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Children’s Author Study
Author Natalka Prytula Welcome to our first children’s author study. The honor of being our first featured author goes to Natalka Prytula. She is the author of Everything’s Better With Cheddar. The book is written for five to seven year olds. Cheddar is a food-loving mouse who loves to cook gourmet meals while the lady of the house is sleeping. He enjoys trying new things and making new friends. But he soon finds himself with a big problem! A house cat has been brought home from the shelter and everyone knows that cats eat mice. So...
read moreOcean Theme
Ocean Theme I am a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program. When you shop through the links or banner ads on this blog I make a small commission and you help support my blogging efforts. Thank you! Ocean Sensory Bottles A student teacher helped our kiddos make these cute ocean theme sensory bottles. You can add stickers on the outside, even on the lid. You can add sand and tiny seashells to the bottles. Fun Stuff. Life’s A Beach Like a Zen Garden only it’s a beach. Kids can make this their happy place. Add a few props...
read moreTea and Flowers for Mom
Tea and Flowers for Mom Going old school with these two cute Mothers Day gifts saved from years gone by. Your preschoolers can make tea and flowers for Mom. Little Tea Pot Originally the poem was mimeographed and glued inside the tea pot with a tea bag stapled inside. My little tea pot is very fragile some 30 years later! Cut these out so the handle is the fold.” Flower Basket These flowers baskets are perfect for young toddlers to put together. Cut out enough for each in your care. You’ll need Have lots of flowers cut from magazines, seed...
read morePreschool 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...
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