Build a Tree for Snack

Here's an easy and delicious tree to make for snack.

I took step by step photos and made a recipe for the children to 'read'.

The materials are simple; bread stick for the trunk, kiwi slices for the branches, raisins for pinecones, sunflower seeds for seeds and I found snowflake sugar confetti to sprinkle on.

1. Place the breadstick tree trunk on your placemat.

2. Count 6 slices of kiwi and add them to your trunk.

3. Sprinkle on one spoon of snowflakes.

4. Sprinkle on one spoon of raisins.

5. Sprinkle on one spoon of sunflower seeds.

                                                                  Enjoy!

This little guy was allergic to kiwi so we quickly substituted apple slices for his branches.

SPLAT!! Goes the Paint

Oh what fun it was at the art table today.
The parents were apprehensive and the children were unsure of dropping anything to the floor. 

 And me, I was so excited when the paint went SPLAT!

 We started with the boxes on the table but children couldn't get their arms high enough to really get a good splat happening.  So down to the floor the boxes went.  But I wasn't quick enough to think of putting paper under the box and splat! on to the floor.  Oh well, easy to wipe up, get the paper under the box and get going.

The results...

For some they noticed that depending what sock they dropped the splat looked different.

Some socks were filled with popcorn kernels, some had rice and some had rocks.
Can you guess which is which?
Another factor we noticed was that a bigger splat happened when you had more paint on sock.

Shadow and Light Play

Groundhog Day happens this week and offers a perfect opportunity to experiment with shadow and light.

Out came the overhead projector.

 We used little plastic flat animals and different shaped wood (like popsicle sticks, flat and round).
I heard stories of houses built for the animals and one child went and got people to add to their house. 
Parents were reinforcing the names of each animal and what sounds they make.

 It was interesting to watch when children realized that what they did on the glass showed up on the board.

Sometimes they were just interested in the light.
At the craft table we had sponges and flat shapes to make shadow prints.

Also for our daily question when we sign in was "Which shadow do you choose today?

Sign of the Week - Tree

This week's sign is 'tree'.
Place your left arm in front of you horizontally.
Place your right elbow on your left palm, right fingers pointing up.
Twist your right hand.
When you move both arms together across the front of your body it means lots of trees or forest.

If You’re Ever In a Forest

Sung To: "Did You Ever See A Lassie"

If you're ever in the forest,
The forest, the forest,
If you're ever in the forest,
You might see some deer.
With antlers on one;
Another might run.
If you're ever in the forest.
You might see some deer.

Sign of the Week - Dragon

This week's sign was 'dragon'.
Place both hands at your mouth fingers pointing away.
Wiggle your fingers while you move hands away.
This mimics fire coming out of the mouth.

 Little Dragon

(suit actions to words)

Little Dragon counts to three,

Little Dragon bends one knee.

Little Dragon whistles and sings.

Little Dragon answers the phone that rings,

Little Dragon touches his toes,

Little Dragon touches his nose.

Little Dragon makes a funny face,

Little Dragon runs in place.

Little Dragon lays on the floor,

Little Dragon starts to snore.

Story - The Squeaky Door

It was National Literacy Week and on Thursday I was at the city library for an interactive storytelling event for wee ones.
Last year I started introducing the children to what an illustrator is and asked them to be the illustrators for some of my oral stories.
This story is called The Squeaky Door and you can get it in book form
by Margaret Read MacDonald.
I've heard several storytellers present this story and each is a little different from the other.
This is my version.  I like to tell it because you can modify it to match your group.  What I mean is that the animals in the story can be any that the children choose.  Today we had farm animals and wild animals.

Magnetic Marble Painting

We tried a new way of marble painting thanks to Prekinders.

It's magnetic marble painting.

Yes the final product looks similar to marble painting but the process was very different.

Materials needed are magnetic marbles, magnets (we had wands and horseshoe) foil or paper plates, and paint.

 

 



Using a metal spoon made it interesting to put the magnet marbles on to the foil pan.

 Sometimes they wouldn't drop off.  We had fun trying to lift them all up together.