Octonauts Party Food Signs Free Printable

Looking for more Octonauts party ideas? Make sure you check out our Octonauts Birthday Party Food Ideas, Octonauts Favor Ideas, Octonauts Birthday Party Decoration Ideas, Sea Anemone Pipe Cleaner Craft and Paper Plate Fish Aquarium Craft!

Are you planning an Octonauts birthday party? We have a bunch of Octonauts party ideas here on the blog. I've had so many requests for the Octonauts food signs that I featured in our party food idea post that I have turned them into a free printable to share with you! Your party guests can explore, rescue, and protect to their heart's content while munching on every Octonauts themed food imaginable.

Our Octonauts party food signs printable includes the following:

-Buncha Muncha Crunchy Carrots

-Kelp Cakes

-Barnacle Kabobs

-Fish Biscuits

-Gup of Fruit

-Professor Inkling's Humuhumunukunukuapuaa Hummus

-Sea Cucumbers

-Sticky Starfish

-Seaweed Chips

-Fresh Salt-Free Ocean & Jellyfish Juice

-Shark Teeth

-Sound the Octo-Alert!

-Pufferfish

-Coral Chunks

-"Don't Forget to Take Home a Sparkly Sea Urchin & Jumping Jellyfish" (more for favors than food - it's a bonus!).

Most of the snacks we served were pretty easy to put together, and everyone enjoyed the party table! The majority of our food items were allergen-free as my son can't have wheat/gluten, dairy, or eggs. But you could do equivalent menu items with any kind of snacks you want. Make sure you check out the Octonauts Party Food Ideas post for more details on each of our menu items. I think the Gup of Fruit was one of my very favorite parts of the party table.

When you're ready, you can grab your free printable Octonauts Food Signs and get ready for your own awesome party! I trimmed my food signs inside the black lines, then glued them to slightly larger pieces of colored card stock to make them pop on the party table. I usually use a paper slicer to ensure I get even cuts.

What will you serve at your Octonauts birthday party?

Drama Teacher Resource: Free Printable Tongue Twisters

It's not often that the subject comes up here on the blog, but I own a private drama studio that operates out of my house. It's awesome and fun. And a little crazy! I thought it would be fun to share one of my favorite resources - free printable tongue twisters!

My students are huge fans of playing improvisation (or improv) games during each class, but I like for them to work on diction and character. I've tricked them into learning a lot about how to pronounce words by always starting rehearsal with a tongue twister (or four)!

We utilize three reasons for practicing with tongue twisters, and they're alliterated just for fun!

1. Pronunciation. Try making it a game to find the "hidden" letters that often get skipped over when using sloppy enunciation. Example: Diction is done with the tip of the tongue and the teeth. The letters to watch for here are the "p" in tip and the "d" in and.

2. Projection. Theatre games can be used to make kids feel more comfortable with themselves and with each other. Games also (in my classes, anyway) tend to rile kids up and make them louder and louder. This is great when you are trying to train them to use their vocal register to project to the back of an auditorium!

3. Partnership. Being part of a play is a team effort. When you're performing, there is no one there except your fellow cast mates to save the day in a case of forgotten lines or a misplaced prop. The more comfortable the team acts as a group, the more likely they can pull themselves out of an onstage disaster. I ask the kids to practice tongue twisters together - the goal is to say all of those hidden letters at the same time, not just spit them out as quickly as possible.

Tongue twisters are helpful for speech and language development in any kids - not just the dramatic one. How do you use them in your classroom?

You can download my list of favorite tongue twisters in a free printable here. Make sure you also snag my Character Analysis worksheet!

Does It Sink or Float? - Easy Preschool Science Experiment with Free Printable

 So far in my first year as a homeschool mom, I'm failing. Official preschool sessions do not happen every day, and sometimes not even every week. Sigh. I will continue to tell myself that this year is more about easing into the process and figuring out ways to help them learn. Since they are only three and two years old, I have a little bit of time.

We do still try to incorporate learning into our everyday adventures, even if that just means counting everything we touch, naming colors, and discussing how things work. Last weekend, Daddy was home and decided to put together some fun science experiments for the kids to do - and of course, they both loved it. I wold love to find more time in my day (when they are asleep) to prep crafts and projects for them, because they enjoy it so much!

So anyway - this post is about one of our experiments: Does It Sink or Float?

We gathered a tray, a pitcher filled with water, and a handful of random household objects. Then we set out to teach our kids about The Scientific Method (good basic overview here).

For each experiment, Andrew asked the kids if they thought the item would sink or float, let them hold it (briefly - Addie started eating some of the pieces of our lesson), and recorded their prediction on a Sink or Float chart (keep reading - free printable is at the bottom of the post). 

The first object tested was an apple, and the kids were both very intrigued as it was a floating object! 

Addie's predictions were primarily float at the beginning, while Lincoln's were primarily sink. As the game went on, they got a little better at guessing - or, at least they got lucky. 

You can use really any household items that won't be damaged by water in this game -  here's a list of what we tried.

-Apple
-Crayon
-Leaf
-Rock
-Measuring Spoon
-Regular Spoon
-Coin
-Carrot
-Golf Ball
-Cauliflower
-Toy Zebra

They were most interested in the items that floated - I guess they were more intriguing. 

Keep towels close by if your little helpers want to dig out the items that sink themselves - we had a near catastrophe in the middle of our experiment when water was spilled all over the table (and a pile of receipts and papers). 

What objects would you test in this Sink or Float game?

As promised, here are some free printables to help you enjoy this preschool activity!

Free Printable Object List (includes apple, egg, leaf, spoon, coin, and ice cube)

Free Printable Blank Object List

Happy experimenting!

Drama Teacher Resource: Free Printable Character Analysis Worksheet

I'm constantly sharing about my work-at-home Etsy business here on the blog, but I very rarely talk about my other job: teaching drama.

I've been giving drama lessons to kids for almost ten years, and my little program has grown a lot. My typical class session is 8-10 weeks and features a performance at the end of the semester. Our shows are based on short stories, most of which I have adapted myself. This semester, I'm teaching five classes, which comes out to eight hours of teaching a week. I'm blessed to have two sets of grandparents who are happy to keep track of Lincoln and Addie while I teach - and equally blessed that so many people want to participate in my classes.

When I started teaching, I had no idea what I was doing. I was a community theatre enthusiast and thought "well, I love it - so probably I can make it work." Yes, that was my strategy. Thankfully, people stuck with me in spite of my inexperience. I've come a long way since then, and am constantly incorporating new learning tools like improvisation games, projection exercises, and memorization bribes rewards. This year, I taught a short monologue memorization/recitation class, which inspired me to add in a Character Analysis Worksheet for my students this spring.

A character analysis is useful anytime someone is portraying another character, and I think this exercise will help take some of my students to the next level as far as character development. Since I teach kids from ages 6-16, I see a wide range of characters in the final productions. Sometimes they blow me away with their true-to-life characters and sometimes, I think "well, at least their lines are memorized."

I started searching for a good character analysis worksheet, but could not find anything that fit the needs of my class. So, I made my own! It's a one-page worksheet and features questions that will help even the youngest actor develop a character of their own. I am testing it out this semester and may add another sheet of more detailed questions for my teen students next time around.

This is a little outside the realm of my "normal" free printables here on the blog, but maybe some other drama teacher out there will find this to be a useful tool! I hope so, anyway. If you use it, let me know what you think - are there any questions I need to include in an "advanced" version?

You can download the Character Analysis Worksheet here! And make sure you grab my list of favorite free printable Tongue Twisters!