Make Learning Fun with Mrs Mactivity and The Greatest Showman

To our delight, my two children (aged 5 and almost 3) and I discovered two new things this week - 
1 - The film The Greatest Showman, and 2 - Mrs Mactivity's boutique teaching and learning resources!

Both my son S and my daughter R love music and dancing so they we're absolutely enthralled with the film from start to finish! Although with such catchy songs, they couldn't sit still and danced around the living room singing and dancing!

My children dancing to The Greatest Showman!

It's such a heartwarming story about following your dreams, friendship and acceptance. I used the messages in the film to talk to my children about the importance of being kind to one another and how you shouldn't base your friendships on how another person looks. 


In 'real' life, I am also a teacher of Year 1 (ages 5 and 6). These are the kinds of themes that we discuss regularly during our P.S.H.E (Personal, Social and Health Education) or Circle Time sessions, so I can definitely see The Greatest Showman featuring in a fair few of my lesson this year!

So where does Mrs Mactivity come in I hear you ask?

Mrs Mactivity's fabulous website is full of adorable, hand drawn resources (suitable for parents, carers and teachers) that you won't find anywhere else! The resources are produced by current and past teachers with the KS1 National Curriculum and Early Learning Goals in mind, so you know their suitability for your children can be trusted. Their mission statement says it all - 

"Our mission is to change the world through inspiring and fun learning resources that really motivate children to learn."

There is so much to choose from, including reading, writing, phonics and maths resources, activities to help build fine motor skills, and a teacher's favourite - classroom displays and transition resources! There are also themed sets, such as the beautifully designed The Greatest Showman resources, some of which we tried out at home. 

The Greatest Showman mindfulness colouring sheets

These beautifully designed colouring sheets with inspirational quotes from The Greatest Showman were an instant hit with my two. Drawn with 'mindfulness' in mind, the intricate colouring patterns did not put my young children off! In fact, 5 year old S was more focused and tried really hard to keep within the lines. My 2 year old wasn't so accurate; she was just happy to be colouring in a picture of one of her favourite characters from the film! 

Colouring in the themed mindfulness sheets

I can see these being great to use in my KS1 class this term, to focus and calm them whilst they use the quotes to reflect on their uniqueness and being true to themselves.

Another resource we loved at home was the 0 - 20 bunting, available in standard and pre-cursive fonts. I opted to just print out and laminate the numbers 1 - 10 and hang them in my daughter's corner of the playroom at home.

All you need to make a great display of bunting!

She is desperate to learn and will be starting nursery after Christmas, so this lovely bunting will encourage her early number recognition. She is already motivated by seeing the friendly faces of the recognisable film characters smiling down at her! I may even print the whole set to add to my maths display in my classroom!

Bunting hanging in R's corner of the playroom

There are so many wonderful resources to choose from, that we ventured out of the themed resources and into the fine motor skills section, where I printed out some animal playdough mats to use later this week! The beauty of these is that once laminated, you can use them over and over again - either with playdough or wipe clean whiteboard pens - and I know they will keep my little one entertained and focused for ages! 

Playdough mats ready to go!

Most of Mrs Mactivity's resources are FREE, but for a very modest £9.97 per year you can have access to everything! This is such a small price to pay for such useful resources, and as a teacher I have paid a lot for subscriptions in the past! This is certainly one that I will be renewing each year, for use at home and at school. And if you can't find exactly what you're looking for, Mrs Mactivity offers an email service for requests (you can find the address on their website).

Mrs Mactivity has certainly proven to make learning fun and meaningful in this house, and I can't wait to try out some of the resources in my classroom too! 

Visit Mrs Mactivity to sign up today!

Did you enjoy our review? Don't forget to follow us on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and Pinterest! You can also follow our blog by email - never miss a post! Or if you're a fellow Blogger/Blogspot user, you can find the special 'follow' button in the sidebar of our web version!

* We were gifted a premium upgrade to Mrs Mactivity's website in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.*

Click me to pin!

I'm linking up this post with these fabulous blogs:

    

I’m also taking part in the Mummy Monday linky with Becca from Becca Blogs It Out