Let's Explore - Creative Activities for Preschoolers

Kindergarten Countdown - Transition Tips

As much as I want to deny it, Natalie is heading off to Kindergarten in four short weeks!  She is beyond excited, but there is a touch of anxiety too.  We are talking a lot about what she thinks it will be like, and beginning to practice routines and establish some special rituals.  I've gathered up some ideas - some are things I used when I taught Kindergarten, ideas I recommended to parents, etc.  Many of these ideas we have used at home, when the girls started preschool, or even just staying overnight with the grandparents.  Enjoy!

Before School Starts

• Visit the school and play on the playground.
• Practice your morning routine.
• Get in the habit of choosing school clothes the night before.
• Work on self-care skills, such as using the bathroom, putting on a jacket, washing hands, etc.
• Role-play what to do in different situations (how to approach a new friend, asking to use the bathroom, etc.)

The First Day

• Send your child with something special to keep in her pocket or backpack, such as a family photo, special rock, felt heart, etc.  Even the most independent kids will like having a little piece of home to take to school.  Both my girls had little photos to hook to their backpacks at preschool.  I made these with badge holders, which you can find at office supply stores.
• Establish a good-bye ritual.  This can be a really fun way to make the hard good-byes a little easier.  Try creating your own "combo" with things like a kiss on each cheek, a high-five, a hug, a funny saying, an elbow-bump, hooking your pinkies together, etc.
• Have a First Day of Kindergarten party with a special dinner, scavenger hunt for a new book, etc.

Create Routines & Rituals

• Have a special after-school activity on Fridays.
• Hide something in the car for your child to find after school.  This was Natalie's *favorite* thing - I hid notes, coins, small toys, and occasionally a piece of candy inside a plastic Easter egg.  Definitely something to look forward to!
• Make a monthly calendar.  We use a big desk calendar, and the girls both mark down their school days and other special activities.  You can also use a calendar to "journal" about the school year -- just have your child tell you his favorite thing from the day, and write it on the calendar.
• Keep a scrapbook or journal together.  Natalie and I will be doing this for sure! 

Tips for Parents

• Have something planned for yourself the first day after drop-off -- maybe meet a friend.  Or, you could sit in your car and cry, like I'll be doing... :)
• Find ways to be involved in the classroom and keep updated on what your child is learning and doing.
• Expect some crankiness, tantrums, napping, etc. for the first few weeks - adjusting to a new routine is hard work!
• Have a snack in the car for your child at pick-up!

Helping Your Child Talk About the Day

Some kids talk non-stop about every detail of their school day, others say nothing.  Both responses are normal!  Here are some ways to encourage your kids to share about the happenings at school:

• Keep a drawing pad and crayons in the car - your child can draw a picture of something from the school day on the ride home, then you can talk about it together at home.
• Know the daily schedule and themes in your child's classroom so you can ask specific questions.  Asking questions like, "What did you do for choice time?" or "What did you learn about caterpillars today?" usually gets more detailed responses than, "What did you do today?"
• Again, use that monthly calendar to write down something fun or interesting about each school day.

I'll be sharing my favorite books about Kindergarten in the next day or two as well - sharing stories is one of our favorite ways to start thinking and talking about a new adventure!

Do you have a little one heading off to Kindergarten this fall?  If you have ideas or tips on making the Kinder transition a bit more special, please share!

Happy Birthday D!

Today, my youngest daughter turns 4.  Happy Birthday Delaney!

 

We celebrated with some special cousins and friends this weekend at our Princess Tea Party. 

We painted teacups with Auntie Lori, which will be kiln-fired, then returned to the guests (thanks sis!):

The girls did a little "shopping" - princess stickers and notepads, little star wands, small bags of pink, purple, & white jellybeans, raspberry tea bags, Cinderella fruit snacks, and princess soaps the girls and I made (with necklaces inside).

 

We had dainty food, too - heart-shaped sandwiches with cream cheese and strawberry jam, fruit kebabs on lollipop sticks, mini cinnamon rolls, mini chocolate cupcakes, and mini lemon cakes (thanks Grammy!).  We drank berry tea and lemonade.  My Aunt Pam loaned us all kinds of fancy silver serving dishes and tablecloths, and we used real teacups and fancy dishes.

It was a lovely party for our little sweetie - I still can't believe she is four!

Have a great day!

Making Masks - Part 2

We finished up our paper plate masks from earlier this week.  The glitter mixed with the glue gave them a nice sparkle!

Natalie made a frog, with a pipe cleaner tongue:

Both of the girls made elephants, which are really more like puppets than masks.  They decided to use googly eyes and we attached the ears and trunks with brads, so we can make the elephants do crazy things if we want!

Natalie used clothespins for "handles."  She didn't want anything permanently attached to her works of art. :)

The girls said this was one of their favorite, favorite projects, so I guess we'll be doing it again!

Happy playing!

Meet Lola

This sweet thing came home with us Monday night.  Little Lola is an 8-week-old Brittany.  We've been busy getting her used to things around here, but we'll be back soon with more fun activities!

Have a great day!

Making Masks - Part 1

The girls and I started working on some simple paper plate masks today. We used paper plates cut in half, glue with a tiny bit of water added, and tissue paper squares. I had a bunch of tissue paper already cut-up, but you could also tear it as you go along. And, for sparkle, we added some glitter to our glue.

