Springtime Expressions

Wow, so much going on in our lives right now. All good things!   But I thought our cute kiddos deserved a post.  We have been having an exciting year.  We added two new children who seem to be blending in well with everyone.  A brief review of what we've done the past few months:  We had a week celebrating everything "Dr. Seuss" ( the kids loved having their feet painted for this project because it tickled), we made colorful tye dyed cupcakes (YUMMO), rainbow rice, fun squishy bags and the kids created some great looking cards to celebrate their awesome mothers!

Project Know How: 

Rainbow Rice: Fill 6 ziploc bags with 1 cup rice each. Add 6 drops of food coloring ( we did 6 different colors here, one per bag) and 1 tsp. of rubbing alcohol, or 4-5 pumps hand sanitizer if you're in a pinch. Seal and shake. Let dry and have fun mixing it all together in a plastic tub or pan. Kids love this sensory bucket and ask me to bring it out over and over. Clean up is easy and kids even like to help me with that job. It's fun to add in a few measuring cups, spoons, bowls, cups or pitchers to practice pouring skills. Some days we hide coins or different small toys in our rice and have fun digging for treasure.

Rainbow Stew: 1/3 c. sugar, 1 c. cornstarch, 4 c. cold water, food coloring kit. Simmer all ingredients together except for food coloring in a sauce pan until thick. Divide into 4 parts. Color each part with a different color from your kit. Let cool. Place a little of each color int a ziploc bag. Seal with a wide piece of shipping tape to avoid messes. Let kid knead the stew in their bag and watch the colors blend.

Dr. Seuss: On March 2, 1904 Theodor Geisel (a.k.a. Dr. Seuss) was born.  To celebrate this famous author, we read many of his fantastic books and included some fun activities with each.  One of my favorites is "The Foot Book" (my oldest daughter learned to read this at age 3 because of the magical way that it rhymes and flows).   Our footprint art (above) included a rhyme from the book.   These can even be made into placemats if you want to laminate them. We also piled our shoes together and had a race to see who could find the most pairs. Other great ideas to spark your imagination can be found at this fun link- Seussville.com click on educators then classroom activities and printables. And many more throughout the internet.

Carle style Cards: A favorite card I like to make with children are these Eric Carle style art cards.  To make it simple I just let the kids go to town painting each page a different color and with a different technique.  For instance sponge paint a page in pink, then ask them to color another page green and run a comb through the paint to create different designs.  You can get as creative as you want with tools used from around the house to create texture and design.  After this is done I help cut out the pieces for their card.  I look for areas of their paintings that would be most interesting to use in the card.  Then help them to glue their masterpiece together.  I pre-print the words on most of my cards, since most of the children I teach aren't writers quite yet.  Then let them use their pretend writing to make a sweet message inside for whomever they like.

Tie Dye Cupcakes: These were a little time consuming but really fun.  To create I followed this post found at the Bird on a Cake blog or another one your might try is Sandra Lee's post here. You could make these as simple at you want. The kids may even just enjoy decorating these fun cupcakes with their favorite colorful sprinkles.  Use this as you talk about and learn colors with your child.

Expressions for September

It is September and our Preschool activities are in full swing. This month we made our own personalized puzzles, used our pasting skills, created sand volcanoes, copy cat art and even made a crazy mess painting with shaving cream. All of the kids I have this Fall are just darling. It is so much fun watching them all learn and grow together!

Expressions for May

In May we began the month honoring our Mother's who do so much for us. The kids painted on paper with different items to create all kinds of creative textures. We cut unique shapes out and pasted them onto paper, creating an Eric Carle type of artwork for our cards.  Our gifts were acrylic picture frames stamped with thumbprint art.   Coffee filters painted with water colors made the most beautiful butterfly wings. They were held in place with a clothes pin. A twisted pipe cleaner was used for the antennaes. Rocks collected on a nature walk we took made adorable little bugs the kids helped paint. On our Cook with a Book Day we read "Enemy Pie" and came up with our own edible and I might add delicious version of the pie.  And using premade tags and stickers the kids were able to make their own Little Books, which they dictated each page we wrote on and could be enjoyed and read at home again and again.

Expressions for April

In April we discussed all things Spring. The children celebrated by making vivid "Rainbow Art" out of cereal and layering pudding in cups with all the colors of the rainbow. The adorable tulips were created out of recycled egg cartons. And our spring time cupcakes blossomed with tasty flower sprinkles. With all of this spring time fun, let's hope we usher in some nice warm weather for the month of May!

