Just a bit more on bugs...

Time for blogging isn't all that easy to come by this week.  :-)  So maybe I'll share just a few of the many activities we did that were teacher and child favorites.

This kiddos seemed to enjoy finding those Planet Earth bugs in multiple places over the last couple of weeks.  Incredible foam with H. and fresh homemade play dough with K. in this picture. 

This is definitely a teacher and child favorite "game".  I set it up for individual use and they can control whether they want the caterpillar's arms to move while they are working or after they are done.  Great for fine motor!

And another very simple but well liked activity.  Template that I used can be found at Teachers.Net Gazette.  I did cut the black body out prior but they folded a half piece of 9x12 red construction paper and traced a wing and cut to create two wings.  I provided trimmed index cards for them to write the word LADYBUG or ladybug and whatever else they wanted to draw or write. 

We also did sight word fly swatting...the pictures didn't turn out well due to lighting and action but I did want to share the site to get these free flies.  :-)  Make Take & Teach.  She has a larger set on TPT, but Dolch lists 1-3 are free!  We so appreciate teachers willing to share!  We got good use out of them and we're keeping them out for next week since K. enjoyed them so well. 

Fly Swatter Painting and More Buggy Fun!

Fly Swatter Painting

We were lucky to have such lovely weather today so we spent a good portion of our morning outside with painting, lunch, and extended outdoor play.  I dripped "flies" on the paper and they had a bunch of fun swatting the flies.  :-)  Yes, it's messy, that's why we did it outside.  They didn't get as messy as I expected though!  Makes for neat painted papers.  I'm sure we'll be able to use the paper in some sort of project.  :-)

Buggy Sensory Pool

"Easter" grass in our pool.  Bugs, magnify glasses, bug containers, tweezers and whatever else the kids ended up putting in there.  :-)  I wouldn't say this is a favorite sensory material.  They tend to use it for dramatic play vs. any of the typical sensory explorations they usually do.  That's a-okay!

Stomp Boards

I ordered these last year and they are finally in.  Yeah! Early Childhood Connections had some connections.  :-P  They found someone willing to make these stomp boards for us for only $3.50.   You can purchase a stomp board for $25.99 at Discount School Supply.  So, yes!  I took advantage of this and purchased multiple for here and for gifts.  We started out with a couple bug bean bags and they went on to explore with other soft items such as stuffed animals, sponge balls, etc.  They got a lot of use this morning!

Sponge Bugs Basketball

This little basketball hoop is the same brand of the bean bag toss that I pulled the bug bean bags from for the stomp boards.  Soft play, perfect for toddlers and preschoolers indoor use.  Not the most durable but works okay.  :-) 

Leaf Math Mat (Grid Games)

PreKinders

 We also call this Cover Up. The goal is to roll the dice and cover that many spaces until you've covered the whole page. PreKinders has many theme related Grid Games available.   Interesting observation I made, oldest child went from left to right and top to bottom, for the most part.  Younger preschool child just put the bugs anywhere on his board.  The youngest went from left to right but started at the bottom.  :-)  Now my husband would say...well, would probably just think..."So, what."  :-P  This reinforces where I pegged them each in their development.  T. is really taking off, he starts counting on his own but then gets off and then wants us to count with him.  Awesome!  And so proud of himself too.  He's taking his own step up.  One nice thing about having teaching my own kids during preschool is they can definitely go at their own speed all year around.   

We won't get to this as planned but PreKinders also has free Bug Jar Math Printables! Check them out, especially if you have younger preschoolers.   She has a set for sorting by type, color and counting.

Who Am I?

From Kindergarten With Love

 I didn't do it exactly like she suggested.  I do not have the Target bugs and my Planet Earth bugs do not fit the clues so I just laminated her pictures to put on the mats. :-) Might add velcro though. Would help keep the pieces a bit more secure for the younger kiddos.  It was a perfect way for K. to practice her reading and for H. to work on listening, recall, and comprehension.  I also found that a couple just weren't clear enough...one reason being that the color she had on the clues didn't match the color of the bug in the picture.  But that's fine, I just removed those.  I can make a new clue card easily enough.  FYI, if you print these...they aren't exactly aligned so consider that if you are using your paper cutter.  :-) 

I Wish I Were...

This was a song I had in my files.  As usual, the picture uploaded crystal clear and than immediately changes to this blurry image.  Can anyone help me out with this?  Obviously it's changing the quality.  So the song goes like this...

Tune:  If You Are Happy and You Know It
Oh, I wish I were an eensy weensy spider.
Yes, I wish I were an eensy weensy spider.
I'd go creepy creepy crawly down the hall and up your wall-y.
Oh, I wish I were an eensy weensy spider.

 The bugs it incorporated are spider, bee, caterpillar, ant, mosquito, and fly.  I do not know who the original author of the song is.  The kids really really liked it.  I created a little booklet so the parents would have the words also, and it allowed me to slip in cutting on a narrow straight line and tracing letters.  You can download a copy for your own personal use here, if you wish.

Today's Menu:

PB Tortilla Wedges/Yogurt

Raw Carrots

Dried Apricots

Juicy Watermelon

1% White Milk

Ah, the fountain is back in business.  :-)  They are always enthralled with the fountain the first days it's running.  If only Ms. Amber would let them put things inside of it and play with the water there.  :-P

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. 

