Pretty Cool Preschool

Valentine Sorting and Counting

2013-01-31T19:06:00.000-08:00

Try this easy sorting activity with mini erasers!!

Materials: Cupcake liners, mini erasers.

Set out as many cupcake liners as you have style of eraser.

Put erasers in a small bowl and set near cupcake liners.

Invite your child/ren to sort the different types of erasers.

They may stop here or....

count each category and chart the amount.

When children are done they can take home an eraser!

Hugs and Kisses! Valentines/Placemats

2013-01-29T19:27:00.000-08:00

Materials: 2 different colors construction paper, print out of x's and o's , ribbon, scissors, glue stick, Sharpie

Make a print out of the letters X and O in various fonts. Explain to children that the X looks like the crossing of your arms when you hug and the O looks like the shape your mouth makes when you give a kiss.

Cut out all the letters and place in a bowl.

Program a piece of construction paper with the phrase, "Hugs and Kisses!" or whatever else you want your valentine to say.

Glue Xs and Os onto the paper. Encourage children to not cover the writing on the paper.

Turn paper over and add glue all around.

Glue onto a larger piece of construction paper so that it makes a border.

Cut off excess construction paper so that it is even on all sides.

Glue ribbon all around the border of the smaller paper.

Laminate your valentine and you could use it as a place mat for your Valentine's Party!

Heart Match/Musical Chairs

2013-01-27T00:27:00.000-08:00

These number matching hearts can be placed in your math center or used in a game of musical chairs to help your little ones with number recognition and counting.

Materials: Construction paper, Sharpie, heart stickers, scissors, Ziploc bags

Draw a large heart onto a piece of construction paper. Make one heart for each number you wish to represent.

Cut out heart.

Cut heart in half.

Write numeral on one side of heart.

Put corresponding hearts on the other half.

Make a set of hearts with as many numbers as you would like to review. The higher the number, the smaller the heart stickers you will use so that they fit on the heart half.

You may place all the pieces into a Ziploc bag and place in your math center for your little ones to match.

Children dump out contents of the bag and proceed to match the hearts.

Musical Chairs:
The hearts can also be used to play musical chairs. Make sure to have enough numbered hearts as you have children. Children hold one half of heart and the remaining halves are place on the chairs. Make sure to have one chair for each child...no children have to be "out" in this game. When music stops, encourage children to find a match for their heart. When they find their match they sit on the chair where they find their match. To play again, each child places half of their heart on their chair and then trade their other half with a classmate.

Hand-picked Valentines

2013-01-22T20:47:00.000-08:00

Practice fine-motor skills by making your own Valentines!

Materials: Plastic sandwich bags, pink construction paper, white paper, Sweethearts candies, scalloped scissors, glue stick, pink pen (or printer), tongs(optional)

Write or type this poem onto a piece of white paper.

Cut the poem out using your choice of scalloped scissors.

Glue the poem onto a piece of pink construction paper.

Cut out poem leaving a small border all around.

Children may pour desired amount of candies into a plastic bag. For added fine motor skill practice, child/ren may use tongs to transfer candies from a bowl into the bag.

You may then place the poem inside the bag along with the candy or...

You may staple it to the outside of the bag. Happy Valentine's Day!

A Love-ly Snack!

2013-01-15T17:39:00.000-08:00

Celebrate Valentine's Day or surprise your loved one with heart-shaped toast!

Materials: Sliced bread, strawberry cream cheese, sprinkles, butter knife, heart-shaped cookie cutter, toaster (optional)

Give each child a slice of bread. They may toast it, if they want. Encourage them to place the cookie cutter on top of the bread and gently press down.

Gently remove the cookie cutter and reveal the new shape of your bread. Discard the remaining pieces.

Encourage your child/ren to gently spread some strawberry cream cheese onto their heart.

Add a bit of sprinkles on top. If you do not want children putting their fingers into the sprinkle bowl, you may either scoop some onto their plate and they can sprinkle it on or you may put the sprinkles into a shaker and they may shake them on.

If you are having a Valentine's Party, serve these with some strawberry milk and fresh strawberries. Yum!

Number Heart Match

2013-01-14T19:07:00.000-08:00

Make this number match for you Math Center this Valentine's Day! All you need is an old deck of playing cards!

