Spring Trash Candy- An extra sweet and salty treat!

Today is the first day of spring and my kids wanted to make a spring treat. We LOVE the Classic White Trash Candy that I shared with you seven years ago, so we decided to add our own spin to it to make it more spring-like. My kids came up with this recipe- Spring Trash Candy.

We used pastel-colored M&Ms, pastel-colored spring sprinkles, and substituted the corn chex cereal with Fruit Loops, which makes the classic sweet and salty candy treat EXTRA sweet.

Spring Trash Candy

1 c. pastel colored M&Ms

1 1/2 c. Fruit Loops cereal

2 c. pretzel sticks

1 c. cocktail peanuts

1 oz. pastel-colored/spring sprinkles

14 oz. vanilla almond bark

Mix the first five ingredients together in a large bowl. Melt the vanilla almond bark in the microwave, and pour it over the mixed ingredients. Mix well without breaking the cereal and pretzels and spread it thin on wax paper. Let it cool off and harden then break into chunks and place in cute containers. This makes great Easter gifts for teachers, neighbors, family, and friends.

Enjoy this super simple but highly addicting treat,

Click here for the Classic White Trash Candy Recipe.

FUN activities with plastic Easter eggs and jelly beans

Easter time provides several opportunities for hands-on learning activities. This week on FOX 4's Mom Squad, I share plenty of ways to use plastic Easter eggs and jelly beans to make learning FUN!

Watch the full segment to learn how to use these materials for reviewing these skills: colors

alphabet

opposites

patterns

numbers

estimation

graphing

probability

statistics

spelling words

solving math problems
measurement

CLICK HERE for a detailed post on jelly bean learning activities.

CLICK HERE for more ideas on how to teach statistics using Easter eggs and jelly beans.
Here are the links to the printables featured on the program:
Jelly Bean Patterns Probability Statistics (practice finding the mean, median, mode and range) Graphing Jelly Beans (AWESOME Jelly Bean Unit)

Happy Easter to you and your family, For more FUN Easter activities, click HERE

20 FUN Easter Activities for Kids

Easter is almost here so let's celebrate this special holiday with FUN activities that your kids are sure to love. Click on each link below to learn more about these activities that my family has enjoyed. They include: arts and crafts, yummy recipes, free printables, learning games, great books, and more.
Easter Silhouette Art (These are breathtaking.)
Easter Cross Art Project (These look like stained glass.) The Jelly Bean Prayer (and a special one for teachers)
Create marbled eggs with shaving cream (My kids' favorite art project)
Use Easter eggs to teach statistics
Jelly Bean Bark Wonderful Easter books for children Easter egg ideas GALORE (a great collection)
Unique Cross Crafts
Jelly Bean Board game (What an innovative way to teach and review the Easter story!)
Make Resurrection Cookies
Create your own Easter BINGO cards to print.
Use Resurrection Eggs to teach the Easter story. (You can even make your own.)
Make adorable Easter treats.
Use jelly beans for learning activities. (I LOVE using these activities with my kids.)

Use Easter Mad Libs to review the parts of speech.

Make an Easter dirt dessert. (Add some Peeps and jelly beans.)

Tons of free Easter printables (I like to make packets for my kids the week before Easter with mazes, wordsearches, fun worksheets to practice skills, coloring sheets, games, etc. This provides a break from our regular school day but they are still learning- disguising learning at its best!)

source

Make Resurrection Rolls with your kids. (These taste really good and are fun to make, too!)
Happy Easter!

Spring Inspired Snacks for Kids

Hello spring! Our family has been waiting for you to arrive. We are ready to jump in our pool and hit the nearby beaches. 

This week my boys, Colton and Coen, shared some springtime snack ideas for kids on FOX 4's Mom Squad. The first treat they shared was this Classic Dirt Cake Recipe that makes kids grin from ear to ear.

Watch the segment Spring Inspired Snacks to learn how to make dirt cake that kids (and adults) go crazy over. It is always a hit no matter where we bring it!

For the entire recipe, click HERE.