I Like Bugs!

Today began our week of learning a bit about bugs and doing activities related to this theme.  After having a child read book ...

www.amazon.com

Where Do Insects Live? is a science emergent reader book that is perfect for bringing a child's attention to "in" and "on".

and a teacher read book...

Level one, Hello Reader Book

we created a tree map about bugs.

Bugs can...have...live.

This was a perfect lead into a simple poem activity.

I Like Bugs!

inspired by Hubbard's Cupboard

If this simple printable would be useful to you, feel free to download here.

Bug Spelling

This printable includes a bee, beetle, ladybug, mosquito, dragonfly, butterfly, caterpillar, grasshopper, ant, fly, moth and spider.  Reminder: a spider is not an insect.  ;-) Feel free to download a copy for your own personal use, if you wish.  Laminate and cut apart the strips.

The clothespins add a nice fine motor component, especially for preschool students.

Today, I also reinforced that concept that every word chunk has at least one vowel.   So she clapped out the word, then pushed those clothespins together to make the separate word chunks. Then she pointed out and named the vowels.  Fit nicely into our reading goals!  I do introduce some things a bit earlier than typical preschool teachers.  Just how much I introduce depends on the individual child.  I just have found that pointing out and talking about certain "rules" make it easier for them in the long run.  I don't expect mastery and we don't spend a lot of time on the ideas but we do slip it in briefly here and there.  This idea that there is at least one vowel in every word chunk sure helps when they begin sounding out and spelling words on their own! 

Buggy Art

Painting with rollers is always a painting tool they enjoy.  Today they simply used the rollers to create a grassy background.  Then they were encouraged to make bugs using foamie shapes.  Simple and enjoyable!

bug/short vowel u

Monday our focus vowel was short u.  So, of course that leads right into the word bug and what child doesn't like to do things with bugs?  At least pretend ones anyway!  Some get a bit dramatic over real ones.  :-P  So, our journal was the simple one word topic of "bug".  (While the older ones were spending more time on their journal, the younger ones were doing calendar and a high-frequency word booklet).  Then we moved onto our story which was Why Mosquitoes Buzz in People's Ears by Verna Aardema.  We are having a real issue with this bug bugging us!  So it was a fitting story. If you haven't read it before it's an interesting book to read to the kiddos.  The ending is quite fitting.  :-)

www.amazon.com

We then transitioned into our /u/ cvc words, starting with b-u-g.  I've posted a picture of our moveable letter activity in the past.  We are still doing it the same way so I won't post another right now.  We'll be doing a review activity next week with the short vowel sounds.

Then of course it's time to move!  We got the parachute out again and put on some stretchy bugs.

Parachute is always a blast for the kids. You can purchase them in so many different sizes or you can simply use a light weight blanket.  So, they tried to keep the bugs on as long as they could.  These really went bouncing high...often on top of the piano and out into the kitchen and a time or two they hit the ceiling. There was a bit of squealing going on because of it but that just makes it more fun.  Then after they were all off the parachute, they kept their hands on and I showed a bug card which they named and then we shook the parachute while we said the name to find out how many syllables were in it.  Then the bugs were put back on and we continued on that way for a bit.

Then it's numeral formation time. 

They simply created a caterpillar and wrote the numbers backwards (their idea) from ten to 1 or 0. 

Then it was art time but I posted about that yesterday so won't say much about it now.

I also forgot about our letter formation B butterflies...and then we ran out of time so we'll do those tomorrow.  We did our Listen and Do activity (following verbal instructions) along with our scissors activity.

This activity was reproduced from Word Family Helpers a Mailbox publication.

And I decided that part of our fine motor component would be game playing.  I found that we just didn't have time for that during the school year and playing games is very beneficial as they are learning to work together to solve problems, follow rules, take turns, learn about good sportsmanship, (paying attention to whose turn it is so they didn't annoy those waiting), and it's good for fine motor skills, especially if there are cards involved.  Remember that flipping cards over is great for developing/strengthening muscles in the hand and wrist which is necessary for good penmanship.

Our game yesterday (and we played it again today :-))...

 

Need a gift for a preschool age child?  This is an excellent game.  It took longer to complete the game then I expected when I first saw it.  Today we averaged going through 3 stacks of the cards before completing a game but it's pretty fast moving. They played three games in a row!  "No reading necessary" though it does use words (good thing too!) it has symbols also to give the children clues.  My 8 year old still enjoyed playing the game with the younger ones and to be truthful...I kind of had fun too!  Some board games (like Candy Land) drive me bananas.  :-P This one didn't.  So it has that going for it!

For our phonological awareness activity we use a borrowed story set from our local Regional Resource Center.  All brand new since it's a new resource to our area.  They are beginning to provide infant-preschool materials for us to borrow.  It'll be interesting to see how it all works.  I've been wishing we had something like this in the area and so I'm a bit excited.  It's a good way to try something out before purchasing it yourself also.  So, one of the student's favorite book is There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly so we used the very nicely made set to work with sequencing and retelling a story.  I have some home made pictures for this story but the children loved (including Trent, now 2 years old) putting the animals inside of the woman. 

All made of thick felt and velcro.  Definitely something I'd consider purchasing.

All for now!  Tomorrow we are moving to the short o vowel and will do a bit with "pots".  :-P