Turtles

Turtle shell prints for preschoolers

From: Teach Preschool

I don’t know what it is about turtles but I just love them and I am always trying to think of new ways to make them so they are a little less craftsy and a little more artsy….


This turned out to be a fun way to make turtle prints to go along with the book – “The Foolish Tortoise” by Eric Carle. Start by cutting out “shell” shapes or ovals from a piece of Styrofoam. I saved my pieces of Styrofoam from packages of meat and then washed them good with soap and hot water…

Older preschoolers can use a toothpick to carve lines or circle-shapes into the Styrofoam – younger preschoolers may need a little assistance to do the carving or can press the shapes into the Styrofoam with a small cookie cutter…

Next, roll some paint over the lines made into the Styrofoam…

Then flip the Styrofoam, paint side down, onto a sheet of paper and rub it. Now lift and you have a turtle shell print…

Provide several pieces of Styrofoam and different paint colors so that the children can explore making a variety of turtle shell prints…

Here is one with the more rounded prints…

Crayons can also be supplied so the children can add arm, legs, and a head if desired. I liked the shells without anything but here is a sample both ways…


Yes, even a preschooler can draw better than me

From: Homeschool Creations

The weather is getting cooler, a few leaves are changing color and giving the hint of crisp days to come. Fall is one of my favorite seasons because of so many different things: apple picking, the pumpkin patch, colorful leaves and cool weather. Definitely something we’re looking forward to around here!

 

The Fall Fun Learning Printables includes two separate downloads, one geared toward younger Preschoolers and another for Kindergarten. You’ll find word and letter tracer sheets, early writing strips, find the different object, and beginning sound cards along with a few other fun pieces ~ the Clip & Learn Wheel, fill in the missing number, shadow matching and more.
You can download the Fall Fun Learning Printables here.  Be sure to download both parts of the pack!

Brown Bear, Brown Bear

From 1+1+1=1


One mini book is for coloring…

The other is for reading and identifying shapes…I made a fold out alphabet (there’s also one with lowercase in the download)… A pocket with counting cards…Size sequencing bears…

And, my favorite…the Heads and Tails pocket…

You can find the Brown Bear files to download here!

Five Little Monkeys

Of course we have a few mini-books, the first one is about colors…And the other about counting/numbers 1-10…My tot loves the pockets with cards so I created a few of these for this set. The first is a simple story retelling pocket. You can see I added a photo of myself to be the “Momma” for him!The next is a Monkey Parts pocket, focusing on identifying body parts. I included a photo of Krash in this on also, so he can point to his parts and the monkey’s parts using the cards (except the tail, hopefully).I made a Monkey ABC set, including both lower and upper case letters. Krash knows all of his upper case and we re working on lowercase right now. I left his letters cut in strips like you see, as the 26 individual cards are just too much for him right now. I plan to help him sing the ABCs and lay them in correct order, and also match up the upper/lower case strips to each other. As he advances, I will cut them apart.Finally, I made a size sequencing set…
I plan to collect all of our stuffed monkeys, plastic monkeys, etc. and place a monkey on one of his trays with one of the new components. It will be tray work for him-which he likes, with a new little surprise each day!

Find the activities here.
From: 1+1+1=1

Pom Poms and Pipe Cleaners

From   Cost Cutting Creations

I also added an empty and clean plastic parmesan canister to add extra shapes for the stuffing! I have read some kids like the sound of the short pipe cleaners hitting the bottom.

Button Snake

From: Cost Cutting Creations

#12 - Button Snake

All you need to make this project is a button, ribbon, felt, thread/needle and scissors! The idea is to have your kiddos thread the felt pieces on and off the button snake for hours of entertainment!

This Mommy got the idea from  here ... click and enjoy!

Each felt square has a slit the size of the button.

It takes a little sewing skills to attach the button and last felt piece.

Letter in Name Check-In

From: Kids Count

Letters in Name Check-in - During the first month of school, every child has to put his/her name in the pocket chart under yes or no. The question is - Does your name have a(n) LETTER in it? We go through the alphabet and change the letter each day.

Finding Letters in My/Your Name

Materials:

• Rice
• Small Tub
• Magnetic letters
• Name cards
• Sentence strip, if desired

Activity:

1. Before activity begins, hide letters from all participating students' names in a small tub filled with rice.
2. Ask students to find their name cards before beginning.
3. In turn, allow students to sift through and find a letter.  Instruct child to first name the letter and then decide if it is in his/her name.  
4. If desired, student can repeat "The letter ___ is/is not in my name."
5. If the letter is in his/her name, allow child to keep letter.  If not ask child to give it to someone who does have that letter in his/her name.  Instruct receiving child to say sentence, if desired.
6. Continue until all letters have been retrieved.
7. Instruct students to now put all the letters in order to spell his/her name.

Variation: Include all letters to give students more practice naming letters or when working alone.

Father's Day book

The cutest Father's day book found here.

Letter Work

These pictures are floating around on Pinterest.  I'm not sure who to attribute the originals to, but if you know...please tell me, so that I can give credit where credit is due!

MISSING LETTERS

LETTER SOUNDS

UPPERCASE & LOWERCASE LETTER MATCH

 

 

 

 

 

The Five Senses

From: Mrs. Bremer's Kindergarten

 

Here's a cute activity that is a great review of the five senses.

Students cut and paste the parts onto the body, identifying the parts and which of the 5 senses it is connected to. 

I came across the idea on Pinterest, and used some outlines based on play2learnprintables and some from another website, but all tweaked a bit.

 

The outlines from play2learnprintables are actually meant as a 'Roll a Mr. Potato Head' game, which is a fun activity too, and can be found here. 

From Head to Toe

From: Mrs. Bremer's Kindergarten

To wrap up our 5 Senses unit, we read a fun book that talks about movement from head to toe...called From Head To Toe by Eric Carle.

Students L.O.V.E to act this book out as it is read. They also love to chime in on the repetitive phrases, especially answering the question "Can you do it?" with a loud "I can do it!"

We discussed how we have all been blessed with healthy bodies that can move in many ways, realizing that not everyone in the world is physically able to do these things.

The story lesson lead into a great class book.

Here are some of the entries from my students:

Cloud in a Cup

Weather: Fill the cup with water. Put shaving cream on top for a cloud. Explain that when clouds get really heavy with water, it rains! Then put blue food coloring on top of the cloud, and watch it rain.

Oily Fireworks

Number Ideas

Number play-doh stampers.

The Color Wheel

From: Mrs. Bremer's Kindergarten

 

 

This week our parent volunteer did a spring art lesson which incorporated the colour wheel.

The mice are too cute!

First she read Mouse Paint by Ellen Stoll Walsh.

The book is about white mice who get into the paint, and discover colour mixing.

Students didn't make the mice version of the colour wheel- they made spring flowers!

Our art lesson began with the students cutting 6 pre-drawn petals from white paper.

They then spread the petals out in front of them.

First they had to paint one petal each using the primary colours: red, yellow, blue.

Then it was time to mix colours to create the secondary colours: orange, green, purple.

As their petals dried, they headed to another table to work on the background paper.

Using plastic forks and green paint, students made grass along the bottom of their page.

Then a stem was glued on.

And finally, the dried petals were added on, in the colour wheel order.

They turned out great, and will add cheerful spring colour to the room!