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.

"L" is for Lion

One of the easiest ways to help kids remember what a letter looks like is to make it into an animal.  When my kiddos were little, they loved the LeapFrog videos with the dancing letters that sang about what sound they make.  In fact, I single handedly give credit to them for my daughter learning her sounds!  :)  

So here is our version of an "L" is for Lion:

Simply cut out a large letter L out of brown construction paper, then cut out the "details" shapes...legs, tail, ear, and mane out of orange or yellow paper (be sure and fringe the mane so it looks like hair), and a brown nose/mouth.  When assembled, glue on the googly eye and draw the details on feet and face with black marker.

Getting Excited for "Under the Sea..."

Under the Sea is one of our favorite units...and we are gearing up for a fun one!!  Here are a few of our past projects. 

Look for some more ideas in coming weeks...

XOXO, Andrea

Easy "T" is for Turtle

So, one of the little boys we have had in our class LOVES to make "pets."  Every time we make an animal of any kind he calls it his pet and talks all about how he's going to take it home and play with it.  He had a blast with this cutie...

We used a paper bowl and painted it green ahead of time, because our main goal for this one was the fine motor skills it was going to take to glue the dried peas onto Tiny Tim's back.  But you could just as easily let the kids color or paint it themselves if you wanted to do it differently.

The rest of the activity is self explanatory...cut some green legs and a head out of construction paper, rectangle shaped with rounded corners.  Glue on googly eyes and dried peas.

One of the kids favorite songs to sing is Tiny Tim...

"I had a little turtle, his name was Tiny Tim.

I put him in the bathtub to see if he could swim.

He drank up all the water...

He ate up all the soap...

He tried to eat the bathtub...

But it wouldn't go down his throat!!"

(This next part is their FAVORITE!!!)

{hand actions:  cup your hands into a small ball or bubble and move your hands outward with each "bubble"}

"Bubble, bubble, bubble...

Bubble, bubble, bubble...

Bubble, bubble, bubble...

Bubble, bubble....POP!!"

They all break into fits of laughter...they love it!!

CLICK this link for a YouTube video of a little girl singing it...I don't know her (LOL) but it will give you an idea of the tune!!

Christmas Wreath

This turned into one of my favorite Christmas crafts we did.

All the kids knew what a wreath was and most of their mommies have one on their front door.  So we made one for their bedroom doors!

Cut the center out of the middle of a paper plate.

Cut green construction paper into squares, and glue the first layer of green paper around the edge of the plate.

When they are finished with the first layer....

...they can start working on the inside layer.

After all the green is on, you can glue on the berries, red paper squares.  If you would rather, you can glue on cereal, sequins or anything else.

The kids even like this more than I thought they would!

We ended up with the cutest wreaths ever...wish I had one for my front door!

Candy Cane Sequencing

This is another fun activity that teaches while they play.

It doesn't look like Math, but it is!

Patterns and sequencing are very important to a little math mind.

For this activity, all you need is a print out of a candy cane...like this one, and construction paper in red and white cut in squares.  

Explain that candy canes have a pattern...red, white, red, white, red, white.  Then they get to use their fine motor coordination and their math brains and build a candy cane!

We also happened to be talking about the letter "J" this same week...so we handed out candy  canes and told them to turn it upside down to find a letter.  :)

Marshmallow Ghosts

Easy Marshmallow Ghost!!

And it's cute...kinda looks like a PacMan ghost, right??

This one is another awesome hand eye coordination/fine motor skills builder.  

Simply make an outline of a ghost (or anything, really!) with glue on construction paper, then give the kids a cup of marshmallows.

Again...so fun to see how different kids are in the way they do projects!

Monsters!!

October wouldn't be October without monsters.  

And lots of 'em.

The most fun thing about this project is that you can give the kids lots of choices...like how many eyes do you want your monster to have?  Where do you want his eyes?  They can make the face look pretty much however they want it.  

But just as a warning, this project has lots of steps and takes a lot of fine motor coordination.

Here is what you need:

painted toilet paper rolls

Construction paper, it whatever colors you want

googly eyes

pipe cleaners

Poke holes in the sides of the rolls.  You'll need to cut the paper into a shape to use as their spiky hair, a few mouth shapes, and eye shapes.

