I couldn't resist sharing it with you too!

Over the summer our friend became really interested in science experiments, which lead to the creation of this homemade science tool kit for his birthday. We based several of the gift ideas on the activities we had done during our Science Week.

Pirate Treasure Sensory Bin & Letter Map Match

It's no secret that we love all things pirate around here, so when we saw the chance to join in on the "International Talk Like a Pirate Day" Quirky Blog Hop we couldn't resist. International Talk Like a Pirate Day is actually coming up on September 19th, but today Witty Hoots is hosting this Quirky Blog Hop so bloggers can share lots of fantastic pirate fun to start getting everyone in the mood!

For our pirate activity, we decided to explore the world of pirates with a little bit of letter learning thrown in too! To make the learning as hands on as possible, we put all the materials into a sensory bin.

Pirate themed learning is always fun, and you'll notice at the bottom of this post several other pirate learning posts we've shared before.

Forest Scavenger Hunt (with free printable)

A few weeks ago we really enjoyed "Forest Week" in our Simple Summer Theme weeks. For the most part the boys truly just loved getting outside into the forest - which meant we could really keep things simple. (Which was in fact one of our July Monthly Goals.)

To kick off "Forest Week" on our first adventure into the woods the boys worked on this Forest Scavenger Hunt as we walked through the woods.

No only was this a great way to begin exploring the forest, it also gave us good opportunities to discuss textures and colors. 

Desert Week (A Simple Summer Theme)

So when Big Brother requested a "Desert Week" in our Simple Summer Theme series, I was a little stumped on what we might do for projects and activities.

But, in the end I was excited about some of the different projects and materials we were able to explore. (Although this was a slightly shorter theme week.)

Science Week (A Simple Summer Theme)

This summer we were excited to kick off our Simple Summer Themes with Science Week! Each week of summer vacation we explore a different "theme." We use materials on hand, simple/easy projects that don't take long to complete, hands on activities, recipes, and field trips.

This summer, even more than previous summers, we're truly keeping our themes simple. We're doing something fun with them when we want to, but also making sure we have lots of time for free play and spontaneous summer fun too.

Our first week proved to be a great kick off to the summer as it was exactly what the boys needed - something a little fun that fit into our other summer activities. They loved Science Week so much, they are requesting a lot more Science over the summer!

Magnetic Sensory Bin

As we went through out Simple Summer Theme Science Week, we enjoyed a variety of hands on science activities. This one was very easy to put together and proved to be lots of fun for the boys!

I wanted to put together a sensory bin that explored a scientific concept, but wasn't quite sure what would work. Then the idea of using our growing magnet set seemed like an easy fit!

Word Family Bean Sort

This spring Big Brother has been making amazing progress as a reader, and it's been so exciting for the both of us. As always, I want to look for ways to support his learning but without making our time at home feel like more school. With that in mind, I always try to make his learning at home very hands on.

Lately I've been noticing that he could use some word family practice, which inspired me to create this Word Family Bean Sort.

Leprechaun's Letters: An Alphabet Sensory Tub

This week has been a little funny as Little Brother came down with a stomach bug early on. And although it only lasted 24 hours, it still threw off our routines a little for the whole week. It also meant a stay home day with just mommy for Little Brother, which he always enjoys.

In order to create something fun for us to do one on one, I put together a new sensory tub: Leprechaun's Letters, an Alphabet Sensory Tub.

Lately Little Brother has really become interested in letters, especially as he's watched Big Brother take off in reading. Little Brother's been working hard to identify letters on his own and asking questions about letters. So why not combine the upcoming holiday with some fun, letter explorations? And of course a Leprechaun would have golden letters in with their treasure! 

Graphing with Easter Candy

One of our favorite things to do with seasonal candy is use it as a math manipulative. In the past we've used candy hearts for math games, counted with pumpkins, and done math play with jelly beans.

