School Valentine Treasure Hunt for Kindergarten, First or Second grade classes

Here is a fun treasure hunt you can do with your class! The clues go around the school! Just cut out the hearts from the free printable and post them in the places given below. I am hiding boxes of conversation hearts as the treasure but you can do anything (Valentine’s cards, pencils, hearts, etc)! I have included a blank heart at the end of the printable if you want to write them a note about their treasure.

Save the first heart and clue #1 to give to the students. Hide Clue #2 – music room, Clue #3 – computer lab, Clue #4 – library, Clue #5 – gym, Clue #6 – office, Clue #7 – lunch room, and the
TREASURE – a trail of hearts by the classroom door to the treasure

“My Time Capsule” and Noon Year’s Eve Party

As this year comes to an end have your kiddos create a time capsule with some of their year’s favorite memories! If you are like me, you have a hard time remembering anything unless it gets written down so  have some fun writing down those memories with your kiddos to look at in future years! You can also include pictures or small mementos!

My friend Kelly created a “My Time Capsule” a couple years ago for a Noon Year’s Eve party so, I recreated a Time Capsule sheet for you to print. I thought that was such a great idea to have the party and countdown at noon since I know my kids aren’t staying up until midnight (actually I rarely make it until midnight). 

Whether you do the Time Capsule with just your kids or have some friends over for a Noon Year’s Eve Party, have fun and enjoy the celebration!

Thanksgiving Treasure Hunt and Mr. Turkey Potato Head

Well, we have another treasure hunt for you…one for Thanksgiving! This one my friend Maria compiled with the help of Real Treasure Hunts. The hunt she created can be found and printed from here. My 7 year old solved the clues right away with no help but my 3 and 5 year old needed a little help. If you don't have one of the places for the clues you can just take out a clue but make sure you shift where you will hide the next one.

You can have any “treasure” you want at the end of the hunt. Maria had some turkey crafts for her kiddos as the treasure. I put 3 feathers (one for each kid) with each clue and then the treasure at the end was the rest of the supplies to create a Mr. (or Mrs.) Turkey Potato Head. I’m pretty darn sure that these quite possibly could be my favorite turkey craft we have ever done (and we have done quite a few)! As well as using potatoes for the heads I also got an acorn squash and a fake carvable pumpkin (clearance for $2 after Halloween). I wanted to see which item worked the best and they all were great. 

Have fun with the treasure hunt and I really think you should try the Potato Heads – just a few easy supplies! If you make one, please post it to the Brainstorm in Bloom facebook page – it will make my day! 

Enjoy this single stem idea of
Thanksgiving Treasure Hunt
and
Mr. Turkey Potato Head
for all ages!

2 x 4 (or 2 x 6) Silly Pumpkins (Single Stem Idea)

Working with wood is my current obsession (although I have a pile of copper and beads that are calling my name as well – not enough time in the day)! I just finished building a custom dining room table for a friend (I will post pics later). I am currently building a boat bookshelf for my mom and will soon be building our bathroom vanity and linen closet! I love wood and building and encourage every woman (and man) out there to at least try one building project – it is so rewarding and much easier than you think! Beats sewing any day in my book! 

Anyhow, this wood project anyone can look at and say yes I can tackle that. It is actually really hard to call a wood project because you are just making one (or 2) cuts and doing a little sanding. The wood isn’t even the focal part of it but it is a fun canvas for the kids (or you) to work on! This is a combo of two ideas (2 x 4 Pumpkins and Silly Pumpkins) that I pinned to my Halloween Pinterest board while thinking of ideas for Hornet’s 1^st grade Fall Party. I couldn’t get either idea out of my brain so I put them together and 2 x 4 Silly Pumpkins is what we have!

p.s. I have cut and sanded 25 of these for his class to make so I will be sure to add a pic of their creations after the party! (I knew saving the scraps from building our deck 5 years ago would some day come in handy).

