Cooking Activity: Circus McGurkus Pink Lemonade

Our cooking activity for the Dr. Seuss unit was making Circus McGurkus Pink Lemonade.  The children squeezed lemons, measured water, sugar, and cherry juice to make the pink lemonade.

Story Book for September 26, 2008

Our story book for September 26th was All Aboard The Circus McGurkus by Dr. Seuss.  

Math Activity: Feed the Bird

Our math activity for Friday was a teacher made game called "Feed the Bird".  The children first touch counted counters that were to be the bird's food.  We used small rocks for counters.  After counting the rocks the children then dropped the food into the bird's mouth.  The children were able to see the food go into the bird's belly.

Art Activity: Feather Painting

After reading the story Gertrude McFuzz by Dr. Seuss, we gave the children feathers, paint, and paper to let them do feather painting.  For the children who would rather not get their fingers messy, we used clothes pins to hold the feathers.

Story Book for September 25, 2008

Our story book for September 25th was Gertrude McFuzz by Dr. Seuss.    A story of a vain bird who desires to have more attractive feathers on her tail.  She finds out that large colorful feathers aren't right for her type of bird.

Field Trip: Rhyme Walk

We took the children on a Rhyme Walk the other day.  We gave each child an object such as a rock, brick, hat, etc...  We told them we going to look for something that rhymed with their object.  We walk around our school looking for the rhyming items.

Art Activity: Color My Feelings

At the art table today we gave the children various colors of people shaped paper and crayons.  We asked them to draw a feeling picture.  The children drew happy, excited, sad and angry pictures.  We even got an "Angry Alien" picture.

Story Book for September 24, 2008

Our story book for today was My Many Colored Days by Dr. Seuss.  This is a story about feelings and colors.

Art Activity: Apple Trees

We made apple trees at the art table today.  We gave the children various parts of a tree (2 types of trunks, and 4 types of tree tops), some green, red, and yellow tissue paper.  The children put together their trees using glue and rolled the tissue paper up to make apples for their trees.

Language Activity: Objects that Rhyme

For our language activity today we worked on the concepts of rhyming words with the children.  We gave them an assortment of objects and ask them if they could pair up the ones that rhymed.  

Story Book for September 23, 2008

The story we read today was Ten Apples Up On Top by Dr. Seuss.  It's a counting story about a lion, tiger and dog who are having a contest to see who can balance 10 apples on top of their head.

Woodworking: Sanding Sneetch Stars

Our woodworking activity for the Dr. Seuss unit was Sanding Sneetch Stars.  In the story of the Sneetches, the Star Bellied Sneetches had to go through a special machine to make their stars go away.  We let the children use sandpaper to remove colored stars from a piece of wood.  We wrapped the sandpaper around wooden blocks to make it easier for the children to use.  As with every woodworking activity, the children wore safety googles to help protect their eyes.

Art Activity: Colored Sand Pictures

Our art activity today was Colored Sand Pictures.  We gave the children colored sand in shaker bottles, glue and paint brushes.  The children spread glue on their paper and then sprinkled the colored sand on to the glue.  We got some colorful works of art with this activity.

Music Activity: How Does this Creature Move?

We showed the children some pictures of strange Dr. Seuss characters and ask them "How would this creature move if it were dancing?"  The children then danced how they thought the creature would dance.  Add a little dance music and the kids had a great time dancing.

Story Book for September 22, 2008

Our story book for today was The Sneetches by Dr. Seuss. 

Math Activity: Seriating Dr. Seuss Characters by Size

We gave the children pictures of Dr. Seuss characters in different sizes, and asked them to arrange the pictures from largest to smallest.  Click here to learn the importance of preschoolers practicing seriating objects by size.

Art Activity: Egg Shell Collage

On Friday our art activity was to make an Egg Shell Collage.  We gave the children real egg shells, some green colored glue, paint brushes and glitter for this activity.  The children used the paint brushes to spread glue on their paper, and then added the egg shells to make a collage.  The kids finished off their collages with a sprinkling of glitter.

Story Book for September 19, 2008

Our story for September 19th was Green Eggs and Ham by Dr. Seuss.   A book that should be in every child's book collection.

