20 Best Tips

Preschool Corner: Preschool Corner Blogroll!

This week has been a little bit crazy overall with part of our family here and some traveling for a funeral. Even though I was here with the two youngest…and the primary kiddos for Preschool Corner, guess how much we got done.

That would be a zilcho. Nada. Nothing.

Unless snuggling up together, having fun on playdates with others {to distract a little boy who wanted to take a road trip}, and eating ice cream counts as a ummm….learning experience. {grins}

We did squeeze in a few things earlier in the week, but I am going to hold off until next week to post about those things and instead ask you all for a little input. I’m in the process of putting together my website and would like to add a blogroll and link back to all of you that are a part of the Preschool Corner {Carisa was the one that suggested the idea to me}.

I’ve put together a list of sites that I’ve pulled from past MckLinky’s, and would love it if you all could look over the list and let me know if I missed you! Leave a comment ~ I do have the links for the blogs below already in place, they just aren’t showing up here. Please let me know if you have been participating in the Preschool Corner and your blog is not on the list {or if you do not wish for your blog to be on the list}.

Adept Serendipity
Adventures in Mommydom
Celebrate Every Day
Cheerios Underfoot
Children Grow, Children Learn
Confessions of a Homeschooler
Delightful Learning
Diary of a Nouveau Soccer Mom
Fifth Street Academy
Home Grown Hearts
Hope Sprouts
Jedi Homeschooling
Mama Jenn
Monkey See, Monkey Do
Monkeyin’ Around
Mouse Grows, Mouse Learns
Never a Dull Moment
One Little Room
One Little, Two Little
One Mom, Five Boys
Our Happy Hearts Will Never Roam
Our Worldwide Classroom
Refined Metals Academy
Run the Earth, Watch the Sky
Spell Outloud
Spesamor Academy
Treasure Seekers
The Work of Childhood

About the Preschool Corner

The Preschool Corner is a place for us to share the ideas we are using during our “preschool time” with our kids. You can join in the fun and record what you are doing in your house. Please link your exact blog post to the Mr. Linky below (if you have questions feel free to ask). Be sure to link back to this blog post so that your readers can find some other great ideas too!

The guidelines can be found here if you need them.

Share what you’ve been doing in your house this week!

Photobucket

Preschool Corner: Letter Ff

This was my last week working with the co-op kids, so next week it’ll be my own kiddos that you see here. :) Back to normal ~ as much as that actually happens around these part!

While I have been going alphabetically up to this point, next week I’m going to start mixing it up a bit and skipping around the alphabet.

Just for fun {and to most likely drive myself and others crazy}. I haven’t decided if I’m going to let you all in on my rough plan of what we’ll be studying…because then that means I have to stick to it and there are times that that just doesn’t happen!

If you’re new here or linking up for the first time, be sure to let us know!! Leave a comment and say hi ~ I’d love to stop by and visit you!

Here’s how our week with the letter F worked out. If you need some more ideas, be sure to check out this post I did earlier with different ideas to use in your home along with some printables.

Alphabet Book


We made a ‘fire’ with a marshmallow to toast for our alphabet page this week.

You’ll Need:

  • Red, yellow and orange tissue paper cut into small squares
  • Brown construction paper
  • Brown pipe cleaner
  • Cotton ball
  • Letter F alphabet page
  • Glue

To Make:

{Note: I cut out the pieces ahead of time since we have a short amount of time and a lot to do ~ otherwise I would recommend letting the kids cut out their own pieces as much as possible!}

1. Cut the tissue paper into 2″ squares and the brown construction paper into rectangles to make ‘logs’.

2. Push the pipe cleaner through the marshmallow as best you can {you might need to help out with this part, since ours were a little tough to do}.

3. Have your child glue the logs into an ‘X’ shape to make a wood pile to build their fire. Crumple up the tissue paper and glue it above the logs to make a fire.

4. Glue the marshmallow on the stick to the alphabet page.

Art

Foxy F ~ We made this foxy letter F together too – you can read more about it on this craft post.

Game

I Spy ~ Here’s the next installment in our ‘I Spy’ the alphabet series. There was a LOT to find in the classroom this week!

Songs and Rhymes

Two Feet Song
{to the tune of ‘Sally has a red shirt’….well, I think that’s the tune…}

I can walk with two feet, two feet, two feet,
I can walk with two feet, all day long.

