Fall Fingerprint Tree!

Addie's Tree,

Chase's Tree and Tana's Tree

 

I cut out a trunk shape from brown construction paper.  Addie glued the trunk to a piece of white construction paper.  I helped Chase and Tana with their tree trunks!  Next the three children dipped their fingers into the red, yellow and orange paint and pressed their fingers on, above, below and around the tree trunk to make colorful, Fall leaves! 
Materials Needed:  white and brown construction paper, red, yellow and orange paint

Fingerpainting Clouds!

Day 1 of our week. The theme this week is Books.
Project/Learning Activity - Fingerpainting Clouds - We talked about how we sometimes see shapes in the clouds, and they shared different shapes they had seen. I then introduced our book by saying that it is about a little cloud that turns into different shapes. I read Little Cloud by Eric Carle out loud to Connor and Lauren. After the reading, we reviewed the different shapes that the little cloud made during the story. Project - I showed the illustrations in the book to Connor and Lauren again and prompted them to notice how they appeared to be fingerpainted. I then, place a dollop of white fingerpaint on a piece of light-blue paper. Connor, Lauren and Addie spread his/her paint around to make individual cloud shapes. Then, Connor and Lauren described their cloud shape and wrote it down on after the writing prompt on the blue paper. Source - The Mailbox Magazine June/July 2008 Materials Needed - Little Cloud by Eric Carle, white paint, blue paper, marker.

Learning Activities:

Today's Activities:

Alphabet - writing, A, and B, beginning A and B sounds

Numbers - 1, 2, 3, recognition, following directions

Math Readiness - writing numbers, counting, following directions, recognition

Reading Readiness - smaller

Writing - journal writing

Spectacular Suns!

Day 3 of the week - The theme this week is Colorful Spring! Then letters of the week are r, V, v.

Project - Spectacular Suns- Sometimes you think that a project will turn out better than it actually does. This is one of those projects - oh well - the kids had fun painting the suns with forks! I guess if they enjoy the process of the project than that is all that matters!!! :) I found this project in the June/July 2009 issue of The Mailbox. Directions: Trace several circular lids in different sizes on white card stock. Use orange and yellow crayons to color the tracings. Then dip a fork in yellow paint and drag the back of the prongs outward over each sun to make rays. Sprinkle glitter over the wet paint.

Materials Needed - card stock, yellow and orange crayons, yellow paint, plastic fork, glitter, circular lids

Learning Activities

Today's Activities:

Numbers - subtracting writing numbers, counting

Letters - writing Lowercase v

Writing - journal writing

Spring Flowers!

Day 1 of the week - The theme this week is Colorful Spring! The letters of the week are r, V, v.

Project - Spring Flowers - I found this project in the April/May 2009 issue of The Mailbox Magazine. Directions: Cut a celery stalk in 1/2 vertically; then cut one of the pieces in 1/2 horizontally. Press the long piece of celery in a pan of green paint and then on the paper to make the main stem. Repeat the process with smaller pieces of celery to make smaller stems. Next, make prints with the end of a piece of celery so they resemble leaves. Press the bottom of a 16 oz plastic bottle in paint and then on the paper to make flowers. Connor and Lauren used their fingers dipped in paint to make the middle of each flower. Finally, dip the leafy end of a celery stalk in green paint and use it to paint grass. Materials Needed - paper, various colors of paint, pan, 16 oz plastic bottle, celery, knife

Learning Activities

Today's Activities:

Numbers - adding, writing numbers, counting

Math - patterns, coloring, shapes

Letters - writing lowercase r and Uppercase R

Writing - journal writing

Paper Plate Turkey!

Day 1 of the week - The theme this week is Turkeys The letter of the week is S, s and the number of the week is 17.

Project - Paper Plate Turkey - I found the idea for this project on the website http://www.dltk-holidays.com/thanksgiving/crafts.html click on Turkey Crafts and then Paper Plate Turkey Craft. Directions: Connor used red, brown and orange markers to draw lines coming out from the middle of paper plate. I printed off the turkey templates and traced them onto brown, red and orange paper. Connor cut out the turkey shape body and I cut out the rest. He glued the body, feet, beak, beard and googly eyes to the turkey/plate. Then, he dipped his thumb into brown paint and made thumbprints on the plate around the turkey. Lastly, he dipped his index finger into red paint and made finger prints on top of the brown thumbprints.

