Wishlist Wednesday: La-La's Home Daycare

This week's guest blogger is Lori from La-La's Home Daycare. She has tons of wonderful ideas for preschool age children. Check out her blog for more great projects she does with her kids!


Hi, my name is Lori from La-La's Home Daycare, and I am very excited to be a guest blogger today here at Cachey Mama! I want to share today a Christmas Craft that is so fun and easy to make, and doubles as an ornament, Rudolf the Red Nosed Reindeer. The children were so excited to make this craft after we had watched the DVD. 

Items we used: 3 craft sticks googly eyes red pom poms red and green construction paper red yarn Elmer's glue hot glue To make glue the three craft together, as forming a triangle shape, but leave room at the top for antlers.  Add the nose and googly eyes. I free handed the Holly leaves and berries, and they glued in place. Last add yarn with hot glue for fast drying. Very easy, simple fun Christmas craft! Thanks so much Lori for having me here today!

Linked up at:

Prep for Vet Study

Here are some of the things I got ready for this week's study on vets.

First, I made my own pretend bandages using felt and velcro.

 Next, I made an Open/Closed sign for the kids to color and decorate and hang in the vet's office and the actual office sign below. Or if they are so inclined, to make a sign by themselves.

 Next is an Animal Scavenger Hunt. They will take this out with them at outdoor time and circle any animal they see. Each child will also take an extra sheet home to do as homework with their families. They are also encouraged to count and write how many animals they found and where they found each animal.

Here are some tags I got ready for the children to write prices on and attach them to some of the items for sale at the pet store (We still have pet store set up in block area)

 For our sensory table, I added things a vet might use, including cotton balls, tweezers, tongue depressors, and the homemade bandages.

Our word wall words for the week.

 Our morning message for the week.

I'm pretty sure the kids are ready for this lesson as they have been "fixing up" injured and sick animals for a while now!

Motivational Monday: Thanksgiving Part 4

Just because Thanksgiving is over, doesn't mean we should ever stop being thankful!!!

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Storytime Sunday: Pete the Cat

If you have ever read either of the Pete the Cat books to your kids you will know these books rock and kids love them!

The librarian that comes in once a month had read I Love My White Shoes to the kids last year, so I decided to check them both out from the library this year for our pets study. My kids won't put it down. They love to sing along and the story is easy to tell by looking at the pictures. Even some of the kids who never want to look at a book are trying to get to the rug first to get these books! They are completely amazing.

Eric Litwin (Mr. Eric) has a great website with a page full of links including blog postings and Youtube videos. Here is a Youtube video of a live reading of I Love My White Shoes.

Happy Reading!

Saturday's Top 5 Laughs

Here are my laughs this week:

1. While playing the Wii in the classroom, I hear one of my students shout, "Holy Moley Guacamole!"

2. The kids were just calmly eating breakfast, when all of a sudden a conversation breaks out about sharks. One little girl says "I fell in the water, I couldn't reach my bike because it was too far away, the shark just stared at me." Then another little boy who just had to tell his story chimes in "I fell in the water and the shark ate me!"  Guess he just had to one-up her...

3. The kids were talking about wanting to ride the bus (which none of them do) and asked if I would take them to the bus. I replied "I'll put you all on the bus and send you to Mexico." Hmm, might not have been funny for the kids, hope none of them repeat that to their parents, LOL!

4. Baby L has started giving hugs and "kisses" now. They are the wet, open mouth, drool everywhere, "I'm gonna eat you" kisses that babies start out doing, but still it's a kiss and from my lil man. I'll take it!

5. When you lift your eyebrows up and down at the baby, he tries to imitate, but can't figure exactly how to do it, so it looks like he's just squinting his eyes.

Thinky Linky Thursday: Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving all! Sorry this post is so late. I really don't have anything turkey-related prepared, so I will just include a few links to what other people are doing for Thanksgiving. Enjoy and please link your activity below!

