I hope that whoever said children shouldn’t play with their food, is OK with children experimenting with their food. Many people would agree that food can be an art form. This snack makes that statement quite literal.
Crayons in the Box Song
This is a great song for learning about colors and for building rhyme recognition, an important skill for pre-readers (read more about phonological awareness here). Use this song during large group, music and movement time, or just as a filler during a transition. The little ones love it! Eventually, they’ll be ready to be the ones giving the clues!
Introducing the Five Senses!
As I mentioned before, the purpose of teaching about the five senses in preschool is not for the children to be able to recite the five senses, but to build sensory awareness. Whenever I introduce the five senses, I like to start out with the book, My Five Senses by Aliki. It does a great job of simply introducing each of the senses, and then pointing out how we may use several of them at the same time, and that we use them to be aware of what’s around us. It’s very brief, very simple, and right to the point.
Art Talk
When discussing art with children, we often find ourselves simply saying, “Oh it’s a dog!” or “How pretty.” Here are a few tips on how to bring some art concepts into your comments and discussions. [Read more…]
Unit Theme: Exploring the Arts through Our Senses
Introducing the new unit theme! Dat-da-da-dah! “Exploring the Arts through Our Senses”!
Snacks to Warm You!
There are certain winter days when you absolutely have to be warmed up from the inside out. Warm snacks are perfect for an afternoon after sledding or as a part of a preschool winter theme. Children learn that just as clothes keep us warm in winter, warm foods help us out this time of year as well. Plus, sharing warm food you’ve prepared together provides many of the developmental gains mentioned in this post. Here are a few fun snacks to warm you through during a cold winter theme!
Wonderful Winter Books!
I love picture books! In our family library, my husband’s beautiful leather-bound tomes line one section of shelves, while my continually growing collection of children’s literature fills another section. I’d say our respective collections take up about the same amount of real estate, but since I can fit about 20 picture books in the same amount of space as one “War and Peace”, I’d say my collection is larger. There just never seems to be a bad time to read a good children’s book. Start of an activity – great! Rowdy transition time – perfect! Bedtime – ideal! It reminds me of the iPhone commercials (“There’s an app for that”). Any situation, there’s a book for that. New puppy in the family? There’s a book for that. Having a really bad day? There’s a book for that. Want to become a pirate? There’s a book for that too. Ate too many cupcakes and now you’ve turned pink, which you were really excited about at first, until the birds and bees thought you were a flower and swarmed you, and after one more cupcake you’re actually red, which isn’t nearly as neat as pink and now you need to know how to get back to your normal self? Wouldn’t you know, there’s a book for that too! (If you think I’m totally off my rocker with that last reference, you need to read Pinkalicious!)
During a winter themed preschool unit, there are plenty of opportunities for a great book. You might use one to start off outside time, an art project, a game, or a discussion. Or you might just read one to enjoy it together with your little ones. For any occasion, here’s a quick list of some of my favorite winter-themed books. Instead of summarizing them myself, I’ve linked each picture to Amazon, which also gives a story summary.
Author Study: Jan Brett
(Click here to go to Jan Brett’s website.)
Jan Brett is a prolific as an author and illustrator! Her books are instantly recognizable, with her trademark style of using detail to draw you further into the story, weaving a story-within-a-story as she offers new vantage points in the borders or foreshadows the arrival of a new character.
Snow Scene Collage
If you’ve already done a few snowstorm paintings, switch things up a bit and get three-dimensional! Collect a sampling of random white items to glue onto a snow collage. Have your children help if you can! Here are some ideas: cotton balls, batting, tissue paper, packing peanuts, styrofoam (break it into the tiny balls for realistic snow), white buttons, white tulle, plain old white paper (have the children rip it into pieces for more texture and increased small motor skills), paper with white prints (white on white-ish plaids, stripes, etc.), glitter, salt, white scraps of ribbon or fabric – you notice the theme here, right? White stuff! If it can be glued onto paper and it’s white, (and suitable for children of course) it’s perfect!
Mitten Match
For those of you implementing a winter theme, consider creating a mitten match! You could use actual gloves and mittens and have children pair them together, or create a type of memory game like the one I did here.
I made mine out of felt for quick and easy durability. I gave each set different characteristics, but you can see, for my older children, I made it a bit challenging by making some pairs similar to other pairs. I thought I had made each set as a matching pair (with one lefty and one righty), but it looks like a lack of sleep caught up with me and some are opposing and some are not. I can see an argument for either. If you make each hand you have an actual pair, but if you make them the same hand, you have an identical match. I ‘ll let you decide for yourself, or just be like me and make them late at night and see how they look in the morning!
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