Materials: Deck of cards, scissors, plastic bag

If you will be making this number match game thematic for Valentine's Day, pull out all the heart suits. If not, use the whole deck. If you are using it for number matching, leave out the un-numbered suits. If you are just doing basic matching, use the whole deck.

Cut each card in a zig-zag pattern horizontally.

Place all the cards in a plastic bag and place in your math center.

Children visit the math center, dump the cards out and proceed to try to match the cards.

If you want to focus on the actual number of the suits, make sure to not cut through them. That way, when the children match them you can help them count the suits as well. Ex. "1,2,3,4,5 clovers plus 1,2,3 clovers equal 8 clovers all together. Let's count all the clovers to check and see if we are correct. 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8. It's a match!"

Broken Heart Name Puzzle

2013-01-11T21:42:00.002-08:00

Practice name recognition with this heart themed activity! After making these heart-shaped puzzles, your children will have plenty of fun and practice putting their name together.

Materials: Red construction paper, Ziplock bags, Sharpie, scissors, Contact paper or laminator.

Draw a large heart onto the construction paper. It does not need to be perfect, just look at mine! But if you do want perfection, there are plenty of patterns you can find online.

Cut out your heart/s.

Write child's name in big letters across the heart. You may write in all capital letters or lowercase, however you choose.

Cut heart into zig-zag peices. You can cut between each letter or group of letters. However, do not cut through a letter because that would be confusing for the child to recognize.

Cover each piece, front and back, with contact paper or laminate.

Cut out, leaving a little bit of an edge.

Write each child's name onto a plastic sandwich bag.

Place broken heart pieces into appropriate bag. You may put them in your literacy center and invite children to find their name and try to put together their broken heart.

Children may use the name on their bag to help them spell their name and put their broken heart back together!

Penguin Treats

2013-01-10T18:48:00.003-08:00

Doing a unit on polar animals or, more specifically, penguins? After discussing penguin's diets have your little "penguins" make a fishy snack of their own! Goldfish crackers represent fish and the shelled sunflower seeds represent tiny krill (tiny shrimp-like creatures), both foods that penguins love to eat!

Materials: Sandwich bags, 3 bowls, measuring spoons and cups, shelled sunflower seeds, original goldfish crackers, pretzel goldfish crackers, note cards, sharpie

Separate sunflower seeds, original goldfish crackers, and pretzel goldfish crackers into 3 bowls.

Write measurements onto note cards and place in front of the appropriate bowl. I did 1 tbsp. for sunflower seeds and 1/4 cup each for the two types of crackers.

You may add the measuring tool you would like the kids to use by each bowl OR

add the whole set and let the children find the correct measuring spoon after reading the note card.

You may keep all the sandwich bags at the center so kids can make the snack on their own time or you may also pass bags out yourself. If you want, you can label each bag before-hand with the children's names or with "______'s Penguin Treats". If you label them, you can leave them at the center and they can practice name recognition by finding their bag.

Children may go to the center and use the appropriate measuring tools to add "penguin food" into their sandwich bags.

They can eat their penguin snack while they listen to their favorite penguin story!

Tacky the Penguin by Helen Lester is part of series of books that are some of my favorites.

Ice Fishing

2013-01-08T18:29:00.001-08:00

Looking for something different to fill your sensory tub with during a unit on Penguins or Winter Animals? In this activity your little ones can pretend to be penguins and go "ice" fishing for thier food! Just fill your sensory tub with packing peanuts (ice) and foam fish (penguin food) and encourage your little penguins to start fishing!

Materials: Sensory tub (or box), packing peanuts, foam sheets, tongs, scissors, sharpie

Draw a fish shape on the upper left hand corner of a foam sheet.

Fold foam sheet in half.

Fold in half one more time.

Cut out fish shape.

You should have four fish. Cut out as many as you please. Of course, the more children you have the more fish you should cut.

You may also decorate them if you please. If you want the search to be more difficult, cut fish out of white foam sheets.

Hide the fish under the "ice".

Make sure they are well hidden.

Invite children to the center to go "ice fishing". Provide each child with tongs. Using tongs is not only fun for them, it also strengthens their fine-motor skills.

Children try finding fish using their tongs. You can give them a net or other container to set their fish in and then have them count how many fish they have found.

