Dream Train Craft to Settle Kids at Bedtime

It is all about Planes, Trains and Automobiles this month at the Poppin’s Book nook. We found a great Train book perfect for bedtime:

Steam Train, Dream Train by Sherri Duskey Rinker

The Dream train arrives at Nightfall station after dark. A team of animals jumps out to load up each truck with fun cargo. Hopping Kangaroos are in charge of loading the balls, Polar bears load a chiller car with ice cream,  The toy Dinos get their own flat train cars. When all the hard work is done the animals get into their own onboard beds and are rocked to sleep as the train pulls out of the station and chugs into the night. The little twist in the end will delight readers are they realize the true ‘home’ of the dream train.

Tom Lichtenheld’s colorful pastel illustrations make the story even cosier. The clouds and the landscape pictures of the train were my favorites. The kids loved spotting all the details in the picture of each train car.

To extend the book we made our own dream train to load some furry friends into before bedtime.

The train cars were made from empty tea boxes, but boxes of all shapes and sizes would work just as well.

I wanted the kids to be able to cover the cars themselves easily, so I put out different colors of tissue paper and scotch tape. They tore and folded and scrunched it to cover each ‘car’ and then added some black circles for wheels.

Decorative tape was added to the top for a bit of extra ‘flair’. I made an engine by covering another box with construction paper and adding fancy tape.

We did not join up the train cars because the kids wanted to take turns with their own cars ‘going first’ (translation: to avoid arguments).

Here are all the toys loaded up and ready to go to bed!

Thanks for visiting us and please be sure to check out all the other books and projects shared below.

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Good Night, Animal World: Adding Yoga to your bedtime routine

Bedtime for the kids can be something parents dread if they know it is going to be battle. I speak from experience. It took me a good while to find decent routine that would work even if we were on vacation or on the move. Still there are nights when I grow a grey hair or two. 
This is why I was excited to be offered the chance to review a very different type of bedtime story. 

Good Night, Animal World: A Kids Yoga Bedtime Story was written by Giselle Shardlow and includes 13 calming yoga poses that kids can do as you read the text aloud. On each page is a different animal from one of 6 parts of the world. A related yoga pose is demonstrated by one of 6 cute cartoon kids. The beautiful illustrations by Emily Gedzyk show the animals looking calm and sleepy. The simple text has kids saying goodnight to each fuzzy friend. 

I was initially concerned that having the kids balancing and stretching right before bed could get them all energized but I am happy to report I was wrong. The pictures and the poses gave them something to focus on and they have enjoyed adding it into their evening right after toothbrushing. What I also liked a lot was that the text makes it simple enough to hold a younger child's attention and the poses were suitable for all ages and strength. I would throughly recommend this book to Parents and Grandparent of preschool through 3rd grade. It is likely, however that younger or older siblings are going to have no issues with joining in the yoga fun.

To get a look at this creative book please take a look at the trailer

We were thrilled to be part of a blog tour hosted by Renee at Mother and Daughter Book Reviews. I received a digital copy of this title in return for an honest review. To see the review from all the bloggers participating you can visit the tour schedule here.

As part of the promotion you can also enter to win a $25 amazon gift card! Enter on the rafflecopter below.

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Wizard of Oz unit inspired by Mickey Mouse Clubhouse

Our preschooler has been a Mickey Mouse fan for a long time. This week Disney Junior is premiering the Wizard of Oz themed episode and Mini Piwi is excited! She begged for the DVD but we knew it would be on TV soon enough.

Now that it is here, I am surprising her with a Wizard of Oz theme. I am sharing our plans now so you can use these resources with your Mickey fans. We will be incorporating the following into our fun this week.

The Wizard of Oz (Anniversary Ed. for Young readers) adapted by Beth Bracken. In celebration of the 75th Anniversary of the Wizard of Oz film release, Capstone younger readers have released a condensed and illustrated version. The title is filled with amazing stills from the movie and Beth Bracken does a great job at squeezing the film into 30 pages. It gives younger kids a taste of the story without the aspects that scared me as a kid (... the flying monkeys still kind of creep me out).

