Halloween Math Games with Manipulatives for Preschool or Elementary School

Here's a simple and fun way to have Halloween Math time.  Simply use dried beans from your cupboard (kidney beans or other) and paint one side of each bean orange and the other side white.  Let them dry.  Then paint ghost faces on the white side and pumpkin faces on the orange side with sharpie markers (or another permanent marker).

Once they are all dry, here are 3 simple games you can have your students or children do.  Who said learning can't be fun??

1.  Patterns.  As shown in the picture, you can have the children practice various patterns.  ABAB, AAB, ABB, etc.  For example, in the picture above, the top line is ABAB (ghost, pumpkin, ghost, pumpkin).  The second line is AAB (ghost, ghost, pumpkin, ghost, ghost, pumpkin).  For an example or for younger children, you can set up the pattern and have the children guess what would come next.

2. Sorting.  With a large pail of painted beans, dump them onto the floor so the one side of the bean is face up.  Allow the child to sort all the pumpkins and all the ghosts.  Or all the orange beans and all the white beans.

3. Graphing.  You can paint other kidney beans gray with a cat face or green with a monster face and have the children make a picture graph to see which character has the most.


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E is for Egypt: Kindergarten Activities to explore Ancient Egypt

My kindergartner loves studying history--it is one subject he can never get enough of. We have been using The Story of the World Vol. 1 (Ancient Times) as our core history "text" for this year, and we have been supplementing that with many other picture books and activities. Of all that we have studied so far, Ancient Egypt is my son's favorite--treasure, pyramids, the Nile River, and more all fascinate him. This would also be a fun unit study for kids of all ages, too. You could easily fit it in to your preschool or elementary school Halloween-themed activities because of course we have the Egyptian mummies as well!

Here are a few of our favorite books and activities we have done as part of our study of Ancient Egypt. My children, ages 5, 4, and 2 1/2 have loved all of these activities.

Books

It is easy to do a search in your local library for books about Ancient Egypt and come up with dozens of fiction and non-fiction books for kids. Among the many we read, the following three books were some of my kids' favorites.

Ms. Frizzle's Adventures: Ancient Egypt 
We love the Magic School Bus books. This book is a little different because it is summer vacation and so we don't have any of the students in school, but still Ms. Frizzle manages to take her fellow tourists on quite an adventure back in time to Ancient Egypt.

National Geographic Kids Everything Ancient Egypt: Dig Into a Treasure Trove of Facts, Photos, and Fun 
This was my kids' favorite non-fiction book about Ancient Egypt. It had short, interesting page spreads about different aspects of Ancient Egypt from pyramids to mummies to games. The photographs were big and eye catching and the facts were written in a way that the kids could understand and enjoy.

Bill and Pete Go Down the Nile 
My kids adore the funny Bill and Pete books. This is the second book about Bill and Pete and it features a Nile crocodile and his "toothbrush" (a bird named Pete) on a field trip down the Nile. They learn about Egyptian history and also save the day.

Activities/Crafts

We checked out the book Ancient Egyptians and Their Neighbors: An Activity Guide from our local library and it was full of great craft projects that went hand-in-hand with real artifacts found in Ancient Egypt. We made a cardboard Egyptian boat (from an old paper towel roll) and a model Egyptian garden--two crafts that were modeled after actual items found in Egyptian tombs. We also made our own Egyptian kilt costume (white fabric would have been more appropriate, but the only scrap fabric I had on hand at the time was red, and my son was okay with that). All of the instructions for these projects can be found in the above book.

My son also had to make Lego Pyramids and create his own pretend Nile River to sail his toy boats down. He even made the pyramids hollow underneath so he could store "treasures" inside.

Another hands-on activity he did was creating his own cartouche. We used a book about Egyptian hieroglyphs as a guide for him to write his name or you can find hieroglyph alphabets on websites such as this one). We also incorporated a lot of pretend play into our study. My kids loved forts, so they created their own tomb out of chairs and blankets and pretended to be workers, mummies, and more.