You can also program the fish with numbers, letters, or whatever you are practicing.

If you have programmed fish with letters and numbers, children can categorize them accordingly and then put them in order. Happy Fishing!!

MLK Friendship Salad

2013-01-06T00:00:00.000-08:00

Martin Luther King's birthday falls on Monday, January 21st this year. What better way to celebrate than to make a "friendship" salad! Ahead of time, send a note home with your kids asking them to bring in their favorite fruit. Have children cut and combine all their fruit into a big bowl and enjoy the healthy snack they worked together to make. If you will be making this salad at home with your child/ren to celebrate MLK's birthday and accomplishments, use the fruit as a metaphor to teach MLK's dream. Explain that fruit are like people, there are many different types and they all look and taste different but in the end they are all the same; they are all fruit. MLK wanted all people to get along and have equal rights. Teach integration by having your child combine all the different kinds of fruit (people) into the same bowl. You may further explain racial segregation, if you wish, in simple terms by saying that not all children were allowed to attend the same schools or drink from the same water fountains just because of the color of their skin.

Materials: Various fruits, large bowl, knives (plastic or butter knives and paring knife), cutting board, apple corer, paper plates and forks.

Make sure to wash all fruit before you begin. If you have a sink that is readily available to your child/ren have them participate in the washing. This would be a good time to talk about the importance of hand washing and kitchen safety.

Start cutting fruit. Let children participate with as much preparation as possible while still being safe. If you position the apple corer, they can try to push down on the apple corer. Just make sure to supervise all sharp objects at all times. When finished with a sharp object, I would always put it out of reach.

Cutting a banana is one of the easiest to do for youngsters. Children as young as two years old can do this on their own. Just make sure to give them a tool that is not very sharp such as a plastic knife or a butter knife.

Cutting the stems off of a strawberry is also fairly easy and can be done by your child/ren.

Lastly, peeling tangerines (cuties) is something they can do on their own, considering you start it off for them.

Some of the other fruits in our salad are a bit more difficult to cut, so I did them on my own. I cut the orange and the pear. It is okay if you cut some of the fruit...the children will be very busy cutting up the rest of the fruit on their own. Mix up your salad and enjoy! Look at all those cool multi-colored fruit....everyone is so unique!

P is for Penguins!

2013-01-04T20:59:00.000-08:00

Practice beginning sounds with this positively perfect penguin activity! Reinforce the letter P and it's sound in this cut and color activity by encouraging your little ones to color the penguins pink and purple and then gluing them to the letter P.

Materials: Penguin Manipulatives sheet, white construction paper, scissors, pink & purple crayons, glue stick.

Draw a large letter P on the construction paper. Make sure that it is wide enough to fit penguins inside the lines of the P.

Let your child/ren color the penguins pink and purple. Focus on the beginning sounds of Penguins, purple, and pink.

Your child can choose to use all one color or use both. If you also want to add another dimension to this activity, encourage your little ones to color an even amount of pink and purple penguins and practice some p-p-patterning!

P is for pretty pink and purple AB patterned penguins!

Penguin Manipulatives

2013-01-03T20:08:00.000-08:00

These penguin manipulatives can be used for a variety of different purposes! They may be used in pretend play with the snow dough in my previous post, as counters, or incorporated into a literacy activity for beginning sounds like I will be doing tomorrow. In this post I use contact paper to cover them and make them sturdy and re-usable for dramatic play purposes. You may also laminate them if you have a laminating machine available to you. If you laminate them, I would suggest you first back them with posterboard or cardstock so that they don't curl up.

Materials: Contact paper, Penguin manipulatives print-out, scissors.

Here is the penguin print-out I used from Mailbox Magazine.

Cut out penguins.

Cut out a strip of contact paper.

Take the backing off of the contact paper

Cut out a piece of contact paper that will be big enough to place a penguin and fold some over to cover the penguin.

Cut off excess contact paper.

I used the penguins as a tool for imaginative play with the "snow" dough I made in my previous post. Check my post tomorrow for more ways to use the penguin manipulatives.

Snow Dough

2012-12-30T16:46:00.000-08:00

Turn your usual play dough into snow dough! Your child/ren will have plenty of fun playing in the "snow" with this dough. They can make snowmen, icebergs, or whatever their little heart desires! Add some penguin figurines and they can even pretend they are in the South Pole!

