Easter Goodies Giveaway

The winner is:   

I love giveaways and I love Easter so I'm combining the two for an Easter Giveaway for you! Every time you comment on this Blog, you are entered to win a basket filled with goodies. Yippee! You can comment on any post and every comment is a chance to win! Don't know what to write- how about sharing ways you celebrate Easter- games, recipes, art projects, books, etc. On April 15, I'll announce the winner. I can hardly wait! Here are some of my favorite Easter goodies and extra freebies that you can win below, valued at $85.00.

The Legend of the Easter Egg

Resurrection Eggs to teach the Easter Story
 Kids love these and so do I!

Benjamin's Box: The Story of the Resurrection Eggs

The Legend of the Sand Dollar:
An Inspirational Story of Hope for Easter

 

An Easter Carol, VeggieTales DVD

ALL of Teaching with TLC's E-Books and Workshops

     Your choice of Teaching with TLC's books

Easter Treasure Hunt

Have an Easter treasure hunt with each clue leading to the location of the next clue. Use plastic Easter eggs and make the clues easy to identify.  Children as young as 2 can even play this scavenger hunt game by using pictures instead of words. For example, put a picture of a bathtub in an egg, and the next clue should be in the bathtub.  For older children, the clues could be riddles they need to solve. The final clue would lead to the treasure, such as an Easter treat, an invitation to the movies, or a pass to stay up an hour past your child's bedtime. Have fun!

CLICK HERE for cute Easter riddles to print and solve.

CLICK HERE for pictures to print for younger children.

The most delightful spring book!

Today I read Wake up, Sleepy Bear by Christine and Greg Shaw for the first time to my younger boys since we have been doing spring activities. This book was so adorable and the illustrations of the baby animals are just beautiful. Write this title down on your wish list for your young child (2-8 years old). This book would even be perfect for an Easter basket.

You can do this extension activity after reading this book if you have a small group of children. 

Hibernation game

 

Have all the children sit in a circle. One child will sit in the middle and pretend to sleep all curled up like a bear hibernating. Make sure his eyes stay closed. Pick a child and have him quietly sneak up and touch the bear then quickly return to his spot in the circle. Everyone in the circle says "WAKE UP SLEEPY BEAR! WAKE UP!" The child (sleepy bear) sits up and guesses up to three times who woke him up. Choose a new bear if the child does not guess the correct person. If he does choose correctly, the person who tapped him has to be the new sleepy bear.

FREE Spring Unit- Colorful & Creative!

I can't wait to use this spring unit with my younger kids. I have never seen a unit so colorful before! It's inviting to children and makes learning FUN! CLICK ON IMAGE TO DOWNLOAD.

Here's some of what you'll find inside:

See, Trace and Make cards

3 part cards

Scissor skills

Color me

Counting cards

Find the missing number

Acrostic poem writing

How does your garden grow?

Size sort

Counting mat

Graph it

Pre-writing

Umbrella numbers

Alphabet letter match

Get your (ordinal) ducks in a row

It's raining on the roses (comparison)

Home at last (birdhouse addition)

Raindrop romp (-at,-ap and -an word families)

Roses grid game

Stamp a vowel

Tales of time

Rain facts

A BIG THANK YOU to Michelle at www.thoughtsofesme.blogspot.com 

Kids LOVE Resurrection Eggs!

Using Resurrection Eggs to teach the Easter story is my favorite Easter tradition. My boys anxiously wait for me to tell each part of the story and then take turns opening the eggs. Even though we have done this for many years and they know what is in each egg, they still cannot wait to open them!

I have used my purchased set of eggs for about 10 years for teaching my children, my students in a private school and in my Sunday School class, and at church Easter parties. My son just found the Resurrection Eggs today when we were unpacking the Easter decorations and he asked if he could take them outside to share the Easter story with the neighborhood kids. What an awesome feeling it is to have your child so excited to share the Easter story with others! Resurrection Eggs are definitely a FUN and engaging teaching tool.

Benjamin's Box: The Story of the Resurrection Eggs is highly recommended to compliment your Resurrection Eggs. It is nicely illustrated and each page tells a story to match the items in the eggs. Children also enjoy hearing the story a little boy's point of view.

TeachingHeartMom.com has created a printable to go along with this activity. The printable has an egg to open and a part of the story and a symbol from the egg to glue inside. How cute is that!

EXTRA IDEAS: Some parents and teachers hide the eggs before they read the story and open them. Others have a child open one or two eggs per day as a count down until Easter instead of opening them the same day. What creative ideas!

If you want to make your own, Tony Kummer explains how to make your own set of Resurrection Eggs in this video tutorial.

CLICK HERE for the printable pattern and directions. Be sure to check out her site at www.ministry-to-children.com. It is filled with tons of Bible games, activities, lesson, and crafts.

Don't forget to enter my EASTER GIVEAWAY for a FREE set of Resurrection Eggs, Benjamin's Box, and MORE!

Easter Bunny Letter

CLICK ON IMAGE TO PRINT this letter from the Easter Bunny from www.momsbreak.com Enjoy!

