Wonderful Water

Clean, fresh water is a valuable resources and basic need for all living things. This month we have discovered all things water. This week we discovered the water cycle, rainbows, states of water, drinking water, and water conservation.

Rainy Windows

Rain can be memorizing to watch and listen to. Rain can come in many forms such as light droplets running down a window or heavy pounding on a roof. During this innovation to create, children created their own raindrops by experimenting with science tools. Through this process, children discovered how to make big or small drops by placing the eyedropper in different heights. Important science concepts such as cause-and-effect can be practiced simultaneously with fun and creative art projects.

Puddle Jump

Today we played a Math game using our preschool curriculum. I spread the number puddles on the floor. The children took turns rolling the dice and then jumping over to the matching number.

Rainbow Dancer

What sound does rain make?

Make

• Give each child a rainbow paper to cut into strips.

• decorate plate as desired then fold in half and insert shaker mix. Staple shut.

• Tape the rainbow strips along the straight edge and attach the cotton balls.

Rainbow Dominoes

The children worked together to find different ways to sort the rainbow dominoes. This math game came in our curriculum box. https://www.mothergoosetime.com/

Hydration Station

Why is it important to drink water?

Did you know we need to drink 8 glasses of water a day.

What helps you stay healthy and helps your heart pump and your body working.

As an Experience Early Learning Blog Ambassador, I receive the Experience Early Learning Preschool curriculum in exchange for my honest and authentic stories resulting from our personal experiences. As always, my opinions on awesome stuff for little kids are 100% my own. Keep in mind that all preschoolers do things in their own time and on their own terms. What one is ready for, another might not be. Please use your best mama judgement when planning activities for your little kids. #preschool #homeschool #mgtblogger

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Bubbles bubbles everywhere!!

Foam soap

Set up

• pour a small amount of water dish soap in a bowl. Add watercolors for food coloring. Next to have children mix the water and soap for a foamy texture for the children to explore.

Big Questions

• What does foam feel like?

• What happens when you make foamy colors together?

• Do objects sink or float in foam?

Sponge Discovery

Set up

• set out a bin of water and a few empty containers. Place a variety of sponges near the bin of water so children can explore an experiment with the sponges.

Big Questions

• which sponge holds the most water?

• What happens when you squeeze a sponge slowly versus quickly?

• How do sponges feel when they are dry? How do they feel when they are wet?

• Can you fill up the container by squeezing water from the sponge?

Bath Time Puppet

Who loves playing in the tub? The children decorated their person puppet and bathtub. Next we sang the song scrub a dub dub in the tub and I encourage the children to use their puppets as we sang.

Scrub-a-dub-dub, we’re sitting in the tub.

Getting so clean, like a washing machine,

Scrub-a-dub-dub, we’re sitting in the tub.…

Wash and Write

Squirt some shaving cream on a plate for each child. Hold up a letter card or a phonics vocabulary card and encourage the children to practice writing it on the shaving cream.

Bubbly letters

Write familiar letters on the paper and take them to the table. We use the eyedroppers and filled it with bubbles to practice writing the letters.

Bubbly Art

Today during invitation to create we used our inspirational photo from experience early learning curriculum. I used prompts for the children like… what shapes do you see?

How many bubbles can you make?

Can you make bubbles of different sizes?

The children used bubblewrap and watered down paint to design their bubbly Art.

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Once I caught a fish

Welcome back friends I am so excited to share this fun unit with you guys from our Experience Early Learning curriculum. Come dive in with us as we swim for shapes and letters, boat races and experiment with sinking and floating.

Once I caught a Fish

One, two, three, four, five

Once I caught a fish alive

Six, seven, eight, nine, ten

Then I let it go again

Why did you let it go?

Because it bit my finger so

Which finger did it bite?

This little finger on my right

One, two, three, four, five

Once I caught a fish alive

Six, seven, eight, nine, ten

Then I let it go again

Why did you let it go?

Because it bit my finger so

Which finger did it bite?

This little finger on my right

Fish on a line

What colors are fish?

How do you catch a fish?

Supplies

• fish shape

• Yarn

• Craft sticks

• Crayons or markers

• Tape

Give Each child a fish shape. Invite children to decorate their fish and then use the yarn to sew around the outside of the fish. leave the extra yarn to attach to the craft stick.

Play

Encourage children to pretend they caught a fish.

Sailboat Designs

• What makes a sailboat move? Thats right sailboats need wind to be able to move on water.

• What kind of day would be a good day for sailing?

We sat a bunch of collage shape pieces out and the inspiration photo from our preschool curriculum. We used prompts to help the children design their own sailboat. What shapes and colors do you see in the inspiration? What will you add to the sky or water in your art?

Duck Family Headband

Who is in your family?

How do you care for each other?

Each child made a duck headband and attached eye stickers and a beak.

Next they decorated the little ducks to resemble members of their family and encouraged children to connect family members to the ribbon.

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Bubbles, Boats, and Floats

Welcome back friends!! Welcome to our new unit bubbles, boats, and floats with experience early learning curriculum. This month with our preschool curriculum our themes will be down the river, on the lake, soapy water, and wonderful water. We are going ti be having so much fun these last few weeks of Daycare. Now get ready to go down the river with us!!