Repeat filling in with:

I can jump with two feet…
I can hop with two feet…
I can run with two feet…
I can march with two feet…
I can skip with two feet…
I can slide with two feet…

Additional Resources

Feelings ~ Can you guess how these kiddos are feeling? Sleepy. Confused. Scared. Surprised. Angry. The kids had a blast acting out the feelings cards that I used from Carisa over at 1+1+1=1. You can download a bunch of great activities on feelings on her site.

Stories & Books We Used:

I know. There’s a LOT of Froggie books in this line-up. But I LOVE Froggie. Really, I do ~ and the kids do too!

About the Preschool Corner:

The Preschool Corner is a place for us to share the ideas we are using during our “preschool time” with our kids. You can join in the fun and record what you are doing in your house. Please link your exact blog post to the Mr. Linky below (if you have questions feel free to ask). Be sure to link back to this blog post so that your readers can find some other great ideas too!

The guidelines can be found here if you need them.

Share what you’ve been doing in your house this week!

Photobucket

Tot School ::34::

~ Kaleb is 34 months ~

It’s been awhile since I’ve posted what we’re doing with Kaleb, partially because Mommy is falling into the slacker department and not doing as much intentional stuff as I originally planned. Because sometimes life happens and then Kaleb gets the short end of the ‘teaching’ stick.

On the bright side, he has his letter sounds down pat and is signing the days of the week thanks to a few Leap Frog dvds…But when I DO actually plan, remember to take pictures and when my camera decides to work, there can some actual Tot School results.

Exhibit A: Found these great simple puzzles from Leap Frog that have shape matching and also numbers and letters. We just worked with the shape matching this week.

Exhibit B: Blurry, but proof that we also played with blocks this week {from Discovery Toys}. We had fun naming colors and stacking them together to make a rainbow.

Exhibit C: Sink time and ‘washing dishes’. Why I haven’t let him do this sooner is beyond me! Kept Kaleb occupied for quite some time…even though I had lots of water to sop up later.

Exhibit D: The dry-erase board was pulled out along with the markers {he is fascinated by markers lately} and he had fun scribbling and writing along with all of us.

Exhibit E: Wii Time with Outdoor Adventure! Kaleb loves the pipe slider game on this as well as the jumprope game – but needs a little help with the mat patting, so the other kids help him out.

Exhibit F: Scrunchies on a stick. Great activity for fine motor skills and we also use it to name colors and count how many are on the stick.

Exhibit G: Silent reading time. Kaleb crawled up in bed next to me the other day and grabbed a book from Rick’s nightstand. Just cracked me up because he was so intently ‘reading’. Especially because of the book title.

Don’t forget to visit Carissa at 1+1+1=1 for some more Tot School posts.

Photobucket

Preschool Corner: All About the Letter Ee

Eggs and elephants were the topics we covered this week for class. Once I started with the elephants it was a little hard to stop, especially once the handprint came into play. :) Too cute and too fun.

Be sure to check out my Letter E post from last year too for some additional ideas to use for the letter E, including a printable collage sheet, a different alphabet page and games.

Before I forget, if you are looking for the links to past alphabet posts, they are all at the bottom of the blog in the footer.

Alphabet Book

You’ll Need:

  • Gray paint {we had fun mixing black and white together}
  • Paintbrushes
  • Green markers
  • Pink ‘ears’ for your elephants
  • Googley eyes
  • Wet wipes {for quick clean-up}

To Make:

{Note: I cut out the pieces ahead of time since we have a short amount of time and a lot to do ~ otherwise I would recommend letting the kids cut out their own pieces as much as possible!}

1. Mix up the paint {if needed} and have kids color grass along the bottom of their alphabet sheet.

2. Paint your child’s hand with the gray paint, completely covering the fingers and palms.

3. Have your child place their hand on the paper {fingers pointing down toward the grass on the bottom} and gently press hand onto the paper so that the paint transfers.

4. Add an ear and an eye to your elephant and paint a thin tail.

Art

Elephant E ~ This week our letter craft for that looks like the letter we’re learning about was a fun little elephant. You can see it up close and get directions in my E is for Elephant post.

Games

Egg Matching ~ I put numbers on one end of a plastic Easter egg and the same number of dots on the other end. The kids had fun counting the dots and finding the number match {works great if you either mix up the egg colors or use all the same color egg}. They also counted out pieces of elbow macaroni to put inside, depending on what number was on the egg.

