Happy Easter

Happy Easter everyone!!!!! Hope you had a wonderful time spending time with your loved ones, and also eating chocolates :))!!!

We had an amazing day today. We went to church this morning, which was very touching and inspiring. On my son's Promiseland school they learned about Jesus' resurrection, had treats, and also lots of fun. He painted a picture of Jesus and the Cross to represent that He is alive.

My son received many Easter baskets full of chocolates and candies, which made him very happy :))!!!! As I love making crafts, I decided to create my own Easter bag to put my son's treats. The idea of the bag came from Country Woman. The instructions of how to make it, are on the website which are very easy to comprehend and to create. It looked super cute!!!!!

We also made marshmallows covered with white chocolate, and orange food coloring, which was super duper yummy!!!!!

Throughout this week my son have made many Easter crafts. One of them was a decoupage Easter eggs with paper napkins. I saw this idea on Pink and Green Mama. My son enjoyed doing this activity and did a wonderful job :)!!

Moreover, he decorated  a few plastic eggs, an idea that I saw on Pinterest.

I also made cupcakes, which I intended to look like a chick, and my son decorated it. The cupcakes didn't look like a chick, probably because I didn't have the right tools to make it. I have to buy the right utensils and make it again. Although it didn't look as I wished, the taste was superb :))))!!!

Have a blessed week. Thanks :)).

Fabiana

Sale

This weekend I am promoting a super SALE on my TPT store, everything is 20% off.  To access my store please click on the following link:

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Fabiana-Carter 

 

Enjoy your day and the beautiful sunshine :)))!!! Thanks!!!

Fabiana

Bird Nest

Hello everyone, hope you had a great day today. The weather was lovely here in Chicago - it was warm, the sky was blue and the sun was shining :)))) - a perfect spring day.

To welcome spring again :), my son created a bird nest, which looked very nice. The idea was taken from Kaboose. They used American moss to create the nest, and we used sticks and leaves that we picked from our front yard. The bird and the eggs were made from felt. We used paper plate to glue the artwork.

My son also wrote a note "welcome spring" and glued it onto the paper plate. The image below is the final result. It looked quite cute :)!!! This craft is very easy and inexpensive to make, as well as perfect to create when teaching about spring or birds.

I also have designed a pack focusing on shapes. In this pack you will find an uncolored version of a bunny to use to create a mosaic. I also prepared the colored shapes, which you simply need to print and cut.

Furthermore, I created four exercises focusing on shapes: the first one the student will count the number of shapes he used on his mosaic. The second one he will answer a few questions about greatest and smallest, again all related to his mosaic. The third exercise is about pattern. The last worksheet is a word search based on the name of the shapes.

This material is available for FREE on TPT. To download your free copy simply click on the following link:
http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Easter-Bunny-Mosaic-and-other-Shape-Activities

I would very much appreciate your rating on this product. Thanks :)))!!!

Have a nice day tomorrow.
Fabiana

Spring unit

Hello everyone!!!! Hope you had a great day!!!

Today we finished our spring math and literacy center that I purchased on TPT from Deanna Jump.

 My son practiced addition.

He worked with blending words.

Furthermore, he did a great exercise about rhyming.

He practiced more addition using dice.

He also did an exercise about greater, fewer and equal.

Moreover, he did an activity about measurement. This worksheet was fantastic, he put the kites in order first, from the shortest to the longest. Then he used a string to measure the kite, and used it as a tail for the correct kite. 

He also practiced telling the time, sort the number of sounds based on a picture given, skip counting by 2's, patterns, and counting by tens and ones.

My son certainly had a lot of fun doing these exercises. As I mentioned yesterday this pack comes with 122 pages, and its worth buying, I highly recommend.

Thanks for stopping by:))).

Fabiana

Kentucky trip

As I mentioned on my last post, we went on a weekend trip to Lexington Kentucky to visit my friend's parents. This was the first holiday I took since I moved to Chicago a year ago. I must say that my first trip was SENSATIONAL!!!!!! We met wonderful, kind and loving people on our trip. They were all welcoming and embraced us as their own family. I loved Kentucky, I could picture myself living there many times during our trip :))!!

