Bugs

In this post you will find that I really don't feel it's necessary to "reinvent the wheel" so to speak.  :-)  There are a lot of free resources available on the internet or from your local library system.  Use them!  I am thinking that I'm going to try to include links to the resources I find myself using most over the next few days/weeks.  We'll see how it goes!

Flying Bugs PreWriting Page

There are many, many prewriting pages available for preschool age children.  However, as mentioned before, there are a few tracing lines that I would like the children to trace/create but can not find those particular lines.  So... I quickly create my own. These are simple...and definitely not professional...but you are welcome to use them if you wish.  They serve our purpose well.  Download here.

Insect Dominoes

Bry Back Manor

Have had these around for years!  With preschoolers we allow any match...so whether the same number of insect or match the insect itself.  We play a game of the dominoes together and then often I put it on the shelf so that they can match them with their friends or on their own.

Color Bugs Booklet

PreKinders

She has black and white and a colored copied of this booklet, along with some other nice booklets!  We've been slipping in color words here and there throughout the weeks so today K. read the book with me, pointing out and underlining the color word.  Great practice!

Buzzing to the Beat

The Mailbox: Bugs theme book

Simply printed out their bug cutouts onto thick paper or cardstock to correspond with the color of crayons I was using and taped them to the top of a crayon.  I was hearing "buzz buzz!" and other buggy sounds at the free drawing paper posted up on the wall today.  Just adding a bit of interest to crayon explorations.  :-)

Busy Bees Fly to the Hives

The Mailbox

The Mailbox: Bugs theme book also had bee and hive patterns and so I added pictures to the wings of the bee to reinforce specific beginning sounds. I've posted about this last May. Wish I could share this document. Though relatively easy to create...it can be time consuming, depending on how much of a perfectionist you are. :-P But it is a Mailbox document so better not. 

The Mailbox: Bugs theme book

Shaving Cream and Cornstarch Sensory Play

inspired by Time for Play

This was something I stumbled on in Pinterest this past week.  It's one sensory play we hadn't tried.  :-)  Definitely interesting.  Not a favorite by any means but  I think the biggest issue was I allowed them to mix the materials together and they didn't give it enough time to get to the dough like quality.   Very globby. So I do think we'll do it again but this time I'll mix it prior to the children playing with it.  I imagine it'll have the consistency of the cloud dough we created.

Ladybug Garden

Simple and easy!  Great for fine motor.  Ripping paper is always a challenge.  We ripped shades of green paper into strips, added red and/or orange do a dot spots for the ladybugs and then added detail with marker.  Tip:  if the child is having a difficult time ripping the paper, consider snipping the paper at the top with scissors so they have somewhere to start.

T. had done the ladybug garden last week when K. was sick so I just put the dobbers and markers out with paper for him.  He spent quite a bit of time here at the table with them.  Loved hearing his talk as he was working.  One thing that I noticed is that his "pencil" grasp has changed.  He didn't "fist" any of the writing tools that were available this morning.  Yeah!

Spider Shape Match

Kids Soup

This was perfect for T.!  He's not quite three but knows his basic colors and most of his shapes.  He still calls a rectangle a triangle and of course, a hexagon is a "stop sign".  Not quite sure why they used hexagon vs. a octagon in this set but that's fine.  :-)  Beggars can't be choosers!  This is just one of the many many printables available through Kids Soup.  As mentioned before, this is the one site I pay membership to.  Awesome resource for toddlers/preschoolers!  Definitely recommend it.

Little Bee Sight Word Emergent Reader Booklet

I let her use the paper cutter instead of scissors today...much to her excitement.)
Little Bee
A little bee
in a little tree
made a little honey
just for me!
Little booklets are awesome for preschool children.  They gain confidence as they become more fluent "readers".  When we send home a booklet we encourage you to have them available and read with your child frequently.  Emergent readers have pictures that correspond with the very simple sentences to help give the child clues about the main word so do encourage the child to look at the picture when they get to the word they don't know.  Many of the emergent readers use High-Frequency Words, which the benefit of learning these belong in a complete post on its own.  This booklet was copied from
High-Frequency Word Booklets
The Mailbox grades K-1

One component that I like about this book is that it's progressive in the sense that they start at very simple one word per page stories to 5-6 words per page.  Hmmm, The Mailbox doesn't carry this book anymore.  :-(  But you can purchase it at Amazon as of today. 

Been an interesting end of last week and beginning of this week for attendance due to illness so we didn't get everything completed for last week.  We are extending our bug themed activities another week as it's a short week this week.  Hard to believe we have so few days left!  Hope you all have a lovely week.