Our Lady of Fatima Feast Day

May 15th was the feast of Our Lady of Fatima this year and it fell on a preschool day for us.  So I read the children the story of what happened in Fatima almost 100 years ago.  We recreated the miracle of the sun with our art project you can see below:

First we painted a paper plate yellow to make the sun.  

After it dried I cut around the edges to make points for a bright shining sun.

We wanted to recreate how the sun turned different colors during the miracle of the sun.  We covered a pre-cut circle of cardboard with foil.  Then the children painted the foil with a mixture of half glue and half water.  Once the foil was covered, they place cut pieces of colored tissue paper all over the circle, painting over the tissue with the glue mixture to make it stick.

The finished product was a beautiful, shiny circle of color!  The kids really enjoyed picking out colors and painting over them.

I used a brad to connect the colorful circle to the paper plate sun.

Once the two pieces were held together with the brad (not too tight), the colorful circle could spin and spin, as the colorful sun moved around the sky during the miracle of the sun.

ZOO ANIMALS

We are exploring the fun of animals for the next few weeks and this week we talked about Zoo animals. 

BOOKS:

The Zoo that Moved (true story about the Los Angeles Zoo moving) - by Gloria D. Miklowitz and Don Madden

Goodnight Gorilla - by Peggy Rathmann

Barney Goes to the Zoo - by Linda Cress Dowdy and Karen Malzeke-McDonald

Hop- Skip- Jump-A-Roo Zoo - by Jane Belk Moncure

ART:

We created lions with fork painting.  I didn't get pictures of the beginning of the process, but you can imagine.  We took a bowl and put it upside down on the yellow paper.  I helped to hold the bowl down as the children traced around it with an orange marker.  The I had them draw a small upside down triangle in the middle of the circle (to make the nose), two half circle lines out form the triangle (to make the mouth), and two larger circles for eyes.

Then they dipped a plastic fork in a shallow bowl of orange paint, making sure to press the fork down flat to get the bottom of the fork filled with paint.  Then they took the fork to the paper and pressed down and pulled to make the "hair" of the lion's mane.  

They continued the fork painting all around the face of the lion creating a beautiful mane and cute lion!

TABLE TOYS:

I put playdough out with popsicle sticks (long and short sizes), and animal shape cookie cutters.  The kids loved cutting out animals and putting them in "cages" they had made from the popsicle sticks stuck in playdough.  Some of them just used the cookie cutters as animals for their cages, as seen in the picture below.  They enjoyed their playdough zoos.

Transportation

Transportation is our theme for a couple weeks.  We talked about the basics - cars, trains, airplanes, helicopters, bikes, skateboards, etc.  and some of the kids suggested things like parachutes and roller skates as well.  So many things to explore with this topic. 

 

BOOKS:

 

Fred and Ted's Road Trip by Peter Eastman



Clink Clank Clunk! by Miriam Aroner
The Big Book of Things That Go by Dorling Kindersley Limited

Red Light, Green Light by Margaret Wise Brown

Jets by Carrie A. Braulick.

Helicopters by Jeffrey Zuehlke

 

ART:

Painting With Cars

When we read the funny book Fred and Ted's Road Trip by Peter Eastman, one of the character's in the book drives his car through a mud puddle.  This was perfect for us to lead right into our art project.  I filled up a plate with brown paint and we pretended it was a mud puddle. I supplied the kids different types of toy cars that had different types of wheels on them (some smooth, some with bumps, etc.) so that they could get a different pattern depending which one they used.  I gave them some light green card stock (good to have heavy paper to allow for them to "drive" a lot without ripping the paper), and let them drive around. 



 

 

Paper Airplanes

I didn't take any pictures of these as it was too hard for me to take a picture of each fold I made as I was making them.  Once the kids started playing with them outside we were having so much fun I forgot to take any pictures and then they took them home!  Sorry.  For this project I again used heavy cardstock so the planes would hold up well when we flew them outside.  The kids decorated them with stickers, markers, and crayons however they wanted (we folded the paper together first - I folded and they pressed it down flat and straight).
I used the book Paper airplanes. Flight school level 1  by Christopher L. Harbo.  It has instructions and photo-illustrated diagrams for making a variety of paper airplanes.

