5 Little Kites

5 Little Kites

One little kite in the sky so blue,

Along came another, then there were two.

Two little kites, flying high above me.

Along came another, then there were three

Three little kites, just watch them soar

Along came another, then there were four.

Four little kites, so high and alive

Along came another, then there were five.

Five little kites dancing across the sky,

What a sight to see, way up so high!

-author unknown-

Another small sewing project for K.  :-)  She went through my material tub and chose five that she wanted to create kites out of.  Great conversation can come out of exploring material!  Children can be encouraged to feel different textures, describe what they feel, see, tough, notice patterns and etc.

I had to cut the material with my material scissors but she definitely wanted to "pop" it open and arrange it on the felt background.  We used the same approach as we did with her paper kites and hearts...folding in half and cutting half the shape. 

She also enjoyed looking at my embroidery thread container.  Shades of colors!  Our elementary school doesn't have an art teacher :-( and really they don't even start talking about shades of colors until 1st grade and that for descriptive writing purposes...but I find that this interests preschoolers and so I try to slip it in frequently.   I see we've used enough that I can go get some of my loose skeins of embroidery thread and refill my container!  She used one strand (or two if we needed to cut and start fresh because of an oopsie!) out of the thread with a regular sewing needle for around the kites (her chosen colors) and the rest of that embroidery thread with a yarn needle for the string.  I use real yarn needles instead of plastic ones.  I teach that these are tools not toys and they tend to show caution when using.   She chose her buttons and I did try to teach her how to crochet one line...however her coordination wasn't quite ready for either approach I used (with and without the crochet needle) so she settled for choosing the color of yarn and trying before saying that I could just do it.  But A for effort!  At one time she wasn't so apt at trying these new skill.

I was going to show her how to sew simple triangle bows but by the time we got to this part she was done with the sewing project and that's fine.  If you have an older child...perhaps that's something you'd like to add. 

She enjoys sewing in small doses...and that is what I recommend for this age.  Simple projects and done in multiple sessions. 

S is for Sewing a Snowman!

Just a quick post to share the picture of the final product of K.'s sewing project.  :-)

Today is the last day before winter break.  May take a break from blogging or may post a few pictures of what my own kiddos are planning on doing over break.  Still hoping for snow! 

S is for Snowman! Day 4

Over the weekend we got a little bit of snow...but only the roads are still white...the grass is back to the lovely greenish brown color of fall.  Hoping for snow over break.  Since it will be the "first" snow, my boys will spend a lot of time in it!  Yes, kind of a selfish thought but really, we are ALL ready for a good snow!

So a couple of snowman activities to share today.

Candle Warmer Snowmen

Inspired by Teach Preschool-who did fall leaves with their candle warmer.

She made more than she wanted on her paper so we just sent the "extras" home.  I love that she put earmuffs on some, a scarf, crazy hats..a good variety.  Shows that her creativity is starting to develop.  At the beginning of the year she would have just used one color and one design on all of them. 

K. definitely enjoyed the melting process...and how much smaller and smooth the crayon became.  We will definitely do this again...maybe as more of a free exploration...with more colors but today we focused on snowmen as an intro to this type of activity. 

The first two steps:

Vowel Snowmen

Vowel Song

Tune: BINGO

The vowels of the alphabet

I know them all by name.

a-e-i-o-u

a-e-i-o-u

a-e-i-o-u

I know them all by name.

The vowels of the alphabet

I know their short sounds too!

/a/, /e/, /i/, /o/, /u/

/a/, /e/, /i/, /o/, /u/

/a/, /e/, /i/, /o/, /u/

I know their short sounds too!

You can find the Snowman Vowel Sort Worksheet at http://www.kellyskindergarten.com/Monthly%20Centers/January/JanuaryCenters.htm.  The link next to the image of the vowel sort snowflakes.  You'll notice that our "worksheet" doesn't look like the original.  :-)  I'm not a big worksheet fan and just doing the worksheet would not be enough practice for me so I cut the snowmen out, placed at the top of a large construction paper and used our alphabet miniatures to sort (using different objects than the pictures on the worksheet) and then had her sort and glue the pictures onto the snowman as a review.

