You can never really have too many songs and fingerplays, can you? So here’s another one that is kid-tested and approved! Sing to the tune of “I’m a Little Teapot”.
I'm a Little Seed
You can never really have too many songs and fingerplays, can you? So here’s another one that is kid-tested and approved! Sing to the tune of “I’m a Little Teapot”.
Five Little Seeds…..A Fingerplay
Oh, We're Going to the Store!
Photo provided by akaak19.
Singing is a great way to promote language skills and phonemic awareness. Oh, and it’s loads of fun! Here’s a little ditty to go along with your grocery or foods theme. It’s great for parents to sing in the car on the way to an actual shopping trip as well! It’s very simple, and silly, and because they get to add to the song, kids just love it!
To the tune of The Farmer in the Dell.
Oh, We’re Going to the Store!
Photo provided by akaak19.
Singing is a great way to promote language skills and phonemic awareness. Oh, and it’s loads of fun! Here’s a little ditty to go along with your grocery or foods theme. It’s great for parents to sing in the car on the way to an actual shopping trip as well! It’s very simple, and silly, and because they get to add to the song, kids just love it!
To the tune of The Farmer in the Dell.
Baked Doughnuts-Fit for a Parade
Ahh, doughnuts. Few treats get children so excited! I’m personally not a fan of deep fat frying. My body doesn’t react well to the smell and when I eat it much my stomach feels unsettled. That, and my hips and thighs swell in a strange sort of allergic reaction. At any rate, when I’m the cook at the wheel, I prefer this healthier recipe for baked doughnuts. If you want to, have your little chefs assist you through the entire recipe. It’s not too difficult, and those little hands always get a kick out of kneading and rolling. Observing first hand the effect of yeast is a science project in itself. And since these are baked, not fried, they’re not only healthier, but you also have a little less to worry about in the burn department. As another option, you can have the doughnuts ready, and just let the children help with the topping. Either way, this cooking activity is sure to excite your little ones as they personalize each doughnut. Turn it into a literacy activity by reading a good book like The Great Doughnut Parade beforehand, or while the dough rises!
Here’s the to-do and to-what list:
See Through Seed Gardens
As a seed germinates and grows, it is hard for children to understand what goes on beneath that mystic cover of soil. Of course you can sprout bean seeds in a plastic bag (just drop in a wet paper towel and presoaked bean seed, seal ‘er up and watch it open up over the course of a few days). That’s a great staple among preschool activities, but if you also want to watch the development of the seed into a plant with a root system, you might want to try this idea.
Book Activity: If You Give a Pig a Pancake – Syrup Paint!
Laura Numeroff has a good thing going. And it keeps going, around and around as her circular stories charm children every time. As part of her series that began with If You Give a Mouse a Cookie, Numeroff explores the cause and effect cycle from the obvious to the outlandish as a pancake leads to syrup, then eventually tap shoes and even a tree houses! All coming full circle as the pig is led to ask for another pancake!
As you read this book with children, pause before some of the pig’s requests to see if the children can anticipate what will come next. After reading, you might even pose some hypothetical questions, like, “What if you gave the pig a blanket? What might she ask for next?” Remember that there isn’t a right answer. You might think the logical request would be a pillow, but a child may connect the blanket with something entirely different. Just as a pancake eventually leads to a tree house, your children will have reasons for their connections, so let them explain! This kind of discussion reinforces the concept of cause and effect, while also allowing for creative thinking.
Leave Your Mark! Making Fossil Imprints with Preschoolers!
A unit on dinosaurs hardly seems complete without talking a bit about fossils! The common way of using plaster of Paris to make hardened imprints seemed a bit daunting to me, particularly when I read through the warning label, not to mention the mixing, the mess, and a number of excited preschoolers involved in the process. For our dinosaur unit we made fossil imprints using baking soda clay. I simply made the clay the night before and left it in a sealed Ziplock bag. After reading our dinosaur book and talking about fossils in small group, each child was given a paper plate and a small ball of soda clay to flatten. Then they could choose from plastic dinosaurs to make footprints and/or large seashells to press in for a texture print. I also included a note explaining to parents that the clay needed to air dry at least overnight to harden to it’s “fossilized” state. (Hopefully, you can see the imprint in the picture above. If I had been thinking more about photography than preschool, I would have gone for a little more color interest here!)
The children enjoyed making their own fossil imprints, while they also gained science knowledge about dinosaurs, and the formation of the evidence of them that remains today. Language skills increased as they talked about their own creations and incoporated new terms, such as “imprint”, “fossil”, and “trace”. I enjoyed watching them experience all of this without having to chip plaster of Paris out of my carpet, or someone’s beautiful braid! Here’s the recipe so you can try it out for yourself!
The Wiggle Waggle Song
Photo provided by rrss.
Want a fun little song that gets the wiggles out while enforcing phonemic awareness skills? I thought you might be, so here it is!
It’s a very simple song, but kids love it! To the tune of “Shortnin’ Bread”:
