Memorial Day Craft Hat

To create these Memorial Day hats all you need is various collage materials. I used scraps of paper, yarn, stickers, ribbon and sequins. 

First, I created bands with construction paper. 

Then, I placed random items on the table to choose from. 

Last, I used the child's head to measure. 

For more Memorial Day activities, check out my Memorial Day Pinterest board here. 

          

Preschool Thanksgiving Hats and Head Pieces

It's almost Thanksgiving! In this unit we learned about the Pilgrims and the Native Americans. 

We talked about the clothes they wear, the food they prepared and how they lived. 

We planned our own Thanksgiving  feast and enlisted the help of another teacher to pull it all off. 

We created some hats and headpieces to wear for our Thanksgiving feast. 

Here a some of our creations. 

The Native American girls used crayons and markers to decorate their head piece. 

They chose feathers to tape in place and finish the look. 

The boys did similar head pieces using more feathers. 

 The Pilgrim boys used black, white and yellow construction paper to make their hats. 

We measured the bands around their head. 

Then, the students glued the front of the hat to the band. 

The Pilgrim girl hat was a little more tricky and required more adult help. 

We used butcher paper to fold in place and added string to secure along the bottom. 

What a great addition to our Thanksgiving unit! 

Feel free to link your Thanksgiving ideas below.  

Preschool Native American Vests

It's always a great idea to get acquainted with the neighborhood grocery store. One of my favorite places is my local Winn Dixie Supermarket. I make regular visits and the manager is never surprised when I ask for classroom help. I went in and asked for brown grocery bags for each of my students to create indian vests for our Thanksgiving Feast. As usual, they were more than happy to help. 

Here's what we did. I carefully opened each bag from the top and along the side seam. I opened them up and laid them flat. Then, I turned the Winn-Dixie logo on the inside. 

I made a u-shape for the neck and openings for the arms. My assistant taped each shoulder strap, and wrote the child's name on the inside. We made little slits along the bottom to create a fringe look. 

 The children chose 2 different colors to make handprints on their vests. 

While some students created handprints others were busy with markers and crayons decorating. 

We decided to take some early photos of the finished product since I'd be too busy to remember the day of the feast. 

We're "thankful" for our local Winn-Dixie for supporting our class and Early Childhood Education. 

Preschool Oatmeal Box Craft

I've always seen projects using oatmeal containers. Teachers usually make drums for toddlers, Easter baskets, Halloween baskets, Valentines collectors and so much more! My family rarely eats enough oatmeal that  I can take advantage of these awesome projects. But yesterday, after making breakfast, to my surprise there was no more oatmeal! Oh boy! I couldn't wait to pull out craft supplies and decorate that treasured container. Here's what I did...

First, I shook out all the loose bits of remaining oatmeal, and admired the container upright. 

Yes, it is a preschool teachers treasure.

Next, I found some pretty wrapping paper that one of my kids received on a birthday present last year. We had folded it nicely and stored it with our scrap booking supplies. It wasn't in the best shape for this project but I figured I could make it work.

There was left-over paper gathered at the top, I folded it gently inside the top of the container.

Then, I pulled out the felt. I used it to cut out a circle bigger than the circumference of the container top and secured the felt on the top with my hot glue gun. 

Last, I took put a ribbon around the entire top and tied it neatly in a bow. 

How fabulous! 

Didn't you just love this?

Here are more awesome oatmeal container projects. 

Check out this drum featured on 

Hot Glue Gun Crafts by Craftzilla

And this nature can by Anna Satler on DIY life. It's perfect for collecting rocks, leaves, flowers and maybe even 

creeping, crawling, creatures. 

And who wouldn't fall in love with this adorable Valentiene Mailbox box? 

You can find this on the allkidsnetwork.com.

Sure, Halloween is a long ways away, that means you can start collecting 

now to make this precious pumpkin turned jack-o-lantern. 

See Dim Sum, Bagels, and Crawfish for instructions.

And I couldn't forget the most wonderful time of the year! Here's 

a oatmeal container craft guaranteed to get you in the Christmas spirit. 

See how Mary Ann makes gift containers from the recycling bin!

Happy Crafting

Hide all

Recycle, Renew and Reuse for Preschool

I am pretty thrifty. I would imagine almost all preschool teachers are. I enjoy finding ways to recycle, renew and reuse items we've used before and creating something new and useful. On this thrifty day, Bella brought a lunch kit to school that contained a cute little water bottle perfect for little hands. We had left over foam pieces on the counter from a project we did the day before. I told the kids we should make something for our friends in the 2-year old classroom. They all agreed, and here's what we did.

                                

 We washed our bottle and made sure it was clean inside and out. 

