Giraffes

Here is a fun, simple, and easy craft if you are teaching about animals.  We were doing a week about zoo animals and thought it would be fun to make a giraffe. I outlined a giraffe face (shape of a foot, you can actually trace the child's foot if you want) and added a long neck, on yellow paper.  I had cut up brown tissue paper, but you could have the children cut the tissue paper themselves for scissor practice.  You could also used cut pieces of brown yarn.  The kids glued the pieces along the neck of the giraffe.  Then they put their finger in brown paint and made finger prints all over the body and face for the spots.  Simple and fun!

Feathered Friends

Today while talking about farm animals we discussed the animals that have feathers on the farm.  Ducks, Chickens, Roosters, Hens, Chicks, and Turkeys.  For art we created a feathered friend.  The child decided what kind of fowl it was.

I started by cutting a paper plate so that the middle was separate from the outside.  I then cut the outer ring into 3 parts and stapled it on so there were two "wings" and a "tail feather" on top.  If I had thought it through better I don't think I would have cut and stapled.  I would have just cut out areas so that there were wings and a tail left on the plate.  We also needed feathers (I had many white feathers, but also various colors - the kids all wanted rainbow colors on their bird), googly eyes, a piece of paper cut like a beak, and glue (I added yellow paint to the glue).

 The kids painted the yellow glue onto the plate and put the eyes, beak, and the feathers however they wanted.

 No two were alike and the kids loved their creations!

Scissor Practice Striped Tigers

Today we started our week about Zoo Animals.  For art we made Tigers.  I always like a chance for the preschoolers to use their fine motor skills and practice cutting with scissors, so instead of painting the tigers we cut "stripes" out of paper and glued them on.

I started with an outline of a tiger on orange construction paper.  I found a great free template at http://www.toddlerapproved.com/2014/07/sticky-tiger-craft-for-kids.html .

I gave the kids black scrap paper and had them cut them in strips. It is important that the pieces they are given are large enough for them to get a good grip on and hold onto while cutting a long strip with the scissors.

 After cutting strips they used glue sticks to glue the "stripes" onto the tigers body.

After they dried I cut out the outline of the tiger and they all turned out great!!

Traffic Safety

I have another post about transportation and the fun books we read and crafts we did back in May of 2014.  But I wanted to add this one about Traffic Safety.

During our theme of transportation I talked with my preschoolers about being safe when there are cars, buses, and other forms of transportation around.  We talked about crossing the street with adults only and NEVER running after a ball or toy if it goes into the street.

We read the book Red Light, Green Light by Margaret Wise Brown.  Another book that is good is We Learn about Road Safety by Constance Omawumi kola-Lawai.

When we went outside we played "Red Light, Green Light".

During circle time we sang the Traffic Light Song:

Red on top
Green below
Red means stop
Green means go
Yellow means wait
Even if you're late!


For our craft we made our own traffic lights and pasted the Traffic Light Song on the back.

I drew 3 circles with white crayon on black paper. I used a can of soup to make the circles.  I cut the paper in a shape of a traffic light.

Then I gathered red, yellow, and green paper (I used thin cheap construction paper so it is easier for the preschoolers to rip).  The preschoolers ripped the colored paper into small pieces. This is a great small motor exercise for their little fingers that need strength for writing.

Then they used glue sticks to cover the circles and fill them with the correct color for the traffic signal.

 Below you see one of my preschoolers wanted to see how the pieces of paper would stick if she "made it rain" down onto the paper.

When they were done we glued a copy of the song on the back. The non-ripped traffic light in the picture is a sample I show them so they know the order of the colors.

 

Apple Trees

 Back in November my preschoolers and I talked about apple harvest and they made some beautiful apple trees of their own.  I am finally getting around to sharing it with you.  I found this craft at http://www.readingconfetti.com/2013/09/easy-apple-tree-preschool-craft.html

First the kids paint a cardboard toilet paper roll brown.  I have cut slits in the top before they paint it.  The slits are the branches and make it easier to hold the "leaves".

