SNOWFLAKES AND WINTER THEME GAMES AND BOOKS

SNOWFLAKE ART:

For a pretty snowflake pattern I used a doily on top of a foam snowflake.  I gave each child a blue and white snowflake along with a doily for each.  (sorry for the glare on the bottom of the pictures, still trying to figure out the camera!)

 So the kids could experience two different kinds of painting I used two different kinds of paint... after placing the doily on the snowflake they sponge painted white craft paint over the doily in up and down motions covering the entire surface.  For the white snowflake they used a blue dot painter and also painted in an up and down motion all over the doily.

 When they were done and pulled up the doily a great snowflake type pattern appeared!  The thicker craft paint worked better as you can see below.  The blue paint was very light and didn't show up well in a picture.  These foam snowflakes have pre punched holes in them, so we put string through them and the kids were able to take them home and hang them up for a winter decoration.

LEARNING GAMES:

Matching Snowmen

Using colored flannel pieces I created a fun game for the kids.  I cut out 4 white snowmen with felt stick arms, felt carrot noses and drew on their eyes and mouth with a pen.  I then created hats and buttons for each snowman - one yellow, one blue, one red, and one green.  To play the game I mixed up all the colors, handed them to the child and they sorted the colors to created a snowman that had matching hat and buttons!  I also put these out on the flannel board just for fun during center time.  The kids liked creating their snowmen and making up stories.

Snowflake Sorting:
I found a bag of felt snowflakes at the craft store.  They were great to use for sorting.  The kids can sort by color or by shapes.  It is also fun to hide the snowflakes and have the kids hunt for snowflakes.  You can challenge them further by giving them a snowflake of a certain shape or color and they need to find only ones that match their snowflake.

BOOKS:

Some great winter themed books are:
White Snow, Bright Snow by Alvin Tresselt
Word Bird's Winter Words by Jane Belk Moncure
Tacky the Penguin by Helen Lester
Three Cheers for Tacky by Helen Lester
No Two Alike by Keith Baker
Snow by Manya Stojic

EASY INSTANT EDUCATIONAL ACTIVITIES

Go on over to the EIEA page - I posted some more fun, easy and quick things to do with your kids. Spend quality time with your children, exercising their brain with little or no preparation or materials needed!

Germs

Learning About Germs

Today our class learned about germs and how to keep our bodies healthy.  It is that time of year with lots of sniffles and coughs going around. I wanted to make sure the kids knew the best way to keep there germs to themselves.

BOOKS:

First we needed to talk about what germs are. We read the story  Germs Are Not for Sharing by Elizabeth Verdick.  Other books we read are - Zoo Ah-Choooo by Peter Mandel and "Stand Back" Said the Elephant, "I'm going to Sneeze" by Patricia Thomas.  I think Zoo Ah-Choo was better for the younger children and it illustrated very clearly what happens when the animals didn't cover their sneezes.

SIMPLE SONG/RHYME:

Wash Your Hands Song (sung to the tune of "row row row your boat")
Wash wash wash your hands, always nice and clean
Scrub the bottom and the top and fingers in between!

Dray Your Hands Song (sung to the tune of "row row row your boat")
Dry dry dry your hands, always nice and dry
dry the bottom and the top and put the towel away!

Covering your sneezes and coughs rhyme
Remember this rule if you please,
cover your mouth when you cough or sneeze.
First use your shirt, if you can,
then your elbow or kleenex and wash your hands!

We practiced pulling up our shirt over our mouth and nose when we knew a sneeze or cough was coming.  This is the best way to make sure those germs don't spread onto others.  But we also talked about if you have a shirt on that is to tight to pull up, or you are at the pool with a swimsuit on, how to cover your sneeze.  Again I gave them choices.  Sneezing or coughing into your elbow is best, again keeping the germs trapped.  But a kleenex of course catches all the germs and would be even better. We talked about washing hands after using a kleenex because at this age they are still learning how to use the kleenex correctly.


EXPERIMENT:

To make things a little more visual and "hands on" I took the kids near the bathroom to show them an example of how germs spread.  I told them that when I sneeze or cough lots of germs come out of my mouth, like the spray in the cooking spray can. I then sprayed my hand with the spray.  I reminded them how we can't see germs but that I was going to use something special for this "experiment" so they could see.  I shook some colored sugar onto my hand. All the little colored crystals became stuck to my hand and showed the kids my "germ" covered hands.  I then shook hands with each of them and pick up a toy.  They saw how the "germs" came off and stuck to their hands and also to the toy.
The kids really understood how easily germs can spread.  We then washed our hands well to get off all the "germs" and sang the "Wash Your Hands" song listed above.

