Excellence in Early Childhood Education

Join me over at Teach Preschool!

2010-07-24T00:08:00.000-04:00

If you haven't joined me over at Teach Preschool yet, I hope you will do so. I am posting over there every day...

2010-06-05T08:00:00.000-04:00

Parachute play is a great way to promote teamwork and to get those large muscles moving.

The children gather around the parachute and hold on to one of the parachute handles. There are more children then there are handles on the parachute so the children who are not holding a handle become the ball fetchers.

The balls are all placed in the center of the parachute and then the children begin to wave their arms up and down causing the balls to pop up and off of the parachute. The balls are very light weight so they pop up very easily.

One game I like to play with the parachute is called the popcorn game. When all the balls are in the middle, the children say together, "Pop, Pop, Popcorn!" The children lift their arms up high whey they say word "popcorn" and then bring their arms back down. Repeat the activity again.

Circle games are also fun to play with the parachute. All the children hold onto the edges of the parachute and then play "Ring Around the Rosie."

When planning your lesson plans, don't forget to give your students plenty of Large Motor activities to master. Children who are in full time childcare really need teachers to spend the time helping them practice such skills as skipping, jumping, marching, balancing, running, stretching, and more.

Other resources you may like:

Parachute Play PDF
Benefits of Parachute Play
Music for Parachute Play
Good book for Parachute Play

Making props for the preschool musical

2010-06-03T08:00:00.000-04:00

One of the dances in my preschool program is called Caterpillar Conga and I wanted to have each boy be a part of the caterpillar. I had to choose between a polka-dotted caterpillar, circle caterpillar, or just plain green.

I cut twelve circles out of large sheets of foam board and painted them green!

Here are the circles set up in my garage.

I thought you might like to know that I used rolls of old Christmas wrapping paper to work on.

Here is my Caterpillar all green.

Here is the caterpillar after adding an orange circle to the middle of each green circle!

And here is my caterpillar after adding polka-dots on the green.

I just love making props!!

Preparing for a musical production in preschool

2010-06-01T08:00:00.002-04:00

Each year, I have the privilege of directing a preschool musical at one of our local schools. I thought I would share a few tips about preparing preschoolers to sing or dance for their parents...

To help the children know where to stand during the presentation, I mark the floor with colorful painters tape. Painter's tape is easily removed but don't leave it up too long (I remove after three to four weeks) or it can become really stuck and leave a sticky residue. Masking tape is almost impossible to remove so use the painter's tape instead.

I place lines and "X's" on the floor so the children will know where to walk and where to stand during their dance. I have children as young as two years old that I teach to walk on the line and to find an "X". The children catch on quickly and I keep it fun by letting them march around the square and dance on an "X".

I keep all the "X's" the same color so the children do not worry about having to stand on a particular color. It helps remove some of the stress of not getting their favorite color and instead focus on dancing together!

The taped area is large enough for the entire group to stand on the line side-by-side without hitting or bumping into each other as they move their arms or turn around.

At this school, the children sit on a stage in their ready position and then follow the moves of the music director as she shows them how to move their arms, or in this case, their scarves in a rhythmical motion as they dance to a spider web ballet! The children are excellent at following the movements of the teacher.

The girls dance around the stage, following their lines, and then back up to front. Notice how we are learning to walk on our tiptoes!

There are several other tips I would recommend following for a successful experience...

1. Choose music the children can relate to or will enjoy listening and moving to.

2. Don't start practicing too soon before the show or the children will start to lose their enthusiasm and get bored - but do allow enough time for the children to feel confident about all the movements.

3. Don't force a child to participate but do encourage the child to participate every time you practice.

4. Keep the dances or songs you plan to sing fun and simple and teach the skills you would like the children to learn.

Skills we learn

The preschoolers practice motor skills such as marching, skipping, kicking, balancing on one foot, jumping, and more.

The preschoolers master such skills as listening, moving rhythmically, and working together to make and move in a group circle, march at the same time, and so forth.