Glue the "hair" around the top of their head.  Have them poke their pipe cleaner arms through the holes.  Glue on the mouth and eye pieces.  Glue on the googly eyes.

Make sure he (or she!) gets a cool name!!  And don't use it to scare your sister.  :)

"T" is for tree

October also means Autumn...and the leaves start to change!

To talk about the changes that are happening in the weather and the trees, we like to do this fun craft.  (It's also a good way to introduce the letter "T.")

Here's what you'll need:

a piece of paper with a tree trunk drawn on it

construction paper cut into squares (red, yellow, orange, brown)

glue

Then the kids glue the pieces of paper at random on the tree, and of course, on the ground.  

Pretty easy, but again, it works their fine motor skills and teaches them a thing or two about trees, leaves, autumn, and the letter "t."

As an alternative to the tree trunk, paint the child's hand print and a few inches up the arm as the tree trunk.  So sweet and cute!!

Frankenstein

Oh, October, how I love thee.

And thy monsters.

One of the best things about teaching sweet little preschool kiddos is that I get to see Halloween through their eyes again. 

Circle time in October is full of parties and trick-or-treating, of monsters and dress ups, and of superheroes and Disney princesses.

And who wouldn't love this??

You will need:

an empty toilet paper roll for each lucky kid (you'll want to paint the roll first, green on bottom, black on the top, for his "hair.")

black pipe cleaner

googly eyes

glue

kid scissors

Step one:  supervise the cuties whilst they cut Frank's "hair."  Be sure they don't cut their own hair!!  :)

Step two:  poke a hole in each side of his head and let the kids poke the pipe cleaner through.  Some might need help with this step...

Step three:  let them use more of those fine motor skills that they are honing and glue on a couple of googly eyes

Lastly, draw on a couple of scars...on their chin, over their eye.

Totally one of my favorites!

More Octopuses...

One of my faves!  Another great around-the-house item is toilet paper rolls.  Before hand, paint these whatever color you want your octopus to be. 

This activity uses a few different FINE MOTOR SKILLS...

1.  The kids use kid scissors to cut "legs" out of the bottom of the toilet roll.

2.  Then they use their fingers to "curl" the legs (this isn't as easy for them as it sounds.)

3. They glue a fruit loop on the end of each "leg."

4.  Last step, they glue a couple googly eyes on his little face and they each get to take home a pet octopus!

Baby, it's cold outside!!

Every fall when we talk about the letter I, the Antarctic visits our preschool for the day!!  The kiddos make an igloo! 

You will need:

a styrofoam bowl for each child

1/2 of a small white (bathroom size) plastic cup for each child

paper

glue 

cotton balls

Instructions:

glue the bowl and the 1/2 cup on the paper ahead of time, giving it time to dry

Cover the bowl and cup with glue and glue the cotton balls on the igloo...

And there you have it!

You can really take this lesson anywhere.  You can strictly stay with talking about the letter "I."  Or you can do a whole theme day about the Antarctic and the animals that live there, or the climate, any number of things!

Sequins and Letters and Glue! Oh My!!

Another easy and fun way to work on letter recognition is to print off a large block version of the letter you are wanting to work on and give them a bottle of glue and some sequins, or buttons, or pom poms, or whatever you would like.  They glue the objects on the letter!  Easy peasy.  Don't forget to talk to them about things that start with the letter while they glue. 

Here is a website with printable letters you can use:

http://printable-icio.ru/image.php?id=28416

Worms

Who doesn't like to make worms?  To work on fine motor skills, give each child a pipe cleaner and a plate full of beads and let them go to it.

You can give them specific directions (like make a pattern or use your favorite colors) or just let them be creative and tell YOU what they are making.

**Fun Christmas Variation:  instruct them to make a red/white pattern and make a candy cane.

You will need beads and pipe cleaners.

Airplane!!

We like to include at least one coloring page per week.  Coloring is such a great way to get the kiddos used to holding pencils, markers, and crayons properly.  Those little muscles in their fingers and hands need to lots of help to get developed so that they are eventually able to have beautiful handwriting!  :)  

This week, our coloring page is an airplane...because "a" is for airplane!  

A fun activity to go along with this coloring page is teaching them how to make paper airplanes, complete with a few minutes to throw them around the room!