Shape Art

This one is super easy for you to do (can you tell I am into the easy things these days?).

Have your child create an animal. Have her draw the animal and then cut it out. Then have her cut out pieces of paper in the shape of your choice and glue them to the animal. In the end, you have some fun abstract art!

If your child is not old enough to cut, you can either cut for her or have her tear pieces of paper. For little ones, even if all they do is glue the pieces on, they enjoy it.

Bats!

My girls are freaked out by bats. I don't know how or why this happened (since neither parent has bat issues), but somewhere along the way they got the idea that bat=bad. So, added to our Halloween/pumpkin week was also a day of bat fun! We read Stellaluna first (I love that book! There's a special place in my heart for that sweet little critter!). We read the book slowly, taking time to talk about what she ate, her habits, the bird comparison, etc.

Then we made the I Know A Lot About Bats book. For my 2 year old I printed off pictures of the bats (one hanging upside down, one eating fruit, a moon for nighttime, and others).

Then we reviewed the letter B. I used capital B's to make the wings and let them glue and create. I also printed out a few pictures of a bat flying, used contact paper to laminate it, and cut in into increasingly more difficult puzzles for the girls to solve.

Then, for my 4 year old, we worked on drawing bats. She loved it! It fit in well with reviewing -at words,too.

Science Book

Little books are a great way to reinforce what a child has learned about a particular subject. Kaitlyn made this bat book at preschool. 

They learned all about bats. At the end of the unit, they each choose four things they knew about bats and colored a picture of each item on a page for this book. So Kaitlyn had that they slept in the day, had wings, is not a bird, and likes to eat nectar. The great thing is that she loves to look through it and tell me what each page is a picture of, so it helped reinforce as she made the book, and then helps over and over (and over) at home :) as she tells me about it (again). 

You could do this for any unit you are learning about. Bugs, animals, plants, machines, vehicles, space...it is endless. This is a great way to work science into your week.

Zoo Picture

Something I have enjoyed about playgroup is seeing all of the fun ideas other moms have to do with kids. This is a picture Kaitlyn did during "Z" day at playgroup. The mom put the letter Z on the page (upper and lowercase...Kaitlyn covered hers with animals). She then wrote the child's name at the top to name their zoo--so Kaitlyn's was "Kaitlyn's Zoo."

She then got out animal stickers and stamps and let the kids put the animals they wanted in their zoo. It was simple, fun, and great for talking about animals. 

Pom-Pom Spring Chick

This is a fun little craft Brayden brought home from school at the end of his egg unit. It is simple and something you can use to decorate for spring with!

AGE RANGE

You could adapt this as young as a toddler, but the most rounded learning will come for the preschoolers and up.

SUPPLIES

• Yellow pom-poms--one small and one large
• Styrofoam egg carton
• Orange paper
• Black marker
• Glue

ACTVITY

1. Before you begin, gather supplies. Cut egg carton up so each section is individual.
2. Have your child cut the edges of the egg carton section to look like a cracked egg shell edge.
3. Have your child glue the large pom-pom in the egg.
4. Have your child glue the small pom-pom on top of the large one.
5. Have your child cut out an orange diamond shape for the beak and glue it on.
6. Have your child make two eyes with the black marker.
7. Let glue dry and then display it somewhere!

Paper Plate Elephant

Kaitlyn made this in playgroup. I thought it was super cute!

Supplies:

• paper plate
• construction paper
• scissors
• goggly eyes (or you could draw eyes)
• glue

Method:

1. If desired, have your child color the paper plate (gray if you want to stick to "reality," a color of your child's choice if you want to do "imaginative").
2. Depending on child's age and ability, either you cut out or draw and let your child cut out the elephant's ears. 
3. Cut out a circle on the plate for the "nose" (I would say this is an adult step)
4. Have your child decorate the plate further if desired. Add eyes.
5. Glue ears on plate.
6. Play with your elephant! Stick your arm through to be the elephant's nose.

A week (or more) of Grizzly Bears!

