Ahhhh, Easter!

I meant to put this up earlier this week, my sincere apologies. My littlest one was sick in the first part of the week, and then time just slipped away with me. Be sure to check out the Egg-citing Science ideas on the other blog! It may be harder to read, but I don't have time right this second to edit it, I just copied and pasted from my word doc. Sorry about that, hopefully in the next day or so I'll come back and edit it so the formatting is better.


Draw an Easter egg. Mark the different sections on the egg with decorative lines, in these six sections of the egg put the numbers 1 to 6. Make a copy of the egg for each of the players. Get a dice. The children throw in turn. When they have thrown a number they can put a counter or mark on that section, obviously if they have already thrown the number 2 they do not want it again. The first player to cover their egg with a counter in each section is the winner.


Have an adult hold the basket, or place it on the floor. Give each child a few plastic eggs. Mark a line for each child to stand (don't make too difficult)....Each child will then try to throw eggs into basket.
Draw a rabbit outline (or print the one linked below) on paper, glue on cottonballs.

http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.shininghours.com/images/bunbig.gif&imgrefurl=http://www.shininghours.com/creating/bunny_outline.htm&h=870&w=706&sz=42&hl=en&start=2&um=1&tbnid=YV6FKPn9FEIIyM:&tbnh=145&tbnw=118&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dbunny%2Boutline%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DN

Draw a large rabbit outline on poster board, use one of the LARGE cotton balls (or a BIG pom-pom) and play pin the tail on the bunny. (I love this idea, but I don't have everything we need for it on hand, but I'm sharing for others.)

Easter Bunny, Easter Bunny, Where's Your Egg?
Make a colorful Easter egg shape and covered it with contact paper. Then play "Easter Bunny, Easter Bunny, where's your egg?" It's played like the familiar game "Doggie, Doggie where's your bone?" The group sits in a circle and one child sits in the middle as the "bunny". The bunny hides their eyes as one person is chosen to sit on the egg picture. Then the group yells out "Easter bunny, Easter bunny, where's your egg? Somebody stole it from your home!" The Easter bunny then has three guesses to find the child who is sitting on it. That child then becomes the new bunny in the middle.

Easter Egg Matching Game:
Cut out egg shapes, all the same color paper, then decorate the fronts differently, making matching pairs. Turn them all face down and play like memory.

Use a recycled egg carton and place twelve plastic Easter eggs (the ones you can open in the middle) in it. I wrote the numbers 1-12 on the holes in the carton and wrote the numbers 1-12 on each egg--both parts. The children not only had to match the eggs to the number in the carton, but they had to put all of the plastic eggs back together first! (I'll be doing this as a 1/2 egg carton, as he's not ready for 1-12 yet.)

Bunny Hop! Play the music, and do the Bunny Hop!

This could be made easily into a File Folder game! Draw a picture of a chick, and a picture of a cracked open egg (or print the one I linked below, several times). Write a letter (or number) on each chick, and the same number on each cracked open egg. The child has to match up which egg the chick cracked out of. You could also do this with one lower case and one upper case letter, or sums and problems (which I will do for my big kids).

http://www.abcteach.com/directory/clip_art/animals/

Make a bunny ear headband. Use construction paper to make a band for around the childs head. Cut out ear shapes of cardstock (so they stand up better), and cut out a smaller ear shape from pink construction paper. Decorate the ears in any way you choose! Then staple the ears to the headband.

SONGS
5 Little Bunnies at Easter Time
Went to the carrot patch far away
Mummy bunny called them all right back.
But only 4 of her little baby bunnies came back.
Repeat to 3,2,1 bunny come back. Then sing the song again and all the bunnies come back.
Kids love this because they get to be able to take on a role in the song. Enjoy.

Bunny Baby bunny bounces high (jump high) Baby bunny bounces low; (jump low) Baby bunny blinks his eyes; (blink eyes) Baby bunny waves good-bye. (wave good-bye)

Letter U

Color: Blue

• Blue scavenger hunt for things around the house
  
• Wear blue!

Shape: Square

• Squares scavenger hunt
  
• Square collage--cut out various size square pictures, make a collage on blue construction paper.
  
• Square "Shape Shop" file folder game
  

Math:

• Use felt umbrella's with rain drops to count (1 raindrop on this umbrella, 2 raindrops on this umbrella, so on)
  

Nursery Rhyme:

• Rain Rain Go Away

Songs: (from www.preschooleducation.com)

Rain on my Umbrella added 8-7-97 Original Author Unknown
Sung to: "Frere Jacques"
Drip, drip, drop, drop,

Drip, drip, drop, drop,

Drip, drip, drop,Drip, drip, drop.

