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Gruffalo Crumble & The Gruffalo’s Child Footprints Activity

April 11, 2017

I’m pretty sure that out of all of the activities we did with our Gruffalo book study, these 2 were my favorite. If you haven’t already, you can grab my resource on TPT by clicking on the product cover below:

I reread The Gruffalo to my kids. If you haven’t purchased this book, it is available on Amazon for a low price. You can find it here:

Next we moved on to The Gruffalo’s Child. This book is the perfect addition to the first. We don’t spend quite as long on this one but it pairs perfectly with the footprint activity I’m about to show you & I would still consider it a must have in your classroom library. You can grab it here if you like:

The DVD is available here. I own the DVD and it is mesmerizing. At the time I’m writing this post both movies that go along with the books are available free on Amazon Prime so you may want to check there first.

And here’s a link to a double feature of The Gruffalo & The Gruffalo’s Child if you are unable to find it for free. At the time I write this the double feature is showing up for less than just The Gruffalo so I would definitely grab this one. (Amazon prices can change so quickly that I’m not sure if this is true for you. That’s why I included both links.)

So back to the classroom! We read & discussed both books by Julia Donaldson. (Isn’t she amazing?!?! In another life I had dreams of being a children’s book author so she is a personal hero of mine!) I really emphasized the Gruffalo crumble part. We mixed up the ingredients. I had forgotten one and we had to travel down to the cafeteria in search of it which really just added to the excitement.

You can find the recipe & this printable that students fill out while you go through the process of making it as part of my resource on TPT. I loved having them keep up with me using the worksheet so they didn’t get too rowdy. They LOVED the Gruffalo crumble. They all kept telling me that I was the best cook ever. Trust me, my husband would beg to differ.

We snacked on our Gruffalo crumble while we watched The Gruffalo’s Child on Amazon Prime. Even though I own the DVD, it’s much easier to just pull it up on Prime if it’s still available.

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The next day we got started on our Gruffalo Footprint measurement activity. I was actually observed that morning & think this lesson is perfect for an observation. The kids have to use all kinds of problem solving skills to figure the whole thing out.

We reread The Gruffalo’s Child & I spent a little extra time discussing the footprints & tracks in the snow. Students studied the ones in the book. I then brought in measurement. I told them that the Gruffalo & all of the characters had stopped by our classroom. I asked them how we could use measurement to determine which footprint belonged to each character.

We discussed length, standard and nonstandard units of measurement, & how to properly measure an object. Even though it seems like a simple concept -they will not measure correctly without thorough explanations. I demonstrated for them first. Then I asked them to help me measure students in our classroom using craft sticks. They LOVED this! We measured different parts of their bodies & compared to see which part was the longest. I left the materials out for them to revisit this concept later. You should have heard the giggles when they were seeing who was the tallest during choice time.

There are so many higher order thinking questions that you can incorporate into this type of lesson.

“Why does ‘what’ we measure influence ‘how’ we measure?”
“Are standard or non-standard units of measurement better? Why?”
“If I (the teacher) measured the classroom using my shoes and one of my students measured the classroom using their shoes, would we get the same number?”

The night before I had made footprints using play-doh. I had originally planned on doing this outside. I thought it would be really fun to make the imprints in a muddy area and for the kids to walk around the playground looking for them. However, it poured the entire day before. In fact, our school dismissed early due to weather conditions. So the outside idea wasn’t going to work. I made sure to have a track or print for each character including The Gruffalo’s Child. I made the mouse one so tiny that it was almost impossible to measure. You can look through the book for ideas on how to make each print look.

I had the kids close their eyes and I walked around the room setting up the play-doh imprints. Then I handed each group a bag full of their supplies. The bag contained a magnifying glass, “tents” to set beside each print with a guess about which animal it belonged to, worksheets to draw, label, & measure the footprints, and a ruler. I had put a different shape on each bag and the contents so I knew which group did what. For example, three boys might have been in the star group. I labeled the bag with a star, the tents had a star on the back and the worksheets had stars. I wanted to be able to quickly identify who had understood the concept and who still needed work.

I was so pleased with how the whole thing turned out. They loved it!

They were able to easily identify which print was the snake’s and the owl’s. I didn’t anticipate that this would be such a great lesson on comparison and problem solving. They really had a difficult time deciding between the Gruffalo, Gruffalo’s child, and the fox.

Eventually I brought them back together and we discussed which character would have had the largest footprint. We also thought about which characters would have had claws, toes, etc.

I just loved how this turned out. Sadly our unit on The Gruffalo is coming to an end. I hope your students enjoy this as much as mine did! Please let me know how it works in your classroom.

If you missed the other posts, you can check them out here:

The Gruffalo Activities on Pencils to Pigtails’ Blog
The Gruffalo Craftivity on Pencils to Pigtails’ Blog

Grab the resource in my store by clicking the craftivity below!

The Gruffalo Craftivity

April 11, 2017

I LOVE THE GRUFFALO! Seriously, I really love The Gruffalo story by Julia Donaldson. She is such an amazing author and has my kids totally mesmerized with her stories. I am so proud of this resource I made to go along with a unit study about this fantastic book. I spent so long making sure I included every fun and engaging activity I could and it meets many state standards. You can grab it by clicking on the product cover below:

(Not in the mood to read? You can also watch a free video explanation of my resource on TPT by clicking below!)

Gruffalo’s Activity Explanation Video

Back to the blog, if you don’t have the book yet, you can grab one on Amazon by clicking on this photo. It is totally worth the investment! I use the library for many of my book studies but this is one that I would definitely want in my classroom.

That Gruffalo is just so cute I can’t take it! I didn’t mention this in my last blog post but there is a movie that goes right along with the book. I love that my students have rarely seen it and the animation is fantastic. Its around 30 minutes- perfect for the end of the day. I recently made my husband sit down and watch it. He argued that he didn’t have time to watch it but then got totally sucked in. At the time I wrote this blog post, you can view the movie free if you have Amazon Prime. The DVD is so fantastic that you won’t regret buying it if you want a copy for yourself. You can click on the picture below to purchase from Amazon.

My kids were thrilled when I told them that we would be building our own big Gruffalos. The template is in my TPT resource. We started by painting the body. You could always cut this out on colored paper or just let your kids color it instead of paint. I never mind getting messes out in my room though.

I wasn’t too worried about the kids smoothing it out because I just thought the strokes made it look even hairier.

And now.. the finished products! They are so adorable and the kids were SO PROUD!!! Remember that you can grab the templates for these in my TPT resource by clicking the product cover above.

We completed several writing assignments. These are all available in my resource on TPT. The kids really loved this one in which they had to design their own Gruffalos. (This was actually color word practice disguised as a fun activity:)) I included 4 different versions of this so you could work on more advanced descriptive words as desired.

The kids were able to choose what colors to write and then design their own Gruffalos accordingly on the other page.

There are some other writing prompts included as well. I asked my students to tell me about their favorite part in the story. You could use whatever prompt you like with the included writing page.

(The Gruffalo is brown but he has whiskers.)

(My favorite part is when the mouse says walk behind me.)

(My favorite part was when the fox went in the underground house.)

I included some descriptive words that are perfect for a hallway display. The template for this huge Gruffalo is not included. My awesome assistant Mel came up with him. Even the “poisonous wart on the end of his nose” is 3D! Anyways, you could get a similar effect by projecting a picture of him on the wall and creating something like this. If you don’t, the wall cards would look cute around your class’ Gruffalos.

This hallway display has gotten lots of “oohs” & “aahhs” from the younger students. Something about the display just makes me happy!

In the next blog post I posted pics of our “Gruffalo crumble” & measurement activity! You can click the pics below to head to the next one.

If you didn’t get a chance yet, you can click on the picture below to read my first blog post about how I introduced the book, the puppets we made, and our homemade play dough Gruffalos!

The Gruffalo Activities and Puppets

April 11, 2017

I am thrilled to share my latest resource on TPT with you! I worked on this product for a long time to make sure it contained every activity I could think of for a really fun unit about one of my very favorite books: The Gruffalo by Julia Donaldson. You can click on the product cover below to go to my TPT store.

If you don’t have this book yet, make sure you purchase it immediately! This kind of book will fascinate children for years to come. I can’t wait to share it with Aniston. I’m going to wait until she is just a little bit older. 🙂

You can find it on Amazon here:

My kids LOVE this story. If you are looking to increase student engagement- Julia Donaldson’s books are the way to go! The unit I made for TPT is jam-packed with exciting activities for kids and I’ve pulled in as many state standards as possible.