Paper Roll Turkey @ More For Less

Shakin our Groove Thing for Thanksgiving @ Little Warriors

Turkey Pops @ Someday Crafts

Planting Corn Squanto's Way @ The Teacher's Chatterbox

And here are a couple of Thanksgiving activity pins:

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Source: teachpreschool.org via Cachey on Pinterest

Source: teachpreschool.org via Cachey on Pinterest

Hope you all had a great Thanksgiving and enjoyed your turkey!

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Wishlist Wednesday: Mess For Less

This week's guest blogger is from Mess for Less. There are so many good and creative ideas on the blog, so please take a moment to check it out. Thanks for posting!





Thank you so much to Cachey Mama for asking to me guest post here today about some of my wishlist items.  Over at Mess For Less, I blog about children's crafts and activities, so I always have a wishlist of things I want to try with the kids! There is a Lakeshore store nearby and I always go in there and look at all the teacher supplies and wish I could get it all.  Here are a few Lakeshore items that I would get if I had the budget. Classroom Clay and Dough Designer Kit

My kids love play dough and I love finding ways to spice it up.  I have added Popsicle sticks and googly eyes to make Monsters Vs Aliens - Toddler Style and this kit seems like it would also add fun to ordinary play dough.  The scissors and other small items can help with fine motor skills, while the different shape cutters add to creative play. Super Safe Craft Tape Center

When I was teaching Preschool, this was such a big hit in my classroom.  The kids used it for so many things from making their own books, to creating roads in the block area.  You can also make some really pretty pictures using the colored tape. Lakeshore Water Play Kit

All educators know the benefits of water play.  Kids can explore science and math concepts as they learn about what will float and measuring.  We have a water table in our yard that I have filled with various cups and scoops I have found at the dollar store.  I would love this set so I could have everything in one place.  

I should mention I am not affiliated with Lakeshore in any way.  I get nothing for mentioning them, not even a free product.  I am just a customer.  You can find my wishlist items at any kind of teacher supply store or website. Thanks to Lori for the chance to share some of my favorite items, and thanks to you readers for indulging me.

Kreativ Blogger Award

I have been kindly awarded the Kreativ Blogger Award by Jamie @ For Love of Cupcakes. Thanks so much!

So, now here are my 7 things about myself and the 10 bloggers I am passing this award to.

1. I love geocaching and that is where the name Cachey Mama comes from.

2. I collect frogs (not living ones of course)

3. I am a graduate of The Ohio State University with a M.Ed. in Early Childhood.

4. I hate DESPISE running!

5. I am not allergic to anything... well unless you count work :)

6. I love seafood, pasta, and almost anything with cheese.

7. I scrapbook and make jewelry in my spare time which right now amounts to about... none.

MY 10 KREATIV BLOGGERS:

1. April @ Chalk Talk for her great ideas and how she applies and extends them in the classroom.

2. Roxanne @ Books that Heal Kids for her love of books and inspirational way that she uses them to help children deal with difficult situations.

3. Barbara @ The Corner on Character for her positive attitude and ability to inspire others.

4. Susan @ The Book Chook  for her passion to help kids read and write and for sharing her experiences with others.

5. Jane @ Mama Pea Pod for her outside-the-box thinking of ways to use everyday materials to create a wonderful learning environment.

6. Jamie @ hands on: as we grow for the sheer volume of amazing ideas they provide.
7. MaryLea @ Pink and Green Mama for all her great art ideas.
8. Rory @ Make Early Learning Fun for hmmm... what else, but making early learning FUN!
9. Vanessa @ Pre-K Pages for having a well-organized website with almost any resource a teacher could ever need.
10. Charity @ The Organized Classroom Blog for her innovation to start Teaching Blog Central, an awesome resource.

Storytime Sunday: Pets 2

The first book we "read" this week is a classic from The Berenstain Bears. I say "read" in quotation marks because this book has a LOT of words, so we pretty much turned the pages and told the story instead of reading all the words.

Next, we read The Wildlife ABC.

I love this book for all the great illustrations as well as the rhyming and the fact that each page says something about a different animal without using too many words, so it's great for younger children.

But if the children request to learn more about one of the animals, there is a little bit about each one in the back "Nature Notes" section.

