Can you make a Rabbit?

I love Tan grams. There's just something about an activity that is cut and dry as to what to do. Yep. No arguing over if a square doesn't fit in the triangle box. It seems pretty basic to grown-ups, but the kids love the challenge of finding the pieces that fit and are delighted with the creation it makes.

We are working on letter R this week. It worked out great that I found a "rabbit" Tan gram to assemble for our gathering activity.

The age range in our Wednesday class is 3-5 years old. I wouldn't expect that Cooper (3yrs old) would be as precise in this results as Zachary (5 yrs old). But it was successful for both age ranges. Did I say that I love Tan grams? It's successful for everyone and reiterates some great fine motor skills.

We did some fun Groundhog's activities yesterday with the bigger group of kids, but I couldn't resist throwing one more cute craft in for good measure. We read the story of The Groundhog's Secret about a little groundhog named Lila who wanted to wake up first so that she could discover what the secret of winter was.

The great secret was that she saw her shadow and only had to go back into her cave for six more weeks. The boys made a cute groundhog puppet to celebrate the coming of Spring in a few short weeks.

Punches--who knew!

It was playtime. Dress-ups in one corner, action figures in another, and somebody was being the puppy as others took turns walking her. Then...a simple question led to quite an interesting twist in the plans today. One of the girls asked if she could use the punch I was. (I was getting the rabbits ready to be glued on to the current letter of the week--R). No problem. But it was within a minute or two and every other activity was abandoned and this was the scene during playtime today.

I had to get another 12 punches out and a stack of paper. Everyone had a plan and purpose. If the teacher was doing it, it had to be fun. So we had a demonstration on where the paper slides into the punch and a lesson on taking care of them and they were off to the races. Suns, butterflies, stars, hearts, bathtubs, ice-cream cones, and gingerbread men were popping out of sheets of colored paper.

It was unplanned--and yet it turned out to be really productive time. They had to share the punches and show others how they were used. Paper was traded and bartering skills were learned.

I gave each of them a cup to save their punches in. I figured that they would have to make a fun page for their books with all the effort they put into punching out the shapes.

I've loved punches for years and have quite a collection. I use them often for projects in preschool, cub scouts, and scrap booking. I don't generally let the kids use them--haven't really even thought to till today. I'm sure that they will be requested again.

But their novelty resulted in quite a stir in the class today. It was too good of an opportunity to pass up. The kids loved their time and paper creations. They would have punched a lot longer if I hadn't tempted them with the delicious brownies Lilly brought to share today.

Happy Groundhog's Day

Today was Groundhog's Eve... Don't you wonder where some of our cultural traditions come from? We learned in preschool today that Groundhog's Day has been around since 1886 but originated as a combination of several rituals over that last several hundred years. In Europe, it was marked mad the halfway point in winter, with the celebration of Spring 6 or so weeks after.
But, as Americans, I think we just need any reason for a celebration.



So we made a puppet to learn about how our little groundhog friends (aka--marmots) hibernate during the winter in their caves and come out looking for their shadows. It started with a cute cartoon of a groundhog for the kids to color, some Easter grass, a plain paper cup, a tongue depressor, and coloring markers. I cut a little slit in the bottom of the cup to allow the groundhog to pop up and down for demonstration purposes.



The preschoolers did some colorful artist depictions of winter scenes on the outside of the cups. I added the grass with a hot glue gun and adhered the groundhog to the tongue depressor.



The kids were so excited for the final product that they made a line by the gluing station to wait their turns.

The tradition of groundhogs seeing their shadow is a little tricky to understand. If there is sunny, clear weather--that means it's going to be a long, cold winter. But if it's overcast, causing the shadow of the rodent to be cast immediately--that is what means there will only be 6 more weeks of winter. [I know. I don't get it either...I'm just telling you what I know].

Shadows are tricky little things that everyone has and yet can't seem to catch. We worked on a matching sheet pairing up the shadows. This one would be a great activity to repeat occasionally, as a matching game, to get the kids in the habit of visually sorting likes and differences. I loved the hand-out I got from http://www.kidssoup.com/. They have great activities and craft ideas for many of the topics we do throughout the year.

Ah...the things we celebrate!!

If You Give a Pig a Party....

Laura Numeroff and Felicity Bond have collaborated on some many fun children's books, like If You Give a Mouse a Cookie and If You Give a Moose a Muffin. Well, she's done it again....If You Give a Pig a Party. We are on Letter P in our alphabet progression this week, and I wanted to do something fun. So we had a Pajama Party and had a couple of fun "pig" projects.

I just love how things work out!! Trianna's mom brought snacks today and it worked into the lesson plan so well, that you would have thought we had planned it out together! But we didn't and guess what kind of cupcakes we got--PIGS!! They were so stinkin' cute and we ate them right after we read our darling PIG book.

Our Alphabet books are growing. Lots and lots of great words start with letter P, but it's not always easy to find something that will glue well and not be an inch high when you're done with the page.

So today, we had a little fun with Letter P. We "painted" the glue onto the P with a "paintbrush".

Then everyone had a turn to run their hands through the massive bowl of PEAS. What a sensory treat and a carpet nightmare ;)

But there's just something extra cool about feeling things that we aren't normally allowed to. Since these won't be going into the soup pot--sticky hands were welcome to plow and twirl through the bowl.

After the glue was painted on our letters, we sprinkled them with the peas. We got great results, and when they are dry, they will slide right into our books.

Stay tuned to the great things we are doing for Letter Q next week!

Martin Luther King Jr....Human Rights Day

Monday was the national observance of Human Rights Day. This is a relatively "young" holiday; dedicated to the efforts of those like Martin Luther King, who acted as a catalyst in ensuring that all Americans have equal rights and privileges. I think it is a significant day to pay tribute to, but has deeper meaning than most preschoolers are able to understand. So we talked about the things that they could understand.



People come in all different colors...just like cereal. One color isn't better than the other and they are all important. Martin Luther King had a dream that his children would be judged for the content of their character (if they were nice and honest people), and not by the color of their skin. He was a great man and had dreams that changed the nation we live in. We all have dreams.



And so the kids drew pictures of some of their favorite dreams. At three, four, and five years old--they are simple and very basic. But one does not always see the great Oak in the little acorn. These kids will amaze us one day and it may start with a dream they had, just like Martin Luther King's did.

The Mitten

I love this storybook, The Mitten, illustrated by Jan Brett. It's a Ukrainian folklore story that tells how Nicky's grandma makes him a pair of mittens. He insists that he wants white mittens, but grandma explains that he wouldn't be able to find them in the white snow, if he lost them. He insists and she makes them from white wool. And then he does the predictable...he loses one. Some animals in the woods find it and one by one, they crawl inside of it to get warm. It's a very cute story about acceptance and obedience.

I found some print-outs at http://www.kidssoup.com/ that complimented my activity for the kids. I made a mitten from a Manila folder, by hot gluing the sides together to create a pocket for the paper animals to go in. To extend the activity a little longer, I had the kids color their mittens and cut the animals out. We talked about the different animals and explained what they are.

One of the animals that we talked about that caused a lot of interest in the preschoolers, was the Hedgehog. So we made one.

What's a hedgehog, you ask?