preschool Archives - Page 19 of 20

Acts of Kindness- Montessori Style

January 28, 2012 By Deirdre

Toddler Approved is hosting a wonderful project called the 100 Acts of Kindness Project. I love the idea of JDaniel and I doing things for others between Jan. 15th and Valentine’s Day. Each week she puts up a challenge for you to complete as some of your 100 Acts of Kindness.

This week’s challenge was to perform five acts of kindness for members of our family using a Montessori technique. The challenge was issued by Living Montessori Now!

Here is what we did:

Act One

JDaniel helped me to volunteer at Angel’s Attic consignment sale at my mom’s church. We were asked to help move all the bikes and vehicles outside. When that was done we were asked to help people that were looking over them to know how to take the stickers off them and where to go to purchase them.

He followed his interest in car care. How? JDaniel used a pretend gas pump to fill all the Cozy Coupes up with gas and test out the seats in all the wagons and cars.

Act Two

JDaniel practiced transferring coins with chopsticks into a baby bottle that I was given at church. The money in the baby bottle goes to help a local women’s center.

Act Three

Our third task was laundry. JDaniel helped me fold laundry into almost neat piles. We will need to keep practicing this skill.

Acts Four and Five

JDaniel helped me pour more soap into our soap dispensers. He loved using a funnel.

We tried just dumping it in but, it went in too slowly for JDaniel.

He decided to help the soap along by pushing it in.

Finally, he squeezed the remaining soap into the bottle.

For more information on the 100 Acts of Kindness Project please visit this post on Toddler Approved.

Read.Explore.Learn.-If You’ll Be My Valentine

January 27, 2012 By Deirdre

Welcome to Read.Explore.Learn.! This meme was designed to be a place for you to share the learning opportunities, crafts, field trips, and other activities you have done this week that tie-in to children’s books. I look forward to seeing ways you have learned with and explored books.

Steps:

- Link your activity below.

- Please place the Read.Explore.Learn. a badge on your post or create a link back to this meme.

- Please try to visit at least three of the other people that have placed links below and leave a comment. I will visit each of you and leave a kind comment.

- If you are not linking up an activity and are just visiting, please try to stop by a few of the links below.

My Book Tie-Ins of the Week:

JDaniel is very much into rhyming words. He loved the rhyming poems in

I love how the card is shown on one page of the book and the memory that inspired it is on the opposite page.

What did we do?

Craft- Valentine’s Day Cards

We received tons of political mailings right before the South Carolina primary. I decided they would be great for creating Valentine’s Day cards for JDaniel’s sleepy-time friends and robots.

I put out the mailings, markers, stickers, and crayons to make the cards.

Pretend Play- Valentine’s Day Post Office

While JDaniel was a preschool, I converted his McDonald’s counter into a post office. I placed post office signs on most of the McDonald-related ones and put some stamps (stickers) into the register.

One of our reusable bags was labeled as a mailbag. JDaniel was able to use the bag to deliver his cards to his toys.

Read.Explore.Learn.- Singing and Reading to Tiger Tales Books

December 23, 2011 By Deirdre

I look forward to seeing the ways you have learned with and explored books.

Steps:

- Link your activity below.

- Please place the Read.Explore.Learn. a badge on your post or create a link back to this meme.

- Please try to visit at least three of the other people that have placed links below and leave a comment. I will visit each of you and leave a kind comment.

- If you are not linking up an activity and are just visiting, please try to stop by a few of the links below.

My Book Tie-Ins of the Week:

I love both of the books from Tiger Tales books. Veronica Vasylenko has beautifully illustrated both books based on Christmas songs with pictures that jump off the page. The books have glitter and raised pictures that really make the pictures pop.

In Jingle Bells, a mouse family is traveling to see their grandparents; in Deck the Halls, the grandparents are traveling to see them.

JDaniel loved it when I read and then sang the books. After a while, he started singing too.

What did we do?

I took the book Jingle Bells to JDaniel’s preschool classes’ Christmas party to read. When we were finished we did a craft and I planned a game to play.