My Number One priority is to make sure preschoolers are enjoying the experience:

It is extremely important to make sure the children are having fun and feeling confident. What I don't want in the end is to have robots on the stage doing all the same thing and wishing they didn't have to be there. What I do want is to highlight the skills and ability and natural expressions of the children as they dance together and have fun in the process!

See how Teacher Tom helps his children create and present their very own play!

Toddler art is great to display

2010-05-30T08:00:00.001-04:00

This isn't a new idea or even my idea but I wanted to document this idea in my blog because I think it is fabulous.

I am often asked for activities that toddlers can do that will also be great to display. Sometimes this is referred to as "refrigerator art." I hesitate to focus too much on refrigerator art because first and foremost I want to express how important it is to make sure theprocess of creating is emphasized more than the outcome.

Process over product is a term used over and over again by early childhood educators in hopes to help parents and others realize that young children learn through the doing. In my last post I shared the experience of Wy discovering the tools to create and exploring the process. In this post, Wy explored the process of painting with Q-tips which resulted in a colorful non-distinctive painting (shown above).

This painting (shown above) was another simple painting Wy created using sponge brushes. This painting may not look like a masterpiece but it can be displayed to look like a masterpiece and yet still preserve the process that Wy explored.

I took an old picture frame I had around the house.

Chose the part of the painting I wished to display and then trimmed around the edges to fit the back of the frame.

I then inserted the painting into the frame which resulted in a terrific piece of art to display and yet the learning process was preserved!

After trimming away the edges of the painting, I had one of Wy's little hand prints left over.

I cut out the hand print, dated it, and gave the handprint to Wy's daddy which he gently folded up and tucked into his wallet.

Lesson plans for the infant room

2010-05-28T08:00:00.002-04:00

An infant room is a special place where babies are nurtured, loved, and are given opportunities to learn! Infants are learning about themselves and their world every single minute of every single day.

1. To prepare an infant lesson plan, the first thing I like to consider is the developmental stages of an infant. Each stage brings about new understanding and abilities. Because you may have a variety of developmental stages in your care at one time, you will want to create a plan that is flexible and easily adjusted to meet the developmental needs of each child.
Here is a brief overview of the four developmental domains to include....

Physical - Development of Fine (small) and Gross (large) Motor Skills.
Cognitive - The process of making sense of the world around them.
Social - The awareness of others around them and the interaction with others around them.
Emotional - Development of self-awareness and self-confidence

2. You will want to repeat the activities you plan. I plan a weekly lesson plan and apply the activities with each child as the opportunity arises. Sometimes I am able to repeat an activity many times and other times I can't get to an activity at all. Infants need repeated opportunities to try the activities you plan in order to foster growth in all developmental domain areas.

3. Evaluate your lesson plans regularly. Each month you will want to adjust the level of ideas you plan to match the rapid growth and development of the babies in your care.

4. Including other areas. I also make sure I include music, sensory play, and creative expression.

5. Infants need time to explore. Don't feel you need to plan something for every waking minute. Infants also just need time to explore their world without constant interruption.

6. A schedule is not the same as a lesson plan. Don't confuse the infant's schedule with the lesson plan. The lesson plan is a set of ideas you hope to include throughout the week but the infant's schedule (sleeping, feeding, diaper changing) will always dictate how much time and when you will be able to present the ideas you have prepared in your lesson plan.

Here is a template that I often use to help me with my planning.

Learn a little bit about Baby Signing!

Bird nests your preschooler can make!

2010-05-26T23:40:00.000-04:00

This week was a week about spring and spring always reminds us of birds.

The children made their own little bird nests with eggs.

The children spread glue all over their paper then sprinkles brown confetti strips on top of the glue.

Then the children dipped their finger tips or thumbs into the stamp/ink pad and made little finger/thumb print eggs inside the nest.

Webbing lesson plans for preschool

2010-05-23T08:00:00.000-04:00

It was recently suggested that I talk a little bit about how to create a web that will help you in creating lesson plans. I am going to present a few very basic webs just to get you thinking!

