Chilly Treats Pack Prep and Use

In Texas where I'm from, January is the start of more consistent cold weather. Though our winter is brief, and rarely includes snow, it's nice to imagine cold and fresh snow. Sometimes anyway, most of us native Texans don't do well with the cold in reality, but it's the romance of it perpetuated by songs and poetry on the heels of the Christmas excitement. A bit of fantasy and awe.

It's no wonder that I enjoy creating some wintery themed packs, even though deep snow and icicles are far from extensive in my personal experiences. I also like to incorporate those wintery themes that seem to be intertwined with Christmas but in reality stand on their own in the winter months after all the holly and poinsettias are put away. Even better, I had the joy of encountering the wonderful artwork of Beth from Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah Designs, especially my favorite of her clips - her treats and sweets. There was no way I could not create a pack with it. And, truth be told, I still have plans to create more.

Enter my Chilly Treats Pack, which if you ask me, is underrated. I started with creating a set of memory cards that were similar to another set I had made for a Christmas pack using coordinating artwork. I wanted a memory game my kiddos could play after all of the Christmas hub bub, so this one fit the bill - still seasonal, without the Christmas undertones. For these memory cards, as with most of them, I print them on cardstock and then laminate. Two copies are needed of each of the two pages to create the pairs. More recently, I have started rounding corners on the cards since the laminated edges can be a bit sharp, but it's not absolutely necessary. For extra flair, I like to print them on patterned cardstock, which in the case of these, was a pattern I printed first on one side using digital paper from Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah Designs. Then, using the pattern as the back of the cards, I printed the memory cards. This creates a more finished look and helps to prevent any see-through potential so the kids don't see the image on the other side. The memory cards are their own file and are available as a Facebook freebie offered to my fans and is most often available in January, though other freebies may be available then instead.

With the momentum provided by the memory cards, I had to create a full pack using this beautiful artwork, so I went on the create the mini Chilly Treats Pack. Mini packs are packs that include 20 pages of activities. They are the smallest packs I create outside of the sampler packs that are offered as freebies in my TeachersPayTeachers store. They give a better idea of the variety of activities available than the samplers, and, though small, they include enough for a for a winter themed unit - especially considering that when we pick up with school again after the winter break, we have only a few weeks before the hearts come out for Valentine's.

The Chilly Treats PreK Mini Pack includes the following activities:
- Matching

- Color by Size

- Picture Paths

- Size Sorting

- Letter Matching

- Mazes

- Math

- 3-piece puzzles

Similar to setting up other packs, I will sort though the available activities and find the ones appropriate for my kiddo's current level. Most of the packs include activities of varying levels that will appeal to a number of students that are 3-6. Activities that work best as worksheets are printed on regular paper and arranged in a binder. I can remove pages as needed or the student can work within the binder. So that I know which pack is the current pack we are working with, I will usually print the title page and insert it into the cover sleeve of the binder.

Most of my packs include a variety of activities for letters, numbers, colors, matching, etc. Some incorporate a number of learning disciplines within one activity and this pack is no different. This pack is great for earlier learners just starting out, but does include activities that are a bit more difficult. The matching and picture path activities help students control pencil movements as well as assisting in recognition of same vs. different. These are great starts to pattern recognition and early writing skills. There are 2-3 pages of each of these activities as well as 2 additional mazes for different skill levels. They all can be printed on cardstock and laminated to be used by multiple students when completed with a dry or wet erase marker. 

Since coloring skills are key to learning colors as well as fine motor control for the purpose of writing, I included a coloring sheet as well. This one helps students to recognize the difference in size as well as identify exact colors and the names of those colors. If printed in color, the color names are each typed in their respective color to allow for students that are not familiar with the words to know which colors to use.

The letter activity included in this pack is a letter matching to assist in recognizing capital letters and their lowercase counter parts. This activity is divided into four pages with 6-7 letters for each page. The font used is a simple sans serif font to ensure simplicity and understanding. 

For numbers and math, three pages of addition activities are included. Each page features different addition problems for students. Kiddos count the number of images and write the corresponding number on the line below. Then, after both numbers are written for a single problem, they can either count the total number of images on that line and write their solution or they can simply write the answer if they already know it. These worksheets are great for early math concepts of counting as well as reinforcing fast facts. Students will begin to recognize their basic arithmetic while associating numbers as representative of physical things. Similar to many of the other activities, this page can be printed and laminated and completed with dry or wet erase markers and reused by other students or repeated by the same students if reinforcement is needed. 

Similar to my other packs, this pack also has some hands-on activities. Though the mini packs feature fewer of these activities due to the overall size of the pack. 