Virtual Museum Tours

We don't currently have any museums nearby with exhibits about Ancient Egypt, so we went on a virtual museum tour online. This website has images of many of the treasures found in King Tut's tomb. You can also find a vast collection of images on the Metropolitan Museum of Art's website about their Egyptian collection. If we lived close enough to a museum that had an Ancient Egyptian exhibit, of course we would have loved to visit in person. But it was still very fun to look at images of artifacts online and in books.

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Lesson Plan: Introduction to Archaeology for Kids

We have a membership to the Discovery Science Center here in southern California which recently had an exhibit about Indiana Jones and the science of archaeology. Our visit to that exhibit made my five-year-old excited about archaeology, so we decided to do our own study of archaeology at home.

Introduction

As a starting point, we read up some more about what archaeology really is all about. We loved the picture book Archaeologists Dig for Clues by Kate Duke--This book might be a bit long for young kids but if your kids are interested in the topic, they will find this a fun and informative introduction to archaeology. Also, while it is written in a way that kids can enjoy and understand, I still learned new things as an adult. We also read introductory pages about archaeology from a history encyclopedia.

Activity
After reading about archaeology, we went on on archaeological dig in our backyard. First, we set up a grid with stakes and caution tape in our sandbox (I had leftover caution tape from our construction-themed birthday party, and we had a lot of wooden stakes sitting around from my husband's work on our yard). We created a very simple grid with just four cells. Then my kids dug in the sandbox and we made notes of what we found in each cell. (I didn't prepare ahead of time by burying things because I just let my kids dig up toys that they had previously buried by themselves just in their day-to-day play). If you don't have a sandbox, you could also bury a few objects in a patch of plain dirt that you don't mind having disturbed. If you were to set up the dig in advance, you might even have layers of items with the "oldest" items being at the bottom. Here is an image of my son's findings in our archaeological dig.

He didn't draw items to scale or make any notes other than drawing pictures of what he found and which area he found them in. But I thought that if I did this again I would have him go further and measure the sizes of each item to incorporate some math into the activity.

My son then had the idea to create his own "radiocarbon dating" machine (we had read about these machines in our books about archaeology), so he set up some chairs and tinker toys and pretended to study the "artifacts" in his machine.

Snack
We didn't have a special snack when we studied archaeology, but our Dinosaur Lesson Plan had a fun edible snack while doing an "paleontology dig" and I think this lesson plan that involves a simulated archaeological dig with a 3 layer cake sounds so cool! They would be fun ways to incorporate a snack and a lesson in one!

Game
We had fun playing this online "Tools of the Trade" game from the American Museum of Natural History website. There are more fun activities to check out on that website as well.

Field Trip
As I said--it was our field trip to the science museum that first sparked our interest in archaeology. But we finished up by going to the La Brea Tar Pits and Page Museum in Los Angeles--which is a working excavation site right in the middle of our big city--though technically this fits within paleontology, not archaeology as they have excavated prehistoric animals there--nothing human. Still the way the pit was set up in grids and the way the "fishbowl" lab was set up was exactly as we had read about in our archaeology book, so my kids loved seeing that!

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Y is for You Lesson Plan (Preschool or Elementary)

Y is for You
is a very fun preschool.  We...

• Traced letter Y
• Had calendar/weather
• Played the spider web game with Yellow Yarn to name all the words we could think of that started with Y. This is played by saying a word that starts with Y and then throwing the ball of yarn to another preschooler while holding on to the end.  They do the same thing and it continues until you have a spider web of yellow yarn and lots of Y letter words!
• Played a Y opposite riddle game.  Each answer was an opposite and started with the letter Y {What's the opposite of old (young), no (yes), whisper (yell), me (you), today (yesterday), and yucky (yucky)?}
• Did exercises while pretending to be letter Y's
• Read books about being unique: Hooray for You , Today I Feel Silly: And Other Moods That Make My Day , Amazing Grace, Whoever You Are, Does a Kangaroo Have a Mother, Too?
 and Stephanie's Ponytail
• Craft Time:  Made frames to focus on "you".  I printed a picture of the preschool group from a previous lesson to insert in the frame.  I picked these frames up at a local craft store like Michaels or Hobby Lobby.  There are Foam Frames that you can buy on Amazon as well. Then I bought foam letters  and pom poms to accessorize.

