Preschool Corner / Weekly Wrap-Up – Bugs!

We finished our bug unit a couple of weeks ago, but… life intervened and I haven’t had a chance to write it all up until now. 

I use the term “bugs” to mean any creepy crawly thing, so although we talked about how spiders are not really insects, we still included quite a few spider-ish activities. 

I wrote about the bug books we read in this post,  and a couple of bug crafts we did here and here, in case anyone is interested. :)

To begin, I set up a sensory bin that was full of Easter grass, and hid 20 plastic bugs in it.  M had to find them, then use the tweezers to pick them out and place them on the grid.  I also had his little bug viewer out in case he wanted to examine some of them more closely.  (The grid was used so he would know when he had found all the bugs).M has been using his bug viewer (Target!) quite a bit outside – capturing bugs and them looking at them.  I’m… let’s say – not exactly a bug person… and somehow I always end up worrying about them escaping and getting on me and forget to take pictures.  But, believe me, M has spent plenty of time outside looking and learning about real bugs (even telling caterpillars that they are going to turn into butterflies – so sweet!), there just aren’t many photos to prove it. :)

We talked about the names of the various insects, then sorted them by color onto a color wheel:
For a fine motor skill, I showed M how to wrap bugs up in yarn… like a spider wraps them up in order to save them for eating later.  He had so much fun with this!  He had a little spider web and a plastic spider from a community center activity we’d done recently.   So he played for a very long time, pretending a bug would get in the web, then he’d wrap it up, then along would come the spider and eat them all up.  It was getting pretty gory, let me tell you, and M had a ball with this ! :)
At our nature center M did some pond dipping with the other kids… using a net to scoop up interesting things and then examining them in a bowl.  My pictures weren’t great, but he caught a damselfly, a dragonfly nymph, and a tiny snail, along with lots of plant life:      We also saw this lovely spiderweb, which fascinated him: 
I found an amazing bug book at a garage sale over a year ago.  It includes a tray of bug parts that snap onto each page.  You can create the bugs that are described, or use the pieces to make a weird bug creation all your own.  M had a blast with this book!
I’ve also been holding onto some beautiful bug flashcards I found about a year ago.  Here’s a sampling of them:
There’s 36 in all, and I have 2 sets.  I split them in half and placed 18 of them in a circle on the floor around the room.  The matching cards were placed in a pile.  He took a card from the top of the pile and had to find its match, by moving the way that particular bug moves, as he went around the room.  So here he is hopping like a grasshopper:
Crawling like a spider:
Wriggling like a worm or caterpillar:
And flying like a butterfly (with a bit less gracefulness) :He really worked up a sweat with this one!  But he had so much fun, he begged to do the remaining 18 the next day! :)  If only I could think of activities like this for everything we do… he is such a kinesthetic learner, and I am such a non-kinesthetic kind of mama.  {sigh}

I found some storyboard pieces here that go with the book, The Very Hungry Caterpillar, by Eric Carle.  I made them into magnets and M had fun retelling the story with them. 
I made a file folder game, inspired by this one at Mama Jenn’s blog, but using butterflies from Prekinders that I had already printed out. 
The idea was to match up the halves.  We talked about how butterflies are symmetric, meaning each wing is a mirror image of the other.  M understood this, but was completely NOT into this activity.  I’m not sure if the more muted colors were not to his liking, or if it was a bit overwhelming – it is a pretty tough visual discrimination activity, with many looking almost alike, but not quite.  Or maybe he’s just tired of this sort of thing. 

He loves doing “what’s different” activities, so I made up these little cards for him  (you can download them here):They were laminated, so he could use a dry-erase marker and erase them – something everyone loves, right? ;)

I put these little foam capsules out for him and he enjoyed watching them open up in warm water.  This time we used pretty hot water and he took them out with tongs.  They dissolved so much more quickly than they have in the past with only lukewarm water.   These were all bug-shaped and we identified each one, then made them into stamps by gluing them onto peanut butter lids.
We played some basic grid games using bug grids that I made and printed out.  These can be downloaded here.  These are great for math and reading skills!  Going from left to right and top to bottom mimics the movement of reading.  He loves doing these – we just roll the die and stamp out that number of bugs.
I found the following two activities online, and thought they were great ideas.  M did not like them.  Not one little bit.  Maybe he wasn’t in the mood, I don’t know, but they were huge flops! However, I still think they are good ideas so I’m sharing them anyway. :)

First, a ladybug visual discrimination activity from Making Learning Fun:
And a phonics activity from Sparklebox, using caterpillars.  I wrote all the letters of the alphabet on 26 flat glass marbles from Dollar Tree, and the idea was to match them up to the beginning sound of the objects pictured on each caterpillar section :
Look at that face… bored out of his mind! :)  Oh well, I try to not let this kind of reaction discourage me.  Writing these posts helps with that, because I can see how many things he really enjoyed and learned!

I’m linking this post up to Preschool Corner and Weekly Wrap-Up – check them both out for some great activity ideas!

Have a beautiful day! :)

Preschool Corner / Weekly Wrap-Up - Dinosaurs

Goodness, we did our dinosaur theme way back in February, and I am just now getting around to writing about it.  I’m sure I’m not going to remember everything we did.

Some of the activities for this theme were homemade, because I wasn’t able to find what I was looking for online (or anywhere else for that matter) for a reasonable price… meaning free. ;)  My drawing skills leave a lot to be desired, but I am sharing the printables I made anyway, in case they meet a need for someone else, or give a better artist than I an idea of something to make!  I’ve linked to them where appropriate.

I’ve tried to organize the activities by skill set, but many of them overlap, so bear with me!

First, Sensory:
I put together a little rice and noodles sensory bin for M and placed some of his toy dinos in it along with some scoops.  He had fun just playing with them.