The first hands-on activity is a sorting activity. Two pages of images are included. Each image is provided in three sizes: small, medium, and large. These pieces are printed and cut apart. For ease of use, the images are lined out such that they can be cut out in rectangles making them easier to use. A third pages is provided that includes a chart for sorting the images. Students separate the images placing them in the appropriate box according to its size. This activity can be repeated multiple times and can be printed on cardstock and laminated for use year after year. Because this is a flat activity, it can be easily stored when not in use.

The second hands on activity is a set of puzzles. Four puzzles are provided, each divided into three pieces. These puzzles are simple for younger learners. For even younger students, two copies can be printed. One set can be cut out while the other set stays intact. Kiddos can then match the pieces of the separated puzzle to the solid puzzle. As they get better at recognition, they can move on to piecing the images together without the guide of the full page print out. Similar to the other hands-on activity, the puzzle pieces can be laminated for repeated uses. As a printable activity, it also can be stored flat when not in use. As an added benefit, these puzzles can be placed in a zip top bag for storage and used as a busy bag activity to keep little ones occupied doing a quiet time activity.

I hope you have enjoyed the more in-depth look at the Chilly Treats PreK Mini Pack. It's a great pack with a lot to it for young learners. I especially love the wonderful clipart and as mentioned, I'm looking into using it for future packs and activities.

I would love for you to check out my Teachers Pay Teachers store for the Chilly Treats PreK Mini Pack as well as other winter packs I have listed. Leave me a comment letting me know what you think, if you are planning to grab this pack, your thoughts on the activities, feedback if you've used this pack, and any additional ideas or questions you may have.

As a bonus, don't forget to check my Facebook page to see what the current freebie is. With luck, it'll be the matching and memory cards that coordinate with this pack, but if not, it'll be another wonderful freebie for your little ones or your classroom.

Fun Packs! Premade Educational Kits - Planning and Product Development

For a long time, I wanted to created a done-for-you activity pack for homeschool moms or just those wanting to do a bit of learning at home. When the idea first came to me in 2014, I started out putting together kits for my sister-in-law who had two young boys and a set of infant twins. In an effort to help provide some activities for the older kiddos to occupy their time and distract them, I created a number of activity kits for them. These kits went along with a number of printable packs I had created - some with them in mind. Inspired by busy bag swaps I had participated in with other moms of young children at the time, I also included a number of additional busy bag type activities inspired by the packs.

The first pack I created was a Back to School kit using my Back to School Printable Pack. This pack is a fantastic starter pack as it begins with basic concepts for preK and kindergarten. For the kit to send to my nephews, I printed several of the individual pages as worksheets. I also put together some of the manipulative activities from the printable pack like the number puzzle and the bottle cap letter activity. I used recycled bottle caps to make the letters for the hands-on matching activity. I included 4 busy bag activities two printed from the printable pack - matching and memory cards and color sort cards. I also made two unique busy bags - a ribbon snake with school themed foam shapes and a pom pom sorting activity using an egg carton and a clothes pin. I wanted to create a variety of activities, especially providing quiet games that could be played on the go or when their mama needed some extra time for the babies. The busy bags were placed in zip-top bags to make them easy to carry along in a diaper bag or purse.

The first Fun Pack was Back to School themed.

The Football Pack is one of my few unpublished packs.

Over the next several months I continued to create printable packs and compile Fun Packs for my nephews. All the packs included worksheets, manipulative activities, and four busy bag activities. While most of the busy bags were repeatable activities, some were in the form of craft projects like beading crafts or picture building with adhesive foam shapes. I created packs that matched my Football Pack, Halloween Monsters Bundle, Turkey Pack, Gingerbread Treats Pack, Nativity Pack, and Snowman Pack. My own kiddos also worked on these activities and vetted them for their cousins.

As I was putting these kits together for my nephews I was working to figure out how to replicate these packs for other moms. I wanted to create something that had value and included repeatable activities. I wanted to coordinate these kits with my printable packs. I wanted to create activities that were pre-printed and put together so that moms could benefit from these packs if they didn't have access to a printer or other small manipulative items - not everyone has dice or bingo markers laying around. I wanted to create activities that maybe weren't part of the printable pack but could incorporate additional learning concepts as a bonus on top of what is available with just the pack. This would create something new and different even if a parent or teacher already had the coordinating printable pack. Additionally, I could laminate some of the printed components to make them sturdier for multiple uses. Busy bag activities needed to be stored in zip-top bags so they could be easily carried for quiet time activities away from the home.

