"I Am A Smartie Pants!" Math-Themed Smarties Candy Favors (#CBias)

With Halloween just around the corner, I wanted to share this easy tutorial for making math-themed treats using Smarties candy and some free printables I had made.  These little sweet treats will put some fun into practicing basic addition, subtraction, and multiplication.  The "I Am a Smartie Pants!" treats would be perfect for handing out to students in the classroom, to trick-or-treaters, or to use inside goodie bags.  Another great thing about these Halloween treats is that you can change the theme from Halloween to just about anything simply by using different stickers.  If you will be making these to hand out in the classroom, you will not have to worry because Smarties are gluten-free, peanut-free, vegan, and fat-free.

Today's Project:  "I Am a Smartie Pants!" Math-Themed Favors

SUPPLIES NEEDED:

Smarties candy rolls

Free printable "I Am a Smartie Pants!" pages

Halloween-themed stickers (1-1/4"H or smaller)

8" satin or 12" curling ribbon per favor

single hole puncher

scissors

Step 1.  Print out the desired number of "I Am a Smartie Pants!" pages below.  (NOTE:  Each page contains 4 favor tags.)

TO PRINT:  Make sure your computer's printer is turned on and ready to print.  Click on the desired image to enlarge.  Then right-click on the image and select print.  Use your browser's back arrow to return to this page.

Addition & Subtraction

Multiplication

Step 2.  Cut out each tag as instructed on the sheet.  Be sure to leave each column of 3 boxes intact.

Step 3.  Fold each tag into an accordion shape with the words "I Am a Smartie Pants!" facing out and the other two printed boxes facing each other.

Step 4.  Place a fun sticker in your theme of choice on the front of the tag right above the words "I Am a Smartie Pants!"  Be sure to leave enough room above the sticker to punch a hole.  (I trimmed my large rectangular stickers with scissors to fit my tags.)

Step 5.  Using your single hole puncher, punch a hole through all 3 layers above the sticker near the top of your tag, making sure it is centered horizontally.

Step 6.  Take an 8" to 9" piece of satin ribbon and fold it in half.  Then tie the halfway point of the ribbon around one end of a roll of Smarties candy.  (If you are using curling ribbon, please see the instructions below the Step 9 photos.)

Step 7.  Bring the two ends of your ribbon together and tie in a single knot close to the ends.  Trim the ribbon above the knot with scissors to make the ends even.

Step 8.  Next feed the knotted end of you ribbon through the back of your tag and out the front of the hole you had punched.

Step 9.  The last step is to put the end of the Smarties candy roll that is not tied to the ribbon through the ribbon loop on the front of your tag and pull it through.

The result should look like this , , ,

If using curling ribbon, follow the instructions below:

Feed the curling ribbon through the hole you had punched.  Make sure the ends are even.  Tie a knot about an inch above the top of the tag.  Then place a roll of Smarties candy above the knot you made and tie the end of the candy roll in place.  Use a double knot to make it secure.

Then use the blade of your scissors to curl the ribbon.  The result should look like this . . .

If you make these "I Am a Smartie Pants!" Treats, I would love to know what theme you used and what the children thought about them.  For more fun ideas, visit Smarties on Pinterest.

This treat is extremely inexpensive to make.  I bought a whole bag of Smarties for under $3 and the pack of 18 stickers for just $1 at Walgreens.  You can also find Smarties in the Halloween candy section at your local Walmart, Target, Family Dollar, Dollar General, and Dollar Tree stores.


I am a member of the Collective Bias™ Social Fabric® Community. This shop has been compensated as part of a social shopper insights study for Collective Bias™ and Smarties. #CBias #SocialFabric #IAmASmartie.  The prize pack for this contest has been provided by Collective Bias™ on behalf of Smarties.  All opinions expressed are my own.

