Princess Week Wrap-up

We had a fun time having princess fun during princess week!

To finish up the week,

we headed over to the library for their Princesses and Pirates day.

It was so fun!

Everyone was invited to dress up,

so you better believe we did!

So here are some of my favorite princess posts from people I follow:

 Inspirations Surrounds always comes up with great ideas!

This time she had her children decorating princess dresses made out of play dough.

I can't even stand how much fun this looks.

The next rainy day we are totally doing this!

Go here to see how she did it.

I thought this idea from the Tutuzone was a fun one.

They used a sucker to create a fairy princess.

What a fun idea, we have all made ghosts out of suckers,

But a fairy princess would be so much more fun!

This idea is from Come Together Kids

She came up with this fun idea and created it before they went to see the movie Mirror Mirror.



The idea is that kids look at their reflection and see the crown upon their head.

This would also be a great way to talk about self worth.

Go here to see the great DIY.

This idea is from Casa Camacho

This is a really cute blog that I just started following.

She has lots of fun craft ideas, as well as practical home management ideas and printables.

Here she had a princess muffin tin tea party.

She had things like: Unicorn Calzones, and a Fruit Wand.

Go here to see the details.

How to Princess-ify Your Play Set

On with Princess Week!

In preparation for our princess puppet show,

I hung some curtains on our play set.

And it looked so cute,

so I went to town and hung some more!

I found this fuzzy pink material at the thrift store,

It was a big curtain I think, but for 6 yards, it was $2 total.

So I don't mind using it for fun random projects.

I hung the material with the Quilter's Tacker.

Which is a super easy way to hang tacks.

I also hung a piece of thick butcher paper,

and she started acting out Sleeping Beauty.

Playing with puppets helps children personalize their vocabulary,

improve recall, and can motivate children to read.

Makes sense right? :)

We used the puppets that she made when we studied,

There's A Wocket in my Pocket.

I glued on eyes and sticks on all of them,

to make them puppet friendly.

Another side benefit for Sweetie Pie,

Is that by me saving her creations,

and telling her these are good enough for a puppet show,

it validates her creativity.

After the puppet show,

she cleaned up,

and you can see how I tacked the butcher paper onto the beams.

The paper will probably come down,

but I think I will leave up the curtains this summer,

We'll see what the hubby says...:)

In the mean time,

here are some of the great books we have been reading during princess week:

Pirates and Princesses

By Jill & Sadie Kargman

This is a cute coming of age book,

when two best friends go to Kindergarten

they have a hard time staying best friends.

It was a sweet book that had a princess spin on real life.

Ella Bella Ballerina

and Sleeping Beauty

by James Mayhew

 

This is my FAVORITE! {And M's too!}
We just discovered these books, and they are great.
It incorporates ballet into the Sleeping Beauty story,
because it is already a famous ballet,
and does a great job of educating and entertaining.

The Very Fairy Princess
By Julie Andrews & Emma Walton Hamilton

Written by Mary Poppins and her daughter.

This book is another real life book with a princess spin.

A little girl who loves princesses does not get cast as the main princess in the ballet.

However, she comes to the rescue in the major way.

Princess Week Ideas

We jumped into Princess Week early

Here are some of the fun things we did this week!

We started by talking about being a princess for a day...

Aka getting married!

We talked about how fun it is to get married,

and about how important it is!

Why not right?

Have you noticed how more and more people choose not to get married? 

I decided to keep stressing the importance of it to her, starting when she is young.

We watched my wedding video, and read a book about my wedding.

Then we made princess cup cakes.

We flipped over a cup cake pulled out the frosting, and got decorating.

It was a fun way to talk about the importance of getting married!

Next, we played Disney on Ice.

We froze some princess figurines,

And put a cookie sheet with water in the freezer.

It was a great outside activity.

To make the "ice skating rink" pink,

I just mixed some tempera paint in, and added glitter on top.

To easily get the princess ice cubes out of the tray,

I dipped the bottom of the muffin tin

into some hot water in the sink for a couple of seconds.

After they were finished playing,

I just popped everything back into the freezer,

And on the next hot day we'll pull it back out!

Thanks to Time for Play for this great activity!

Happy Princess Week!

Here are some of our other princess ideas from our unit last year:

Create Your Own Princess

Where I gave her card board cutouts,

and lots of fun materials, and she made her own princess.

I can't wait to do this again,

to see what she comes up with now!

Let them Eat Cake

We learned about Marie Antoinette,

and made and decorated a cake.



Quiet Time Boxes

So for a couple of months now I have been using quiet time boxes. 

They are the best!
I am the type of mom that NEEDS down time!

While baby H. is taking his nap,
I send Miss Sweety pie down to her room to play with her quiet time box.

I started out with Lego's, K'nex, and stuffed animals.
But it wasn't up her alley {at all}.
I also made the mistake of giving her toys that were her favorites.
Then when it was playtime, or I was making dinner she had nothing to play with.

So I decided to make themed boxes with her forgotten toys.

Monday's theme: Aspiring Artist
It includes: A couple of Fancy Nancy books,
Dora water wonder paint note book
(uses water to paint, and then dries back white so it can be reused.)
wooden beads,
and some playschool people.

Tuesday's theme: Pinkalicious
It includes Pinkalicious and Purplealicious (the book),
Princess lacing cards,
and pretend hair styling kit.

Wednesday's theme: Dolls
It includes My "d" book (all about dolls)
paper dolls,
and baby doll with pretend bottle, food, clothes, diaper etc.

