Insect Week!

This past week turned out to be much more fun that I had originally planned!  To a preschool child, insects are either "WOW" or "yucky", but much to my surprise, my class thought they were "WOW"!  Lucky me!  One of my all time MOST favorite books is . . . . .

The Very Hungry Caterpillar

by Eric Carle

 

So naturally we spent an entire day discussing not only the book but caterpillars too!  Everyone had a great time making the very own hungry caterpillar.

 

 

 

Balloons made the perfect round shape!

 

The children used their fingers to make the antennas.

They drew on their own noses and legs.

 



 I think Eric Carle would be very proud, don't you?

 

We also started making our "Name Caterpillars".  This is one of my all time favorites.  Each child counts the letters in their name and picks out that many circles.  Next, they write each of the letters on a circle.  Finally, we get to put it all together, add a head, some legs and . . . . .

 

A close up view of Jon Brook's caterpillar.

WOW, he has a long name!

 

After our caterpillar day on Monday, we spent Tuesday talking about butterflies.  It was really fun walking around the school fluttering like butterflies.  We made beautiful butterflies by putting big blobs of paint on one side of our butterfly cutouts.  Next we folded the paper and squished it.  It was very messy

 

 

We added a cute little thorax complete with an adorable little face and antennas. 

 

Wednesday was so much fun!  We spent the entire day talking about bees!  And yes, we "buzzed" the entire day!  We also made the cutest little bumble bee ever! 

Everyone loved using the tiny paint brushes to paint on the stripes.

 

Thursday was all about ladybugs and of course we had to read The Grouchy Ladybug by Eric Carle. 

Again, this is one of our favorite books (to be honest, I am a HUGE Eric Carle fan!).    Our ladybug was not quite as "grouchy".  One student said, "she had already eaten her dinner and wasn't mean anymore!".  I LOVE IT!  



I found a number of great ideas for the using The Grouchy Ladybug on The Official Eric Carle Website.  Check it out for more ideas.

Because of a threat of severe weather, our school day was cut short on Thursday.  (Remember, we are in Central, Alabama and severe weather usually means tornadoes!)  Anyway . . . we spent what little time we did have reading and talking about Eric Carle's book The Very Lonely Firefly .  Again, here are some more fun activities for  The Very Lonely Firefly

 

Friday was spent talking about insects and all their distinct characteristics.  Each child made their very own personalized insects and decided if they would fly, hop or crawl.  We also talked about what their insects liked to eat!



 

 

 

We also "at an insect"!  We headed to the kitchen and put together a yummy insect out of good 'ole 'Nilla Wafers, pretzels, raisins and "I"cing!  YUM!

 

No one seemed to mind eating these insects!

 

Thanks for visiting with us and I hope you stop back by next week - we will be talking about "birds"!

Spring is Here!

The good news is that my husband and I actually survived Spring Break 2013.  The bad news is, it cost of a small fortune!  It all started with a freak wind storm that his our little area of town, ripping shingles off of our roof.  Then, my washer and dryer both decided to break down.  You are now reading an article written by one very unhappy preschool teacher.  But, we are getting a new roof and my classroom got a new reading room courtesy of my old washer and dryer boxes!  First they needed a little painting!

 

The final result was very colorful!



This amazingly colorful reading box sits in the corner of my classroom (not on a table, this picture was taken while it was drying!).  It is filled with pillows, blankets and a small flashlight.  The children are invited to take a book in our new reading room and spend some alone time reading.  It has quickly become a class favorite!

 

The washer and dryer also had some wonderful cardboard supports that I just could not throw away.  All we did was all a Styrofoam ball and . . . . .

 

 



instant balancing fun!  The best part is that it cost us $0.00 and when we get tired of them, another class can use it or we will just throw it away!

 

To be honest, I really don't like doing the same art projects year after year.  But our first art project is an exception.  I love our giant sunflowers!  They are very simple but a lot of fun!  We start out by painting a large paper plate yellow.  After it dries, we cut the petals.

 

Next, we add some real sunflower seeds!

While that dries for just a few minutes we paint our giant stems and leaves.

 

When everything is glued together we have a beautiful sunflower!

  

In Alabama, spring means rain (and an occasional tornado!).  So we made it rain on Tuesday!  We glued an umbrella shape onto a piece of light blue paper and the children followed the dots to draw a handle.  Next we added rain drops!  Well, they were really drops of blue paint!

Some drops were bigger than others! :)

 

Here comes the FUN part! 

 Now we have umbrellas with rain falling on them!

The trees in our area are just beautiful right now.  We spent an entire day talking about the trees and how they are "waking up".  Here is our beautiful spring tree project.  We started with a hand print (well, it really is a hand print AND arm print!).

 

 

Then we added the grass. 

We've been working on making patterns.

Look closely, can you see the pattern?

