J is for Jack and the Beanstalk | Preschool

J is for Jack and the Beanstalk.

As a gathering activity (if you do preschool with more than one child) we started with this coloring page of Jack climbing the beanstalk. I created this page, with a clipart from google and inserted the ‘J J J j j j’ text (in Print Clearly dashed font).

  [you can download it HERE]  

Then I read this Jack and the Beanstalk book by Usborne. My kids really like this one. Before I read it, I made them point out the the J on the cover and title page. 

After reading the story, we worked on counting with beans. I printed off THIS simple tracing number page, and they traced the number and said which number it was. Then I put glue dots on the numbers and they counted them as they added the right amount of beans to each number.

[download this page HERE]

When we were done counting, we went back to the Jack and the Beanstalk book. I found this fun printable (from Learn, Create, Love) that I cut out and put on popsicle sticks. We then went through the story again and the kids picked up the corresponding prop in the story. It was fun to see them try to figure out which ones they needed to put down and which ones they needed to pick up. Re-telling the story also helped them remember it a little better.

Our next project used the same printable as above, but this time we used the coloring pages. They colored the pictures, and I helped cut them out. Then we glued them on a big piece of construction paper. They matched the following: the mom with the cow, the old man with the beans, and the giant with the hen. I drew a J that they traced and spelled out the rest of ‘ack and the Beanstalk’

They didn’t color the ‘Jack’ picture, but instead I took a picture of them pretending to climb. Then I used Power Point to remove the background so that it was just a picture of them. That part isn’t necessary, because you are going to cut out around them anyway. You can either print it on regular paper or sticker paper. Then they can stick themselves on the beanstalk, like they are Jack climbing it!

Our last project for this preschool day was finding ‘magic beans’ in a bin of rice/wheat. I love making them use these plastic tweezers to pinch the beans to pick them up when they find them.

To make the ‘magic beans’ I just spray painted dry beans with gold spray paint. I actually did this about 30 minutes before preschool started. Because they are so small, they dry really fast. Spray on one side, let dry for 15-20 minutes, then flip over and spray the other side. Don’t over spray them, or they will be sticky and wont dry fast!

J is for Jack and the Beanstalk

Halloween Bowling – pinterest success!

Tis the season for Halloween Bowling! I’m a cub master and a preschool teacher & put together these bowling sets for both groups to make this past week (at pack meeting and at a preschool Halloween party). They were a huge success, and so stinkin’ cute!!

This project was a pinterest find, and I modified it a bit since I was making so many (12 sets) and had different ages (3 –10 yrs). The original version used 4 x 9” blocks, construction paper, googly eyes, and a bouncy ball. I made 1.5 x 6” blocks with vinyl stickers, and used a golf ball!

What you need to make my modified version:

• 6 – 1.5” x 6” x 1” blocks
• spray paint - (My favorite is Rust-oleum brand, use these colors - white, key lime, seaside, black, grape, and real orange)
• vinyl [and Silhouette machine] - (in these colors - black, white, and a little bit of yellow)
• vinyl sticker template (I created, this is for a Silhouette SD, but I think it will convert to other Silhouette versions)
• a golf ball (I got mine at Wal-mart, or find them here)
• red & black sharpies

Paint each board a different color, and let them dry. While those are drying, cut the vinyl stickers. I TOTALLY recommend a Silhouette machine, it makes projects like this so SO simple. All you have to do is open the template, load the vinyl & cut!

Once the boards are dry, and the vinyl is cut, it’s just a matter of applying the stickers. I showed the 3 year olds what it was suppose to look like (on the template), then they stuck them on how they wanted it to look. For the cub scouts, I just handed it to them and said, “put them together!”  The eyeball golf balls were simple too – use the sharpies to color in a black circle, then draw red squiggly lines all over it!

Then set it up and play!!

 

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!

How to make a kid-friendly schedule clock {C is for Clock}

I’m all about schedules. I don’t always stick to them as well as I’d like to, things come up…or I just get lazy :/ But I really do like a basic schedule that we follow daily, mainly because it helps the kids know what to expect throughout the day. So this is my version of a kid friendly schedule. Something easy for them to look at and understand what should be happening or what’s coming up in the day.

First I’ll give you the “how to” then I’ll tell you how it works.

{HOW TO}

I found a bunch of random clipart from doing a Google search (I don’t have any clipart credit, because honestly I didn’t think about it when I was making it). If you want to use the same clipart I used, you can get it HERE. The squares about about 3/4” square.

[top row L-R: quiet time/nap time, lunch, church, play with friends. 2nd row L-R: clean house, dinner, watch tv, play outside.
3rd row L-R: brush teeth, get dressed, eat breakfast, bedtime. last row L-R: library, grocery shopping, preschool, job chart.]