Last year we used some of the printables from the Wizard of Oz preschool Pack from Homeschool creations. I have pulled this out again and the scare free book the unit is based on The Wizard of Oz (Keepsake Stories).


From Homeschool Creations

I will also be including a few activities from Mickey Preschool Pack from 1+1+1=1.


From 1+1+1=1

Here are two trays I prepared to begin the unit with.They both use printables from the Wizard of Oz preschool Pack from Homeschool creations.

Beginning letter match! A while back I picked up two sets of these Magnetic letters at the Dollar Store. We often match with them on the fridge! After the letter Matching activity we will follow up with the letter tracing sheet included in the pack.

Measure the Yellow brick Road. We are going to use several types of Math manipulatives to measure the distance between Dorothy and the emerald city on this sheet. You could also use coins, beans, beans etc.


Our crafts will be based on what each character is asking the Wizard for:

• Dorothy is asking to go home so we will make a cute 'Home is where the Heart is craft' at Think Craft Blog.

From Think Crafts Blog

• The Scarecrow hopes for a brain so we will be 'using our noodles' to string up some pasta pattern jewellery.

• The Tin man wishes for a heart and so we are going to make one using our hands as I found at Hand and Footprint Art. The poem, to go with it, is too cute!

From Hand and Footprint Art

• The Lion needs courage and so we are going to make a list of ways we can show courage and then create a bravery award.

Update: I have also found a link for the Printables from Disney to promote the original DVD release. You can find it here









I have a few more tricks up my sleeve for this unit as well. If they go as planned then I will have pictures and more ideas ready to share soon!

This post contains affiliate links to the titles of the books and DVDs.

6 different ways to explore Feelings with Preschoolers



The week before Mini Piwi did this unit, she had mastered the potty. While we were hanging out in the bathroom (while she did what she was there for) we had a lot of time to talk about how proud she was feeling. I remembered pinning a Feeling tot book from 1+1+1=1 and realized that this would be the perfect time to print it out.

The tot book is sooo cute and Mini Piwi really enjoyed adding the correct 'feelings' face to the characters as I read out the pretend scenarios.

While we waited for Big Sis to finish her math we made an impromptu paper plate face. The mouth was attached with a metal brad so it could be happy or sad. It seemed to bother Mini Piwi a bit and eventually she glued it so it could only look happy.

Mini Piwi loves making and supervising me making her snacks. Here is her smiley face yogurt....

...And a Heart smiley chocolate peanut butter bread....the mouth she decided should be made out of nori after we had  'sushi'' for lunch. Her version of sushi is seaweed wrappers and rice.

Mini Piwi praticised her cutting skills with this simple matching craft. The shapes are pre printed on the contruction paper we bought. I just drew some feelings faces and made some label to describe how the feelings they showed. Mini Piwi taped them to the different shapes and then added the correct labels.

We had great fun with this unit and it is something that we hope to expand on in the future! What are some of the ways you have explored feelings with your little ones?

Three day potty training -yup! It works!

No More Pull ups! Do the Potty Dance! I never thought I would be writing a post about anything related to the bathroom. However I really wanted to share the success we had and thank Crystal from Growing a Jeweled Rose for the clear plan she provided.

Growing a Jeweled rose's 3 day potty plan

This time last week Mini Piwi was wearing pull ups and was showing no signs of giving them up. As I write this she is pretty much potty trained. I say 'pretty much' because as I am still putting them on her overnight –just in case- but so far she has been dry at night too.

I also have to give credit to Big sis who was awesome at reminding Mini Piwi too. She said later she didn’t want a puddle in her room –what ever her motivation it was great to have her help and we are proud of her too!

Our Potty kit!

Now that we are nearly a diaper free household we have taken on another potty training challenge...

Meet our new little furry bundle of joy....

Butter the Basset Hound

 Perry the cat is not very impressed but has decided to tolerate his new housemate because the puppy seems to understand that Perry is still the king of the castle (and Miss K's bed).

Have you got any good tips for Kitty and Dog harmony?

