Easy Button Tree Card

A few days ago I came up with this Easy Button Tree card for a quick evening project. And it just came out too cute not to officially share it.

It took just a few minutes to prepare, and the kids were able to put together a few cards pretty quickly. They'll use them later this month for teachers and other special friends.

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! 

Nutella Teddy Bear Snacks

We always love finding fun ways to create snacks. We invented these Nutella Teddy Bear snacks one night after dinner, and they've become a big hit since then.

What's fun about these is they can be used either as a dessert or an after school snack!

Sight Word Bracelets

As I mentioned earlier this month in our "Wintery Mix" Sight Words post, Big Brother's reading is starting to take off which is really exciting for those of us around him. Beyond having him pick a short book to read to us each day, we continue to find ways to have fun with reading skills at home. When we're practicing here at home, my goal is to keep the learning light, fun, and playful.

Big Brother has always loved beading, so combining some learning with alphabet beads was a perfect fit. And the perfect chance to practice more sight words.

This was also a great after school activity, it didn't take too long so there was also lots of time for needed free play. 

Exploring A Recycling Center (Learning Through Adventure Series)

We were really excited when we learned about the opportunity to participate in the Learning Through Adventure Series that is being hosted by Bambini Travel. We're known for being a pretty on the go family, and we're often on the look out for cool places to explore with our kids. Usually we find great resources for learning and exploring first hand! A few years ago we had a blast with our Alphabet Adventures which gave us lots of options for exploring local places.

For this adventure I decided to take us to a place I'd been with students, but not with my own kiddos: a local recycling center.

A little over a year ago as a family we moved to a zero sort recycling system that we share with our neighbors. This meant our kids no longer saw 1) where recycling went and 2) what the categories for recycling were. (They just know we do a lot of it and that every once in a while a large truck picks it up.)

Cork Print Spiders

Last year we were given a very large bag of corks, and it's been fun to think of different ways to use them. In honor of Halloween, and because we've enjoyed other spider projects this fall, we decided to try cork print spiders.

This also proved to be another great, after school project for Big Brother one weekday. 

A "Bad Apple" Craft & Snack

I love when we find great new books at the library! "Bad Apple" by Edward Hemingway is one of our new family favorites.

This sweet tale of friendship tells about an apple "Mac" who wakes up one day with a worm "Will." The two become fast friends, but other apples can't accept the friendship and Mac begins to doubt it. Eventually Mac decides he'd rather be a "bad apple" with his friend than a sad apple without him.

Not only do we love this friendship tale, but it inspired us to both create and snack!

CVC Alphabet Cracker Activity & Snack Mat

The return to school this year is definitely taking more energy than we expected this fall. An increase in work hours for me and Big Brother kicking off kindergarten, combined with our normal, busy family routine, means it's been hard to share some of the fun after school and fall activities we've been squeezing in. But now we have a bunch of new posts lined up to share in the next week!

One thing we really enjoyed was an engaging snack that built upon the new reading skills Big Brother is quickly taking on in kindergarten: a CVC Alphabet Cracker Activity & Snack Mat.

My kiddos are huge fans of ABC crackers, we especially love the ones made by Cheez-It, although we've seen other brands at the store. 

Spider Web Glue-Relief Painting

Now that Big Brother is in full day kindergarten most of our activities are ones we can do after school or on the weekend. I was inspired by this Fall Leaf Watercolor Resist Art from Fun at Home with Kids to create a different fall art idea: Spider Web Glue-Relief Painting.

We spread the art process over two after school days, this worked well for the type of glue we were using. It also worked well with our new after school routines. 

Nature Objects: Sink or Float Exploration

The last few weeks have been so hot weather wise that it's been a little hard to get into the mood for autumn and we've been finding ourselves thinking back to summer fun. One activity we've enjoyed on hot days in the past is doing a Sink or Float exploration. 

For this exploration we took it outside and collected items from nature to experiment with.