Our "I Am A Smartie" Prize Pack includes:

1 Theater box Smarties

1 small bag Original Smarties

1 small bag Tropical Smarties

1 small bag X-Treme Sour Smarties

1 small bag Smarties in a Pouch

1 small bag Seasonal Smarties

Free Printable: 41 Kindergarten Sight Word Flashcards

After attending curriculum night at our school, I was provided with a list of sight words that our twin kindergartners will be learning this year.  It was suggested that we make flashcards to help them learn to recognize these frequently used words by sight, so I decided to make the flashcards I made available to other preschool and kindergarten parents.  Hopefully, other parents will find these to be useful.

There are 41 sight words on these cards altogether plus 3 blank cards for you to add your own words.  Perhaps your child needs to work on recognizing his or her last name, a sibling's name, or their street name.

TO PRINT:  Make sure your computer's printer is turned on and ready to print.  Click on the desired image to enlarge.  Then right-click on the image and select print.  Use your browser's back arrow to return to this page.

Steve Light Storyboxes Aid in Development of Language and Storytelling Skills

Popular author, illustrator, storyteller, and teacher, Steve Light, has teamed up with leading toy manufacturer, Guidecraft, to offer new storyboxes that help bring classic stories to life in a fun way. Each of these storyboxes is beautifully crafted with high quality materials and hand-painted characters, props, and settings that will inspire creative play and bring children’s imaginations to life.

Because storytelling and make-believe play contribute to a crucial role in child development as well as language development (which is the foundation for later reading skills), telling stories with boxes such as the Steve Light Storyboxes helps foster kids early skills. Children will have a blast reading the story with their parents, then acting it out in their own words and creating new stories based on the original while playing with the props.

(Click any image to enlarge)

We received Hansel & Gretel, a story we’ve read many times, but this storybox breathed new life into an old story. My 5 year old son, Quinn, has really enjoyed playing with the adorable pieces and making his own versions of the same old story. As a long time child educator, I can honestly say that this idea is such a great tool for all children, but especially for children on the Autism spectrum. Pretend play is so difficult for many ASD kids, but they usually love make-believe stories. With these story-boxes, they get to hear the story, but start making their own versions and twists and it really fosters their imagination and gets them using it like they never have before.

I have nothing but good things to say about the  Steve Light Storyboxes. They are extremely well-made, help build many life skills, and are fun to boot. They do have small pieces, so they are not recommended for children for whom choking may be a hazard or only to be used with supervision. I would highly recommend this for any child because they are both entertaining and educational.

You can purchase the  Steve Light Storyboxes  on Guidecraft.com, Amazon.com, Fat Brain Toys, and other specialty retailers of educational toys. The boxes retail for $50 each and feature the stories of The Girl Who Loved Danger, Rapunzel, Little One Inch, and  Hansel & Gretel.



Thank you to Steve Light for providing a complimentary product sample for us to base this review upon.

Finding Balance With Asperger's: Getting Our Hands Ready Kit

Getting any child ready for kindergarten is a vital right of passage in their early years, but because motor delays often go hand-in-hand with Autism Spectrum Disorders, anything that helps develop those essential fine motor skills is extremely important. The Getting Our Hands Ready Kit from The Therapy Shoppe is a wonderful kit designed by Occupational Therapists to help children with such delays. Packed with fun games and engaging activities that help develop finger strength, fine motor skills, pre-writing skills, and help teach proper grasping skills, kids are sure to have a blast while using this amazing set. It even comes with an activity guide so there is no guessing what to use the items for and what each activity helps with.

(Click any photo to enlarge)

Quinn loved playing with dough and putting fun stamps into it then rolling out his creations and starting over, feeding foam bugs to “Mr. Crunch”, the plastic frog, and coloring sheets. He also got to place reusable stickers to create a variety of fun scenes, which fostered his imagination as well as using his pincer grasp. This set really is fun, entertaining, and helps with so many motor skills that it’s truly a well-rounded set. The teacher’s guide is also tremendously helpful.  The entire set is well made, so your child is sure to outgrow it long before it becomes tattered and worn.

