Digging Into Learning!

Well it turns out it never stopped raining for us to do our dinosaur dig outside...bummer.  But I improvised and took my own advice from my Dinosaur Unit and my little paleontologists performed their digging skills in a sensory bin instead.

I placed several of my son's toy dinosaurs and my kids were given small shovels and paint brushes to carefully dig out the toy dinosaurs like a paleontologist would dig out real dinosaur fossils.

 

My littles really enjoyed the dig and recording their findings in their paleontologist journal!

We also did a little fossil art last week with q-tips! 

So there's what we did for fun dinosaur projects last week!

Sorry it's been so long since I've posted I'll try to be better at keeping all our fun school things updated weekly.  For instance I'll post this weeks projects on Friday while my littles are at Enrichment Classes!  How's that sound?!

Stay tuned for the fun things we're working on this week.

*All activities shown here are featured at Learning With Littles TPT Store in our...

Dinosaur Unit

ROARing In The New School Year!

We have officially begun the 2014-15 school year!

I have to say we began this year in the most AWESOME way!  By taking a trip to the Science Museum of Minnesota and exploring the seasons' special Ultimate Dinosaurs Exhibit as well as all the other fun things that are at the museum!

As you can see we had such a busy day, my littlest couldn't even stay awake for 10 minutes after departing the museum!

We went Sunday (Yes, we started school on a Sunday but it was fun so that's okay.) as a kick off into this months' science unit which is, you guessed it, DINOSAURS!

I've been so excited about this unit, as I worked so hard to prepare my littles' paleontologist journals and planning our six week dinosaur adventure.  

It's only been two days into school but all in all I'd say they are enjoying playing the part of paleontologist!

They each have their very own field journal...

In which they'll be recording the things they learn about these ancient reptiles...

Today they really enjoyed the fossil center in which they got to make fossils of their own in play-dough...

...and then take pictures of their dough fossils!

If you're interested in this dinosaur unit you can find it at my TPT store Learning With Littles.

LINK HERE

Now I'm just hoping the rain will go away and it will dry up for our dinosaur dig tomorrow!

T Minus 7 Days

One week from today we will be starting school.  Admittedly I have mixed emotions about this.  On one hand I am not ready for summer to end.  I want playful summer days to continue infinitely and I'm not ready for my kids to be another school year older.  On the other hand I love teaching my kids and learning along side them and I'm so excited to start some of the activities that I've been prepping for over the summer.

On Sunday we go to the Science Museum of Minnesota to see...

Sunday's trip to the museum will kick off our Dinosaur Unit on Monday.

We're also going to be doing a Fairy Tale Unit featuring the books:

Goldilocks and the Three Bears

The Three Little Pigs

Hansel and Gretel

Little Red Riding Hood

and

Jack and the Bean Stock.

I was so excited when I saw that Kohl's Cares was featuring a few of these books from one of my beloved series as a child, Little Critter.  I scored these three while shopping at Kohl's a couple of weeks ago...

...and can't wait to use them with our Fairy Tale Unit and many other snuggle times on the couch with my littles!

I do not have a Fairy Tale Unit per se.  However, I have a Story Elements Unit that we'll be using in conjunction with our Fairy Tales, and the posters included feature Fairy Tale graphics...

We'll be reading the Fairy Tales mentioned above and discussing them using the organizers in this packet and then my littles will be writing their own Fairy Tales to cap off the unit! 

These units will be a great addition to our curriculum and I think my littles will really enjoy them also!

Story Time!

I hope everyone had a successful TPT sale and either bought or sold lots of good stuff!

I didn't stop working on some upcoming units for my kiddos that we'll be starting on in just a couple weeks.

I just posted one I've been working on since last week.  It's a Story Elements Unit to go along with our Fairy Tale Unit at the beginning of the year!

LINK HERE

All these fun packets and things I've been making or getting from TPT is making me so excited for the school year to start!

Back 2 School SALE!!!

If you're like me you're having a hard time believing that the new school year is almost upon us.  Whether we believe it or not...it's almost here!

I am super excited to be joining in TPT's annual Back To School SALE starting TODAY!!!

As you know from my last post, I've been doing a little prep work to get ready for the sale by redoing some of my cover photos.  I also made up a few new products...

A Roll & Cover Packet

LINK HERE

This packet features 20 seasonal/holiday themed Roll & Cover pages, 10 with the number 1 - 6 and 10 with the sums 2 - 12.  

I also have two new clipart packets!

Fall Apples & Maple Leaf Clipart

LINK HERE

... and ...

Weather Clipart

LINK HERE

My featured FREEBIE for the back to school sale is a fun little...

Weather Graph & Calendar Cards Packet

LINK HERE

As excited as I am to see how my products do during my first back to school sale, I may be even more excited about what I'm going to get during the sale! 

Here are a few items in my TPT cart...

LINK HERE

LINK HERE

LINK HERE

This next one is kind of special to me because it's based off a book I read to my littles at bedtime the night before their first day of kindergarten.  My littlest isn't going to kindergarten this year, but she is doing 4K through the charter school and will be going to Enrichment Days every Friday.  Yes, I will be homeschooling her, as I do two of her older siblings, so she'll still be with me most of the time, but she's still a bit nervous to venture out.  It's a big deal for a little one who has spent almost every moment of her little life with her mama.  So as I did with her older siblings, the night before her first school day, we will be reading...

The Kissing Hand

... and my eyes will tear up and I'll close the book and kiss her sweet little hand, just like Chester's mama kisses his, and I'll tell my sweet girlie that all she needs to do is kiss her little hand to have mama nearby.  Then we'll follow it up with this packet...

LINK HERE

Join me and all the other TPT sellers over the next two couple of days for the big SALE!

And check out the party I'm  linking up to at:

The Speech Room News

Go check out what Jenna and other teachers are selling and buying for the 2014-15 school year!

A Little Revamp Job

I've been busy readying my store for the upcoming TPT back to school sale!

As a new seller I really have no clue as to what I am doing and am so thankful to Michelle Kabdi over at A New Day Of Learning for introducing me to the super helpful TPT Seller Collaborative page where I am learning all the tricks of the trade!

The first thing I did was make a banner to announce to all that visit my store that Learning With Littles is taking part in the back to school sale.

Now I'm busy revamping my cover photos so that my products are more eye catching to the buyers on TPT.  Here's a few samples of what I've done and am still working on...

Year Of Reading Logs LINK

All About Me Mini Book LINK

And you may recall these next two items from my "Hoot Of A Sale" post, only then I didn't have cute covers for them.

August/September Owl Calendar Cards LINK

Owl Clipart LINK

This and more coming your way for TPT's big BACK TO SCHOOL SALE going on Monday, August 4th - 5th!

Don't miss it!

Also, a couple of questions please...

1) Do you like my new cover photos?

2)What could I do differently to grab buyers' attention?

Starting Off The Year With A Roar!

My kiddos and I are going to be starting off the year with a dinosaur science unit!

I am really excited about this because dinosaurs are hugely interesting to me and my kids.  And it just so happens that the Science Museum of Minnesota is featuring a special exhibit on dinosaurs and we are going to start our year off with a field trip to see the bones and fossils in this great exhibit!

I think I'm just as excited as my kiddos are!!!

I'm also excited about this packet I put together to go along with our dinosaur unit...especially the little journal that is included in it! Each of my kids will get their own journal and become paleontologists for the six weeks that we are studying dinosaurs!  It's going to be a ROARING good time!

LINK HERE