My friend told me that Kentucky was known as the horse capital, thus she wanted us to experience and learn more about horses. We visited the Kentucky Horse Park, and we had a blast. The weather was great too, blue sky and the sun shone all day long. Kentucky offered us a peaceful and breathtaking vista as well as many other interesting attractions for adults and children. We visited the museum where we learned about the history of horse racing. In addition, we had the opportunity to see many different types of chariots, including one of the oldest one, which belonged to Louis XVI made in 1780.

 My son had a blast at the park!!! There were many activities to keep him learning and interested in horses. He rode a pony, which was the highlight of his day, as well as learned to take care of a horse. He learned to use the right brushes for each part of the horse's body, and also had the opportunity to put it into practice.

Another exciting attraction was the Horses of the World. There was a parade of many different types of horses that came from different parts of the world. In this spectacle we were introduced the horse and its breed, as well as a brief explanation about it's background.

Moreover, my son also experienced his first egg hunt outdoors. He was super fast and tried to grab as many eggs as he could :)).

We also went to visit the Woodford Reserve, one of the most prestigious distillery in Kentucky.The place is very beautiful and well preserved. It is indeed a must visit.

Kentucky is a beautiful state full of awesome people, and I can't wait to go back :))!!!

Back to reality :))), we started our week learning about spring. I purchased a spring math and literacy center on TPT from Deanna Jump, which we began to work on today. We just did a few activities but I can tell you that is brilliant. My son did addition, opposites, sentence order, vocabulary, spelling, real and nonsense words and vowel sounds. All the activities are very well explained, as well completed with eye-catching images, and fun exercises to captivate your child's attention. This pack comes with 122 pages, and its worth buying, I highly recommend.

Hope you have a wonderful week ahead. Thanks :)).

Fabiana

Welcome Spring

I am very excited that the Spring season has arrived. It fills my heart with joy because I think its one of the most beautiful seasons of the year. In addition, it is getting close to my baby to be due in June :)). Can't wait to meet him and hold him :))).

To welcoming the Spring, my son did an art piece with melted crayons. Now and then, I see on Pinterest crafts with melted crayons, and I always thought to myself that one day we would do it too. I found on Sari Jane's blog many inspirational craft ideas to create on canvas. One of these were a  melted crayon flower garden. We did not have canvas at home, so I improvised by using cardboard, and then wrapped it with white construction paper. I also did not want to use new crayons as I had too many small pieces that we were not coloring with anymore. Thus I thought using the small pieces in this artwork would be a very useful idea, and besides that, we recycle. I used hot glue gun to stick the crayons on the paper. I did not allow my son to operate the hot glue as it can be quite dangerous for young children if they burn themselves.

Afterwards, my son covered the table with newspapers, and began to melt the crayons using the hair dryer. It took him 20 minutes to finish melting the crayons according to his desired end.

Whilst my son was occupied with melting the crayons, I cut paper into shapes of flowers.

After the melting job was done, he let the paper dry for about 10 minutes, and started designing the followers and gluing it onto the crayon board. We used colored toothpicks for the stem of the flower, which we glued with normal school glue.

The image below is the final artwork. It looks quite awesome, I really am tempted to frame it :)))).

Moreover, my son created a butterfly using the tempera painting technique and his feet to design the insect.

Tomorrow we are going to a trip to Kentucky :))). I will be posting many wonderful things we will probably do at the Horse Capital :))).

Have a great day tomorrow. Thanks :)).

Fabiana

Egg Decorating Party

Once a month my son and I participate in a group gathering at the University of Chicago. This wonderful idea was put together years ago by a lady with a gentle and amazing soul. She decided to unite the wives of husbands who are working and studying at UC. The aim was to provide them the opportunity to make friends, and practice their English Language. It is definitely a favorable situation to meet people from all over the world, as well as share experiences and learn a bit more about each person's culture and costumes.

Today, we were preparing ourselves for Easter. We had egg decorating, and we also ate a lot of delicious international food :)). There were Brazilian, American, South Korean, Chinese, Japanese and Mexican dishes. It is certainly an interesting way to savour and experiment new cuisine :).

We boiled a few eggs the night before for my son to decorate. He used stickers, egg spinner to dye the eggs, markers, and other ways to make his Easter eggs look beautiful.

 The ladies also did an awesome job decorating the treat table.

