Welcome back friends I hope everyone is enjoying their December. Our Theme this month with Experience Early Learning is Cozy Winter this week we have explored all things Outside Sights and sounds.
Snow Tracks
Can you think of What kind of animals leave tracks on the ground? Have you ever seen animal tracks? During circle time we passed around a plate with a playdough pancake on it. Each child was encouraged to make a track or important with his/her finger in the dough. Next in our creative Art time we set out the Inspiration photo from our monthly preschool curriculum.
I ask questions like what do you notice about the tracks in the photo? Do you see the animal tracks in the snow? Next i sat out paper, white paint, and cotton swabs. can you make tracks with your fingers? How can you use the cotton swabs and other materials to make your own tracks?
Ice
Invite children to hold out their hands and count out five “icicle” ( fingers ).
Five little icicles
Five little icicles sparkling in the sun.
It got so hot that I melted one.
Four/Three/Two/One…
No more icicles sparkled in the sun.
It got so hot now winter is done!
Next I brought out a bowl of ice we explored different ways of picking them up I ask questions like would you rather hold something hot or something cold?
Dripping Icicles
Can I just tell you how much I love our preschool curriculum!! We had pre-cut red triangles and brown rectangles the children got to design their own cabin and then we dripped icicles from the roof using watered down white paint.
Since it’s December and Christmas is just around the corner I wanted to add a little Christmas to our letter B day. B is for Bell. We did our B books from our experience early learning curriculum.
Next we made a bell shaker in our creative art time. I thought it would be super special to paint them red and green and then make it into an ornament for the children’s Christmas tree.
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
Welcome back Friends we are having so much fun with Experience Early Learning Curriculum transportation unit.
Today We designed an airplane launcher!! We experimented with flying an airplane using a straw. The children used their own ideas to design their airplane by rolling up a blue pice of paper and taping it. Next we cut out wings. Lastly the children tested their design by blowing through the straw and watching the plane fly through the air. This was SO MUCH FUN!!!
J book
J is for jaguar, jar and jellyfish today we colored a book and had the kids cut and put together their own J Book to take home.
Boat
Today we used shapes and designed a tugboat. The children followed a sequence of steps to design their boat. We used circles, squares, rectangles, and other shapes to copy the patterns.
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
This week we learned about Johnny Appleseed he not only loved planting apple trees he also loved animals and would help hurt animals heal. It is said His best companion was Brother Wolf, a hurt wolf he found on his journey.
Johnny Appleseed
John Chapman, better known as Johnny Appleseed, was an American pioneer nurseryman who introduced apple trees to large parts of Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois and Ontario, as well as the northern counties of present-day West Virginia. He loved being outside and he also enjoyed helping hurt animals.
Johnny Appleseed Puppet
Our preschool curriculum did a great job designing the outlines for this wonderful puppet.
Make
• Give each child a puppet body then invite them to choose a shirt shape, pants, and hat.
• Have children color them
• Health children glue the clothing shapes to the puppet then tape or glue to the craft stick.
• Read the book aloud (supplied by our experience early learning curriculum) have the children use their puppets to act out the story.
Porcupine
Porcupines are large rodents with coats of sharp spines, or quills, that protect them against predation.
During circle time we talked about how we would hug a porcupine because if the porcupine gets scared his sharp quills will come out for protection. We used a stuffed animal and took turns pretending to gently hug it. Imagine what would happen if we squeezed a porcupine too hard. Remind children to use kind, gentle hands when touching people or animals.
• When might a porcupine feel scared? How is a porcupine dangerous?
Make
• Fold the circle shape in half to create the porcupines body.
• Have children explore by decorating their porcupine with the provided materials. I did use a brown marker to outline where to paint and where the porcupine face would be.
Play
• invite children to use the porcupine puppets and retell the safety rules for sharp objects.
Raccoon Mask
Experience a Early Learning supplied us with this cute raccoon mask and tails. We looked at the conversation poster and discussed what colors we see in the raccoon. Next I put out some black crayons and invited the children to decorate their mask. Next I placed some white paint out and showed the children how to paint on stripes on the tail shape.
We played a fun game of tag. Half the children wore their raccoon mask and the others did not…… we ran from the raccoons because we sure did not want to get smelly. This game was super cute.
Letter L book!!
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
Welcome back friends we had such a great week using our Experience Early Learning Curriculum. This week we learned all about fruit trees. Learning about fruit is a fun, hands-on way for children to explore the senses. By incorporating fruit in the classroom, children play fool are you discover about fruit, such as color, smell, feel or text. Children use their sensory skills when exploring the parts of a fruit, such as the skin, it, seeds or flesh.
