Rrrrrr, Rrrrrr, Rrrrrrrrrrrr!! Race car!!

Fun little race car...we used it for the "R" unit, but would be fun for a transportation unit, too.

OK...this craft takes a ton of prep...you first have to paint the toilet paper roll.  We painted them all blue.  Red would be a fun race car, too...

After they are dry, cut a rectangle flap in each car.  The easiest way for me to explain is going to be through pictures...so here they are:

After you have the flaps cut out, bend the flap in half and put a dollup of hot glue on one end and fold it in half.  This is the windshield.

Next...cut out the circles.  Black and white ones.  

You'll need for each car:

4 large black wheels

4 medium white wheels 

a black circle for the steering wheel

a large white circle with to put a number on

other decorations:  stars and sequins

After they were done, the hardest part was getting the kids to stop playing with them long enough to let the glue dry!!  

They were kind of time consuming, but the kids loved them!

Toilet Paper Roll Turkeys

Our kiddos loved this simple activity...probably because of the "real" feathers!

It was a simple activity, but again, works on those small muscles!!  We painted the tp rolls brown ahead of time.

Then, all you need is a few feathers, some googly eyes, a triangle piece of orange paper, and a piece of red yarn for the wattle.

Be warned, some of the kids had a little difficulty with gluing the feathers on the inside of the tp roll, the coordination was just a little too much and they needed a little help.  The rest is self explanatory.     

Just don't eat them!  :)

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.  :)

Boo!!!

Another fun toilet paper roll craft...that takes a lot of fine motor skills!!  All you need for this one is a white toilet paper roll, white crepe paper, and googly eyes.

Tape one end of the crepe paper onto the tp roll, and let the kiddos start wrapping!  When they FINALLY get it done (because it WILL take longer than you thought, lol!!) glue some googly eyes on and your little ghost is set!!  

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!

Preschool is a Hoot!

So, if you are a preK teacher, the first thing I suggest you do is solicit your parents to send in their toilet paper rolls.  Because you're gonna want to do this one, too.  

"O" is for owl.

You're gonna need:

toilet paper rolls, tucked in and taped at the bottom and the top.

a small strip of colored construction paper

white circles cut from construction paper for eyes

patterned paper, if desired, cut into wings (tear drop shaped) and into a small triangle for the beak

googly eyes (of course!!) 

Wrap the strip of construction paper around the center of the tp roll and glue in place

glue on the wings first, then the whites of the eyes, then lastly the beak

follow up with the googly eyes

It always cracks me up to see how different the projects turn out with the same supplies and instructions!!