preschool Archives - Page 12 of 20

Changing the Color of the Reindeer’s Nose Color Activity

December 11, 2017 By Deirdre

Rudolph was a red nose reindeer, but what fun it would be to change the color of his nose. Your children can create a reindeer. Then they can create a way to change the color of its nose. If you don’t want your children to craft a reindeer, you can use our printable one. Below you will find the reindeer and the color wheel printable set. Your children could always to create their own reindeer on paper plates and use our color wheel.

Reindeer’s Nose Color Activity

Getting Ready

Downloading the Printables

You will need to download the Changing the Color of the Reindeer’s Nose set. It includes a printable reindeer and two color wheels. The whole set will need to be printed out in color.

Gathering Supplies

You have a variety of ways that you can put this color activity together. Your children can create their own reindeer and use one of the printable color wheels. Another option is to have them use the printable reindeer and the printable color wheel. In either case, your children will need to create their own antlers.

Each Child Will Need the Following:

Large Paper Plate

Small Paper Plate

Brown Construction Paper

Black Construction Paper or Black Foam Sheet

White Foam Sheet

One Brass Fastener

Scissors

Glue Stick

Putting the Color Activity Together

The first thing your children are going to need to do is to cut out the reindeer printable or the pieces for their own reindeer. If they are creating their own reindeer, they will need to make the head, eyes, and antlers. They are are using the printable one they will just need to make the antlers.

Next, they will need glue the reindeer and the antler to the large paper plate.

Then they will need to cut out nose space.

The color wheel will need to be glued to the small paper plate and then cut out. (The color wheel with eight colors works best on a narrower nose hole.)

Finally, the color wheel will need to be attached to the reindeer plate with a brass fastener. It will not reach the end of the reindeer’s nose. This will make it easier to turn.

This activity was created to go along with the book Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer. It is the Virtual Book Club book of the week. Here are some more activities based on the book.

Reindeer Letter Matching Game

Fingerprint Reindeer Ornament

Rudolph Pipe Cleaner Circuit (Christmas STEM)

Paper Shapes Reindeer Craft

Here are some more holiday themed activities your kids will love:

Jingle Bell Counting Activity

Make a Paper Bag Gingerbread House

Rudolph STEM Straw Rocket

Gingerbread Man Craft- Exploring Shapes

December 6, 2017 By Deirdre

Save some of the cardboard delivery boxes you receive in the mail to create this gingerbread man craft. You can cut the pieces out for your younger children. Older children can cut out the shapes themselves. Children of all ages can put the gingerbread man together and decorate it.

Creating the Gingerbread Man Craft

Getting the Cardboard Shapes Ready

Each of your children is going to need the following shapes cut out of cardboard (You can use cardstock instead if you like. It is much easier to cut.)

One Circle
Two Long Rectangles
One Square
Two Long Triangles

You will need to gather some or all of the decorating supplies below:

White Crayons
Buttons
Glue Sticks
Markers
Ribbons
Pom-Poms
Wiggly Eyes
Stickers

Constructing the Gingerbread Man

Your children may choose to have triangular legs and rectangular arms. They could make the body the circle and the square the head. The gingerbread man your children create doesn’t need to look just like the one we made.

Once they have the shapes arrange the way they want them to be, they can glue the gingerbread man together.

Decorating the Gingerbread Man

There isn’t a wrong way to decorate the gingerbread man although making sure he has eyes, nose and a mouth is probably important.

When they have finished decorating their gingerbread man craft, you can cord or ribbon to the back on it to use it as an ornament.

If you like this Christmas craft, here are some more Christmas crafts you will want to explore.

Five Little Christmas Tree Handprint Craft

Hanger Reindeer

Candy Cane Reindeer

Birthday Hat Christmas Tree

The link below is an affiliate link.

The Gingerbread Boy by Jan Brett is the Virtual Book Club book of the week, here are some more activities based on the book.

Gingerbread House Glyph – Mama Smiles

Let’s Explore Gingerbread Patterning – My Storytime Corner

Gingerbread Baby Scissor Skills – School time snippets

Foam Gingerbread Christmas Busy Bag- Views From a Step Stool

Gingerbread Man Shape Game – Rainy Day Mum

Fingerprint Gingerbread Man Ornament – The Educators’ Spin On It

Christmas Countdown Calendar and Learning Activity

November 29, 2017 By Deirdre

This set of Christmas countdown calendar printables can be used to work on number recognition or to count down the days until Christmas. You will find two Christmas countdown printables in this set. One is black and white. The other has a green Christmas tree. Let me walk you through how you can explore them with your children.

