President's Day

Because it was raining outside,  we played one of our favorite games . . . 

Singing "Rain is falling all around" while being squirted with a water bottle :)

In honor of president's day, today we started learning about George Washington and Abraham Lincoln, two of our very important American presidents (easily confused by this group with President Monson :) ). 

Here's a catchy intro video . . .

These presidents are on coins . . . so we had fun sorting 

and learning about money using penny's and quarter's.

 

Dr Martin Luther King

I loved our discussion today about Dr Martin Luther King.  

I loved how the idea of segregation is so foreign to these kids 

and seems so completely unjust and bizarre to them. 

I told them a story my mom shared with me about being a little girl crossing the street with her father at a crosswalk. They were almost to the other side when a police officer stopped them and made them turn around and go back to the sidewalk and cross at a different place and in a different direction, because they were crossing in the wrong spot. 

 One little boy asked me, in complete amazement,

 "Ms Tamra, is that story for real?" 

We finished up our discussion with the following little clip on youtube . . .

And each child painted their own dream to make our world a better place . . .

Have a wonderful long weekend and, in honor of Dr King's birthday,

 as a family, do something nice for someone else.

Handprint Turkey's

This fun Thanksgiving preschool craft turned out really cute and the kids had a lot of fun making it.

1) I put a little paint in a variety of colors on a plate. Each color got it's own paintbrush.

2) I painted each child's hand like this . . .

3. Then I had them make a hand print on a piece of white paper.

4. I let the kids glue these on any color of cardstock card that they wanted. I then added Turkey details to their handprint.

Inside the cards, the kids pasted the invitation to the "Thank You" feast they are putting on for their parents.

These really did turn out cute.  So cute, in fact, I had my own kids make some to send to their Grandma with a note that said, Happy Thanksgiving from your Little Turkey's. An easy, but fun preschool thanksgiving craft!

Halloween Crafts

This year we had fun making these Halloween crafts.  They were really simple to make, and the kids had lots of fun!

Footprint Ghosts

1) I made sure we had PLENTY of space to keep this potentially messy project preschooler friendly!

2) I then had each child write his or her name in white crayon on black paper.

3) I put white paint on a cookie sheet and spread it around to create a thin layer.

4) I had each child walk through the white paint and carefully step out onto the black paper and then into a bucket with warm soapy water.

5) Child washes paint of their feet and steps out onto the towel.

6) After paint dries, I drew a ghost face on each foot.

Some very cute Halloween Ghosts!

Paper Plate Jack-O-Lanterns 

(thanks to my friend Morgan over at Brilliant Beginnings for this idea!)

1) Each child painted a paper plate with orange paint.

2) Then they stuck black shapes (I had previously cut out) to create a jack-o-lantern of their choosing.   Because the paint was still wet, the shapes stuck without glue.

Sticking shapes on was so much fun some jack-o-lanterns ended up Halloween Pizzas!

3) Then each child helped me staple a brown stem and a green pipe cleaner to the plate.

4) Using his or her fingers, he or she then curled the pipe cleaner to look like a vine!

Here's our Bulletin Board with these two projects . . .

How's that for some Halloween FUN!

Halloween Party

We had a lot of fun at our Halloween party! We played a lot of games, decorated cookies, and showed off our Halloween costumes.  A HUGE thanks to all the parents who volunteered, prepared activities and treats and helped to make our party a hit.