Enjoy this single stem idea of
2 x 4 (or 2 x 6) Silly Pumpkins

The Stuff

The FUN!

2 x 4 scrap (or 2 x 6) Orange Paint White and Black paper Scissors Glue Paint brush Stick (for a stem) Raffia (yarn or ribbon) Chop saw Sander (or sand paper) Drill (w/bit the size of the stick stem)

ADULT: 1. Cut 2 x 4 (or 2 x 6) to size. Mine ranged from 6” to 12”. 2. Sand the edges. 3. Drill a hole the size of the stick in the top of the 2 x 4 for the stem. You can cut the stick if it is too long (or just break it).   KIDDOS: 4. Paint the board orange. 5. Cut out white and black for the silly pumpkin face. Check out the pic below for ideas. 6. Paint glue over the front of the face (not sure if this step is necessary but it helped all of the face pieces lay flat and look nice). 7. Put glue in stem hole and put stem in. 8. Tie raffia around the stem (I did a double knot) and then find a fun spot to display!

Now For the Pictures...

The 2 x4 Pumpkins inspiration

The Silly Face Pumpkins inspiration

Which led to the 2 x 4 Silly Pumpkins!

1. ADULT - Cut 2 x 4 (or 2 x 6) to size. Mine ranged from 6” to 12”.

2. Sand the edges.

3. Drill a hole the size of the stick in the top of the 2 x 4 for the stem.

4. KIDDOS - Paint the board orange.

5. Cut out white and black for the silly pumpkin face.

6. Paint glue over the front of the face
(not sure if this step is necessary but it
helped all of the face pieces lay flat and look nice).

7. Put glue in stem hole and put stem in.

8. Tie raffia around the stem (I did a double knot)
and then find a fun spot to display!

Please BRAINSTORM your ideas/suggestions in the COMMENTS below for the
2 x 4 (or 2 x 6) Silly Pumpkins
Happy Crafting
~Sara

Pumpkin Treasure Hunt (Single Stem Idea)

As you may know, I am in love with treasure/scavenger hunts! This Pumpkin Treasure Hunt is fun because you can do it with a group of kiddos or just one! The setup is easy – just print the Pumpkin Treasure Hunt page, cut out the clues, hide clues #2-5 and hide some pumpkins! The kids will have fun going on a hunt for their pumpkins before they carve or decorate them! I love this time of year!

Enjoy this single stem idea of
Pumpkin Treasure Hunt
for Seedlings and Sprouts (ages 2-10)…

Pumpkin Treasure Hunt printable HERE

More ideas on adding a little change to pumpkin decorating???…

Please BRAINSTORM your ideas/suggestions in the COMMENTS below for the Pumpkin Treasure Hunt!
 

Happy Halloween
~Sara

Foggy Foggy Forest Scenes (Virtual Book Club by Nick Sharratt)

Reading Confetti has a virtual book club that features a different author each month. It has been going on all year but I have just learned of it and was excited to participate! The author for this month is Nick Sharratt. We checked out several of his books and enjoyed them all!

The book we ended up choosing do make an art project with was Foggy Foggy Forest! This book is fun because the paper is see-through (vellum) with shapes of the forest. You try to guess what the shapes will be and then turn the page to see the shapes in the forest come to life with colors.

For the art project we had a few extra kids at the house because of a day off of school and it was a fun project for various ages. The kiddos loved using the oil pastels and thinking of what was going to go into their foggy forest scene. Hornet liked the rhyming that went with the story so he made a lizard wizard! One of the girls went with the five little pumpkins. Another kiddo started with pumpkins but then switched to moons (she really got into making the moons as you will see in her pic). To display them we taped them to the window and they really look awesome!

