It's All About That Puffy Paint

You guys had so many questions about puffy paint after my last post!  If you have never made it before, it's time to dive in!  It's sooooo much fun!

Okay, so I'm going to be very real here.  I know many of you are probably type A personalities and want to make some puffy paint.....so you need measurements and all that jazz.  I get it.  I get it.  That's typically me, too, but kindergarten has taught me that sometimes, you just need to dive right in and have some fun!  This is one of those times.  I have never measured anything for puffy paint and it always turns out! 😱 Crazy, right?!

It's very simple.  Basically, you want to mix equal parts of shaving cream and white glue.  If you feel the need to measure, go for it.  So you could do one cup of shaving cream and one cup of white glue.  I love to use puffy paint for snow, so I don't need any kind of food coloring added.  If you want to color your puffy paint, I'd recommend adding a few drops to your glue before you mix it with the shaving cream.  I think that helps with the consistency at the end.  Once you have your equal parts in the same bowl or plate together, mix lightly.  I like my snow puffy paint to stay pretty fluffy, so I don't mix it a lot.  Just go for it and I promise your end result will be amazing!

Step 1: Mix equal parts of shaving cream and white glue in a plastic bowl or container.

Step 2: If you want it colored, add a few drops of food coloring until you get the desired color. (TIP: You can also add the food coloring to the white glue BEFORE you mix with shaving cream.)

Step 3: Use your puffy paint!  Foam brushes or larger bristled brushes work best so you get all the puff!

How did your puffy paint turn out?  Share your experience with me and send me your pics!

Do I Remember How To Teach????

It seems like it's been so long since I had kids in my classroom and actually got to teach!  I think we all have that fear in the back of our minds that we've forgotten how to do our jobs.  Good news--you haven't forgotten!  I was so thrilled to have a small group of students in class last week and we kind of just picked up where we left off!  It felt soooooo good!

Teaching online through Google Meet and having a group of kiddos in my classroom are two totally different things and it felt so good to be back in my element!  I only had about 1/2 of my class in attendance since we are doing small groups, but it truly felt amazing.  We wore masks and socially distanced with our seating arrangement, but we also read stories, painted, did some writing, completed calendar activities, danced along with GoNoodle, and so much more!  

I only had my students for about 2.5 hours, so I wanted to make today fun for them as we get back in the groove of things.  So, I chose one of my favorite fun winter stories to read and we completed some activities to go along with the book.  Today, we read "Sneezy the Snowman" by Maureen Wright.  This is such a cute story and always gives us a good giggle.

After reading about Sneezy and all the ways he melts in the story, we discussed everything and then completed a little story sequencing activity.  We listened to the story again from a YouTube read aloud as we did our story sequencing and completed this together.  I love this version of the story on YouTube (it's also great if you don't have the book already)!

After we finished up our story sequencing, we completed this fun writing craftivity.  The kids each came up with a way their snowman melted to complete the sentence, so they were all unique.  After they completed their writing, we got ready to make the puffy paint to create our own melted snowman!

The kids enjoyed the puffy paint so much and squealed with delight!  I have these huge makeup brushes I got for free somewhere, so I use those as my puffy paint brushes!  They're perfect for all my puffy paint projects and so easy to clean!  Since our snowmen are "melted" there is no need for perfection.  They can put the paint on their paper however they want and then all all the fun stuff snowmen would have such as eyes, buttons, a carrot nose (made from construction paper), a hat, etc.  You can definitely accessorize any way you want!  For this project, I just put all the paint on one plate and let the kiddos get what they needed.

I can't wait to share some of our other fun projects from this week with you, so watch for more fun with puffy paint!

Ready, Set, Shop!

It's been a while!  The holidays came and went and I took a little break from everything to make it through the rest of 2020 (I think we all understand the struggle there), but I'm back at it and ready to rock 2021!

The school year is still anything but normal, but I'm hoping to get my students back to school with me this week on a hybrid schedule.  We have been completely virtual since October and that was tough, but we are pushing through.  

Before I dive into all the fun things I plan to do when my students get back to school, I have some exciting news!  I've been wanting to expand a little and have added a new shop!  I am now a stylist for J. Elizabeth and they have some of the cutest items ever!  You can find everything from shirts to mugs to blankets.

The t-shirts are super cute and one of the first items to catch my eye!  There are shirts for everyone and some can even be customized.  I love all the shirts with the inspirational sayings, as well as all the shirts for different occupations.  This shirt is one of my favorites. 💛

In addition to all the awesome shirts, you can get other merchandise, which will make great gifts for yourself or someone else!  I love all the drinkware, especially the coffee mugs since I'm a new coffee drinker!  The home decor section also has some cute stuff like pillow covers, door mats, and wall canvases. Here are some of the cute cups you can get--perfect for Valentine's Day!

You can also get these cute personalized items with your family, best friends, or pets.  You can find everything from pillows to shirts to canvases to drinkware.  They make perfect gifts or an excellent addition to your home.  I love the customization options for these!

Cute items are already available for Valentine's Day and St. Patrick's Day, so be sure to head on over and get your order in!  You get FREE SHIPPING on any order over $99 and you can get 10% off any items in the "January Release" category with the code JANUARY21.  And here is my most favorite part--you can use Sezzle to pay!  When you checkout with Sezzle, you get to make 4 interest-free payments, so you only have to pay 25% at the time of purchase!  It doesn't get much better than that, so head on over to the shop and check it out!