ART:

Washing the germs off your hands art!

We decided to finger paint and have the paint represent germs! I also used blue and yellow paint so they could see how the colors mixed to make green.  Then after the kids had lots of fun finger painting all over a large piece of paper, they had to go wash their hands really well to make sure all the paint came off.  This was great practice to realize how much they need to concentrate when washing their hands to make sure all the germs come off.

 Great job washing!  All clean!

Cover your sneeze Art!
materials:
paper plate
markers
kleenex
construction paper
precut hands out of construction paper
preprinted copies of cover your sneeze and cough rhyme

I gave each child a paper plate and they drew their face on it with markers.  Then I gave them some pieces of construction paper with lines drawn on them for them to cut. I believe it is important to give them many experiences with scissors and practice those fine motor skills.

The papers became an arm and also a shirt.  They glued the klennex over their nose first, then the glued the hand on the arm and put the elbow over the kleenex.

 And then to make sure I really got the point across... I gave them the construction paper shirt to decorate and then I stapled that on top of everything!

Guess I covered all the bases.  But you know preschoolers during those weeks were it seems like everyone is sick, so many coughs and sneezes that we want to make sure they learn to cover up. Giving them 3 choices may seem extreme (klennex, elbow, or shirt), but I really think it helps them rely on which one works best for them.

I also printed out the cover your sneeze and cough rhyme on small pieces of paper and the children glued them to the back of the plate.

CENTERS:

I put doctor kits with stuffed animals at one center.  We had stuffed elephants which worked perfectly with our books that had sick elephants in them.

Humpty Dumpty Nursery Rhyme Fun

More Nursery Rhymes - Humpty Dumpty

The kids had fun with the Humpty Dumpty nursery rhyme.  We even added plastic eggs (with faces drawn on them) to our block area so they could act out the rhyme of Humpty sitting on the wall.  It was fun to watch them try to balance him on the wall of blocks.

Here is the rhyme if you are not familiar:

Humpty Dumpty sat on the wall

Humpty Dumpty had a great fall

All the king's horses and all the king's men

Couldn't put Humpty together again.

Our art project was a good time for scissor practice as well as fun sponge art to make Humpty Dumpty sitting on a brick wall.    I started by giving the children a piece of paper with an oval drawn on it.  They told me the shape if they remembered, and if not we talked about ovals.  Then they used the child friendly scissors to cut out the oval. This is a great time to watch how the children are using the scissors and help when needed.  Good practice of those fine motor skills!

I had the crayons out so they could decorate Humpty's face however they wanted.  (sorry I don't have a picture of it, I deleted it by accident, but you can see how the oval looks in the finished product).  After they finished Humpty they used rectangular pieces (another chance to practice the names of shapes) of sponge to sponge paint red "bricks" onto the bottom half of the paper.  The harder they press on the rectangle, the better it will come out looking like a brick.

Then they put glue on the back of Humpty and glued him to the top of the wall!  

Fun and easy.   As you can see, one of the children used paint on their Humpty face as well. So whatever works!  Also, our letter of the week was "R" so the adding the color of  "R"ed paint to our Nursey "R"hyme week worked out well. 

Nursery Rhyme Bubble Painting!

BUBBLE PAINTING - The Cow Jumped Over the Moon...

So today we were talking about Nursery Rhymes in preschool (we are also talking about the letter R so "r"hyming is a great skill to work on).  We read lots of different nursery rhymes and acted them out too.

We chose "Hey Diddle, Diddle" to use for our art project - bubble painting - because I love how the pattern made by the bubbles looks like the surface of the moon.

Here is the rhyme :  Hey Diddle Diddle, the cat and the fiddle

                               The cow jumped over the moon,

                               The little dog laughed to see such sport and

                               The dish ran away with the spoon.

Here is the art :

I used yellow and black paint for the moon, and brown for the cow.  Mix same amount of paint and dish soap (start with 2 tablespoons) and add a little water.  Mix it together, put a straw in and have the children blow until bubbles form all the way over the top of the bowl.

 

Once the bubbles are overflowing, the child takes the paper and places it face down on the bubbles.  The bubbles pop and leave a design on the paper!  Don't let the paper push down into the bowl or it will get soaked, just leave it on top and the design will be great.

