Painting it a Valentine!

This week we've had a great time painting hearts for Valentines day!

On Tuesday we started out with basic paint brushes and of course, had a ball!

On Wednesday, I added a variety of paint brushes to spice it up a bit. Circled sponges, flat sponges, thick brushes, skinny brushes, etc. Kids LOVE painting, and as long as you keep it interesting, they will do it. Everytime I have a painting activity, I have at least one student stay there for most of Choice Time, painting as many things as he/she can!!

If you don't know what to do with ALL of these hearts that your child takes home......

You can make a heart mobile and hang it in a special place for all to see.

Or you can simply hang them up ALL over your house or kitchen or windows, or where ever you would like. If you are like my two daughters....I have a million and I can't break their hearts by throwing them away!

Besides, I LOVE how great they look and the time they have spent on them!!

Valentines and Friendship Books

I wanted to share some of the books we'll be reading for our Valentines and Friendship unit. From love, hearts, kindness, friendship and more.....we always LOVE our books in preschool!!

I absolutley LOVE Robert Munsch. His books ALWAYS grab the kids interest and they are so FUN to read. The kids always say....."Read it again, read it again!" with any of his books!!

"But Mama, would you love me if I was a STINKY SKUNK?" The kids just crack up!! I don't know why it's so funny, but they adore this book!

Yes, there is a time and a place to be loud and quiet!! When we talk about friendship we also talk about how to be respectful of others!

This book is so fun to read, it says what would be rude first (which the children think is hilarious), then how to fix it by being polite and courteous!

The children laugh at this book because Froggy is falling in love. But in the end the valentine is actually for his mother. This is a great time to talk about saving kisses for JUST family! This is definitley a fun book!

HAPPY READING!!

Friendship smoothies

We got to make Friendship Smoothies today which turned out soooo YUMMY!! The children always love it so much when we get to make our snack together in preschool.

This is just a basic smoothy recipe with a "tweek" in the name! You can use any basic ingredients such as, OJ concentrate, yogurt, bananas, ice, and milk. You can make these as extravagent or non as you would like (using different fruits, etc). We kept with the traditional style.

When we make large group snack we basically take turns measuring, counting, scooping, or pouring in the ingredients. We of course learn the basics of cooking also - wash hands, have an adult there, etc. This is a great way to enhance a variety of math skills as we do this all together. The children are always totally enthralled and they always thing THEIR ingredient is the BEST!

This was how our finished product looked. We have a basic rule in preschool that when we make snack together we all need to take ONE taste, if we don't like it after that one taste, we don't have to have anymore.

The children LOVE our little chant, "Try it, you might like it!" It usually NEVER fails that the kids will eat the whole thing after they've taken the first taste, even if they said they weren't going to like it!! What a great way to explore the different foods we eat and make sure we try new things!

Friendship hearts

I love the process of how little preschooler minds think! These friendship hearts were a great Valentine craft activity and such a fun thing to watch come to life as the children explored in their own ways what they wanted.

Again today we had friendship abounding in the air as these hearts were made. I didn't emphasize the idea of giving these away today, but that is what the children wanted and enjoyed doing!! These turned out so cute!

Don't forget to keep in mind that when preschoolers are doing their work, it is the PROCESS not the product!! They are using their small motor skills, their imaginations, social skills, thinking processes and much more to create. They turn out how they want, not how we want!

Valentines and Friendship - A great day!

There is a lot going on this week with friendship and valentines. I always have so much fun getting the things together that the kids will be working with this next couple of weeks!!

Today we had to teach our friend "Rude Rodney" some manners and how to be a good friend!! He doesn't really know how to share or use please, and thank you, plus more!! Believe ME, the kids are GREAT at teaching him what to do to be a nice friend!! They always love Rude Rodney so much, and by the end of the unit, he is a great friend to all because of the kids!

Today we used our senses as we explored in the Messy Table with PINK shaving cream!! It's so fun to explore and discover in something you don't USUALLY get to get so MESSY in!

There was friendship exploding out of our ears as we wrote letters to each other and our families at the Art and Craft Table! It was so fun to see and hear the nice things we really love about each other!!

The children mostly decorated and drew pictures for their friends or families and I would dictate their letters for them. This is a great way for children to see how writing takes place......left to right, forming the letters and watching the words being written down on paper as they say them! What a great learning experience.

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This is how I introduced the activity with everything in hands reach! There were of course crayons, markers, and pencils available. It's so fun to get MAIL!!

I of course don't have a whole Post Office set of cubbies (which would be great one day), but until then I compromise. The kids didn't know any difference and loved it just the same. The box was definitley full by the end of the day!

My "compromising" mail box!!

We also had a great time with "sweetheart" playdough! This activity turned out great!! The kids had such a great time using their imaginations, small motor skills and creativity to make all different sorts of creations!!

For this playdough, I used strawberry koolaid (to of course give it a "sweet" smell) and red glitter. The students absolutley thought it was great!!

Here are some of the things the students came up with when making their creations!!

Aren't they GREAT!! It really was such a fun day and what a way to develop some skills!

Backwards Day!!

we had a lot of fun today with BACKWARDS DAY!! the kids were so excited to wear EVERYTHING they could think of backwards! from clothes, hair, and shoes......it was silly and it made for a great exciting day!!

obviously we are learning about the opposites forward and backward!

this is my little girl showing us her BACKWARDS attire

from backward/forward bowling to back/front puppets......it was a fun day.

for our bowling game, i simply used cups and a beach ball - the kids had a blast

and i think it was a unanimous vote that FRONTWARD bowling is MUCH easier!

you could use any basic items to set this game up....from leftover chip containers, oatmeal containers or anything you have lying around!! I do have to say the beach ball was the PERFECT ball to use for this activity!

opposites - over and under weaving

this week we've been learning about OPPOSITES and today we emphasized "over and under".

we did a weaving activity which really worked on the student's small motor skills, and gave them a great sense of ACCOMPLISHMENT.

we discussed going "over" and "under" each piece as they went and they really had a great time with this. many students made 3 or 4 of these.

this is how i set the activity up

i absolutley love watching the children try so hard to make this work for THEM

many of them loved using the tape to help hold pieces in place and others just liked doing it FREESTYLE......

here is one of the students finished products, i think they turned out great and what hard work to get this OUTCOME for them!! remember, with preschool kids it's the process and not the product that matters. they just love to explore and figure how things work and the product doesn't exactly matter to them like it does to us.

allow them to explore but also be a guide for them. talk with them through it, figure out what they are thinking and try not to push them into what YOU want the outcome to be.

most of all.......HAVE FUN!!

what else we've been up to with "Over and Under"

we had a LOT of fun painting OVER and UNDER the entire table. it's funny how if you change one little thing, like the WAY you paint, it gives the children a whole new world to discover!

this was one of the final outcomes - isn't it GREAT!!

for a couple of days this week, we've had water in the messy table. The kids absolutely love exploring in water. i was there to encourage discussion about "over and under", "in and out", "wet and dry", "open and shut" plus much more!! what fun!!