Materials Needed - paper plate, red, brown, orange markers, turkey template, scissors, glue, brown, red, orange construction paper, brown and red paint

Learning Activities - I have been using the workbook Everything for Early Learning Preschool workbook. (I purchased it at Wal-Mart)

Today's Activities:

The letter S, s - writing, recognition

The number 17- recognition, writing, counting

Number Review - recognition, counting, following directions

Finger Painting - outside scene!

Day 2 of our week - No theme this week. The letter of the week is G, g and the number of the week is 4.

Lauren's finger painting

Project - Connor and Lauren haven't used finger paints in a long time, so I thought today would be a great day to have fun with the paints. I gave them each a blank piece of 11/13 white construction paper. I squeezed red, yellow, blue, and green finger paint onto plates. I set out paintbrushes, Popsicle sticks and pipe cleaners and dinosaur cookie cutters to create with. I asked them to make an outdoor scene (What do you see outside?) They had a lot of fun painting their pictures. * We used dinosaur cookie cutters, because they are really into dinosaur stuff this week!* Materials Needed - 11/13 white construction paper, finger paints, paint brushes, Popsicle sticks, pipe cleaners, cookie cutters.

Connor's Painting

Learning Activities - I have been using the workbook Everything for Early Learning Preschool workbook. (I purchased it at Wal-Mart)
Today's Activities:
The letter G, g - writing, beginning sound
The number 4 - recognition, one-to-one correspondence, following directions
The concepts first, second and third - recognition, matching,following directions
The concept down- recognition, following directions, cutting and pasting

Paint, glitter, and an egg carton make cool bugs!

Day 2 of our week --- Our theme this week is bugs, and the color of the week is purple.
Activity 1 - Connor and Lauren wrote the letter k and the word king on the worksheet Printing Practice worksheet 5 from the website http://www.worksheetuniverse.com/. They had a harder time with the letter k, but they got the hang of writing it by the end.
Activity 2 - I made a counting worksheet with purple books on it. They had to count the books and circle the correct number listed below the books. This activity emphasized the higher numbers 7, 8, 9 and 10. At the bottom of the worksheet they were asked to circle the group of books that had more in it.
Activity 3 - Again, I made another beginning sound worksheet. They had to circle the beginning sound for ghost, house, and jelly.
Project - Connor and Lauren made egg carton bugs. I cut a cardboard egg carton in half and had Connor and Lauren paint their individual halves. I gave them a pallet of 4 colors. They painted the cartons and then sprinkled glitter on the wet paint. After the paint dried, they decorated their "bugs" with pipe cleaners for legs, mini pom-pom's, buttons and googly eyes. I just gave them a variety of materials to be creative with. I found this idea on the website www.prekinders.com/themes.htm under the theme of bugs. I really like this site for theme ideas. I have used it for all of my themes and it provides links to other great theme websites for preschool age kids.

Farm Unit!

Our Theme is the Farm!Project Handprint Rooster - I found the idea for this project on the website http://www.first-school.ws/theme/animals.htm under the animal link and then the bird link. This site even provides templates for you to print, but it is an easy project to do without a template. Materials needed: white card stock or paper, red paper, yellow paper, large Popsicle sticks, glue and googly eyes.
I traced Connor and Lauren's hands on red card stock (for the wattle and crest) and cut them out. I cut out two small triangles for the beak on yellow card stock. (The template provides the triangle and circle) I cut out the circle head on white card stock. Connor and Lauren glued one of their hand prints on the top of the circular head and the other on the bottom of the head. Then they glued the yellow triangles on the side of the head and finished it off by gluing on a googly eye. Finally, I helped them glue their rooster head to the large Popsicle stick. They had fun doing puppet shows with their rooster.

Project - Farm Animal Counting - I created a grid style sheet with the numbers 1-5 on the edge of each row. I printed off pictures of farm animals and cut them to fit the squares of the sheet. Connor and Lauren then had count the farm animals and glue them in the matching row. This activity emphasizes counting, one-to-one correspondence. I adapted this activity from the website http://www.pre-kpages.com/farm.html

You can also print the counting grid sheet off of the website under the Farm theme page.

