J is for Jellyfish

Did you know that a group of jellyfish is called a smack? We learned that in the book we read during letter j week. I don't know why, but that makes me smile. A smack of jellyfish. :) It just sounds silly. 

We had a lot of fun singing a jellyfish song during letter J week.  I apologize to the parents if they had to listen to the jellyfish song constantly because I sure heard it a lot during class, even when it wasn't singing time. :) Have you ever sung the camp song A Tooty Ta?

It has become quite a favorite in our classroom with one slight change. Instead of singing "a tooty ta", we sing "a jellyfish" while making our fingers undulate like a jellyfish. Can I just interject for a second how much I love Dr. Jean? This is her preschool version of "A Tooty Ta". She makes a lot of fun preschool cds that are definitely worth a listen. We sing with her a lot in our class. 

Anyway, jellyfish . . .

We made these jellyfish like the ones we made here. This year, I spray painted them ahead of time instead of trying to paint on plastic with non-washable paints with preschoolers. Last time, I was so paranoid that the kids were going to get paint on their clothes, it took some of the fun out of the project. 

  

Each of the kids started with 3 different colors of ribbons and we worked on making an A, B, C pattern on our pieces of tape for the jellyfish tentacles. I was so excited and impressed with how well the kids made their patterns with very little help. It is so exciting to see their progress throughout the year. For a detailed instruction of how to make a jellyfish, please go here. 

J is for Jack and the Beanstalk

 If you have never had the pleasure of reading Jack and the Beanstalk by Steven Kellogg, you are missing out on one of literature's great treasures. Amazing pictures, great rhythm to the words and all around fun to read!This is my favorite retelling of this story. 

After we read the story, we did a sequencing activity with pictures that tell the story. Then we made our own beanstalks while practicing matching lowercase and uppercase letters a- j. 

Making it is pretty simple, just a paper beanstalk, paper leaves with letters on them, and glue. 

J is for Jumprope

For any of you out there who was once an 8 year old, or has an 8 year old at home, this post is for you because it is a walk down memory lane!

 

 We had fun jump-roping for letter J week. 

Now sometimes, preschoolers aren't the most coordinated group. So instead of doing over the head jump roping, I just swung it back and forth and Anya jumped over it. The rope never got much higher than her knees.

We had fun singing jump rope songs . . . Cinderella, dressed in yella, went upstairs to kiss a fella . . . It was so much fun to try to remember the ones I used to sing in elementary school. Oh the memories!

We had fun counting how many times she could jump over the rope. 

Then we ended with the jump rope snake game. Put the rope on the ground and wiggle it like a snake and try to jump over it without it touching you. 

If you are a solo act (like me) without someone to hold the other end of the rope, just tie it to a table leg and then you only need one person to turn the rope.

J is for Jellybean

We created jellybean bar graphs for letter J week. 

Each child got a graph with the name of each jellybean color at the bottom and a cup of jellybeans. We colored one square for each jellybean above the appropriate color.


The first day, the kids and I did a graph as a class and we shared the jelly beans. The second day, the kids did their graphs individually. 

For the younger class, we all had the same number of each color so that I could help guide them through making the graph. And of course when it was all done we got to eat our math manipulatives!

J is for Jellyfish

 Here is an easy and fun jellyfish craft to make. The only tricky part about this is that you have to use acrylic paint instead of washable paint. When I figured this out, I debated whether I wanted to even do it or not. Non-washable paint with preschoolers, I don't know about that. As you can see I decided to do it anyway. We did the painting in small groups and I watched them very carefully so we didn't have any accidents. I loved how they turned out and it was fun to see the kids play with them when we were all done.

Hey, bonus points to anyone who can tell me what the long hanging things on the jellyfish are called.

Here's What You Need:

• small, plastic fruit or applesauce cups
• blue curling ribbon
• blue rick-rack ribbon
• clear tape & masking tape
• yarn & needle
• blue acrylic paint
• sharp nail & hammer

Here's What You Do:

1. Paint the plastic cups on the outside with the acrylic paint. (Washable doesn't work on the plastic surface.)
2. While it is drying, work on the tentacles? (I don't know what they're called.) Measure around the inside of your cup and cut a piece of clear tape a little bigger than that length. Put the piece of tape sticky side up on your work surface. Hold the tape down with masking tape. Put your ribbons in a pattern along the tape. 
3. (Now here is where you realize what a nut I am when it comes to making things just the way I want it. I actually used a straightening iron, you know the kind you use for your hair, to make the ribbons less curly.) 
4.  Peel the masking tape off of the ends of the tape. Pick up the whole strip of tape and ribbon together. Tape the ribbons into the inside of your painted cup. You kind of have to bend it a little to work it around in a circle, but just make sure to really press down hard to stick the tape to the plastic.
5. Use the nail and hammer to poke a hole in the top of the cup.
6. Thread your needle with the yarn and poke it through the cup. Tie a knot on both ends to hang up your jellyfish. 

J is for Jacket

We read the book Clementine's Winter Wardrobe and talked about what clothes people wear during the winter time. I pulled out our box of winter clothes and the kids had fun trying on the boots, bibs, snow pants, jackets, gloves, hats and scarves.

Then, the kids dressed their own paper dolls in winter clothes. I took a picture of each child and printed it out on my computer to use as the face for the dolls. (Thank you Schroders for saving the day and letting us use their camera for the morning.) The kids were so excited to be turned into paper dolls! To make it a little more exciting, we added scarves made out of felt.


I used the templates for the paper dolls from http://www.makingfriends.com.

Letter J Play Dough

Two cuties making letter js with playdough!