Centers

This first web is focused on centers. This web is simply an example of how webbing can be used to help you think through all aspects of your classroom planning. In every web you want to start with the middle of the web. The middle of the web is the core idea that you will build all other parts of the web from.

Webbing out from the word in the middle are the centers I have elected to set up in my classroom. I could have added fewer or more centers. The point of this article is not to tell you what centers to include in your web or classroom, rather to show you how to use the webbing method.

Thematic Web

Now let's take a look at another simple web. This web takes a thematic approach but still focuses on centers. The chosen theme is birds. Now I have to decide what I want to include in my centers to allow for further exploring of the theme.

In the web to the left, I have added ideas to include in each center. Again this is a very basic example of webbing.

The purpose of webbing is to brainstorm ideas for your lesson plans. You can add more lines to each of the outside circles and at the end of each line, add more ideas.

Going off of this very basic web I would then choose the ideas I like best and transpose the chosen ideas into a lesson plan format.

Here is a basic lesson plan that I created from this simple web...

Webbing is for brainstorming ideas...

Grab a sheet of paper and draw a circle then start building your web of ideas. Your web can be simple or complex.

Webbing helps you build on a basic idea.
Webbing illustrates how each idea builds off another.
Webbing helps you think outside of the box.
Webbing helps you know where your lesson plans are weak and where they are strong.

Here are a few more basic webbing ideas for you to see how the core concept (middle circle) can be adjusted to meet the planning needs specific to your situation.

Farm Week in Preschool

2010-05-21T08:00:00.001-04:00

The children in this class spent the week exploring all about the farm. They explored a variety of activities including how to create the form of a tractor out of shapes.

For sensory, the children drove tractors in (and around) the dirt.

The children discovered the feel and shape of lima beans. The children then added water to their lima beans and let them sit overnight to see what would happen next. The next day, the beans absorbed the seeds and expanded. The children tried to predict what they thought would happen and many of them predicted the beans would get smaller.

Some of the children explored haystacks. The children sprinkled glue and shredded wheat on the print out.

For science, the children made butter from whipping cream. They poured whipping cream in a jar and shook it throughout the morning. After the butter was formed, they poured off the extra milk. Then the butter was refrigerated and later the children put a little of their home made butter on crackers to taste.

Organizing your preschoolers art supplies

2010-05-19T08:00:00.001-04:00

I thought I would share some of the ways teachers organize their student art supplies. Above is a caddy that holds markers, scissors, a stapler, crayons, and glue.

This little caddy also has a side pocket where crayons are kept. The caddy would be placed in the center of the table and the supplies shared by a small group of students. This is also a good way for children to store their supplies at home.

In this classroom, each child is given a plastic baggy to store their own set of supplies. Each baggy contains a glue stick, crayons, and the child's name card. The baggies are kept in a basket on the shelf and the children find their baggy with their name inside then take it to the table to participate in structured activities the teacher has planned.

There are additional art supplies kept in the art center as well such as scissors, paint, play dough, and so on.

The name cards are always included in each baggy.

The name cards are available for children to practice printing their own name and for promoting name recognition.

The children in the Kindergarten room each have a school box that they keep their basic art supplies in.

The children have glue, scissors, pencils, crayons, erasers, and rulers in their boxes.

The kindergarten children have name cards to but they are mounted to the tables.

Each child has their own space during structured classroom activities.

Keep in mind that the supplies kept in individual containers are used for specific learning activities. There are always many other types of supplies available to the children throughout the day in the writing, creative art, science, and other centers.

Q-tip painting with toddlers in preschool

2010-05-17T08:00:00.001-04:00

What started off a Q-tip painting quickly turned into full finger and body painting. This was Wy's first time exploring painting with Q-tips.

I started by having Wy sit across from me. I showed him how to dip the Q-tip into the paint and then swirl it around on the paper. Wy watched with interest but he would not touch the paint or Q-tips.

I decided to have Wy come and sit in my lap instead. For some reason, while sitting in my lap, Wy was more willing to explore the idea. Wy was more interested in exploring the cup and the Q-tip at first. I knew that before we could move onto any painting, I needed to let Wy explore the materials first.