Enjoy this single stem idea of
Foggy Foggy Forest Scenes

Fall {Halloween} Party (Bouquet of Ideas)

For Hornet’s Kindergarten Fall Party we had such a fun time! It was a two+ hour party so I had many indoor and outdoor activities planned. If your party is the traditional hour long time then pick and choose a couple of the activities that we did below and the kids will surely have a fabulous time!
P.S. The activities for this party would work for Kindergarten, First and Second grades (maybe even pre-school).

Enjoy the ideas for a
Fall (Halloween) Party for
(Sprouts ~ Kindergarten to First Graders)

Tissue Jack-O-Lantern Bottles

I love tissue crafts because they are simple to prep and they can be done with many ages. They also can be messy with the glue and tissue (and I like a little messy). We previously made tissue lanterns for the Fourth of July with a range of ages and they all turned out great – especially when it is dark and there is a candle in them. For the Fourth of July we used glass jars and battery candles. I wanted to do the jars for the Fall class party but I couldn’t collect enough jars for the class in the time and I also envisioned a kid dropping it on the way home and glass breaking everywhere, so we went with plastic water bottles instead which I was able to collect enough of. We then used glow sticks to light them which fit perfectly in the bottles and went well with Halloween! This was a fun center at our Fall class party but it also would be fun to do at home with your own kiddos!

Enjoy this single stem idea of
Tissue Jack-O-Lantern Bottles for
for Seedlings and Sprouts (ages 2-10)

Five Little Pumpkins

For our Halloween Party at school last year we had some fun with the classic “Five Little Pumpkins” poem! My kids and I had made up some glove puppets with pumpkins on each finger that worked perfect for reciting the poem. To start the party off I read the story Five Little Pumpkins and then the adult volunteers each had a glove pumpkin glove puppet and they helped teach the kids with the hand motions (free printable from Teaching Tiny Tots- I had a copy for each adult). The kiddos thought this was fun! I left the pumpkin glove puppets at the front of the room for the rest of the party so that kids could put them on and practice the story themselves.

The 5 Little Pumpkins did not stop there though and we did a fun craft for the pumpkins on a gate! I got the idea for the fist pumpkins from I Heart Crafty Things and we added putting them on a gate and some chalk details. 

Enjoy this single stem idea of Five Little Pumpkins for
for Sprouts (ages 5-10)

Night of the Ninjas (Magic Tree House Book Club)

Night of the Ninjas is the fifth book in the Magic Tree House Series by Mary Pope Osborne. This book focused more on nature actually than ninjas. During the book Jack and Annie had to use nature, be nature and follow nature as the ninjas do. The host mom had fun with this and found ways for the book club kiddos to use, be and follow nature. We also had a special visit and the kiddos learned some karate moves so they could be true ninjas! It was a fabulously active morning! Stay tuned for books 6-8 in the months to come!

Enjoy the ideas for a
Night of the Ninjas MTH Book Club #5 for
Pre-Kindergartner’s to First Graders and their moms!

Lego Man Rescue Mission Birthday Party (Bouquet of Ideas)

My oldest, Hornet just turned 7 and we had a super fun LEGO Birthday Party! Hornet is addicted to building with Legos – we often hear him rummaging through his Legos first thing in the morning. He likes to build the Lego sets but also loves to come up with his own creations as well! I was really excited when he said that is what he wanted for his birthday theme this year. We instantly brainstormed some ideas, then I searched Pinterest of course and my brain just couldn’t stop churning on the idea of a treasure hunt (like our Pirate Treasure Hunt). So, the Lego Man Rescue Mission was born. It actually was pretty easy to put together and entertained the boys for about an hour.

For the mission they had to find their captured Lego Men. Their mission had six tasks (Spoonful of Legos, Hidden Legos, Lego Toss, Lego Tower, Pin the Head on the Lego and How Many Legos). When they were finished with each task they opened their envelope for the clue to find their next envelope and task. Their last clue brought them to their Lego Men and their mission was complete! After that they made Lego Creations for the new Lego Men. We then finished off with cupcakes and presents. A fun party!