sensory bags

Just some hair gel in a bag with food coloring.  They are so soothing, cool to the couch, squishy, and engaging.  The kids have found many different ways to play with our sensory bags.

Blocks

Just some pictures I have collected over at our block center.  Every child stops by the block center at least once a day. I change out the materials about once every 2 to 3 weeks.  It is nice to keep it fresh.

Weaving/sewing

I have been meaning to tell you about my goals for our year in preschool over in my writing center.  I love sewing in early childhood - it really helps develop fine motor skills plus there is so much concentrating, creativity, direction following, ect it really is an all encompassing activity. 

 

Over the past 4 weeks I have been preparing the kids to start to learn to sew (hand stitching).  We have been weaving using several different looms and ribbons. 

 

This last week I set up a child's quilting frame and let them sew with some burlap, plastic needles, and embroidery thread.  It was a big hit.  Our burlap is now covered with all different kinds of embroidery thread.  Each child found their own way they liked to sew.  One child only liked to put his thread and needle in holes that already have thread through it - he wants it all to match exactly.  Another is very very good about making sure she goes down and up - and if she messes up (like wraps it around the edge and goes down and then down) - she wants to un-do it and fix it).  One likes to make little stiches that all link together - while another does really really long stiches - like from one end of the frame to the other.   

Soon I will introduce fabric, buttons and beads to add to our cloth - then they will each be given an embroidery hoop to work with.  Eventually we will make some projects  - like pillows and stuff.  I am really excited. 

Chicka Chicka Boom Boom

I just found out I never posted about making our Chicka Chicka Boom Boom tree.  I had an activity planned for CH CH B B - but first of course we needed a tree.  So at our art table one day I had the children work on paining a tree.  I knew that having a large piece of poster board to paint was going to be fun and engaging on its own - but I wanted to add a few other elements to it. 

So I had several shades of brown (for the trunk) and green (for the leaves)  - so they could blend them and see the different shades.  Then I taught them to add texture.  For the trunk I gave them combs and showed them how to use the combs to make the trunk look bumpy and more realistic.

 

The kids loved combing the paint - and did it over, and over, and over.

 

 

Then for tree we used paper towels to "blotch" the paint to make it look puffy and full.

 

When the tree was done we hung it on the wall and acted out the ch ch b b book... several times.

feel a leaf

We have been talking about leaf parts and jobs.  Particularly the veins.  So we rubbed some veins into some aluminum foil. 

The pictures don't show the imprints very well - but they were really cool and it really helped the kids appreciate the feel of the leaves and their veins.  To do this just pick a leaf, lay it on top of a piece of cardboard vein side up, then lay aluminum foil on top - wrap the ends around the card board so the leaf and foil don't move.  Then just rub.

field trip

We took our first field trip to the Chatfield Botanical Gardens.  I was thrilled when I realized that all my kids could fit in my mini-van (I put Megan in the front - don't judge - its legal... I checked). 

 

I told them we were going to a "forest".  They were so excited.  It was a great way to finish up our unit on trees, leaves, forests, and fall.

Some of the field trip was structured and some wasn't.  They all had these blue bags to collect leaves, flowers, sticks, rocks or whatever treasures they found.  I brought scissors and clippers to cut branches and flowers.  Those were a BIG hit.

 

We studied an old tree stump with some insects living in it.

 

We did an observational drawing of their favorite tree.

 

We did some bard rubbings from 3 or 4 different trees - of course discussing the different properties of the bark.  We also did a few more leaf rubbings.

At the end we all laid out our treasures and made a collage of our trip.

Then we ate lunch.  It was such a wonderful trip and I had a blast with these cute kiddos out in the "real world".  I hope to do another field trip soon!