Materials/Ingredients: Flour, salt, water, oil, cream of tartar, silver glitter, wax paper, wooden spoon, saucepan, measuring cups, measuring spoons, Ziploc bag or air-tight container.

To make the dough you will need 2 cups of flour,

1 cup of salt,

4 tsp. cream of tartar,

4 tsp. oil,

and 2 cups of water. Mix all of these ingredients in a saucepan over medium heat.

Mix continuously until the mixture thickens and pulls away from the pan.

Form dough into a ball and place on a piece of wax paper.

Allow to cool and then knead until it is no longer sticky. If the dough is still too sticky, then dust with a little bit of flour.

After kneading, sprinkle generously with silver glitter. Knead and sprinkle with more glitter.

When dough has cooled, save in a sealed bag or air-tight container so that it does not dry out.

White as Snow

2012-12-29T18:18:00.001-08:00

Let your little ones explore the color white with this sensory activity. Children dig through pretend snow to find white items that have been hidden. For an added challenge, they may wear mittens to search through the "snow" and use a check list to mark off what they have found.

Materials: Sensory tub, packing peanuts, small white items (coffee filter, napkin, straw, spatula, measuring spoons, measuring cups, cotton balls, etc.), mittens, pencil, white paper, clipboard

Fill your sensory tub with packing peanuts to represent snow. If you don't have a sensory tub, you may use a big box or tub like I did.

On a piece of white paper, write a checklist of all the items you will hide in the "snow".

Hide all the white items in the "snow".

Let your child/ren wear their mittens and look for the items in the snow. You may have a box or basket nearby for them to put the items they have found.

Encourage them to find the item they found on the checklist and mark it off. For younger children, make sure to use chubbier writing utensils.

After they have found everything on their list, encourage them to count how many items they have found. Throughout the activity you will also be focusing on the color white. You may also introduce the word "camouflage". Share with your child/ren that when something is camouflaged it is blending in with its surroundings. The white items are hard to find because they are camouflaged; they blend in with the "snow" because the snow is the same color.

Snowshoe Hare

2012-12-28T23:55:00.002-08:00

Make this snowshoe hare during a study on winter animals. To camouflage, snowshoe hares turn brown in the summer and white in the winter.

Materials: Cotton balls, rabbit stencil, glue, scissors, sharpie, white construction paper.

If you right-click the picture above, you should be able to use it as a template.

Trace the rabbit pattern onto white construction paper, cut out, and draw details with a sharpie.

Add glue all over the rabbit cut-out.

Add cotton balls. Cotton balls may be stretched out to take up more space. The rabbit may also be made from brown construction paper to represent the rabbit in the summer and then covered in white to show how it changes to camouflage in the winter.

Some children will cover the whole rabbit pattern with cotton balls, some will just put a few and some might even outline the rabbit with cotton balls. Whatever they choose to do is acceptable. Try to focus more on the process instead of the finished product. Let them do as much as they can on their own and ask questions throughout such as, "What do the cotton balls feel like? Why do you think these rabbits change colors in the different seasons? Why would they turn white in the winter?"

Favorite Foods Booklet

2012-12-27T21:25:00.000-08:00

Help your child make an accordion-style booklet of their favorite foods. This activity can be done within a wide range of ages from toddlers to elementary age just by tweaking a few elements; I will make notes as we go along on how to adapt it for various abilities.

Materials: Grocery circulars, large index cards, scissors, glue stick, sharpie, scotch tape.

The booklet may be made by you or your children, depending on their abilities. I used four large index cards for the booklet I made.

Fold each index card in half. If you are doing this activity with younger children, you might want to use more index cards and leave them unfolded. The reason for this is that younger children might need more space to work with. For toddler age you might even want to use an even bigger canvas that you can make from folding construction paper instead.

Use scotch tape to connect all the folded index cards together.

The booklet should look like this when you are done taping it together.

On the outside of the first index card you may label the booklet. I labeled mine Foods I Like. If your child knows how to or is learning how to write, encourage them to write the title on their own.

Have children look through grocery circulars and cut out their favorite foods. For younger children, have some pre-cut foods that they can choose from.