And lastly, we "read" A Ball for Daisy which has no words, so basically we did the same type of telling the story in our own words.

We did a felt board story as well about the day in the life of a dog vs. a day in the life of a squirrel. It compares wild animal and tame animal daily routines so that children will get an idea of how each meets it's needs. Here is the felt board pieces and the stories below it.

This is a page from the book Growing up Wild: Exploring Nature with Young Children by the Council for Environmental Education

We sponge painted sea animals on blue paper that represented water. Children were encouraged to draw in the surroundings that might be found in their animal's environment and describe their drawings.

Happy Reading!

Saturday's Top 5 Laughs

Well, here are my 5 laughs. They turned out to be more baby related than school related because honestly, I had a few school ones, but I completely forgot them. I am so forgetful these days, I need to write everything down. Anyhow here they are!

1. The baby (L) started picking up anything that remotely looks like a telephone (I even saw him using a water bottle tonight) and putting up to his ear like a phone, then babbles away, then puts it down. If we put our hand up like a phone and say hello, he grabs the nearest item and plays like he's talking. It's soo cute.

2. L also started playing peek-a-boo with us. He will hide behind something and crack up when he pulls it away. He thinks he is hilarious. But the kicker is, instead of peek-a-boo, he kinda makes a grunting noise.

3. We found a way to entertain L. The shredder... He loves it. He was totally cracking up when we put papers in there to be shredded!

4. Yet another way to entertain L. He was laying on the bed and I yelled "mommy-quake!" and shook the bed where he was laying. Again, he thought it was pretty hilarious!

5. Ok, finally a school one. This was pretty hard one to forget. I was setting up the Wii for the kids and all of a sudden I hear my assistant teacher saying "Oh my gosh!" I looked over and in the bathroom was standing one of my little girls totally naked. She was putting on the clothes she had brought to school in her backpack. There was no reason for her to change (wet clothes, etc). She just was not pleased with what mommy put her in. We found out the little girl had packed her own clothes into the bag herself!

Sunshine Award

Wow! How exciting it is to open an email and find out that you have an award! Someone loves my blog and it makes me feel great! I want to thank Lori's Crafty Spot for thinking my blog deserved this award. Thank you so much!

Here are the rules for accepting this award:
1. Thank the person who gave this award and write a post about it.
2. Answer the following questions below.
3. And pass the award to 10~12 fabulous bloggers, link their blogs and let them know you awarded them. 

My answers to the questions:

• Favorite color? Purple, can you tell? 
• Favorite animal? Frog 
• Favorite number? 8 
• Favorite drink? Starbucks peppermint white chocolate mocha 
• Facebook or Twitter? Depends on the day, right now I'm on Twitter 
• Your passion? My family and working with kids
• Giving or getting presents? Both! 
• Favorite day? Saturday- FOOTBALL! 
• Favorite flowers? Love the classic red rose, but they are all pretty 

Now I can share the love and nominate some of my favorite bloggers. Here are some blogs that truly inspire me, check them out I am sure you will get inspired too!

Happy Heart of Mine

For Love of Cupcakes

Herding Kats in Kindergarten

Mama Pea Pod

The Corner on Character

Our Girls Keep us Moving

Boredom Busting Mommy

The Very Busy Kindergarten

Minds in Bloom

Ms. Kerri's Krazy Kindergarten

Thinky Linky Thursday: Let's Move!

We are beginning to prepare for the long cold winter, knowing there will be plenty of days the weather keep us from going outside. So, we have been coming up with some indoor gross motor activities. Here are some posters that we use to show children how to do different exercises that not only get them moving, but thinking as well.

Also, you can get a couple small cube-shaped boxes and make large dice with the exercise on each side and have the children roll it to see what they get. Another die could have numbers on it which will be the amount of times the will do the exercise that is rolled.

Here are also a couple good online resources dealing with gross motor play and healthy eating for preschoolers:

PE Central

Healthy Children, Healthy Weights

(Based in Cols, OH)

USDA's MyPlate (for Preschool)

How are your kids moving? Link up below!

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