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Preschool Winter Olympics
The 2018 Winter Olympics are here! This is our Preschool Winter Olympics. Our preschoolers are having a great time competing and winning silver and gold medals. Let The Games Begin! Our torch is just a paper towel tube covered in foil and stuffed with orange and yellow tissue paper. Simplest art project ever! Five paper towel tubes in 5 plates of paint. Red, yellow, blue, black and green. Let the kids dip and print! Pre cut the center of paper plates away, so you have just the outer ring left. Set up five stations where each kid...
read moreDr. Seuss’ Birthday Is March 2nd
Dr. Seuss’ Birthday Is March 2nd This is our Dr Seuss‘ Birthday Celebration, it goes on all week! Dr. Seuss’ Birthday Is March 2nd. Each year we add some new elements. Our preschoolers have fun and learn about rhyme, patterns, and just tons of other stuff! Things We start the week before getting everyone’s handprints for a long strip of “Things”. This was the early years before it dawned on me to make a long strip and only do each child’s hand print once. lol Cats’ Hats This week the children are introduced to the concept of...
read morePreschool Author Study
Preschool Author Study Even little children can understand that words make a story. Your Preschool Author Study can be great fun. Young children can even be authors! Learning about authors can be fun even for preschoolers. Head to the library if your school doesn’t have a large collection and bring back as many books by your chosen author. Read them all! Choose one or two of the books to focus on and bring to the other areas of your room with flannel stories, art projects, and science experiences that relate to the book. The topics of books...
read more10 Best Preschool Blogs
This list of our 10 best preschool blogs will grow as I come across new blogs. Teaching early childhood is quite different from teaching grade school, or even kindergarten. Depending on the dynamics the curriculum in preschool classrooms changes from year to year. Preschoolers require teachers to have a whole other skill set and resources that they’ll find in a wide range of places. Our curriculum develops, each year, to be responsive to the children’s abilities and interests. Back in the day preschool teachers used magazine...
read moreNew research finds “Magic 8” preschool classroom practices
New research finds “Magic 8” preschool classroom practices In October Lillian Mongeau of the Hechinger Report told the story of a scientist who took their research to the next level. This is the story of how new research finds “Magic 8” preschool classroom practices. In 2015 Vanderbilt researcher Dale Farran published the disappointing findings from her study of the Tennessee state preschool program. That study found the preschool program had no effect or negative effects on children by third grade. Rather than doing reasearch and just...
read moreSugar Plums Last Minute Christmas Fun!
Sugar Plums Last Minute Christmas Fun! Spin Art Lollipops Just tape a paper plate to the turn table of an Fisher Price record player turn it on 33rpms and give a kid a paint brush. Some how they seem to know what to do! Gingerbread Men In Their Gingerbread Houses Tree Decorating These are simple painting and gluing activities. These trees were purchased at thrift stores. We just plopped ‘em in the sensory table with beads and ribbon. They know what to do next! This is a store bought magnetic tree, might have been...
read morePreschool Stained Glass Windows
This all started many years ago when I moved into a new classroom and found a box of unused tiles. Some were mosaic some were just 4×4 bathroom tile. I had no idea what to do with them so they sat for a long while. I thought maybe a mosaic or stepping stones for the playground, but they just sat collecting dust. Then one day I had some left over plywood from some other project and my idea started to take form. First I glued the tiles to the boards in interesting patterns. I used E6000 glue because the thing will need to hold up with...
read moreLife Size Gingerbread House Before And After
Life Size Gingerbread House Before And After A very generous parent donated this cute playhouse to our class. The playhouse stayed in the closet for a few days while we decided where and when to set it up. On the big day it hit me to assemble it inside out! This is the story, all about how my life got flipped, turned inside out! It was a little tricky at first. The instructions were clear enough but turning the folds in the opposite directions didn’t always make sense. I persisted and had it assembled in under an hour. The Big Reveal ...
read moreLife Size Gingerbread House
Want a life size gingerbread house for your kids this Christmas? This is a story all about how my life got flipped…turned inside out. lol One of my preschooler’s generous parents gave us a playhouse like this. So it stayed in the closet for few days while we decided where and how to set it up. On the big day it hit me to assemble it inside out! I put the thing together with the cute printed part on the inside so the out side is brown, like a real gingerbread house. It was a little tricky at first but remembering that all the folds go...
read moreYou Can’t Catch The Gingerbread Man!
No matter how fast you run you can’t catch the Gingerbread Man! We’re turning our classroom into a gingerbread classroom! I’ll keep updating as we go. This is part of out Christmas celebrations. We also celebrate Hanukkah and Kwanzaa so watch out for those posts as well. Begin with the traditional story book. Read other versions and have a discussion about the similarities and differences. Gingerbread Men Raisins, buttons, ribbons, glitter, and a little “teacher glue” (tacky glue). Free pattern on Printables! Gum Drops Free Pattern...
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