Down The River

How does a river move?

Invite one child to be the leader and move around the room like a winding river. Play any desired songs while the child leads the other children around the room. Use different tempos as the children take turns being the leader.

River Collage

What can you find in a river? Rocks, sticks, water, frogs, fish, bear, wood, turtles…..

During our invitation to create I set out the display inspiration photo from our preschool curriculum. The children and I talked about the photo and named thing what we saw. After discussing the photo the children began to make their collages.

what will you use to make your river? will your river be straight or curvy?

Materials

• background paper

• Blue

• rocks

• glue

• Nature items: sticks grass and leaves

• markers

• scissors

Beaver

Building a lodge

set out wood pieces and have the children problem solved ways to create a lodge for a beaver.

Beaver talk puppet

Beavers have large paddle like tails. They slap their tails on the water making loud noises to worn others that danger is near. Do you think the beaver is talking? What would you ask a beaver? What is your name? What do you like to eat? Today with our experience early learning curriculum we set out materials and the children designed their own beaver puppet.

Building with sticks

What do you think a beaver uses to cut wood? Set out Play-Doh and craft sticks. Encourage children to build with their with the materials. Observe how they problem solve and build structures.

Next we created a big beaver lodge The children took turns rolling the dice and counting out the same amount of sticks. The children all worked together and shared their sticks to make one large lodge.

The letter V

The letter of the week with our preschool curriculum was the letter V. We used our loose letter mats to build the V. Next each child was given two popsicle sticks to glue the V and decorate them with collage materials.

Floating Ducks 🦆

we enjoyed seeing how many ducks we could float on a boat!! Roll dice and have child count out that many ducks and place them on the boat and see if it sinks.

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Butterflies

We have had so much fun this month with our bees and butterfly unit from experience early learning!! To make this unit even more exciting we did a butterfly garden kit. We have had so much fun watching our baby caterpillars eat and grow. Then watching them foam into their chrysalises. then we waited a week and the butterflies began to hatch!! The kids were so excited and it was so much fun seeing their excitement and counting how many butterflies we had. After our butterflies hatched we picked flowers and made a nice home for them. The kids enjoyed using a dropper and feeding the butterflies sugar water everyday. After a few days we let our butterflies go free!!! it was exciting but sad to see them go.

Moving like monarchs

Monarch butterflies are known for migrating (flying many miles) during our creative corner we made butterfly kites. Next we played music and had the children dance with their butterfly kites.

Pollinator Bingo

During small group math with our preschool curriculum we discussed the different insects that pollinate. we sat in the circle and rolled a ball back-and-forth imagining the children are flowers and the ball is a butterfly visiting and pollinating flowers.

Next we played a fun pollinator Bingo game.

Butterfly

Supplies

• coffee filter

• ice cream scoop

• twist tie

• eyedropper

• watery paint

• scissors

• tape

• markers

Make

• invite each child to squeeze watery paint on their coffee filter.

• While the coffee filter is drying encourage children to decorate their “butterfly body” ( the ice cream scoop)

• tape it in the center of the filter. attach twist tie “antennae”

Butterfly Collage

We used the inspirational photo from experience early Learning lol and I asked prompting questions.

• what shapes or colors do you see on the photo?

• What types of butterfly is your favorite?

• How will you use the shapes to make a butterfly?

• Where do you see symmetry in your design.

We cut out a butterfly design and painted one side of the wing as the child desired. Next I had the children pulled the butterfly in half to create a symmetric print on the opposite wing.

Butterfly Hunt

I placed the butterfly hunt photos all around the room then the children used their butterfly hunt guide to check off the butterflies they found.

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Metamorphosis

From egg butterfly explore the butterfly lifecycle with us!!

The idea of a caterpillar changing into a beautiful butterfly is fascinating!!

The lifecycle is a wonderful way to show children how things grow and change into something different. From egg to caterpillar to Chrysalis to butterfly; children begin to see how a life cycle works.

Eggs on a leaf

What comes from an egg? During circle time we passed around a toy egg and the children explored opening and closing it. I explained that butterflies lay eggs on leaves.

Supplies

• pasta

• Leaf shape

• Glue

• Markers

• Scissors

• Nature items

Butterflies lay their eggs on and under leafs to keep them safe and hidden?

Hidden Eggs

I encouraged the children to explore looking through the nature items and finding the “eggs” (ovals ) then they had to decide if the egg was small, medium, or large. Lastly they placed the “egg” on the same size leaf

Caterpillar sculpture

When might a Catapillar be afraid? caterpillars are easy pray for birds, wasp and mammals. Caterpillars like to stay on leaves to keep away from animals that might eat them. During our creative corner we made a make and play activity with our preschool curriculum. Each child used corn starch noodles to build a Caterpillar sculpture. Lastly we cut the straws to use for the antennas.

Longest Caterpillar

During this small group math activity we used the attribute blocks (supplied by our preschool curriculum) to build one large caterpillar. Each child took turns tossing the cube and identifying the shape. They placed the same shape block on the floor making one huge caterpillar.