So when I saw these SweetTart Easter Candies at the grocery store I knew they would be perfect for math play.

Since the candies were both colorful and different shapes, we decided to graph them! I made up two graphs: a color graph and an animal graph. We want you to be able to play too, so at the end of the post you'll find the link for the graphs!

Show Down: Addition Facts Card Game

While my hope is to just have fun and relax over this winter vacation, I also know that it can be good to keep school aged kids thinking at least a little about both math and reading. The best way parents can do that is by keeping the learning fun and playful. (Which does not mean worksheets.)

A few months ago, I came up with this game for Big Brother and I to play and practice math facts at the same time. It's been a big hit on weekends and vacations since then, and he's not even realizing he's building his number facts as we play.

What are number facts? Addition number facts are typically thought of as addition facts with a sum (answer) up to 20. 

The rules to our "Show Down" game are very similar to the traditional card game "War" with a few math twists. The materials are relatively simple: a deck of playing cards, a sheet of paper, and a marker or pencil. 

Shape Search in a Fall Backyard

The weather this week has been amazing, and we were really pleased to be able to get out and enjoy the nice temperatures again. Little Brother and I had a ton if fun playing with shapes outside in the fall sunshine and leaves.

We had a blast bringing our large, foam pattern blocks outside and involving them in some great backyard autumn play. 

Pumpkin Patch Candy Counting

We love finding ways to use holiday candy in learning games and activities. In the past we've used candy hearts and jelly beans to practice different math skills. So of course it was time to do something with fall candy!

As Little Brother is getting a little older, he's been getting really interested in counting and numbers, so I put together this Pumpkin Patch counting activity using candy pumpkins. I decided we would work on the numbers 1 to 5.

An ABC Treasure Hunt

It's no secret we love pirates around here. In the past we had so much fun with our Pirates' Gold Number Play we knew that we wanted to extend it into some letter play. That lead me to create an ABC Treasure Hunt.

It's great to do these types of activities during the summer, so we can be outside. But, the materials are simple enough it could be recreated inside as well. 

Vehicle Week (Simple Summer Theme Week #3)

We're still really enjoying our Simple Summer Theme weeks even though summer is quickly passing us by. It's no secret we love playing with cars and trucks, so Vehicle Week was a lot of fun for the boys!

Week Three: Vehicle Week

One of my favorite things about this week was that we already own so many of the materials we needed. It also encouraged us to get out some of the transportation toys we already owned and hadn't used in a while. 

Roll, Count, Color to 100

We've been enjoying the Cool Math Series which has been going on this month. Earlier this month we shared 4 ways to Explore Symmetry at Home. Today we're sharing a new, homemade math game: Roll, Count, Color to 100.

For a while now, Big Brother has been interested in counting to 100, and he can pretty much do it as long as the gets a little help with the "tens." I wanted him to get a sense of what the tens actually meant, so I put together this math game. 

TRUCK inspired Sticky Collage

This month the Virtual Book Club for Kids author is Donald Crews. We read several of his books last year as we explored our Vehicle Week as they perfectly fit our Simple Summer Theme.

The book the boys enjoyed the most was TRUCK. The book follows one tractor trailer truck as it makes its way across the delivery route. The brief text and bold, colorful illustrations make it appealing to even the littlest reader. 

4 Ways to Explore Symmetry at Home

We're really excited to be participating in the Cool Maths series hosted by Peakle Pie, which is continuing for the entire month of July. Each day this month bloggers in this series will be sharing great and practical ideas for how to explore math at home, and make it fun!

We're often doing math at home, sometimes as a project or game but more often it is just part of our daily experiences and conversations.

This week we started exploring symmetry. To introduce the topic, we explored it in four different ways.

Symmetry is a geometry term. The symmetry we explored focused on the idea that a shape or object can have a line of symmetry. When an object is folded in half, or you visualize a line going down the center of an object, you can see that the other half exactly matches or mirrors the first half.