Thursday's Theme: Butterflies
It includes Fancy Nancy Bonjour Butterfly,
and other Fancy Nancy books,
wooden butterflies,
and some jewelery links.

Friday's theme: Princess
It includes My Froggy Valentine book,
Color Wonder book and crayons (too used for church, but not filled up.)
Princess Adventures static clean/dry erase book,
and play dough with Little Mermaid molds.
and a few other Disney Princess books.

Then I stored them under her bed,

with an alternate box,

so I can add things when I think of them,

or throw something extra in at the last minute.

P.S. If it's been a long day for her,

or she will be up late, I tell her she can play with her box and then she has to take a nap.

So here are some guidelines:

1. Use only the toys that your child doesn't play with everyday.

I just went around our house and through our bins of things she loves, but they are not her first choice.  For example, she never just picks up dolls, but she likes them. And at quiet time she is happy to have something new. So it was the forgotten toys around the house.

The key for M. was finding new exciting books.  Most of the books in her boxes are from the library, and I can rotate themes if I want. I usually put the books on hold and rotate through the books.

2. Don't use things that are consumable

Aka coloring books, stickers, markers or things that have to be thrown away when their all used up.

3. Don't use electronic things

Quiet time isn't very quiet with electronics.

4. Encourage your child to play with everything in the box.

Now I often include Lego's, and other things that are not on her top 10 toys.  I encourage her to play with them by telling her it's a rule to play with everything in the box.

5. Encourage your child to stay in their room until you get them.

This is the best rule!  But if this is too much of a stretch for your child, don't worry. Just work up slowly to your ultimate goal!

  

Here are some ideas for other things to put in a quiet time box:

1. Blocks

2. Magnetic Dolls

3. Measuring tape

(a small non dangerous one, it encourages M. to look at things in a new way.)

4. View Finders

5. Lite Bright
6. Plush Toys
7. Lincoln Logs
8. Tinker Toys
9. Doodler
10. Puzzles
11. Lego's
12.Kids K'Nex
13. Small Cars

Here are my other posts for Quiet Time Bags,
and a Quick Quiet Time Box idea.
Also check out The View From 5'5'' to find more ideas and how to's for Quiet Boxes.

Good Luck!
Happy Quiet Timing!!

Princess Party Wrap-Up

What a blast we have had with
 Princess Week!

To finish up the week Miss Sassy dressed up like princess/knight
and played "go get the bad guy" with the boy next door.
Her weapon of choice is a pancake flipper.

There are so many other great princess activities out there.

Here are some of my favorites:

Teach manners while you teach about princesses,

Just like Lightening Bug Literacy blog did!

She made a fancy place mat craft with her daughter.

I can't wait to do this!

Pebbles in My Pocket did a really fun craft.

She made a Magical Princess Wand.

With a little prep work young children could totally do this!

It would be great for patterning.

(with the candies inside the wand)

How fun would it be to make your own princess dress?

Here We Are Together used a large garden bag,

crayons, and lace trim to let her princess create this dress!

She also used the book Paper Bag Princess.

I have also been looking through all of the blogs I follow,

And pinning my favorite ideas to pinterest.
Click here to see more princess ideas!

Let Them Eat Cake!

We could not learn about castles and princesses

Without learning about

Marie Antoinette

Who was famous for saying:
"Let them Eat Cake!"

We looked at lots of pictures on-line of the Castle in Versailles.

And watched some videos about Marie Antoinette's life.

She was and Austrian princess who married Louis XVI at the height of the French Empire.  This period of time is very well know and depicted in the play Les Miserables.  The French people were frustrated with their king and queen.  They stormed the Palace of Versailles and took Mary and Louis and guillotine style publicly.  Thus Mary Antoinette is, to the French people, a queen tragically put to death for her husband's errors.  Aaah the romance!

I just taught Miss Sassy the good parts,

She loved learning about her.

We made and decorated a cake in her honor.

We used sugar cubes to make the cake look like a palace.

Sugar Cubes are amazing! I'm glad I bit the bullet and finally bought some!

I'm excited to use them for math and art!

We also squeezed frosting on it.

Poured sprinkles,

And put every sweet treat we have in the house on it.

I would definitely not serve this to the neighbors!

She double dipped and licked her fingers a few too many times!

But that was kinda the point!

Then we had our cake and ate it too!



The Paper Bag Princess

Today we read the book

The Paper Bag Princess

By Robert Munsch

It is a classic!
Look at that hair! (Naptime bed head!)

Before I read the story

Miss Sassy and Baby H. got "Princess" fruit snacks.

I had her sort them by color, count them and eat them.

We decided to act it out.
We love acting out books!

We got out our own paper bag princess, dragon, castle, and prince.

It was so fun to hear her repeat lines from the book.

And it was fun to see her get into it!

Here are the princess books that we will be reading this week:

The Paper Bag Princess
By Robert Munsch
(Of course!)

Castle an Eyewitness book

This is a fun way to actually learn about

princesses and midevil times.

The Princess Pea

By Lauren Child

This book has the best illustrations.

It's very fun to read.

Dora's Favorite Fairy Tales

I don't normally like T.V. character books,

This one is really great.

It is geared to children, and it is full of really great stories.

Cinderella

(A Pop-up book)

Illustrated By Matthew Reinhart

This book is beautiful!

It takes your breath away!

What are your favorite princess books?