pin the tail on the lion {and the little red bird}

The children in the preschool loved playing Pin the Tail on the Lion after we read The Lion and the Little Red Bird. They spent a lot of time retelling the story, choosing their favorite tail and playing many different versions of their game. My co-teacher painted up the lion on large white paper and I assembled the birdie from paper in our scrap bin. The tails and lion were oh-so-carefully covered in clear adhesive shelf paper so that we could enjoy him again next year with another group of kiddos.

freight train sorting

Really, this is vehicle sorting on a Freight Train inspired felt train but it was set up to go along with our week of Freight Train by Donald Crews. I use the rainbow in class a lot. I think it is a really great tool for color recognition, sequencing, math, color theory and so much more. We used these vehicle counters and the children spent a lot of time at our sorting center. The felt pieces also made an appearance at our felt board. Train pieces were drawn by the mister and cut out by me. They match the colors and cars in Freight Train.

Other Train books we read:

Locomotive by Brian Floca
The Little Red Caboose by Marian Potter
Trains by Gail Gibbons
Chugga Chugga Choo Choo by Kevin Lewis
I Love Trains by Philemon Sturgess

rainbow cloud sorting

I made these rainbow clouds using an extra large cloud punch and craft foam. The colorful bowls are a favorite thrift score. We use them for all sorts of classroom fun; color sorting, dramatic play, and paint vessels to name a few. A diy note and tip for you...craft foam does not play well with a paper punch. When punching, use a sheet of paper (I  think I used a magazine page) under the foam. This will trick the punch into thinking it is punching plain old paper and not the too-pliable craft foam. I also glued a handful of cloud shapes to blank blocks. These were used at the play dough table and were a hit! Enjoy!

sorting gingerbread people

 When we go with a theme for the week, we GO with a theme. Our week of gingerbread touched on all areas of our curriculum. We painted, we mixed, we did experiments, we read stories, we told stories, we played out the story, we sang songs, and we sorted. I picked up these fantastic gingerbread people from etsy seller How We Learn at Home. I didn't have a plan but loved them so I put them out on the tray. I then rediscovered a color carton made by my co-teacher and loved how they matched so I put it out as well. I walked away and began setting up other areas...

When I made my way back around the room with camera in hand, I found this! I love it when they do this. I thought for sure the people would end up all over the place but there they remained nestled in their colors, occasionally dumped and resorted, or put to bed as one of the children kept saying.

going with the flow....

I set up some shaving cream and a couple of primary colors for some color mixing fun. The plan was for some shaving cream exploration with the children using their hands and sharing a piece of paper. One of my kiddos did not wish to touch the shaving cream and so the paint brushes came down and everyone was happy.

make a colorwheel from a lazy-susan

We made a color wheel!

The first thing we did was talk about the colors in a rainbow. I pulled out the mystery bag (more about that later) and we played with the items within by sorting and discussing what we found. With each color we discovered, I would name it as a primary color or a secondary color. Sometimes I would describe two colors as being complimentary if they were. When it became art time, we gathered at the art table and got to painting.

 

 

 

We began with primary colors and then we worked on secondary colors. We worked with one sheet of paper between two children. Each child used a different primary color to paint with. As they painted and their brushes mingled their colors began to blend and change. The expressions on their faces were priceless!

Once the papers were all dry. I pulled out our thrifted lazy-susan and made a circle template. Having completely forgotten how to divide a circle into sixths I finally settled on folding the circle into quarters then opening it into a half. From there I folded one side of the half circle in towards the center then the other side over that, kind of like when you are folding paper to make a snowflake. Once opened, the circle showed six parts. I cut our the parts and used those as templates for the colors on the color wheel.

 

Cut a large-enough sheet of clear contact paper for your soon-to-be circle and peel backing paper off. Place contact paper sticky side up and place your red triangle on top. Continue connecting your triangles until you have a circle; make sure yo place your triangles in color-wheel order. Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Purple and back to Red. My circle was a little short so I cut some more red and layered it down.

Once your color-wheel is complete, add another sheet of clear contact paper over the top of your wheel and tape down onto the lazy-susan using loops of masking tape. Using a lazy-susan will turn your wheel into a game, you of course, do not need one.

To make a color game, I filled a shallow basket with items in colors on our color wheel and put out a small handmade dice with all the colors on it. The children took turns rolling, selecting, and placing.

I also left it all out on a table and let the children play with it as they wished. From simply turning the wheel to make all the items fly off to playing the game as is or to making up their own game, it was quite a hit!

spinning pretty

I had an idea for a crafty preschool project that needed a bit of testing first. After a spin for the project, I let the nephew-a-go-go go for it with my stash of happy paint.

Salad spinner as a painting tool is a favorite of mine. I have done this with twos, threes, fours, fives...sand now a ten year old.

 

 

The simple process of placing the filter or paper into the basket, squeezing the paint onto the paper, placing the lid onto the spinner, and then manually making it all spin uses all sorts of both fine and gross motor skills. We've used three different types of spinners at the preschool and each one offers up a bit of a challenge for each child. The cool part is once they master one spinner, they can move on to a different design.