Uppercase/Lowercase Matching Game ~ Found a great letter E matching game over at Homegrown Hearts where the kids sort upper/lowercase letters. Be sure to check out her other E printables.

I Spy ~ These are things that we found either in our classroom or brought from home to share for show and tell. Can you find the things we spied? {this will print great as a 4×6 print}.

Science

During our group time, we took a raw egg and put it into a jar filled with warm water {it sank}. I made some observation sheets for the kids to predict and record what would happen when we added salt to the water.

We added a LOT of salt.

And it finally floated up to the top {thank goodness}.

Songs and Rhymes

During our group time we sang the song “Do Your Ears Hang Low” and then later replaced the word ‘ears’ with other body parts: elbows, eyes, knees, hands, etc… and the kids had fun trying to see if they could throw those things over their shoulders.

One of the boys is VERY flexible and can put his foot over his shoulder!

Additional Resources

Be sure to check out another one of my posts for some more ideas for teaching the letter E. There are some different activities and printables in that post too!

Stories & Books We Used

About the Preschool Corner

The Preschool Corner is a place for us to share the ideas we are using during our “preschool time” with our kids. You can join in the fun and record what you are doing in your house. Please link your exact blog post to the Mr. Linky below (if you have questions feel free to ask). Be sure to link back to this blog post so that your readers can find some other great ideas too!

The guidelines can be found here if you need them.

Share what you’ve been doing in your house this week!

Photobucket

Preschool Corner: All About the Letter Dd

Unfortunately, my camera is being a little tempermental lately, ever since the ‘great drop from above’ courtesy of Zachary. I think that I’ve figured out a way to work the lens so that the camera will actually take pictures now, but this last week only managed to produce actual class pictures.

Be sure to check out my Letter Dd post from last year too for some additional ideas to use for the letter D, including a printable collage sheet, different alphabet page and games.

Alphabet Book


Doctor Kit ~ I still had plenty of bandaids left after our bandaid butterflies, so the kids were thrilled to see the bandaids back. I pulled out whatever supplies I had {that were safe} for the kids to stick in their Doctor Bags.

You’ll Need:

  • Black, white, and red construction paper
  • Scissors
  • Glue and tape
  • Q-tips, large craft stick, bandaids, a cotton ball, gauze bandage and other ‘medical’ supplies you might have around {that are safe for preschoolers}
  • 8 1/2 x 11 piece of paper {you can print off the alphabet book if you’d like!}


To Make:

{Note: I cut out all the pieces ahead of time since we have a short amount of time and a lot to do ~ otherwise I would recommend letting the kids cut out their own pieces as much as possible!}

1. From the black construction paper, cut out a rectangle for the doctor’s bag as well as two handles. Fold the black rectangle in half to make the bag. Glue the handles onto the bag.

2. Cut out two thin rectangles from the red construction paper and glue together to make a ‘red cross’.

3. Cut out a white circle and glue your ‘red cross’ on. Glue the circle and cross onto your bag.

4. Open the bag and glue/tape all of your medical supplies into the bag.

5. Glue your doctor’s bag onto your alphabet sheet.

Art

D is for Dinosaur ~ We made our ‘D’ shaped craft – a cute little dinosaur this week. You can find the full instructions for him in my D is for Dinosaur post.

Daniel & the Lion’s Den ~ I printed of some cute coloring sheets from Christian Preschool Printables for the kids to work on.

Cooking

Dirt Cups ~ I whipped up a quick batch of pudding and the kids had fun banging and crushing oreos and graham crackers to make them look like ‘dirt’. We spooned out some pudding and topped it off with our ‘dirt’ mix. Yum!

Games

I Spy ~ Since my camera wasn’t working, I had to recreate as much as I could pull together at home for the letter Dd. You should be able to click on the picture if you would like to download it and print it off. I am hoping to pull together one for each letter of the alphabet {meaning I will backtrack and post the letter A one soon}.

Songs and Rhymes

We used a song during our circle time that is similar to the ‘Five Little Ducks’ song, but just a little different. While we were singing, we lined up a Momma Duck with her five little ones and the kids took them away one by one as we sang the song.

Additional Resources

Be sure to check out another one of my posts for some more ideas on teaching the letter D. There are some different activities and printables in that post too!