Craft

I passed out foam bells and foam stickers and the class decorated them. I got the bells and stickers at Dollar Tree. The whole craft was $3.

Game

We ran out of time to play the game, but I wanted to share it with you anyway.

Jingle Bell Pass

Supplies:

Two Christmas stockings

Two jingle bells

Directions:

1. Have the class sit in a circle.

2. Put a bell in each stocking.

3. Have the students pass the stockings around the circle while singing “Jingle Bells”.

4. When the song ends the two children holding the stockings, get a prize.

5. Repeat steps 3 and 4 until many or all of the children get a prize.

Disclaimer: I was sent Jingle Bells and Deck the Halls by Tiger Tales Books to review. All opinions are my own.

Read.Explore.Learn.-Bugtown Boogie

October 14, 2011 By Deirdre

Steps:

Link your activity below.

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Please try to visit at least three of the other people that have placed links below and leave a comment. I will visit each of you and leave a kind comment.

If you are not linking up an activity and are just visiting, please try to stop by a few of the links below.

My Book Tie-Ins of the Week:

Links below may be affiliate links.

Bugtown Boogie by Warren Hanson is one of my new favorite books. There is filled with rhythm and rhymes. There are bugs dancing! There is a little who finds bug heading into a tree trunk to boogie.

The tree trunk is filled is bugs of all kinds. They are jumping and jiving to a band made of a humbug drumming, a termite trumpeting, a ladybug on a flute, a mosquito strumming a guitar, a grasshopper fiddling, and a cricket singing solos.

Steve Johnson and Lou Fancher’s paintings of caterpillars twisting and a dozen of bugs tapping their feet are such fun. The picture of Queen Bee’s entrance gives you a full picture of the band and all the bugs along with the queen.

Everyone waits until she shouts, “Boogie Down!” Then everyone starts dancing until sunrise.

After the bugs head home so, does the boy with a hop in his step.

The book is such fun to read. I love how the words dance off my lips.

Bugtown Boogie Activities

Weaving with Pipe Cleaners and a Cooling Rack

JDaniel had fun weaving with pipe cleaners through this cookie cooling rack like a spider weaves a web.

I had modeled some for him that went straight across. He wove some straight across and then he started weaving them diagonally.

This activity was inspired by a lacing card activity I saw on Quirky Momma Kids Activity Blog and a weaving activity from To the Lesson.

Counting Bugs on a Cooling Rack

We used these clip art bugs on clothes pins to count by ones and by threes. We also used them like an abacus to count by sliding them back and forth. We tipped for the clips as we counted.

They were fun to stand up on the ends of the clothespins too.

If you like these Bugtown Boogie activities, you will just love these fine motor activities:

Fine Motor Craft- Building an Octopus

Space Man and Rocket Fine Motor Activity

Fine Motor Learning Webs

This post is linked to Feed Me Books Friday, Link and Learn and We Play.

Read.Explore.Learn.- Gardening

May 20, 2011 By Deirdre

Welcome to Read. Explore. Learn! This meme was designed to be a place for you to share the learning opportunities, crafts, field trips, and other activities you have done this week that tie-in to children’s books. I look forward to seeing the ways you have learned with and explored books.

Steps:

Link your activity below.

Please place the Read.Explore.Learn. badge on your post or create a link back to this meme.

<center><a href=”http://www.jdaniel4smom.com/”><img alt=”Shibley Smiles” src=”http://69.195.124.116/~jdanielf/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/ReadExploreLearn.jpg” alt=”jdaniel4smom” width=”150″ height=”150″ /></a></center>

Please try to visit at least three of the other people that have placed links below and leave a comment. I will visit each of you and leave a kind comment.

If you are not linking up an activity and are just visiting, please try to stop by a few of the links below.

My Book Tie-Ins of the Week:

Jack’s Garden by Henry Cole is built around the old story The House that Jack Built.

Jack starts with a garden soil filled with creatures.

Then he adds seeds to the soil that makes up the garden.

Rain wets the seeds that are in the soil that makes up the garden.

The seeds become seedling and later plants in the soil that makes up the garden.