Math Skills:
We worked on counting with this printout from Prekinders.  I wrote in the numerals and the dots and M counted them, then matched them up. 

I also pulled out this dinosaur and egg file folder game that I made a long time ago (from here), for some easy color matching:

I turned two boxes into Triceratops and we took turns rolling the die, then feeding our dinos leaves with the tweezers.  The first to run out of leaves was the winner.  M really enjoyed this one!

He was just beginning to show an interest in measuring, so we measured dinosaur bones!  I had him mark the correct answer with a paperclip for fine motor work.

He always enjoys the shape crafts I’ve made for him.  This little Stegosaurus turned out awfully cute. :) 
And we sorted some little dinosaur cut outs by color:  
Fine Motor Skills:
M used a q-tip to paint the tiny dots on this page from Making Learning Fun:

I printed out some shapes (one is a dino, the others were just for fun) from Preschool Express.  To do this activity, M poked push pins into the cork board along the outlines on each paper.  This is a great workout for that tripod grasp.

And he did a dinosaur lacing carhttp://www.scribd.com/full/32089331?access_key=key-13l1pf4kzdo43w4xs505d:
Sorry I don’t have pictures of the finished work for some of these!

Literacy Skills:
We stamped out big and little letters on these dinosaur sheets from Prekinders.  I put a variety of upper and lower case letters in a pillowcase and we took turns pulling one out then finding it on the pages and stamping it out. 

And we put together upper and lower case letters on dinosaur puzzles.  I made these and despite the poor artwork, M really enjoyed this.  It was good for working on that mama and baby letter matching as well as reviewing the names of some dinosaurs.

Art and Poetry:
M used his toy dinos to make some dinosaur footprint art.  Some trucks got in on the action too. :)

I found a cute dinosaur poem from here and made some little stick puppets to use while we say it.  This is a great poem for working on ordinal numbers.

Science:
I found this very informative, albeit somewhat dry, little book about dinosaurs at Target.  We looked through it and talked about how some dinosaurs were plant eaters and some were meat eaters.  Then we matched up some of M’s toy dinos with the pictures in the book and talked about their long funny names.  It’s so cute to hear him say brachiosaurus and stegosaurus. :)

The following was not really a science activity, although we did use it to review the names of dinosaurs.  I noticed that M had many sets of matching dinos in his enormous box full of dinos.  So I set some up on one side of the room, and put the matches on the other end.  M had to pick one up and look at it, then set it down and run to the other side of the room to find its match.  This worked on memory skills, matching skills, and was just a good large motor workout.  He loved this!  
I found some life cycle cards here, and wanted M to sequence them.  He had a bit of trouble with this so I quickly made some numbered squares for him to use.  Somehow this helped and he was able to describe the sequence perfectly!

And, last of all, we had fun killing off dinosaurs with molten lava in a volcano. :)  The things I find myself doing (and having fun doing) as the mom of a little boy never cease to amaze me.
Stay tuned for a post about the dinosaur books we loved!

I’ll be linking this post up to Preschool Corner and Weekly Wrap-Up – check them both out for some great activity ideas!

Have a beautiful day! :)

Preschool Corner / Weekly Wrap-Up – 5/14/10

M is 3.5 years old

We had a fun week, with no particular theme.  I am trying to have 1 to 2 weeks of theme-based activities, followed by at least 1 week of non-themed activities while I prepare for the next theme.  I’m hoping to get in a bug unit, then we will be DONE.  The plan is to enjoy a nice long break, get some much-needed things done around the house and just spend time having fun as a family.  :)

We started our week with a scavenger hunt.   This was so much fun.  M and his cousin, S, had a blast with this.  In fact, we had to do the whole thing again one evening with Daddy. :)  I created a chart for the kids, with pictures of 12 things for them to find in our backyard.  They took their little charts, a couple of crayons, and some plastic containers outside and began hunting:

My niece was the first to find everything pictured, and was quite proud of herself:

A close up of her treasures, which she insisted on bringing home with her (much to my brother’s delight, heh):I uploaded our scavenger hunt chart and you can find it here, if you think you’d like to use the same one.  It was a big hit!

The weather was awful, so we did a lot of indoor activities the rest of the week…

Fine Motor Skills:
A little fishing game where you try to catch the fish as they go in a circle and open and close their mouths:   
M’s Lite Brite made its way onto his shelves, and he really had fun with it – all closed up in his room with the shades drawn. :)
His little wooden dress-the-bear puzzle was out for him also; he played with it once and never bothered with it again:
Literacy Skills:
I made a little name train for M, and he connected the train cars in order to spell his name.  I used velcro dots so they could stick to each other:
He did his Bob the Builder Name puzzles (For these I use large flat marbles and write the letters on them with a sharpie):
Colors / Sorting:
We’ve had this file folder game forever, and M always enjoys it.  I used Jolanthe’s color cards, and created pockets with the color name cards.  M goes through the stack and places each picture in the correct pocket.  He just loves pockets. :)
Math Skills:
I found these at a thrift store and at first glance I thought they were Cuisenaire rods.  However, once I got them home and took a look at them… well, I’m not sure what they are or what to do with them.  Each single block unit is 1/2 inch.  The rods go from 1 unit up to 12 units, and apparently we don’t have a full set.  There’s only 2 8-unit rods, and only 1 10-unit rod.  Sigh.  Any ideas how we can use these?  Or, does anyone know what they are?  They are not the traditional Cuisenaire rod colors either.  I let M just play with them and explore them the first time I set them out.  I showed him how to create some designs, like a house and a stair (the stair was useful for showing the relation between the rods from shortest to longest).
I hope everyone had great weeks!  I’m linking this up to Preschool Corner and Weekly Wrap-Up.  Be sure to go check them out!

Have a beautiful day! :)