Glue one food to each half of the index card.

It should look something like this.

Depending on the interest and attention span of the child they may also continue to add pictures to the back side of the index cards. I only did the front sides here.

You may also label each picture and read it together with your child/ren. If your children knows or is practicing writing, let them label each picture. Another alternative to this activity is letting children draw pictures of their favorite food instead of cutting out pictures.

Encourage your child/ren to "read" their books to family and friends!

Snow Pal Experiment

2012-12-23T17:20:00.002-08:00

Want to make a snow pal, but it's still too warm this winter? Don't worry, you can try this snow pal experiment at home. In this experiment, children explore the properties of water as they discover why snow pals melt.

Materials: 2 dishes or pie tins, crushed ice, baby carrots, small rocks, red sour punch straws/twizzlers/or pipe cleaners.

Fill both dishes with crushed ice.

Add two rocks to each dish to represent eyes.

Add a baby carrot to each dish to represent the snow pal's nose.

Add a sour punch straw for his smile. (This would also be a good time to talk about symmetry, since you will be making both snow pals identical.)

Explain to your child/ren that they will be putting their first snow pal in the freezer. Questions to ask: Where should we put the snow pal so he can stay cold? How does it feel in the freezer? Why should we put him in the freezer? What do you think will happen to our snow pal when we take him out in a couple of hours?

The second snow pal will be placed outside. In a couple of hours let your child revisit their snow pals and let them describe the changes they observe. Questions to ask: What happened to this snow pal? How are the two snow pals different? How are they the same? Why did one snow pal melt? Why did one stay the same? (Remember when asking young children questions, don't be particular about "correct answers". Also, give them time to ponder, they don't need to answer right away, give them a few minutes to think about what you ask them and accept their answers.)

***I will be updating in a few hours with the results of our two snow pals

About 3 hours after I made our snow pals, I took the one snow pal out of the freezer and I took him outside to compare him to the other snow pal.

Questions to ask: How do our snow pals look? What happened to the snow pal that was left outside? Why?
Be prepared for some interesting responses from your little ones. For example, a child once remarked, "Ms. Maria, the ice melted but the rocks stayed the same!" I replied, "Why do you think that happened?" By asking them more questions instead of giving them the answers right away, it gives children a chance to think and find answers on their own.

Paper Bag Penguin

2012-12-22T22:52:00.000-08:00

Materials: Black construction paper, orange construction paper, paper bag, glue stick, scissors, google eyes or paper hole reinforcers, stapler, pencil, old paper or tissue

To make the head of the penguin draw a halve oval on a piece of black paper. Depending on the ability of the child you can cut out all the pieces or you can just trace them and let them cut them out.

The head should be as wide as the top of the paper bag.

Next, using the paper bag as a measure cut out a long pointy U-shape. This will become the penguin's flippers.

Cut out two webbed feet from black construction paper.

Cut out an orange triangle "beak" from orange construction paper.

Use old paper to stuff the paper bag. I used some newsprint that came with a package I ordered. But you may use anything that is somewhat soft like crumbled newspaper or even cotton filling.

I crumble my newsprint. (Children love crumbling paper, definitely let them do this)

Stuff the bag half way. If you want to use the bag to fill with treats, then instead of paper fill it with the treats at this time.

Staple bag closed.

To make the penguin's face glue on the triangle beak,

Followed by the googly eyes.

Glue the penguins feet to the bottom of the bag.

Glue the flippers on the top of the bag

Glue the penguin's head at the top of the bag, over the flippers.

Now you have a wobbly penguin pal!

You may use him to play with, decoration, or as a gift bag for a fancy winter treat!

Teddy Bear Toast

2012-12-21T22:06:00.001-08:00

Bears love honey, and your little ones will too! In this cooking activity, adults help children make bear-shaped toast topped with honey-butter and cinnamon sugar! Yum!

Materials: Toaster, sliced bread, whipped butter, honey, cinnamon, sugar, teddy bear cookie cutter, bowl, spoons, butter knives.

Before you start this activity with the children, prepare the honey-butter and cinnamon-sugar so that it is ready for children to use. To make the honey butter, simply mix equal parts butter and honey.

