The Ants Went Marching Today!

Today was the day to get familiar with ants.  In the morning we watched Sid the Science Kid and Magic School Bus Gets Ants in it's Pants.  Natalie and I played the Catch the Bug in the jar game on www.picklebum.com.  Then she got cranky and Brookie didn't arrive until 12:00.  I popped them both on my bed for a movie and rest time and got our gear ready on the table.

When they got up we had a great afternoon doing lots of fun activities. Newly four year old Natalie and three and a half year old Brooke did an ants on the log counting activity, putting the correct number of pony beads on brown pipe cleaner logs.  We did a counting ants activity with number recognition, reviewed ant body parts (3 body parts, 6 legs, 2 antenna and no teeth!).  Colored a picture and learned to spell ant.  They practiced writing their names, did ant mazes, found letter Aa in a grid of letters then learned the Ants Go Marching Home complete with stomping and patting and read The Ants Go Marching, I Saw an Ant on the Railroad Track by Joshua Prince, a fact book by Karen Ang and a silly book about bugs and THEN went outside and put ants in our bug catchers to watch.   That earned them 2 freezy pops each and they happily played on the deck for the rest of the time before their parents came and I got dinner on for my guys before they left for baseball practice.

Such a fun day and I feel like they learned so much.  I put up a poster in their playroom with the butterfly cycle and at day's end that caught there attention so after our side trip to the Bouwens farm tomorrow, where I am positive we will see some bugs, we will be doing butterflies on Friday.  Brooke seems brave now, looking at all the bugs and she is much less fearful.  That in itself is a very big plus!

It's A Bug's Life

It's late spring/early summer and of course there are bugs EVERYWHERE!  My little preK friend that I care for is afraid of bugs so I thought it would be a good idea to have some buggy fun and help her past this hurdle since being outside requires up close and personal interaction on a daily basis this time of year. My four year old granddaughter loves bugs, so I knew she would be agreeable to lots of buggie fun, as well.  Here's a list of resources I am going to be using and links to the websites where I got some of my material.

Nick Jr - Backyardigans.  Episode 06  What's Bugging You    (Bonus - music genre is the rumba)
Disney Jr - Jake and the Never Land Pirates:  Little Stinkers
Disney Jr - Jake and the Never Land Pirates:  Big Bug Valley!
Disney Jr - Sheriff Callie's Wild West  Bug Trouble
MPT - WordWorld  Boppin' with the Bug Band
PBS - Sid the Science Kid  The Bug Club

Books

Alpha Bugs by David A. Carter
123 Little Bugs by Puck
The Very Busy Spider  by Eric Carle
The Grouch Ladybug by Eric Carle
Magic Schoolbus:  Bugs
The Ants Go Marching Home (Scholastic)
Bear and Bee Too Busy by Sergio Ruzzier
Down on the Farm: Bees - by Sally Morgan
Are you a Butterfly?  by Judy Allen and Tudor Humphries
Little Bea by Daniel Roode
Can You Make a Scary Face by Jan Thomas
Don't Worry Bear by Greg Foley
I Saw and Ant on the Railroad Track by Joshua Prince
What the Ladybug Heard by Julia Donaldson
The Itsy Bitsy Spider

Songs

The Itsy Bitsy Spider
The Ants Go Marching Home
1 Little, 2 Little, 3 Little Buggies
Baby Bumblebee
http://www.preschooleducation.com/sbug.shtml for lots more songs!

CD

Insects and Spiders Twin Sisters Science Series

Monday we read Alpha Bugs, The Grouchy Ladybug and 123 Bugs and sang a made up 1 Little, 2 Little, 3 Little Buggies song.  The girls, age 4 and 3 1/2, played with Play Doh and made insect imprints.  This was great fun for them.  We listened to the Insects and Spiders CD and made notice of all the bugs on our deck, catching a few in our bug catcher and watching more closely.  We also colored a bug picture.  One of the girls scribbled through it quickly, but the other took her time, coloring each pictured bug in a wide array of colors.  My 20 month old granddaughter enjoyed the songs, stories and play doh, as well.  She had to be taught that the play doh was for squishing.  I figured this out after she took a big bite!  Brookie, who was the one afraid of bugs, was a bit tentative at first, but by day's end she was excitedly pointing out bugs and squatting down to get a closer look at them as they crawled on toys and tables.

