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Views From a Step Stool

Open Minds & Messy Hands

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Letter C: Clothespin and Cotton Ball Cloud Painting

July 10, 2014 By Katie Chiavarone 1 Comment

  We learned 3 ‘C’ words with today’s art activity: clothespin, cotton ball and cloud. We are spending the month looking at the letters in Mack’s name in a fun way! If you haven’t done cotton ball painting you have to try it! It’s a great alternative to a paint

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Filed Under: Arts & Crafts, Learn Through Play, Preschool Arts& Crafts, Preschoolers, Toddler Arts & Crafts, Toddlers Tagged With: Letter C, Preschool Homeschool

M is for Mining for Magnets

July 9, 2014 By Katie Chiavarone Leave a Comment

Follow my blog with Bloglovin   All month long we will be focusing on the letters in Mack’s name through arts and crafts, sensory play and science projects. Rather than sticking to traditional letter of the week learning, I am trying to give letters context and focus more on learning

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Filed Under: Elementary, Learn Through Play, Preschool Science, Preschoolers, science, Sensory, Toddlers Tagged With: Preschool Homeschool

DIY Worm Farm: Preschool Science

June 17, 2014 By Katie Chiavarone 1 Comment

    We were on vacation camping last week and I had all of these fun projects planned to blog about but didn’t get to any of them!! It’s a good thing we had our indoor camping week before we left 🙂  I guess camping in and of itself was enough

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Filed Under: Elementary, Gentle Parenting, Learn Through Play, Outdoors, Preschool Science, Preschoolers, science, Spring Tagged With: Preschool Homeschool

Erupting Letters and Name Exploration

Erupting Letters and Name Exploration

May 22, 2014 By Katie Chiavarone Leave a Comment

  One of my favorite ways to occupy some time when I need to get dinner cooked is to set out a tray of baking soda, colored vinegar and some eye droppers. It never gets old and can keep my 3 year old entertained for at least 30 min! Because

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Filed Under: Learn Through Play, Preschool Science, Preschoolers, science, Toddler Science, Toddlers, Uncategorized Tagged With: Preschool Homeschool

Marbled Milk Paper: Science + Art for Kids

Marbled Milk Paper: Science + Art for Kids

May 21, 2014 By Katie Chiavarone 1 Comment

This is one of the most fun science experiments for toddlers and preschoolers! Combining science and art, not only is the process really awesome, but you can use the finished product to make some marbled milk prints! It’s so simple, all you need is milk, food coloring, Q-tips and dish

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Filed Under: Arts & Crafts, Preschool Arts& Crafts, Preschool Science, science, Toddler Arts & Crafts, Toddler Science, Uncategorized Tagged With: art, kids, kids activities, moms, preschool, Preschool Homeschool, science, toddler

8 Indoor Painter’s Tape Activities: Rainy Day Fun

8 Indoor Painter’s Tape Activities: Rainy Day Fun

May 9, 2014 By Katie Chiavarone 2 Comments

I love painter’s tape, we have used it for so many different projects and my local dollar store usually has it in stock which is a major bonus! I’m going to list a few of my favorite activities, some that we have done and other that I want to try!

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Filed Under: Arts & Crafts, Uncategorized Tagged With: gross motor, painters tape, Preschool Homeschool, rainy day

Ice Erosion Experiment: Preschool Science

Ice Erosion Experiment: Preschool Science

May 1, 2014 By Katie Chiavarone Leave a Comment

Mack enjoyed learning about erosion with our backyard project a couple of days ago so I decided to follow it up with another ‘erosion-inspired’ science experiment. We used ice, epsom salt and watercolors to explore the effects of combining these ingredients.   I froze some blocks of ice in tupperware containers so

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Filed Under: science, Uncategorized Tagged With: Preschool Homeschool

Soil Erosion Science for Preschoolers

Soil Erosion Science for Preschoolers

April 29, 2014 By Katie Chiavarone Leave a Comment

This morning while at the park we took the time for a little impromptu lesson on soil erosion. The park that we most recently discovered had a little creek that we originally went to looking for tadpoles to begin our week of ‘F’ is for frog. We didn’t find any

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Filed Under: Outdoors, science, Uncategorized Tagged With: Preschool Homeschool

Getting Ready for Spring: DIY Bird Bath and an Updated Play House!

Getting Ready for Spring: DIY Bird Bath and an Updated Play House!

April 14, 2014 By Katie Chiavarone 2 Comments

  As you might know by now we have been enthusiastically getting ready for Spring around here! We didn’t do many of our ‘normal’ activities or projects this weekend because we spent both days getting our outside ready for activities and play to come by making a DIY bird bath

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Filed Under: Outdoors, science, Uncategorized Tagged With: Preschool Homeschool

Raising Butterflies with Kids: Setting Up an Observation Station

Raising Butterflies with Kids: Setting Up an Observation Station

March 30, 2014 By Katie Chiavarone Leave a Comment

Raising butterflies with kids is such a fun Spring activity to do at home or in the classroom. Here are some fun ways to set up a butterfly observation zone. One of our very favorite Spring activities is raising butterflies and setting up an observation station at home to witness

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Filed Under: science, Uncategorized Tagged With: Preschool Homeschool

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Welcome to Views From a Step Stool!

Welcome to Views From a Step Stool!

I am a mom to three little ones and love to create and explore every day with them! We have open minds and messy hands, come join in our adventures!

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What’s New

  • 12 Snowman Crafts for Kids
  • 10 Elf on the Shelf Printables to Download
  • 12 Elf on the Shelf Ideas
  • Candy Corn Sensory Bin
  • Emotions Sensory Bag
  • 10 Thanksgiving Handprint Crafts

What’s New:

  • 12 Snowman Crafts for Kids
  • 10 Elf on the Shelf Printables to Download
  • 12 Elf on the Shelf Ideas
  • Candy Corn Sensory Bin
  • Emotions Sensory Bag
  • 10 Thanksgiving Handprint Crafts
  • Build a Jack-o-Lantern Sensory Craft
  • Breakfast Smoothies for Kids with BlendJet Portable Blender
  • 12 Outdoor Painting Ideas for Kids
  • Educational Sensory Bin Ideas
  • 12 Animal Sensory Bin Ideas for Kids
  • 10 Insect Themed Sensory Bins
  • 12 Bee Crafts for Kids
  • 15 Easter Chick Crafts for Kids
  • 15+ Earth Day Crafts for Kids
  • St. Patrick’s Day Emotion Cut and Paste Printable Activity
  • Valentine’s Day Charades Words
  • Printable Color by Number Valentine’s Day Cards for Kids
  • Valentine’s Day Kindness Countdown Calendar: Free Printable
  • Valentine’s Day Pixel Art Color by Number: Free Printables

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