Giant Planets

Welcome back friends!! This week at Mrs. Kats kids we took a look at the Four giant planets in our solar system. The four giant planets are Jupiter, Uranus, Neptune, and Saturn.

Jupiter it is the biggest planet. What is something bigger then you?

I encouraged the children to discuss their ideas.

Music activity “ Jupiter Is Very Big”

To the tune of “Mary had a little lamb”

JUPITER IS VERY BIG

Jupiter is very big,

Very big, very big.

Jupiter is very big,

Bigger than Grady!

• Put a chair or stool in front of the children. Select a child , sing the lyrics above and insert the child’s name at the end of the verse. Invite the child named to sit on the chair, repeat and have a new child sit.

• This activity helps children build relationship skills by encouraging them to participate in group activities. This activity was designed by our preschool curriculum.

Creative Art Jupiter Stripes

Supplies ( in your preschool curriculum box)

• Title Display

• Inspiration photo

• Circle shape

Your Supplies

• painters/masking tape

• White and yellow paint

Set up

• Set out inspiration photo and additional supplies.

• add 3-4 strips of masking tape across each child circle shape.

Prompts

• Invite children to pick one color and paint the stripes between two pieces of masking tape.

• Pick a different color and paint that stripe.

• Continue to paint until the planet is covered in colors.

• When dry, Remove masking tape to reveal the striped Jupiter.

Uranus

Uranus is very far away and would take many years to reach Uranus even in a rocket ship. During circle time we discovered words like “near” and “far”

We took turns rolling a ball far away and then named a child to chase after it. The child brought it back and we discussed if the ball was “near” or “far.” I explained that Uranus is very far so it’s very cold because it’s not close to the sun.

During creative art our preschool curriculum, experience early learning supplied us with a fun activity. We used and blue cellophane (as ice) , and a blue paper circle. We placed the two together to make it look like giant ball of ice.

Neptune

Neptune has six rings that are made of ice and rocks. sometimes the ice chunks break off and it becomes comets.

The kids loved this song so much!!! I love how Experience Early Learning creates such fun activities to get the children engaged.

Ring around the planets

to the tune of “ring around the Rosie.”

Ring around the planets,

Jupiter and Neptune,

Uranus and Saturn,

they all have rings!

Today during creative art time we put a blue paper circle into a box, then dropped small bouncy balls into the box with a few drops of paint. Next the child was asked to shake it. When the child was finished and opened the box they saw a beautiful swirling Neptune creation.

Saturn

What do you think Saturn is made up? Saturn is made of ice and rock. Saturn spins so fast that it has rings around it!!!

Today each child was given a card stock circle that they decorated to look like Saturn, next we tape done end of the yarn to the shake and wrapped it tightly around.

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

Rock Planets

Welcome back Friends!!! Come and explore our world and beyond Earth, Mercury, Mars and Venus. There are four rock planets in our solar system and we want to share them with you!!!

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.

Earth

Earth is the third planet from the sun and it is also the planet we live on. The earth is also green and blue, the blue represent water and the green represents land. Today durning creative art with our Preschool curriculum we used blue paint and painted a paper plate blue for water and we then glued the green paper continents onto the paper plate for the land.

We also played a fun math game. We worked together to put the plates in order from the 1st to 8th from the sun.

Supplies

• planet lables ( in your EEL box)

• Paper plates

• Yellow paper circle for the sun

• Glue

Set up

• glue planet labels onto the paper plates.

Discuss & Explore

• how far away do you think the sun is? Explain that the sun is almost 93 million miles away from earth.

• Work together to put the plates in order from the 1st to 8th from the sun.

Mars

Mars is known to be called the red planet because it has red dust storms. Today in creative art using our preschool curriculum we mixed yellow and orange paint together with shaving cream. We used paint brushes or our hands to make mountains on black paper. Next we dusted our paper with red sand to represent the dust storm that happens on Mars. It was fun to watch the children individual technique to make Mars, some of the children loved getting messy others not so much. ( this was a messy craft so we went outside)

Venus

What would you do if you didn’t have water? Venus is very hot and has no water.

Water challenge

Supplies

• Pitcher

• water bottle (filled)

• towel

Group activity

• show the water bottle and explain that we are going to work together. Ask the children what can we do to make sure there is enough water for everyone to take a turn with pouring?