Christmas Countdown Calendar And Learning Activity

Getting Ready

Downloading and Printing the Countdown

You will need to download the Christmas Countdown Printable SetThen you will need to decide which countdown you want to use.

Gathering the Supplies

Your children can gather stickers, colored pencils, crayons or markers to fill in or cover each number. The circles around the numbers were made large. Your children can cover them holiday stickers, colored circle stickers or color them in.

Using the Countdown as a Countdown

Each day you can have your children color in or put a sticker on the ornament on tree displays the date of that day. The numbers start at the bottom of the tree and work their way to the top of the tree. I wanted the ornaments to lead your children up to the star.

Hint: If your children will not like that the complete circle is covered, you will want them color in the circles. They can make the ornaments circles one solid color or place a design in them.

You will notice that they count down from left to right. Children learn to count from left to right. I wanted the numbers to follow what they have learned about number order.

Using the Countdown as a Learning Activity

You can print out the number cards along with one of the countdown calendars. The number cards can be placed in a stack. Your children can pick up one number card at a time. They can they color in or cover that number.

If you like this Christmas themed learning activity, here are some more you will like.

Advent Countdown Set

Flying Reindeer STEM Activity

Reindeer Games with Magnets

Create Your Own Reading Center Matching Games Editable Printable

Polar Express Coloring Pages

Advent Countdown for Kids

November 27, 2017 By Deirdre

Children will have fun creating their own Advent countdown. They will be able to use to explore numbers and count down the days until Christmas. By the time Christmas arrives they will be left with the star. Long ago a star led the wise men and shepherds to Jesus. Your children’s Advent countdown star will lead children to the day we celebrate his birth.

Creating the Advent Countdown

Getting Ready for the Craft

You will need to download the Advent Countdown Craft printable set. It includes a printable star and a set of printable strips. We used old wrapping paper to create our strips. You could print out a variety of strips onto colored copy paper if you prefer.

Other Supplies You Needed

Stickers
Markers
Ribbons or Rick Rack
Glue
Color Dot Stickers
Wrapping Paper or Christmas Themed Scrapbook Paper
Popsicle Sticks

Putting the Advent Countdown Together

Your children will need to start by cutting out the star. If you think they will have trouble cutting around the outside and inside of the star, you can cut the star out for them.

Next, they will need to decorate the star. They can draw or cut and glue items onto their star. When they are finished, you can glue popsicle sticks to the back of the star to help it hold its shape.

Then they will need to cut out the strips. As I mentioned they could make their strips out of scrapbook paper, old wrapping paper or colored copy paper.

Colored dot stickers will need to be placed on each of the strips. Then they will need to write the numbers one through 24 onto one of the stickers.

Finally, they will need to make to chains with loops. One chain will display all the even numbered loops in order from 24 to 2. The other chain will display the odd-numbered loops from 23 to 1.

Completing the Advent Countdown

Each day during advent your children will cut off one of the loops. They will start by cutting off the loop with the 24 on it.

You can hang the countdown on your Christmas tree like an ornament or in your kitchen off of a kitchen cabinet knob.

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This activity was designed to go along with the Virtual Book Club book of the week Merry Christmas, Mouse!. You could also read any of the Advent books listed below before creating it.

Advent Storybook: 24 Stories to Share Before Christmas– This book is about twenty-four stories in the days leading up to Christmas.
24 Christmas Stories to Welcome Jesus – This wonderful book shared Bible stories, advent traditions, and Christmas customs.
Countdown to Christmas: 25 Stories and Family Activities for Advent– This book features short games and discussion questions that go along with each story.

Here are more activities for other Virtual Book Club members.

Solar System Ornaments from Teach Beside Me

STEAM Ornament Paint Explosion from Preschool Powell Packets

Ornaments for Your Kids to Color and Sew from Mama Smiles

Sparkly Candy Cane Ornaments from Toddler Approved

If You Give a Mouse Themed Ornament from The Educator’s Spin on It!

Peppermint Cream Mice from The Rainy Day Mum

Flying Reindeer STEM Activity

November 21, 2017 By Deirdre

Earlier this year I shared with you a straw rocket frog leaping activity and one featuring fireworks. Since Santa and his flying reindeer are fun to read about and see in movies in time of year, I thought your children would like to explore flying reindeer. This fun flying reindeer activity invites children to find the best way to get a reindeer to fly a distance.

