Candy Cane Senses!

We made candy canes with construction paper and "peppermint paint!" We mixed peppermint extract and white paint to make it smell just like a real candy cane!

Then we pulled out the candy canes we could eat!

We first discussed our five senses and what body parts were associated with them. Then using each one we made observations about a regular peppermint candy cane and a mystery one.

We eventually decided the mystery candy cane was Strawberry! In the end we got to learn about the senses we use every day and utilized them to solve a problem, and got to have a sweet afternoon snack!

Rainbow Fish

Fingerpainting is always buckets of fun!

When we get to fingerpaint something almost as big as us... that makes it super exciting! We read the story Rainbow Fish and talked about sharing and being respectful and caring to our friends. Then we fingerpainted our EXTRA LARGE fish with many different colors! Each fish had their very own "glitter scale" because as we learned in the story- Sharing is Caring!

Its very fun to come into our classroom and see our fishy friends swimming above us! Its almost like we're under the sea!

Puffy Snowmen!

Puffy Snowmen! It was just as fun preparing for this activity as it was doing it! We mixed puffy shaving cream and glue together to make our own paint. Then we painted paper plates with VERY BIG scoops! We added a button face, felt scarves, and construction paper hats to make the perfect group of winter friends!

Animal Action!

"Animal Action is so much fun! Animal Action! Move like a ...."

Playing this game allowed us to practice our gross motor skills and creative movement. Each time the song played we were instructed to move and "talk" like different animals! From flamingos to lions we had a blast!

You Cant Catch Us... We're The Gingerbread Kids!

Almost delicious enough to eat! We practiced our lacing with yarn and construction paper cutouts, and we stuffed them with stuffing! Then we added glitter glue (frosting) and buttons (sprinkles) to finish our yummy treats! Our gingerbread cookies looked like they came fresh out of the oven!

Holiday Wreaths

Our classroom became very festive after we made our holiday wreaths. We painted paper plate circles with different shades of green and layered on pieces of tissue paper. Then we traced our hands and made a red bow to decorate them!

Sparkling Snowflakes

"Light and fragile as they fall

Watch them, watch them, catch them all

Each unique in its own way

Falling softly every day!"

We made our own special snowflakes with just glue and glitter. They're each unique in their own way and we can keep them forever because they'll never melt!

Seasons Change... its Winter!

Seasons change...

Its winter! The leaves have fallen off our tree and snow has covered the bottom. Snowkids show their smiles all day long! We made our own snowmen by dipping balloons in white paint and pressing them on blue paper. Then we used cut outs of our own faces and construction paper shapes to decorate them!

PreK Playdoh!

All children love playdoh! When we get to make it ourselves though... its a blast!

Using flour, water, salt, Kool-Aid, and a few other ingredients we made our very own playdoh! First the ingredients started out very soft and dry. After we added the Kool-Aid and water it turned VERY sticky and wet!

We had to keep adding water and flour until we got it just right. Using our hands we rolled and kneaded it until it was ready to play with! The best part was.... the Kool-Aid made it smell like Grapes, Fruit Punch, and Cherry!

Turkey Time!

Everyone needs a little turkey time in November! We used coffee filters and watercolor paints to make very colorful feathers for our class of turkeys!

Gobble 'Till You Wobble!

Our class made pumpkin pies using our math skills!

Using our fine motor skills we cut our large and small triangles for our "crust" and "pie filling." After we glued them onto our plate, we had to use our math skills to solve an addition problem attached to our paper plate. Once we solved it, we knew how many cotton balls.. or "scoops of whipped cream" to put on our pumpkin pies! They were almost yummy enough to eat!

Popping into Pumpkins!

Who knew that we could "turn balloons into pumpkins"!?

First we had to blow up alot of balloons! (It was a lot of work!) Then we dipped orange yarn into a mixture of flour, water, and glue. We swished it around and covered the all the yarn in the mixture. Next we wrapped it around the balloon over... and over... and over... until we had no more! We let them dry for several days and then....

We POPPED the balloons and we were left with PUMPKINS!

Open Pumpkin Surgery!