 

• Talked about what we wanted to be when we grew up {answers included ice cream truck driver, dance teacher, army man, scientist, pilot, teacher, mom, dad}
• V.I.P (Very Important Person) time: We shared brown paper bags filled with things about each preschooler and guessed whose they were.  The week before, I sent home a note that asked parents to fill a brown paper lunch bag with things about their child and their interests.  Then we sat down, mixed up the bags and presented them without anyone knowing whose it was.  The kids had to guess after I pulled out all the items.  Once they guessed, I had them come forward and anyone could ask a question if they wanted.  They felt very excited to be focused in on.  
• Frosted cupcakes to look like themselves.  I pre-baked the cupcakes.  The kids frosted them and I had a variety of candy that could look like eyes, nose and ears (mini chewy sweettarts, runts, chocolate chips, smarties, m&ms, skittles).  I found pull n' peel licorice perfect for the hair.  And sour watermelons a great shape for the mouth.

• Sang songs about things that start with the letter Y
  

Let's Give A Yell For Y
(Tune: The Farmer In The Dell)
Let's give a yell for Y!
Let's give a yell for Y!
Y is for you and for yellow, too.
Let's give a yell for Y!

Who Is Wearing Yellow?
(Tune: The Farmer In The Dell)
Who is wearing yellow?
Who is wearing yellow?
Hi Ho the derry-o
Who is wearing yellow?
____ is wearing yellow.
____ is wearing yellow.
Hi Ho the derry-o
____ is wearing yellow.

We Wish You A Happy Y Week
(Tune: We Wish You A Merry Christmas)
We wish you a happy Y week.
(Form the letter Y with your arms over your head.)
We wish you a happy Y week.
We wish you a happy Y week.
Y-y-y-y-y.
(Make the sound of Y)
Let's all yodel now for Y week...
Let's all yo-yo now for Y week...
Repeat:
We wish you a happy Y week...

Yellow Song
(Tune: Someone's In The Kitchen With Dinah")
Yellow is the color of bananas
Yellow is the color of the sunshine, too
Yellow is the color of corn on the cob
I like yellow don't you?

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D is for Dinosaur Lesson Plan #2

The happy Dinosaurs

Their favorite thing to do - ROAR!!!

Dinosaurs are always a fun and popular theme. For preschool, we:

• Traced the letter D
• Turned ourselves into dinosaurs by making headbands and giving our names "osaurus" suffixes!  I found free clipart of a dinosaur online.  There were so many to pick from like these.  Then I copied them onto tan cardstock.  I cut a headband about 1 1/2" tall x 11" wide for the kid's heads.  If their heads are big enough, you may have to cut two of these and staple them together.  Then fit the headband to the size of the child.  The kids colored the dinosaurs, then we glued them on the headband and placed it on their heads.
  
• Had Calendar/Weather Time with singing, counting, and birthday recognition
• Talked about the letter D and what words start with D (some ideas were dad, dude {thank you to the boys}, donut, doll, donkey, dog, doctor and dinosaur)
• Graphed our favorite dinosaurs as a group
• Talked about the different kinds of dinosaurs and then counted them (plastic figurines) and sorted them into categories by colors and features
• Had a fun flannel board story about 5 little dinosaurs that eventually all went away...
  
  
  Five Crazy Dinosaurs
  5 crazy Dinosaurs sweeping the floor
  1 got swept away, then there were four
  4 crazy Dinosaurs chased by a bee,
  1 got stung, then there were 3
  3 crazy Dinosaurs playing with glue,
  1 got stuck, then there were 2
  2 crazy Dinosaurs out for a run
  1 fell down, then there was 1
  1 crazy Dinosaur acting like a hero
  He went out to save the others, then there were zero
  
  
• Learned just how big a dinosaurs mouth is, hunted for his teeth, counted his teeth, got eaten up and promptly pulled out all his teeth! (The kids predicted how big the mouth of the T-Rex was. Then we had to find out... They went on a hunt for all of his teeth and placed them inside this mouth. They climbed inside his mouth and realized just how big a dinosaur's mouth was. They were really funny. The kids got really excited about how much money T-Rex would earn from the tooth fairy for all those teeth!)
  
