I am no longer actively blogging here at "Taking Time To Create", but I'd love for you to join me at my new blog: "Taking Time In The City". I hope to see you soon!

Wednesday, February 27, 2013

Dr. Seuss-A-Thon {The Tooth Book} With Tooth Activities


Today's book is The Tooth Book. It's a very cute book and a good way to introduce little ones to the idea of their teeth falling out to be replaced by new ones someday. After we read it, my little guy decided that he wanted his new teeth--now. There are still a few years to go on that one, but I'm glad he likes the idea!

There are some cute and fun ideas out there for teeth activities. Check them out!




Everyone brush your teeth together.

Make teeth impressions in something soft (but edible) like bread.

Bite different kinds of foods and check out the different kinds of bite marks. Your bit marks look different in a pieces of bread than they do in something harder like a carrot.

Head to the zoo and try to see as many different kinds of teeth as you can. You could also look through animal books or through some of your kids' toys for this activity.

Look through photo albums and check out everyone's teeth.

Visit the dentist. I know this doesn't sound like a fun activity, but this book may be a good way to introduce and get your kids' warmed up to the idea of the dentist. It'll at least open the door to the conversation about taking care of your teeth, etc.

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I'm sharing some of our Dr. Seuss-A-Thon activities via Instagram and Twitter. If you're joining us, I'd love it if you would share too, and use #DrSeussAThon when posting.

If you need a list of the Dr. Seuss books, don't forget to check out this post.



This Week's Books:

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This is where I party:
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Tuesday, February 26, 2013

Dr. Seuss-A-Thon {The Foot Book}



Funny story. My dad does a funny thing every time he goes on vacation. Well, sometimes, it's just if he has a camera in his hand. He looks down and takes a picture of his feet. Sometimes, I even find a picture of his feet on my camera if I've left it sitting around. Silly guy. I guess he wants to see all the places his feet have been. 

Today's book, The Foot Book, reminded me of this little story. It's all about the different feet you meet. Super cute! And the activities? Well, you don't have to do just activities that are labeled "Dr. Seuss" activities. Any foot activity will do. Here are a few that I found when searching Pinterest:







Dinosaur Tracks from Mom Endeavors



Dr. Seuss Lesson Plans from Homeschool Share


Sensory Feet Fun from Glittering Muffins.

The possibilities on this one are endless! Have your kids try feeling all kinds of things with their feet: shaving cream, water, water beads (like the ones in this post), dried foods (beans, rice, flour), or maybe even some mud if you're feeling adventurous (and can do that outside).



Dino Tracks from See Vanessa Craft

I haven't tried the play dough recipe Vanessa uses, but I really like this recipe from The Sweet Adventures of Sugar Belle.
You don't have to use just dinosaurs for this activity either. Any toys with feet will work. You could even use your or your kiddos' feet!



The pin above doesn't link to a website, but I think you can get the idea from the picture. Cute, huh? Here are some other dinosaur feet made from cardboard. Both are super fun and cute!



You'd have to be very brave to try this one inside, but I think it would be fun outside.
This pin was originally uploaded by the user and did not link to a website or blog.

Even though this one isn't technically an activity, I just had to share it. It's just the cutest thing! 
Pin originally uploaded by user with no external link.



This last one reminds me of the story I told about my dad. I guess he's on to something!

Here's the quote from the original pin: "A collection of photographs document a British couple's travels over six years by just showing their feet. The series takes on a twist with the addition of a third pair of feet--their daughter." There isn't a link attached to a pin but the photographer's website is in the comments. You can visit it here. There are a lot more of the "feet" pictures. This is such a cool idea! You could try this on your next vacation or maybe even just visit some interesting places around your town and take some pictures. 

Other fun ideas:
Cut sponges in the shapes of feet and sponge paint with them.

Make molds of your kids' feet like we did our son's hands here. You could paint them or leave them plain.

So take a load off your feet, sit down with your kiddos, and read this fun book! 


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I'm sharing some of our Dr. Seuss-A-Thon activities via Instagram and Twitter. If you're joining us, I'd love it if you would share too, and use #DrSeussAThon when posting.

If you need a list of the Dr. Seuss books, don't forget to check out this post.

Click here to read other Dr. Seuss-A-Thon posts.

This Week's Books:

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This is where I party:
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Monday, February 25, 2013

Dr. Seuss-A-Thon {Horton Hears A Who and Horton Hatches the Egg}

Hello there and welcome to another Dr. Seuss-A-Thon post!

Are you enjoying all the Dr. Seuss fun?

This coming Saturday, March 2nd, is Dr. Seuss' birthday, so in celebration, we're going to have a few more Dr. Seuss posts this week!

Today, we're starting with some fun Horton Activities for the books Horton Hears A Who and Horton Hatches the Egg. I love them BOTH! Since these are a couple of Dr. Seuss' more popular books, there are a lot of fun ideas out there. Here are some of the fun activities we did.

Create A Horton
We downloaded and printed this template from Finally in First and put it together on a piece of construction paper.

You could also make a Horton costume like this one or this one.

My little guy particularly enjoyed gluing on the googly eyes (you can find them at craft stores or even the dollar store).

Make Pink Clovers
Make some pink clovers (from Horton Hears A Who).

We used these airbrush markers...

...to spray cotton balls pink.

Then we fastened them to construction paper with tape and added the stems with markers.

You could also make clovers from yarn or a pink clover snack like these from Blue Skies Ahead.

Decorate Eggs
Easter's not the only time you can color eggs! Decorate and color some eggs in honor of Horton's red and white polka-dot egg in Horton Hatches The Egg.

It's also great practice for coloring eggs for Easter here in a few weeks.

Make a Nest
What are eggs without a nest? We made a simple nest for our eggs using strips of crimped paper.

And of course Horton had to sit on the nest!

We had so much fun with Horton!

Other Horton Activities
Check out these fun activities from this page at Early Moments.


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I'm sharing some of our Dr. Seuss-A-Thon activities via Instagram and Twitter. If you're joining us, I'd love it if you would share too, and use #DrSeussAThon when posting.

If you need a list of the Dr. Seuss books, don't forget to check out this post.

Click here to read other Dr. Seuss-A-Thon posts.

This Week's Books:

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This is where I party:
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Friday, February 22, 2013

Make Your Own Vacation Journal {Tutorial}

 
If you're anything like me, you get home from a vacation and can't remember all those fun little moments or even exactly what you did on each day. Well, when we went to Disneyland back in October of last year, I came up with the solution: this handy dandy Vacation Journal! Now, you could just grab a notebook and use that, but what fun would that be? 

With a little work in a word processing program, you can make one too. It's easy peasy. Here's how:

Start in a word processing program like Microsoft Word. 

Change the page orientation to landscape and format the page so that it is in two columns. Later, you'll cut each page in half, so each column will be a page.

Start making your pages! I started with a cover page. You can search Google Images to find something that represents where you're going. I was lucky enough to find an image that had '2012' in it. Perfect for our 2012 trip to Disneyland! 
Then I added a page for each day of our trip. Again, Google Images was great for this, but I also used a lot of the clip art in MS Word.


 


Once you're finished designing your pages, print them out and cut them in half to create separate pages. Stack them together in the correct order, so you can bind them together.

To bind my pages, I just used a series of brads.

Be sure to get them nice and flat on the back. A small hammer works really well to flatten them out. Just hammer gently.
If you're concerned about the backs of the brads catching on something, you could glue a piece of paper or card stock to the back to cover them up. I didn't have any issues with them being exposed though.

You're Vacation Journal is all finished. Now head out and start making new memories!

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This is where I party:
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