To make the cinnamon-sugar, simply combine cinnamon and sugar. You can either combine them in a small bowl and children can sprinkle it over their toast with their fingers or you can put the mixture into a spice jar and they can shake it over their toast.

Children may put their slice of bread into the toaster. Children should always be supervised while using the toaster. This would also be a good time to talk about hot surfaces; which parts of the toaster could be touched and which should not because you may get burned.

When the toast is ready, children may use the cookie cutter to cut into the bread.

Spread the honey-butter onto the toast.

Sprinkle cinnamon-sugar on top.

Enjoy!

Feed the Penguin

2012-12-20T22:24:00.000-08:00

Practice color recognition with this penguin-themed idea! Make a penguin out of a box and practice various concepts while playing this game with your youngsters.

Materials: Medium size box, glue, brush, scissors, box cutter, black construction paper, white construction paper, various colors of construction paper, glue stick, white crayon, pencil.

We will be turning the box into a penguin. I happened to have a box that has a large slit in it already. If your box does not have a slit, use a box cutter to carve a slit into the box which will become the penguin's mouth. If you are cutting out your own mouth, you can make it a bit smaller than the size of hole in my box.

Next we will be covering that front side of the box with black construction paper. You can also do the next few steps by painting a penguin onto the box, but I did not have paint so I used construction paper instead.

Squeeze some glue onto the box and spread all around using a brush.

Cover the front side of the box with black construction paper, leaving the slit uncovered.

It should look something like this. No, it is not perfect and that is okay. Unless I am planning on using something I have made over and over again, I don't worry about spending extra time on making it look perfect. The kids don't notice the imperfections and frankly, I don't have the time to make it look perfect. If it serves it's purpose and somewhat looks like what your trying to represent, then its fine.

Next, draw a beak onto yellow construction paper. I just freehand it...remember, it does not have to be perfect.

Cut out the top and bottom beak.

Glue them over the opening on the box using a glue stick.

Cut out a half circle and glue centered on the bottom of the box. The white half circle represents the penguins tummy.

Cut out two small circles and glue them toward the top of the box to represent eyes.

Cut out pupils out of black construction paper. Now he is ready to eat.

Draw a fish onto the colors of construction paper that you would like your children to review.

I drew this fish freehand, but I'm sure you can find a stencil online if you feel uncomfortable drawing it on your own.

A set of color fish.

You may also label some with shapes, numbers, or letters that you want to review. If you decide to label your fish, I would recommend using the same color fish so that the child can focus on the symbol.

Encourage child/ren to verbalize the color/letter/number/shape before they feed it to the penguin.

If you plan on saving this game to use again and again, you can cover the front of the penguin with contact paper and glue the fish onto cardstock or something similar, cut out, and laminate.

Pizza, Gooey Pizza!

2012-12-19T13:00:00.001-08:00

Young children LOVE songs! The younger the class I had the more I had to sing. When I was teaching in the two year old classroom, I felt like I was living a musical. Some teachers and parents try to steer clear of singing because they believe that their voice is absolutely horrible, but let me tell you, young children DO NOT CARE! There have only been a few instances while working at the preschool where I have had children actually cover their ears while I sang, but that is okay because the other 15 loved my songs. Singing is such a special way for children to learn literacy skills as well as musicality. No matter what you sound like, do yourself and your kids a favor and sing a little bit throughout the day.

I was helping out with a Special Needs class today at the junior high, and this little girl with Down's Syndrome wanted to sing Silent Night. The teacher told us that we could go out into the courtyard and sing as to not disturb the other classes. We went out there and she sang her heart out. She may have not pronounced all the words correctly and her tone was nowhere near perfect, but she was happy to do it. Her singing also brought a smile to the other middle schoolers faces as they were passing by to go to their classes. It kind of reminded me of that quote from the movie Elf with Will Ferrell..."The best way to spread Christmas Cheer, is singing loud for all to hear." That is what inspired me for today's blog post.

However, this song I will teach you is not about Christmas...it is about pizza! My favorite! I would usually sing this song during cooking month when we would make pizza, or community helpers week when we would have a pizza delivered to our classroom by the Pizza Delivery wo/man. One of my favorite books about pizza is Pete's a Pizza by William Steig where a father tries to make his son Pete feel better by pretending to make him into a pizza!

