c is for chalk paint
washable paint + corn starch + water + shaking = sidewalk (and body) paint
we did this activity outside with church kids ranging in age from 3-14. how handy to have all the preschool paintbrushes and a teenager to paint!
we created a hose shower for washing off (and water hauling for gutter river making).
it’s fun to do these things…i’ve never ventured out with this level of activity with my school year preschool classes….hmmmm.
f is for family corner
still moving in, though this is clearly the nesting phase….my favorite.
i know we’ll hear this “door” open and close many times.
this family corner will also serve as a play area on sundays. this means that we’ll leave this set up as is (unlike other shelves/tables that we will move against the walls).
i like the term “family corner” more than “dramatic play” or “play kitchen” or “housekeeping.” hopefully i will actually get used to calling it that.
UPDATED: as i look at these photos, i remember what our family corner used to look like (plastic kitchen sets, hand me down soft chairs, a green braided rug from someone’s basement, a shelf with layers of paint…). in early 2002 a fire destroyed our classroom which resulted in all new (and matching!!!) equipment. i am so grateful for these high quality and beautiful props for our play.
m is for mirror
and s is for shaving cream. : )
our mirrors came in handy for a multi-age kids club meeting (the first ever). the activity was shaving cream and water play. honestly, shaving cream play always makes me nervous…the eye stinging possibility.
there was one moment. luckily he is 10, can stay calm with his eyes closed and can even laugh when i said i would take a picture of him.
the mirrors not only provided a place to see our silly selves all shaving creamed up, but a finger painting surface and most exciting, an instant fun house. because these are shatterproof acrylic, they are bendable (yes, one mirror did crack, but one out of 6 isn’t bad…and then we knew how far they could be bent):
this is the outside of our original and now returning preschool.
and ahhhhh, this big boy was a preschooler of mine way back in the early days.
c is for classroom
starting to move in to our new space…(though we’ve cleared it all out again to get the floors sealed).
w is for washing
note: this activity was done during a week long camp
called “way back when…” for 4 & 5 year olds at our local museum.
oh, joy of joys. a praire delight. on the day we learned about clothing way back when, we washed our picnic cloths (so they would be clean for dress up as kerchiefs, bonnets, or superhero capes).
mr. vic came and told us about how water was hauled from a well into the house. this is a real and functioning windmill. he helped the preschoolers use the hand pump to fill our washtubs.
then since we couldn’t take them to the dryer, we hung them in the kansas sun.
dreamy.
t is for trading post
note: this activity was done during a week long camp
called “way back when…” for 4 & 5 year olds at our local museum.
after we made our purses/pouches and filled them with buttons, we added name tags (essential to figure out who didn’t have one….
things get a little chaotic when there are 19 kids sewing on the floor with the freedom to move on to dress up and wheel rolling when they are done).
we read some of the little house on the praire picture book series. there is a page that mentions that pa goes to town to trade his furs for things. we read that on tuesday and on friday worked hard to remember what was happening in that picture.
then began our imaginary play. there was a bench with a sign (this is when i LOVE that the preschoolers can’t read yet) that we examined. after clues were given and letters were read, it was announced that this is our Trading Post. i explained that there was a woman who had a lot of quill pens, but since she was a wedding dress maker, she didn’t need quill pens, she needed white buttons! eyes lit up. one little girl innocently yelled, “i have some! i have some!” we went on a long journey through the darkened museum on a hunt for the trading post.
when we arrived we took turns trading one white button for a quill pen (from the museum store). quite a good deal.
then there was trying out of the new quill pens (a little different than our quill/paint project) and resting because this was friday towards the end of the morning and some were t.i.r.e.d.
this was one of my very favorite moments of the week. wonderful fun.
q is for quill pen
note: this activity was done during a week long camp
called “way back when…” for 4 & 5 year olds at our local museum.
this was simply a quill feather and a little cup of liquid watercolor (or food coloring).
children dip and draw, dip and draw, dip and draw….just like way back when.
w is for wagon wheel
note: this activity was done during a week long camp
called “way back when…” for 4 & 5 year olds at our local museum.
i didn’t plan to have my basket of “wheels” out all week, but it was a hit that stayed.
the museum had several metal hoops for rolling, and i added rolls of tape (simpley to have more).
they loved it. i want to remember this for preschool (b for bus wheel, c for car wheel, r for roll, etc).
we also made horseshoe and wagon wheel prints using plastic cups (wheels) and styrofoam cups with a notch cut out (horseshoe).
m is for move
another phase of the move is done.
we are returning to our church (where we were in operation for 7 years) after nearly 7 more years at the retirement home.
it is a bittersweet transition…but we are definitely “coming home.”
thank you to the nearly 40 helpers we had ranging in age from 3 to 80-some.
p is for pouch (or purse)
note: this activity was done during a week long camp
called “way back when…” for 4 & 5 year olds at our local museum.