We chose the smaller foam pieces since they'd be easier to stick in the bottle. 

We took turns placing the foam pieces in, this was great for our fine motor skills. 

More pieces to add...

Then, we filled the bottle about half way with water. 

I got out the hot glue gun to secure the cap. 

We talked about what might happen if the babies were to get the top off. 

Once our bottle was complete we talked about doing 

things for others and how kind they were to make something the 

toddlers could play with. 

This project went over really well since some of my class have siblings in the 2-year old classroom. They'd ask their siblings if they played with the toy we made. 

The two-year old teacher was fantastic in praising the kids for thinking of her class and she was very proud of them for using items they already had. 

Since this was not a planned activity, just a "teachable moment" I didn't have a book planned for the activity but I did find some cute ones after the fact. 

You might find these helpful if you're creating a theme or lesson plan. 

    

Happy Creating

Valentine Activities for Preschool

Here are some of the Valentine's activities we did last year.

        We added flowers and play money in the dramatic play area for a
                                                            Flower Shop.
                                                                

We used hearts, X's and O's and teddy bear cookie cutters in our art area. 

There were little pink heart cups in the sensory bins. 

And here's the heart bags we created for our valentines cards. 

We used stickers, cut out hearts, crayons, markers and yarn. 

Some for the little hearts were cut out of gift bags. 

Here are the completed projects!

Preschool Teachers and The Dollar Store

On any given day I can travel to the dollar store and pick up some great finds for my classroom. There's also dollar isles or sections in your most popular stores. When you're a new preschool teacher it can be difficult to know just what that great find is. I consulted with some of Facebook's finest in the business and heres what they had to say.

Arts and Crafts
Ash Trays (to hold paint brushes and paint)
ABC Chart
Cotton balls
Paper plates
Berry Baskets
Bottle caps
Bubbles
Buttons
Card board
Clothespins
Craft Sticks
Fabric
Foil Paper
Glue
Glue Sticks
Googly Eyes
Lunch Bags
Macaroni
Number Chart
Sponges
Tissue paper
Toilet Paper rolls (check your state rules and regulations, Florida is NOT allowed to use toilet tissue rolls but can use paper towel rolls)
Table Cloth
Toothbrushes (to paint with)
Pipe Bleaners
Plastic Utensils
Scrap Paper
Stickers
Shaving Cream
Velcro (to put up center signs)
Yarn

Blocks
Cereal Boxes (to add some color and dimension to buildings)

Cleaning
Nail Polish Remover (for removing permanent marker, it's not so permanent any more)
Toothbrushes (to clean with)

Decorating
3M Command Strips
Velcro

Housekeeping
Egg Cartons (to store plastic eggs)
Beaded Necklaces

Math
Beans (counting, grouping, creating patterns)
Yarn (making pom-poms)

Science
Butterfly Net
Flower Pots
Play Bugs
Magnifying Glass

Sensory
Beans
Corn Meal
Easter Grass

Storage
Butter containers with lids
Egg Cartons (for small, individual paint projects)

Don't forget to check your local stores after each holiday to score some great dollar finds.

Thank you to all my contributors.

Shara Lawrence-Weiss, Ayn Colsh, Laura Thacker Major, Karen Nemeth, Emilie Leadley Gillick, Kara Chancellor, Monica Ratcliffe Munoz, Tammy Owens,

Easter Basket Bunnies

Just when I thought I couldn't take another Easter project I'd forgotten to post this one. I was sure you'd appreciate it. I ran across a photo of these cute baskets about 4 years ago. I've been creating these little masterpieces each year with great success. I've looked all over the internet for the site where I originally found this craft and I'm not positive but I think it this one http://crafts.kaboose.com/recycled-milk-jug-easter-basket.html.

I ask the kids to choose the color of the whiskers (pipe cleaners) and the color of the nose (pom, poms) and I secure them on with hot glue. Once I'm finished I usually hand it over to them and allow them to use Elmers glue to put the cotton balls on the ears, and construction paper or googly eyes where the bunnies eyes should go. This year I got fancy and added bows for the girl bunnies. A couple of days after I took the picture we began stuffing our basket with grass, then eggs from our hunt and gifts from their teacher during nap on Friday. The Easter Bunny has never passed on these baskets!

Things to consider:

• If you have a class ask parents to save milk jugs a few weeks in advance to have enough.


• Never, Ever allow the children to use the hot glue gun, it is unpredictable!


• The original post I learned this from had the entire bunny covered with cotton balls, this may be done
  over several days, but I have found my attention span just isn't that long and neither is my students.


• I've done this project using the yellow milk jugs and it's even cuter!