We all know what pumpkin pie tastes like, and we all know what it looks like. But when we opened up our pumpkin we saw what it starts out as! We got to get our hands messy and pull out all of the slimy, gooey, insides of a pumpkin. Then we separated all of the seeds we found and baked them. It was a delicious treat!

Painting Pumpkins

This activity was perfect to get our creative juices flowing! We painted pumpkins! We brainstormed the many ways we could decorate a pumpkin, and for us painting seemed to be the most fun (and messy)! What an artistic class!

Spooky Spiders

You can imagine our eyes at this spooky sight, when we saw our spiders had made their home overnight! During class, we read the book, The Very Busy Spider. After we read the story we talked about the things we knew about spiders and what we wanted to find out. We then decided to make our own! Using our fine motor skills we cut out circles for bodies and rectangles for legs. We even got to use glitter to make our spiders the most special ones anyone had seen!

Jack-O-Lanterns in The Window!

There are many different ways to color. This activity required a very excited class! First we we took coffee filters and cut them into pumpkins. Next, we took yellow and orange markers and colored our own designs. Then came the fun part! We put our pumpkins in a plastic container and sprayed water all over it. Then we shook and tipped the container, watching the colors spread in different directions! We also used different shapes to make our own unique face. Each pumpkin turned out awesome, and created our very own pumpkin patch!

Let's Make Color Collages

Color recognition is one of the many important skills that we work on in the classroom. We listed all of the colors we could think of, and followed cues to figure out the rest. Once all of the colors were listed we brainstormed as many things that we could think of that were each color. The lists of items that we came up with was very creative! We then used different materials to make collages that represented each color! Our hallway was colorific!

Thunder Cakes!

The changing of seasons can bring a lot of different weather patterns, especially between summer and fall. One stormy morning, some of our classmates seemed to be afraid of the dark clouds and loud rolls of thunder. To calm ourselves, we read the book Thunder Cake and talked about what the elements of thunderstorm are. We also learned that there really isn't anything to be afraid of afterall! Then following the book, we used the four special ingredients to make our very own Thunder Cakes: Lightning, Thunder, Raindrops, and Clouds! It ass a very fun way to learn about thunderstorms!

Seasons in Our Classroom

We have created our very own seasons tree in our classroom. We talked about the different seasons and the weather patterns and holidays that they bring along. For each season we decorate our tree accordingly. The season of fall brings so many wonderful things. So, we practiced multiple skills including fine motor skills, color recognition, etc to create our Fall Tree.

We made our own clouds using construction paper and cotton balls. We got to pull them apart and make lots of soft fluff to glue onto our paper.

Every tree in the fall is covered with leaves of all types of shades and colors. After discussing the colors that we typically see used tissue paper to make our own!

Apples are a delicious fall snack! We used real apples to make prints, and then we got to eat the rest with different yummy dips.

The spooky holiday of Halloween is celebrated by many in the Fall. Using our hands we made our own family of bats to flutter around our room!

Handprints, Murals, and More!

What better way to paint than with our hands! We practiced our color recognition by identifying the colors of the paint and mixing them to make new colors. Further refining our fine motor skills, we used paintbrushes to paint our hands and placed them on the canvas to make prints. The paint was very cold and slimy on our hands, and it was really neat!

As a class we then talked about what other materials we could use to paint and make beautiful artwork for our classroom. We decided that nature has plenty to offer. So, using sticks, grass, leaves, rocks, and more we painted several Nature Paintings for our classroom! It was very interesting to see the different patterns that came about.

Our final projects turned out beautiful!

Our nature paintings taught us how to think outside the box!

We talked about all the different things we want to be when we grew up, the differences in our likes and dislikes, and our family history. Painters, doctors, teachers, and writers. We learned that no matter where we came from or where we want to go we will all make a very important impact on the world that we live in!

Welcome!

Welcome to PreK's class Blog! This blog is designed to be used as a tool to connect the parents and families to the students in the PreK class. Each and every day, we complete so many different activities and learning experiences that help us learn and grow. We want you to see and be a part of all of the amazing things that go on in our classroom! Check back at our blog frequently to see what new things we have learned, and feel free to leave comments or contact me with questions!

Miss Ashley