On Friday I posted a synopsis of how I come up with a week of lessons on different topics. This is what I decided to cover/review this week:
Theme: Bears
Vocab word: hibernate
Nursery Rhyme: Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear
Number:5
Color: Brown
Fiction Story: Goldilocks and the Three Bears
Letter/sound: Bb
Math skills covered: counting, sorting, graphing
Gross Motor: Crawling like a bear for Hide-and-seek
Life Skill: manners

Day 1:
We started off the week reading a book, starting with the non-fiction book I'd chosen. (I'd checked out both a fiction and non-fiction book about bears. My fiction choice was Goldilocks and the Three Bears. ) We read the book very slowly, going over each detail. We talked about what they eat, where they live, hibernation, homes, coverings and other physical features, and habits. I taught her the rhyme "Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear". We counted to 5.

Following this activity we learned about the letter B. I'd printed off a few different B activities from First School to make it a little easier to start. I let her glue buttons to the B on the first page.

Day 2:

We reread the non-fiction book about Grizzly bears. This time I asked her questions as I read, like "What do bears do when winter comes? Do bears like to be alone?" etc. Then we did another "Bb" paper.
Review rhyme and #5.

Math/Snack: I bought a box of Teddy Grahams and would hand her a small pile. I then asked to her count how many I'd given her. It's great practice to move the bears as they count to keep from counting the same bears over and over. At the end she got to eat a few.




Day 3: Reread non-fiction. Read Goldilocks and the Three Bears. Make the letter B with Do-A-Dot markers.



Math: I printed off a gummy bear graph and she sorted gummy bears by color and then graphed them. (and then eat some, of course!)

We practiced making the letter Bb and making circles, our shape of the week. We then used pre-cut circles to make a bear face, like shown on this site. I just made my own template. Then she sponge painted it brown.

Day 4: Review Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear. Count to 5.

We made bear paws for breakfast. I confess that I know that grizzly bears have 5 toes, but they look better w/ 4 when you bake them. :) So, some have 5 and some have 4. Bear paws: refrigerated biscuit dough, roll into the paw shape, sprinkle with cinnamon and sugar, bake as directed. Easy!

We made bear ears (headband and taped on construction paper ears) and played hide-and-seek w/ berries and bugs (play food and plastic bugs). She had to walk like a bear and dig for her bugs. This is a great activity to do at night as a family. Her dad really got into it and made a little den for her. The growls and grunts were adorable. Even my 18 month old wore bear ears and played.

Math: Sort teddy grahams into piles of 5, since 5 (the # of claws on a paw) was our number of the week.

Reread Goldilocks and talked about manners.

Day 5: Dad got really into the bear talks, too. So while at work her made her a bear claw (life sized) out of wood. Now when she plays hide-and-seek as a bear, she wears her ears and her claw. :)

Oh, and I made porridge for breakfast. Yum! Both girls cleaned their plates. Charis wanted to go for a walk to let it cool, true to story.

As a review, I printed off a bunch of bear pictures from Google Images and typed in what I needed (bear hibernating, bear catching salmon, bear paw with claws, etc). We made her own bear book with easy to read sentences so she can "read" it on her own.

EX:

Bears have big claws.

Our sentences included things like: Bears eat fish. Bears eat rabbits. Bears eat plants. This is a bear cub. Bears hibernate (one sentence per page).
We made the book out of construction paper and just stapled it together.

Hope that helps! Have fun teaching and learning about bears together! I just wish our zoo had bears...it would have rounded out a good week perfectly!

Simple Summer Fun: The Zoo

Oh the zoo. Kids love zoos. Kaitlyn is my little animal lover and gets a huge thrill out of zoos. Now, if you don't have a large zoo close to you, chances are there is some sort of small zoo. You might even be able to go to a local farm and see the animals there. Looking at animals in person is so much more meaningful to a child than looking in a book. How else would they realize that a rhino's head is as large as their entire body?

Another, very scaled down animal activity I have done with Kaitlyn is I took her to PetsMart. I was shocked at how much she loved watching all of the fish swim. They had fish, birds, reptiles, cats, and of course the patron's dogs. She loved it and it was free!

You might also live somewhere that you can go for a walk around your neighborhood and see animals. So take a trip somewhere and learn by observation (and maybe even touching if it is a petting zoo!) as you watch the animals.