Rainbows and Leprechauns

As March comes around everyone starts to get into a frenzy talking about basketball, the warming weather, and Saint Patrick's Day. I have always questioned the reasoning behind celebrating this holiday considering I have no Irish lineage, but I just accepted it for what it was. Finally this year, I wanted to know why we celebrate Saint Patrick's Day - so I did some research. Here are some interesting facts I found that you may find intriguing as well:

-We Should Really Wear Blue-

Saint Patrick himself would have to deal with pinching on his feast day. His color was “Saint Patrick’s blue,” a light shade. The color green only became associated with the big day after it was linked to the Irish independence movement in the late 18th century.

-Saint Patrick Was British- 

Although he made his mark by introducing Christianity to Ireland in the year 432, Patrick wasn’t Irish himself. He was born to Roman parents in Scotland or Wales in the late fourth century

-NY Does it the Best-

New York City’s Saint Patrick’s Day Parade is one of the world’s largest parades. Since 1762, 250,000 marchers have traipsed up Fifth Avenue on foot – the parade still doesn’t allow floats, cars, or other modern trappings.

-It Used to Be a Dry Holiday-

For most of the 20th century, Saint Patrick’s Day was considered a strictly religious holiday in Ireland, which meant that the nation’s pubs were closed for business on March 17. (The one exception went to beer vendors at the big national dog show, which was always held on Saint Patrick’s Day.) In 1970, the day was converted to a national holiday, and the stout resumed flowing.

-There’s a Reason for The Shamrocks-

How did the shamrock become associated with Saint Patrick? According to Irish legend, the saint used the three-leafed plant as a metaphor for the Holy Trinity when he was first introducing Christianity to Ireland.

-Cold Weather Helped Saint Patrick’s Legend-

In Irish lore, Saint Patrick gets credit for driving all the snakes out of Ireland. Modern scientists suggest that the job might not have been too hard – according to the fossil record, Ireland has never been home to any snakes. Through the Ice Age, Ireland was too cold to host any reptiles, and the surrounding seas have staved off serpentine invaders ever since. Modern scholars think the “snakes” Saint Patrick drove away were likely metaphorical.

Thanks to Mental Floss for providing this awesome information. Click the link if you are interested in reading all 15 Delightful Facts About Saint Patrick's Day

This week we spent our time introducing Saint Patrick's Day and studying colors. This post will summarize our time spent exploring Saint Patrick's Day, and some fun activities you can also do with you children at home or in the classroom.

-Math-

Gold in the Pot:

The children explored a few different activities involving numbers, counting, and sorting this week. One of their favorites was coin counting. All you need for this project is a die, a bowl for each player, and coins (in the picture shown we have use yellow construction paper but you certainly may use real money, or even themed coins).

Each child gets a turn to roll the die and count the dots, taking the Leprechauns gold and placing it in their "pot". This activity was very helpful with one-to-one correspondence and can be useful when teaching number recognition if you use a die that has numbers on the face. 

Rainbow Sorting:
Another math activity the child enjoyed during this unit was a color sorting game. Using fruit loops the children received their own handful and were asked to sort them.

Once the children sorted the piles we compared the group sizes using new or familiar language - such as more or less, big or little, short or long, as well as colors. After the activity was finished the children could eat an early morning rainbow snack.  

-Art-

Shamrock Stamping:

We used colors in a lot of fun a different ways in the art area this week. One of the kids favorite activities was pepper stamping. At circle-time, the children used their four of their senses to explore a green pepper. We talked about what it felt like, and what the children thought was inside the pepper. Some guessed more pepper, seeds, and a tiger. Then we proceeded to cut the pepper open to find the answer.

Once the peppers were cut in half the children could explore the green peppers a little more while getting a little messy using paint or even stamp pads to create some really neat pictures. As long as the child hasn't smashed the pepper it should turn out looking like a three leaf clover. 




Rainbow Pictures:
The children, after listening to a tale about a Leprechaun and his gold at the end of a rainbow, were asked what they would keep in their pot. We loved the unique answers the children gave us like, my family, puppies, candy, and many more.

The children were given an example of what a rainbow looks like, and were encouraged to make their own. Some of the children enjoyed taking their time sorting out the colors and making lines of those colors, while others made half circles with all the colors of the rainbows. This activity was fun and smelled delicious too!


Shamrock Sun Catcher:
Another fun activity the children enjoyed, and you can use this activity for any season and any reason, was making sun catchers. This time, we made shamrock sun catchers using green tissue, contact paper, and an outline. The children were given instructions to place the green tissue paper inside of the black outline. This activity really helped the children in understanding spatial awareness. 

