Monthly Archives: May 2009

c is for chocolate play dough

Posted on by kristin
5

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.

chocolate play doh

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.

play doh table

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)

c is for celebration

Posted on by kristin
Reply

we have a wonderful tradition of an end-of-the-year-graduation-and-celebration.

preschool grad by you.

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

Posted on by kristin
5

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!).

indoor zoo

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.

indoor zoo

this graph is incomplete…we had to move on to another piece of paper and the fish column went off the top!

indoor zoo

we had blue water, blocks, and a few big rocks in the tub table.  plastic animals were allowed to come swim all week.

indoor zoo

i found cheap plastic animals that worked well for making cages so friends could take home their own part of the zoo.

indoor zoo

there were some zoos without walls…

indoor zoo

indoor zoo

some with open gates…

indoor zoo

indoor zoo

indoor zoo

and some had animals that were so wild, the cage bars couldn’t stay up.

indoor zoo


m is for mexico

Posted on by kristin
1

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.

cinco de mayo

someone donated a set of 1964 (!!!!!) junior encyclopedias that came in useful for flag comparing.

looking for mexico's flag

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!

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , | 1 Reply

m is for mother’s day

Posted on by kristin
8

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.

mother's day 09

yes, my mom would want this.

mother's day 09

oh, my mom loves this color.

mother's day 09

my mom needs a lot of these.

mother's day 09

my mom wants one of everything.

mother's day 09

totally worth the mess.

mother's day 09 by you.

s is for sun

Posted on by kristin
4

we were out of yellow and orange paper (such is the end of the school year) and instead of buying more, we made some.

yellow suns

we painted big sheets of yellow paper,

yellow days by you.

let them dry for two days,

yellow days

then used them to make suns.

yellow suns

we cut some of the paper into roundish shapes and some of the paper into rectangles.

yellow suns

some of the round shapes had the word “yellow” written on them.  you had to put one of those on the top.

yellow suns

some of the rectangle rays had names on them.

yellow suns

the trick was making sure to leave a space for the ray with your name on it!

yellow suns

the collage effect was stunning.

yellow suns

and again, they were proud to have “made” the yellow paper.

yellow suns

y is for yellow water

Posted on by kristin
3

there was only one child who said what i was thinking…

yellow water

this doesn’t look like water…

yellow 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.

yellow water

m is for may day…and mother’s day!

Posted on by kristin
2

may 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).

may day

this is a very simple eye-hand coordination activity. pre cut flowers with holes punched in the middle fit perfectly on straws!

may daymay day

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).

may day by you.

writing and decorating was optional.

may day by you.may day

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.

may day

my favorite hiding spot.

may day

then we did some math to figure out how many flowers each could find…and they were off.

may day

no pictures at the end, but trust me they were cute with their baskets of 5 flowers each. : )