• Happily learned what the word extinct means :)
• Made a Stegosaurus out of the letter D (I cut out large letter D's out of green cardstock.  Then I cut out rectangles and triangles and ovals out of 2 different shades of green cardstocks.  The kids made patterns for the triangles and rectangles for spikes and legs.  The ovals were the head and tail.  We finished by gluing on a googly eye and glued everything to a tan piece of cardstock.)
  
• Practiced our patterns with the triangles on the Stegosaurus
• Reviewed our shapes with our Stegosaurus
• Had a dinosaur dig with cracker crumbs, gummy dinosaurs, and dinosaur eggs.  You could have the dinosaur eggs be any round candy.  There are some really cute nerd candies that are chewy and just the look of dinosaur eggs! (This was the most popular event of preschool - the dinosaur dig for snack time. The kids each got a bowl of "dirt" (graham cracker crumbs) to dig for dinosaurs and dinosaur eggs. They got "shovels" (spoons) and brushes (paint brushes) to dig away and find 10 dinosaurs and 5 eggs. They loved it and when they were all done, they wanted to do it all again.)
  
• Learned what a paleontologist is while doing the dinosaur dig
• Read several "How do Dinosaur" books by Jane Tolen like How Do Dinosaurs Say Goodnight? and How Do Dinosaurs Eat Their Food?.
  
• Acted out a dinosaur's typical day - stomping, chomping, roaring, swimming, sleeping
• Sang oodles of songs... I posted them below the pictures
• built a dinosaur village with blocks and plastic dinos
• Sang lots of songs:

Triceratops

(Sung to: Three Blind Mice)

Look and see. One, two, three.

Count with me. One, two, three.

Triceratops has three big horns.

That's the way that he was born.

One, two, three. One, two, three.

Hiding Dinosaurs

Dinosaur, Dinosaur, where can you be?

Hiding behind me (hands behind back)

Where you cannot see,

Now you see one. (Bring out one hand)

It's waiting for you.

Here comes another, (bring out other hand)

And now you see two!

Dinosaur Stomp

(sung to "Glory, Glory Hallelujah")

I love to stomp and chomp and romp throughout the land

I love to stomp and chomp and romp throughout the land

Oh, I love to stomp and romp throughout the land

How I love to be a Dinosaur

Sleepy Dinos

(To the tune of See the Bunnies Sleeping)

Sleeping Dinosaurs, Till it's nearly noon,

Come let us wake them, with a merry tune

Oh so still, Are they ill?

Wake up little Dino's! (Shout)

Stomp Little Dino's (stomp on the ground)

Stomp, stomp, stomp (stomp on the ground)

Stomp Little Dino's (stomp on the ground)

Stomp, stomp, stomp (stomp on the ground)

Stomp little Dinosaurs (stomp on the ground)

Stomping, and stomping and Stomp and Stop

Dinosaurs, Dinosaurs

(Sung to "Row, row, row your boat")

Dinosaurs, Dinosaurs Eating fruits and leaves

Take a bite, chew it up and spit out the seeds (Make spitting sound)

Dinosaurs of Long Ago

The Dinosaurs lived long ago,

And walked like this, and that. (Walk heavy like Dino's)

Some were large (Stretch arms apart.)

And some were small. (Squat down.)

Some liked water (Swimming motion)

And some liked land (Stomp feet.)

Some had wings that flapped and flapped. (Flap arms)

Some had long necks that stretched and stretched (Put hand above head)

The meanest, rudest one of all was ferocious Tyrannosaurus Rex

These were the Dinosaurs of long ago.

Goodness gracious! Where did they go?

Dinosaurs Lived Long Ago

(sung to "London Bridge is Falling Down")

Dinosaurs lived long ago, long ago, long ago,

Dinosaurs lived long ago, That's prehistoric!

Tyrannosaurus was very mean, very mean, Very mean,

Tyrannosaurus was very mean, That's prehistoric!

