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.

 



Healthy Foods, Healthy Bodies

Healthy Foods, Healthy Bodies

This week I talked with the kids about making good food choices so that our bodies stay strong and healthy.

SONG:

A fun song/game at circle time is "Betty Balloon".  I learned this from a teacher years ago and am not sure if I have the correct name for the song, but for me I call it Betty Balloon.  I have a pink balloon that I drew a face on with sharpy.  This is Betty.  Then I sing a song to the children about her (they sing along too, it is very catchy).

Sitting on the park bench, 

chewing my bubblegum (pretend to chew gum loudly),

playing with my yoyo (pretend to release yoyo down and up with sound affect)

when along comes Betty Balloon.

(use balloon like a puppet)

Betty says "hello, I'm so hungry, do you have anything good to eat?"

I don't, but lets ask my friends...

(Now this is when I ask one of the children if they have any food to share. Whatever the child says talk about if it is a food that will give Betty lots of good energy and help her grow, then blow a little air into Betty to represent the food she has eaten.  Have Betty "run off" behind your back.  Then start from the beginning of the song and continue to sing the song again and again until each child has gotten a turn to give Betty some food.  Fill her up just a little each time so that she will be almost full when you get to the last child.  After the last child Betty will need to "burp", you let go of the balloon it flies over the children's heads and everyone gets a big laugh)

BOOKS:

The Gulps - by Rosemary Wells and Marc Brown

Eating the Alphabet - by Lois Ehlert

ART:

We made a watermelon shaker.  A neat art project and the kids can use it for a musical instrument when they are done.  Each child painted red in the middle circle of their paper plate and then green around the outside.  

When it dried we turned it over and place dried kidney beans in the middle (you don't need too many and any dried bean will do, just not too small. If it is too small they may fall out).

 Fold the plate in half over the dried beans and staple shut (teacher should do the stapling, but older children may be able to with assistance).

 Then have the children put the black "seeds" on the red part of the watermelon.  Usually I have them dip their finger in black paint and use their fingerprint dot as the seeds (the top one in the picture below).  But I was out of black paint the day we made these so we used black marker.  I liked the creativity this allowed.  Some children used the marker in an up and down up and down method to created dots.  Other children wanted large seeds and drew larger circles.

I think I like the marker method better as I always enjoy the children getting the most creativity they can out of their art projects!

MORE ART:
Another thing we talked about was keeping our teeth healthy and clean.  We took a picture of a mouth with teeth (done on cream colored paper so the teeth look dirty) and they used toothbrushes dipped in white paint to scrub and brush them until they were "clean" and white!  Easy and fun project that gives them good practice at using small circles on each tooth when they brush.

 

TABLE TOYS:

Fruit and Vegetable sorters:  Talk about the difference between vegetables and fruit (fruits have seeds, so tomatoes are fruits!) and have lots of pictures of them cut out (or draw some and cut them out).  Have them sort onto 2 different paper plates, one says Vegetables and has different examples drawn on it already, and the other says Fruits also with examples drawn on it.

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.