We also shared a cute craft idea that you can use to add some SPRING BLING to your child's everyday snacks.

On Spring Inspired Snacks, my kids demonstrate how to decorate a clothespin with markers, paint, or glitter and then hot glue googly eyes and pipe cleaners for the antennae. Next, fill a snack baggie with your favorite snack, such as: goldfish, trail mix, cereal, grapes, strawberries, blueberries, or carrots. Pinch the baggie in half and clip it with a clothespin. So simple and cute!

Kids will love opening up the fridge or their lunchboxes and grabbing one of these adorable butterfly snacks.

Enjoy these springtime snacks!

You may also like my post- The cutest spring & Easter treats Click HERE for more FUN recipes for your family and scroll down.

Click HERE for more Mom Squad segments and scroll down.

Story flowers make writing paragraphs FUN

Teaching children how to write a paragraph does not need to be boring. I have shared on a previous post how I like using the Paragraph Train when introducing paragraph writing. Another method I have enjoyed using is creating Story Flowers.

My boys cut out five petals and a circle from construction paper to create a flower. They write the title in the center and a topic sentence, three details, and a closing sentence on the petals. After they construct their Story Flower, they use it as a visual aid to type up their paragraphs. You can also use this as a graphic organizer for creative writing, as well as for reading comprehension by writing in each petal of the flower: What, Who, Why, When, and Where.

Five Ws:

What happened?

Who was there?

Why did it happen?

When did it happen?

Where did it happen?

Enjoy the beauty in writing,

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.

Enjoy!

For more Easter activities, click HERE

Spring Chicken Humor

These are some of my favorite replies to the classic joke. Enjoy!

Why did the chicken cross the road?

RED RIDING HOOD: He was taking a shortcut to Grandma's house. I hope he is careful!

DARTH VADER: To join the dark side.

SIMON COWELL: That was the worst road crossing I have ever seen!

RANDY JACKSON: Yo dog! He did what he had to do. That was hot!

THE PRINCIPAL: After reviewing a significant amount of data, including the number of eggs laid per minute, the chicken decided that the other side of the road was a much better environment.

THE TEACHER: We are not telling jokes in class!

WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE: To cross or not to cross. That is the question.

SANTA CLAUS: For cookies and milk.

JIMMY NEUTRON: According to my calculations, the chicken required nutritional substances located on the opposite side of the road.

BRITTNEY SPEARS: Oops, he did it again.

THE BIBLE: And God came down from the heavens and He said unto the chicken, “Thou shalt cross the road.” And the chicken crossed the road and there was much rejoicing.

PARIS HILTON: Huh?

JERRY SEINFELD: Why does anyone cross a road? I mean, why doesn’t anyone ever think to ask, “What is this chicken doing walking around all over the place, anyway? What is wrong with that chicken?"

ABRAHAM LINCOLN: Four score and seven years ago I saw that chicken cross the road to get to the other side.

A CHEERLEADER: To get the pom-poms, of course. G-O-C-H-I-C-K-E-N! Go chicken!

A PESSIMIST: Who cares?

DR. SEUSS: Did the chicken cross the road? Did he cross it with a toad?

MARTIN LUTHER KING JR.: I envision a world where all chickens will be free to cross roads without having their motives called into question.

ARNOLD SCHWARZENEGGER: It doesn't really matter. The chicken said, "I'll be back."

BILL GATES: I have just released the new Chicken Visa, which will not only cross roads, but will also lay eggs, file your important documents, and balance your checkbook.

GRANDPA: In my day, we didn’t ask why the chicken crossed the road. Someone told us that the chicken had crossed the road, and that was good enough for us. And that chicken would have had to walk barefoot five miles in the snow just to get to that road!

JOHNNY BRAVO: Did somebody say there are chicks across the road?

Do you have any other favorite responses?

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.

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. 

BIRD'S NESTS COOKIES

My kids LOVE making bird's nests with peanut butter cookies and coconut or even using our peanut butter edible playdough recipe HERE. 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.

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.

Enjoy!

For more Easter activities, click HERE