Inside an Apple
Set up
• Cut an apple in half. Play some pieces on a tray and set out some tweezers.
• Encourage children to use the tweezers to pick out the seeds. (This is a great activity for using fine motor skills.)
During this activity ask the children some questions.
• what does it look like inside an apple?
• Are all apples the same?
• What do apples feel like inside?
• what do apples feel like outside
Rolling for Letters
Each month with experience early learning we focused on three letters this month we our letters are E, L, I.
We have not learned the I yet so we just focused on the letter E and L with this activity.
Set up
• write an E on one side of the apple and an L on the other side.
Discuss & Explore
• What happens when an apple falls off a tree? Where might it roll.
• Show the Apple to the children and encourage them to point to the letter E and the letter L.
• Invite one child at a time to roll the apple and identify the letter facing upward.
Cheery Tree Collage
We had such a great time making cherry trees. The children got to
Explore their imagination by placing sticks off from the tree trunk
On the paper. I love watching the children imagination grow. Next we added heart shaped confetti for the cherry blossoms.
We took turns turning over the cherry card and identifying the letter and then placing it on the tree.
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
Welcome back friends we are building strong Roots for lifelong learning with Experience Early Learning curriculum. We opened up our new new theme Orchard Harvest for the month of October with the Tree life cycle. Just like most living plants, a tree needs light, water, and soil to grow. When learning about the lifecycle of organisms, children begin to understand how things change and evolve. Incorporating life science concepts into early childhood classrooms allows children to strengthen their curiosity for the world around them. Planning hands on learning activities is essential for children and lays the foundation for lifelong learning.
The life cycle of an apple tree
• Stage 1-Seed Stage: Apple seeds are planted and covered with soil. With sunlight and water, the apple seeds will begin to form tiny roots.
• Stage 2-Tree Stage: The seeds that were planted emerge from below the surface of the soil as sprouts. These sprouts need water and sunshine to help them to continue to grow. It can take three to six years for an apple tree to be considered full grown!
• Stage 3-Bud Stage: Once the apple tree becomes an adult it will begin to produce buds.
• Stage 4-Blossom Stage: The buds begin to produce blossoms, or flowers. These blossoms are beautiful and usually stay on the trees for around three to five weeks. During this stage bees come and pollinate the blossoms, and about ten days later the fruit will begin to form.
• Stage 5-Fruit Stage: Finally, apples start to grow on the trees where the blossoms had been. It usually takes between 160-180 days for the apples to be ready to harvest. Those sweet, juicy apples are worth the
Apple seed art.
Today we had a great day exploring the inside of an apple and even tasting different apples. Check out our fun apple painting we did with our Preschool curriculum.
• why are trees so important? What can we do to protect the forest?
*Make
• give each child a core and invite them to decorate as desired.
• Then go outdoors and fill it with nature items examples are rocks, twigs, acorns.
*Play
• go back inside, play music and invite children to shake in March.
Experience Early Learning does a wonderful job engaging our children in small group activities. In this lesson for children had a great time measuring branches from longest to shortest.
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
Hello friends this week with our Experience Early Learning curriculum we have been focusing on caring. It is important to help children with sharing materials, Care for others, apologize, include others in a game or play cooperatively. As teachers, we can plan activities that encourage children to work together. By setting group goals, such as building a block tower, children are able to interact with peers, and express their thoughts and try out new ideas.
The 5 things we focus on with our Preschool curriculum this week were Included everyone, share, care, say sorry, work together.
Friendship Bracelets
Boy did my kids love making these. The pipecleaners made it a lot easier for my two and three-year-olds to string on the beads. While the children wore their bracelets, I explained that the bead represents one friend and family and that Everyone is included in our circle of friendship. I even had one little boy who wanted to make one for my mom, who lives with us so she would be included. It truly melted my heart.
Sharing Hands
With heart and helping hands, a child can accomplish anything.
We can share something, such as toys or food, with another person. When there’s not enough of something, we can share with others so they can have some. It’s so important to let children know that with working together we can do so much more. Here is a picture of us making our sharing hand poster.
Care
Give a Hug
to the tune of row row row your boat
Care, care, care for others,
Each and every day
(nod head up and down)
Give a hug, give a hug,
(hug stuff animal or self)
Encouraging words we say
(open and close hands. )
Get well card
Look how cute!! I think I will get my kids to make these every time we need to send a get well card…. No more hallmark for get well cards. Lol
We discussed what you can make for someone to show them how you care. We also talked about doing something that will put a smile on someone face.
Saying I am sorry
I bumped into my friend
to the tune of ( The farmer in the Dell.)
I bumped into my friend.