 

 

Finally, we added some little pieces of colorful tissue paper to represent the beautiful flowers on the trees. 

Please note that this one has the flowers falling off the tree

because the wind is blowing!

 



We were also talking about the letter "K" this week and since the wind is blowing so hard we made our very own shape kits.  Of course, we started off with a diamond shape and the children traced the lines to make our pretend kite "sticks".

 Our tails were long pieces of ribbon with different shapes attached.

I don't think they will fly but it is was a fun way to review our shapes!

We also made some yummy springtime cookies.  I made up some sugar cookie dough at home and each child got to cut out their own cookie.  We baked them and added some fun colored icing.  I wish I had some pictures to show you but  . . . . well, my hands were a little sticky! :)

Have a great week and I hope you stop back by soon!










"V" Week and Spring

This week turned out to be Very interesting and Very fun! I knew it was going to be a short week for me since I had to be out on Friday to take my husband to for a medical "thingie", so I had to make the most out of my condensed week. We started on Monday talking about the letter "V" and we discovered it WAS a fun letter after all! We had the best time making letter vests. I got the idea from Dr. Jean http://www.drjean.org/html/monthly_act/act_2005/02_Feb/index.html and modified it for our needs. We used old paper bags, cut them, turned them inside out and decorated them. As you can see from the picture, the first letter of each child's name is on the back (we used a free sample roll of blue electrical tape) and the children decorated the front with old stickers and markers. I even found some old alphabet stickers and everyone had a fun time trying to find the letters of their names. Since I knew I was going to have to be out on Friday, we went ahead and did our weekly science experiment a little early. I am so glad we did! It was a big success! Of course since it was "V" week we HAD to do the "Vinegar and Baking Soda Volcano Experiment". I'm really fortunate that my Mom saves all different kinds of containers for me. Because I have SO many, everyone got to do their own experiment. First everyone got to color their vinegar any color they wanted. Next we gave everyone a small cup of baking soda. I wanted the children to understand that we were using everyday items and especially to know that these items are completely safe. Unfortunately, I decided to taste the baking soda to prove my point. NOT a very smart idea! But everyone did get a good laugh out of it! Next, I counted to three and everyone dumped their ingredients into a cup. FUN! The noise level was unbelievable! Then we realized that we had more vinegar and baking soda left over. Well, that simply will not do! So of course, we did one more BIG experiment and WOW it was BIG! We also added a little dishwashing detergent to give it a little more WOW factor. I think it worked!


Tuesday was spent talking about Spring and the our wonderful letter "V". I think we incorporated our letter and our theme very nicely.



Our flowers were made from tissue paper scraps that we wadded up and glued to stems made from scrap paper. I loved how the flowers turned out. Everyones was different, some wanted LOTS of flowers, others only a few.

For the past 15 years I have tried unsuccessfully to find a violin to use during "V" week. I have had NO luck, well, no luck until this year! Yep, that's right on Tuesday we were officially know as "the class making that funny noise". Now not only did we GET a violin, we got to PLAY the violin! We loved it!

We also discovered that it was a little bit harder to play then we thought!

Wednesday was a wild day! It didn't help that we made a vulture and talked about it ALL day! Everyone was fascinated about a bird that "eats dead stuff". Nothing gets a young child's attention like talking about very gross things. Our "Very Valuable Vulture" was a big hit with everyone! I'm not sure you can tell by the picture, but his neck is a piece of construction paper (about 2x5) that the children accordion folded. This way his head kind of bobs around.

Thursday was spent talking solely about Spring and the wonderful changes that are going on now. We all agreed baby birds were one of our favorite things so we made a little handprint baby bird nest. Here are the instructions - BIRDS IN A NEST Have your child paint their hand blue this time. Next, have them spread their fingers and make an impression in the middle of a piece of paper. When the print is dry, give them a nest shape (1/2 circle), cut from a tan piece of paper. Have them glue the nest across the bottom of the blue impression. Next, take shredded paper and glue it to the nest. You now should have a nest with 5 blue birds in it. Let your children add eyes and v beaks with a thin black marking pen. I hope this makes sense. Since my poor camera died I am relying on the kindness of others for pictures. Hopefully, one of my Moms will be e-mailing me a photo soon.
LOOKIE WHAT I FOUND! hehehehe! One of my students wasn't at school on friday either so I took a picture of her bird's nest.Well, like I said, this was a short week for me. Today was spent at the hospital with my husband but I did leave a fun scissor project. We made palm leaves in honor of Palm Sunday this weekend. I cut giant leaves out of green construction paper and the children made diagonal cuts to make the leaves. They were to glue on a stem made from cardboard. Now, they will be ready to tell their parents the wonderful story of Palm Sunday.


Thanks so much for stopping by. I hope you will come back again next week and see the fun and hopefully exciting ways we will studying the letter "W" and Easter.