It wasn't long before Wy was ready to try putting the paint on the paper. I held the cups and offered each color and Wy dipped his own Q-tip in the paint and rubbed it on the paper. At this point, Wy was simply exploring the process. Exploring the process is part of developing the creative process.

Occasionally, Wy would decide to get up and walk away for a minute then he would come back and try the process out some more. He was progressively getting more interested in the marks he was making on the paper. I could see him focus more on the design and less on just wanting to explore the cups and Q-tips.

The final outcome doesn't represent a rainbow or words or even an intended design. What the final outcome does represent is Wy's successful first experience at exploring the process of painting with Q-tips!

Easel Painting with twos in the preschool classroom

2010-05-15T08:00:00.000-04:00

In this twos classroom, easel painting is part of the daily routine. The children know how to get their own paint smock, slip it over their head, and then they head over to an open easel where paint, brushes, and paper is ready and waiting for them.

Some days they paint on short paper and other days they paint on large sheets of easel paper. The teachers change the kind of paper routinely. As the children start to paint, the teacher places the child's name at the top of the paper.

The children like to mix the paint colors and many of them enjoy painting the entire page - reaching up high to paint the top seems to be a favorite.

Easel painting is something these two year olds have mastered over time and with a great deal of practice. By giving the teachers opportunity to explore the paint and practice painting on the easel, it has become a natural part of their day. A child who has never explored painting at the easel is likely to paint on everything but the easel the first few times but don't give up - instead continue to offer the opportunity to try and see the growth and development improve.

Centers in the preschool classroom

2010-05-13T08:00:00.003-04:00

When children enter this classroom, they will discover plenty of things to do and the freedom to explore because each center in this classroom was designed just for them. At this table the children are creating paintings with the dot painters.

At the block center, a couple of boys have decided to pull out the legos. As they play with the legos, they also communicate with each other and discovering how to cooperate and collaborate.

These children have decided they would enjoy coloring a cow the teacher set out. It is farm week and the teacher has made available a variety of farm type activities in each center. This class loves to color so the teacher always provides a variety of coloring tools and materials.

The two girls decided they wanted to explore the blocks and woodworking tools. That's right - girls like blocks and tools too!

In the two year old classroom next door, this child is exploring the water table. The water stimulates her senses as she pours, drips, and splashes about.

This two year old reaches up high to paint on the easel. Easel painting is offered everyday to these two year olds and one can see that they are quite skilled at holding the brush, dipping it in the paint, and using the entire paper to create their masterpiece of the day.

These children enjoy time with play dough. The teachers provide a variety of tools to go along with the play dough each day. As you can see here, the children each have a tray to identify their own work space.

And this child decided he would like to just sit back and enjoy looking through this book.

The use of centers in preschool is a valuable way to keep children engaged in positive and constructive activities. Centers promote independence, social skills, creativity, interests, and more. As preschoolers are given opportunities to explore a variety of centers each day, they enjoy their experience in your classroom.

Providing centers is also a useful way to manage your classroom. When a variety of interesting and age appropriate activities are available, you will find children become less bored and stay more engaged in productive, positive participation.

Potato alphabet game in preschool

2010-05-11T08:00:00.000-04:00

It was farm week in this two year old classroom. Laying in the center of this table was a set of mixed up construction paper potatoes with one letter of the alphabet on each one.

There are several centers open throughout the classroom including a sand table, water table, easel, gluing activity, blocks, and so on. The teacher waits to see which children would like to participate in the game with her. I doesn't take long before a handful of twos come to her table to play the game.

Each of the children are given several potatoes and then the teacher ask the children to look and see if they have the letter A. This group of twos are very familiar with the letters of the alphabet so this is more of a review for them and not an introduction to the letters.

The children search through their potatoes as the teacher asks them to help her find the next letter. Then the children say the names of the letters they have found so far with the teacher. The game continues until all of the letters are found. Today's game reviews the letters A through J.

