Play Dough Apple Tree Life Cycle

10 / 7 / 1610 / 17 / 16

If you know us well, you know we loooove play dough. We almost always have 3 or 4 play dough kits on hand and for the past several years, they’ve been something Miss G has regularly taken out and played with. That being said, we’ve sort of been on a play dough break recently… Miss G has other things she’s super passionate about at the moment {mainly ‘inventing’ and reading – always reading} and with her being in school full days this year, I honestly just find that there’s not a lot of extra time in our days {*insert sad face here*}. That being said, we’ve recently been all about apples and apple trees, and when Miss G asked about when the different stages of an apple tree’s life cycle occur, I figured it would be fun to explore the different seasons with some play dough and simple play dough mats.

Simple Apple Tree Addition Game

9 / 23 / 1410 / 8 / 14

Simple Apple Tree Addition Game | Mama Papa Bubba

Throughout our days together, it’s not unusual for Gracen to come up to me and say something like, ‘Okay, Mama. There are 3 little ducks swimming in the pond at the park. 2 more ducks come to swim. How many ducks are there now?’ The girl comes prepared, too. More times than not, she has a pencil sketch on a huge piece of white paper in her arms to help illustrate the problem. She waits for my response eagerly, then pauses to calculate the total herself once she’s received my answer. I get a peppy ‘Yup! You are right!’ and then it’s my turn to create a story problem for her to solve. This goes on again and again.

Sticky Wall Apple Tree

9 / 24 / 139 / 30 / 13

Contact paper is one of those art supplies that we always keep on hand. It’s awesome for using with glitter and is a ton of fun stuck up on a wall, plus if you pick it up on the roll at the dollar store like we do, it’s really inexpensive too. Knowing that it can be found here in Kuwait (my team of first grade teachers used it all the time during our first stint here), I didn’t pack any with us from Canada. So imagine my dismay when I found myself amidst a giant back to school / office supply display the other night with not a single roll of clear contact paper in sight {the horror!} The lovely lady working in the section did turn me onto something else, however, and in fact, I think it’s even better than the rolls we usually get. When she first handed me the package, I was skeptical. Clear book covers? For real? But then I realized a few things… 1) They are essentially just pre-cut sheets of contact paper. 2) They are inexpensive and sold in packs of 10, which covers a lot of future projects. 3) They come flat so I’d have to wrestle with tightly rolled contact paper no longer – score {ecause we all know how annoying that is}!