Art Activity: Purple Crayon Drawings

After reading Harold and the Purple Crayon we hung up long pieces of butcher paper in the hallway and gave the children purple crayons.  The children used their purple crayons to draw anything their imagination could conjure.

Story Book for November 21, 2008

Our story book for November 21 was Harold and the Purple Crayon by Crockett Johnson.  The story of a little boy who uses his purple crayon to draw wonderful world created from his imagination.

Story Book for November 20, 2008

Our story book for November 20th was It Looked Like Spilt Milk by Charles G. Shaw.  This book features a white shape that changes shape on every page.  Is it a rabbit?  Is it an Owl?  Is it a Mitten?  We find out what the white shape is at the end of the book.

Story Book for November 19, 2008

Our story book for November 19th was The Night Sky by Alice Pernick.  Simple text describes some of the many wonderful things to be found in the night sky.

Art Activity: Glitter Stars

For this art activity we gave the children star shaped paper in various colors, glue, paint brushes and glitter.  The children used their paint brushes to spread the glue on their paper stars.  After applying glue, the children sprinkled glitter over their stars.

Science Activity: Reflecting Light

For this science activity we gave the children flashlights and a stand up mirror.  We asked the children to shine their flashlight into the mirror to see what would happen.  The children learned that the light would reflect off of the mirror and appear on the wall behind them.

Story Book for November 18, 2008

Our story book for November 18th, 2008 was Twinkle Twinkle Little Star by Sylvia Long.  This is a version of the classic children's song featuring animals.

Math Activity: Teddy Bear Counting

For this math activity we gave the children a spinner with bears on it, and some colorful teddy bear counters.  The children spun the spinner and then counted out that number of teddy bears.  This activity helped develop the children's touch counting skills.

Story Book for November 17, 2008

Our story book for November 17th was Bunny Day by Rick Walton.  This story follows a bunny family throughout their day.  Telling time is part of this story.  On each hour of the day, the bunnies are engaged in another part of their day.

Story Book for November 12, 2008

Our story book for November 12th, 2008 was The Sun is My Favorite Star by Frank Asch.  This is about a little boy who explains why he loves the Sun.  From waking him up in the morning to making shadows for him among other reasons.

Math Activity: Clothing Graph

For this activity the children were asked to count how many people were wearing a certain clothing and then use wooden blocks to graph that number.  For example, how many people were wearing a skirt that day, or how many were wearing shoes that day.

Art Activity: Lacing Bears

For this activity we gave the children bear shaped paper with holes punched all around the edges.  The children used yarn to lace in and out of the holes all around the bear.  This was a great fine motor exercise for the children.

Story Book for November 14, 2008

Our story book for November 14th was Jesse Bear, What Will You Wear? by Nancy White Carlstrom.  This is the story of a young bear's day from morning until night time.  

Language Activity: The Napping House

After reading The Napping House story, the children used magnetic pieces to retell the story in their own words.  Since the story pieces were magnetic they could be used on our classroom chalkboard.

Art Activity: Quilt Collage

We gave the children large pieces of paper, fabric scraps, glue and paint brushes for this activity.  The children used the paint brushes to spread glue on their paper and then pressed the fabric scraps onto their paper to make a quilt collage.

Story Book for November 13, 2008

Our story book for November 13th was The Napping House by Don and Audrey Wood.  The Napping House is a house where everyone is sleeping.  Including a snoring granny, a dreaming child, a dozing dog, and others.  Great illustrations and a great story for preschoolers.

Corn Syrup Painting

This was kind of a messy art activity.  We let the children spread corn syrup over their paper using a paint brush.  Next the children put drops of food coloring on their papers.  The food coloring spreads on it's own throughout the corn syrup to make some great designs.

Science Activity: Making Shadows

For this science activity we used flashlights to make hand shadows on the wall.  The teachers showed the children how to use their hands to make animal shadows such as birds and dogs.

Art Activity: Shadow Tracing

For this art activity we put paper and stencils on our light table.  The children selected which stencils they wanted to use, and then placed them under their paper.  The children used markers and colored pencils to trace around the shadow the stencils made on the paper.

Story Book for November 11, 2008

Our story book for November 11th was What Makes a Shadow? by Clyde Robert Bulla.  This is a non-fiction book that shows what shadows are and how they are formed.