• Invite each child to pour a small amount of water into the pitcher. Remind children that they have to be mindful not to pour too much out.

• Continue taking turns until the bottle is empty.

*This activity builds social awareness as children practice making sure that everyone has a chance to take a turn.

During creative art time we painted with cotton balls to make Venus. I showed the children a picture of Venus and told them that it is made of gases and is covered in clouds. The picture looks like a big ball of fire. I gave each child a yellow circle and they began dipping their cotton ball into yellow and red paint and creating a fire ball.

I hope you all had a great week and we will see you again next week. Thanks for stopping by.

Space from Earth

Welcome back friends we are in our new unit with experience early learning and this month we’re discovering space and sky!!!

We had so much fun this week discovering space from earth!!!

The sun is the largest object in our solar system. Our planet earth would be frozen without the sun. We need the sun to survive. During creative art time the children had a great time mixing yellow and red paint together on a paper plate and making their own sun.

Telescope

We had such a fun time today discussing what we would like to see up in space. I explained that people can use telescopes to study the sky. During creative art our preschool curriculum gave us a red tube and some star stickers so the children could design their own telescope. They had so much fun making these. Next we took turns saying what we seen in the sky for example, a child could say “I see a rocket ship in the sky.”

Building comets and stars!!

Experience Early Learning curriculum goes over and beyond with their monthly hands on math activities for preschoolers. We are loving building comets and stars today on these fun shape design mats.

Toss the Comet

Discuss When a meteor falls towards the earth, it becomes a comment with a fire tail. This is the same as a “shooting star”. Invite children to share what they know about the night sky.

Today we made a comet using crepe paper and a big pompom. We placed A picture of the earth on the ground and explored tossing the comet to the earth picture. Then we had a challenge on who’s comet could fly the farthest.

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

Experience Early Learning | Facebook | Twitter | Pinterest | Instagram

Man Made Wonders

Welcome back friends!! This week at Kat’s Kids we finished our trip around the world with our global passport unit with Experience Early Learning. We discovered The Great Pyramids, Machu Picchu, Saint Basil’s Cathedral, The Leaning Tower Of Pisa, and The Great Wall Of China.

The Egyptian pyramids

What shape do you see in the pyramid? The children enjoyed working together building different pyramids out of cups.

Machu Picchu

Machu Picchu is an abandoned city in Peru. The city structures have fallen and no one lives there anymore. During Creative Art time with our Preschool curriculum the children created a Noodle City. The children had a great time creating their very own city with different shaped noddles.

Saint Basil’s Cathedral

Saint Basil’s Cathedral is a brightly colored building in Russia. The tops of the cathedral’s towers are shaped like onions. Today during Literary the older children practiced cutting out Cathedral pieces while the younger children had pre-cut pieces. Next they glued the pieces onto paper to create a cathedral collage. During this activity I observed the children and asked questions about the position of their pieces on the collage. I was looking for the children to use words such as “next to,” “around”, and “on top of.”

Leaning Tower of Pisa

The leaning Tower of Paris is in Italy. It started to lean as it was being built. It is made out of stone and has seven bells inside. During Math time we played a fun game designed by our preschool curriculum called flip and build. We use number cards 1-6 and set them facedown. The children simply flipped a card over and identified the number. Next, they counted out the same amount of blocks then stacked them next to the number card.

The children also enjoyed making their own leaning Tower creation using colored packaging noodles.

I hope you all had a great week and we will see you again next week. Thanks for stopping by.

Come discover some Natural Wonders with us

Welcome back friends this week at Mrs. Kats kids we Discovered some natural wonders of our worlds beauty. We had such a fun time being able to experience places outside of our own community. A few of our favorite discoveries were rocks, waterfalls, and giant trees.

The Grand Canyon

Did you know that the Grand Canyon is almost 300 miles long and is made from layers of rocks. When you look down into the canyon, it looks like a huge hole. We had a great time taking rocks to make holes in the sand and designing our own rock canyons. This activity helps children practice critical thinking skills and collaboration with their peers.

Layered Art

During our Invitation to create with Experience Early Learning Curriculum we designed our own Sunset Canyon by tearing paper and gluing them onto paper. This activity was great for my younger kids. They stayed focused on creating layers with different colors.