Project - Farm Animal Poem - I created a sheet with farm clip art a border and the poem I am a ______(type of farm animal) I can ______ (movement) I can________(sound) I feel________(texture) I smell______(scent) I am_______(emotion) I am a ______(animal again). Then Connor and Lauren drew a picture of their animal on the top half of the sheet. I got this idea from the website http://www.prekinders.com/farmunit.htm under the link for the themes/farm.







Project Old MacDonald Farm Animal Book! - I created a Cover for the book by finding a clip-art picture of a barn. I printed it as a full sheet and glued to a piece of construction paper. Then I made the pages to the book by adding farm clip-art a border and typing the song "Old MacDonald Had a Farm" leaving out the animal name and the animal sounds. I let Connor and Lauren choose their animals each day (We did 1 page each day for a total of 3 pages in the book). Then at the bottom of each page underneath the song, they drew a picture of their animal. At the end of the week. I added a back piece of construction paper and I stapled all of the pages together to make a book! Connor and Lauren loved reading and looking at their books! I got this idea from the website http://www.prekinders.com/farmunit.htm under the farm theme


Project Farm Counting Book- I created pages for this farm animal counting book and then glued them onto construction paper and stapled the book together. The title of the book was On the Farm. The first page said, I see _____ cow on the farm. The second page said, I see _____ turkeys on the farm. The third page said, I see _____ pigs on the farm. The fourth page said, I see _____ sheep on the farm. The fifth page said, I see _____ ducks on the farm. I printed out clip-art farm animals and the kids had to count each animal and write the number of each animal on the appropriate line and paste the animals on the page. This activity emphasized counting, one-to-one correspondence and number writing. I adapted this activity from the website http://www.pre-kpages.com/farm.html

Project Paper Plate Pig Face- Connor and Lauren loved this project. Materials needed: 2 paper plates (1 large- for the body, 1 small-for the head (or cut one of the plates smaller), light pink construction paper or card stock -for the nose and ears, pink paint Black permanent marker, pink pipe cleaner.

Connor and Lauren painted both the regular and small paper plates pink. When the paint was dry they glued the small plate in the middle of the larger plate. I cut out a small pink circle out of paper along with triangle ears. They then glued the small pink paper circle for the nose to the middle of the small plate. They added eyes, nostrils and a mouth with a black marker. Finally, they glued on pink paper triangles for the ears. I curled the pink pipe cleaner for the tail and punched a hole in the top of the larger paper plate to thread the tail through. I let the kids choose where they wanted the tail to go!! I got the idea for this project from the website http://www.pre-kpages.com/farm.html under the farm theme link.

Farm Animal Patterns! - I printed out farm animal clip-art and started patterns on a piece of construction paper. Then I had Connor and Lauren finish the patterns gluing the correct farm animals on the piece of paper. We just started doing patterns, so it is an ongoing learning activity.

Project Bean Farm Scene- Connor and Lauren drew a farm scene on a piece of cardstock. Then I traced over their drawings with White Elmers glue and they placed beans on the glue. The beans outlined their drawings. They loved drawing their pictures and watching them "pop" with the beans. Materials needed- cardstock or heavy construction paper, markers, Elmers glue or craft glue, beans or seeds.




Project Paper Plate Duck- Connor and Lauren made a paper plate duck which incorporated their handprints! I got this idea from the website http://www.first-school.ws/theme/animals.htm This site has templates you can use. I used a paper plate that Connor and Lauren painted yellow. I drew my own beak and feet and traced Connor and Lauren's hands. Materials needed - paper plate, yellow construction paper, orange construction paper, yellow paint, googly eyes, glue and a stapler (the above website has templates for the beak, feet and head).
Directions:
Connor and Lauren painted a paper plate yellow.
Then, I folded the paper plate in half so the color showed on both sides.
I drew feet and a beak on orange construction paper and a round head on yellow construction paper and I traced their hands yellow construction paper and cut every piece out. The website has templates you can use. I folded the middle part of the feet up into the folded plate and stapled. Connor and Lauren glued the folded beak piece onto the head piece. Then they glued large googly eyes onto the head above the beak. Then Connor and Lauren glued the head on the side top corner of the body(the plate). Finally, I took their traced handprints and stapled them to the other top corner (for the feathers)!