Brontosaurus was very big, very big, very big,

Brontosaurus was very big, that's prehistoric!

Stegosaurus wore heavy spikes, heavy spikes, heavy spikes,

Stegosaurus wore heavy spikes, that's prehistoric!

Triceratops had big sharp horns, big sharp horns, big sharp horns,

Triceratops had big sharp horns, that's prehistoric!

Pterodactyl could fly in the air, fly in the air, fly in the air,

Pterodactyl could fly in the air, that's prehistoric!

All the Dinosaurs disappeared, disappeared, disappeared,

All the Dinosaurs disappeared, that's why their prehistoric!

See more ideas from Rachel's Dinosaur Lesson Plan she posted previously.

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10 Picture Books in Honor of International Women's Day and Women's History Month

Today (March 8th) is International Women's Day. In some countries this holiday is much like Mother's Day. Men give flowers and gifts to the women in their lives. Others focus more on political activism for women's rights. In the United States, the whole month of March is also considered Women's History Month. So in honor of that, I headed to the library to check out some picture books about women to read to my children. I actually had a hard time finding nonfiction picture books about historical women that were short enough to keep the attention of my young children--ages 5, 3, and 2 (if you have any recommendations I would love to hear suggestions in the comments!) I found a few that we enjoyed, but I also broadened out to  include some fictional books that feature strong female characters. Below are some of the books we read and enjoyed.

10 Picture Books with Strong Heroines

(Both Fictional and Historical)

Seeds of Change: Wangari's Gift to the World  by Jen Cullerton Johnson and Sonia Lynn Sadler--This is the true story of 2004 Nobel Peace Prize Winner Wangari Maathi. It is really suited for older children (The description says 7 and up) because it has a lot of text, but my 3-year-old and 5-year-old surprised me by sitting through it all. They were very captivated by the vibrant illustrations.


Marching with Aunt Susan: Susan B. Anthony and the Fight for Women's Suffrage  by Claire Rudolf Murphy and Stacey Schuett--My kids enjoyed this story about the fight for women's rights. It is told from the first-person point of view of a young girl so perhaps that helps children connect with the story more.


You Forgot Your Skirt, Amelia Bloomer by Shana Corey and Chesley McLaren--This is a lighthearted introduction to the women's rights movement in the U.S. It is a short and easy read, so even though it lacks the depth of some books, it still brings up some issues women used to face and is a great choice for young children.

Me . . . Jane  by Patrick McDonnell--My kids love monkeys--especially chimpanzees. So this book about Jane Goodall was a perfect fit for them. It is a 2012 Caldecott Honor Book.

Grace for President by Kelly S. DiPucchio and LeUyen Pham--In this story, a girl named Grace dreams of being the first president of the United States, and she starts on her journey by running for class president.

Miss Rumphius  by Barbara Cooney--Miss Rumphius has a grandfather that encouraged her to make the world more beautiful. So, in a small and simple way she makes the world a better place. I love this book because it shows that we don't always have to do great, dramatic things to make an impact.

Stand Tall, Molly Lou Melon by Patty Lovell and David Catrow--This is a charming fictional book that is perfect for preschoolers. When Molly Lou Melon faces a boy at a new school who teases her, she stands up to him and shows the other children that her differences can actually be assets.

Willow by Denise Brennan-Nelson, Rosemarie Brennan and Cyd Moore--Willow frustrates her art teacher by always veering from the established examples of what her art should look like. But in the end, it's the teacher who learns the value of self expression.

The Paper Bag Princess  by Robert Munsch and Michael Martchenko--Roles are reversed in this picture book about a princess who saves a stuck-up knight from a dragon.

Fanny's Dream  by Caralyn Buehner and Mark Buehner--This is another "fairytale" story that has a twist from your traditional plot ending. Fanny dreams of meeting her fairy godmother and being whisked off to the mayor's house to marry the mayor's son just as Cinderella met her prince. But when her fairy godmother finally arrives, Fanny realizes that she is happy with her life the way it is. I love this story because it shows that "happily ever after" can come in many different ways--not just through marrying a prince.

