Graduation {and WINGS for going places!}

It's graduation time where we are (school gets out a little later here) and graduation parties are in full swing.  So, I've been doing some end-of-the-year {little projects}.

When I graduated from high school, I remember receiving the Oh, the Places You'll Go! book by Dr. Seuss from my parents with a nice note about moving forward in life written inside.
This time of year always makes me think of that story and those words from my parents.


If you don't have a graduate at your house right now, pick up a copy of this book and write a {little} message to your child at the close of each school year.  What a keepsake you'll have when s/he graduates!


My talented sister, Rhielle, sent Jay and Kay these darling wings for Christmas.  
She made them!
 

Whenever I watch the kids fly around the house in these wings I think of the wings in the book.
Maybe it's the fun colors? 
Or maybe it's that when the kids put the wings on something magical happens and they can be anything they want to be; something we kinda tend to forget when we turn all adult-like and responsible. 
Not to say that being responsible isn't a good thing.  

But these kids are still young enough to really believe in themselves.

I love that.
 



Lately, I've been a fan of the blank-card packages at Michael's.  They're a buck for 8.  And they come already circle-punched (not that I can't do that, but still..) and I just "fill in the blank" according to the occasion.  That's the kind of {little project} I can handle.

Here's the graduation kind of "fill in the blank" with stickers (from the $1 section somewhere).

 (and yes, the stickers are centered, but the cards are opened at an angle ;)


These are my other favorite graduation cards and poster:


Cute huh!  The perfect quote, right from that book. 
And it's a FREE printable!
You can find it here.

It's nice to have a {little} reminder that even we aren't so {little} anymore, we really can choose the direction we want to fly.

WINNER! PrintRunner Giveaway


 
Congratulations to Shanny!
She is the winner of 100 full-color postcards giveaway from PrintRunner!

What a fun little project creating these will be!
 
Wishing you all a Happy Monday!
 

Celebrating 100 Days!

 
How many ways can you celebrate 100?  This is our 4th year celebrating the 100th day of the year.  Every time we have our "party" I try to think up ways for the kids to learn while they think they are playing.

This year the kids are another year older and we were able to add a spanish twist and counted in spanish, since they can already count in english by 1's, 5's, 10's, etc.  I used the foam letters (above) for a visual for Kay.  She always does better if she has something to touch.  I know part of that is her age, and part of it is just her :)

This year, I got started a little early with this book for Kay.  I didn't know how hard it would be for her to work through 100 words.  But it was a fun goal.  The book was too long for her to read in one sitting, but we used it over a week for reading time and she got all 100 words!


Kay is a preschooler, but she likes to read.  And the fun thing about this book is that the dog's words are red and the man's words are black (or maybe the other way around).  So I read one color of word and she looked for "her words" in the other color.  That helped keep her interest in it.

Jay is in kindergarten and LOVES math.  He's been working through his times tables (which I have a bunch of projects to share about sometime...) and so we decided to see how close we could get to 100 with multiplying 4's, 7's, 8's, and 9's.  The legos really helped keep his interest with {this little project}.

Kay and Jay each took a side of this lego plate and used the "4" lego bricks to see how many it took to made 100.   The legos let you "touch" each number, which was good for Kay.



We used the "6" lego brick with the "1" for the 7's.
One thing that Jay noticed from this activity was that it was hard to land right on 100.  Not everything divides evenly.


Then I got out some of our dice to play some games with.
The Roll to 100 is an adding game.

Jay wrote down each roll and added it to the roll before.  The goal was to land right on 100 and not go over.  This is much easier said, than done!

He played it over and over, determined to get it.  And he finally did!



I gave the dice to Kay too to play with.  She's not into adding double digits yet, but she wrote down each roll and practiced her handwriting and knowing what each number was.

For the Roll to $1.00 Game, I got out our coin dice that I made (from a previous little math project).  Again, Jay wrote down each roll and added it to the one before.  The goal: try to get to $1.00 without going over.

Again, easier said than done!  But we turned it into an adding and subtracting game after we changed the rules so that if you went over you could do one more roll and subtract it to see if you landed on 100 cents.

Jay really enjoyed both math dice games and played them again and again.


And you have to have some party food right?

Here is our centipede snack:


He doesn't quite have 100 legs, but... close enough.

We made him with a sliced banana, craisins for eyes, and halved cheerios for legs.  I would have used pretzels for the legs but we ran out.

The kids dipped him in yogurt and thought it was a great snack (whew!)



Now we're looking forward to celebrating 100 next year!
If you have any fun ideas, please share!

And with all this 100 fun, be sure to enter the PrintRunner Giveaway for 100 free full-color postcards!  Go here to enter!

Giveaway! With PrintRunner






 GIVEAWAY IS NOW CLOSED

Happy Weekend!  I'm excited to share a giveaway from PrintRunner with you today.  
 
PrintRunner is an online printing company located in California and today they are giving away 100 full-color printed postcards to one of my lucky readers!

What can you do with 100 full-color printed postcards?

PrintRunner postcards would be perfect for:
 
a graduation announcement
 
a baby announcement
 
a we've moved (new address note)
 
a fun thank you card
 
A Christmas card (thinking ahead!)
 
and more!

