Rainbows...

Here is a fun Rainbow craft that can be used for the weather unit or the "R" unit.  We showed the kids some pictures of a few different crafts and let them choose a couple, and they LOVED this one.

You're going to need to cut out some white clouds out of white construction paper or just out of print paper.  

Cut red, orange, yellow blue, green, and purple strips out of construction paper.

Gather a bunch of cotton balls!!!!

First...glue the strips to the back of the cloud:

After they get the strips glued on and their names written...turn the cloud over and let them glue the cotton balls onto the front of the cloud:

I think this is one of the cutest crafts we've done...and it was easy.  AND...the kids loved it.  BONUS!

Paper Plate Watermelon Craft

Finishing up our unit of the letter W this week...with a darling and fun watermelon craft that also works on those fine motor skills that are so important in PreK age kids.  

We just use our paper cutter to cut squares (big ones) out of green and red construction paper, and much smaller black squares for the seeds.  

And cut your paper plates in half...

First step...glue the green rind on the outer edge of the plate...

...then the red in the middle.  When done, they can glue random black seeds over the red paper.

Voila.  Really one of the cutest paper plate crafts.

Top 10 Craft Supplies for PreK

Ever wondered which 10 supplies a preschool teacher would take with them to a deserted island?  Well, I'm gonna tell you what we can't live without!!

#10

Yarn.  In lots of colors.  We use yarn for crafts that hang, like mobiles or garlands, to practice making letters or other shapes on paper, stems for flowers, matching games, making rainbows, balls, pictures...the possibilities are as endless as your imagination.

#9

We'll just call number 9 "garbage."  Because a preschool teacher can make anything out of garbage.  Our favorites are empty toilet paper and paper towel rolls, kleenex boxes, soda bottles, milk bottles...give us your garbage, we'll give you a penguin.

#8

Pipe cleaners, or as the manufacturer calls them...fuzzy sticks.

We use these to string beads to practice small motor coordination, as antennas on bugs, legs on centipedes, ears on Frankenstein, whatever...

#7

Craft Sticks.  They come in plain and in colored.  Use them as frosting spreaders for cookies and other yummy craft ideas, glue spreaders, puppet handles, mask handles, to stack in a building game, to make a frame, Christmas tree ornaments, fans, airplane wings, puzzles, etc...

#6

Warm Fuzzies or Pom Poms, or whatever you want to call them.  These have endless possibilities.  Besides being used as a great classroom management tool (as in letting the kids collect them in a jar when you "catch" them obeying rules), they also make a great addition to lots of crafts that just require a little (or a lot) of extra fuzziness.  They can be a nose on a reindeer, hair on a clown, a rainbow, a worm, a snowman...just Google "pom pom crafts" and you can find all kinds of uses.

#5

Ahhh, Sequins.  Sequins add that little bit of sparkle to any project.  Ornaments on trees.  Scales on fish.  Jewels on a crown.  Or just to glue on a letter, or a number, or a coloring sheet.  Sequins make any ordinary project extraordinary, and kids love them.

#4

The Googly Eyes.

Every single craft that has eyes needs these.  That is all.

#3

Paper plates/bowls/cups and COFFEE FILTERS.

  A paper plate or bowl can be made into any number or things.  Animals, masks, puppets, baskets...again, Google "paper plate crafts."   Search this blog.  TONS can be done or created with them.  Not to mention the practical uses...to hold the pieces of paper, googly eyes, etc for a project, or to put paint on for hand prints.  Cups are used to hold water for water colors, drinks for snacks, frosting for cookies.  

And coffee filters are used on a daily basis in our preschool to hold treats.  But you can make butterflies, watercolor projects, flowers, pumpkins, angels, snowflakes, turkeys, tie dye hearts...just always have coffee filters.  You won't be sorry.

#2

Construction Paper.  LOTS of it.

You can do ANYTHING with Construction Paper.

#1

Tacky Glue.

School glue and glue sticks are fine, but if you really want stuff to stick and stay and dry fast, you have to have TACKY GLUE.  Buy it in bulk.  Tons of it.  There are very few days that Janette and I do not use Tacky Glue.  Store it with the lid on upside down in a paper cup, then it's already by the tip and you just have to squeeze.

Best glue ever.

If I was going to add a #11 and #12, I'd add cotton balls and beads.  For obvious reasons.  And hopefully your artillery includes watercolors, markers and crayons.

What are your favorite supplies?  Have we missed something we should really have??

XOXO,  Andrea

Number Matching Game

Today we played an extra-fun numbers matching game...we used hearts because of Valentine's Day...but we plan on using them over and over, because we LOVE numbers!  :)

First, cut out the hearts by folding construction paper in half and using our staple method to cut them evenly.  We cut 12...but are going to add more, up to 20 for now, and then maybe up to 30.

Cut the hearts in half:

Pick your numbers out, as well as stickers for the picture part of it.

Put the numbers on the right side of the heart, and the number amount of stickers on the other side.

We laminated them, so they'll last!

We sat in a circle and gave each kiddo one of the left side of the heart...they needed to count the objects and know how many there were...then, when it was their turn, they chose the corresponding number and put the heart together.

This is great for visual learners who need to see to learn...and also a great way for them to associate an amount with a number.

The kids loved this fun game!!  :)

Valentine "Love Bug" and Yummy KISS cookie recipe

Today we started off the new week with a new letter...V...and it's even more fun that V is for Valentine.

In circle time this morning, while we were talking about the words that we know that start with "v..." violin, vest, van, vulture, vampire...when one of the kiddos came up with soap.  No, sorry bud, soap doesn't start with "V."  His response?  Yes, we have a bottle and it's a vampire and it's "hanitizer" soap.  Well, when you put it that way, who can argue???

So...here is a step by step of today's Valentine, a LOVE BUG complete with a v-shaped mouth.

First, gather your red and pink construction paper, red or pink pipe cleaners, big googly eyes and glue.  We printed a handwriting practice sheet to glue it to that said "V is for Valentine."

Fold a few pieces of red paper in half, draw a half-heart on one side.

Use our awesome trick and staple around the edges so you can cut it out without slippage.

Do the same thing with the pink paper to cut out the "V" shapped mouths.

Now cut out small pink and red hearts, for the nose and the hearts at the end of the antenna.  

Assembly...glue on the large red heart, the mouth, nose and googly eyes, then the antenna and end with the hearts at the end of the antenna.

Pretty darn cute...and the kids loved them and were all so excited to give their moms a Valentine!

And as an added bonus?  It was baking day today, so we made peanut butter cookies and topped each one with a Kiss!

You can get the super yummy and easy peanut butter cookie recipe HERE on Janette's cooking blog.

Enjoy!!  :)

SUPER CUTE Valentine's Party Favors

Today our MDO class had their Valentine's Party.

Ms. Janette and I always like to send the kids home with a cute party favor that is cute enough to save.  This year we saw a cute hand print cutout on Pinterest from THIS blog, and decided that it would be perfect!

We traced some small hand prints onto pink paper and used our handy trick to cut out enough for all our kids.

We also cut out some hearts...cuz, you can never have too many hearts at Valentine's Day!!

SOOOO darn cute!!

We took a sweet picture of each of the kiddos and got them printed at the CVS right around the corner...it literally takes seconds at their photo kiosk.

We added a couple of hearts and laminated them...

...and gave them their picture card along with some kisses and bubbles, with this cute download that says "BLOWING you KISSES this Valentine's Day..." that we got HERE.  We think it turned out adorable!! 

Super cute and fun favor...one for the kids and one for the moms!!