If you have older readers, you could find even more books to share with your children at your local library. While I had a hard time finding shorter picture books about many historical women whom I admire, I saw a lot of biographies or longer books in the juvenile nonfiction section of the library that would be great for older kids.

I would love to hear your comments, too. Do you have any favorite picture books featuring strong women or girls? What women from history are your heroes and why?

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A is for Airplane Lesson Plan or Birthday Party (or P is for Pilot)

A is for Airplane was a very fun theme! With my girls out of school, I put them to work for a portion of preschool. They dressed up as the pilot and flight attendant. We set up a mock airplane in the living room with chairs, magazines, and a poster of the cockpit.  We made the kids tickets and escorted them to their seats. Then the pilot took the kids on a trip to England and even told them a little about geography on the way {not sure how much was retained}, even serving them little packets of animal crackers. It was a very fun intro to our preschool.

Songs

Airplane Song

(To the tune of " Wheels on the Bus")

The pilot on the airplane says fasten your belts (fasten seat belts)

Fasten your belts, fasten your belts.

The pilot on the airplane says fasten your belts

When flying through the sky,

Other possible verses...

The children on the airplane go bumpity bump.... (move up and down)

The babies on the airplane go waa, waa, waa.... (pretend to cry)

The signs on the airplane go ding, ding, ding.... (point to signs)

The drinks on the airplane go splish, splash, splish.... (pretend to hold a glass that is wiggling)

The luggage on the plane goes up and down.... (pretend to be luggage going up and down)

I'm a Little Airplane

(To the tune of I'm A Little Teapot)

I'm a little airplane (arms shoulder height)

I can fly (turn right arm like propeller)

Here is my throttle (reach out with 1 hand)

Give me a try (push throttle in)

When I get all reved up (engine noise)

then I fly (move forward)

Off the runway to the sky (fly around)

Zoom I am a Pilot
In my plane I fly today,

zoom I am a pilot

My right way compass points the way

zoom I am a pilot

All through life I'll safely fly

I can I will if I but try,

zoom, zoom, zoom

I'm an Airplane 

Sung to: "Clementine"

I'm an airplane, I'm an airplane

Flying up into the sky.

Flying higher, Flying higher

As I watch the clouds go by.

I'm an airplane, I'm an airplane

See me flying all around.

Flying lower, flying lower,

Till I land down on the ground.

Finger Play and Movement

Six Little Airplanes
  Six little airplanes flying in the sky,

One took a dive and then there were 5

Five little airplanes flying in the sky

One landed on shore and then there were 4.

Four little airplanes flying in the sky

One zoomed like a bee and then there were 3

Three little airplanes flying in the sky

One was feeling blue, so then there were 2

Two little airplanes flying in the sky

One just had no fun, so then there was one.

One little airplane flying in the sky

Down came the sun and then there were none.

The Airplane

The airplane has great big wings

(children stretch out arms.)

Its propeller spins round and sings,

Vvvvvvrrruuuummmmm.

(children move right arms around in a circle.)

The airplane goes up.

(they lift up their arms)

The airplane dips down.

The airplane flies--round all of the town!

(With arms outstretched, they turn around twice.)
 VVVVVVVVVVVVVVVROOOM!  (make sound again)

Games

Relay Game

Split kids into two teams.  Have one child run down, put a captain's hat on, fly like an airplane to a pilot's jacket. and fly back to their teammate.  Their teammate flies to the same locations and drops off the hat and jacket and then flies back.  Continue until everyone on the team is done.

Color/Letter Recognition

 Airplanes – Pretend to be airplanes and move around with arms extended. Call out directions as children "fly", then "land". Hold up color name flashcards or alphabet flashcards and only the children with that particular color or whose name begins with that letter can “fly”.

Captain Says
(Like Simon Says)
Have one player stand up front (with a pilot's hat if you can) and play the game Simon Says, but say "Captain Says" instead.  Captain says, "touch your toes" or Captain says, "turn around".  They can choose anything.  BUT if they don't say Captain says, and someone does the direction, that person is out.