After all the letters are found, some of the children want to play the game again so the teacher mixes the potatoes all up and they play again.

Two year olds and triangles in preschool

2010-05-09T08:00:00.002-04:00

The two year olds in this class are exploring triangles. Each child reaches into a bag and selects different colors of triangles they would like to glue to their paper.

While the children work with the glue, the teacher converses with the child. "What color would you like to glue next?" "I see you are creating a pattern - blue, green, blue, green." "What shape are you holding in your hand?"

The child uses his hands to brush on the glue, turn over the triangles, and tap the triangle down in place. This is a simple process but the objective is to not only present a process that child can enjoy but to also open the door to new learning about shapes, colors, and patterns.

And in the end, the child has a bright, colorful shape picture to display on the wall. Once the picture is displayed, the teachers can again review the beautiful colors, patterns, and shapes.

Using one voice in the preschool classroom

2010-05-07T08:00:00.000-04:00

The thing about working with preschoolers is you are always having to either talk over lots of little voices or find creative ways to capture their attention. Lots of little voices all going at once is to be expected but lots of teacher voices all going at once should not be part of the plan.

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Too many teacher voices

If there are two or more teachers in the classroom and each are talking equally loud to get the attention of the entire class - the result is often more chaotic then helpful. The children need to know who to focus on and for a few moments - there should be only one voice.

Not so helpful

I have observed many classrooms where one teacher is in the front speaking to the children and the other teacher will call out across the room telling the children to listen. Each time one teacher raises the volume of his or her voice to help the other teacher it creates a conflict as to who the children should look at and listen to at that specific moment.

Who is in charge?

The lead teacher would normally be the main voice in the classroom. While the lead teacher is gaining the attention of students, all other teachers should use softer voices or even body language to support the lead teacher's efforts. If a student continues to be disruptive - the most helpful thing the assistant teacher can do at that moment is to discretely walk over and quietly address that child individually by reminding or encouraging the child to listen to what the lead teacher has to say.

Ultimately, every teacher should have a voice in the classroom but the goal is to use each voice effectively so that the children are not confused by who is in charge at a given moment. When one teacher is in the lead - then let that voice be the dominant voice.

One Voice

The next time you are in the classroom and you see another teacher ask for the children's attention, read a story, sing a song, or call for clean-up time; consider being the supportive voice that works behind the scenes helping to discretely guide children towards the main voice at that moment.

Remember...more than one dominating teacher voice along with lots of little voices does not lead to effective classroom management and communication.

Ideally, every teacher in the classroom needs to work together to create ONE focal point and ONE voice.

ProSocial skills in the preschool classroom

2010-05-05T08:00:00.000-04:00

I was asked by Noah of The People Garden to drum up some activities that promote pro-social sharing and negotiation skills for young children. I wanted to share this article so you could see the ideas as well. You will have to scroll down just a bit (past the very nice comments about me:) to see the activities.

There were four activities in all including...

#1 Sensory Play: Pepperoni Pizzas

#2 Music and Movement: Circle of Friends

#3 Creative Arts - Creating a rainbow

#4 Setting the Table

Click here to view each of these activities...

Morning greeting time in preschool

2010-05-03T08:00:00.000-04:00

I always start my day in preschool off with a morning greeting time which includes exploring the calendar, weather, seasons, and a brief review of basic concepts. Let me show you some of the ideas that can be included in a simple morning greeting time.

Sing the Hello Song!

I love to sing the Hello Song every morning. It lets the children know we are ready to begin the "learning" part of our day.

Who is here today!

Next I take "attendance" by letting the children move their name to the "I am here today" chart!

Calendar

Then we talk about the day, date, and year! I break it down to very basic terms such as having the children say: "Today is Monday" and "The date is April 20, 2010"

I also have the children count the number of days that we have had so far in the month and tell me what number will go next. If there is a special day coming up, such as a birthday or holiday, then that day is noted on the chart in advance and we count how many more days until it will be that special day.

Then we say (or sing) the days of the week in order.