Expressions for March

It was a magnificent March.  The kids all designed their own paper kites which you can see turned out to each be uniquely beautiful.  For our "Farm Animals" unit we read the story of "The Little Red Hen".  The kids helped to make mini loaves of banana bread which they generously took home to share with their families.  We also discussed the saying, "March comes in like a lion, but goes out like a lamb."  The adorable lamb above was made by tracing each childs hand which became the legs and head. Then after cutting and gluing on the template the kids loved adding soft fluffy cotton to their little lambs.  So Cute!!! 

Expressions for February

February was the month of love and all things presidential. We made many projects for those we love, including this cute fish made from hearts and a paper sack book filled with fine things to give to someone special. The kids really thought making Abe Lincolns log cabin was fun and they enjoyed licking as much as sticking the logs onto the milk cartons. We created a cherry tree with paint using our thumbs to create leaves and our pinky fingers for the cherries, for a sweet treat we filled our own cherry turnovers and swirled on some icing YUM!

Expressions for January

With wintery weather upon us the month of January was spent focusing on a lot of cold weather activities. We took a few nature walks making tracks out in the sparkling crunchy snow. When we were indoors we worked on fun snowman projects like these adorable snow man mints (or mountains)!!! We also created some cards for the the kids parents using cottonballs dipped in paint and some fun snowflake decals. With a pan full of snow we were able to make deliciously simple maple ice candy. The kids thought it was pretty tasty and so did I!

Maple Ice Candy

a bottle of 100% pure maple syrup
a cake pan filled with crushed ice or snow
wax paper

Use a blender to crush up ice if you don't have access to clean snow. Put the pan into the freezer. Pour 1 cup of syrup into a saucepan and cook over medium heat until it has reached a firm ball consistency (on a candy thermometer it should read 244 degrees/118C). Remove saucepan from the heat, and carefully pour the syrup over the snow. When the candy had cooled off, use a fork to remove it and set it onto some wax paper. Break into bite size pieces. You may eat this plain or serve it as a topping to an ice cream sundae.

Expressions for December

 

December was an especially fun month. We started it off by hosting a pancake picnic for our teddy bears and sharing a book about "Winnie the Pooh". I told the kids we were making "POOH PANCAKES". One darling little girl later declared, "we made pooh cakes today!!!" (So Funny, Mom and Dad may wonder about that project!) Another theme we covered was about pets and caring for animals in nature. For this we made special "Tweets" for our feathered freinds and then watched throughout the week as a variety of beautiful birds visited our yard. On Book Cook day we read Clifford books and baked homemade dog biscuits for any beloved pets the children may know. To finish out the holiday season the kids filled cute little festive buckets with soft gingersnap cookies they made to share with family and friends for Christmas. We hope all of your holidays were happy and filled with much JOY!!!

Expressions for November

This month we spent a lot of time talking about gratitude and Thanksgiving. One of the things the kids were most grateful for was food. We had an indoor picnic and got to try many of the same foods as "The Very Hungry Caterpillar". On Book Cook day we even made a delicious apple dip, which we all enjoyed.

Yummy Apple Dip
8 oz. pkg. of cream cheese
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 Tbsp. vanilla extract
Heath or Skor bits

Directions: Mix together the cream cheese, brown sugar and vanilla until sugar has dissoved and the mixture is smooth. Top with skor or heath bits.

Expressions for October

In October we were able to go outside a lot and enjoy the beautiful Fall weather. However as you can see we were surprised one day to get enough snow to build this little snow lady above. The kids also helped me whip up 4 batches of playdough. We used my favorite recipe from my friend Sue's preschool. It smells really good and the colors you get with Kool- Aid are fantastic!

KOOL-AID PLAYDOUGH

1 cup flour
1/2 cup salt
1 Tbsp. cooking oil
2 tsp. cream of tartar
1 pkg. unsweetened Kool-Aid
1 cup water

Mix dry ingredients. Add oil and water. Cook over medium heat until mixture forms a ball. Pour onto waxed paper or a bread board and knead. (Add little bits of flour if you think your dough is too sticky). Store in airtight container. This will last for weeks and if a child happens to eat some no worry it's non-toxic.