Life Cycle Plate

Would you rather be an egg caterpillar chrysalis or butterfly? Today during our

Creative corner the children made the butterflies life cycle. The children cut apart their labels and divided the plate into four sections then gluing one label to each section.

We used materials such as tissue paper, beans, makers and stickers to help the children visualize the cycle.

Butterfly Symmetry

What do you know about butterfly wings? Did you know that they have symmetry patterns and both wings are the same design?

The children took turns painting a design on one side of the butterfly and then we folded the paper into half. The children could not believe their eyes when they opened the paper and saw the same pattern on each side!!

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All about Bee’s

Did you know that bees and butterflies are more than just insects; they are some of the worlds best helpers. Bees and butterflies help grow our food by pollinating flowers and plants.

This week we traveled through five different types of bees with experience early learning curriculum.

Honeybees are super pollinators. They help flowers, plants, fruits and vegetables grow.

Bumblebees vibrate their wings quickly and are loved by farmers. But be careful because they will sting.

Carpenter bees use their mandibles ( mouth parts) to make holes in wood. they build tunnels and make nest for their eggs.

Yellow jacket may look like little bees but they are wasp. They are known to be unfriendly to other wasp and bees. They may get angry especially when they hear noises.

Hornets are wasp and make nest in high places. Their nest have paper textures and can be found in places such as trees or under roofs.

Nectar painting

In our Invitation to create with experience early learning curriculum we used eyedroppers to simulate how the bee carries nectar from a flower to a hive.

Supplies

• Eyedropper

• paper

• cupcake liner

• scissors

• watery paint

• markers

• Glue

• nature items

Help children glue the cupcake liner anywhere on the paper like a flower. Invite children to select a paint color and fill the cupcake liner with that paint. Next the children used the eyedroppers to suck the nectar out of the flower.

Pollinate the Flowers

Using a game from our preschool curriculum I observed the children identifying numbers 1-16 and then the children would find the matching number. We used yellow paper scraps for “Pollen”

We played together by placing the small flower circles in a bag and then setting out the big number flower cards on the floor. The children took turns drawling a number out of the bag and then getting a piece of “pollen” to pollinate the matching number.

Beekeepers

how do you think beekeepers get the honey out of the comb? Explain that beekeepers carefully remove the bees and then take off the wax to get the honey. Take a look at my little beekeepers getting honey out of the jar!!

Bee puzzle

What are the body parts of a bee? The children cut apart the bee sections to create their own puzzle pieces. Next I encourage the children to put their babies back together.

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Bees and Butterflies

Welcome back friends for the month of April we are learning all about Bees and Butterflies with Experience Early Learning curriculum!! We even have our very own butterfly kit that we will be talking about each week!!

Where do bees live? Today we discussed the different types of bees homes such as in the ground, a beehive, a nest or in a bee house.

Beehive Stamping

What do you think is inside a bees home? Explain that there are cells inside of the homes Where the bees store food or lay eggs.

Supplies

• paper

• bubble wrap

• paint

• scissors

Prompts

• How will you use the bubble wrap to paint and stamp the beehive

• what could you use to make a bee

How many bees in the hive?

How many bees do you think live in a hive? Did you know beehives can have 15,000- 60,000 bees inside? Goodness that is a lot!!

Today with our preschool curriculum we made a fun beehive counting game. This activity helped with Number sequence and fine motor skills.

Fill the Honeycomb

Bees collect pollen from flowers to feed their babies. Have you ever seen a bumblebee on a flower before?

The children worked together to fill the honeycomb game board with “pollen” (bingo chips)

Queen Bee Headband

What might a queen bee do? Explain that the queen bee stays in the hive and lays eggs.

Today with our Make and play from experience early learning we made these cute queen bee headbands!! The children had so much fun running around with their queen bee hats on.

Bee Hunt

In small group we talked about how bees find food and how they bring it back to their hive. We used our theme poster in our iSpy glasses!!

Safe homes

Today we used building blocks and materials to make our safe homes just like bees. Look at my little bees working hard.

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Desert Nights

Hello Friends we have finished our Desert Discovery with Experience Early Learning. Its been such a fun unit and the kids have had a blast. This week we discovered nocturnal desert animals, compared and contrast day and night life, and played howling communication games.

Desert Cottontail Puppet

• what do you do at night? WhAt do you think a cottontail does? Cottontails are nocturnal.

We used various supplies to create a cottontail.

Desert Night Painting

What colors do you see at night?

What desert animals or plants do you want to draw?

What happens if you cover your drawing with black watercolor?

How will you arrange your stars?

Rattlesnake Shaker

What sounds do you think a rattlesnake make?

Today decorated a tube and poured rice inside and made a rattlesnake shaker.

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Mojave Desert

Hello Friends!! This week with our Preschool curriculum we Investigated plant textures, Drew in sand, made pokey playdough and played silly cactus games.

Do you like HOT weather? The Mojave Desert is very hot in the summer and cold in the winter.

How do you cool off in the hot weather?

Panning for Gold

• what could you find in water?

• Explain that people have panned for gold in the Mojave for hundreds of years.

We mixed together sand, rocks, and water and went panning for gold.