Print. Then I laminated. Not a must, but definitely keeps it nicer for longer (especially with the little sticky, dirty fingers that will be sure to grab them!). I love my laminator, which is Scotch brand and you can get it easily at Walmart or order it online from Amazon (don’t forget to throw in some laminating sheets).

Once laminated, cut them out and it’s time to assemble. I bought a $6 clock from Target and some Scotch branch velcro circles (5/8”).

To keep it really easy for the kids to read & figure out what is on the schedule, I put the velcro buttons (I used the hook side) on the clock on the hour (right by the number) and on the 1/2 hour (in between the numbers).

Then of course, put the opposite velcro on the back of the clipart squares (I used the loop side)

Then put them on the clock! At, or about, the time you plan on doing those things.

On the back of the clock I put the remaining velcro buttons so I could easily store the clipart squares I don’t need for the day.

Super easy to make!! Now I’ll tell you how it works, or at least how I use it in our house.

{HOW IT WORKS}

When the boys wake up, I tell them to look at the clock and see what the LITTLE hand is pointing at. Throughout the day I try to ask them only when it’s on the hour or half our, since that is how I set it up. They see what it’s pointing at and get to it. When there’s a big gap in the schedule it means that the particular activity/event will take that long until the next activity/event, or they can pick what they want to do during that time. Luckily they are only awake for 12 hours, so doing this clock schedule is perfect!

Because not every day is the same, I change things around the night before so that in the morning, they can jump right in. It’s pretty easy for the kids to get, and it helps them start figuring out how to use a clock & to stay on a schedule. Pretty soon I will need to add some new clipart squares, for all the random things they have to do like “doctor appt”, “dentist appt”, “soccer”, etc.

{C is for Clock}

I made this because I wanted to get on a better schedule, but also it was for our C is for Clock preschool day. My oldest boy (4 years old) now knows that when the big hand is at the 12, that you say it’s “something” o’clock. So when he looks at the schedule clock, he can tell me what we are doing and what the actual time is!

R is for Rocks

For R week in preschool, we spent one day on Rocks. This is great for preschool, but it’s also fun for kids (particularly the rock loving ones) to do anytime, especially on a rainy day. They boys had lots of fun writing our names & making shapes with the rocks.

Then we “drew” pictures with the rocks.

They came the really fun part. We made animals with the rocks. I helped them design the animals and little G (3.5 years old) CAREFULLY used the glue gun to glue them together. *First I had to warn him about how hot & dangerous the glue gun is and he did a great job being careful & safe.

We colored the animals to make them look even more like animals. You could use paint of course, but we stuck with washable markers. To finish them off, we glued on some googley eyes.

And our finished products – a pig, a monster(?), a duck, a frog, and a caterpillar.

They were favorite “toys” for the day. But the hot glue didn’t hold as strong as I thought it would. Next time we might try E6000 instead. What kind of rock animals can you come up with?

M week

I have been slacking with preschool lately. Ever since Christmas I haven’t been putting as much effort into it as I did before. I’ll get it gear soon enough, hopefully!

Music – We started with the big letter M, traced it with his finger & then put music note stickers all along it. Now that he knows what music notes are, he can find them in books & understands that it means ‘music’. They did these music note pages that I made & lastly I gave my boys different types of musical instruments (dollar store types) – ie: kazoo, harmonica, and tambourine. 

Monster – This was a fun day. It’s wasn’t as much preschool as it was little B’s birthday! We had a monster themed party, so there were monsters all over. You can read more about the monster party HERE. Aside from the cupcakes & balloons, I had little G help me draw scary faces on the monster decorations & all the kids got to make their own monster by coloring a blank monster & gluing on eyeballs they found hidden in play dough.

Money [ideas from HERE] – (1) We did another big letter M, traced it and put coin stickers on it. (2) I hid some coins in their tubs of rice/wheat & they dug and played in them until all the money was found. When little G found his, he separated them by size & color (then we talked about what the different names were). (3) With the pennies he found (5 of them) he played a heads & tails game. I printed out a sheet that he could chart what he got each round (heads or tails). (4) I helped him rub the different types of coins on paper with crayons, the heads & tails side or each (idea from HERE). (5) We played a little counting game my sister gave me. (6) I made him a paper wallet with some fake dollar bills & set up a very simple grocery store. He got to ‘buy’ what he wanted for his lunch. Probably his favorite thing to do all day!

M WEEK!

 

FEATURED ON:

L week

We did L week a couple weeks before Christmas and the same week that we went to my little brother’s wedding. Needless to say it was a short L week, but I tried to get enough packed it. L is for Ladybug, Lights, Lamb, & Letters.

