Valentines Day Sight Words Delivery Game

Valentines Day Dolch Sight Word Printable Set

Valentine's Day is just around the corner! I love how that one day can brighten up a cold, dreary February, don't you? All the lovely reds and pinks surrounding you - whether in your classroom, at home, or both, it's a fun day to show people that you care for them.

It's also a fun way to sneak in some "fun-school" style learning! I love printing out Valentines Day themed worksheets for my kids, getting books about love from the library, and of course coloring in Valentines Day cards for the family. That's why I made this fun sight word activity that you can use throughout January and February...

In this printable set, you'll get all 220 of the Dolch sight words separated into grade levels (pre-primer to third-grade). I've included adorable clipart of kids holding hearts with the sight words on them and valentines cards with matching words to "deliver" to the right kids.

My girls have been having a blast using them. I cut the kids out in strips on the wall and put little velcro dots on the hearts (you can these Vkey velcro dots super cheap on Amazon!). They take turns sticking the cards to the matching kids.

You can also make a busy folder, something else I love to do. Just laminate the pages with the sight word kids and put them into a duotang or binder. Use the velcro dots to stick them onto the pages. You can also store each pages matching cards in a little mini snack bag.

You could also hide the cards around the room and have the kids find them and then match them, or tape the sight word kids to the wall in different places of your classroom or home, and have your kiddos take a card and search for the right sight word kid.

There are so many ways to use them, and they're all tons of fun!

You can grab the entire set of sight words in this pack for just $2 in my Etsy  or my TPT store.

Grab this Valentines Sight Word set for just $2 (including all 220 words) for just $1.50 here!

Printable Smoothie Shop Pretend Play Set

Printable smoothie shop set for dramatic play, classroom fun and more!

For months now my littlest little (who just turned 5) has been pretending to make smoothies. I don't know why - we don't really drink smoothies around here often - but for some reason she loves them! She has actually been taking her little alphabet magnets off the fridge, dropping them into cups and pretending to make all sorts of drinks - cute, right?

And while I love her imagination, I wanted to make her a set that she could play with that would be a little more fun, and that her big sister would enjoy too. Enter my Printable Smoothie Pack!

I've included everything you'll need to have fun making pretend smoothies with your child - whether you want an all-out smoothie stand, or just to print out the fruits and shakes to play with.

It's also a great learning opportunity to talk about healthy eating, get to know fruits, vegetables, and colors, and even practice some counting, addition, and subtraction.

You'll get a cute little blender (that comes in 3 color choices) to blend your smoothies in.

We hang ours on the wall and the girls pretend to drop the fruits in it.

I've included menus with both made up prices and no prices so that you can enter your own. This would be great for practicing numbers you're working on, skip counting by 2's, 5's, or more, or money with cents included.

Kids can even have customers make up their own smoothies with the "make your own smoothie" card. One to hang up for a menu, and one to have the "customer" write on.

That's great for creative fun anf number writing practice, as my 5-year-old did below...

I love their writing practice at this age❤

But that's not all! There are also these fun recipe cards kids can use to make up the drinks on the menu. It's a great way to practice counting! And they can also make up their OWN recipes with the "make your own recipe" cards...

There are blank cards with little cutouts they can stick on. You can laminate these and use velcro dots to stick them, or you can leave them as plain paper if they want to save their recipes.

These recipes are great for addition, and even subtraction with the included coupons...

And of course the open and closed signs, and name tags!

We had so much fun playing it this past week!

The best part? You can grab this entire set for just $3! 

Get a copy in my Etsy shop here (no signup required) or my TPT store here (free account required)

Or pin for later...

Buy PRINTABLE SMOOTHIE SET for $3

I really hope you and your kiddos enjoy it as much as we did!

Free Printable Alphabet Phonics Sprinkle Flashcards

Free alphabet flashcards with a fun sprinkle theme to use in your classroom, homeschool, or for play learning fun!

Happy New Year everyone! I hope that your holidays and family get-togethers went well and you're all rested up now (or recovering!) for 2019!

We're into full swing here enjoying our morning baskets, lessons, and all the snow!

My littlest one is learning to read and already sounding out her CVC (consonant-vowel-consonant) words. We've also been practicing sight words and reading longer books together - her favorites are the Mercer Mayer Little Critter books. But we've also been really enjoying this one by Sally Sutton...

But more about that in another post soon...

