Wow and Happy Thanksgiving.

Um, hi, hello. I know we have been absent. I know we (mostly me) keep saying we'll post this or that and then silence for months. But people are visiting! Thank you. More than 100 people a day are here visiting our site and I am just so surprised! 

 I know Thanksgiving is tomorrow, so there is not a lot of time to create before the big day, but when your tummies are full or while waiting to eat, here are a few things we've done in my preschool class (follow me on Instagram if you like).

 It all started with the mayflower. This one is quick and requires little, plus there is the fun memento of your kiddo's little hand forever printed on the page. We just used half a sheet of light blue construction paper, had the kids draw on white clouds and blue water (or whatever they wanted, which DID include Elsa!) Then paint one hand brown and plop it on the paper for your boast and masts. Then glue on little white squares for sails. I think I originally saw this in Family Fun magazine. I will go back and check.

 The turkey gets a lot of play this time of year, however I am pretty certain he never looks like this when I'm about to chow at Thanksgiving dinner. Another simple project. Cut a cheap paper plate in half, glue a peanut  shaped (or whatever shape you want your turkey body to be) piece of brown paper to it. If you just draw the shape, the little ones can cut it our themselves. Draw in features (or use other materials - orange paper for a beak, googly eyes, even yarn for that red thing by their beaks). the next part can be done with construction paper, but I think it looks best with tissue paper. Voila! Turkey!

 We talked in class about how the Wampanoag Indians helped the pilgrims and taught them about corn. The kids explored the kernels, removed them from the cob, and we also compared field corn to popcorn. Then I air popped a batch of popcorn. 

I was able to use Indian Corn last year which added in a fun dimension and I even popped it in the microwave to show that even corn on the cob can pop!

We used both the popped corn and the field corn kernels (popcorn kernels would clearly work too) to create out own harvested corn. I just eyeballed the shapes for the cob and the husks and let them glue everything on however they thought it best.

 This one is pretty standard this time of year. You can add on some feet, a beak, eyes and all that fun stuff to make it even more fancy.

 I'll have to look up where I got this idea too, but it is a turkey handshake. First we just started with making it on our own hands before trying to make one with a friend. The open hand is the feathers and the "thumbs up" on its side is the body and head. the kids like this a lot.

 I always love a little bit on Montessori style work in my classroom. This is not just a simple transferring activity. It also can be an introduction to how cranberries are harvested and show that they float (maybe a little sink or float question before filling the bowl up?). There are 3 different utensils I put out for them to transfer with - all bought at the thrift store. The spoon is slotted so the water doesn't really transfer along.

This can also just be done with a bowl and any sort of sectioned off container, like an ice cube tray, using the fingers to transfer. This is also good as a sensory activity.

The last one I have for today is this story telling bracelet and poem from Dr. Jean. It's a good way for the kids to have a visual way to remember how the first Thanksgiving came to be.

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving and thank you so much for visiting our blog.

Fine Motor Skills Activities Checklists

 

You might be sick of me talking about fine motor skills at this point, but I am sort of on a roll with it at our house. I am a serious "to do list", charts, grids, etc kind of person. I wanted a better way to track how often we were doing which fine motor activities, so I made a monthly check list. After I did my research online to find all kinds of ideas of fine motor activities that weren't the obvious writing and cutting, I made a two page checklist to use each month to make sure we were getting some variety in our activities and to track to make sure we were in fact working on my daughter's fine motor skills. I am proud to say that during our last parent teacher conference my daughter's teacher said her writing and cutting had greatly improved and she was showing noticeably less frustration over the last few months while doing those things. Success! :) Our journey will still continue though. Anyway, if this is helpful at all, here are the two

FINE MOTOR SKILLS ACTIVITY CHECKLISTS

 

I will continue to post about individual activities as well.

Fine Motor Skills Activites: Part 3

 

To repeat what I said during "Fine Motor Skills Activites: Part 1":

"I have been busy lately doing activities with my kids that are more learning-type activities and not as blog friendly as kids crafts. I wanted to do a series of post about fine motor skills though because that is something we have been focusing on at my house. My daughter started kindergarten this year and I spent so much time before kindergarten making sure that she knew her letters, sounds, shapes, colors, starting basic reading and site words, etc that in retrospect I didn't probably spend as much time on fine motor activities like writing her name and scissors as I should have. She is a little behind in those categories so I searched the internet for a variety of activities I could do with her that would help her fine motor skills that were fun activities and not just practicing writing letters and scissor cutting (although we do that too). I thought maybe this might be helpful for someone else in my same position. I actually made a little fine motor activities bin that we work from and she just gets to pick activities from it and the best part is she gets excited about it and doesn't know she is 'working'. "

 

Tennis Ball Walk

 Supplies:

-Tennis ball or small ball

Take a tennis ball in one hand and with only your fingertips walk the ball from your hip to your toes and then back  up again.