The Letter M

We had a lot of fun with the letter M in my daycare and I would love to share our activities

Over the course of the week we focused on the Laura Numeroff books, If You Give a Moose a Muffin and If You Give a Mouse a Cookie.  For the first, we read the book, made moose antlers with our hands then made really cute paper bag puppets.  We did a packet, tracing the letter M, circling things that start with M and a follow the directions paper coloring M pictures.  We decorated the front with muffins whose tops were lowercase m's.  Then, of course, we made muffins, one kind for each of the four children.  We mixed chocolate, chocolate chip, strawberry cheesecake, chocolate chip and blueberry, stirred them and then put them into muffin papers, baked them up and had a tasting party.  My favorite was definitely the strawberry cheesecake!  

We also read Sally Goes Over the Mountain and made uppercase M mountains, topped with snow caps and then used white chalk to make snow on our blue backgrounds.

For If you Give A Mouse a Cookie, we read the book then cut out contact paper circles and little light brown rectangles.  We let them make a cookie mosaic, sort of, then use mini marshmallows to dot paint on the chips.  Then, of course, we had a chocolate chip cookie with a napkin to wipe our whiskers and milk in a little cup with a little bitty straw.  Great fun!

That week also saw us visiting the Maryland Science Center to have fun in the kids room and putting up our water table on the deck here at my house.

Colors of the Rainbow

This week's activities will be a learning or reinforcing week for colors for your toddler or preschooler.  I have put up color posters on the wall and we have begun to learn the Rainbow Song.  There are so many activities that I know we won't get to them all, but I will post links to great sites where I got my ideas and you can look at them on your own to see what you might like to do.

Day 1
ROY G. BIV

Story - Color Surprises by Chuck Murphy.  This is a lift the flap book that is good for younger kids, but may be too simple for your preschooler.  Try Mouse Paint or one of the many other color books available at your library.

Song - Rainbow Song
 
          Red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple
          Red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple
          Red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple
          Makes the rainbow bright!

Activity - ROY G. BIV man

http://mrswilliamsonskinders.blogspot.com/2011/05/weather.html

Note:  If you have this pre-cut, this is super easy.  We sang the rainbow song as we put the colors in.  We did, however, combine indigo and violet into "purple".


Day 2:

Today you can check out the Pinterest board at http://www.pinterest.com/janamarie76/rainbows-preschool-theme/ to find crafts that may interest your child.  I don't have my crew today, but I will pass on the fun activities we did at co-op last week.

Book - Colors, by Daniel Munn.  This lift the flap books "teases" the child by asking if a fire truck is blue or bananas are purple.  My toddlers thought this was incredibly funny!

Song - Hap Palmer's Parade of Colors.  You would have to tweak this a bit to do with one or two children, but instead of standing up when the color is called, maybe they could stand ON the color that you have on put on the floor with construction paper squares.  You can find this song at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lp5rJ2bgBuE

Activity - Rainbow cloud
Using tagboard, cut out a cloud shape, then using construction paper, cut out the colors of the rainbow in thin strips.  Glue the strips in the correct order, red orange, yellow, green, blue, purple (sing your song from yesterday) on one side of the cloud and glue on cotton balls to the front of the cloud to make it fluffy.   Very easy!

Snack - blueberries, strawberries, bananas and oranges.  Kiwi for green, grapes for purple!  Fruit salad!


Day 3 - Color Mixing!

Book - Little Blue and Little Yellow by Leo Lionni

Activity - color mixing with blue and yellow to make green.

I covered a child's table with butcher paper and gave each of my toddlers a blob of yellow paint and blue paint and a paint brush and just let them go to see what they could make.  You could use fingerpaints, as well, but my twos don't like getting their hands messy.  They colored a bit with their blue and spread a bit of their yellow and were surprised when the two inadvertently collided and they got some green!  The paintings dried over nap time and I cut out a cute shape from the table of painted paper for each child to take home.  This was a big hit!

Coming Soon!

Two new weeks worth of activities are coming soon.  Check back Monday for Cookies, Cookies, Cookies and Milk and then another set of fun plans all about Penguins!  I appreciate all the visits to my blog and hope that you are finding fun ideas here to share with the little ones in your life.  Leave a comment if it strikes you.  Feedback is always fantastic!

Valentine's Day

Happy Valentine's Day!

This week will be full or the color red, heart shapes and love!  Remember that in addition to books and songs, fingerplays and crafts, you will need to add lots of hugs and snuggles too!

Day 1

Book:  

Valentine Friends:  A Holiday Counting Book by Janet Schulman

Activity:

For today's activity, you will need a box or two of conversation hearts.  I got mine 3/$1.  