Then the kids use their fingers to make "apples" with red paint on green tissue paper.

Once all is dry, we crumple up the tissue paper and place it on top of the toilet paper holder base. It makes a great looking apple tree.

Easter

We made  tissue paper "stained glass" crosses

First cut many different colors of tissue paper into small squares - any colors will do

lay a template for an outline of a cross on brown paper, trace and cut outside and inside the cross so have an "outline" in brown paper.

Lay the outline of the cross onto a piece of sticky clear contact paper.  You want the sticky side to be under the cross facing up at the child.

The child can then lay down the different colored tissue squares onto the sticky paper.

When they have filled up the paper, lay another piece of clear contact paper (sticky side down) on top of the tissue the put down, this will "seal" it.  Then cut around the cross and hang on a window. It makes a pretty Easter decoration.

Another fun craft for Easter is...

SHAVING CREAM EASTER EGGS:

First I layered a bunch of shaving cream on top of newspaper (you could also put on a pan, or piece of cardboard, but newspaper works fine).  Then I dropped different colors of food coloring all around the shaving cream.

The child uses a tip of a paint brush to swirl around the food coloring drops until they get a design they like.

Then they press down a piece of white construction paper onto the colored shaving cream gently and smooth their hands all over it to make sure each area of the paper is touching the shaving cream.

Then they carefully pull the paper off the shaving cream.  It comes out as alot of shaving cream stuck to the paper and doesn't look great, but then I take a popsicle stick and start at one end of the paper and scrape off all the shaving cream.  Underneath the shaving cream the colors have fused into the paper in a really neat way!

It was a great time for my preschoolers to practice their scissor skills and cut out egg shapes from the paper.  Some did it on their own, some needed me to draw the oval shape for them to cut on, and the younger ones needed some teacher help with the scissors.

Then they glued their "eggs" onto a paper with some fun easter grass below.

Letters

In my class we have a "letter of the week".  By spring we have gone through every letter of the alphabet.  During the week we do one craft that is centered around that letter.  I always print out my letter templates from dltk-teach.com/alphabuddies.  Then I try to figure out a creative way for the kids to fill up the letter outline with something that starts with that letter's sound.   Here are some crafts that I made for letters for my preschoolers.  Sorry I don't have all of them posted yet. I will add more as I have time. I figured better to put up some of the ideas at some point, rather than worry about getting them all up at once :)


LETTER A:

I took the Aa template and the children stamped red apples onto it.  Then they used their finger prints in black ink to make ants climbing up the side of the letter A.  We glued it to a big piece of red construction paper in the shape of an apple.

LETTER H:

For H I was having a hard time figuring out what to do, but finally came up with... H for horse.  I took a plastic horse I have and the kids got to put the "Hooves" in a bowl of paint, then have the "Horse" stomp around the letters Hh.  The kids had fun and when their parents ask what starts with H they'll show them the Horse's Hooves!  I also wanted to put something around the outside of the Hh template so we used stamps of a house and another horse.

LETTER J:

I cut the template of Jj into pieces like a Jigsaw puzzle.  Then the kids glued it back together
and colored it in with markers last.

.

LETTER Q:

I cut up pieces of different fabrics.  The children choose their fabric pieces and glued them onto the Qq template making a Quilted Q!

LETTER R:  
Take Red paper and have the children Rip it.  It is a great exercise for their small finger muscles that they are needing to build for writing. After ripping the red paper they glue it onto the Rr template.  Easy and they have fun.

LETTER X:

I traced the children's hands/arms with white crayon on black paper.  Then they glued down q-tips to look like the bones. It was a fun craft and we also read a book about x-rays before doing the craft so they really knew what the bones would look like.  I could have broken the q-tips into smaller pieces to really depict the small bones in the fingers, but for our purposes the full q-tip worked best and we talked about how really there are more smaller bones in your fingers and moved our fingers to see.