I have posted a video of myself singing the song below, and the words to the song will be underneath it. It took my fiance and I about 15 takes before he was able to film it without laughing...but believe me, it is much easier to sing in from of young children. They will not judge you.

Lyrics:   First you take the sauce and you spread it, you spread it. (Pantomime spreading sauce.)

   Chorus:(sing twice after each verse) Pizza, gooey pizza, with cheese! (Pat legs for six counts; throw hands upward)

            Then you take the cheese and you shred it, you shred it. (Pantomime shredding cheese.)

            Then you have to wait while you bake, you bake it. (Cross arms and tap foot.)

            Then you take it out and you eat it, you eat it. (Pantomime eating pizza.)

Jiggley Jelly Letters

2012-12-18T15:58:00.001-08:00

Materials: Sliced sandwich bread, squeezable jelly, plate, toaster (optional)

Toasting the bread is optional. I did not toast mine. You can also spread peanut butter before you add the jelly if you desire.

If you will be doing this with a class of older children, having a few bottles of jelly would be more convenient. I bought this jelly at the 99 cent store so that would be cost efficient if you want to do it with a large class.

Children or adults can then practice alphabet recognition by writing their favorite letter using the squeezable jelly.

Literacy Connection: Read the book Jamberry by Bruce Degan before or after this activity. Children will enjoy the rhyming in this book about a boy and a bear on their search for berries to make jam!

Keep their memories alive!

2012-12-17T11:33:00.001-08:00

Check out this link. It has pictures and small bio on each of the precious lives lost at Sandy Hook Elementary. May they rest in peace.

http://www.cnn.com/interactive/2012/12/us/sandy-hook-victims/index.html?hpt=hp_c3

Bagel Bird Feeder

2012-12-17T10:37:00.000-08:00

Your child/ren can help feed the birds and squirrels during the winter by making these special bird feeders! Explain to your child/ren that sometimes animals have a hard time finding food in the winter time. This statement rings more true in certain parts of the world vs. others, but it's a fun project to do nevertheless...you never now what creature will come nibbling on your creation!

Materials: Bagels, Peanut Butter, Birdseed, butterknife, plate, string.

Each child may get half of a bagel. You may also use whole day old donuts instead.

Let child spread peanut butter onto the bagel. It might not look so uniform when they do it, but it's good to let them try. You can either finish the spreading or leave it as is.

Let your child sprinkle the bird seed onto the peanut butter. Cover all the peanut butter with birdseed.

Pat it down to make sure it has adhered to the peanut butter.

Cut a long peice of string. I just used leftover string that was used to tie down our christmas tree. I like to recycle products as much as I can:)

Thread the string through the bagel. Depending on the ability of the child, the adult might have to do this part.

Thread through the string and then tie a knot. Now it is ready to hang!!

My wonderful fiance helped me hang it on a branch right outside our house. You might want to have a step stool handy in case the branches on your nearest tree are too high.

If possible, try to pick a tree that is visible from your classroom or home window so that your child/ren can better observe if any wildlife have come to visit.

Grocery Name Collage

2012-12-16T13:33:00.000-08:00

Practice letter and name recognition with this grocery-themed activity!

Materials: Paper grocery bag, grocery store circulars, scissors, glue stick.

Cut front and back panels of paper grocery bag. Only one panel will be used per child. I turned bag on the side that had no writing.

Depending on time and/or the abilities of your child/ren, you may either pre-cut the letters in their name, give them random precut letters and let them find the letters to spell their name, look through the circulars and find their letter names together and you cut them out, or they may look through the circulars on their own and cut out their own letters. If the children will be cutting out their own letters, give them scissors that they may easily manipulate. (Ex. Give them child-size scissors instead of the large pair that I have pictured.)

Once the letters have been cut out, let your child glue the letters of their name in the appropriate order in the center of the paper bag.

In the next step, the children look through the circulars and cut out their favorite food. Or you may pre-cut food out of the circulars, display them and have children pick from your pile.

Once they have cut out all their favorite food, they may then proceed to glue all the food onto the paper bag around their name. I am using a small-size glue stick, but there are also chubbier glue sticks available that might be easier for little hands or children with special needs to manipulate.

If you are doing this activity as a classroom, you may display these on a board titled

"We Are What We Eat!"