I always begin a unit study by holding up the book and going over all of the key components. This helps students focus on what is important. Then I ask students to make predictions about the story with a shoulder partner.

This book is a great way to talk about characters. Even though it seems like The Gruffalo would be the main character – it is actually a clever little mouse.

I read the book to my kids. You could hear a pin drop in my room. Make sure to read with expression. The kids love that- especially when you get to the “Gruffal…. Oh!” part!

We talked about the characters and used the templates from my resource on TPT to make paper bag puppets. You can print the templates on colored paper or allow the kids to color them first. This is a sample of what they should look like.

I loved that the animals are made out of some basic shapes and it was fun to watch my students try to figure out how to put them together. They spent much of their indoor recess retelling the story with the puppets and that will fill this teacher’s heart!

The next day I wanted to retell the story and add a little excitement. I decided to pull out our theater and crouch behind it. I retold it using the Gruffalo puppet that I had purchased on Amazon. He’s pretty cute and has all of those wonderful components that the book mentions. You can find him by clicking on the picture below.

I used the owl that I often use to monitor hallway behavior. (He sits on my shoulder as we walk down the hall. I spin his head to watch all of the kids and they are always on their best behavior!) You don’t need this for The Gruffalo story but in case you are interested in getting one. I bought this one and love it!

Then I told the students that I didn’t have a fox, snake, or mouse puppet so other puppets would help us out. It went something like this, “Introducing Bear – playing the part of the mouse!” They erupted in giggles so I can continued. “And Dog – playing the part of the fox!”

I gave it my best go. Throughout the day I had students spend time retelling the story using our puppet theater. So. Much. Fun!!!

The next day I brought in all the ingredients for “Gruffalo Play Dough”. You can find this simple recipe in my resource on TPT. It uses cocoa so our entire room smelled amazing! This is a no cook recipe so it was easy to make in our classroom. The finished product was the perfect amount for my 18 students.

I gave them each a handful and some random materials like foam shapes, felt, buttons, etc. They went right to work creating their play dough Gruffalos. I loved that this required them to think back to all of the descriptive words that Julia Donaldson uses.

I really loved this one! He was thinking ahead to the cover of The Gruffalo’s Child.

Some students made flat versions. Some made 3D versions and others just recreated his face. I let their imaginations go wild!

The next day we worked on the Gruffalo craftivity! Click on the pics below to head over to those posts!

St. Patrick’s Day Fun Continued

April 1, 2017

We had so much fun on St. Patrick’s Day in my classroom! I’m so glad that I was able to finish my new resource and get it uploaded in time to enjoy it with my students.

Click on the cover above to grab one!

I always send home a family project idea and for the month of March, students were to build a leprechaun trap. They LOVE to make these and have so much fun showing them to their classmates when they bring them in. The night before St. Patrick’s Day I stayed up late making sure I had enough clover snacks for each of my kids. You can view instructions for by clicking here:

Easy St. Patrick’s Day Clover Snacks

I told the kids that the leprechauns usually come by when no one is in the room so I would eat in the teacher’s lounge before picking them up after lunch. (During that 30 minutes, I ran to the room, pumped, ate a bowl of soup, sprinkled glitter all over their traps and in my room, set up the room to look as if the leprechaun escaped out of the window, and put plates with the clover snacks on each child’s table!)

When I picked them up, they were all saying, “Did he come? Did the leprechaun come to our room?” I nonchalantly said, “Oh, I don’t know. I haven’t had time to go by there yet!” 🙂 A little white lie never hurt anyone.

The kids were thrilled to see that their traps had been messed with and that the gold had been spread everywhere. They ran through the room and were so excited they could hardly complete their sentences.

See how shocked they were?

I love this little girl’s expression I captured! 🙂

I had written a note on the board something like, “Hee! Hee! You didn’t catch me! Enjoy the treat!”

They loved their little shamrock treats.

They were so precious discussing the leprechaun as they munched away!

The kids had fun finding their “golden letters” in the vowel hunt printable (part of my resource on TPT).

Later in the day we painted the leprechaun’s beards orange or red using plastic forks. Kindergarten kids love to paint and any way that you can put a little spin on it and use some different materials is fantastic.