But to start off the new year right I wanted to review letter sounds and upper/lowercase lette

rs with her. She sometimes gets her b's and d's confused, and we still need to review letter sounds together sometimes. Especially the whole confusing vowels make 2 sounds bit. So I made these fun and colorful flashcards for us to use - and I'm sharing them with you!

I know there are a lot of printable flashcards out there, but if you've managed to stop by my little corner of the web then I hope you enjoy these! They have colorful "sprinkles" on them, a bright blue frame, and three different colored letter options to choose from - black, blue and pink!

Just scroll down to download...

And remember to subscribe to my blog (in the right sidebar) to get more freebies and fun in the coming weeks. Enjoy!

DOWNLOAD ALPHABET FLASHCARD FREEBIE HERE

Searching For You by Jody Hedlund

Searching For You

A Jody Hedlund Orphan Train Series Novel

*I received a free copy of this book to read through Bethany House & Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.*

If you've ever read a book review on my blog then you know how much I love historical fiction. Not only is it interesting to read back on how people lived during different times in history, but it's fun to look at different authors takes on it.

In Searching For You, Jody Hedlund takes us back to the 1850s and a young orphan girl named Sophie...

Despite years on the run, Sophie Neumann is determined to care for two young children. She won't abandon them the way she thinks her older sisters abandoned her. But times are growing desperate, and when she falls in with the wrong crowd and witnesses a crime, she realizes fleeing 1850s New York is her only option.
Disappearing with her two young charges into a group of orphans heading west by train, Sophie hopes to find safety and a happy life. When the train stops in Illinois for the first placement of orphans, Sophie faces the most difficult choice of her life.
Reinhold Weiss has finally purchased his own small farm. With mounting debts, a harvest to bring in, and past scars that haunt him, he's in no position to give his heart away . . . but can he say no when his long-lost friend shows up on a nearby train pleading for his help?

I honestly had never read one of Jody Hedlund's Orphan Train series of books, but I will admit that after reading this one I bought the first one too! She actually has a free first novella to start with (you can get that here)

Not only was Searching For You a well-written story that brought tears to my eyes during a particular chapter, but it brings you to a place not often written about in History.

A tenement apartment from the 1850s - unknown

The book starts out with a thrilling scene that brings Sophie into danger right away, so don't expect it to be easy to put down straight from the start. I'm not going to give anything away here, but I will say that although there are chapters in the book where things slow down a little, Sophie's anxious thoughts, feelings and memories keep you reading through the book.

If you've read the previous books by Hedlund in this series, then you'll easily recognize all the characters mentioned in this book, along with a few new ones (some that you'll love and some that you'll despise!). I was saddened to read that this will be the last book in the series, but am happy to have found a new author to follow - she had quite a few novels and series out so I've added them all to my TBR list!

You also might be happy to know that the book is  clean romance, though there are a few passionate encounters😗

You can grab a copy of this book here on Amazon. You can also check out Hedlund's other novels, as well as begin with her first FREE Novella in this series, An Awakened Heart here.

Where The Heart Takes You by Virginia Wise...A Book Review

*I received a free copy of this book in exchange for my honest review via NetGalley.

My personal best indicator of a really great author is one who not only makes you see the character in your mind's eye, but actually feel a kinship with that character - that is just what Virginia Wise does in this novel! Set in the Pennsylvania wilderness in the 1700's, we follow the story of main character Greta Scholtz who has come to the US as an anabaptist refugee fleeing persecution in Germany...

Pennsylvania, 1737. Greta Scholtz braved a perilous journey—and the loss of her beloved father—to find religious freedom in America. With two orphan children she's taken under her wing, she's trying hard to survive this rugged new world. So she won't let settlement elders pressure her into marrying reserved widower Jacob Miller. She and Jacob simply can’t agree on anything—even if the unexpected feeling between them is proving an irresistible force . . . After losing his wife and baby, grief-stricken Jacob keeps everyone at arm’s length. Duty is the only reason he began helping the headstrong Greta make a life for herself and her charges. Yet he’s grown to admire her, especially her strength in the face of obstacles—including him and his wounded ways. But wrenching misunderstandings and a jealous rival could separate them forever. To find harmony—and perhaps even a future together—Greta and Jacob must take a leap of faith and risk opening their hearts . . .