You can purchase the Getting Your Hands Ready Kit from www.TheTherapyShoppe.com, where it retails for $19.99.

Thank you to The Therapy Shoppe for providing a complimentary product sample for us to base this review upon.

Kindergartner-In-Training: Developing Verbal Skills with Felt Boards

Our 5 year old daughter is quite a good storyteller, although they are a bit lengthy and usually come out in one big run-on sentence.  Her twin brother, however, needs to work on his ability to continue a story with relevant information and on his enunciation.  To help our son further develop these skills, I chose the "Let's Play House" felt board from FunWithFelt.com as the perfect tool.  I actually used a felt board with my older son in a similar activity, but the "Let's Play House" felt board inspires an infinite number of stories, whereas more basic felt boards may cause a child to lose interest after being used 2 or 3 times.

(Click any photo to enlarge)

This particular Learning Fun With Felt set comes with over 20 pre-cut felt pieces to help your child tell his or her story.  All the pieces are common items and people that would be easily recognized by most children and could be incorporated into a story without much difficulty.  There is even a place to write your child's name on the back of the board and a handy reusable carrying case for easy storage and transporting.  You can also use the felt pieces from this set on other felt boards and other felt pieces on this board.

Since we have two preschoolers, we asked them to take turns telling a single story, where one child would start and the other child would pick up where the first child left off.  This activity not only was a good exercise for developing verbal skills, it also taught our twins to have patience and to adapt.  Patience was required for each child to wait for his or her turn, especially if they are anxious to tell the part of the story they have come up with in their head.  Also, sometimes one child found the other's piece of the story to be less than interesting, but he or she still had to listen patiently.  Adaptation came into play when one child did not like where the story was going as told by the other or the turn of events in the story conflicted with what they had intended to add to the story when it was their turn again.  During these instances, the child had to figure out how to change their piece of the story so that he or she could add what they originally wanted, but to have the story still flow and make sense.

By the time our twins were done with their story, there was much disorder in our little felt board house.  They thoroughly enjoyed the activity.  I actually think they liked being able to make this pretend house disorderly since they are always being asked to make things orderly in their real house.  Of course, I had to go back afterwards and put all the felt pieces where they made sense after our children were done playing . . .

To view all the fun felt boards available from Learning Fun With Felt, visit www.funwithfelt.com.  For a limited time, you can receive 20% off your next purchase when you checkout with Code: 3G2S.

Thank you to Learning Fun With Felt for providing a complimentary product sample for us to base this review upon and for providing an additional product for our contest prize.


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Kindergartner-In-Training: ABC Magnetic Fishing Learning Toy

One thing I have had to learn and accept the past few years is that all children learn differently.  Just because my first child had the discipline to sit and learn, even when it was not excessively fun, does not mean my other two children could do the same.  That is why I have had this A-B-C Magnetic Fishing Set from CP Toys on my wishlist to review for well-over six months.  Our 5 year old son especially needs educational toys such as this to keep him interested because, if he is not interested, he just wants to get up and go do something else.

This alphabet fishing toy actually comes with 2 boxes, each containing 26 magnetic dense foam letters and a pair of magnetic fishing poles, so you could split this purchase into two gifts if desired.  The fishing poles have a very high coolness factor because they are retractable.  Even our 8 year old son was impressed and could not stop playing with his.

(Click any photo to enlarge)

How we used this toy for an ABC learning activity for preschoolers . . . 

1.  Place all the magnetic foam letters in a large bin, basket, or bowl.

2.  Taking turns, ask each child to fish out one letter and name the letter.  (If an older child or an adult is playing, you can ask him or her to fish out a letter, name the letter, and say a word that begins with that letter.  Just hearing what the older child says about each letter will benefit the preschooler and they may soon be able to do this extra step as well.)  Then have each child keep all his or her letters in a pile.

