Building Houses

This week in preschool we are learning all about "The Three Little Pigs".  In talking about their houses, we tried making our own houses with marshmallows and toothpicks!  The kids even tried blowing down the houses down, like the Big Bad Wolf!

Dinosaur Fossils

We made our own fossils, and you can too!  They're so easy!

All it took was a batch of home-made playdough (no food coloring added or needed).  Each student got their own bit of playdough to play with and push small play dinosaurs into, when they were finished they did one final press of a dinosaur into their playdough then we cut around it and left it out to dry.  They loved taking home thier own 'fossil'.

My playdough recipe:

2 cups flour

1 cup salt

1 tbsp cream of tartar

2 cups boiling water

2 tbsp veg oil

Put 2 cups of water in a container in the microwave and heat until boiling.  In the meantime, mix the flour, salt and cream of tartar in a large bowl.  Once the water is boiling, pour in to the flour mixture along with the veg oil.  Stir until incorporated and then finish incorporating all ingredients with hands.

Fine Motor Snack Time

We have a few little friends in my preschool who are working on their fine motor skills - during snack time, many times children will still want to use their whole hand/fist to grab the snack and put it to their mouth.  To encourage grabbing a small snack with just the finger tips to pinch the snack and bring it to their mouth, we have started using the small silicone ice cube trays (often found in stores on holidays and IKEA).

Here, we are using a brain tray for Halloween!

Placing the food in each compartment forces the child to use just the finger tips to pull it out, rather than grabbing with the whole hand/fist.

Edible Traffic Light Painting

This week in our preschool we are learning all about 'Transportation'!  As part of our learning we painted a traffic light with edible paint!  The kids loved painting, tasting and painting more!

The paint recipe is super easy, and it dries shiny!

Karo Syrup with food coloring!

Feed the Penguins!

This week in my preschool class, we are learning about PENGUINS!  I thought it would be fun to feed the penguins since we're also working on counting, 1:1 correspondence and numeral recognition.  So, I found a cute penguin picture, added a number to each of 10 penguins, printed and laminated them (for easy cleaning).  The kids just had to find the number on their penguin and 'feed' the penguin that many fish (goldfish crackers).  Once they 'fed' a few different penguins, they got to eat the goldfish themselves.  The kids loved it!

Counting Pumpkin Seeds

Today we counted (and tasted) Pumpkin Seeds!  This is a fun way for kids to practice counting with 1:1 correspondence and also teach numeral recognition!  Just give each child a pumpkin and whatever number is on the pumpkin they have is the number of pumpkin seeds they have to count and put on the pumpkin!

Here are your Super Easy Instructions:
1. Find a cute picture of a pumpkin.
2. Make 10 copies (I copied mine on orange paper).
3. Number each pumpkin 1-10.
4. Laminate (optional - but makes it possible to clean and reuse them).

Taster Table: Apples!

This week in our preschool we are learning all about APPLES!  For one of our centers we had a 'Taster Table'.  The kids loved it!  They got to taste: apples, apple juice, applesauce and apple candy! 

After tasting, they put a smiley face sticker on the different apple treats they liked (which made a graph)!  When everyone was finished with the 'Taster Table' we looked at the graph and discussed which everyone liked 'most' and 'least', etc. 

Licorice Writing!

We have a pretty cool new Kindergarten Teacher at our school this year.  Well, today when I was passing by his class I saw the most awesome use of these yummy treats: Twizzlers Pull-n-Peel, and just had to share!

Our awesome Kindergarten teacher had the kids write their names with this delicious treat!  Isn't that the best?  Thought I'd share this super fun idea!  Look how cute they turned out ... and he said the kids loved it (of course). 

Makes me want to do it too!  Thanks for letting me share this super fun idea, Mr. Waadt!  You Rock!

Applesauce Painting

Have you ever finger painted or played with shaving cream on a table or tray? I love it!

Not to long ago we were learning about 'APPLES', so we tried the same concept with applesauce! It worked famously plus the kids could lick their fingers while they painted! And there are all different kinds of applesauce out there!

We gave each student their own tray to 'finger paint' on so they didn't mix germs with their friends by licking fingers and painting more!

Reindeer Cookies

We followed a recipe to make REINDEER COOKIES today in preschool!  The kids loved following the directions to make their own cookie!  I made a cookie first and took a picture of each step (super easy) and made it into a recipe card.  Then, each student got the ingredients (Nutter Butter Cookie, m&m's and pretzels) and followed the recipe card to make their own reindeer cookie.  They loved it and were so proud!

Here's the recipe card.  If you want the recipe card, you can print this one or just shoot me off an e-mail and I can send you one!

Traffic Light Cookies

This week in our preschool we are learning about our community! I thought it would be fun to have a community looking snack, so we made Traffic Light Cookies! They were so fun! Along with talking about traffic lights and how they keep us safe, we talked about the shapes (rectangle and circles) and colors (brown, white, red, green, yellow).


I also wanted to encourage independence, so I made a recipe card with pictures for the kids to follow. So fun and easy!

Letter Snacks!

I found some of these at the store recently!

Have you seen them???

I bought them right away and we've been having so much fun with them in preschool! I made an ABC chart, we give the kids a pile of crackers and they match the cracker letters to the letters on the chart! For the kids that already know their letters, they can find the cracker letters to make their name or simple words! So fun!


p.s. If you would like a copy of the chart I made, just shoot me off an e-mail and I will attach it to an e-mail and send it back. I created it in Word.

Graphing Gummy Bears

I made a quick graphing page in Microsoft Word and we did some Graphing with Gummy Bears in preschool! So fun and such a great [and sometimes yummy] academic skill to teach! I also laminated each graph so they could be cleaned and re-used!

St. Patrick's Day Fun!

We did some graphing with Lucky Charms on St. Patricks Day -- wanted to share! My graph is due for an update. I found an updated one HERE that is good, if you're interested!
Look what one little guy brought for breakfast on St. Patrick's Day! We thought it was the cutest thing ever! It's green applesauce and bread! Easy!!! (Thanks to Bugg's Mama!)