Rain on my Umbrella,Rain on my umbrella,

Never stops.

Drip, drip, drop.

Umbrellas Go Up and Down added 7-19-02 Original Author Unknown

Umbrellas go up,

Umbrellas go down, (Point up and down.)

When rain clouds are dark

All over the town.

One raindrop and two, (hold up on finger at a time)

Two raindrops and three,

My up and down umbrella

Is up over me. (fingertips touching over head.)

Four raindrops and five, (hold up one finger at a time)

Six raindrops and seven,

Raindrops are tumbling (raise arms and let fingers fall slowly)

Down from the heaven.

Drip, drip, drip, drip!

I am dry as can be,

My up and down umbrella

Is up over me (fingertips touching over head.)

Umbrellas Fingerplay added 3-23-00 Original Author Unknown--the song was incomplete as taken from the website, so I made up some of my own lyrics; (Use fingers or make umbrella puppets)

Five umbrellas stood by the back door,

The red one went outside, then there were four.

Four umbrellas pretty as can be,

The blue one went outside, then there were three.

Three umbrellas with nothing to do,

The green one went outside, then there was two.

Two umbrellas with no games to play,

The pink one went outside and shouted Hooray!

Just one umbrella alone in the hall,

The purple one went outside, and that was all!

Science:

• Water cycle: Rain comes down, sun heats it up, it goes back up into the clouds, cools down and falls again as rain (VERY simplified)
  

Craft:

• Making an umbrella. Take a paper towel and cut it into an umbrella shape. Then have the children paint by using water colors. ( food coloring and water works great for water colors) Then have a precut handle for the bottom of the umbrella and glue it on.
  
• Cut out umbrella's, have child paste on to a 9x12 blue construction paper. Have child brush on spots of glue around umbrella and give child some white rice to place of glue for rain
  

Social Studies:

• Unicorns (mythical one horned horses);
  
• Play pin the horn on the unicorn (drawn onto poster board with horns cut from paper).
  

Reading:

• A Great Day for Up by Dr.Seuss
  
• Uncle Rebus rhymes
  

Games:

• Open up a large umbrella and let the children throw in balls or bean bags.
  
• Caves (we have to do this again because he asks EVERY day, it doesn't have anything to do with U though...maybe our bears can encounter a Unicorn while they're forraging for berries lol). We're going to hunt berries, and be hibernating bears in caves. This one made a big impression, from what I hear he's even talked his granddaddy into playing this with him when they were visiting! Who knew!
  

Sensory:

• Water play (inside, in tubs on the kitchen floor...we're in a drought). If we weren't in a drought though....I'd do outside play (it's supposed to be pretty nice this week) with the hose and umbrella's.
  

Concept:

• Over/Under (try to get under things...like umbrella's!)
  

Snack:

• Blueberries;
• Square crackers with cheese;
• blue jello

Letter P

Lots of these ideas came from Perpetual Preschool

Color: Yellow (cheese, popcorn kernels)

Shape: Triangle (pizza slices)

Math:

• Counting pepperoni pieces on felt pizza's; Attempt putting them in order (1-6)
• discussion of fractions (1/2); Use large pizza shape (red paper plate) cut in half.

Nursery Rhyme:

• Pussycat, Pussycat, Where have you been?

Science:

• Cooking! What do you mix together for pizza crust? How does pizza dough rise?

Social Studies:

• Presidents! A general overview of what presidents do, and who chooses them.

Reading:


Snack:

• Ritz crackers pizza: Ritz crackers, shredded cheese, pepperoni, pizza sauce. Make a poster for sequencing of making this project. Cracker, sauce, pepperoni, cheese. Put in toaster oven until cheese melts. Yummy!
• Popcorn

Craft:

• The children take a round paper plate and color it red for sauce. Then they are free to create any type of pizza by adding shredded yellow and white paper for cheese, pink triangles for ham, yellow triangles for pineapple, red circles for pepperoni, brown circles for sausage, etc. It is a great time with glue and creating
  
• Popcorn Art- Cut out popcorn shapes from white paper. Give the children glop of yellow and white finger paint and let them have fun. Couldn't keep up with the requests to make another. When dried, hole punch and string around bulletin board, or hang in window.
  