Science Activity: Floating Egg Experiment

When you put an egg in water will it sink or float?  That's what we wanted to find out.  So we tried the floating egg experiment for our science activity.  We found out that an egg would sink in water, but it would float if you added salt to the water.  Click here to see how the experiment works.

Art Activity: Dr. Seuss Characters from Playdough

Our art activity on Thursday was making Dr. Seuss Characters from playdough.  We gave the children different colors of playdough, pipe cleaners, feathers, wiggle eye, buttons, and asked them to make a creature that they might see in a Dr. Seuss book.

Story Book for September 18, 2008

On September 18th, we read There's a Wocket in My Pocket by Dr. Seuss.  A silly book about unusual creatures whose names rhyme with common items in a boy's home.

Art Activity: Silly Hats

After reading The Cat in the Hat we had the children make "silly hats" at the art table.  We gave the children Dr. Seuss hat shaped paper, some colorful strips of paper, and asked them to glue the strips onto their hats.  Afterwards we displayed the artwork on the art bulletin board making it look like the kids were wearing their silly hats.

Story Book for September 17, 2008

The story we read for September 17th was The Cat in the Hat by Dr. Seuss.    A must read for all preschoolers.

Discovery Table for Dr. Seuss

For the Dr. Seuss unit, we decided to put Oobleck in the discovery table.  Oobleck is a mixture of liquid starch and white school glue.  Click here to learn how to make Oobleck (they call it GAK on this website).  You can make it any color you would like.  We decided to make it green because it was inspired by the Dr. Seuss book Bartholomew and the Oobleck.  The mixture is stretchy, slimy, and lots of fun.

Art Activity: Turtle Rubbings

After reading the story Yertle the Turtle, the children made turtle rubbings at the art table.  Using crayons and rubbing plates with various textures, the children simulated the different textures and patterns that you might find on a turtles shell and skin.  Afterwards, we displayed the art work in the hallway to resemble a scene from the Yertle the Turtle story.  The children gained knowledge about texture and developed fine motor skills during this activity.

Story Book for September 16, 2008

The story for September 16th was Yertle the Turtle by Dr. Seuss.  A funny story about the King of the Turtles, Yertle, who wants to make his kingdom larger at the expense of his loyal subjects.

Dr. Seuss Bulletin Boards

These are the bulletin boards displayed in our room for our 2 week Dr. Seuss theme.

Art Activity: Sugar Cube Buildings

The art activity for Friday was sugar cube buildings.  We gave the children some sugar cubes, glue, and then asked them to see what they could build.  The sugar cubes weren't the most stable building material, so the buildings didn't get very big.  However, the children were able to build some small structures with the materials.  Sugar Cubes and Glue:  bad for the teeth, but great for fine motor development.

Story book for September 11, 2008

The story we read on September 11th was Machines at Work by Byron Barton.  The great pictures in the book depict a busy day at a construction site.

Story book for September 12, 2008

The book we read on Friday was Katy and the Big Snow by Virginia Lee Burton.  It's the story of a hard working, determined snow plow that saves the town after a blizzard.

Art Activity: Stepping Stones

Last week, for art, we made stepping stones.  The children helped mix up the concrete mix.  After the concrete mix was ready we poured it into aluminum pie pans.  The children then laid mosaic tiles in the concrete mix to make beautiful designs.

Art Activity: Bridge Building

For our art activity we gave the children craft sticks and asked them to decorate them.  After the children used markers to decorate the craft sticks we glued them to a frame to make a bridge.  The bridges turned out to be surprisingly strong, and we were able to play with them in the block area.

Story Book for September 10, 2008

Our story book for September 10th was Bridges are to Cross by Philemon Sturges.  This book discusses the different types of bridges and has great pictures showing an example of each bridge.

Science Activity: Wrecking Ball

We set up a wrecking ball in the block area, and let the children experiment with it.  The wrecking ball was basically a ball and rope suspended from a dow rod.  First, the children built structures from blocks and containers.  Next, they used the wrecking ball to knock down their container.  The children had to figure out where to hit the structures in order to know how to best knock them down.