I loved how these turned out. They would be cute on a bulletin board, but since we already had our rainbow twirlers up, my students just took them on home. These cute printables and so much more are all part of my resource on TPT. You can click on one of the pictures below to grab one.

To read more about our St. Patrick’s Day twirlers and the following directions printable, just click the link below.

St. Patrick’s Day Twirlers and More!

Let me know how this goes in your classroom! I would love to see pictures!

Easy St. Patrick’s Day Clover Snacks

March 16, 2017

I am thrilled to share this easy peasy snack perfect for St. Patrick’s day and “cooking” with young children. We started these at 7 pm and had the girls in bed by 7:15. Seriously. That’s how fast they are! I had seen the recipe on one of my favorite money saving blogs, hip2save.com and was so excited to try it. Lina had used Rolos, but I decided to use Hershey kisses since I think they are typically more toddler friendly. I am a total sucker for salty and sweet snacks.

Start by preheating your oven to 250 degrees. My 3 year old, Aniston helped me assemble them. We laid the pretzels in a clover shape on a piece of parchment paper that I had stretched over a cookie sheet.

We were able to fit 8 clovers on each cookie sheet. You could maybe get a couple more on there.

Then I had Aniston place a Hershey’s kiss in the middle of the clover. I made sure the kiss was touching each piece.

CAREFULLY slide them into the oven. I moved a little too quickly and had to reassemble some of them. Let them bake for about 2-3 minutes…. long enough for the chocolate to get soft but not melt completely.

While they were in the oven, I dumped some M&M’s on the counter and let Aniston get moving on sorting the green ones out. After a couple of minutes, gently press the upside-down M&M in the center of the chocolate.

Next, we slid the whole pan into the freezer for about 10 minutes. You can pull up the parchment papers a little on the ends for an easy removal. I transferred them to some plastic containers and they are ready to go for tomorrow.

TIP – I’m storing them in the refrigerator. If they get too warm, the chocolate will melt and they will start to fall apart.

Aniston was so proud! She can’t wait to pass these out on St. Patrick’s Day. The teacher in me is thinking this would be a really easy snack for my students!

Let me know how these go over with your students or kids!

Looking for more St. Patrick’s Day ideas?
Head over here!
St. Patrick’s Day Twirlers & So Much More!

St. Patrick’s Day Twirlers and More!

March 3, 2017

Click on the cover above to grab one!

Since becoming a TPT author, I have fallen in love with all the holidays again! My kids were so excited to make “Rainbow Twirlers” with this craftivity. When I showed them the sample, there was a collective “Oooohing and ahhhing” . 🙂

The resource has many writing prompts. For our hallway display, I gave them a choice of starting with the prompt “At the end of my rainbow…” or “If I found a pot of gold…” The kids loved having a choice and they got right to work. I loved their answers!

(At the end of my rainbow I would find chocolate and 50,000 rings.)

(At the end of my rainbow I will find a pot of gold.)

(At the end of my rainbow, I’d find 10 million coins and a trophy.)

(If I found a pot of gold I would buy a dog.)

LOVED this one from an ESL student!

I am so very proud of my kids. Sometimes it feels like the progress is so slow, but if you compare this writing to the beginning of the year, you would be blown away!

We spread the craft over 3 days. I let Aniston help me with the sample first at home. We used watercolor paints and I told her to paint a rainbow pattern. I laughed when my 2 year old corrected me and told me red was first in the rainbow!

I forgot to take pictures when my kids were working on this in the classroom, but I’m pretty sure you get the idea. It was a little messy, but easily cleaned with a Clorox wipe. I had them paint one side and wait a while before flipping it to paint the other side. I wasn’t picky at all about the patterns they made. Some painted swirls and others used completely random colors.

My awesome assistant Mel cut the plates into a swirl pattern using a die cut. You could do this by hand if needed.

The next day I let the kids choose one of the 2 pots in my resource to color and cut out. Mel added glitter to them and then we attached the rainbows. The kids were so proud of them!

I LOVED how the hallway display turned out!

There are lots of other fun printables included in the resource. The kids loved the “Following Directions” coloring sheet. It was nice to hear them help each other read the directions.

The resource also includes some math activities and more crafts. I can’t wait to use them with my kids. Grab one for your students to make planning so much easier by clicking one of the pictures below!

Let me know how this goes in your classroom! I would love to see pictures!