Stories & Books We Used

About the Preschool Corner

The Preschool Corner is a place for us to share the ideas we are using during our “preschool time” with our kids. You can join in the fun and record what you are doing in your house. Please link your exact blog post to the Mr. Linky below (if you have questions feel free to ask). Be sure to link back to this blog post so that your readers can find some other great ideas too!

The guidelines can be found here if you need them.

Share what you’ve been doing in your house this week!

Preschool Corner: All About the Letter Cc

I want to say a HUGE ‘thank you’ to all of you who are joining up with the Preschool Corner each week and sharing what you are doing with your preschoolers! You all are making my day and giving me some great ideas of things to do and I love to stop by and visit your blogs!!

This week we talked about the letter ‘Cc’ during our co-op preschool class and that involved caterpillars, crabs, counting, ‘clouds, and cookies.

Alphabet Book

Last year we made a clock for our alphabet book and I really wanted to do some patterns with the kids this year. Really, that was easier said than done, because glue, tiny dots and a limited amount of time means there is little patterning done.

This was great for some fine motor skills too, since the kids helped out and used a hole punch to make their own teeny tiny caterpillar pieces from black, white and yellow construction paper.


You’ll Need:

  • Hole punch
  • Green, black, yellow, and white construction paper
  • Scissors
  • Glue
  • Thin black marker
  • 8 1/2 x 11 piece of paper {you can print off the alphabet book if you’d like!}

To Make:

{Note: I cut out all the pieces ahead of time since we have a short amount of time and a lot to do ~ otherwise I would recommend letting the kids cut out their own pieces as much as possible!}

1. Draw some leave shapes and have your child cut them out.

2. Cut out a ‘stem’ for your milkweed plant and some grass for the ground.

3. Let your child use the hole punch to make circles from the black, yellow and white construction paper. Punching holes in the leaves to make them look ‘chewed on’ is fun too!

4. Glue the milkweed plant and grass to the paper.

5. Glue the black, white, and yellow hole pieces for caterpillars ~ try to make patterns with the colors!

6. Add little eyes and antennae with a marker if you’d like.

Art

Chocolate Chip Cookies

We used small paper plates, shaving cream paint, and felt ‘chocolate chips’ to make puffy paint chocolate chip cookies. No Time for Flashcards has a recipe for puffy shaving cream paint {which I had to totally fudge since I didn’t print it off}, but it worked great.

The kids painted their plates and then rolled a number die to see how many ‘chips’ they needed to add to their cookie and they had to count them out. If they wanted too, they rolled it again and added that many more to their cookies.

C is for Crab

Keeping up with our crafts that are shaped like the letters we’re learning, we make a cute little crab for the letter ‘Cc’. You can read more about the craft in my ‘Cc is for Crab’ post.

Book Activities

During our circle time we read the story The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle and then played some games together that related to the book.

Story Sequencing: DLTK Kids has a great printable that you can use to sequence the events of the story and have the kids recall what the caterpillar ate in the book.

Size Sequencing: Carisa at 1+1+1=1 has a great tot book for the Very Hungry Caterpillar including bunches of great printables. We used the butterflies and caterpillars to practice sequencing from smallest to largest.

Games

Cloud Blowing ~ I wanted to do blowing for the letter B, but we ran out of time. This week we called it ‘Cloud Blowing’ and the kids had fun getting down on the floor and blowing cotton balls across the classroom {thanks so much to Four Little Penguins for the idea to use it for the letter C!}.

I Spy ~ We pulled out everything in the classroom {and our show & tell things} that we could find, starting with the letter ‘C’ and made a big pile on the floor. Do you see them in our pile?

Math

During our circle time we also had fun counting coins. The kids each took turn rolling the number die, identifying the number and then counting out 1:1 that amount of pennies.


Songs and Rhymes

We used the book Who Took the Cookies From the Cookie Jar by Bonnie Lass. The kids loved being a part of the rhyme and we went through all the kids.

Additional Resources

Be sure to check out another one of my posts for some more ideas on teaching the letter C. There are some different activities and printables in that post too!

Stories & Books We Used

About the Preschool Corner

The Preschool Corner is a place for us to share the ideas we are using during our “preschool time” with our kids. You can join in the fun and record what you are doing in your house. Please link your exact blog post to the Mr. Linky below (if you have questions feel free to ask). Be sure to link back to this blog post so that your readers can find some other great ideas too!

The guidelines can be found here if you need them.

Share what you’ve been doing in your house this week!

Photobucket