I bumped into my friend.
It was an accident!
I’m sorry, my dear friend.
Work Together
Unicorn feelings discuss what do you think is the difference between a horse in a unicorn? Invite children to draw a face on their horse head and decorate the unicorn horn as desired. Help them attach the main and then craft stick.
Next we placed two pieces of tape on the floor and encourage children to race back-and-forth between the markers.
Huge shout out to Experience Early Learning for this month’s curriculum which I have received in return for honest and authentic stories resulting from my daily experiences. I am excited and honored to share how we use this curriculum to meet the different learning needs in my home.
My favorite part of the day is Circle Time. Its a time when we can sit together get our day started, learn, play, and talk. Today in this blog I would like to share some benefits of circle time, my circle time set up, and our circle time routine.
Benefits
Benefits of Circle Time for Kids
• Socialization. As children step out of home, they learn more about themselves by relating to their fellow classmates or teachers. …
• Listening Skills. …
• Readiness for School. …
• Good practice of Routine. …
• Increased Motivation for School. …
• Cognitive Development.
( even my babies love circle time and gain developmental skills as they join us )
My Circle Time Layout
Each new school year Experience Early Learning has developed a new lay out and theme for our Circle Time. I have a mixture of the past couple years on my circle time wall.
A great resource that Experience Early Learning provides is that once you become a member you will be able to locate all the files and print items out from the previous years and themes. For example The paintbrushes, numbers and shapes are part of the Colors of the World Touch & Play Displays.
You can find it on their website as a digital download or the link below.
I love Circle Time being in a corner. I use black chalk board paint as my background and I love the way it makes everything pop. I also pick out fun Borders to give the wall definition. You could even change it throughout the year for holiday themes if you wanted to. I simply use rubber cement to attach my border and it stays on the wall perfectly.
Now for the set up you want your wall to flow so make sure you place your pictures in order of your Circle Time routine. You do not what to be jumping back and forth on the wall.
I have a mixed aged group and my babies/toddlers love pulling things off the wall. I also fell that Circle time needs to be on the children’s eye level and also at a level where they can participate putting on the calendar pieces, days of the week, weather, and feelings. I do teach that we do not touch circle time unless your name is called but it will take some time for the younger children to learn.
I always do circle Time after breakfast before we start our daily lesson from our preschool curriculum.
I always greet the Children with a big smile and a good morning friends. I say a quick prayer to get our day started and then we start off with Calendar. I will pick a child to glue the calendar piece on to the poster and then pick another child to place the day of the week cloud onto the wall. Next we sing our days of the week song and the months of the year. Here are the songs we use. Days of the week on our circle time CD. https://secure.mothergoosetime.com/content-restricted/circle-time-songs/.
Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday these are the days the week.
I also love this days of the week song.
Days of the week
“Sing to the tune of the Addams family”
Days of the week (snap, snap)
Days of the week ( snap, snap)
Days of the week, days of the week, days of the week. ( snap, snap)
There’s Sunday and there’s Monday there’s Tuesday and there’s Wednesday there’s Thursday and there’s Friday and then there’s Saturday.
Days of the week (snap, snap)
Days of the week ( snap, snap)
Days of the week, days of the week, days of the week. ( snap, snap)
For the Months of the year we love using our circle time CD but I do find it a little difficult for my younger kids so we made up an easier song. Here is a video of our months of the year song.
Moving on to our preschool curriculum monthly Color and Shape. Numbers, and Letters. We sing the ABC’s and count 1-20. Most of time I also use visual aids so we can learn letter and number recognition.
Weather
We open up to this “What is the weather song” here is a picture of the song we sing.
Next I ask the children to look outside and tell me what the weather is. Then i pick a child to turn the arrow to the picture and we sing this song.
It is “sunny” it is “sunny” did you see did you see. did you look outside. did you see the sky. it is “sunny” it is “sunny”. here is an example of our song.
Every once in a while we will do colors and shapes but only about once or twice a week because I do not want circle time to last to long. ( no longer then 15 minutes )
At this time I use my teacher curriculum guide because there will be a circle time lesson to do during this time. Here is an picture of what it looks like.
Next we go over Our theme of the day and do our small group literacy. we normally do small group at circle time because we are all together and the children are engaged.
To finish circle time we do our feelings. How do you feel today? And then we are off the creative art time.
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
This month our Preschool unit is called Friends and Feelings. Making friends an essential skill to practice early in life. Friendships help children develop their own identity as they learn how to express themselves and show curiosity.
Friend Puppets
How do you feel when you see a friend? What do you say to your friend?
Friends make you feel happy and excited when you see them. Its always nice to greet friends with a greeting like hello, I am so happy to see you, or with a hug.