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depending on who you asked, these were called pouches or purses (or one little friend insisted it was a BAG).
this was a simple 8 inch diameter circle of fabric with little slits cut around the perimeter. children threaded a shoe lace (i bought the leather looking kind) through each hole (VERY tricky for some of us. we used a piece of tape to hold the lace in place and then took the tape away) and then a teacher tied the ends together. these work as little drawstring bags.
we had a selection of buttons that children counted out and put in their pouch/purse/bag (it happened to be 5 white and 1 colored).
the purses/pouches/bags couldn’t go home on the day we made them because we needed them for something…
p is for picnic
note: this activity was done during a week long camp
called “way back when…” for 4 & 5 year olds at our local museum.
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during our week of exploring life way back when, we ate snack on bandanas and called them our “picnic cloths.”
the first day children chose a bandana and we wrote their names on them.
there was a place in our “classroom” to hang them when they weren’t in use.
our snacks for the week were related to our themes:
on transportation day we ate wagon wheels and horse food (honeycomb cereal and carrots)
on homes day we ate big and small logs (pretzels).
on clothing day we ate washtubs and fabric squares (individual applesauces and saltines).
there was also quite bit of creativity expressed during our relaxed snack times:
it sure was funny to go home and tell families we ate logs, wagon wheels, horse food, wash tubs and fabric squares. hee hee hee.
it was wonderful to be graced with beautiful weather for outdoor picnics 3 days of the week…but our inside picnic worked just fine.
c is for chocolate play dough
note: this activity was done during a week long camp
called “way back when…” for 4 & 5 year olds at our local museum.
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i know i’ve seen this recipe for a long time…just never made it.
but i am teaching a week long camp at the museum based on pioneer days and i wanted a “baking” looking color to go with our enamel dishes. usually i do a plain play doh with a bit of cinnamon.
this year i also made a batch of chocolate play dough…the first batch not working (way too crumbly…not sure what happened). very quickly the chocolate and cinnamon/vanilla batches are blended.
chocolate play dough:
combine (i do all the mixing in my kitchen aid):
1.5 cups flour
.5 cup cocoa
3 tsp cream of tartar
boil:
2 cups water
1 cup salt
2 tbs oil
mix it all together (at this point i had to add quite a bit of extra flour…not sure how much)
f is for fire truck
this was a last day of school activity for our school kids, but can you imagine the JOY a class of preschoolers would have with this?
this may have to be our new end-of-the-year activity.
hee hee hee
c is for celebration
we have a wonderful tradition of an end-of-the-year-graduation-and-celebration.
now comes the cleaning and the sorting, we’re moving our preschool back to it’s original location…
there are oodles of projects not shared here….more to come.
z is for zoo
what a week! in the midst of the last days of school and mother’s day prep, we turned our classroom into a zoo (quite fitting, actually!).
children were invited to bring pretend animals from home. this was a favorite of the day. we did show and tell at the first circle time (instead of at the end of the day). we graphed each one on an all-school graph and made a masking tape cage for each type on the floor of the classroom.
this graph is incomplete…we had to move on to another piece of paper and the fish column went off the top!
we had blue water, blocks, and a few big rocks in the tub table. plastic animals were allowed to come swim all week.
i found cheap plastic animals that worked well for making cages so friends could take home their own part of the zoo.
there were some zoos without walls…
some with open gates…
and some had animals that were so wild, the cage bars couldn’t stay up.
m is for mexico
there were a few children who smiled a little bigger, walked a little taller, seemed to grow a little more as we honored mexico. one little friend said, “hey! i know that place! i know it!” i know she does. : )
there was a simple three column worksheet to color like the mexican flag’s colors.
someone donated a set of 1964 (!!!!!) junior encyclopedias that came in useful for flag comparing.
we have a little song we sing too:
cinco de mayo is a special day (clap-clap)
it makes me think of mexico in a special way (clap-clap)
cinco de mayo is a special day (clap-clap)
we love mexico is fun to say!
m is for mother’s day
SPOILER ALERT: if you are a mama from preschool and you have not opened your green tissue paper or white lunch bag present, stop reading (and check your child’s backpack…)!