The plants grow flowers that attract bugs in the soil that makes up Jack’s garden by the end of the book.

Henry Cole’s well label illustrations are the best part of the book. I was able to tell JDaniel the names of all the bugs and types of flowers, because they were labeled in the book.

What did we do?

We planted seeds about a month and a half ago.

We talked and read to the seeds to help them grow.

The pollen level was high so, I brought the plants inside so that JDaniel could check on their progress. He came up with the wonderful idea of pictures walking them through some of his books.

This post is linked to Feed Me Books Friday, Link and Learn, We Play and It’s Play Time.

Read.Explore.Learn.- Mom and Ice Cream

May 6, 2011 By Deirdre

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Please try to visit at least three of the other people that have placed links below and leave a comment. I will visit each of you and leave a kind comment and Stumble your post.

If you are not linking up an activity and are just visiting, please try to stop by a few of the links below.
I would love a comment too.

My Book Tie-Ins of the Week:

While thinking about what kind of ice cream to select, a little boy named Teddy dreams of a land where he would be the king of ice cream. (It may have been the paper crown the waiter brought over to him that became the daydream.)

Teddy’s kingdom has chocolate halls and mint chip ice cream walls. He is able to travel by rocket to an ice cream moon. Later he sails an ice cream sea and fishes for cherries and nuts. He relishes in the fact that everything in his land is his.

After exploring his ice cream kingdom, Teddy discovers that something is missing. He finds that he is all alone and that it would be better with somebody to share it.

When Teddy removes his crown, he finds he is back in the ice cream shop and the waiter is still waiting to take his order.

What does he select? He asks for a banana split with two spoons. One spoon for mom and one for him.

What did we do?

Ice Cream Making

Actually we made ice milk by putting milk and chocolate syrup into an old cottage cheese container. We strapped down the lid of the container and then placed it into an old coffee container. I added ice and salt around the cottage cheese container and then strapped down the coffee container lid.

We rolled it back and forth until JDaniel decided he was tired of rolling it. ( That was about 20 minutes.) We repeated the alphabet, practiced counting and reviewed nursery rhymes to get through the 20 minutes.

The container was then put into the freezer for a couple of hours.

Voila! We had homemade ice milk. JDaniel loves it.

Ice Cream Cone Balloon Game

I thought this wastebasket looked a little like an ice cream cone. We tried to get the balloon into the cone by tossing it, dropping it, and kicking it.

This post is linked to Feed Me Books Friday , Link and Learn, We Play and It’s Play Time.

Disclaimer: I was sent this book to review by Tiger Tales Books. The activities and opinions are my own.

Read.Explore.Learn- Bunnies

April 29, 2011 By Deirdre

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Please try to visit at least three of the other people that have placed links below and leave a comment. I will visit each of you and leave a kind comment.

If you are not linking up an activity and are just visiting, please try to stop by a few of the links below.

My Book Tie-Ins of the Week:

Suki The Very Loud Bunny by Carmela and Steven D’Amico is a tale about a rabbit that lives outside the box. Suki is loud and full of adventure. She wakes up early each morning and greets the world around her with ear-splitting cries of “Good Morning”. She wants to look beyond her home to visit the wide world. When she does, she gets lost and has to use her loud voice to call for her mother.

Suki learns lessons as she explores the world that changes her life, but not her personality.

Little Bunny in Little Bunny’s Sleepless Night finds he wants to explore the world beyond his own too. He is lonely sleeping in his house all by himself. Little Bunny decides sleeping at a friend’s house would be better. He tries owl’s house. Owl stays awake reading at night. He tries skunk’s house. Skunk forgets he is there and sprays him when he gets scared at night. Each of his friend’s houses isn’t right for him. Finally, he realizes that home is where he needs to be after all.

What did we do?

Building Structures and Roads with Cardboard

JDaniel asked me to cut cardboard rectangles out from some cardboard for a project. He hadn’t decided on the project, but he wanted to do one.

I showed him how to build a lean-to with the rectangles and he had fun building one for his bunny.

We later used the rectangles to create a cardboard road for his bunny to practice doing the Bunny Hop down on his way home.