 

Rain and Weather

This week we talked about Rain and Weather.  We were lucky that it actually rained one day to remind us about this type of weather that we don't get very often in our area. 

 

BOOKS:

For our circle time we had some good books about weather:

The Wind  Blew by Pat Hutchins

Rain Drop Splash by Alvin Tresselt

Noah's Ark  illustrated by Peter Spier.

Like A Windy Day by Frank Asch and Devin Asch

Where does the Butterfly Go When It Rains? by Alvin Tresselt

 

 ART:

 

Rainbows:

We made rainbows out of paper plates, ripped paper, and cotton balls.  You need glue, hole punch, and yarn or a pipe cleaner to put it all together.  Because the kids I have are younger in age (3 and 4) I ripped up the paper ahead of time.  But for older 4 year olds and 5 year olds, let them rip the paper themselves.  Great help for their small motor skills that will help with writing.  I also precut the paper plates to look like a rainbow with a cloud on each end, and drew a line for each color so they knew where to put the different colored paper. 

 







 

The kids dotted the glue around the area for each color and then laid down the ripped paper in a line.  This was also good for their small motor skills.  I gave them a brush if they wanted to spread the glue out rather than just dot it on the plate.

 



After filling in all the colors they pulled apart a couple cotton balls and glued at the bottom for clouds.  Once it was completed I punched a hole in the top and threaded a pipe cleaner through (the children can also do those steps on their own) so it could be hung somewhere in their home.

 

 

Windsocks:

I can't seem to find the pictures I took of them making these!  Maybe we were having so much fun creating them that I forgot to take pictures, which I've done many times.  If I do find that I just forgot to get them off my camera, I'll post them here later.  But here are the instructions, hopefully it makes sense without a picture to go with it. 

The children picked out a colored piece of construction paper and then decorated it with markers, crayons and stickers.   These materials allowed us to turn them in to windsocks quickly and not need to wait for them to dry.  We rolled the paper together lengthwise and stapled it to hold it (you can also use clear tape), then I took streamers cut into 10 inch strips and we taped them (or stapled) on to the bottom of the paper.  We used a strip of construction paper (or a pipe cleaner) attached to the top to hold the windsock.  After the kids were done we took them outside and watched the wind blow them so we could tell which way the wind was coming from.



 

 

SHAPES

Last week we spent a couple days doing fun things with shapes.

Books we read:

Mouse Shapes by Ellen Stoll Walsh
Barney's Book of Shapes by Mark Bernthal
Ape Finds Shapes by Jane Belk Moncure
Circle in the Sky by Zachary Wilson
Word Bird's Book of Shapes by Jane Belk Moncure

Art:

Marble Painting on Shapes:
The kids got to pick whatever shape they wanted and we put it in the shoe box.  We placed a marble in the box and topped it with whatever color water based tempura paint they wanted.

They picked up the box and moved it back and forth and all around to make the marble roll around and create a neat design.  I found the children did much better with the movement of the box when they were standing up instead of sitting down.

 The finished shapes looked great!

Shape Pictures:
After reading Mouse Shapes by Ellen Stoll Walsh, the kids were definitely in the mood to create something out of shapes.  I gave them an assortment of shapes in different sizes and colors and let them go to it with glue sticks on white paper.  As they created their pictures we talked about the shapes they were using.  They used the pictures from the book Mouse Shapes to inspire them.  Here is a tree, sun and fish!

 They all wanted to make a cat like in the book.

The kids really enjoyed this activity as they watched a pile of different shapes turn into whatever they set their minds to!

Outside games:

A couple things we did outside to continue the shape theme was hula hoops (circles) and hopscotch (squares)

Spring Theme!