Preschool Butterfly Science Unit

The Piwi''s just can't seem to get enough Butterflies and Insects. It seems our Save the Monarch project has ignited a shared love of (most) things creepy and crawly - Hairy spiders, Scorpions, Worms and Fire ants aren't so popular...

Everyday for nearly two weeks we have been moving our Milkweed seedlings into the sun in the morning and putting them undercover at night. While we are outside the kids have taken to observing the Roly poly bugs and Lizards that are out basking in the spring warmth. Some days they collect some beetles to watch for an hour inside other days they just like to watch them go about there work in the bark chips.

 After reading Eric Carle's Hungry little Caterpillar we used the cutting practice printable to make a poster of the caterpillar/butterfly life cycle (she also added some extras because 'they are 'friends'). We loved this Bug tot pack from 3 Dinosaurs.

The Dollar store had these cute Spring Sun catchers. There are so many great things there at the moment, little gardening aprons, bug study kits, kids garden tools, seeds.....we had to get out of there fast before I had the urge to fill up my basket. I only went in to get art supplies for a parcel we were sending overseas...

 I hadn't been printing out too many worksheets lately because Mini Piwi wasn't enjoying them. I added a couple this week to my folder of 'stuff' and she spotted the cute pictures and asked to do them. I was amazed how much more control she now has over the pen she insisted on using! These sheets are from 3 Dinosaurs and Two Teaching Mommies.

While tidying up the bookshelves the Piwis found books they hadn't read for awhile. Mini Piwi was fascinated by a kids cook book. She actually slept next to it for a few nights and would wake up asking to make something out of it. Her favorite creation was a Yogurt & Berry 'Butterfly' 

My other Dollar store find was a little bug observation set.  Mini Piwi loved finding this in her tray. It included a 'bug catcher', plastic magnifying glass and magnified bug holder. She just used the catcher on the pretend bugs because I was worried she might squash live one with it.

'Plastic Bug catching'

 By the end of the week our 'Sharing board' was full of color!

I captured my favorite moment: Here are two friends sitting by the window..Perry is pretending to be part of a Montessori activity while Mini Piwi is playing the Hungry Little Caterpillar app.

What is the warmer weather inspiring you to do?

Preschool Spring Bee and Butterfly Trays for Colors and Counting (Free Printables)

When we made Spring flowers from egg cartons I starting thinking about how else we could use them. Ultimately they ended up inspired 3 math and matching activities...

Butterfly and Flower Color Matching 

 We used this tray for two activities

I told a story about how each butterfly wanted to visit a flower that was the same color they were. Mini Piwi then 'helped the butterflies' by matching each card with their matching flower. Later on in the day I turned the cards and the flowers over and we played memory match with them.

 Buzzy Bee Pollen count and Clip

 This one was extra fun because Mini Piwi and I made the Bee clips together.

We made bee pegs 0-10 so the activity can grow along with Mini Piwi. Right now she is only starting out with recognizing numerals and counting objects so to begin with I only included 4 flowers. I placed the 'pollen grains' into the flowers and together we counted them and choose the correct bee peg to clip to visit the flower. Once she got the hand of the pegs Mini Piwi thought it was great fun!

Would you like to make your own version?

You are welcome to print the bees, pollen and butterflies I made for the above trays....Pre K Bees and Butterflies Match and Clip (free printable)

You will also need 10 flowers in colors to match the butterflies on the printable.
I explained how we made them in DIY Ballerina Hair Garland from Egg Cartons but you could use real flowers, silk flowers, paper flowers, the sky's (and your craft supply's) are the limit. I'd love to see what you come up with!
 If you don't have pegs then you can match the bee number cards to your flower the way we did with the butterflies. I just happen to have some pegs leftover from another project.

We read one of my favorites to go with our bee activity...I think you might recognize it :-)  

By chance I also found a new book at the Library: Butterfly colors and Counting  (by Jerry Pallotta, illustrated by Shennen Bersani).  I think Mini Piwi thought it had been written just for her and her butterflies and flowers!

What are your favorite Bee or Butterfly books?