Foam Shape Painting – Fun Toddler Activity

March 1, 2017

I’m so excited to share one of my favorite things to do with Aniston with other moms. Juggling an infant and a toddler can be rough some days and I had been searching for various things to keep Aniston occupied while I put Heidi down for a nap or when I was breastfeeding. (There is NOTHING that makes you feel more helpless then when you are breastfeeding and your toddler needs you!)

Anyways, I stumbled across several blog posts about using water to “paint” foam shapes on to the window and was so intrigued. I had some colorful foam sheets so I cut them into various shapes and put a little bit of water in a plastic cup. (If you don’t have any – you can pick them up at the dollar tree or any craft store. You can also buy pre-cut shapes if you prefer. Make sure to get the non-adhesive kind. You can find a tub of around 3000 pre-cut nonadheasive shapes in this Amazon link.)

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I sat down by Aniston and handed her a paintbrush. She was barely over the age of 2 so I would say, “Make it sticky-sticky!” Then I would demonstrate how you could paint the back of the shape with water and it “magically” sticks to the window. She was amazed!

After a little bit of practice with her, she could do it by herself. I loved keeping the supplies in a tub to pull out when Heidi needed me and Aniston needed to be busy.

This has also become a favorite activity for us to pull out when Aniston has friends over. Mainly because the clean up is minimal and it keeps kids entertained for a long time! Aniston has a bit of a crush on our friends’ son, Cole. (As you can see in the picture:)) Aren’t they the cutest?!?!

When he and his sister, Reese came over, they loved painting the shapes. Cole cut out new shapes and Reese and Aniston stuck them on the window.

I was so impressed with how pretty the window looked when they finished and they had the best day together!

We’ve also painted shapes with Aniston’s cousins, Rex and Micah. They are two very busy boys but this kept them occupied for a pretty good amount of time. Rex had a different idea about how to get the shapes on the window. He told me to paint the window and then he stuck the shapes on top. 🙂 Either way works great!

One more little tip – if you are working on this activity with little ones, make sure the pieces don’t get cut too small since this can be a choking hazard. I’ve had to rush around a few times picking up the tiny ones before Heidi can get to them.

I’m looking forward to letting my kindergarten students paint words on the window using the precut foam letters. I know they would love that. I’ve also been thinking of some shape recognition practice. There are so many ways to have fun with this. Let me know how this project goes for you!

Sunglasses Craftivity – My Future is so Bright I Need Shades!

February 28, 2017

NEW SUNGLASSES CRAFTIVITY

(Click resource cover above to grab one!)

I love this craft so much! When I pull out the sample, the kids are completely mesmerized and can’t wait to dig in. My sample of the girl with the crazy hair looks like this:

I wanted to make a sample for a bulletin board titled “Sunshine & Summertime” or “Sunny Days Ahead!” that could be used at the end of the year.

I included several writing templates that could be used for various bulletin boards in my resource on TPT. The basic idea is to have the kids draw what they will “see” in the summer or in their future on the sunglasses depending on what you want the end product to be. I have included a template to make these large glasses and the lens in the resource on TPT.

We completed the craft in February so I didn’t want my kids to focus on the summer. Instead, I told them that I wanted them to think about the future. You could ask your students to focus on the next year, when they are in college, future career goals, etc. My students thought about what they hope to be one day.

I started all of my K students with the prompt, “My future is so bright I need to wear shades!” Then they were supposed to write about their future. They came up with the cutest responses, such as “I want to be a doctor and a dad.” or “I want to be a mermaid and a princess.” I love how their minds work at this age!

I even had one who was totally set on being the person who stands in front of the people who get married. That’s what she kept telling me anyways. “I want to be the person who stands in front of them when they get married Mrs. Statum!” “Hmm… Like a minister?” I asked her. “The person who stands in front!” We finally decided on calling it a wedding officiant. 🙂

I let my students start this craft by passing out a pair of lens to each child. I wanted them to focus on that drawing first. I told them to draw a picture of what they saw in their future. (If you are doing the summertime craft, you will need to have them think about what they will see that summer.)

The next day we used the template from my resource on TPT to make sunglasses. The kids loved “designing” their own pair of shades.

They then glued the lenses on top and got to work creating their person. We love using construction paper to “style” their hair! How cute are they?!?!

We had so much fun with this. The kids were SO proud of them and their writing has never been more inspired!