Introduce the Letter A
I always like to do something where we physically make the letter A.  So this time, we all layed down to form a human A.  Then we talk about things that start with the letter A.  I did this by printing out various clipart of items - some that started with A and some that didn't.  I glued them to paper airplanes and together we decided which airplanes could fly (the ones that started with A since airplane starts with A) and which could not.  The kids enjoy this and start coming up with things on their own that start with A.

Color Review
I printed out multiple airplanes here
I colored them all different colors of the rainbow.  Then I placed them on a flannel board or you can tape them to a white board.  I took turns taking one or two away and the kids had to figure out which colors were missing.  One by one they disappeared as we reviewed the colors.

Storytime
Lettice, the Flying Rabbit 
 Angela's Airplane 
 Going on a Plane 
 The Noisy Airplane Ride
 Airplanes and Flying Machines
 Usborne Flip Flap Airport

 Science/Social Studies
We talked about things that can fly - airplanes, helicopters, hot air balloons, birds, etc.  Airplanes and Flying Machines would be a great resource for brainstorming. Then I asked them if they could fly?  Of course they laughed.  I first introduced them to the Wright Brothers and their first airplane by readingThe Story Of The Wright Brothers.  This is a fabulous board book that tells the story in a simple and short way.  

 I gave them a very small lesson on why airplanes can fly. (A great description can be found here.)  I know sometimes these things go over their heads, but I believe that it's all about exposure to concepts that start to make things connect in their head.  Reading books can help simplify it for them.  How Do Airplanes Fly is an example of a book that can help explain.  I told them about the fact that things that fly use forces called drag, gravity, thrust and lift.  And they all have to be balanced. 

  Crafts

Printable Airplane with the alphabet flying behind in a banner

Make your own airplane scene
I used blue construction paper  and printed out an airplane for each child like this one
The kids then colored their airplane and glued it to the blue construction paper.

Then we used cotton balls and stretched them out to be the clouds in the sky.  The kids were able to decorate their pictures with mountains, lakes, and houses below the airplane and we glued the following poem onto their pictures:

Little silver airplane

Up in the sky,

Where are you going to

Flying so high?

Over the mountains

Over the sea

Little silver airplane

Please take me.

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Dr. Seuss Roundup: 50 Fun Activities, Printables, Crafts, Snacks, and Lesson Plans

Are you as excited as we are to celebrate Dr. Seuss's Birthday this weekend? We have been gearing up by reading books and doing all sorts of crafts. We are looking forward to going to the birthday party that our local library is hosting. We have also gathered together a list of  50 fun crafts and activities that we could do to celebrate. If you were looking for a few last-minute ways to celebrate, check out some of these fun ideas--some are things we have shared before on this blog, and others are ideas we found across the Internet.