• Make a paper bag puppet.
  

Field Trip:

• Visit a puppet show.
  

Fine Motor:

• Decorate a round piece of cardboard to look like a pizza with markers or construction paper. Cut the pizza into "slices", using irregular cutting lines to form a puzzle.
• Opposites Puzzles
• Lacing--Porpoise

Gross Motor:

• Pop like popcorn!!! to this chant, then have snack:
  Pop Goes The Popcorn (Sung to the tune: Davy Crocket)
  Pop goes the popcornCan't you see!It is jumping Just like me!I can't wait until it's doneThen I get to eat it, oh what fun!Popcorn, oh popcorn!You make my tummy hum!
  
• Pizza Sequence: outline a large piece of pizza on the floor, add pepperoni, cheese, mushrooms, peppers, onions (whatever you choose). Have child hop from one thing to another in a sequence: pepperoni, cheese, mushroom. pepper, pepperoni, onion. for example
  
• Pizza toss: Cut out shapes of pizza toppings from magazines or print from your computer. Then glue onto cardboard. Optional to last longer laminate them (clear contact paper works for laminating if a machine is not available). Place a pizza pan onto the floor and have the children stand a ways away from the pan. have them try to throw the pizza shapes onto the pan to make a pizza. It is also neat if you cover the pan in orange paper to act as the sauce/cheese. Once topping made it you covered the pizza. It may be a little challenging, but it is also very fun for them.
  

Music:

• To the tune of "BINGO"
  There is a pizza that I like, and it is very yummy. P-I-Z-Z-A, P-I-Z-Z-A, etc.
  On my pizza I like _____________ and it is very yummy. P-I-Z-Z-A, etc.
• I have a fun pizza song and flannel board activity. There is a flannel board song about a Donut Shop, I changed it to Pizza Shop. I made slices of pizza with pepperoni on top. Use different numbers of pepperoni and you also have a counting activity,
  "Down around the corner in the pizza shop" "There were lots of pieces of pizza with pepperoni on top" "Along came (insert child's name) all aloneHe/she bought one that had (how many pepperoni there are on that slice) pepperoni" "And took it home"
  Repeat until all slices of pizza are gone.

Concept:

• Please and Thank You!

Games:

• parachute play with yellow/white paper balled up like popcorn; pop all the popcorn out

Sensory:

• popcorn kernels;

Toddler:

I'll let him paint his tray with pizza sauce!

St. Patricks Day

Some St. Patricks Day crafts:


Build a Leprechaun trap

http://www.dltk-holidays.com/patrick/index.html

http://www.enchantedlearning.com/crafts/stpatrick/

http://www.makingfriends.com/stpats.htm

Oriental Trading craft kits and decorations

St. Patricks Day songs

Week 2 Letter L, Red and Circle

Color:

• red
  
• Scavenger Hunt (try to find red things)
  

Shape:

• circle
  
• Scavenger Hunt (try to find circles!)
  

Math:

• counting (felt ladybugs);
• sorting

Nursery Rhyme:

• Ladybug, Ladybug Fly Away Home

• Ladybug, Ladybug Fly Away Home coloing page
  

Science:

• Ladybugs!
  Learn about parts of a ladybug and how ladybugs are helpful;
  

Social Studies:

• President Lincoln
  

Reading:

• Ladybug, ladybug fly away home by Jan Brett;
• Tawny Scrawny Lion by Kathering Jackson;
• The Grouchy Ladybug by Eric Carle;
• Ladybug, Ladybug by Ruth Brown;
• Little Red Riding Hood;
• Clifford books
  

Music:

• (use felt ladybugs while singing)
  Five little ladybugs sitting in a tree The first one said," I'm glad I'm me" The second one said, "I feel great too" The third one said," How about you?" The fourth one said," It's time to fly away" The fifth one said," We'll talk another day"
  
  
• If Your Clothes Have Any Red - sung to "If You're Happy and You Know It"
  If your clothes have any red, any red,If your clothes have any red, any red,If your clothes have any red,Put your finger on your head,If your clothes have any red, any red.
  
  
  Crafts:
  
• penny rubbing;
  
• lincoln hat;
  
• paint a rock to look like a ladybug;
  
• red collage: look through newspaper ads, and magazines for red items. Cut out and glue onto paper.
  