Once all designs have been mastered, you can extend spin art through dialogue, estimations, and predictions. There's also a slew of art and science words you can use. While the nephew a-go-go was going for it, we discussed how keeping it to three colors would keep the art interesting. We spoke of the color wheel and I introduced complementary colors.

We also talked about placement of the paint and how the paint moves to the edges of the paper. I gave him the term centrifugal force and we then talked about that.

But mostly we squirted paint and spun ourselves silly.

Check out this nifty video on color. Yay for Bill Nye!

crepe paper banners!

This is a project I created for scrumdillydilly but I think it can easily be translated into a kid happy craft as well.

Materials:

*index cards or equal sized scrap paper

*5-6 colors of crepe paper streamers

*scissors

*glue

 

To make this kid-happy give them a smaller of piece of paper to work with. If you have a small group of children this will be even more fun as you can see what each child chooses to create. Hand out paper and scissors and set out pre-cut lengths of crepe paper (for kiddos 6 and under) and small bottles filled half-way with glue*.

Scissors-ready children can fold their streamer lengths in half and give them some fringe, older children may be able to scallop if the wish and younger children can leave their streamers as-is. Once they are ready for glueing, hand them their glue bottles (glue sticks will work as well if you prefer) and let them get to work. 

 

If you would like to demonstrate how it is done, begin a discussion using a finished flag and ask the children how they think it was created. You can point out how to work from the bottom up if you really wish for your child to create this specific style but if you leave them alone to create they may surprise you even more. By discussing the project, you are giving your children a dialogue rich in vocabulary and problem solving. You can discuss color theory as well by pointing out a rainbow patter or asking the children to use cool or warm colors. Kick it up a notch and see if the children can create an ABABAB or ABCABCABC pattern in their layering. 

 

Using scissors and squeezing glue bottles promotes both fine and large motor skills as well as self-control. There are all sorts of educational aspects to creating arts and crafts with children. It really is my favorite part of making art with children. All that process makes me very happy. After each child's flag has dried, you can flip them over and trim any excess bits that hang over the edges. Don't trim if your child insists they wish them to remain that way. Hang them along a length of ribbon or string with clothespins and throw an impromptu fiesta complete with cupcakes! 

 

 

 *as a preschool teacher and early childhood art teacher I have found that some children cannot resist squeezing out an entire bottle of glue. If you hand them a small mini bottle such as this or this that is only filled halfway, you can control the gluey-mess a smidge and teach your child a little about control by saying "This is your bottle of glue. When it is empty, it is empty and that will be all the glue for this project." This works most of the time but sometimes there are a few freak outs. When that happens we acknolwedge the child's disappointment and invite them to problem-solve their own solution without giving refilling the glue bottle. After a few rounds they begin to learn more control over the amount of glue they use. Some children however do not seem perplexed over the lack of glue and simply wish to continue squeezing.

Collage time, berry style!

This is a great activity for anytime. You can do the leg work yourself or hand your kidlet a pair of scissors and a stack of magazines and let them go to town. I used to do this when I was 5. Yay! Allowing your kidlets to scavenger their berry pages helps with color recognition and of course building that good ol' self-esteem. Besides, maybe your kidlet doesn't want to make a strawberry, maybe they want to make a blueberry or perhaps a nanoberry. The hunt though can be a lot of fun and can also give you a few extra minutes to throw in that load of laundry, write a quick blog entry or grab your golf clubs from the garage. You can also do the scavenger hunt with letters, animals and shapes. Just make sure your kidlet is scissor ready and/or the scissors they are using are child safe. If you are able to go through and dismantle a magazine your self you can cram all the bits into a storage container or resealable bag and have your wee ones color sort into cute bowls or onto squares of colored paper. Having a couple of bags or containers on hand can be a lifesaver for when you need those extra minutes especially when you name them something spiffy like "Bea's Magic Rainbow" or "Simon's Secret Color Stash" You get my drift, and always, have fun!

What you need:

*magazines or paper scraps from mags in berry colors

*additional collage scraps in berry colors (optional)

*scissors

*glue stick

*yarn or string

*cardstock

*red or pink construction paper (optional)

*cayons, markers and/or paint (optional)

*hole punch

scrumdilly-do it!

Set out your supplies. If your kidlets are younger, have your scarps ready for them. I went throguh 2 magazines and tore out pages with red and pink colors and then cut them into strips and squares. I also did a page of green for the top of the berry.

Draw a strawberry shape onto the cardstock and cut out. Glue red construction paper to the top and trim if you want to use a colored base.

Let your wee ones go hog wild with the glue stick, covering the entire surface with adhesive. Now they can add all the scraps they want. You can also give them ribbon, tissue, beads, glitter, feathers, etc.

Once they are done, have them do another piece with the green scraps, attach the top, punch holes, thread with string and voila! A giant strawberry to hang or wear! (Because it's fun!)