And since PrintRunner is an online postcard printing company.  It's easy to just upload your image and print!  The postcard giveaway size is 5x7.

PrintRunner offers a wide variety of high-quality printing services, for less.  From stickers to cards, magnets and banners.  You'll want to check them out.

To enter the giveaway, be sure to leave a comment for EVERY entry (no emails.)
You must be a This Little Project follower to win (see right sidebar).

1- Like PrintRunner on Facebook

2- Follow PrintRunner on Twitter

3-Like This Little Project on Facebook
 
4- Subscribe to This Little Project via email.

This giveaway will end at midnight on May 16th, EST.

Giveaway product details are:
 Colors : 4/0 Front Only Printing
 Paper : 14 PT. UV Coating on Front,
 Rounded Corners  : Yes
 Proof : None
 Ready to Ship In : 4 Business Days
 *Giveaway is open to US Residents only, ages 18 years old and above.

Good Luck!
 
 
 
I was compensated for this hosting giveaway, but my opinions are 100% my own. 


Cinco de Mayo and Mexico Learning

Originally shared at abcand123learning.com as part of the Music and Movement Series.

One of the things that I love about being a musician and a dancer is that it brings me full circle in what I am learning about. It's one thing to read about a place in a book. But if you really want to get to know a people you've got to listen to their music and language and watch (and try!) the movements of their people's dance. That's where you will find a true reflection of a people's traditions and culture.

I hope that you will enjoy traveling around the world-in the comfort of your own home-to learn about cultures as well as the joy of music and movement and dance with your children and students!

To celebrate Cinco de Mayo, today we will be learning about the music and movement in MEXICO!

Mexican dance is done in character shoes (shoe with a heel) for girls, and a cowboy boot for boys.

To get started, watch this video that shoes some of the different styles of Mexican Dance:


In this clip you will learn about the costume that the women wear when they dance.  You can also see the character shoes:

This lets you see some of the dancing up close!  The dance is "percussive" which means that the shoes are not just for dancing in.  They are also to make sounds with.
  You might like to try making sounds with your feet too!

Mariachi music is the style of music that we often think of when we hear Mexican music.
The word mariachi refers to the musicians now commonly seen in restaurants or strolling the streets, dressed in silver studded charro outfits with wide brimmed hats playing a variety of instruments which include violins, guitars, basses, vihuelas (a 5 string guitar) and trumpets.

This is a song we often hear in Spanish, the language spoken in much of Mexico with the mariachi style of music.

Mariachi songs speak about machismo, love, betrayal, death, politics, revolutionary heroes and even animals (one particularly famous song is "La Cucaracha").

Mexican dance is also for boys!

Now YOU Try!

Some things you really have to try to appreciate or understand them.

These activities will help you do that!

La Cucaracha song with the words in Spanish.  Try singing along!



Here is a child dancing with her skirt.  Try dancing like her!


Have you heard of the Mexican Hat Dance?  Try dancing it along with these children!

Make your own maracas 
out of your left over plastic eggs from Easter with the instructions: HERE


Link to Mexican flag coloring page: HERE
Coloring page flag Mexico


Link to coloring page of mariachi players: HERE
Coloring page Mexican musicians

Try making music with
  Mexican musical instruments with the game HERE

Now you will be all ready for Cinco de Mayo!


Spring Birds-they hatched!

I shared the links last week for the live webcams of the two bird nests we've been watching.  

Well, all the eggs have hatched and the {little} baby birds are darling!

You have to go see them!

Here's the link for the Great Blue Heron nest.
 
Watch HD video of Great Blue Herons nesting outside our offices nest

And Here's the link for the Red-tailed Hawk nest camera.

Watch incredibly clear streaming video of a Red-tailed Hawk nest

Have fun!

How to make A Button Bracelet

I work with the young women at our church and they wanted to have a jewelry-making night.  We decided to go with something less traditional and it turned out to be a ton of fun! 

These {little} bracelets are fun gifts too (think Mother's Day or birthday).



My favorite part was seeing the girls' personality come through in their creations and choice of buttons and colors.  I even sneaked a {little} sewing lesson in with {this little project}.  They all know how to sew a button on now!


And really, sewing a button on is pretty much all you need to know for {this little project}.  It's that easy!

Here's what you need for {this little project}:

thread (color of your choice)
needle
1/4" elastic
scissors 
Buttons!!  The more the merrier!

--First measure your elastic to fit around your wrist.  You'll want the elastic about 1/2" longer for the overlap when you sew the ends together.

--Mark where your overlap is and then where the center is.

--Then lay the elastic flat and lay the buttons out and play with how you want it to look.



--Be sure to stitch through each button a couple of times before going to the next button so it's nice and secure.  You will want your buttons to overlap just a bit so the elastic doesn't show.

--Sew the ends together and cover with the last button to finish it off.

Ta da!

Fast!  Easy and cute!


The young women had a lot of fun with their bracelets and it was also a really fun mother/daughter activity with my girls at home.
 
 Ellie and Kay both love wearing theirs!


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