Going to the monthly meetings at the U of C is surely something I look forward to attending. The host is such a thoughtful person who is constantly updating us with interesting things to do in Chicago. The young ladies who attend it are also very sweet, and have many delightful stories to tell us about their country. If you live in Chicago and would like to connect with the Partners group you may access the many groups at the U of C.

Thanks for stopping by :))).

Fabiana

St. Patrick's Day Cupcake

I was planning to go to the St. Patrick's parade today, but it was too cold and snowing a little bit here in Chicago. Hence, I decided not to go and instead spend my day baking with my son :)), which was the best decision ever. My son and I had a wonderful and messy time baking cupcakes. My son got  really hands-on today making cupcakes. He loves being part of the cooking: mixing the ingredients, licking the bowls, and making experiments with the dirty dishes afterwards. This is one of those types of activities that have a variety of advantages helping him to develop his creative skills, hand and eye coordination, listening skills, chemistry as well as maths skills.

Whilst, we were waiting for the cupcakes to cook, we created our shamrocks leaf.

As soon as the cupcakes were cooked and cooled, we decorated them with the frosting. I loved watching my son taking charge, and decorate his cupcakes in the way that he desired. He was very proud of himself :)))!!!

After frosting and putting sprinkles on the cupcake, my son decorate it with the shamrocks. He used a toothpick to hold the shamrock.

He did an awesome job :))!!!

The following are images of the ones I decorated.

Moreover, my son did a few exercises on worksheets focusing on patterns, problem solving, CVC word and word search. All these materials were downloaded on TPT.

 We have a beautiful and very gentle dog, her name is Jessie. She was spaded and the last two weeks she has been on antibiotics because of complications with the operation. As a result, she is feeling quite miserable lately.

To cheer her up and inexhaustible good cheer and energy we made her dog biscuits. The recipe is very easy to make, which I took from King Arthur Flour, and the name of the recipe is best of breed dog biscuit - http://www.kingarthurflour.com/blog/2010/12/13/puppy-love-our-biscuit-taste-test/
I did not have a bone shape biscuit cutter, thus I sketched it on a piece of parchment sheet, and shaped it using a toothpick. It took me approximately 30 minutes to make 12 biscuits, but it was worth. It looked quite nice :).
 

 

The image below is a picture of the biscuit before and after baking. It needs to look dark brown and crispy. 

I also shaped the biscuits with other cutters I have available at home. The biscuits looked nice, and tasted  very delicious. My dog (Jessie) and my husband approved, they both enjoyed eating :))).

 Have a terrific Sunday. Thanks :).

Fabiana

Leprechaun Hat

Today I took my son to the dentist. Like you, I try to take him to the dentist every 6 months, and I also attempt to make sure that he brushes his teeth after breakfast, lunch and before going to bed. Flossing is also part of his dental hygiene. In my opinion, it is important to have a system which reinforces good habits to ones kids, and as they grow older, these habits are still prevalent and part of their routine.

After arriving at home from the dentist, we created a leprechaun hat, beard and eyebrows . This craft was very easy to design, we just needed to print the templates from Today's Mama website, and then assembled it- http://todaysmama.com/2012/03/printable-leprechaun-hat-craft-now-with-more-beard/. I love everything about this craft, it all looked super cute, like a proper leprechaun :)))!!!

Moreover, my son did an activity about St. Patrick's Day Inferencing cards describing green objects from Kari Radovich - http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/St-Patricks-Day-Inferencing. This cards are quite easy for my child to read and comprehend. This was a great activity to practice reading, and enabling him to practice reasoning from facts or evidences and deducing fact based conclusions that should be true.

Another great material I downloaded from TPT was St. Patrick's Day Math Fun with Lucky Leprechaun by Kayla Parker - http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/St-Patricks-Day-Math-Fun-with-Lucky-Leprechaun. My son had a lot of fun doing this exercises which included: problem solving, adding and subtracting in order to find the secret message, coloring, and a game to help the Leprechaun to find his pot of gold. One of many fantastic worksheets to practice maths, and having fun at same time.

I  also downloaded for free on TPT an exercise called St. Patrick's Day Fact and Opinion by Lili Garcia - http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/St-Patricks-Day-Fact-and-Opinion
I do recommend you to download this material as it is very easy for your first grader to read and understand. As well as practicing differentiation between a fact and an opinion.

 Hope you felt inspired by my post today. Enjoy the parade tomorrow and the weekend. Thanks :)!

Fabiana