• Red ice painting
• Have child rip up pieces of green paper to look like grass. Have the children dip there fingertips in red paint and press them on their grass, when dried dot a black marker on the red spots and viola you have fingerprint ladybugs!
  
  Fine Motor:
• ripping paper;
• drawing lines (straight, try curvy)
• drawing a circles;
• playdoh
  

Gross Motor:

• leap frog,
• long jump
  

Sensory:

• homemade playdoh (bury small objects in it, and have him dig them out);
• "hot potato" with red beanbag
  

Concept:

• Big/Little (through discussion) "Is it big? Is it little?"

Snack:

• Red apple ladybugs (using apples, peanut butter and raisins/chocolate chips for ladybug spots…count them!);
• Strawberry smoothie.
  

Game:

• Red Rover Red Rover
  

Math:

• sorting different colored pasta

Materials Needed:
Felt ladybugs
Diagram of a ladybug
Ladybug coloring page
Oil
Flour
Salt
Patterns for Lincoln hat
Pasta dyed different colors
Apples
Peanut butter
Raisins/Chocolate chips
Red food coloring
Glue
Scissors
Red paint
Red ink pad
Black marker
Green paper
Water
Newspaper ads
Magazines
Rock
Pennies
White paper
Red Crayon

Red beanbag

Week 1 Letter A

Our first week's focus was on letter A. Here are the preschool activities that we did:

• Letter A
  Ants and Alligators and Apples, oh my!
  
  Crafts:
  
• Egg carton ants
  
• Ant prints—cut out large letter A, use ink pad to make “ant prints” all over the A.
  
• Sing: The ants go marching
  
  
• Alligator clothespin magnets
  
• Alligator animal puppets
  
• Sing: Alligators and Monkeys
  
  Math:
  
• Use felt apples to count
  
• Use felt apples to do beginning addition
  
• Read 10 Apples Up On Top
  
• P’s alligator ate _____ pieces of meat. I printed out a picture of an alligator, and cut it out. At the top of a piece of paper I wrote "P's alligator ate ____ pieces of meat." Then I cut up small pieces and numbered them 1-10 (you could use higher numbers if your child needed). I put them in a small box, and allowed him to pick a number. Then he ripped a piece of red paper (meat) into as many pieces as the numbered paper said. He glued the alligator, his numbered paper, and the correct number of pieces of meat onto the paper. If you were working on writing numbers, you could have the child fill in the blank, since he's not ready for that he just glued the numbered piece into the blank.
  
  Fine Motor Skills:
  
• Accordion folding paper
• Lacing apple shape (I used a plastic lid--from oatmeal or grits container--and cut out an apple shape, then used a hole puncher to punch holes and had him lace through the holes)
  
• Animal puzzles
  
• Brown Bear Brown Bear Puzzles
  
• Cutting straight lines
  
  
  Social Studies:
  
• Johnny Appleseed
  
  Science:
  
• Animals that Hibernate: bears, frogs, snakes, turtles (use pillows to make a den for hibernating while reading brown bear brown bear)
  
  Gross Motor Skills:
  
• Animal Walks
  
• “Swamp Game”-lay down blue tablecloth, put plastic alligator on the cloth, chant “I’m walking, I’m walking, I’m walking through the swamp. I hope that alligator doesn’t go CHOMP!” swimming, jumping, tip-toeing, marching, etc.
  
  Sensory:
  
• Shaving cream (like snow) in cookie sheet, practice drawing letter A; then allow for play with cars/etc in shaving cream.
  
• Oatmeal--dried oatmeal in a tray, practiced drawing letter A;
  
  Snacks:
  
• Ants on a log
  
• Animal crackers
  
  Games:
  
• Animal Bingo
  
• Funny Farm Animal matching file folder game
  
  BOOKS:
  
• 10 Apples Up On Top (as I read, we counted the felt apples and stacked them on his head)
  
• Brown Bear Brown Bear
  
  Materials needed:
  Felt apples
  Animal crackers
  Pretzel rods
  egg carton
  paint : green and brown
  google eyes
  pipecleaners
  large A cut out
  ink pads
  clothespins
  string
  paint
  magnet
  paper bags
  green construction paper
  Alphabet stickers
  Alligator stickers
  Ant stickers
  Apple stickers
  Blue tablecloth
  Piece of paper labeled for math activity
  Small cut out alligator
  red paper to tear
  numbers 1-10 on small paper for picking how many pieces of meat the alligator ate
  glue stick
  brown bear brown bear puzzle tiles
  animal bingo game
  Letter A theme bag
  File folder game
  Puzzles
  