Flying Reindeer Activity

Getting Ready

Getting the Printables

Flying Reindeer STEM Activity- Recording Printable

The first thing you are going to need to do is to download a copy of the Flying Reindeer STEM Activity. It includes a recording printable for your children to place the distance each of their attempts went and a set of reindeer cutouts. You will find a set of colored reindeer and a set of reindeer your children can color.

Gathering Supplies

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You will also need the following supplies for this activity:

Paper Straws- Red/White
Plastic Transfer Pipettes
Glue sticks
Scissors
Measuring Tape

Putting Together the Straw Rockets

First, we cut a piece off dome piece of the pipette. It will be about 2 1/2 inches long. You won’t need the tube part of the pipette that sucks in water.
Next, we taped the reindeer to the pipette dome. Its antlers should be facing the dome and its feet should be facing the open end of the pipette dome.
Finally, we placed the reindeer pipette section on the end of a full-size straw and blow on the open end of the straw.

Conducting the Flying Reindeer Activity

You or your children will need to place a measuring tape out on the floor. They will use it to measure the distance their reindeer travel.

Then it is time to place their reindeer pipette onto the striped straw and give it a good hard blow. (We found that the reindeer traveled the farthest when we lay prone on the ground.)

Flying Reindeer STEM Activity - Ready for Take Off

Next, you will need to measure how far the reindeer traveled and record it on the recording printable.

Then it is time to try to see if you can get it to travel farther. You can encourage your children to try holding the straw at various angles and blowing through it in different ways.

Flying Reindeer STEM Activity- The reindeer has landed.

The recording printable gives children the opportunity to record three flying distances. Your children can really attempt to get their reindeer to fly farther and farther as many times as they want.

Finally, your children will need to dictate to you or write down on their own what they did that made the reindeer travel the farthest.

If you like this STEM activity, here are some more activities your children will love:

STEM Christmas Building Shapes with Stickman

Building Shapes with The Stickman

Make Rudolph Fly Fast STEM Challenge- After constructing a flying reindeer, it is time conduct a science experiment to see how to make him fly fast.

Make Rudolph Fly Fast STEM Experiment

New Year’s Thaumatrope Printable Set

STEM Activity- New Year's Ball Drop: What fun it is to see what materials will help our homemade New Year's Ball drop fastest.

New Year’s Ball Drop STEM Challenge

Reading Center Activities – Create Your Own Matching Activities

November 9, 2017 By Deirdre

With this free set of editable Christmas ornaments, you create your own matching activities. They will be great to use as your reading center activities for the month of December. What fun it will be to create matching activities that feature the words and skills you are working with your children.

Getting the Reading Center Activities Ready

The first thing you will need to do is print out the Reading Center Ideas – Create Your Own Matching Activities set. They were created in color. Your reading activities will look best when they are printed in color.

Then you will need to open up the PDF. You will find that there are twelve ornaments in the set.

Next, you will need to decide what skill you want your children to work on.

Here are some reading center activities you could have your children work on:

Synonyms
Antonyms
Homophones
Sight Words
Rhyming Words
Syllables
Color Words to Colored Spots
Number Words to Numbers
Vowel Sound to Word
Contractions to Whole Words

Each of the ornaments has a text box that you can type your words into. The text boxes how words with up to eight letters.

Ways to Have Children Use the Matching Cards

The circular cards fit into muffin cups. You can place one of each match into a muffin cup. Your children can sort through a stack of the remaining cards to find the match for each card in a cup.
Children can turn over all the cards and play a concentration game with them.
Children can cut out each of the circles. Then they can glue the matches side by side on a piece of paper.

If you like this reading activity, here are some more you will like.

Long Vowel Worksheets

R-Controlled Word Sorts

Click Clack Alphabet Match

Sight Word Cup Stackers

Christmas Graphs Children Can Count and Color

November 8, 2017 By Deirdre

This set of Christmas graphs contains simple printables that could be worked on by preschoolers and more challenging printables for kindergarten and first graders. Today’s set is the third in a set of five Christmas themed printables I am sharing this week. Yesterday I shared long and short vowel word sorts. On Monday I shared a set of Elf on the Shelf themed number recognition printables. After exploring today Christmas graphs, I hope you will check them out.

Using the Christmas Graphs

Getting Ready to Use Christmas Graphs

Before you get started you will need to download and print out the Count, Graph, and Color Christmas Set You could have your children start with Christmas tree sheet with fewer pictures if you like.

Ways to Use the Christmas Tree Graphs

Counting and Coloring

Your children will need to start by counting how many of each object there is on each tree. You can have them color the pictures before they count if you like. Another option is to count as they color.