Snowman Sewing Project

I don't know if I mentioned that we started a small sewing project.  I know I posted a picture on facebook.  This is K.'s first project that represents something.  We've done sewing explorations before but this time we are creating a simple snowman.  Obviously we aren't quite done yet...she has some buttons to sew on the belly and she wants a carrot nose then we'll decide how she wants the mouth and if she wants arms or not and other details.  Not sure if we are going to leave it as a banner or make it into a small pillow.  We are using felt as the felt shapes stick to the felt background and allows for a little easier time in sewing a shape to the background.  She's done a great job and my 8 year old son wants to start one...good winter break activity! 

R is for...

R is for Rainbow!

Well, we didn't get to everything this week due to illness but...that's the way it goes.  Glad it landed in our "R" week since R is a familiar letter. 

Rainbow Bottles

All age groups love this type of activity.  One year my bro-in-law had a large trash bag full of transparent bottles and I took them into my school-age program and they loved them!  Those bottles didn't have lids so we stuck clay on the top and turned them into creatures.  Such fun!  Today we simply created rainbow bottles.  It was a RoseArt kit.  But you don't have to buy a kit.  Use recycled containers and if you don't want to purchase colored sand, you can always color salt.  Great fine motor! 

Rainbow R

This ended up being a two day project.  The initial gluing on of strips allowed for us to talk about the actual colors of the rainbow and introduce/reinforce ROY G. BIV.  This was just a fun tidbit...not something I expect them to remember and as you can see, she chose not to put the color strips in order and that's okay also.  Actually, I see a pattern and I'm betting she probably would have completed that pattern if there were more of those colors.  :-)  We let it dry completely and then traced the letter R on the back for her to cut out.  A little harder than we expected, having to go through the second layer of paper but she did it!

Alphabet Rainbow

www.sparklebox.co.uk

Came across that cute alphabet rainbow at Sparklebox and decided to use it with a sensory tub activity.  Hid colorful magnetic letters in a tub of sand.  She found them and as she did trace that upper case letter.  She then put it on the magnetic dry-erase board where she thought the letter would go, using her alphabet rainbow as a guide.  I did not plan to use lower case letters as Sparklebox's font isn't what I teach so...she's welcome to trace those at home (and I encouraged her to look for those letters at home) but I didn't include that in our activity.  I chose to use this as an informal evaluation of how she was forming the letters.  I was glad to see that the letters that we have "taught" were formed just as I taught them.  The others weren't, but that's fine.  We'll get there! 

Rainbow Numeral Formation:

Not exactly what I had initially thought to do, but it worked out just fine.  I added other colors in there besides just ROY G BIV as I wanted to review those also.  She placed the numeral cards in order 0-9 and then used mancala beads to make that number on the felt.

Exploring with Rocks

Not really a "rainbow" activity but something I wanted to do this week.  I did add rainbow colored magnets to be used with weighing rocks and a rainbow tablet with a rainbow set of markers for documentation if they wished.  Anyway, these rocks we picked up at Lake Huron.  My eldest chose most of them.  I encouraged them to pick them out of the lake instead of off the shore because then we could see how colorful or what cool design was on the rock when we used water during our exploration.  Found some neat ones!

While on the rock topic...Story Rocks

An idea I've seen many places but the most recently was at TeachPreschool.

I actually created these myself placing the modgepodge on like my kiddos would just to see what would happen.  I plan for them to create their own in the near future.  For this set I used all /r/ beginning sound words.  Great stories came from it! Simply glob some modgepodge onto the rock, place the picture on top and modgepodge over top of that again.  Simple.  FYI:  these were polished rocks from a dollar store.

Sewing R

Plastic canvas is perfect for beginner sewers.  I use yarn needles and tie the thread at the eye.  This does not work with yarn (makes it too thick to pull through) but is perfect for embroidery thread.  Then we have less of an issue of the needle coming off the end.  I made three bundles of thread to start with... ROY     G       BIV.  Looked neat.  Then she'll be welcome to use any colors she wants when those are done.  This is an activity we keep out for awhile and work on it as interest lasts.

Flower III

We actually used today as a "finish up project" day.  We had stuff from our weather theme a few weeks ago that I thought we'd get done in our rain/rainbow (April Showers) theme but still didn't get done.  So finish up and a few extra activities. 

We started sewing yesterday.  Trent was watching them so intensely that when he woke up from his nap today I offered that activity to him.  Oh my goodness...he loved it!  He has excellent fine motor skills.  He even has a nice color scheme going on!  He'd get to a point and hand me the rectangle (to knot off) and he'd open the container to get another color. 

This is where he is at.  We'll be leaving it out for him to continue with as he desires.