We spent about 45 minutes glueing and glueing - I encouraged the girls to put an additional layer of glue on top of the tissue paper for extra sparkle! Natalie decided to make animals, so she spent a great deal of time sorting out the colors of tissue she wanted.  She's making a frog and an elephant. At her request, I also cut out ears and a trunk from paper plates, and she covered those too. I think Delaney is making a rainbow elephant. :)

The masks are out in the sun drying - tomorrow we'll post the finished products!

Also, a quick store update:  Crayon Rocks are on sale right now for $5.95 -- that's a $2.00 savings!  If you've been thinking about adding a set of these soy crayons to your art supplies, this is a great opportunity.  Not familiar with Crayon Rocks?  Read my blog post about them!

Happy Playing!

This and That...

Here's a bit of what we've been up to...

I love it when the girls work together and play together - they come up with some creative ideas!

Making people out of play jewelry:

Setting up and playing store, complete with departments like tools, jewelry, baby toys, and more:

We've also been enjoying experimenting and creating with oil pastels & watercolors. For making resists, the girls have been really impressed with the results using the pastels rather than crayons:

Plus, a little reading - these books have been in heavy rotation lately:

And a lot of dancing! We can't get enough of this new CD by Dan Zanes & Friends. As Natalie says, "I don't even know what they're saying, but it's great for dancing! I love it, I love it, I love it!"

Have a great weekend!

New Placemats

Well, we have been trapped in the house today - incredible heat and terrible smoke. It actually looks foggy outside from the low smoke. Gross! One of the things that we did to keep busy was to make some new placemats for the girls. 

They drew on some pieces of muslin with fabric markers:

Then, there was much fun to be had rummaging through my tub of fabric and choosing just the right prints. Delaney went with reds and Natalie chose greens, but only because I did not have enough turquoise fabrics! The girls manned the sewing machine pedal, too.

Natalie's tribute to the squirrel that frequents our bird feeder:

And Delaney's abstract art, plus her first time writing all the letters of her name! 

I guess I better think of a dinner worthy of these super-cute placemats. Don't you think these would make great gifts, too?

Happy playing today and stay cool!

Office Supply Collage

The girls were following me around asking for a "project," so I dug through my box of office supplies and set them up collaging. I put out 4 different types of blank labels, colored index cards, paper clips, post-it flags, highlighter pens, and tape, plus regular glue, glitter glue, & scissors. I also found a couple scrap pieces of craft foam, so that's what they used for their bases.

Good fun - and, I also learned that I have way too many office supplies, and should try to control myself next time I'm in Staples... :)

Happy playing today!

Weather Charts

Hi everyone! Hope you had a nice July 4th weekend. Looks like we will be trying to stay out of the heat and smoke again this week - I better start thinking of things to do now!

This week's theme over at Unplug Your Kids was sky. My girls love to talk about the weather, so I thought I would share some of the weather charts we have made.

This paper plate weather chart is perfect for even the littlest weather watcher. We used die-cut shapes and a cotton ball for the cloud. An arrow attached to a clothespin marks the weather each day. You could also attach an arrow with a brad in the middle of the chart.

Another fun and easy way to show the daily weather is with a magnet chart. The girls drew pictures for 4 types of weather - sunny, rainy, cloudy, and windy. I scanned them into the computer and added text. I am going to print the drawings on magnet paper (which I am apparently out of!) and give this a little spot on our fridge. If you don't want to use magnet paper, you could just glue your child's drawings on some thin cardboard (or laminate them) and add a piece of strip magnet to the back.

Finally, if you have a bit of room, you could set up a more detailed weather reporting station. Today I put out a bar graph and a thermometer. The thermometer page is inside a sheet protector and gets colored in with a dry erase marker or overhead projector marker, so we can use it over and over again. I found the thermometer here, and printed it at 130%. We can use the bar graph to practice counting, comparing numbers, etc.

Happy weather-watching!

Are You Listening?

Everyone (including myself) could use a little practice listening, paying attention, and following directions sometimes.  Here are some fun and easy ways to practice and strengthen attention and listening skills:

When you are reading or telling a familiar story to your child, make a mistake, such as, "When Goldilocks arrived at The Three Frogs' house, she went inside without knocking." See if your child catches your mistake! My girls love this so much that we sometimes have to read whole stories this way!  Start with very obvious errors, then gradually work toward more subtle changes. Great listening skill-builder, plus works on that reading comprehension stuff too!

Play some classic childhood games like Red Light, Green Light, Follow the Leader, or Simon Says (I prefer Mommy Says). Make up your own rules for added variety and challenge: Red light means sit down, green light means walk backward, yellow light means hop in place. My girls love their chance to lead these type of games too - it's fun to watch Mommy do all kinds of crazy moves! :)

Help your child learn to follow two- and three-step directions by hiding an object in the room, then giving directions to find it. For example, "Find your tiger. Go to your bedroom, open your closet, and look in your black shoe." This activity is great practice, of course, for those mornings when you do need them to go to their rooms, open their closets, and find their shoes!

I love using musical instruments to practice listening skills, too. Kids are naturally drawn to rhythms, plus playing with instruments is fun, so this hardly seems like work of any kind. Try tapping or playing a rhythm and then have your child repeat it. Any instruments work for this - drums, rhythm sticks, tambourines, etc. - or just clap, pat your knees, or click your tongue. Start with simple rhythms, where all your child has to do is count the number of beats. Move into more sophisticated patterns that vary in speed (quick-quick-quick-slow-slow) or volume (loud-soft-soft-loud). Another variation is to play a simple and familiar tune, such as Jingle Bells or Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star and see if your child can guess the song.

Here are a few books that provide great jumping-off points for listening activities:

If you have some fun ways to build listening skills, please share! Happy Playing!