Directions:  Cut out 5 large hearts from construction paper, about as big as your hand.  You will need pink, blue, yellow, purple and green (but check your box first to make sure those are the colors you have).  When you have the hearts cut out, empty the conversation hearts onto a tray and let your child separate the candy hearts into the correct colors and put them on the paper hearts, which is a good sorting skill.  Next, you may want to count each color of candy hearts.  Then, using a dot of glue for each, let your child glue the candy hearts onto the colored hearts in a design of their choice.  You will cover colors, numbers, shapes and sorting all in one activity!

Song:

Do your song first, before your craft activity, and you can use your paper hearts for this song.  If you have a felt board, just add a quarter size piece of felt on the back of each paper heart and they will stick to your felt board. Use the names of your family members or pets in the song.

Five Pretty Valentines Fingerplay added 8-7-97 Original Author Unknown
Five Pretty Valentines waiting at the store.
(name) bought one and then there were four.
Four pretty Valentines shaped like a "V"
(name) bought one and then there were three.
Three pretty Valentines said "I love you"
(name) bought one then there were two.
Two pretty Valentines, this was so much fun.
(name) Bought one and then there was one.
One pretty Valentine sitting on the shelf.
I felt sorry for it, So I bought it for myself

Day 2

Book:

Valentine's Day at the Zoo by Nadine Bernard Westcott

Activity:

http://easypreschoolcraft.blogspot.jp/2012/01/valentines-day-elephant-craft.html

Heart Elephant

It's amazing what you can make with just a few hearts. This heart elephant is just the ticket if you're looking for an alternative to the same old Valentin's day crafts, 

Materials:

• 3 medium sized hearts from purple construction paper
• 1 "j" shaped trunk piece from purple construction paper
• 3 small heart stickers or pink hearts for the inner ears and end of the trunk
• 2 google eyes
• purple pen
• glue

Directions:

1. Cut out all pieces beforehand.
2. Glue together the three hearts as shown, then add the trunk piece on the back.
3. Glue on eyes and little pink hearts.
4. write message on the trunk with purple marker.

Song:

This one was a favorite of all four of my children, from way back when the almost 29 year old was in preK!

Skidamarink Lyrics and Actions

♫ Skidamarink a dink a dink. [Put your right elbow in your left hand and wiggle your fingers.]
Skidamarink a doo. [Put your left elbow in your right hand and wiggle your fingers.]
I love you. [Point to yourself, hug yourself, and point to the other people in your group.]

Skidamarink a dink a dink.
Skidamarink a doo.
I love you.

I love you in the morning. [Make a big circle over your head with your arms, like the sun. Bend over to one side.]
And in the afternoon. [Stand up straight with your arms above you.]
I love you in the evening. [Bend over to the other side.]
And underneath the moon. [Make a small circle in front of your chest with your hands and move it over your head.]

Skidamarink a dink a dink.
Skidamarink a doo.
I love you.

(Repeat) ♫

Day 3

BooK:

Clifford's First Valentine's Day by Norman Bridwell

Activity:

Clifford's Red Ears and Coloring Page

https://www.scholastic.com/clifford/printabledetail.asp?id=66

https://www.scholastic.com/clifford/printabledetail.asp?id=1

https://www.scholastic.com/clifford/printabledetail.asp?id=25

Print out the template on this page on red construction paper or let your child color them with markers.  Cut them out, assemble on a premeasured strip of red construction paper that fits around your child's head with a little left over to tape together and you have ears!   Print out the coloring page and they can wear their ears while they color and listen to Clifford's theme song and watch an episode of the show.  You can find all of this on the main website at Scholastic.com/clifford/.

Song:

If you Love me and you know it added 8-7-97 Original Author Unknown

Sung to: "If your happy and you know it"

If you love me and you know it, Clap your hands.
If you love me and you know it, Clap your hands.
If you love me and you know it,
Then your face will surely show it.
If you love me and you know it, Clap your hands.

Other Verses:
Say "I Love you"
Blow me a kiss
Give me a hug

Day 4

Book:
Guess How Much I Love You by Sam McBratney

Activity 1:
Cardboard Tube Heart Painting
http://tinkerlab.com/cardboard-roll-heart-stamp/
This activity is super easy!  Use a toilet paper roll that you can crease to look like a heart and make a shallow well of pink and red paint and let the kids go at it!  I found that hanging the paper up on an easel made this project easier for the little ones.

Notice our Clifford ears from earlier in the week!

