Too Much Fall Fun, and NOT Enough Time!

Ms. Harmony loves all the fun changes that fall brings!  There is so much to do and enjoy! This post shares some of the ways we've been actively learning about fall.

Apples are ripe and ready to eat!  We not only tasted apples, we learned about the parts of apples, and made beautiful apple prints.

We used scented rice, funnels, bottles, and acorn toys in the Explore Table.  This smelled amazing!

We built homes for fuzzy forest friends and made sure they had plenty to eat!  Fall is an important time for animals in the forest because soon they will face food and shelter scarcity during winter.

We colored leaf prints by taping the paper on top of the leaf and doing rubbings with crayon.

We cooked with acorns we gathered and sand.

We noticed that the weather got cold, and so did the water in our table outside!  We changed the materials from water play to bubbles!

We shook up sensory bottles with googly eyes, bugs, and bands!

We made LOTS of art with play doh, googly eyes, paint, fuzzy sticks, pom-poms, stickers, and more!

We sorted bears into "families" which helped us practice color identification, size and color differences, and counting skills.

We applied our knowledge of fall leaves and forest animals by painting a forest scene in fall and telling a story about the animals that live there.  They were looking for food, building homes, getting camouflaged, etc.

We talked about Halloween being a fall holiday just weeks away!  We played with lots of funny things like slinkies, bracelets, pumpkins, and googly eye glasses!

We danced with fall leaves, tossed them in the air, and pretended to rake them into a pile!

It always seems like a race to do all the fun stuff each day.  I wish that the preschool hours could STRETCH out so we could pack more into the program... so I leave it with you at home to keep up the fall celebrations.  :)  

Easy Easter Exploration

Got some empty eggs and water?  You've got what you need to make this super easy, but fun, Easter explore table!

We used "nets" to try to catch, count, and name colors of our eggs.

We opened the eggs, filled them with the water, and watch it fall out like rain.

We pretended to crack the eggs and watch the water fall out like a real egg.  We collected them and put them in our Easter baskets to tromp around with.  Best of all, we had some serious springtime fun!

Celebrating Heart Day!

We did a little bit of art... cookie cutter stamping and LOTS of stickers courtesy of J. Sumner!  (Thank you!)

We mended some "broken hearts" by matching quantity with number and completing the puzzles.

We enjoyed YUMMY sugar cookies with our own decorating designs.

Toppings of choice were strawberries, M&Ms, sprinkles, and frosting.

We rolled out play-doh hearts for days!

We found letter hearts hiding in Valentine's crinkly paper and rose petals.

Happy Valentine's Day!

5 Christmas Math Ideas for Preschool

1.  Spatial awareness- Use cookie cutters to explore size and shape.  *Bonus* The child can count the number of "cookies" made in the dough!

2.  Shapes, size, and counting- Use different shaped Christmas boxes and tins to fill and dump with bows, cotton balls (snow balls), and jingle bells.  How many bows fit in the square box?  Will the biggest jingle bell fit in the biggest box?

3. Number recognition and sequencing- Cut "light bulbs" from craft foam and use a permanent marker to write numbers on each one.  Challenge the children to toss the "light bulbs" and then organize them back in the correct order.

4.  Sorting and matching- Find the matching ornaments and Christmas ducks.  Sort matching objects into groups.

5.  Find the number- Invite the child to look under ornaments on this Christmas tree to find the correct number.  Locate where smaller numbers are on the tree, and where larger numbers are on the tree.  Count up from one to twenty-four.

Most of all, have FUN!  Preschool math rocks, and is super easy to bring into your classroom!

Tis the Season to be Jolly

We welcomed December with festive new work in the Explore Table and House Area.  In addition to singing "Jingle Bells" on repeat, this new table filler encouraged lots of conversation about shapes, sizes, textures, materials, colors, quantities, and sounds.

We have one unsolved mystery as of now.  Not one jingle bell could be found that would fit in the smallest circle Christmas box.  We are on a mission to find a bell small enough to fit inside with the lid on tight.  :)

We also filled the boxes and pretended to exchange Christmas gifts, and it was SO hard to wait to open them up!  We would shake the boxes and listen to see if we could figure out what was inside!  Super exciting!  ;)

We had a cookie party today with the new Christmas cookies!  Snuffy even got in on the action.  We "fed" him so many cookies he got a tummy ache!

Poor Snuffy.  He had to lay down and take some medicine.  That's what happens when you eat too many cookies at Christmas!