 When I read about this idea online it sounded like such a good idea to work those tri-pod fingers, but then when I actually tried it I thought, "Man, this is way too easy." Then after having done it for a minute I could feel my fingers working.

 The true test was when I had my daughter (who needs this fine-motor help) do this activity, the ball kept dropping. I realized then that it was doing exactly what it should be doing, making those fingers work. This is such a quick and easy one to do with your kids. I made it into a game and who ever could make it all the way from hip to toe and toe to hip without dropping it or using their other hand could earn a piece of candy. (Sorry, I am not above bribery.)

 She did it and we officially put the small ball and tennis ball into our fine motor bin to use later.

Painted Windows

After putting up my kids handmade decorations on the front windows for Halloween, I decided to continue that theme for Thanksgiving. As I was recently reading a friend's blog, she posted a picture of a shirt she made inspired from this site. That got the wheels in my head turning and this is what we came up with.

It turned out to be a really fun project for the boys and me too.

I looked around online for some homemade window paint instructions and found lots of ideas. I settled on one involving liquid tempera paint and dish soap. I'm assuming you all have dish soap, so the only additional things you might not have can easily be picked up at a craft store. My paint came in a 6 pack at Michael's and I used a 40% coupon. You can use any kind of paintbrush. The foam ones are super cheap, but might not be quite as good as a regular brush.

I just used a little bit of dish soap with my paint. If you want exact ratios, I'd suggest a Google search. ;) A bonus lesson here is teaching your kids about mixing the primary colors to make new colors! First clean your window and make sure it is dry. Then you can start painting. I painted the turkey body and let it dry for just a bit.

Then the kids got to have their turn. Just paint thie palm and have them press it to the glass and repeat. then chane colors and repeat.

 When it's time to change colors, it's actually super easy to get their hand clean because of the soap already in the paint. Even the red washed right off with no additional cleaner.

We ended up doing this over 2 days so that the colors would just be one mushy blah color. The kids tried various angles and either fanning their fingers out or keeping them all together. Because they are small I did most of the feathers on the top half. 

 Once we we all done making the turkey I added "Give Thanks." That phrase was vetoed, so I replaced it with a simple "Thanksgiving" (after 3 attempts of fitting it all in). I can attest to it coming off the glass very easily, so don't be nervous.

Fall Trees

I know it's been awhile, but hopefully we'll pick up speed a little here. I do more projects with the kids in colder weather. Fall is in full swing around here. This project is one that allows you to have a nature activity mixed with the craft.

The first step is to go out and enjoy the fall weather. Bring some bags along for your child(ren) to collect leaves in as you take a hike in the woods. A variety of colors makes a prettier picture, but let the child pick whatever they wish.

Once home, gather some supplies. You'll just need your gathered leaves and the basics:
-construction paper
-glue
-paint
-paintbrush

First paint the child's hand and partial arm brown. The arm is going to be the trunk, so the more arm, the taller the tree.

Help them squish their arm down on the paper, pressing a down so as much paint as possible comes off the hand onto the paper.

You can do as many or as little trees as you like.

After letting the paint dry a little (or you could even do this when it is still wet, I preferred to wait though), let the child put glue down for leaves. If they are a little younger or need help, you may want to just ask them where they would like the glue and do it for them.

Place the leaves.

And there you have your own autumnal tree for inside the house!

Flags

My girls have been making flags for a good week in honor of our up coming holiday, out Independence Day, the 4th of July. I saw this on a blog and thought it was such a cute idea. So we added to our flag collection with this cutie.


All you need is white poster board, red & blue paint & your children's hands & feet. On ours there are 3 different hand & feet prints from my 3 little ones.

Foot and Hands Reindeer

This is the type of project I like to keep. It's not that it is amazing, but it does archive those little hands and feet!
Supplies needed - Just the basics: construction paper, scissors, glue, and a pen/pencil/marker for tracing.
Trace your child's hands. Don't worry about being perfect, we'll flip the hands around when we glue them, so no mess ups will show.
Also trace one foot - with our without a shoe one.
Cut them out. Also cute out some eyes and a nose (or just draw them on).
Flip all the pieces over so the writing is on the back and then glue, glue, glue. The foot shape for the reindeer can be up or down, which ever you prefer.