This project makes for an adorable hallway display when you add the writing assignment. (And my assistent Mel made the CUTEST sign for the hallway!) Please let me know how this goes in your classroom!

I hope your kids love it as much as mine did!

Disney World – Toddler and Infant Tips & Tricks

February 15, 2017

I know some people may think we were a little crazy to take 2 children to Disney World before either turned 3, but we had an awesome time and I wanted to share our experience and some things we learned along the way for any parents considering the same. 🙂

The main reason we decided to go at this time was so we could take advantage of the military discount that my brother-in-law was able to get for us. This meant staying at Shades of Green and half price 5 day park hopper tickets. If you are wanting to know other ways to save money, click here! http://pencilstopigtails.com/disney-world-10-tips-and-tricks-to-save-tons-of/

Aniston was 1 month away from turning 3 and Heidi was 10 months old when we arrived. That meant that I only had to purchase a plane ticket for Aniston and Heidi could fly free as a lap child. In addition, I only had to buy Disney World tickets for Dustin and I – that alone saved us a ton of money. (Kids are free until the age of 3!)

Seeing Disney through a toddler’s eyes was totally worth it. I’m so glad that we got to take Aniston at such a young age. She was fascinated by everything. Heidi was very easy to take care of as she was so intrigued by the rides and entertainment. Since she is in the crawling stage, the hardest part for her was that she was ready to get on the floor for some crawling time and there weren’t too many places to do that.

Here are some recommendations if you are taking young children to Disney World.

Bring your own snacks, drinks, and even lunch or breakfast in if you would like. Snacks can go a long way in helping your children wait in line. Not to mention it will save you money. I was pretty surprised when I was planning our trip to hear that you could bring in all kinds of outside snacks. Our favorites were the organic fruit/vegetable pouches. Both Heidi and Aniston love those. They are super convenient and healthy! We didn’t get around to it, but you could easily make pb&j sandwiches. Bananas, apples, and oranges were really popular with our crowd. Capri-suns and crackers are good choices. You can bring in a small soft sided cooler if you want to keep things cold. On a side note, Heidi has a milk and egg allergy. Because of this, I also don’t eat any milk or egg and since I’m vegetarian, this means I’m vegan while I’m still breastfeeding. I was super impressed with the way allergies were handled at Disney. Every employee was so helpful. They quickly pulled out allergy information and they always called over an “allergy coordinator” since our family was dealing with a “double allergy”. Every coordinator went above and beyond checking every little ingredient for milk/egg and creating a meal that was perfect for us. I have never been treated so fantastic when it comes to dealing with allergies. Allergy mamas know that we often get looked at like we have 3 heads when we start to question each ingredient at a regular restaurant!
Bring along some kid friendly cups because you can ask for FREE water at the quick service restaurants! (They will give you a cup, I just think its easier to transfer to a sippy cup for younger kids.)
Bring or rent a stroller. This is totally up to you, but we brought our stroller from home to save money. Even if your toddler doesn’t normally use one anymore, they will definitely need a break at Disney. We could have used a double stroller at times but got away with a single. You can rent them in the parks although I was eyeing the ones from “Kingdom Strollers”. I had read good things about them and they looked really nice.
Bring a carrier of some sort for infants. I LOVE the TULA brand. That is my personal favorite and I’m a bit of a hoarder when it comes to wraps and carriers. I love wraps but Heidi is way to big to ride around in one of those now. Something about the TULA is so comfortable. Many babies would prefer facing out though so take that into consideration. Heidi took every single nap in the TULA on me. (I got quite the workout in at Disney!)
Get souvenirs beforehand. As I shared in another post, I snagged all kinds of goodies at the Dollar Tree. You can give them to toddlers each night from Tinkerbell or Mickey Mouse which works nicely as good behavior incentives. The glow-in-the-dark wands, bubbles, and puzzles were some of our favorite finds. This will help you save money in the parks as well! I also ordered the girls matching Minnie Mouse outfits online before we left and autograph books from Amazon for meeting the characters.
Purchase Memory Maker! – We were so happy that we purchased this and the price can be split between families if you are travelling with or even at the same time as another group. It was so nice to have professional pictures taken at every character greet of our kids and really great to have so many photos of our entire group without having to ask random strangers to take one. I’ve been very pleased with all the photos. Always fun to see your ride photos too!I really love this picture that a photographer snapped of my sister and her son. Its so much fun to look through your pictures later. Parents already have so much to juggle with young kids that it was so nice to have someone else in charge of pictures!
Make plans for which rides or experiences are “musts” for your kids and make those a priority. It was really great that Baby Heidi could ride on almost every single ride that Aniston could. You can see how young children can usually ride in your lap!
The only one I didn’t take Baby Heidi on that I did Aniston was the Barnstormer. There are a ton of rides at Magic Kingdom for toddlers. We loved the shows at Hollywood Studios and Animal Kingdom. My favorite ride for toddlers was the new Frozen ride at Epcot. So… it would be really important to consider your children’s interests when planning which parks to visit if you aren’t able to make it to each one. I would say that my very favorite thing we did all week was the Enchanted Tales with Belle experience. Both Aniston and Dustin were included as part of the show. Belle was so beautiful and even I was a little awe-struck! I won’t spoil it too much but the special effects they used to bring the story to life were amazing!