My absolute favorite part of this book is how vivid the scenery and home life of the Amish of this time was painted. Although Greta is adjusting to her new life without her father amongst strangers, she is a strong lead who you truly feel for throughout the story. Although her dwindling courage felt frustrating at times, you were frustrated for her more than with her, because of the spirit of her character.

I would truly put this book right up there with some of my other favorite Amish fiction writers, and I
cannot wait to see what Virginia Wise comes out with next! Want a copy?..

Grab a Copy Here on Amazon

or

Check it Out More on NetGalley!

Lowercase Letters Match: A Free Printable Sensory Bin Christmas Activity

Christmas is just around the corner! Can you believe it? I am seriously in awe of how quickly 2018 has flown by and is coming to an end. We still haven't even started our Christmas shopping, but I have been thinking about Christmas-theme activities for school!

One of my favorite parts of this season is getting the kids excited for it - we take out our Christmas decorations, Christmas books, do crafts and bake cookies. We make cards, shop for others and go to so many family dinners. It's just awesome!

In-between all that, however, I do like to squeeze in some learning at some point! This year I discovered that a lot of homeschoolers do what is called 'Christmas School', where they do Christmas-themed learning activities for all of December. Isn't that amazing?

I really wanted to add some Christmas activities in this year too, so I started out making some activities first, including this fun sensory bin activity game. It's going to be part of a bigger Christmas activity pack, but this activity is free :)

I'm really proud of how far our littlest, A, has come along this year in her reading. She's been reading through CVC (consonant-vowel-consonant words, like CAT) really well! We've also been using a lot of fun activities to learn sight words. 

But she still has trouble with mixing up lowercase and uppercase letters sometimes, so that's something I've been wanting to take a step back and focus on. This activity is perfect for that, and it's SO much fun!

You can use any sort of sensory bin you like, or just use no bin at all! 26 Christmas (or pine if you don't celebrate) trees with capital letters are included in this pack as well as a cute winter background scene with matching lowercase letter trees.

We decided to use cotton balls since they look like snow and are so much fun to squish, stretch and make a mess with! In fact, after A finished this activity, she started playing in the bin with her toys too. Well, mostly in the bin - I'm still picking up cotton balls here and there!

As she picked up each tree card out of the bin, I had her say the name of the letter as well as it's sound. She would then find the matching lowercase letter on the background scene. Just scroll down below to grab this freebie on my Teachers Pay Teachers Store - just download it for free! ...

You can get this freebie HERE directly or  HERE in my Teachers Pay Teachers store! 

And look out for the holiday activity pack I have coming soon! It will include this activity alongside fun centers that teach color names, patterns, sorting and more!

Hope you enjoy!

FREE Worksheet Wednesday: Fall Addition Subtraction Mats

Addition And Subtraction Math Mat Printables

Get your free printable addition and subtraction mats at the end of this post...

We've been having so much fun in our homeschool this year and I am so proud of how well it's going so far! We don't always get "everything" done, but we sure do get a lot of learning in...

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A post shared by Debbie Jean (@debbiejeanmcmullen) on Sep 13, 2018 at 6:57am PDT

One way I have been making our days a bit more fun is by including some math games for the two younger kiddos - my 1st grader and kindergartener. This week I made them this fun Fall-themed Math Mats.

This set comes with four different background scenes and counters. Each scene has an addition mat and a subtraction mat. You can grab the firefly one as a freebie, and Get the whole set here for just $1!

These are the firefly mats (and this weeks freebie! Scroll to the bottom of the page to get it). You start out by writing in numbers on the bottom for your child to use, or your child can write the numbers in themselves. You then add in the counters - in this case, the fireflies - and either add some more or take some away for subtraction.

My girls had so much fun with them last week! They're great for practicing writing numbers too, as my youngest did here. We didn't quite get to adding them yet with her, she just loved counting them out!

It's such a fun way to practice addition and subtraction facts! And you can print out as many counters as you need too. We love to laminate ours for durability. You could also add in some velcro dots if you want the counters to stick on. This is the apple tree mat.

Here is the pumpkin patch mat. They especially love this one - who doesn't love to see some pumpkins in Fall!

And finally, this is the fall leaves mat, where you can add or subtract some pretty fall leaves onto the tree or ground.

If you don't want to use the counters, you could also replace them with play dough, blocks, plastic chips or even a few treats!

You can download the Firefly set for FREE by clicking here!
And you can get the entire set in my TPT store for just $1 here!