summer

  • classroom gardening

    Flower Garden Supplies for the Classroom

    One of the best things about a gardening theme is that supplies are generally easy to find. Authentic materials such as seed packets, gardening gloves, knee cushions, and planters are readily available and often inexpensive. Here are some of my favorite supplies for classroom gardening themes (all links are affiliates). Artificial Floral Stems Seed Starters and Mini Terracotta Pots Flower Garden Stacking Set Green Pipe Cleaners Kids Gardening Tool Set Paper Flowers and Leaves Glass Bud Vases

  • exploring flower gardens with preschoolers

    Flower Garden Theme Ideas for Preschool

    Planting flowers and watching them grow is a natural activity for any gardening theme, but there are so many other amazing activities that can support learning about all things related to gardening. Some of these lend themselves better to the classroom environment than others. Here are my favorite ideas for exploring flower gardens with preschoolers. Look for flowers in children’s environments – walk around school, bring photos from home and other places that children go often Visit a garden center or nursery Identify different types of flowers Invite someone in to talk about gardening (a local homeowner with a beautiful garden, landscaper, staff from a botanical garden, florist, etc.) Ask…

  • Flower Garden Printables

    Flower Garden Activities for Preschool

    Gardening is not one of my natural talents – but I’ve always wished that it was! Growing flowers offers so many amazing learning experiences, from patience and discipline to life cycles and plant science. It’s a staple in the preschool classroom, for good reason! Since actually growing beautiful flowers isn’t a strength of mine, I’ve created a number of printable activities to support children’s learning and understanding when it comes to this particular theme. All of these are available in the Preschool Ponderings TPT store. Click on the image to learn more.

  • Camping Activities

    Ideas for Exploring Camping in the Classroom

    One of my favorite things about camping as a learning theme is that there are so many ways for children to interact with the supplies, materials, and activities that are actually part of a real camping trip. It’s all very authentic, and even the youngest children appreciate that! It also lends itself well to spending a ton of time outside, which everyone wants after a long winter! Beyond setting up a dramatic play center, here are some ideas for helping children explore camping. Set up a tent. Tents are tons of fun to play in, but actually putting them up is where the learning happens – following directions, working together,…

  • Camping Activities for the Classroom

    Printable Camping Activities for Preschool

    Camping is one of my favorite summer activities, so it makes perfect sense that I’ve always loved sharing this topic in the classroom too. Camping supplies lend themselves perfectly to math an language activities, and it’s so fun to find authentic materials to supplement these activities. Here are my favorite camping activities for the classroom – all of these are printable and available HERE!

  • Last Day of School Traditions

    Last Day of School Traditions

    Our last day of school is tomorrow! When my daughter was in kindergarten the last day of school rolled around and I realized that I hadn’t planned for any fun traditions. For me, someone who LOVES holidays and celebrations, this was a massive problem. I quickly came up with a couple of things that work well for us and have been things my girl really looks forward to. Here are our last day of school traditions. I try to keep mornings the same – throwing a special breakfast or activity into our well-oiled routine would throw the whole day off. My daughter’s school always does a half day for their…

  • Printable End of the Year Memory Book

    End of the School Year Memories

    The last couple of days of the school year always feel so hard to plan for – There isn’t really time to accomplish anything, and the learning has been accomplished, but you have to do something! I created this End of the Year Memory Book to give us something to work on together as we revisit all of the fun from the entire year. The great thing about this book is that it’s truly customizable. Each child can complete their own, or the class can do one together as a group with discussions about each prompt, Children can write or draw their answers, or do a combination of both. The…

  • Fun Family Nights

    Summer Family Night Activities

    We lean into family nights HARD during the summer. Everything feels more relaxed and fun, so we take full advantage! If you’re looking for inspiration, here are some of our favorite family night activities. The great thing about many of these is that they can be a little spontaneous – which is really what makes summer fun!