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Back To School ⚠️🚍
Welcome Back To School! This post contains affiliate links. Some move into the new year with enthusiasm and excitement. Others start the year kicking and screaming. These are the teachers I’m talking about here! Welcome back to school everyone! These are some of the books we’ll read with this theme. We start the year with simple art projects that involve a few easy steps. Our room has a huge bulletin board so we turn it into a road and pin up school buses personalized with each child’s picture. Drive your...
read moreHow Preschool Teachers Get Kids To Nap
I hear it every year. “How do you get kids to nap? He doesn’t do that for us at home.” Children in group care are expected help at clean up time, clear their own lunch and snack, set up their own cot with blanket and bear, even perform classroom jobs. I always complement parents with my reply…”It shows he’s been listening to you. He knows what you expect from him when he’s away from home.” Make Your Expectations Clear It’s all about our expectations. A seasoned teacher and mentor of mine...
read morePreschool Father’s Day Gifts
In in honor of our awesome dads here are a few of the nice Preschool Father’s Day Gifts our kids have made over the years. Picture Frames This cute picture frame holds a photo of Dad’s little kiddo wearing an apron, cooking hot dogs on the play grill, just like Daddy! This picture frame holds a pic of Daddy’s little bidding artist. “I Love You To Pieces” will be the saying on the card that accompanies this gift. Inside the container we’ll put in couple fun snack size Reece’s Pieces bags. Love...
read morePreschool Pizza
Preschool Pizza good enough to eat! We celebrate pizza for a whole week with a culminting field trip to the local pizzeria. To make paper pizzas you’ll need to cut all the ingredients. Paper Pizza Ingredients First start with the crust, then glue on the sauce. Pepperoni isn’t actually popular amongst most preschoolers but they seem to enjoy it on their paper pizzas. Green peppers are pretty easy to cut out like a hook shape. Black olives are simple enough, little ovals with a hole punch in the middle. The cheese is just white...
read moreSchool Fair Games
Many churches, schools, and child care centers put together lawn fetes or children’s fairs for their big year end fund raiser. This post shows some of the ways we brought our school fair games into our classroom the week before out actual fair. The kids had a great time! Tickets Our ticket booth is an old play storefront. With a few leftover tickets from our actual fair the fair goers had a great time! Games Two tickets for fish bowl toss game. For this game I just put plastic disposable cups in our sensory table. Every other cup or...
read moreHandprints and Hearts for Mom
Handprints and hearts are the unifying theme this (and every) year so here are our Handprints and Hearts for Mom. Many kids enjoy painting their hands others not so much. For those who rather not tracing their hand is less traumatic. Handprints Simple enough, this handprint is at once a sunshine and a letter “O”! This is known as “negative space” art. Use painters (masking) tape on the blank sheet of paper to spell out the word mom. I’m not sure how these teachers got the letter “O” so round but it...
read moreKids ❤️ Emojis
This is a teacher made game for school aged kids. They’ll love it because kids ❤️ emojis. Phone Game Grab an emoji bandana or scarf for a blindfold and play just like pin the tail on the donkey! First put together the phone on poster board. Next the poster can be laminated or use clear contact paper to cover it. This is going to a hit at kids parties because kids ❤️ emojis! Next add the icons across the top. Here I added the three bars icon and the battery icon with a metallic sharpie marker. Blind- folded kids would feel around for...
read moreArt Auction Fund Raiser Ideas
Preschool Art Auction Fund Raiser Ideas These are just a few of the art auction fund raiser ideas that our teachers came up with this year. Our annual Art Auction brought in almost $3000! We took pictures of each child’s heart shaped fingers on colored card stock. For this one teachers hammered small brads into a 12″ x 12″ piece of wood. The children used rainbow colored embroidery floss to weave this pretty heart. Metro Our city skyline lit up with tiny fingerprints. This mirror was originally designed for a girls...
read morePirate Week!
Pirate Week! Pirate week can be great fun for your imaginative preschoolers. Your little pirates can make a ship, hooks like Captain Hook, and pirate hats. Your class can go on a treasure hunt, read funny books about pirates, and dance to funny pirate songs. Treasure Map My terrific TA (teaching assistant) made a great treasure map with an X to mark the spot. Your map will feature architecture unique to your school or center. X Marks The Spot I picked up this “treasure box” at a local thrift store for around $5. You can use a...
read moreMaking Shadows on Groundhogs Day
We had a great time making shadows on groundhogs day. Groundhogs Day is a great time to explore shadows. We have a great little groundhog pattern available at Printables! Print it out, add color, tape it to a craft stick. Send the kids under a table that has paper draped over one side, with a big bright flashlight. Does the groundhog see his shadow? Kaplan Early Learning Company has this great blog post on making shadows on groundhogs day or any day. Making Shadows on Groundhogs Day These little shapes are just stencils taped to craft sticks....
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