Book Review: Nature Play Workshop for Families

Happy Publish Day!!!🎉🎉

Thank you to @Netgalley and Quatro Publishing/Quarry @quartokids for letting me preview

this amazing book Nature Play Workshop For Families by Monica Wiedel-Lubinski & Karen Madigan. 

The timing of this book is perfect.  If you are like me I am looking for ideas to do with the children

that can be done at a safe distance.  This book is filled with wonderful ideas and activities that can

be done in your yard or at the park/nature trail.  No special supplies are needed, you can use what

is around you.   

What I loved about the book is the easy to follow layout.  Each activity has simple directions

along with beautiful photos.   All the activities are divided by seasons which makes it easy to

plan outings and activities. The last two chapters are activities you can do anytime. 

 

I set up an easy to do scavenger hunt that we did in our own backyard. 

I only had to print out a page from the back of the book. 

We grabbed our magnifying glass and headed out to the garden.  

The activity took about 15 minutes. Depending on the age of your children you could

extend it longer.

 

If you don’t have children yourself, this book would make a great gift to give to your

grandchildren or other young children in your life.  

Back to School Teacher Gifts

First I want to start this post letting you know I received all the materials for this project free from Oriental Trading in exchange for this post. I want to Thank Katie from OT for the wonderful gift of supplies.  As a teacher I appreciate every little gift that helps make the school year run smoothly.   

Each year I make little gifts for the primary teachers on our staff.  I find my ideas on Pinterest and put them together the best I can.  This year I came across the opportunity to partner with Oriental Trading to create these gifts.  I saw something similar to this on Pinterest and I thought cute idea I can do this.   

I found most of the supplies I needed at Oriental Trading Learn 365:

Alphabet Tiles (6 bags)

Apple Erasers (1 bag)

Welcome Back to School Pencils (1 bag)

 Then I laid all the tiles out with the teachers names and erasers and measured the length of each one.  

 My husband purchased a long piece of trim and cut the trim at the different lengths for the names.

 Then I used my hot glue gun to glue all the letters, erasers and pencils on the trim board.  

 Now I have name plates for each of the teachers at the primary level at my school.  I think they are super cute and I cannot wait to give these little gifts out.   

If you want to see the gifts I made in the past check out the links below:
2016  Sunshine in a Jar
2015  Pencils in an apple jar
2011 Flowers for the Teachers
I started an Instagram account if you are interested in following allow:  @theverybusykindergartenblog

Back To School Gifts for Teachers

Each year on the first day of school I like to surprise my co-workers with a little something to start the school year off with. I wish I could do something for the entire staff however I just focus on the teachers on my level.   

This year I decided to make Sunshine in a Jar.  
I have tons of jars around the house so that was easy enough to find.  I did purchase the yellow caps from Swiss Miss Closet on Etsy.  The rest of the supplies I found at TARGET.  

I made my own tags with a graphic and fonts from Graphics from the Pond on TPT. 

Download the tag by clicking on the image and saving it to your desktop!

It was super easy to put together and I think my fellow teachers will love them.  

Happy First Day of School!