F is for . . .

. . . float. We found letters and created words using floating bottle caps. 

The kids would pick a letter or word from the laminated word stips. Then they would fish out the bottle caps with the correct letters on them. 

This is an engaging and easy activity to do any time. You just need plastic bottle caps (like from juice containers, milk gallons, or gatorade bottles), water, and a slotted spoon. I just used a sharpie to write the letters on the inside of the cap. Sometimes they start to fade and I just rewrite them when that happens.  . . . fly. The kids practiced identifying letters with our fly swat game. I would call out a letter and they would swat it with the fly swatter. Want to play your own fly swat game? Download our alphabet of flies here.

. . . fall. We read the book, Let It Fall. After we used tissue paper to make our own fall trees. 

Y is for . . .

 . . . yellow yarn

. . . Yes day! 

What would you do if the answer to every question you asked was yes?

Spring Time Song with Finger Puppets

 Spring is upon us and summer is fast approaching. In our neck of the woods, everyone is planting their gardens and the roses are starting to bloom. Here is a fun spring time song with finger puppets for the kids to play along while you sing. 

It is titled In the Leafy Tree Tops. It is from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints children's songbook. The song can be listened to or downloaded at lds.org. Or you can go directly to the song here.

When we sing this each child has a flower on a popsicle stick and a bird finger puppet. Cut out the circles where the beak should be and their thumb and pointer finger become the beak. My holes are a little small, so you might have to cut a little bigger than what is drawn. I printed the bird to be about 5 inches tall.

In the Leafy Tree Tops

 In the leafy treetops, the birds sing "Good morning."

They're first to see the sun.

They must tell ev'ryone.

In the leafy treetops, the birds sing "Good morning."

In my pretty garden, the flowers are nodding.

"How do you do?" they say.

"How do you do today?"

In my pretty garden, the flowers are nodding.

I hope you have a great spring and that the birds sing and flowers bloom in your garden!

Spring Trees

 Here in Utah spring has come early. I know it means we will get a crazy frost in May that is going to kill all our fruit buds, but I am trying to be positive and enjoy the beautiful weather while we can. This is the view out my front window. It's amazing and it smells just as pretty as it looks.

In our church we have a time during church where the kids have music time and sing songs. One song is called Popcorn Popping by Georgia Bello and it is a song about spring time. 

1. I looked out the window, and what did I see?
   Popcorn popping on the apricot tree!
   Spring had brought me such a nice surprise,
   Blossoms popping right before my eyes.
   I could take an armful and make a treat,
   A popcorn ball that would smell so sweet.
   It wasn't really so, but it seemed to be
   Popcorn popping on the apricot tree.

(Here's a link to the music and a free mp3.) 

Our neighbor has a "popcorn" tree so we sang the song and then went outside to look at it. Then we decided to make our own spring trees like the fall and winter trees we made earlier in the year.

 

I popped some popcorn without oil or butter so it wouldn't make grease marks on the paper. It was so simple. Put about 1/3 c popcorn kernels in the bottom of an opened paper bag. Fold over the top two or three times. Put it in the microwave and cook until there is a 1 - 2 second delay between pops. (Mine took about 2 minutes) Then take it out and enjoy your healthy, air popped popcorn. Easy peasy!

Then the kids glued the popcorn onto their colored tree. Make sure they do a pretty good puddle of glue so that the popcorn sticks since it isn't flat. 

K is for King

We made Winter King crowns using jewels and snowflakes to go with our book, Winter King, Summer Queen. 

Easy Fall Themed Center

Here is one of the centers we did last week to continue our work on the season of fall. Each bare tree has a number at the bottom and the kids are responsible for putting the same number of leaves on the branches. For example, the 6 tree would have 6 leaves. The 8 tree would have 8 leaves. Pretty simple and a great way to work on number recognition. 

 You will need to provide your students with a variety of bare trees with numbers below them and cut out leaves for them to put onto the tree. 

Fall!

I am so excited to be in a place that has seasons! Back in Arizona, we had summer and slightly cooler summer. I loved my time there, but I also love to see the leaves change and the mountains slowly getting whiter and whiter as the snow line moves down the mountain. It's beautiful. If you have never visited Utah, it is a beautiful place to visit. So many opportunities for outdoor sports and such amazing scenery. Anyway, I'll get off my travel guide and get back to preschool.

So, fall - love it! I even like raking the leaves. Does that make me a crazy person? Oh well. This year, we are learning about what the seasons are and what the weather is like during those seasons. As an introduction, I pulled out a bunch of magazine pages with pictures of different seasons. The kids each took a couple of the pages, cut out the pictures, then taped them to one of four posters - spring, summer, fall, winter.

Then, we started our seasons book. I have blogged about this before, but I didn't really include any pictures so I hope to remedy that this year. Each season, we will add a new page to our book and at the end of the year they will be able to take it home. We read the book, Red Leaf, Yellow Leaf by Lois Ehlert. Then I gave each student a tree outline. They added fall leaves in red, yellow, and orange tissue paper. 

