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

P is for PIG

Love the visual cuteness of this P is for PIG craft!

Grab your stack of pink paper (HA!!  Pink Paper starts with P, also!!)

  Fold them in half, draw a large P on the paper.

Staple around the edges of the P, so the paper doesn't shift while you cut...

Be sure and staple in the middle of the P...use a knife or the edge of the scissors to poke a whole in the center, then cut the center out.

Do the same thing with the pink paper in a modified triangle, for the outer ear and in circles for the snout.  Cut some small white triangles for the center of the ear.

Other supplies you'll need are googly eyes (medium large ones), and some yarn or pink pipe cleaners for the tail.

We like to have them glue them on a worksheet, but you can do it on a plain piece of paper.  Use a black marker to color the nostrils on the snout... 

...and curl the tail.  Cutest little piggy I've seen in a while!!

Ladybug, Ladybug, fly away home...

I couldn't love this craft anymore than I do!  :)  

This week we have been doing the letter L.

So, circle time is my favorite...we spend a few minutes a day in a circle and talk about different things.  L is a funny one for them to sound out, and when we ask what starts with "L," we get "elbow" and "elephant..."  Poor kiddos and the English language.

So here is your supply list:

Cut black paper into big round circles, red paper into a smaller round circle, then cut it in half, cut black paper into head sized round circles, and more black paper into dots for her wings.  And top it off with googly eyes.  We loved the bigger ones on this bug...

We printed out a handwriting sheet to glue it on to.

  

Yeah, we love it, too!

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!

I like smiling, smiling is my favorite!

I love December!  Everything about preschool in December is fun.

The crafts, the worksheets, the songs, the stories, the games, the parties...the fun never ends!

Here is a quick and easy (and darling) craft to do to kick off the month long celebration of the happiest time of the year!

Most of the kids will have just "helped" mom decorate their tree at home...so this is a chance for them to make one all of their own for their bedroom door or the fridge!

You're gonna need a plain piece of paper, a large green construction paper triangle, a small brown construction paper square, glue, and what ever you want that is pretty, sparkly, or colorful to "decorate" with.  We used sequins, but it would be fun to use buttons, cereal, candies...whatever you and your kiddos like.

Let them glue the green and brown papers on the white paper to make the tree.  Then glue the deco on the tree...however you want.

Sing Christmas songs while you decorate the tree...and be sure and smile.  Smiling's my favorite!

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!

"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!!