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!

Musical Letters or The Best Letter Game Ever!!!!

 We stumbled on this game quite by accident.  We love to play a couple of different music games with the kids...musical chairs and freeze dance.  One day, Janette's husband came up with the idea that we combine them along with the letters to make a fun letter game...and the kids loved it.  

We lay the alphabet around the rug in random order... 

The kids stand in a circle around the rug...and then we start the music.  The more upbeat, the better.  We love the kid's versions of many of the popular songs...the kids dance around the rug and  when the music stops, QUICK!!  Find a letter!!

They all drop down by the letter they are close to.  Then a letter is called, and the one who has that letter brings it to the front and exchanges it for a small treat...like an M-n-M or skittle.  We have them tell us the sound of the letter and sometimes a word.  

Several of our kids who were struggling with letter recognition at the beginning of the year are learning and they love it!

Then the music starts again and off they go!

When it gets down to not having enough letters for each to have their own, they share.  So then there can be more than one winner in that round.  Sometimes we throw numbers in, too.  Just to mix it up.  The kids love the movement and the music and the competition! 

We love this game, and so do our kids!

The Octopus

The Octopus

Tell me, O Octopus, I begs

Is those things arms, or is they legs?

I marvel at thee, Octopus;

If I were thou, I'd call me Us. 

Ogden Nash


Letter O and octopuses are always a lot of fun.  We have a couple of different octopus crafts, I'll post the other one soon

The first one is a coloring page/gluing page.

Print out an outline of an octopus...again, you can google "cartoon octopus drawing" and find lots of choices.

You'll want to have them color it first...practice using those muscles that hold a pencil!!

Then give them a small cup of fruit loops cereal.  They glue the cereal onto the legs of the octopus.

Don't forget to talk to them while they work about numbers (how many legs does an octopus have?), about the ocean, ocean life, and of course, the letter "O!"

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!

File Folder Fun

The kids beg to play with these.  They have no idea that they are learning all kinds of things...sorting, categorizing, sequencing, colors, matching, numbers...the learning is endless!  We try to only pull these out once or twice a month, that way they think it is a treat, and it is a great activity to do when the weather is bad and they can't go out to recess!

This one has pictures of several items and they divide them into HOT and COLD.

This one lets them put the missing alphabet letters in the right order.

This one is more like a beginner puzzle, they match not only the colors of the hearts, but also the shapes of the edges.

These three are matching...the animal fronts to the animal backs, the patterns on the chicks to the patterns on the baskets, and the pattern on the bees to the matching pattern on the flowers. 

And who doesn't love cupcakes?  With cherries?  Match the numbers of cherries with the number on the cupcake!  They count the cherries, then use their number recognition. 

To make your own file folders, you will need file folders and an idea.  We laminated ours so that they would last longer through repeated use, you will probably want to do that, too.  

You can buy books that have file folder ideas in them at book stores or teacher supply stores.  You can also download and print from sites like this http://www.filefolderfun.com/SearchPreschool.html, they have free downloads.  Also try googling "file folders" for more ideas!