For my nephews, I was able to go a bit over the top and incorporate other craft supplies and activities I found, but that may be difficult when it came to putting these kits together on a larger scale. I also upcycled some random things I had saved for arts and craft projects like empty egg cartons and salvaged bottle caps - this would not be feasible for kits going to other families. I needed to have some consistency, a template or plan for the Fun Packs so there is uniformity. It also makes it easier to establish "What all is in a Fun Pack?" I decided to create a standard sized Fun Pack and a Fun Pack Junior to offer different sized kits so moms could decide what was best for them. I created a "recipe" of sorts.

The Monsters Bundle available on TpT includes
an extra pack of printable activities.

I was able to get creative with foam shapes and
other craft supplies due to the popularity of 
gingerbread men around Christmas time.

I established that the standard Fun Pack would include 20 worksheet pages which I would compile into a mini workbook, 2 hands-on activities, and 4 busy bags. For the Fun Pack Junior, I would include a 20 page mini workbook, 1 hands-on activity, and 2 busy bags. Each of the packs would be all-inclusive so no additional supplies were needed aside from basic supplies that most people have like writing implements and crayons. The kits would include instructions for each activity so parents or teachers know how the kit could be used. The boxes for each kit would be labeled and of a standard size to make storage easy.

Once I established what would be included in the kit and had plans for packaging, I needed to set it into motion and decide the best options for each item. In 2016, I created a Fun Pack as a birthday present for a friend's son to put it all together and see how it might work out as a finished kit. The workbook I created was spiral bound, but I found it would be easier and more cost effective to create a more traditional stapled binding for the mini workbook. The original workbook was full color and had more pages than ended up putting in the final workbooks. I was better able to refine the specifics I wanted for final packaging with this kit. It had coloring pages, a hands-on activity - grid games - and four busy bags that included activities like clip cards, patterning practice, 3-part cards, and memory cards. I included instructions and insert cards for the busy bags. 

After four years of planning, I created my first marketable and complete pack. I needed to go full-out and establish exactly how these kits would come together and be presented to parents or teachers that may be interested in using them. This Fun Pack was a Fun Pack Junior, another pack created as a gift, so technically, it was a final practice run. This time, the kit was for another nephew. This Fun Pack was based on my Dice Printable Pack since my nephew was really into dice at the time, I created the pack with him in mind. The Fun Pack Junior was fully created complete with all the packaging information and instructions that would be in a final edition of a pack. It included a mini full color workbook with 20 pages of activities. The hands-on activity in this pack was a roll and cover activity. Two half pages were printed and laminated for durability. Two dice and multi-color bingo markers were included to complete the activity. Two busy bags were included in the pack packaged in zip-topped bags for travel and storage. One busy bag activity was a set of matching and memory cards which are part of the Dice Printable Pack. They were printed on cardstock and laminated. The other busy bag was number clip cards. Again, these cards were printed on cardstock and laminated. Clothes pins were included to complete the activity.

All the activities included in this pack are part
of the Dice Printable Pack.

The feedback that I got on all the previous kits I had put together was positive. I was ready to move forward with more packs. In a future post I'll go through the themes selected and what is included in the final packs I've compiled. As of now, I have completed four Fun Packs - two standard sized kits and two Fun Pack Juniors. They've been well received and I'm excited about the development of additional Fun Packs in the future, many of which are already in the works.

So, what kind of themes would interest you? I'd love to get some feedback on activities that appear interesting and other suggestions for the packs.

Prep and Using Clip Cards with Valentine Sweets Clip Cards

I wasn't planning on doing another Valentine's related post, but I love my new Valentine Sweets Pack so much, that I had to get out the goodies and show you something. This set has a preK/preschool pack, tot pack, 3-piece number cards, and a tic-tac-toe game/busy bag. But, enough about the pack, what I'm going over today is clip cards like the set included in my preK pack.

Clip cards are pretty awesome. They are another manipulative type of activity, but they don't have to be. Number clip cards are the most common ones I've done, but they can also be made for other matching and association activities.

Prepping the clip cards is pretty basic. Print on card stock and cut out. You may wish to laminate for durability. With my holiday sets, I will print on card stock, but I save on the laminating. Each activity will likely only get used a few times, but not enough - in most cases - to be destroyed before the holiday has come and gone. I'd recommend laminating items that will be used by a lot of children or get heavy use, like year-round themed items.

The default of these cards is to use a clip, most popularly, spring-hinged clothes pins. They are great for helping to strengthen small hands for writing, so these cards are not only for honing counting and number identification (if using number clip cards), but also for fine motor development. Using binder clips will also suit this function. Paper clips can be used for fine motor development as well, but they won't help with strengthening hand muscles.