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but may you all know the joy children take in making something for someone special. this year they were “found items necklaces” (or “things to hang on a nail if the mom doesn’t wear necklaces” as one friend said) with 1 inch photos of each.
yes, my mom would want this.
oh, my mom loves this color.
my mom needs a lot of these.
my mom wants one of everything.
totally worth the mess.
s is for sun
we were out of yellow and orange paper (such is the end of the school year) and instead of buying more, we made some.
we painted big sheets of yellow paper,
let them dry for two days,
then used them to make suns.
we cut some of the paper into roundish shapes and some of the paper into rectangles.
some of the round shapes had the word “yellow” written on them. you had to put one of those on the top.
some of the rectangle rays had names on them.
the trick was making sure to leave a space for the ray with your name on it!
the collage effect was stunning.
and again, they were proud to have “made” the yellow paper.
w is for writing
someone down the hall donated a stack of yellow notebooks. perfect for yellow week!
the kind of writing that happened was unique and so fun to see.
the “office” expanded quickly from one table to two.
y is for yellow water
there was only one child who said what i was thinking…
this doesn’t look like water…
we change our water daily and add different things:
yellow food coloring
yellow paint (this makes an opaque yellow
apple scented bubbles
baby shampoo
and my favorite of the week: banana extract
we also move the mirrors to different spots. over the water table, next to it, one on each end, etc.
m is for may day…and mother’s day!
we made these flowers on may day (though several kids said i should bring these supplies out to make their mamas flowers next week! but we will do a new project…hopefully as fancy as years past).
this is a very simple eye-hand coordination activity. pre cut flowers with holes punched in the middle fit perfectly on straws!
we also made may day baskets out of folders (folded in half, glued on the bottom half edges). the children cut on two lines to create the handle (which fits just so on a door knob).
writing and decorating was optional.
after snack time, the children usually head out into the classroom for work time or project time. not today! after snack the preschoolers went for book time (when they sit in our circle time corner and look at books together) while i hid the flowers.
my favorite hiding spot.
then we did some math to figure out how many flowers each could find…and they were off.
no pictures at the end, but trust me they were cute with their baskets of 5 flowers each. : )
n is for natural play doh
thanks to the good old crafty crow, i found the idea to color play doh with natural items.
fun!
“it really smells like food now!”
m is for may day
inside it was y yeek, so we made yellow flowers.
these were tissue paper circles with holes in the center to thread on skewers (cutting off the pointing end first). then a teacher taped the paper and beads were added (secured with hot glue)…. “this is kind of like sewing with wood.” sure it is!
t is for tattle tale
we finished pre-k conferences last night…a time when i think of each child in a new way. when i imagine them in a new setting, usually in a more traditional classroom setting.
and i get protective….and feisty.
my simple requests:
i ask now that none of these kids be considered a tattle tale.
i ask that when a child brings a concern, it is met with eye contact and attention.
i ask that when a child tells you that someone’s pencil dropped on the floor, you thank them for letting you know.
i ask that when a child tells you that someone is being mean to someone else, you take that as a sign that you can do more in your classroom.
i ask that when a child cries and whines about the same thing everyday, you receive that as his hurt that needs your attention.
i ask that you remember it doesn’t take much to help a child feel safe.
i ask that you don’t consider children tattle tales. even if they are just “trying to get someone else in trouble,” doesn’t that point to a need in the so-considered tattle tale?
oh, i get defensive of these children as they prepare to leave the nest.
i know there are wonderful, wonderful teachers in traditional classrooms.
i know there are always different ways we can care for the children in my classroom.
i know i do not have all the answers.
but i also know these children and from the depth of me, wish them well.
okay, stepping down from the soap box now.
e is for earth day
when i say EARTH DAY, you say EVERY DAY!
we were graced with beautiful weather and moved as many of our preschool activities outside as we could.
earlier in the week we did a two-part project of painting earths.
first the children painted green land masses (VERY tricky to not paint the whole plate green!).
later in the day we added in blue water AROUND the green land.
and since it is X week and we are looking for treasure all week, some glitter was added.
this planet really is a treasure.
c is for cleaning
i am a firm believer in having purposeful work available to children. if i pull out the spatula-turned-dried-glue-cleaner-upper and water, at least one child comes over. then two.
then a table full. then they decide they need aprons and paper towels.
then it is discovered that the spatula actually works as a flipper.
then the table is clean.
thank you, friends.
w is for (the best) water toy
note to self: find more egg beaters at the thrift shop.
like 13 of them.
w is for willaby wollaby
we love this silly, silly song.
we love reusing items. here we used paper plates, gray fabric and the one gray plastic bag i could find! since it was a short week and we wanted to use these at circle time, i made their pieces stick with hot glue.
and how silly that the elephants we made all had everyone’s names with a W at the front (except for one friend who was in tears because he KNEW his name started with K and not W…we covered the silly name with fabric).
and how silly that the elephants talked (but only ms. kristin could hear them).
and how silly that they played hide and seek from the grandma and grandpa friends.
and how silly that these elephants might be sitting on you at home now!