The cutest spring & Easter treats!

While putting out my Easter decorations today, I got so excited about springtime and Easter. As I was going through my Easter crafts, recipes, and activities for my children, I came across some photos of an Easter party from a couple of years ago. They were taken at our homeschool Easter party, and my friend, Maria, made these adorable Easter bunny cars.

EASTER BUNNY CARS

 

Aren't they so cute? Maria used a Ho Hos cake for the body of the car and a Peeps bunny for the driver. Using icing as the glue for this creation, she adhered the bunny and a Life Saver for the steering wheel to the cake. She stuck on the marshmallows as tires and added the malted eggs for headlights. 

You can be original with whatever ingredients you may already have. For example, you can use jelly beans or M&M's as headlights and Sprees as the tires. You can also use Swiss Roll Snack Cakes or Twinkies for the car.

Here are some more treats that she made.
(It was a windy day so the bunnies shifted a bit.)

 The bunny cars were the hit of the party! My kids absolutely loved them.

I found this picture with the photos from above. Even though it has nothing to do with Easter treats, I had to include it anyway. I think it's precious because my boys have no idea that this Easter bunny was their Dad. What a good sport my hubby was to dress up for the kids at our church party in that incredibly hot suit in Southwest Florida! 

Now, onto more Easter goodies. I have to forewarn you. I have a huge sweet tooth and went a little crazy. Enjoy!

BIRD'S NESTS COOKIES

 I like making the traditional bird's nests but have not tried these cookie nests before. Be creative with the eggs and use your family's favorite candy- chocolates, jelly beans, malted eggs, Whoppers, M&M's, Skittles, or any other candy that is round and will fit. Visit Bright Ideas for this recipe.

PRETZEL NESTS

I just found this bird's nest recipe with chocolate and pretzels- yummy! We will be trying this one out very soon. Visit Bright Ideas for this recipe.

HIDDEN SURPRISE TREATS

 These look so easy to make for a quick party treat that everyone will remember. The best part is when you open the egg, there is a treat inside. How ingenious is that! Kids love Rice Krispies Treats so this one is sure to be a winner. Visit Bright Ideas for this recipe.

MINI CHEESECAKES

 Now, here is the treat I can't wait to try out! These look just like regular cupcakes with green-colored coconut and candy eggs, but do not be deceived. They are mini cheesecakes- one of my favorite desserts. Visit Bright Ideas for this recipe.

Share your favorite Easter treats.

Earth Day Unit

LOVE, LOVE, LOVE the ladies and their fantastic units at www.whattheteacherwants.blogspot.com

Click on image to download these activities for Earth Day, April 22.

You will find activities for:

 

*Math

*Science

*Writing

*Centers

*Art

*Reading

*Poetry and songs

Spring & Easter Mad Libs

I love using Mad Libs to practice grammar, sentence structure, parts of speech, and vocabulary with my kids. Here are some cute Spring and Easter Mad Libs from Classroomjr.com. Click on images below to print.

CLICK HERE for another post on using Mad Libs.

Spring Writing Prompts

Here are some Spring Writing Prompts from Classroomjr.com. Click on images below to print.

 

Heaven is Real

My "Colton" and Coen just watched this video with me and now they want me to read the book to them.  I love God stories and sharing them with my kids. 

(My husband ended up reading the boys a chapter or two a night for their bedtime story and they were hooked. They were also shocked to see that Colton ended up having a brother named Colby, just like my boys.)

  

Chuck E. Cheese's Reward Calendars

Looking for a great way to reward your kids? How about FREE TOKENS on their next visit to Chuck E. Cheese? Download and print FREE reward calendars to encourage your child in some of the most common challenges of parenting. There are many to choose from. Here are some of my favorites:

 

 

 Don't forget to bring your report card, too. Chuck E. Cheese's gives tokens for good grades. Yippee!

The best printable site ever!

 www.superteacherworksheets.com

Teachers and home educators get excited about silly little things, and one of those things are worksheets, especially FREE and high-quality printables! A few days ago I randomly found this site and felt like I won the printable lotto! I plan to spend some more time exploring on this site real soon. Enjoy!

EASY CROCKPOT POTATO SOUP

I made potato soup for my family on St. Patrick's Day, and I can't wait to share the recipe with you! If you haven't read any of my other recipe posts, I have to let you know that I LOVE recipes that are easy and tasty and this one is both! Many people say it's better than Outback's potato soup and my family agrees. It's really mouth-watering so get ready to go shopping for the ingredients ASAP!

EASY CROCKPOT POTATO SOUP

1 30oz. bag of frozen, shredded hash browns

3 14oz. cans of chicken broth

1 can of cream of chicken soup

1/2 cup onion, chopped

1/4 tsp. ground pepper

1 pkg. cream cheese (not fat free)

 

In a crockpot, combine everything EXCEPT for the cream cheese.  Cook for 6-8 hours on low heat.  About 1 hour before serving, add cream cheese and keep heated until thoroughly melted.  Serve with cheese, sour cream, bacon bits, green onions, or whatever else you think would be yummy. I told you it was easy-enjoy!

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