 I think this really looks like a moon!  And we did it again with yellow on top of the black to make the moon glow.

For the cow I had a preprinted paper with a cow outline on it.  We blew brown bubbles and put the cow paper face down on it.

 

The papers dried quickly, I cut them out and the kids used glue sticks to put on a black paper.  They needed to know the difference between under, over, beside, to know where to place the cow in relation to the moon. 

They also wanted to add stars so we used a star stamp to put stars around in the sky.  

The finished product looked cute with  the Cow Jumping Over the moon and the neat patterns made by the bubble paint!

Winter Fun

We don't have lots of winter going on out here in California. It's been crazy warm.  But the kids still love to sing and dream about snowmen and snowflakes!  And we played with some great pretend snow, I found the recipe at Mommas Fun World!  

5 LITTLE SNOWMEN 

This song is fun for the kids, especially if you have the "5 little snowmen" (snowman foam stickers on popsicle sticks).  After singing it together a while they like holding the snowmen and taking turns saying the different lines.  I have 5 children at a time stand in front of the class to act it out.  Of course you can just act it out with your fingers or draw snowmen and use the drawings to hold up in front of their faces as they sing.  

5 Little snowmen sitting on a gate

The 1st one said, "It's getting late"

The 2nd one said, "I think it's going to snow"

The 3rd one said, "Good, that will make us grow"

The 4th one said, "Snow makes everything white"

The 5th one said, "Let's have a snowball fight!"

Then whoosh went the wind, and out went the lights, and the 5 little snowmen enjoyed their snowy night!

SNOWFLAKES ONE BY ONE

One little snowflake with nothing to do,

Along came another and then there were two.

Two little snowflakes playing in a tree

Along came another and then there were three.

Three little snowflakes looking for some more,

Along came another and then there were four.

Four little snowflakes that finally did arrive,

Along came another, and then there were five.

Five little snowflakes having so much fun,

Out came the sun, and then there were none!

FIVE LITTLE SNOWFLAKES

Five little snowflakes dancing here and there

Then one little snowflake blew away in the air!

Four little snowflakes dancing here and there

Then one little snowflake blew away in the air!

Three little snowflakes dancing here and there

Then one little snowflake blew away in the air!

Two little snowflakes dancing here and there

Then one little snowflake blew away in the air!

One little snowflake dancing here and there

Then that little snowflake blew away in the air!

Zero little snowflakes, not one to be found

Cause five little snowflakes have fallen to the ground!

(You can act this out in many ways.  The kids can use their hands to be the snowflakes dancing.  They can use their whole body to be a dancing snowflake. Or I have some felt snowflakes that we use as we sing and throw in the air when we sing "blew away in the air" and so by the end of the song all the felt snowflakes are on the ground, just like the song says :))  

Valentine's Day Love Bug Gift

LOVE BUG MAGNETS FOR VALENTINES DAY!

Here is a fun craft for the kids to make for their parents, relatives, etc. for Valentines Day.

It is pretty easy, and very low on mess.  Love Bugs!

I started with a piece of red craft foam and traced out the hearts shapes. Two hearts will make the wings for one "love bug".  I made a heart out of paper first as a template because it's much easier to cut a pretty heart when the paper is folded.  I made the hearts a size that would fit best on popsicle stick I was using.  Just experiment on scrap paper until you get the size you need.  I am having 4 children make love bugs, so I made 8 hearts.

Other supplies include popsicle sticks (you can use precolored, or plain). I like to use plain sticks and let the kids color them with markers.  I also got lot of peel and stick foam heart stickers in the dollar area at Target (of course I got them last year after valentine's day for more than 1/2 off! - always grab things after the season is over when it is on clearance) .  Googly eyes are always great to use to make these little critters really cute!

I hot glue the wings onto the popsicle sticks ahead of time, as well as hot gluing the magnet on the back of the popsicle stick.  While the glue gun is out I also put the googly eyes on the stick above the wings (you'll see in the finished product). The child's name and year the craft was made is nice to put on the back.

Have the kids decorate the large foam hearts (wings) by sticking the heart stickers on them, they can also add designs with colored markers if they wish.   Let them make it there own, and be as creative as they want.  When they are done the person who receives this Valentine gift has a great keepsake to see on their fridge everyday!

You can also make a simple card with folded construction paper (red, pink, or purple) decorated with markers, crayons, or paint and stickers.  If you feel like it you can put  --- Happy Valentine's Day From Your Little "Love Bug" on the card.

Have fun!