Rainbow Bracelet:
The last art activity we enjoyed this week was a bracelet making. Each child was given a bowl full of fruit loops to string onto their bracelet. Some chose to make patterns, others picked at random. This activity was very beneficial to helping the children with their hand-eye coordination, color recognition, and fine-motor skills.

-Science-

Rainbow Rice:

The sensory table is a fun and important area in your classroom, or even at home, and can be very easy to create if you don't have one. All you need is a large bin with sides low enough for the child to comfortably reach into. We use our sensory table nearly every week exploring different materials, cutting, or just containing something that maybe a little messy. 

This week in our sensory table the children played with rainbow rice. All you need are gallon baggies, vinegar, food coloring, paper towels, and rice. Scoop the amount of rice into the individual bags, then add a tablespoon of vinegar and the chosen color to the rice. Using the vinegar helps the rice take in the color and gives you a more vibrant look, you can also use this same technique when coloring noodles and eggs. If the rice is not as bright as you would like, try adding a few more drops of food coloring. Once you have your mixture, close the bag and shake! We had our kids help us make the rice used in this project while talking about measuring and recipes. When the rice is covered and ready to go, make sure you lay the it out to dry before the children play. This is important because the children will smell like vinegar the rest of the day also allows the pigment to dry and keeps your kids hands from turning all sorts of colors.

Planting Seeds:

Last week the greenhouses the children created, while talking about Jack and the Beanstalk, have just started producing sproutlings this week! Hooray!

During circle-time the children made predictions as to what the seeds look like and now and discussed what that seed needed in order to grow more. The children filled their cups with dirt, planted their seed, and watered their plant. 





-Blocks-

Rainbow Roads and Houses:
During this activity the children created their own roads and houses out of blocks for the Leprechaun to live and drive on. We encouraged the children to talk about the colors that they were using to promote color recognition.

I hope you enjoyed this weeks lesson plans and wish you all a Happy Saint Patrick's Day!

Prince, Princess, and a Dragon OH MY!

As a child, one of my favorite memories was pretending I was a damsel in distress. My childhood friend and I would climb, what at the time seemed to be, the tallest pine trees in the world. We dressed up in her sisters old prom dresses and played games, sang songs, and laughed for hours until it was time for me to head home for dinner. This is why the fairy tale unit is one of my favorites. Here are some of the activities we did this week to highlight Dragons.

Science-

We recently bought a new book for the classroom that the kids have been going bananas over called, Not Your Typical Dragon, by Dan Bar-el. In this story, Crispen the dragon has his seventh birthday. Seventh birthdays are especially important for dragons, because it is the time when all other dragons typically begin to breathe fire. Crispen however, finds out that he is not able to. Instead he can only conjure strange things like whipped cream, band-aids, and beach balls.

To parallel the experience of being a dragon, the children had a chance to pretend they were Crispen - by blowing bubbles. This activity can be beneficial in working the muscles in your child's cheeks, lips, and tongue to help create more muscle control and ultimately help with language development. 

Art-

The art area is where we learn to create with step by step instructions. This is the area is where  I let the children have materials and, at times, an example. By doing this, you get the best results, not to mention the children have more pride in the work they have created. This is especially true when you are not breathing over their shoulder constantly. This activity was very cute, but some of the activity was a little too difficult for the children to preform on their own. I do recommend this activity for children that are a little older and have more manual dexterity then your typical three-year-old. All you need is green paint and paper, toilet paper tubes, and tissue paper. 

Each child should paint their tube green, giving it time to dry before you finish the rest of the project. We seemed to have a lot of trouble getting the eyes to stay on without it needing to stand on end.

For younger children you may want to pre-cut half circles before beginning the project. Start by gluing googly eyes onto the half circle. We placed glue at the bottom of each half circle, and let them dry. This is the part of project frustrated us the most, because we did not leave time for the tube to dry nor did we expect the eyes to keep sliding off the tube. If you have have any better suggestions on how to attach the eyes without them sliding down the sides please leave it in the comments.

Once the eyes are dry you can have the children glue the tissue paper on the inside of the tube, and play the drying (waiting) game once more. Once it is finished you can begin breathing fire like a real dragon!

Gross-motor-

It was a very rainy day so we had to make due inside. The children pretended they were in knight school, practicing the art of slaying dragons. Each child was given a sword (just a simple straw) and had to use their hand-eye coordination to try and pop the bubbles the dragon was blowing. This activity got the kids up and moving, laughing and giggling.


I hope you enjoyed taking a look into our classroom and what we enjoyed today!