Weather
Next we choose a weather helper to look out the window and tell us what the weather is. We sing the song:

Weather, weather,

What will the weather be today?

(sunny and warm)

That's what the weather will be today.

I then have the weather helper draw a weather symbol on a square of paper and we place it up on the bulletin board. The older children print the word of the symbol on the square as well. Each day a new weather symbol square is added and we look for patterns in the weather. We then count the number of rainy days in the month, sunny days, and so forth. For each new month we start a new set of weather symbol squares.

Seasons
We then sing the Four Seasons Song and identify each of the seasons on a chart. Sometimes we will spend more time on this by reading a book about seasons or talking about a particular season. For this month, we would talk about the signs of spring.

Helpers
I also choose our helpers during the morning greeting. I have used helpers that include:

Weather helper
Door holder
Line Leader
Caboose
Snack Helper
Lunch Helper
Plant and Fish Helper

I have also just assigned one Helper of the Day. It all depends on the age of the children and what they can handle.

Review of basic concepts
We then review many of the basic concepts. I simply point to the letters or numbers or shapes on the chart and we all say them together. Not a lot of time is spent on this - just a quick daily review and over time the children get better and better at their recognition of each letter, color, or shape. Since we use the numbers on the calendar, we do not repeat numbers again.

Morning Exercises
Finally we choose some music and movement activities for the children to stretch, run in place, and so forth as our morning exercise routine.

Recipes for home made art products

2010-05-01T08:00:00.004-04:00

Each photo below will take you to a great craft recipe that you will want to hang onto!

Mama Jenn: Colored Rice

Delicious Ambiguity: Sensory Bottle

Crunchy and Green: Salt Art

Preschool-What Fun We Have: Flour Finger Paint"

Centers and Circle Time: Pastel Colored Rice

The Artful Parent: Salt Paint

Pink and Green Mama: Cornstarch Sidewalk Paint

Quirky Mamma: Bubble Art

Delicious Ambiguity: Rainbow Science

A Handmade Childhood: Egg Tempera Paint

Teaching 2 and 3 Year Olds: Rainbow Milk Painting

Not Just Cute: Shave Cream Paint

Excellence in Early Childhood Education: Sweet Glue

Too Busy for TV: Home Made Fingerpaint

Frugal Family Fun Blog: Bubbles

Using the ideas of others in the preschool classroom

2010-04-29T08:00:00.002-04:00

I love to search out new preschool ideas and activities on other blogs. New ideas keep me motivated and inspired. However, once I find a cute idea, I visualize how I will do the activity with my students.

Lose the recipe

Often times teachers look at an idea they find online or in books as they would a recipe for baking a cake. Following the idea one step at a time. Following step one, step two, step three, and so forth, teachers feel they should not deviate from the recipe. But you need to understand that the outcome and process of the project should be based on the development of the children in your classroom.

Visualize what the children will actually do

As you plan to use an idea, ask yourself: "What will my children actually do?" If you are doing all of the cutting, tearing, arranging, folding, gluing, and so forth then what part of the process is left over for the children to actually do? Remember - it is in the doing that children begin to develop their skills, abilities, and confidence!

When I plan an activity I actually visualize my students taking part in the process. If there just doesn't seem like there will be enough for them to do then I change the idea up to make sure that the activity is something they can do all by themselves.

Creating flowers

Over the past few weeks I have found a ton of amazing ideas for flowers. I just love them all so at my first opportunity, I brought some of those ideas with me and presented them to a group of young children. However, I modified those ideas to fit what I felt would be best for the ages and stages of this particular group of young children.

Since I would only have one opportunity with this group of children, I decided to let them use a variety of materials to make their flowers. I first had the children brainstorm with me what ways we could use the materials to make flowers. We decided to try the following....

Colorful paint, colorful paper towel squares with seeds, straws, tape, yarn, and one child wanted me use letters to spell the word "HA".

Then the children were given time to make their own flowers.

The children started by snipping the edges of green paper to make some grass.

The children added some glue - all by themselves!

Then the children flipped the grass over and glued it to their paper.