We had a great time with the cardboard. It will be fun to take it out later and see what JDaniel will create with it.

What bunny books have you read to your children?

This post is linked to Feed Me Books Friday, Link and Learn, We Play and It’s Play Time.

Read.Explore.Learn- One Rainy Day

April 8, 2011 By Deirdre

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Link your book-related activity below. Please make sure your post has a book in it.

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<center><a href=”http://www.jdaniel4smom.com/”><img alt=”Shibley Smiles” src=”http://69.195.124.116/~jdanielf/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/ReadExploreLearn.jpg” alt=”jdaniel4smom” width=”150″ height=”150″ /></a></center>

Please try to visit at least three of the other people that have placed links below and leave a comment. I will visit each of you and leave a kind comment and Stumble your post.

If you are not linking up an activity and are just visiting, please try to stop by a few of the links below.
I would love a comment too.

My Book Tie-Ins of the Week:

One Rainy Day.

Little Duck has a wonderful time with his red boots and orange umbrella playing in the silver shimmering raindrops. He encounters a green frog, blue puddles, pink worms, black bugs, brown mud, white boats, and yellow flowers while out enjoying the rain. Thank goodness his mom has a purple towel waiting for him at home.He is probably really wet.

What did we do?

Color Matching One
We took a leftover lick and stick color stripes from a Sunday school lesson I taught a few months ago and cut them into small squares that would fit on the bottom of little rubber ducks.

ABCs of Exploring Books with Reading Activities : I-Q

JDaniel helped me lick the squares and place them on the ducks. Two ducks each received the same color. Then we tried to find the ducks with the matching color.

Color Matching Two
I took out an old egg carton and put different colors at the bottom of each egg cup. JDaniel then tried to match the color on each duck’s bottom to the color in each egg cup.

Read.Explore.Learn.- My Mom Has X-Ray Vision

April 1, 2011 By Deirdre

Steps:

Link your book-related activity below. Please make sure your post has a book in it.

Please place the Read.Explore.Learn. badge on your post or create a link back to this meme.

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Please try to visit at least three of the other people that have placed links below and leave a comment. I will visit each of you and leave a kind comment and Stumble your post.

If you are not linking up an activity and are just visiting, please try to stop by a few of the links below.
I would love a comment too.

My Book Tie-Ins of the Week:

My Mom Has X-Ray Vision by Angela McAllister explores how a mom can know what you are up to when she isn’t even in the same room as you are. Among other things how does she know you have her pots and pans?

Matthew decides to test out his mom’s vision and whether she can see through walls. Mom doesn’t pass the test. She doesn’t know where he is hiding due to her saving the life of the neighbor next door during that same period of time.

There must be another way that she finds things out Matthen decides. Maybe she has eyes on the back of her head. This is such a cute book. I love the illustrations done by Alex T. Smith. The mom pictured in her superhero outfit is priceless. Leaving the children hanging as to how mom knows things will be a great story starter. I bet your children can come up with other superpowers mom and dads can have.

What did we do?

Craft
JDaniel added hair to a self-portrait of me using noodles. I decided to use 3-D glasses instead of x-ray glasses. JDaniel got a little carried away with the noodles. I wish my hair was this full of the volume of both sides of my head.

Disclaimer: I was sent a copy of this book to review by Tiger Tale Books.

Read.Explore.Learn- Thanksgiving

November 26, 2010 By Deirdre

Steps:

Link your activity below.

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My Book Tie-Ins of the Week:

I love What is Thanksgiving! by Michelle Medlock Adams. It explains to children that Thanksgiving is not about parades, football, and food. It is about being thankful and giving thanks. I love parades and food. I will watch football games. Giving thanks and being thankful is really how I hope I spent the day.

JDaniel and I made a turkey puppet with a head that could wag side to side and up and down. As I read him What is Thanksgiving!, I had him nod the turkey’s head yes for what Thanksgiving was about and no for things it is not about.

We made Turkey bowling pins for fun. I found a pattern for making napkin rings and modified it to create the bands around these old bottles. The feathers are tracings of JDaniel’s hands.