Halloween chains

Because of fall break and a vacation we were missing 2 whole weeks of preschool right in the middle of October.  I was really sad about that because there are so many great Halloween preschool activities.  So on our last day of preschool for 2 weeks I thought I would keep preschool and Halloween in their thoughts by having them create Halloween chains.  I knew that it would be a great undertaking.  We had to make a 22 day chain - eight 4 year olds - one adult.  Originally I had planned on using staplers - but I couldn't collect 8 (I knew they would each need their own) and then I thought that many of them didn't quite have the hand strength yet to staple 22 times.  So in the end I went with glue.  I would really just need to impress upon their minds the importance of counting to 10 while pressing hard.

Before I get too ahead of myself....

We started with cutting.  The night before I had drawn 11 straight lines on orange paper and 11 straight lines on black paper.  I gave each child a orange paper and a black paper and told them to start cutting.  The different personalities of children crack me up when it comes to art projects.  Some children just plow through those lines giving little regard to the lines or the straightness of their cuts.  Some children feel very passionately about staying right on the line - even having half the line on one side of the cut and the other half on the other side of the cut.  In our family Brock was the first and Noah was the latter - so I know how to deal with both extremes.  Fortunately most of my class falls in the middle of the spectrum. 

This little gal SO impressed me.  half way through she figured out she could put one paper on top of the other and cut them at the same time to go faster!!  I couldn't believe she figured that out and pulled it off.  I am ashamed to say I doubted her, thinking that the papers would move.  But she totally did it perfectly!

Then it was time to put the chains together.  There is A LOT of thought process to these chains.  The pattern, the correct folding of the paper, putting one through the other, the gluing, the holding, often the re gluing and the re holding, counting to 22.  Sadly this project took A LOT longer than I had allotted and half way through we could hear parents knocking at the door upstairs.  I asked the kids what they wanted to do... and they all decided to have me hurry and staple the rest.  So in about 2 minutes I stapled the last 10 or so on each child's as they counted.  Next year I will remember to leave about an hour and a half for this.  Oh - and each child wrote "Halloween" on a sign and we stapled that to the top. 

Sticks

Just a bunch of twigs on our math table.  I never took any pictures of the center being used.  But letters were made, and also a few houses.

Leaf sorting and pictures

During circle time we read/looked at a book called, What can I make with a leaf?.  Then I dumped a big bag of leaves in the center of the circle.  Then we went through the large task of sorting the leaves.  We have done a lot of other sorting in preschool - so I knew they understood the principle - so I wanted to take this activity up a notch.  TO make a good picture we just couldn't sort the leaves by color, or by size or by shape.  We had to have MANY categories AND we had to make decisions about each leaf because one leaf could have gone into many different categories.

This process was really fun and very involved. The sorting was very open ended and child led.  I let them make the categories, and discoer along the way when we should make a new category, and they got to decide which leaf went where.  Some kids felt very passionate about a certain category and we got into some real heated debates about why one certain leaf should or shouldn't go into a certain category.  It was great!

Then we put our leafs on our art table.  During center time the children could come and create their leaf picture, man, animal, or design.  I did not press these leaves, mostly because I knew it would be a lot of work - but they would have made better pictures, so next year I will take the several hours and press the leaves.  But they still worked great because I picked all of them fresh of the trees that very morning - so none of them were breaking yet. 

Some kids came up with their own pictures - some copied from the book.  Either way they were learning a lot of great skills.

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.