Setting Up Activities

I find that in home-based programs...it's very easy to do a lot of independent work.  Especially, if it's a homeschooling household with only children in that family.  And independent work has it's place.  But we also want to make way for cooperative work. I vary how I set up my activities.   Here are three main ways I usually set up the activities in order for a different experience.

* Sitting near each other but have own materials.

That's similar to the sensory pool today.  I thought Trent would be up and was setting it up accordingly as he really is still in parallel play.  However, the other two children are past that and at first they played with their own materials but then began to combine their play without any suggestions from me...which is exactly what I want to see! :-)

* Sitting next to each other and having several of the same type of items but not identical.

I find that this is a great way to transition the children to sharing.  Why?  Because "it's always greener on the other side of the fence."  They want what the other child has.  It looks like more fun.  This is a great way to encourage them to ask politely and wait patiently.  In the meantime, they have something similar to work with.  Side note:  Just because a child asks another for a specific toy or tool, it doesn't mean that the other child is done with it.  At the beginning of the year they often struggle with this concept.  I teach, "Ask them if you can use it when they are done."  And by this time of year...I hear this all the time.  The children very seldom forgets who asked for the item.  Something else I teach...especially with a mixed age group is how to trade.  All a part of problem solving and working together. 

* Sitting next to each other but having to share materials.

By the time they are at this stage, most of the  children are well into cooperative play and understand the "rules of the road" when it comes to using and sharing toys/tools.  They are also at a stage where they are beginning to "plan" their work.  So this adds a bit of a challenge for them.  Definitely a benefit.  To add an additional challenge, do this with a group of 3 or 4!  Lovely conversations and learning experiences!  Often, after setting up the activity and giving directions I'll quietly scoot back so I'm not really "with" the group.  I'm there if I need to help facilitate but they often learn quite a bit from their peers.  If it's a mixed age group...or mixed develop group, I'll sit near the youngest or the one who may not be at the same develop as the others.  I've found great success in having 2 or 3 that know how it works and one that isn't as adept.  Sitting next to a specific child so I can give quiet verbal, nonverbal-physical-visual cues help them be successful.  That's what we want, right?!  The more they are successful the higher their confidence level.

"Grow a Garden" Flower Sorting

This activity was a homemade one.  Really didn't take all that long and was relatively inexpensive.  It got the name "Grow a Garden" because the three year old was sorting the flowers and saying, over and over, "I'm growing a garden!"  So cute.  It's simply a shoe box, trimmed "library pockets" (dollar store), painted craft sticks and foam flowers.  I used all the same type of flowers for each color so we could talk about characteristics.  I also made the color word tags color and black and white.  They are removeable so that they can match the color word to the color of the flowers.  We talked about how many of each flower they had in their garden.  If they were equal, more or less. 

Marble Transfer

Again, these simple fine motor activities are a hit!  The pegs on the pegboard was a bit more of a challenge then the fish cut out of the bath mat...probably because of the plastic but they all did well!  We pretended the pegs were stems and the marbles were flowers.  FYI: A 1/4 teaspoon is the perfect size tool for a marble transfer.  I know you all know this...but as a reminder...marbles are choking hazards.  Use under supervision. 

I love my job!  Looking forward to tomorrow!

Flowers II

Here's a pic of an almost completed "Garden Party" booklet they made yesterday.  They just didn't get their name on it yet.  Not sure how that was missed...but we were running out of time yesterday so that is probably why. 

I love the Mailbox publications "I Can Make It!  I Can Read It!"

This was from their Spring themed book.  Unfortunately, I don't think you can purchase the seasons, preschool-kindergarten, from them anymore.   BOO!  I got mine off of Amazon.com by other sellers.  The only one I don't have is Summer and was contemplating seeing if I can find it.  I also have the Science themed one which is nice.  I think you can still purchase that one.  Not sure.

It's repeated text...ending with a butterfly on the last page (which is blue paper).  Here's an example of a verse.  Great for preschoolers and those exploring with reading.  They use the flowers that are in the row so they know exactly what flower and color to say during the verse.

Hello, red rose.

Who invited you?

A fresh white daisy...

That's who! 