Most of the children did the grass exactly the same way I did even though they were told they can put the grass any where they want.

Then stems were cut out by the children and then they glued the stems to their paper.

Some of the children preferred long stems and others wanted short.

One little girl only wanted one really tall stem.

This little girls decided she only wanted to use paint to create her flowers.

Oh, and her white flower is actually just a glob of glue since we didn't have any white paint!

Product and Process

In the end, we had a beautiful set of flowers to display in the room but we also enjoyed the process. The children were able to make decisions, use a variety of materials, and do the work without my help. I did provide guidance at first so the children could visualize the process but once the process was started, it was time to encourage their own creativity and skills.

If I were to be teaching these children on a regular basis, I would probably not have put out every type of material and instead had them try a different type of flower each day. I say this to let you know that I took a combination of ideas and adjusted them (or in this case - combined them) to make them work for my situation.

Teaching simple songs in preschool

2010-04-27T08:00:00.002-04:00

I wrote this article for Teaching Tiny Tots a few months ago on teaching simple songs to preschoolers. In this article, I talk about using the S-I-M-P-L-E method when introducing simple songs and fingerplays to young children.

Singing and Chanting the Itsy Bitsy Spider!

Bug-a-boo ideas for your preschool classroom

2010-04-25T08:00:00.003-04:00

A wonderful collection of some of the buggy ideas I have found for you to check out.

Bugs and Critters

]
by Mama to 3 Blessings

by Giggles Galore

by House of Baby Piranha

by Little Fingers that Play

by Pocket Full of Posies

by Ten Kids and a Dog

by No Time for Flashcards

by No Time for Flashcards

by Little Fingers that Play

by PreKinders

by Excellence in Early Childhood Education

by Preschool Daze

by Well I'll Be A Monkey's Mama

by Momma Jenn

by Rhinestones & Pinecones

A Mommy's Adventure

by Little Illuminations

Well I'll Be A Monkey's Mama

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by Little Illuminations

by Family Fun

by Preschool Playbook

by Crafts by Amanda

by Ramblings of a Crazy Woman

by Ramblings of a Crazy Woman

by Family Corner

by Miller Moments

by Lucky Me

by Pre-K Pages

Planet Pals

Planet Pals Spring Kit

Planet Pals Butterfly Net

Flower activities you can do with your preschoolers

2010-04-23T16:11:00.008-04:00

These are a wonderful collection of flower activities you can do with your preschoolers!

by PreKinders

By Frugal Family Fun

by Foxy Toy Box

by Preschool Playbook

by Preschool Daze

By DIY Preschool

By PreK-Preschool Ideas from Noey

by Preschool Playbook

by PreK-Preschool Ideas from Noey

by No Time for Flashcards

by Roots and Wings

by Little Fingers that Play

by Mama Jenn

by No Time For Flashcard

by No Time for Flash Cards

by Frugal Family Fun Blog

]

by Briargrove Elementary Art Page

Superheroes and Princesses

by Teaching Twos

by The Artful Parent

by Fugal Family Fun Blog

by Activity Village

Katies Nesting Spot

by Mommy Moments

by Learning and Teaching with Preschoolers

by Little Fingers Big Dreams

By Nurture Store

by Frugal Family Fun Blog

Hang onto those lids for your preschool class

2010-04-21T08:00:00.000-04:00

Here are a couple of ideas you can do with lids!

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by Crafts by Amanda

Use the lids to make your own little math counters!

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by Preschool Daze

Use the lids to sort by color!

by Cocukla Cocuk Olun

Hot glue some sponges or foam shapes on the lids to make your own stamps for printing!

Just click on each picture to see the blog post!

Collection of little bird activities you can do with your preschoolers

2010-04-19T08:00:00.005-04:00

These are some darling ideas I found online for birds activities you can do with your preschoolers!

by Preschool Playbook

by PEDACINHO DE MIM

by My Montessori Journey

by Little Illuminations

by Little Fingers that Play

by Every Thing Except the Grill

Click on each picture to see the Blog Post!