3.  (This is something you can do when your child has moved on from letter recognition to sounding out words and spelling.)  After all the letters have been fished out, with your help, have each child try to make as many words as possible with the letters he or she fished out.

Something that was very helpful about this toy is that the letters are yellow on the correct sides and blue on the incorrect sides.  This is great for children who tend to accidentally write some of their letters backwards.

Although our children enjoyed this activity, I should have started out with just 26 letters instead of the 52.  Since there were 3 children playing, the activity did not move as quickly as a 5 year old would like.  There was quite a bit of pausing and thinking to remember the names of some of the letters.

I also want to point out that I kept the boxes along with the molded plastic inserts to store the rods and ABCs while they are not being used.  This worked out very well, especially in keeping the rods separated.  Since they contain strong magnets at the end of each line, it is very easy for them to become attracted to each other and for the lines to become tangled.

To learn more about this and other educational toys for kids, visit CPToy.com.

Thank you to CP Toys for providing a complimentary product sample for us to base this review upon and for providing a second product for our contest prize.


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Kindergartner-In-Training: Tracing a Letter to Santa (Free Printables)

Our twins are about to turn 5 in January.  This year was the first that they each wrote their own letters to Santa.  No, they each are still not able to write many words on their own, aside from their first names.  That is why I came up with these free printables for young children to trace their letters to Santa Claus.  There are four blank spaces where a parent would need to help out by dotting out the characters for their child to trace . . . the year, "boy" or "girl", what the child would like for Christmas, and the child's name.  I also made two versions . . . one with some Christmas cookies clipart and one that is blank so that your child can add his or her drawings or stickers.

TO PRINT:  Make sure your computer's printer is on and ready to go.  Click on the desired image to enlarge.  Right-click on the image and select print.

Our preschoolers were thrilled to finally be able to write their own letter to Santa instead of having their big brother write to Santa on their behalf.  I hope your child experiences the same sense of pride and accomplishment.  It is very important for you to remember to send a reply letter to your child from Santa to help keep the magic of Santa alive.

Kindergartner-in-Training: Curious George Multimedia Workbooks for Preschoolers

We just had our parent-teacher conferences for our twin preschoolers earlier this week.  Although one twin needs more practice with recognizing and writing the alphabet than the other, both could benefit from more ABC learning activities.

In September, Curious George turned 70!  He sure looks good for his age and is as lovable as ever.  We have a mini library of Curious George books and try to catch his show on PBS whenever we can.  When The Learning Company introduced their new Learning with Curious George reading and math workbooks for preschoolers and kindergartners, I was excited.  Why? . . . Well, because our children learn better when they are interested in the theme at hand and Curious George definitely qualifies as such.

The first half of this particular workbook Learning with Curious George Preschool Reading focuses on the order of the alphabet.  The second half focuses on early writing skills.  Although our daughter tends to master things more easily than her twin brother, she was challenged by these activities and happily rose to that challenge.  Our son, who usually feels defeated fairly quickly was able to complete the same activities as his twin sister, although it took a bit more time and patience.  He had to first figure out that he needs to follow an order from top to bottom and left to right as a general rule.  Once he figured that out, he was able to complete the activities.

I am pleased to say that the content in this reading workbook compliments what the twins are learning in preschool, which is actually a kindergarten curriculum.  If we need further reinforcement of these concepts, The Learning Company offers Curious George online activities that practice the same skills as learned in the workbook.  These activities offer our children an opportunity to practice what they have learned, but in a fun entertaining way.

The Learning Company website offers free printable PDF workbooks.  Parents can also print out certificates of achievement to give their children some well-deserved recognition.

You can learn more about these multimedia Curious George workbooks by visiting www.TheLearningCompany.com.  These workbooks retail for $5.99 and can be found at major book retailers, such as Amazon.com.


Thank you to The Learning Company for providing complimentary product samples for us to base this review upon.