They wrapped tissue paper squares around the end of a pencil, dipped it in glue, and put it on their tree. 

Here's the finished product! We'll make sure to add our other seasons as we do them. 

Handprint Bird in Nest

 Spring is such a fickle time. Yesterday was 70 degrees here and today it snowed. Oh, sun we want you to come and stay. Sigh. At least we get to see the sun more often and it's fun to see the buds on the trees. We were so excited to find out that the previous owners of our house planted daffodils around our front window. It is also fun to hear birds chirping in the morning. (Except maybe not this morning because we were having a crazy storm - snow & hail & wind) 

   

Speaking of birds, here is a great bird project to do with your little ones. I must subconsciously like birds because looking back, this is the 3rd bird project we've done. 

This one is pretty simple. Make the bird's body with a painted handprint. Add an eye and beak. Give the bird a place to roost using ripped paper art. Glue on ripped brown paper pieces to add interesting depth to your picture. 

Easy Peasy!

If you are interested in a more intensive spring project, try our bobble head chicks. This link also has a great tutorial for easy 3-D bird nests.

Or, for a more whimsical bird, try our balloon birds. 

Shape Snowman and 3-D Snow Paint

 We practiced our shape names and used those shapes to make a snowman. Then we used some "snow" paint to give our picture a 3-D effect. 

Creating the snowman is pretty self explanatory  - shapes (3 circles, 4 ovals, triangle, square, rectangle, & scarf shape), buttons, googly eyes. 

To make the 3-D "snow" paint, mix equal parts of shaving cream and white glue. We used cotton balls to apply it so it was kind of bumpy, you can also use a paintbrush

I'm Stuck in a Snow Globe!

 I have been wanting to try homemade snow globes since last year's winter theme. So, of course I had to sneak them in this year. The great thing about these is that you can really put anything you want into them. You could do pictures or make your own winter scene. Anything that is small enough to fit and is water resistant, is fair game.  I was actually thinking these might have made fun parent's gifts for Christmas. They were a huge hit with the parents and kids alike.

After doing the project with my big class and my little class, I have to say that this is definitely a small group kind of thing. They turned out adorable and I really loved them, but you use a hot glue gun and a laminator so there was a lot of adult work needed to get these bad boys done. 

We used mason jars to give it more of a clean look, but you could use old glass jars from food or other items. You are also supposed to use glycerin to help the "snow" fall more slowly.You can usually find it in the baking isle or the first aid isle in your grocery store. I'm not sure that it makes a huge difference, but we used it anyway.

We started by making paper dolls like the project we did last year found here. It would also be cute to just take pictures of the kids dressed up in winter gear. I wasn't able to do this because I only have little girls, so all our winter gear is purple and pink. I didn't think the boys would appreciate that too much. : ) Then  laminate the dolls. I used one of these super handy home laminators. I got it on an online black Friday sale and I love it! It is so handy to have and I use it all the time. It is made by Scotch and you can find it all over the place - Walmart, Target, Staples, etc.

 

You have to make sure that the seal on the pictures is completely tight (we learned that the hard way on the first day we made them). So, I actually sent this project through the laminator twice. After laminated, cut out your pictures. Leave a good margin of plastic around the edge to help keep the seal.

Then, use a hot glue to glue a layer of cotton balls on the top of the lid and glue the dolls down sandwiched between the cotton balls.

Fill your mason jar with water and add some glycerin and glitter. We used about a tablespoon of glycerin per jar. We just sprinkled glitter on the top of the water until there was a nice layer of it. Sorry, to be so vague. 

Then slowly submerge your dolls into the water. The cotton will soak up a lot of the water, so you will have to add more. It helps to do this part of the project over a towel because there is a good chance of over flowing. Make sure that nothing gets in between the seal on the lid and the jar. If you don't, the jar will leak. There you have it! 

If you wanted, you could spray paint the lid or add a cute ribbon to the bottom.

Here's What You Need:

• mason jars or other glass jars
• cotton balls
• glitter
• water
• glycerin
• paper dolls or toys to put into the globe
• hot glue gun

Here's What You Do:

1. Make your paper dolls, laminate them, and cut them out leaving a small edge of plastic to keep in the seal.
2. Hot glue cotton balls and your paper dolls to the lid of the jar.
3. Add water, glitter, and glycerin to the jar.
4. Turn dolls upside down and lower them into the jar. (It helps to do this part over a towel or the sink.) Add more water if needed.
5. Seal the lid and enjoy!
6. If wanted, hot glue a ribbon around the lid.

H is for hat!

We had hat day at school last week. We wore our favorite hat to school

and made a hat pictograph. Each hat picture was colored in a special way to say something about that person. 

 

The kids followed the directions and we hung our completed pictures up on the wall. 

Here's the hat that I drew for the project.