Art: Mosaic

A cute little flower plate from the dollar store makes the materials look more organized and appealing.  Trent was up for the morning so he participated in his own version.  He really got into the gluing, which is very beneficial.  I buy a large amount of liquid glue in summer/fall when it's cheap.  We go through a lot of it.  I love the benefit of using a glue bottle and we do a lot with it.  SQUEEZE=hand strengthening and control.  Sometimes I tighten the lid a bit so they really have to squeeze!  One child actually used the yarn for a stem of a flower.  Another child used green crayon to make a bunch of stems with one shape on the top.  The other two children just placed the wooden shapes where they wish.  And that is okay!  Mosaics/collage really don't keep a lot of interest here and part of the reason, I feel, is because I haven't introduce it through an artist/illustrator that uses that technique.  So that's one of my goals for this fall is to have a more "formal", for the lack of a better term, art program.  They get none of this once they hit Kindergarten at our school  :-(  The little art they do in the classroom would be, on my scale, a 1 or lower.  Seriously.  It's bad news!  But that's my personal opinion.  I loved it when I worked in the public school system down near Detroit.  I shared space with the art teacher...for K-6.  What conversations we had!  What a learning experience.  So I really feel bad that my own kids don't get that opportunity.

On a brighter note...our hand/foot print flowers turned out lovely.  This was more a sensory activity in my eyes.  This would not be considered a very great "art" activity unless they did it on their own and they way they wanted...and they definitely wouldn't have turned out "cute" by any adult perspective. 

You can tell that I've been doing handprinting with them as Trent, not quite two, looked at me funny but came willingly when I asked if I could paint his feet.  Then when it was time to print his hands...he came and plopped himself in my lap, pulled up his sleeves, and with a big smile, held out his hand.  LOL  His is the red one, and yes, he chose that color.  A note about choices, if it seems that your child is unable to "choose" then you are probably giving them too many choices!  If you are new to giving choices...a general thought to keep in mind is a choice for every year in age.  So 2 years, 2 choices, 3 years- 3 choices.  However, once they are accustomed to this decision making...you can do what I do and just plop all the colors there and they do just find with that decision making.   Here's another picture...after someone thought of glitter and they all took off on that tangent.  So glittered we got.  :-)

I had an older Weekly Reader from one of my own boys about plants growing.  So we also talked about the parts of a flower, that the stem is like a straw, that we need a root system, the sequence of a plant and so on.

File Folder Game

http://www.preschoolprintables.com/filefolder/flower/filefolderflower.shtml

They counted the dots on the petals and matched it to the petal on the flower.  A note about file folder games:  These are really nice...especially for the teacher.  Or maybe I should say, mostly for the teacher.  :-)  All nicely contained.  Can be made for so many different skills.  I find that at the preschool stage, they aren't all into them.  I do use them on occasion or as fillers.  I sometimes use them as an assessment tool as well.  But they aren't a favorite amongst my kiddos.   In the picture on the right, I just folded the folder back to only have the petals 1-5 as that's where that particular student is at for counting sets.  There would have been way too many options out there for him.  So keep that in mind when you are creating file folder games.  You want to make it so that you can easily adjust it for a child at a different level.  I find that a lot of file folder games for preschool specifically are too easy, at least for my students, and the Kindergarten ones have a bit too much information and get overwhelming.

http://www.kindergartenkindergarten.com/file-folder-games/

 has a few downloadable folder activities.  Beautiful artwork/pictures!!!  I'll be keeping my eye out on this site to see if she posts anymore.  Keep in mind that this is a K teacher creating for K students.

Back at it again today!

Beautiful!

Fine Motor: Sewing

We started these today.  Pretty much open-ended.  This type of thing needs to be left out for a few days so they can go back to it and sew in small doses.  I had purchased some burlap-like material but found that my kiddos still needed the stiffer material until I can get enough embroidery rings for them all.  So, plastic canvas in the meantime.  I have the "real" yarn needles...not the plastic ones and they work so much better!

Scissors: Paper Plate Flower

Sorry, these pictures are scary indeed!  I had already plopped them up in the entranceway...which is narrow and not conducive to picture taking.   :-)  But you can get the point.  Cheap activity by the way!  I had them use roller paints (the commercial version of paint in roller deoderant bottles LOL)on the back of a paper plate, because I knew it would be dry enough for them to immediately start cutting.  Other paints, it would have turned into a 2 day project.  You could use crayons/markers I guess...but this is definitely more fun.  They fringe cut around the edges.  Cut their own stems and decided what kind of leaves they wanted...paper or crayon or none.  They all turned out differently, that's for sure.  Simple and easy but good skill practice!