Water Transfer

Blogging has been put to the bottom of the priority list time and time again.  :-)  Guess that's the way it goes.  Very busy...but a happy busy.  Did want to slip in this picture because it was a favorite with T., 3 years old. 

Since T. has been having such success with the 12 piece jigsaw alphabet puzzles, I also try to incorporate those letters in his other work.  (Neat to hear him talk about letters now!)  Here he is actually using the letter A and B sponges.  :-)  Adding color to the water a) keeps interest b) helps them to see where they drip--correct error c) helps YOU to see where they dripped...I do NOT like wet socks!  LOL

Simple, not to messy, kid loved, teacher/parent loved (great fine motor-gave him two sponges to encourage him to use both hands.  He started with his dominant hand but did do a bit with his right hand).  If you haven't already...give this activity a try! 

Lego Counting Mat

Exploring the possibilities!  I'm all for sharing and so I've finally taken the time to figure out how to create and link a pdf. file.  Fun!  :-)  Anyway...on Pinterest I came across Lego Counting Mats (http://rockabyebutterfly.blogspot.com/2012/02/hands-on-counting-activities.html).  The original poster was actually a Geocities site and they are no longer so I decided that if I'm going to create these mats I might as well share them.  I left it black and white so that if you wish to add a color sorting component you can do it simply by coloring the Lego blocks the corresponding color of your own Legos.  I recommend laminating for durability.  Side note about lamination:  I use to print everything on cardstock.  $$$  So when I observed another preschool teacher printing on regular copy paper and laminating I watched how they held up with the children's use.  Guess what?!  They held up better because they were more flexible!  So very seldom to I use cardstock for my created activities that will be laminated.

Lego Counting Mats

Variations beyond the child building the towers and putting them on the mat...

*  Consider have them already built with a number sticker at the top.  They can be seriated by size (large to small/small to large).  Then the child can explore with matching the tower to the corresponding number on the mat.  This is a great visual of how numbers work...growing taller with each additional block.

*  Encourage the child to create a pattern with the colors of blocks. 

 *  Create each tower with it's own color.  This adds a color sorting component.  But you can also take two different towers and use them for addition exploration.

*  Explore with odd and even.  Legos are perfect for creating buddies- breaking apart and putting together.  They will then see the pattern to odd/even (and skip counting).  Might be beneficial to have each tower it's own color.

*  Nonstandard Measurement:  Encourage your child to find an object that measures closely to each tower.

* Instead of a number sticker, write the number word.  Match the word to the number on the mat.  This leads to self correction because it will be seriated from smallest to largest if they match the words correctly.

*  Remember to reinforce the concept of zero!

* The last column can be used for the child to create his own tower (preferably over 10 Legos) and write the number with dry erase marker.

I is for ice and igloo and other misc. items!

First off I would like to share our new "keeping healthy" process for outside.  :-) 

This has been floating around Pinterest.  What a great idea!  Have the tissue and trash right there!  Use double sided tape or hot glue to attach two boxes of tissue to each other.  Then rubberband together for additional support.  I created a visual to put on the front for my preschoolers.  I plan on laminating the label and attaching with sticky tac so that it can be reused.  I imagine that the boxes will need to be replaced eventually.  :-)  Someone had the thought of attaching a small bottle of sanitizer...I like that idea also, but I have a large one that needs to be used up.  I might create a little "box" on the side for a small pump bottle sanitizer in the future so that it's all one piece for easy transferring.

I is for Igloo

A great fine motor/scissors activity.  Reinforce upper and lowercase letter I.

I is for Ice Transfer

I loved what I heard from T.- 2.5 yrs old as he was transferring (pic on right).  A few of the crushed ice pieces were too big for that bottle he was using and he'd say "too big".  "Here small one."  Then after a couple of too big ones he started looking in his bowl and saying out loud whether it would fit or not.  This age is great!  They are transitioning from toddler to preschool behaviors.  :-) 

A Word about Puzzles

We had a puzzle day over the weekend.  Recently I found some puzzles on sale...then 2 more boxes on clearance at another store and that same week one of Donnie's coworkers gave him a box of 4-100 piece puzzles for the boys.  So!  :-)  I love puzzles and wish I had a space in my house to keep one up all the time.  A large one at the kitchen table really doesn't work well.  Cuts our workspace for daily activities in half and messes up our supper routine.  :-D  Well, some day maybe I'll have a puzzle table we can keep a puzzle going without getting in our way! 

