The first bulletin board in our room for our "Monster Stories" theme is the Go Away Big Green Monster Bulletin Board. This is an interactive bulletin board. The children can change the monster's face to look any way they like.
Our children's art bulletin board features our Scary Leonardo Faces that we made on the first day of our "Monster Stories" theme.
The dramatic play bulletin board is a Monster Train Station to go along with the Monster Train that we have in our dramatic play area.
For this cooking activity we first mixed a few drops of food coloring with milk. Next the children used paint brushes and the colored milk to paint a monster face on their bread. We popped them in the toaster for a few minutes and then they were ready to eat.
For our art activity today we let the children decorate the monster train that is in our Dramatic Play area. We gave the kids markers and crayons and let them color, scribble, and draw anything they wanted on the train.
For our music activity today we had a Wild Rumpus. A Wild Rumpus is sort of a monster parade where you make lots of noise and play your instruments really loud. Each child had an instrument for this activity.
After reading the book, Leonardo the Terrible Monster, we had the children make a scary Leonardo face. In the book Leonardo tries very hard to be scary, but just wasn't. We gave the children fabric circles for Leonardo's head, string, fabric eyes, foam horns and teeth. The children used tacky glue to create their scary Leonardo face.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
For our woodworking activity this past week, the children hammered golf tees into styrofoam blocks. This is a good activity for those children who may not yet have the strength to hammer nails into wood.
For this art activity the children first rubbed colored chalk all over their papers. Next they rubbed over the chalk with a paper towel. Next the children placed a spoonful of watered down black paint on their paper, and then tilted their paper back and forth to make the paint run over the paper in different directions. Next the kids glued on a full moon and a picture of an owl to complete their picture.
For our art activity on Friday, we gave the children various colors of playdough, feather, beads and some other materials. We asked them to create an animal out of the materials. The children made snakes, birds, lizards, and crocodiles. Click here to learn the importance of playdough to preschoolers.
Our math activity on Thursday consisted of arranging boxes in order by size. The children arranged the boxes from largest to smallest vice versa. Click here to learn the importance of preschoolers practicing seriating objects by size.
Our math activity on Tuesday consisted of arranging container lids in order by size. The children arranged the lids from smallest to largest. Click here to learn the importance of preschoolers seriating objects by size.