If you are a fan of the movie- don’t miss this one!

8. Take breaks as needed. It can be really helpful to get to the parks at rope drop. (This means arriving about 30 minutes early.) Then go back to the hotel for a while to nap or relax and return at night. You would avoid the most crowded time of the day with this plan and it usually works well for young children. However, since both my girls go to bed by 7 we just stayed in the parks most days until around 5 or 6. We could tell that Aniston needed a break a couple of times so I stayed with Heidi and Dustin took Aniston back to the hotel to play on the playground and relax a bit.

I loved this pic of them leaving the parks when she was especially tired. 🙂

9. Go during the school year. I know, I know! I’m a teacher and should know better. If you are travelling with young children, hopefully they haven’t started school yet and this won’t matter. You pretty much have to go during the school year to be at the parks with the lowest crowd ratings. We travelled during the first week of February. The crowd rating was a 3/10. It was fabulous. There is no way I would ever want to go during the summer after having gone in February. The weather was perfect, lines were quick or sometimes there was no line at all, and it was so nice to break up the winter blues with the trip. We left on a Friday afternoon and returned Wednesday so I only missed 3 and 1/2 days of work.

10. If your child is at the right age, consider getting their first haircut done at the Harmony Barber Shop in Magic Kingdom. We had Heidi’s first haircut done there and are so glad we made that decision! It was such a special memory for all of us. You can read about it by clicking this link : http://pencilstopigtails.com/disney-world-babys-first-haircut-at-harmony-barber-shop/

Oh yeah! Check out the Baby Care Centers located in each park. I was so impressed by these. There were rooms for breastfeeding mothers, plenty of diaper changing stations, high chairs, microwaves, a movie playing for toddlers, a place to purchase baby necessities you may have forgotten, etc. We loved stopping in for a minute to give the kids a break and a quiet place for me to breastfeed!

Do you have any tips/tricks to share for Disney with toddlers or infants? Please share them in the comments!

President’s Day – Happy Birthday George Washington!

February 15, 2017

Happy Birthday George Washington!

I have just created a new resource for Presidents’ Day and I’m so happy to share it with you! You can grab one by clicking on the title above.

This is a preview of some of the fun things you will find in this resource.

I’ve always been a little bored with President’s Day so I wanted to spice things up a bit with my class by having a birthday party in his honor. Did you realize that the Federal Government refers to President’s Day as “Washington’s Birthday?” I didn’t until I started working on this resource. I thought that was very interesting.

We have had so much fun making George Washington hats. The kids loved creating curls with long strips of white paper to go around the sentence strip. They were so intrigued by the fact that Washington’s hair was not actually white. He used powder because back then the thought was that you looked more powerful with white hair and curls! 🙂

I loved the way they looked walking down the hall. 🙂

Our hallway display came out cute and it was super simple. The kids did all the work! The resource includes a “Happy Birthday Mr. Washington!” banner. Students enjoyed figuring out what they would give Washington for his birthday. They came up with the cutest ideas!

There are so many other fun activities that go along with President’s Day. We had fun sorting the hard and soft g sounds. I also used those printables to go over the different sounds with my Parent English class.

I read our class book several times and later let the kids color their individual nonfiction readers that are also included with this packet.

President’s Day was so much more fun this year. How do you celebrate it with your students?