Anyway...we have a ton of puzzles...from wooden knob puzzles, to foam puzzles to 4 piece+ jigsaws.  One thing we do with jigsaws is to flip them over at the end of the first time putting them together and writing a couple letters or a symbol on each piece to represent the puzzle title.  That way when a piece gets left out on the floor (which it will!) then we better know where they go.  It's wise to label the box with the corresponding symbol.  A word about puzzles and preschoolers...give them a chance!  I have a set of 12 piece alphabet puzzles that we work with frequently but seeing a preschooler capable of a 24 piece jigsaw is not uncommon.  :-)  Here's one we did today...

Color Wheel

Yesterday, we did the 12 piece Letter I puzzle so today I pulled out a 24 piece color wheel puzzle we got at a dollar store (they aren't always the best quality coming from the dollar store but this one wasn't bad!).  This was to reinforce the cool colors vs. warm colors lesson we had yesterday.  They did well working together.  One reminding them that "That can't go there it's has a straight part."  and another reminding "We need to look for the same colors."

Toddler Color Sorting

I find that having "tray work" out for Mr. T. here really helps our morning go successfully.  There are activities he's just not ready for or doesn't spend as much time with so having a variety of trays out for him to work with independently is very beneficial.  And since there is a big possibility we'll be homeschooling next school year...I wish for him to get accustomed to independent tray work.  Use one tray at a time, putting the tray back, etc.  Here I provided a variety of colorful items.  I placed one item in each section of the tray and he sorted the rest of them.  After he got over the fact that it was sort by object vs. sort by color...this activity really appealed to his natural sense of order.  :-)

Puzzles and Toddlers

Since we are on the subject of puzzles and toddlers...

These types of puzzles are great vocabulary builders.  He was manipulating/playing with the puzzle pieces and he'd show me one and I'd sing a little song to go with it.  Kind of like Old MacDonald's Farm.  Oh the simple things like adding a song.  :-P  They love it and it's very beneficial!

Flowers!!!

You could probably figure out by my title that I'm just a wee bit excited today.  :-)  I've been waiting about two weeks to try this new fine motor activity.  It was so fun for the children.  They repeated it over and over.  I'm planning on leaving it out for free exploration...as long as Trent can handle it (or I can handle how Trent handles it).  But gut feeling is he'll do okay keeping it somewhat contained. From an adult perspective I had to bite my tongue lots of times and become like a broken record with the question, "Well, what do you think?"  This turned into a perfect problem solving activity also.  Before I go on I should share the pictures, so you know what on earth I'm talking about.

Flower Arranging

I showed the children one time and then I walked away and observed.  With one child there was constant verbalization.  It was hilarious and eye opening!  What I showed them was to place two scoops of sand inside the vase, using a funnel.  Then add flowers to make arrangement.  Then clean up for the next person.  They didn't do it exactly as I said after the first time, but that is a-okay for me.  That allows for "problems" to arise.  :-P 

Flower Bubble Wrap Printing

This is a perfect example of an activity where the adult's thoughts do not correspond with the child's.  :-) Actually, this child did paint and print all the "flowers" first and then used her paint brushes and fingers to finish her work.  Since I'm big on "open ended" art...so be it.  She was definitely enjoying the process and I was definitely enjoying listening and watching!  I'm not so sure she was so excited when she realized that these paints stain your hands (yes, they are washable but they are the worse "washable" paints I've used yet...especially anything with the red pigment...so red, magenta, purple, etc.) But...I had mentioned they were not fingerpaints...just regular ones and she still wanted to use her hands.  A little lesson in taking responsibility for her actions.  :-)

Side note:  When another child was painting, he stated "I got it on my hands!"  He's a "newbie" compared to others and before I could say a word, the 4 year old said, "It's no big deal.  Paint washes."  Ah! (*Big Smile*)

Tea Pot Pouring

The last two weeks we've had our tea set out on the shelf.  So today I placed part of the set with the water play to encourage pouring. 

We also started a Garden Party booklet for our scissors activity as well as other literacy and math activities.  But these were the "favorites".  Of course, any type of art and sensory are favorites!  And for those of you with really young children: I believe that if you provide time to get "messy"...specifically exploring with sensory material, your youngsters are less likely to create their own sensory materials...like dumping socks all out of the drawers...getting into the flour....writing all over your walls...getting into your makeup, dumping out a powder from the container (yes, stuff I've heard over and over again).  My point is that they are LESS likely to find their own materials to explore with if you provide enough time with sensory materials in order to satisfy their natural curiosity ... even a need... to explore!  Plan it...and it's a lot less of a mess and stress for you as the adult!