1. Design your own hat like that of Bartholomew Cubbins
2. Play a Cat in the Hat Balloon Toss game
3. Make a Handprint Thing 1 and Thing 2
4. Play fun online games at Seussville!
5. Make a red and white tissue paper hat
6. Make a Cat in the Hat themed snack--here are just a few to try: strawberries, cookie, and whipped cream; strawberries and bananas; gummy lifesavers and cookie
7. Make your own creative top hat--you can use colorful paper as  in this craft or you can use paper plates as the base as in this craft.
8. Try stacking styrofoam circles to make your own giant cat in the hat pattern.
9. Try one of the Cat in the Hat crafts found here, such as a pasta noodle stick puppet.
10. Make Thing One and Thing Two Cupcakes with cotton candy "hair."
11. Make green eggs and ham candy treats
12. Play this Green Eggs and Ham sight word game.
13. Eat Green Eggs and Ham for Breakfast (You could also try this different version of green eggs).
14. Tell the story Ten Apples Up on Top by stacking homemade egg carton apples.
15. Practice rhyming with green eggs or play some of the rhyming games found here.
16. Play Pin the heart on the Grinch game
17. Dress up like a Who with Crazy Hair
18. Make a Dr. Seuss fish snack with blue Jell-O
19. Go fishing in your own pretend pond (see if you can catch anything as crazy as in  the book McElligott's Pool).
20. Try this tissue paper One Fish Two Fish craft
21. Count  or graph with goldfish
22. Try making some of these Seuss-themed treats
23. Build your own Dr. Seuss City
24. Make a miniature Hot Air Balloon to go on adventures as in Oh the Places You'll Go!
25. Make your own Foot Book
26. Decorate with homemade truffula trees or serve Dr. Seuss treats like "Pink Yink Ink" (i.e., pink lemonade) as in this party
27. Surprise your children with wacky items like a shoe on the wall (as in Wacky Wednesday)
28. Make a handprint Lorax or make your own Lorax mustache for a photo op.
29. Learn about The Lorax by making stick puppets or trying other activities found here.
30. Make hand-print fish or Fox in Socks puppets found here.
31. Make your own Oobleck and have fun playing with it!
32. Make your own Horton the elephant ears and trunk.
33. Make your own flower and speck for Horton Hears a Who--Version 1 with chenille stems and Version 2 with pieces of foam paper.
34. Create your own wacky Dr. Seuss character with play-doh and a few accessories.
35. Serve your children a Dr. Seuss-themed Muffin Tin Meal
36. Try some activities in this fun, free Dr. Seuss-themed packet
37. Play a Sneetches themed freeze dance or musical chairs game with stars.
38. Decorate Dr. Seuss placemats or try some other "D is for Dr. Seuss" preschool activities.
39. Inspire your child to read with a Dr. Seuss-themed reading chart.
40. Try a Montessori Dr. Seuss-inspired activity
41. Balance a (Swedish) Fish on a Dish or try another Seuss-inspired toddler activity found here.
42. Watch a Dr. Seuss movie (such as The Lorax, Horton Hears a Who, or How the Grinch Stole Christmas).
43. Set up your own Dr. Seuss photo booth such as this photo booth or this Cat in the Hat photo scene.
44. Make your own Truffula trees and make Play Doh scenes
45. Practice the ABC's Dr. Seuss style
46. Make your own turtles (for Yertle the Turtle) and practice counting, too!
47. Try one of these lesson plans available from Seussville
48. Print out and complete this free Dr. Seuss "All About Me" book
49.  Read about the history of Dr. Seuss
50.  Watch or listen to clips from Seussical the Musical.

Do you have a great Dr. Suess-themed idea to share? We'd love to hear your comments below!

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St. Patrick's Day Lesson Plan #2

My kiddos were so lucky to have a year of "Grandma School" with their cousins.  Grandma did a preschool activity with them weekly and it was the highlight of their week.  So here are some of her fun ideas for St. Patrick's Day!

Arts and Crafts

Tissue Shamrocks:

These are done by cutting squares (about 1"x1") of green tissue paper.  She used different shades of green tissue paper for variety.  

Place the squares on the bottom of a pencil eraser.  Then dip the end into a pool of glue (I put it on a paper plate).  Place the tissue with glue end on a shamrock shaped template.  You can do this as many times as you want to fill the entire template.Then cut the shamrock out and voila, you have an adorable 3-D craft!

 

Science

Color Explosion Experiment:

Watch the above video to see the kids in action - they LOVED this!  The kids used a pie pan full of milk and dropped various drops of food coloring in.  Then taking a cotton swab dipped in dish soap, you can make all the colors explode and create a tie-dye sort of look.  Check out a very detailed explanation on why this occurs at one of my favorite Science websites:

 Storytime

Lots to choose from, but here are a few ideas...
 

Song
I Can Sing a Rainbow:


  I can Sing a Rainbow is a favorite amongst grandma and her grandkids.  This time, two cute grandkids taught the others how to do the sign language along with the music (Here's a great video we found online that demonstrates it).  I was impressed with how long the 2-3 year olds stayed at attention.  It's all about teaching them kinesthetically or hands-on!

Game
Bingo
 St. Patrick's Day Bingo - there are countless free printables online, here are some of my favorites:

Bingo Version 1
Bingo Version 2
Bingo Version 3


Want more ideas and fun to celebrate leprechaun mischief??
R is for Rainbow and  Shamrock Printables and St. Patrick's Day Lesson Plan #1
See our St. Patrick's Day section for more crafts, treats, lesson plans and activities!

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