Activity 2:
Be Mine Painted Hands
https://www.google.com/search?q=valentines+day+crafts+for+boys&newwindow=1&espv=210&es_sm=93&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=KWj7UqrcEIjI0wGTvIGgCA&ved=0CCcQsAQ&biw=1280&bih=620

If you are on Pinterest, you can find this easy craft on the wonderful page above, along with many others.  If not, you can take a look at the one my granddaughter did below, although she wouldn't line her hands up exactly the way I wanted them to be.....she's two.  Need I say more?  Just paint the child's hands and let them touch their thumbs and pointer fingers together, making a heart in the middle and stamp their hands to the paper.  Write something sweet inside the heart made by their little fingers.  Easy as that!  Grandmom will love a homemade Valentine!

Day 5

Books:  

I Love You So Much by Carl Norac

Mama, Do You Love Me? by Barbara M. Joosse

Activity:

Heart Butterfly

http://www.pinterest.com/pin/204562008044222626/

This one is from a Crayons and Checkbooks blog, but even though it's linked there, I couldn't actually find the craft. 

Cut construction paper to wrap around the tube, 2 heart wings, curly antenna (wrap tops around a pen), 2 smaller hearts (or more) in contrasting color for wings, draw a face or add googly eyes and sticker kisses, as we did.  This works better with mom adding tape instead of trying to glue stick them.  

I hope your kids enjoyed Valentine's Week as much as we have.  We actually squeezed everything into three days because we are expecting a big snow and I most likely won't have my 2 year olds again until next week.  Stay safe and warm and hug the ones you love!

Groundhog Day

www.dltk-kids.com

Here are a few fun ideas to go with your Groundhog Day lessons for your little ones.  I am sorry I didn't get these out in time, but they will be here to come back to next year or go ahead and teach them in the coming weeks.  Your preschooler doesn't know that it's already past and these activities will engage them and help them to create a memory to draw from when the holiday rolls around again next winter.

Books To Enjoy:

Ten Grouchy Groundhogs by Kathryn Heling
Go To Sleep Groundhog! by Judy Cox
Double Trouble Groundhog Day by Bethany Roberts

Songs:

Shadow Time

(to the tune of "The Itsy-bitsy Spider")

The furry little groundhog
Goes in his hole to sleep,
Through the cold winter's
Snow and ice so deep,
In February
He stretches to and fro,
Does the furry little groundhog
Get scared by his shadow?

http://www.canteach.ca/elementary/songspoems12.html

Little Groundhog

(to the tune of "Little White Duck")

There's a little groundhog
Who lives in the ground,
A little groundhog
Who likes to look around.
She comes outside on Groundhog's Day
If she sees her shadow, then she runs away.
There's a little groundhog,
Who loves to stay and play
When spring's on its way.

http://www.canteach.ca/elementary/songspoems12.html

Nine Little Groundhogs (to the tune of "Ten Little Indians") One little, two little, Three little groundhogs, Four little, five little, Six little groundhogs, Seven little, eight little, Nine little groundhogs, Sleeping down under the ground. http://www.canteach.ca/elementary/songspoems12.html

Suggestion - make felt board groundhogs or stick puppet groundhogs to act out this one!

Activities:
These all come from www.dltk-kids.com, which is an excellent site for moms of young children.  You will find easy activities of all sorts here for most anything.

Groundhog Day paint dauber fun!
http://www.dltk-kids.com/crafts/happy_groundhog-dauber.htm
If you want to purchase paint daubers, go to Party City or a place where you can buy bingo markers.  That's all these are!  They are fabulous for toddlers and preschoolers who love to "dot, dot, dot" the paint and for parents, who love that the paint is controlled and doesn't spill!

Five Little Groundhogs felt board or stick puppet pieces - let the children color or print on brown construction paper.  If you want to mount these on large popsicle sticks, use a glue stick to put them on tagboard first then cut out so that they are sturdier.  Tape on the popsicle sticks.
http://www.dltk-kids.com/animals/m-fivelittlegroundhogs.htm

Pop Up Groundhog!
This is a particularly popular one with the younger children.  Again, let the little ones color or print on construction paper and just let your child assemble one or two.  If you only have regular size popsicle sticks, use an unsharpened pencil.
http://www.dltk-kids.com/animals/mgroundhogpop.html

Find Your Shadow
If the weather is cooperating, take your child outside on a sunny day and find your shadows.  Wave to it, dance, let your child stand still and use a piece of chalk to trace his shadow on the sidewalk.  Then your child can trace yours or decorate with a face.