We made friend puppets and practiced saying hello and goodbye to one another. We also put on puppet shows on how to make friends.
Supplies
• feathers
• Cardboard paper
• Wiggle eyes (4)
• Glue
• Scissors
• Markers
Make
• invite the child to create one puppet that looks like a friend and one that looks like himself.
• Cut out clothing from paper and attach it to the puppets. ( older children can make their own clothes but you may want to pre cut toddler clothes)
• Glue on feathers for hair and draw eyes ( or use wiggle eyes). Decorate the friends with markers.
You Are Special
“ We Are All Special and Unique.”
During circle time we Talked about our fingerprints. “ what do you notice about your fingerprints? What designs do you see?” I explained that no two people have the same fingerprints. Next I sat out a paper on the floor and we took turns making fingerprints using an ink pad.
Today during art with our Preschool curriculum we made a I am special Tree. We made a Tree using green paint and our handprints. Every tree turned out so unique next We talked about how we are all different and unique just like our trees.
Friendship Headbands
How should a good friend play? We then made a list and brainstormed. Next we made these cute friendship Headband that read Be kind, listen, care, share, help others.
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
Welcome back friends!! Come explore the seascape with us. Discover the coral reef colors, explore plants and animals on the ocean floor. Earth’s five oceans are enormous!! They cover about 70% of Earth’s surface and they are home to thousands of plants and animals. This month we will be talking about seascape, large sea creatures, small sea creatures, and ocean exploration. Experience Early Learning (formally Mother Goose) time has planned out such a fun month for us!!! Its going to but fun so check back with us each week!!!
How do you think the ocean water taste? Give each child a cup of salt water. Ask How does it smell?
Next encourage them to taste it.
Salt water art
Supplies
• paint
• Water
• cups
• Background paper
• Eyedropper
• Salt
Activity
• Fill cups with small amounts of water and mix and paint. As many colors as desired.
• Have children use the droppers and drop paint onto their picture.
• Next prompt the children to sprinkle the salt onto their picture.
• Ask the children what happens to the salt when it touches the watercolors?
Ocean zones
Ocean plants sometimes attach themselves to the ocean floor while other plants just float. I set out the inspiration photo from experience early learning formally Mother Goose time.
The children were given a background paper, different color blue paper strips, and green festoon. Next i used these prompts to help inspire the children’s Ocean zone creations.
• what do you see in the photo?
• How will you arrange your paper strips to create ocean zones?
• What plants or animals could you draw in each zone?
• What do you think lives at the bottom of the ocean?
O is for Octopus
Each month we focus on three letters with our preschool curriculum. This week we are learning about the letter O. Our preschool curriculum supplies us with a hands on letter sheet with each letter that we are focusing on. I love how experience early learning always find creative ways to use the hands on letter sheet. This week With the letter O we cut out out 8 pieces of yarn and attach them to the octopus’s tentacles.
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
Welcome back Friends!!! This week at Mrs.Kat’s Kids we finished up our space unit and this week the kids enjoyed being astronauts and playing with rocket ships all week long!!
Countdown with friends
Supplies
• boxes
• Tape
• Markers
How can we use boxes to construct a rocket ship together?
• Work together to build a rocket ship.
• Invite a child to sit inside the ship.
• Invite the other children surround the ship countdown together starting at 10 and ending with “ Blast off!!!”
• Repeat until each child has had a turn to sit inside the rocketship.
During creative art time we made a rocket ship twirler. The children had a blast playing with them throughout our week.
• invite children to decorate the rocket with markers and other materials.
• Encourage them to add paper flames, attach the parts to the yarn then use the tail of the yarn to make the rocket “fly.”
Play
• Encourage the children to count down from 10 to zero then pretend to launch his/her rocket.
Making New Planets
Supplies
• playdough (2colors)
Discuss & Explore
• invite children to really explore the playdough. Ask the children what shape planets are? Encourage them to to form the playdough into a shape and ask them to name it.
Play Together
• encourage children to make a small medium and large planet with Playdough.
• Compare all of the planets and line them up from smallest to largest.
Challenge: Roll out eight balls to represent the eight planets, then have children name them all.
I hope you all had a great week and we will see you again next week. Thanks for stopping by.
As an Experience Early Learning Blog Ambassador, we receive the Experience Early Learning Preschool curriculum in exchange for our honest and authentic stories resulting from our personal experiences. As always, our opinions on amazing stuff for children are 100% our 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 judgement when planning activities for your children. #preschool #EELblogger Experience Early Learning | Facebook | Twitter | Pinterest | Instagram
Mrs. Kat’s Childcare 