Children don’t have to color all the similar ornaments the same color. It might make it easier for them to count them if they are the same.

Graphing

The Christmas graphs don’t say how your children to graph their data. They were left open-ended so you could decide how you want your children graph.

Bar Graph

Children could color in the boxes beside pictures to show how many of each object they counted. That would give them experience with making a bar graph.

Picture Graph

Your children could try to draw smaller version of each of the pictures in the boxes. That would give them a chance to create a picture graph.

If you like these Christmas graphs, here are some more graphing printables you will like.

Graphing Practice Worksheet Collections- Snow Theme

Graphing Ocean Animals with LEGO

Find, Count, Graph Ocean Animals

Roll and Graph Math with Apples

Lucky Charms Graphing

Llama Llama Red Pajama Quilt Block Tracing Activity

November 6, 2017 By Deirdre

This Llama Llama Red Pajama themed tracing activity invites your children to work on their fine motor skills and create a fun quilt. Children will have fun creating the stitching on their quilt strips with a variety of different writing tools. Then they will cut out the quilt patches or blocks from the strips. Finally they will place each quilt block on the bed printable.

Getting Ready to Make the Llama Llama Red Pajama Quilt

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The first thing you will need to do is download the bed printable and quilt block printable from the Llama Llama Create a Quilt with Tracing Patches set.

Llama Llama Create a Quilt with Tracing Patches Activity - Colored Paper

You will want to print out several the quilt block lines printable onto a colored copy paper. Then you will need to cut out each of the rows of lines. You will end up with three strips from each piece of paper.

Llama Llama Create a Quilt with Tracing Patches Activity - Quilt Printable

Then you will need to print out a bed printable for each of your children. You can print that out onto white copy paper or card stock.

Working on the Llama Llama Red Pajama Quilt

If you haven’t read the book Llama Llama Red Pajamato your children, you will want to start by having them listen to the book.

Then you need to let them know that they are going to be creating the stitching for the quilt by tracing the lines on several strips of tracing lines.

Llama Llama Create a Quilt with Tracing Patches Activity - Tracing with Crayon

Next, your children will select three colored strips of tracing lines and writing tools to trace the lines with. They could use a different tool for each strip if they like.

Here are some writing tools your children could use:

beginner pencils or Regular Sized Pencils
Colored Pencils
Highlighters
Crayons
Markers
Pens

Llama Llama Create a Quilt with Tracing Patches Activity - Tracing with a Highlighter

Then your children will cut out each of the quilt blocks from the strip. (They should have three blocks from each strip.)

When all the blocks are cut out, they can glue them to their bed printable to create a quilt for Llama Llama.

The Virtual Book Club is exploring the book Llama Llama Red Pajama this week. Below you will find a number of activities from other blogs that explore the book.

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5 Days of Christmas Printables

November 5, 2017 By Deirdre

This week I am sharing a new set of Christmas themed printables. You will find that most of the printables were designed for preschool through second grade. The printable that will be shared on Friday is a STEM activity that could be explored by older children. I hope you will stop by every day to see what new printables have been shared.

3 Dinosaurs and Royal Baloo will also be sharing Christmas themed printables. I think you will find that they have created some printables for young children and others for children in upper elementary school. You will find a list

5 Days of Christmas Printables

Echolocation Activity for Kids

November 1, 2017 By Deirdre

Earlier this week I shared with you a bat-themed shape craft. Today I have an echolocation activity to share with you. Your children will have fun playing the part of the bat and the mosquitos.

Getting Ready for the Echolocation Activity

The first thing you are going to need to do is to download the Echolocation Activity. The activity set includes a mosquito and a bat printable.

Putting the Activity Together

You will need to glue both pictures can be glued to the bottom of small paper plates. You will need one bat plate and mosquito plates for each of your remaining children.

Then you will need to staple a bag of beans to the back of each the mosquito plate. If you would prefer, you can put bells, small stones or rice in the bag instead.

Let’s Explore the Echolocation Activity

You will need to place all the mosquitos in a circle. Each mosquito will need to hold their plate in front of them.
The bat will stand in the middle of the circle with the plate held over their face. (If you want to attach pipe cleaners to the sides of the plate to create a blindfold mask, you can totally do that.)
The child who is the bat will need to make a sound like a beep or a squeak.
Pick four or five of the mosquitos in the circle to shake their plates every time the bat makes a noise.
The bat will keep repeating its sound and the mosquitos will keep shaking their plates until the bat finds one of the mosquitos.
Then the bat will trade places with that mosquito and the game will start again.