LADYBUG – (1) We started L week with a big letter L and traced it with his finger then put ladybug stickers on it. Once again, I made these stickers & made them 3 different sizes, for the next activity. (2) Using this paper with 3 leaf sizes, little G shorted the ladybugs on the corresponding leaves (big, medium, and small). (3) Using black paper & a hole punch, make a bunch of ladybug spots. Then using this ladybug counting page, add that many spots on each ladybug. (4) Ladybug snacks. I used mini leave cookie cutters and had them cut leaves from cheese & topped them with dried blueberries (the ladybugs). (5) Make ladybug rocks. Find random shaped rocks (or you can go for round rocks. Little G likes the long ones), paint them red, then draw a face & dots with a black marker.

 

LIGHTS – (1) We talked about all the different kinds of lights using this light page. He colored the lights & traced the Ls. (2) Using vinyl, I cut out uppercase ‘L’s on my silhouette and the boys went around to all the light switches in the house and put ‘L’s on them. (3) We did more light pages, including color by size, patterns, & color the ABC lights using scrabble letters to play the game. (I used this Christmas light font for that page) (4) Light search. I gave the boys head lamps & hid paper Christmas lights on the walls in their room & turned off the light. They loved using the headlamps to find them. (5) We put Christmas lights on their mini Christmas tree! A definite favorite of theirs! (6) candy Christmas lights treat. Very easy to make, and of course the kids are not going to turn down candy.

LAMB – (1) My little boys made lambs from their handprints (idea here). I traced their hands, little G cut out his hand (I cut out my 1.5 year olds) and then they added the glue & cotton balls. Cute little lambs! (2) I printed & laminated the L nursery rhyme HERE. He circled & counted all the L’s in the nursery rhyme ‘Mary Had a Little Lamb’. (3) With a lamb stamp (from this Melissa & Doug set) little G stamped lambs in each square of a chart. My intention was to make patterns, but he had more fun mixing colors on the stamp pad and making cool looking lambs. (4) Read (or sing) Mary Had a Little Lamb. I love this book of Favorite Nursery Rhymes from Mother Goose by Scott Gustafson, my boys made me read all of them after we read Mary Had a Little Lamb. (5) I made up these lamb pages. They include counting lambs, matching uppercase & lowercase lambs, coloring lambs, & coloring by size.

LETTERS – This wasn’t much of a preschool day. There is A LOT I could have done for ‘letters’ (like these) but we were leaving the next morning on a trip to my little brother’s wedding. I had little G help me with our Christmas cards/Letters and gave him some newly painted ABC magnets.

K week

We made it to (& through) K week! We did Kiss, King, Kite, and Keys. I also planned Kitchen, but that day didn’t happen.

KISS – (1) We started with a big capital K and the boys traced it with their fingers. Then they added kiss stickers that I made. (2) We read Kisses by Nanda Roep and I printed out a sheet with all the different kinds of kisses in the book (Grandma kiss, butterfly kiss, circus kiss, etc). As I read the book, they kissed each of those pictures (with lipstick on of course!). (3) Christmas kiss ABC game combined with a Christmas kiss countdown (HERE). Little G matched the capital letter on the bottom of the kisses to the lowercase letters on the Christmas tree. We glued them down when he found a match and it became his countdown to Christmas! (4) Draw with the tip of the kiss, and then eat as many as you can before mom sees. (5) Later that night, for FHE, we made pretzel kiss treats.

KEYS – (1) Match the keys. I found a bunch of different types of key clipart. With the Silhouette, I traced them and made the “shadow” of the key, and cut the actual key clipart. They both have magnets on them, so they stick together when you match them. (2) At the Dollar Store I bought some locks with keys and they spent quite a while learning how to put the key in the lock, then turning the key and opening it. Little G found some things to lock up too! (3) Grant got some messed up keys from a store that makes keys (you could go anywhere – Wal-Mart, Home Depot, etc). They had a few that they were going to throw out so we snatched them! I buried them in some rice/wheat and the boys dug around until they found them and played for a while in the rice/wheat.

KITE – (1) This twistynoodle Kite page, with uppercase and lowercase K’s to trace. (2) We made some stained glass kites (inspired by THIS). (3) Kite pattern page. I colored the kites in a pattern and left the last couple blank and he filled them in. The very last line he did it all by himself! (4) count and glue bows. I made this page with numbers on the kites and that’s how many bows he glued on the string.

KING – (1) Decorate crowns! We used stickers, crayons and glued on some sequence. The blue and red crowns were from the dollar store and the yellow one was cut from cardstock (2 & 3) I made these King pages. There is a color by shape (I told him to color the kings in certain shapes a specific color), there is also a page with K’s to trace that are wearing crowns, and another page with lots of crowns to color. We didn’t get to that page, but I was going to tell him a number and he would count and color that many, and continue until they were all colored. 

K WEEK!