We had fun talking about spring last week in our preschool class.  Here is what we did for our art activities.

COFFEE FILTER FLOWERS:

Supplies: coffee filters, food coloring, eye droppers, newspaper, pipe cleaners

I filled some old muffin tins with food coloring and water.  The children used eye droppers to suck up the color and then drop it onto the coffee filter. Make sure to have one eye dropper for each color so the colors don't get mixed.  The kids love using the eye droppers, so have lots of coffee filters available for them to decorate! 

Also make sure to have lot of news paper and also a paper towel under the coffee filter. The kids sometimes squeeze out too much color and if you do not have enough layers to soak it up, it may stain your table.  So the more paper the better!  I had to put new papers for each coffee filter made.

Below is what one of the filters will look like when completed. It is pastel in color, if you want brighter colors, just use more food coloring and less water.

When the filter is dry (it doesn't take long) just fold it up together, and twist the bottom.  I cut pipe cleaners in half to use for the stems.  Just twist the top of the pipe cleaner around the bottom of the twisted coffee filter.  It turns into a great flower.  The kids each took home 3 and I am told they look great as a boquet in a vase.

BUTTERFLIES:

Another great spring activity is making butterflies.  We read the story - The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle and then we made these easy and beautiful butterflies:

First take a white piece of construction paper and have the kids squirt paint all over one side.  The more paint, the better.

 

Next I folded the paper in half and let the children press, press, press down on the paper which makes the paint smear all around.

Once the kids feel like they have pressed the paint enough, open up the paper and...

 A beautiful symmetrical painting.  Once it dried I folded it back up and cut around the outside in the shape of a butterfly.  The kids were so excited to fly their butterflies around I forgot to take a picture of the finished product!  Oh well, you get the idea.

Community Helpers

There is so much you can do with the theme of Community Helpers.  Here are a couple things that we did last week in our preschool class:

FIREFIGHTERS:

BOOKS:
Fire Safety by Lisa Herington
Fire, Fire said Mrs. McGuire by Bill Martin Jr.
Fire Fighter! by Angela Royston

SONGS/MOVEMENT:
Hurry, Hurry!
(act it out as sing it)
hurry, hurry, drive the firetruck
hurry, hurry, drive the firetruck
hurry, hurry, drive the firetruck
ding, ding, ding, ding, ding!

hurry, hurry, climb the ladder
hurry, hurry, climb the ladder
hurry, hurry, climb the ladder
ding, ding, ding, ding, ding!

hurry, hurry, squirt the water
hurry, hurry, squirt the water
hurry, hurry, squirt the water
ding, ding, ding, ding, ding!

(you can add, ..put on your helmet, slide down the poll, climb on the truck, etc.)


Talk about fire safety, especially being careful around the house in the kitchen and near the fireplaces.  We talked about how to stop, drop, and roll if needed. 

ART:
We did some good old finger painting with red and yellow paint to create flames.  I had the children do it on a plain piece of white paper and we cut it out to look like flames when it dried.  One of the children really loved the feel of the paint and kept painting until the paper actually ripped.  But we found the ripped paper looked like great flames!  The "flames" were glued onto black construction paper (it may look purple in the picture, but it was black!).

This is the one that ripped

The artist of this one wanted it cut instead of ripped

 

 

BAKERS:

Another community helper we talked about was bakers! 

 

BOOKS:

Little Bitty Baker by Leslie Muir

 

BAKING ACTIVITY:

We read the book about a baker who had no time to make their own birthday cake.  Then we baked muffins as gifts for our families.  The kids loved cracking eggs, pouring in ingredients and stirring.

 

ART:
We made chef's hats.  I took a long strip of white poster board, measured to their head.  They decorated it with markers.  Then I stapled a white plastic bag (from the grocery store) around on the inside of the circle strip.  It creates a natural "poof" and the kids loved them. This was a nice simple art activity to go along side the baking.