Squirt Painting

                 
                   This art activity was so much fun.
    I bought these turkey baster type syringes at the dollar store
    over a year ago and have been just waiting for the opportunity
    (and the nerve) to try them.
             
           I used pizza boxes taped to the art table for easels.
         
               
      The biggest challenge for the children was to figure out how to
      fill the syringe with paint.
      Once they figured it out there was no stopping them.
    
     The paint flowed beautifully down the easel and pooled at the bottom.
     It looked like poured painting that was all the rage last year.
 
            To me it looked like the aftermath of a paintball fight.
                                      Gorgeous!
 
               There were a few mishaps along the way. 
               But those were very few considering the control it
               took to aim and push on the syringe.
       
       We had to show off this beautiful work out in the hallway.
                        
  

Hallowe’en Sensory Activities

A few things I love about Hallowe’en are the colours, scents and textures.

Over the past couple of weeks we have been exploring several sensory experiences.

Lentils with black beans plus little plastic ants and spiders.
I included little cups and spoons.
But the children enjoyed picking out the little black pieces with
their finger and thumb.


We played with cloud dough but this time I added orange powder paint. 
Although the paint makes the dough quite attractive it does cause a bit more
of a mess when the little ones brush their hands on their clothes. 
So I don’t think I’ll add paint again.

Included were mini Hallowe’en shaped cake pans and pumpkin shaped jello
moulds with wooden spoons.

 
Orange garland that had Hallowe’en shaped cutouts attached.
I included little black pots and little spiky balls for pinching.

And lastly mini pumpkins to cut, carve and poke.


Having a variety of pumpkins gave us the opportunity to talk about

• that some of them are easy to cut while others are very hard.

• that some pumpkins have only a few seeds and others have lots.

• that some are orange and others are white or even yellow.

Ghost Toast for Snack

Something I’ve heard from other StrongStart facilitators is that they don’t
have access to a kitchen or that the kitchen is way at the other end of the school.
This makes it difficult to cook with the families.

That was my problem in my old school too so we used a electric frying pan
and a toaster a lot.

This week for a special snack we made toast shaped like ghosts.
1. Put bread in the toaster.
2. Butter the toast.
  3. Place the ghost shaped cookie cutter on toast.
4. Cut out shape.

Very easy steps to follow and steps that a child can do on their own.
 
When asked what would the ghost say to being eaten?
“Oooooh no don’t eat me!”

Halloween Play Trays

The first tray consisted of threading Halloween rings on to a
thick pipe cleaner.
Loved this idea when I saw it at ABC’s of Jess’s house.
 
The threading wasn’t the favourite part of this tray. 
It was pulling the rings apart and pushing them back together.


The next tray had shiny Halloween coloured and shaped acrylic gems.
 
I created a sheet with patterns for them to match the pictures and
figure out what would come next.


The next tray held Jack o’lantern size matching.


And finally mirror cards.

I didn’t create these cards,
 they were created by Elaine and shared in a Yahoo group
called Printable Place of Themes.

The idea is for a child to use the mirror to complete the pictures.
It takes a different way of looking at a picture. 
It’s symmetry.

Hope you had a safe and happy Halloween.

Story –The Teeny Tiny Woman

This is the first time I’ve told a story with the overhead projector.
I was inspired by a post about a family fun Spooky Stories over at Creative Family Fun. 
                   
They suggested the book The Teeny Tiny Woman and I happen to have a copy.
                   
I copied the images from the book and mounted them on black paper
then attached long wooden sticks to the backs.
Except for the gate which was made from mini popsicle sticks.
                    
On Tuesdays our story time is in the library
so I already had the overhead projector set and ready to go.

It’s not a long story but very easy to learn.

After story time I brought the projector back down to the room
and set it up in our story area so the children could use it.
                         
A small group of children picked up the shadow puppets and
began to retell the story.

 These girls retold the story fairly true to what I told.

But then they became creative - I love how their storytelling became musical
and how they worked together.

This last video shows a boy, 4 3/4 years old, join in and using the book to try
to retell the story.
He is recognizing patterns in the words and realizes that when the girl says the
same word over and over that it doesn't match the print.
He is understanding some rules in regards to reading;
capitals, long and short vowels, reading from left to right are a few.

I'm so excited to be able to have a parent willing to videotape
and squeeze the time to sit and record some of it myself.

The videos have been wonderful to watch after a very busy and productive day.

Fifty Shades of Hallowe’en

No this post isn’t about a certain book but on the many emotions that children
can go through during this spooky season.
                
It is also about our role of helping children express their emotions. 
To give them the language to let us know when something is too scary
or that they are happy doing an activity.
  
This post will show you some of the activities that are available for children
to explore emotions at my StrongStart centre.

The above two pictures show our sign in question from last week. 
Identifying what an emotion looks like on a face. 
Small mirrors were available for children to look at themselves and
to practice happy, sad, mad, etc.
        
This week’s question is more specific to their costume. 
Will it look scary, silly, funny or happy? 
Some don’t know the answer to this,
maybe they haven’t worn it yet and seen people’s reactions.

 
Another activity to focus on facial expressions was this large
‘pin the face on the pumpkin’. 
The pumpkin is laminated, the same with all the shapes for the
eyes, mouth and nose.
Rolled tape on the back of the face pieces make it easy to put on and
take off over and over.
 
Right beside the pumpkin is a plain sheet of orange paper and a basket of dark markers. 
The child can draw a jack o’lantern with whichever expression they decide.

  
The next activity uses fake pumpkins and scary facial pieces. 
                     
The children loved it and none were even slightly intimidated with the looks.

 
We’ve had a lot of fun exploring different eye glasses and how they changed our looks.
 
Parents were wonderful trying the glasses with their children. 
For some children it gave them the courage to try the glasses on too.
 
Mirrors are important to have available so children can see their own reflection. 
To see themselves with the glasses on and know that they are still the same being.

                
Lastly, we have shared many songs and stories that can evoke emotions.
The above is the story “The Great Big Pumpkin” and it has characters that we don’t see everyday; like a ghost, witch, mummy and vampire.  I notice that some children react when I change my voice to match a character.  They show apprehension, nervousness and may move closer to their grown up.

A song that we like to sing (because there's a screaming part) is called
"Sometimes I Walk in the Dark"

Sometimes I like to walk in the dark
I like to shout and scream
I sneak behind someone I know
And 'boo' it's Hallowe'en!

Although now all the children like the screaming part and after hearing it
once they are ready to cover their ears when we scream.