  
  
  Prep work:
  Cut out felt apples (10)
  Cut out large A from construction paper
  Cut egg cartons into 3 cup pieces
  Cut out alligator shape
  Make small numbered pieces 1-10
  Label piece of paper for math activity
  Draw straight lines on a piece of paper for cutting

Toddler Activities:

• Hide and Seek with the apple! Hide most (or just part if that's what your child is ready for) of the apple under something or behind something and have the child look for it. My son LOVES this game.
• Instead of the shaving cream mentioned above, I let the toddler have a big glob of yogurt on his high chair tray to make an ooey gooey mess with. He liked it, and since he likes to still put his fingers in his mouth yogurt was the way to go (it looked what the bigger kids were doing, so it was a hit).
• We're working on learning body parts, so we are working on hand (he already knows head, tummy and toes). We work on this by just talking about it: "Where's your hand??" "Here's your hand!" and I touch his hand.
• Sing "if you're happy and you know it clap your hands"!
• Sing "ants go marching"...he attempted to march (it was too cute)
• Animal walks (he tried to play along)
• Den building (he loved crawling on the pillows, and laying under the pillows)
• Animal books: We read all the titles that we have about animals, and he learned to make the sound for dog "woof woof". We have two touchy feely animal books, and those are his favorite! I highly recommend those.
• BOOKS in general! It was a great week because my son finally got interested in books!! My MIL picked up a touchy feely book (mentioned above) at a thrift store when she was here last month, and it was a big hit, so I went last week and bought another one. He loves it too, but the best part is that it seems to have peaked his interest in ALL books! He's bringing me books to read all the time now....now, he usually only makes it through a few pages of the book (except those touchy feely ones), but it's a start down the right road. Before this week, he wouldn't sit to be read to (except that touchy feely book...did I mention I HIGHLY recommend those??) and would snatch the book from me if I tried to read to him while he was playing. My son, very against literacy.
• Sign for STOP. My son doesn't do many signs, in fact, he only does 2. All done, and more. (He's big into food...what can I say.) BUT, he understands many more. Up. Drink. Milk. Eat. Sit. Ball. Light. My mind went blank, but there are others. So, this week I introduced the sign for STOP. The others we've been working on for months, and this is a new one. He doesn't get it yet, either that or he's just a defiant little booger (tongue in cheek...I don't think one year olds can be defiant personally!).
• Counting. I count all the time. When I'm changing his diaper, it's often the only thing that keeps him still!! I do it in a big grand voice, or a slow deep voice, or a high squeaky voice, but always counting to 10 (I can change a diaper, FAST!). I also use it when I'm trying to get him dressed, again it will usually keep him still. "Three buttons. One. Two. Three. There you go, all done!" "Ten snaps. One. Two. Three." (you get the picture)
• Colors, we just talk about colors all day as well. "Do you have the red ball? Mommy has the yellow ball." "See the pretty red apples." Etc.

Of course, he's around for all the learning, and probably picks up on more than I think.

Evolution

So, my plan for this blog has evolved. I agreed to take on preschooling my 4 yr old neighbor. So, now this blog will be two fold, and possibly more relevant for many families with both a preschooler and a toddler.

We've completed our first successful week. Originally, I had planned on doing letter of the week type of stuff (I love their site) and adding in my own ideas that went a long with the letter. BUT, I quickly found out that he needs to learn more than letters, so this week's game plan changed to include other skills that he clearly needed work on. I was under the impression that the main focus of our time together would be on learning the alphabet, letter sounds, and working on writing. While we'll still be working on all those things, I found that he also needs to know how to count (he can sometimes successfully get to 5, other times not), he doesn't consistently recognize colors, and he doesn't have a good grasp on concepts like "big/little" "over/under" "top/bottom", so I've included those things in the upcoming week's plan. That's what I get for assuming!!

He'll probably be doing preschool with me until the end of the year, at the beginning of next year he'll probably move to a standard preschool, in preparation for public school kindergarten (I can teach him lots of things, but now how to act with 15 other 5 year olds).

Now I am teaching 4th grade, 3rd grade, preschool, AND trying to keep a very active toddler happy.

I'm REALLY going to try to keep this blog updated (as well as my other one), but time is so limited I may have to do it in big chunks! :-)

Ahh, evolution.