St. Patricks Day Ideas for Preschoolers

    Today I pulled out my St. Patrick's Day box to begin lesson planning. 

        

 Here's a glimpse of some of my treasures and some cool ideas for our upcoming theme. 

We'll use these items in our Dramatic Play area. Sparkly green hats, shades, Mardi Gras beads, green stripped socks and green hair accessories. 

"My Little Green Tambourine" is two paper plates with beans inside. 

What a great compliment to Circle Time. 

These lovely leprechaun mats were made years ago.

I placed two shamrocks on a white hard stock paper and had them laminated.

I use a green dry erase marker to write with. They wipe off and I can reuse 

them the following year. 

Each year I tell my class,  "it's been said if you catch a leprechaun he has to 

give you three wishes." "What would you wish for?" I record their answers and 

post them all around the classroom. 

This cute little leprechaun was made by my first grader last year in Mrs. Cordner's class. 

I thought he'd be the perfect addition to my St. Patrick's Day theme. 

Science: Green Water makes music? 

For this experiment you'll certainly want pencil and paper handy to record predictions, observations, 

and questions.

If I tap on the inside, top, or outside of the glass, 

will that change the sound?

Can you play a song?

Yes, we just happened to have key-lime yogurt in the fridge! 

I think I'll serve it with granola for a little leprechaun snack. 

What can you do with a shamrock? Here's Dayjah

turning her shamrock into a puppy. She told me 

she learned this in her first grade class. Coincidentally, 

this daughter had Mrs. Cordner for first grade too! 

I couldn't resist pulling out the green Easter eggs for Math. 

I haven't decided what I'll use them for...

counting, sorting by tops and bottoms, or

writing matching numbers on them. 

Oh the possibilities!  

Happy St. Patty's Day

                      

Books you might enjoy with your St. Patrick's Day theme.

       

   

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!

Happy Valentines Day!

I shopped all weekend long for my co-workers favorite things. I made cute little gift baskets to give to each co-worker and created a fabulous lesson plan, only to stay at home with my sick daughter. She had a fever over the weekend and we hoped she'd be better by Monday. Sadly, she spent the morning crying as she knew she would miss out on Valentines with her classmates. I assured her this would be the BEST Valentines ever. We spent the morning cuddling in bed watching cartoons. Then, painted her nails red with little white hearts. And daddy bought her lunch and flowers. She opened her Valentines from her sisters and ate chocolate on the couch. She felt well enough by afternoon to listen to her older sisters talk about their day. And after her goodnight hug and kiss this evening she stood in my doorway and said, "Thank you for making me feel better." No, I didn't get to see my class on Valentines day. No,  I didn't get to give my co-workers their Valentines. But, Yes, it was certainly the best Valentines ever:)

Sharing Hair in Preschool

During Circle Time the other day one of my students was very upset because the friend next to her touched her hair without asking. I explained that her hair was very beautiful and I'm sure her friend was just curious. Then, I looked at the "hair toucher" and said, "I'm sure if you would have asked she would have allowed you to touch her hair but you should ask next time." Of course someone raised their hand and asked, "Can I touch your hair?" No sooner than the "yes" came out of her mouth, more hands shot up. Once everyone was settled and we were all back on our bottoms criss-crossed applesauce another hand came up, "Mrs. Myra, Can I touch your hair?" I said, yes, and went on to explain how different my hair felt from almost everyone in the class. I took out one of my ponytail holders to show them the length. I explained when I pull my hair, it's long.  However, as soon as I let it go the curls spring back tight again. After my demonstration everyone wanted to touch it. Some words they used to describe it was big, soft, squishy and puffy. I think this is going to be a great way to start off our Martin Luther King lesson next week.

Here's an awesome youtube video by Sesame Street. 

I'm looking forward to sharing this too!

"I love my hair"

Happy Hair Sharing,

The Preschool reading of "Stone Soup"

Oh I can just imagine the number of times this theme has been done by teachers all over the world! It certainly is a classic. I'm sure Marcia Brown, the author of "Stone Soup" had no idea how this book would take on a life of it's own. Here a some of the highlights of our "Stone Soup" week and the making of our soup on Friday. Hope you enjoy it as much as we did.

This is the sign up sheet I created for the parents. I made sure I created a space for each parent to bring at least one item. However, some parents brought two or three items.

                                    

                            Chicken and Vegetable Stone Soup

  

Parent	Ingredient/Supplies
	1 onion
	Garlic
	Carrots
	Cooked chicken breast
	Celery
	1 can/bag of sweet corn
	Chicken Broth
	1 bag of Noodles
	Salt
	Pepper
	ladel
	1 can of tomato sauce
	Small bag of cut potatoes
	Crackers
	1 Can or Bag of green beans
	1 small bag of parmesan cheese
	1 small stone

                                                                  

                            Here we are creating pots with black play doh.

We colored vegetables, then cut them out

to glue on black crete paper pots. 

These cauldrons were left over from Halloween.

They were perfect for the housekeeping area, outside games, 

and circle time activities. 

My favorite was watching the kids stir in alphabet blocks 

and play vegetables to create

"alphabet soup". 

We talked about the word "ingredient" and "directions".

We touched and/or smelled each of the ingredients for our soup. 

We washed our stone and vegetables.

Added the ingredients to our soup. 

Each child had the opportunity to add an ingredient and stir the pot. 

Then we all enjoyed "Stone Soup".

I found this site to be helpful

http://www.dltk-teach.com/fables/stonesoup/index.htm

and one of my friends found this site for me today. I bookmarked

it for next year! 

http://kidsworldexploration.com/id22.html

All of these book were available at my public library. We didn't get a chance to read all of them, but we sure gave it a try. 

Surprise Soup

Lentil Soup

Alvie Eats Soup

Mean Soup

Carrot Soup

       

My friend Laura said it best, we had a "souper" time with this theme!