Jack and the Beanstalk

This week with Miss Nessa, the children and I will be discussing some of our favorite books. Earlier this month, while talking about Dr. Seuss and his birthday, we had the kids come up with a list of the books they enjoyed. We wrote the list out for the children to share with their parents, and each day we read a new book. In addition, we highlighted some of the events in the books by creating activities that showcase them. 

Today we told the story of Jack and the Beanstalk! It was extremely fun to watch the children interact with the felt board as the story was being told. One of the most important parts of storytelling is knowing the story beforehand. Stumbling and bumbling can be fun, but you could also lose the children's attention. Felt board storytelling is unique, as you are able to come up with an improvised story if you forget parts of the tale. Which was exactly what happened today.

After our class enjoyed a discussion about some details from the story, and talked about what it was that the beanstalk needed to grow, we explored Jacks adventure to the castle in many different ways:

Art-

Now knowing what the plants will need to grow the children got a chance to make their own greenhouse by wetting paper towels, folding seeds inside the towel, and taping the baggie to the window for a little sunlight.

After they were finished, it was time to create a pot for the seeds to live in. This activity was fun because the children were able to make predictions on how long it would take for their "magic" bean to grow. They practiced one-to-one correspondence and writing, as well as the practical knowledge of sowing a seed.

The children were given a rainbow of sharpies (I have learned this is the only thing that works on most paper cups) and told to design their pot how ever they choose. Some chose to write letters, faces, names, and even circles.

Math-

This is an activity I have been using for a few years when discussing Jack and the Beanstalk SO.... needless to say, this game has seen better days. All you need to make this game is a paper plate, cotton balls, a castle cutout, and a paper towel tube (sadly I couldn't find my tube this morning and had to choose one that did not look quite like a bean stalk).

The children took turns rolling and counting the number of dots on the dice, after which, they placed a specific number of beans onto the clouds up in the sky. I like to mix this game up sometimes depending on how advanced the children are, by giving the child a die that has numerals on it instead of dots to promote number recognition.

Blocks-

The block area is one of our kids favorite areas. Today the children really enjoyed creating castles for the giant to live in. Most of the children created tall tower structures, some with stairs, and even a mote. Here are some of our favorites!

I like to add pictures to the block area to get the children's creative brains going. Having this extra fluff around the classroom allows you to have real-life structures, people, and things that the child may not have gotten a chance to come in contact with before. I have also had kids show their parents some of the things they have been learning, by using some of the new language they have learned in that activity.

Overall we were extremely pleased with the way our planned activities turned out, and we hope that you'll enjoy them just as much as the class did!

Lets Explore Together

In this blog we will discuss some of the activities we do with our preschoolers to promote learning and exploring. We choose our educational experiences based on the children's interests, and events going on in the world around them. We know that children all learn at a different pace, and not everyone learns in the same way. This is why we try to plan activities that are open-ended and have room for error. For example, this past month the children were interested in Valentines Day and friendship. The activities that were chosen for the children incorporated many of the developmental needs, like letter and number recognition, counting, one-to-one correspondence, fine and gross motor skills, social development, and many more. 

Just having a little fun making Arthur masks

Now to get you more familiar with me. I have been in childcare since 2008. I currently have my CDA and after my engagement would like to go back to school and get my degree in Early Childhood. The day I stepped into a classroom, I knew it was the place I wanted to spend much of my time (that is, until my body just can't do it anymore). I am a silly and easy going person who was often called a daydreamer when growing up. In all reality, I was trying to take in all the information I was given - I struggled for many years because I had trouble paying attention. It wasn't until one teacher gave me a chance to try a hands-on approach, that I started to really enjoy learning. This was a game changer. After this point I was more capable to achieve calmness, because I was able to listen while keeping my brain active and engaged. Throughout the duration of my scholastic career, I continued to use these tools to stay focused and attentive. Having firsthand experience with these challenges has made me more conscious of the needs that other children in my class may have.

This is my assistant-teacher, Ashley. She is my rock and a constant source of support. 

She's going to kill me for this one

When times get tough, she is there to help me keep it together or just make me laugh. We spend everyday trying, and sometimes failing, to create activities that are age-appropriate and challenging. We strive to create a fun and relaxing atmosphere that the kids want to come back to. Our classroom has mostly three-year-old children, but we also have some that are in their early fours, as well as some older two-year-olds. Everyone has their own responsibilities in the classroom and is encouraged to be who they are. While treating others with respect, of course. Most importantly we want them to HAVE FUN!

I hope that you can take something away from the adventures we have, and use the ideas with your children in the classroom and in your home. Just remember, learning is more then worksheets and flash cards.

LEARNING IS MESSY, HANDS ON, AND FUN!