If you don't have clothes pins around, you can also use other small manipulatives which are also good for fine motor practice. Some ideas of things you can use are place markers (small plastic discs), foam shapes or table scatter, or even coins if you don't have any of the others readily available. Be creative with whatever you have on hand. It doesn't have to be cute or coordinate, it just has to act as a place marker. Here, my kiddo is using some adorable felt cupcakes I found that coordinate with my sweets pack! I originally picked them up for busy bag activities like the tic-tac-toe one, but they work great for this as well.

Even without card stock or small manipulative items, you can still get use out of these pages. Printing on regular paper is just as viable of an option. On paper, think of other things your child can use to mark the numbers. A few examples are shown here - stickers, stamps, dot marker/bingo dauber, or even a basic pencil or crayon. Don't let lack of supplies limit your use of this great activity. All you really need is printer, paper, and pencil. Everything else is just the cherry on the top. Mix it it up or keep it simple, it's up to you.

For storage, I have used a few different options. If I'm giving these as a busy bag activity, I'll usually include the clothes pins (enough for each card) and an instruction sheet. If I want to keep options open for other manipulative items (or just to store easier), I can put the cards in a bag or envelope by themselves.

So that's it for these clip cards! I hope I've given you some inspiration for use! If you've worked with them before, what are your favorite ways to use them?

If you want to check out the rest of my Valentine Sweets Pack, you can find it here: 

Find the preK pack here on TpT!

Valentine Patterns and Busy Bags

Lots of Hearts Valentine Pattern Busy Bags

My collection of packs this year.

So, I've been a bit preoccupied. After a hectic couple weeks compiling a handful of Valentine's packs, I then had to get my most recent fun pack together. More on fun packs in another post.

More to the point, tomorrow is the Valentine's party at my older kiddo's school, so we were prepping Valentine's for his class. Last year, all we did was sign the card for the class, but I wanted to do something more. As I was already doing busy bags for the fun pack, I decided to create one more, well 15 anyway. I put together a smaller version of the pattern busy bag I've done with previous sets, only this time, I made it to coordinate with my Lots of Hearts pack. This pack started out as just a sampler for my Teachers Pay Teachers store, but I've ended up adding multiple coordinating supplement sets (and still have plans for more). In any case, it was a perfect theme and I thought a mini version of the busy bag would be a fun and simple addition to the Valentines for my son's class so to work I went. Turned out to be a bigger project than I had planned, but I got it completed.

I made the set in the manner I had done a previous patterning busy bag. The intent is to improve observation and help develop one to one correspondence and help with pattern recognition. It's a simple enough activity and has the benefit of requiring little parent interaction or guidance (that would be the point of busy bags, after all, right?). I figured since my kiddo's class has been working on various patterns this year, it would be an appropriate activity.

The premise is pretty basic. Each card has a series of hearts in a particular pattern on it based on the color of the hearts and the student uses the manipulatives to repeat the pattern. The original printable busy bag pack contains 16 different patterns, 4 each of AB, AABB, ABB, and ABC patterns. Each of the individual ones I put together contains half of the patterns.

 Because I used half the available patterns for each set, there created two different sets. It made it easier to do it this way rather than mix them all up so that I could ensure consistency. Each set has 2 of each type of pattern. Only the colors used vary bag to bag.

I love to use foam shapes and similar items for these sets. Foam shapes are great for little hands and art projects. Conveniently, these hearts came in four colors which I used for the pattern pack. I did include a page in the printable file of the pack with individual images that can be cut apart and used to make the patterns. I do this in case parents don't have easy access to the foam shapes or other similar manipulatives, though I personally prefer them for these activities. I'm a big fan of incorporating different textures and small objects for kiddos to manipulate and handle. To a certain extent, they can help with fine motor skills, but that is not the focus of this patterning pack.

 So here it is, the collection of hearts and pattern sets. I also included an instruction card insert similar to those that I include with all my busy bags. It's a bit of a calling card, but it also helps to guide in the use of the busy bag. I like to think that it's obvious, but just in case an individual hasn't come across an activity like this, I don't want to take it for granted that they have.

And the finished set of bags. Each pattern set is individually bagged with coordinating hearts and instructions ready to go. I hope my kiddo's classmates love them! Of course, I won't hate if the parents of his classmates decide to look up my stuff, but that would more be the cherry on the top rather than the main intent. 

Happy Valentine's Day! I hope you enjoy celebrating with your own kiddos!