Global Matching

Set up

• tape the cards face up on opposite ends of the table.

Play

• we used tape to create paths between the matches.

Dripping waterfall

The children had a great time looking at the conversation poster from experience early learning curriculum and shared what they know about waterfalls. Next we hung party streamers from the ceiling and I had the children take turns playing under the streamers and imagined it was a waterfall.

During our Invitation to create preschool lesson we used eyedroppers and watery blue paint to create our very own dripping waterfalls.

Prompts

• what do you notice about the waterfall photo?

• How will you use the supplies to make your waterfall art?

• How will you make your paper look like a waterfall?

• What happens when you lift your paper after squeezing paint on it?

Mountain Goat Headband

• what does a mountain goats head look like?

Make

• invite children to decorate the paper goat and attach eyes. If desired, create horns from the extra paper.

• Help the child size the headband to fit and attach the paper strip to the goat headband piece.

Play

• encourage children to pretend they are a family of a mountain goats walking up a tall mountain. Play follow the leader inside or outside.

Letter Mountains

• each month with Experience Early Learning curriculum we focus on three letters. This month our letters are G,K,Q. With this activity we used our cube cards and each child had a turn to roll the cube and identify the letter and then we built a K Mountain, G Mountain, and Q Mountain with blocks. We continued rolling and building onto each letter And discovered which mountain was the tallest before it fell.

Giant Sequoias

Sequoia trees are the largest trees in the world but grow at a slow rate.

Forest Collage

Supplies

• background paper

• napkin

• Brown paper (tree trunk)

Make

• glue the tree trunk onto the paper

• Glue branches ( if desired)

• prompt the children to twist and tear the paper napkin to make it look like leaves on the tree.

I hope you all had a great week and we will see you again next week. Thanks for stopping by.

World Market

Children may visit their local market or store but never be exposed to what other markets look like around the world. Its very interesting for children to learn about items sold in different world markets, children build vocabulary and also learn about other cultures. These hands on activities can help children understand and respect cultures that are different from their own. A few items that we discussed this week with Experience Early Learning were Mask, Kites , Rugs , Drums, and Lantern. All these items can be found in world markets.

Mask

We had so much fun on our Mask day we opened our day with a fun activity designed by our preschool curriculum. I first showed a poster and asked, “what do you notice about the mask in the photo?” And of course all the kids said “ Mrs.Kat we wear mask on our Mouth and nose not our whole face. “ I quickly had to explain what cultural celebration mask are. Next, We passed around a paper plate and I encouraged each child to say what kind of mask they would want to wear… we got a lot of spider man mask answers.

In our Make and play activity we made carnival mask using markers, furthers, and a jumbo craft stick. We had a great time turning on music and making our very own Carnival mask parade.

Mask Puzzles

Can you design a mask? We played together this fun game provided from our preschool curriculum. I invited the children to take turns spinning the spinner and encouraged them to work together to create the mask using the shape cut outs.

Kite

Lets go fly a kite!!

Supplies

• Paper plate

• Yarn

• Crepe paper

• Paint

• Scissors

• Hole punch

• Tape

Make

• cut the center of the plate out.

• have children paint their plates.

• Punch a hole for the child to tie the ribbon through.

• Tape the crepe paper to the button of the kite.

Rug

What designs or shapes might you find on a rug? Rugs are all different shapes, sizes and designs.

Sewing a Rug

I loved this Fine Motor activity from Experience Early Learning As a preschool/toddler teacher, I believe that toddlers should be exposed to different fine motor activities throughout their day and EEL is great at creating wonderful activities. This activity helps strengthen their hands, wrists and finger muscles, and is also great for hand and eye coordination.

Drum

We decorated the paper strip with markers and rolled and taped it to make the body of the drum. Next we attached the lid ( supplied by EEL) to the top and bottom of the drum body. We had a great drum and lantern party!

This week was also Valentines Day week and I would love to share our party with you guys. We had so much fun making crafts and I decorated the kitchen during naptime. The kids were so surprised when They woke up!!

I hope you all had a great week and we will see you again next week. Thanks for stopping by.

It’s time to travel

Welcome back friends this week at Mrs.Kat’s kids we traveled the world and did lots of Shopping along the way!!! I hope you have fun as we share our week with you.

We have had so much fun with our experience early learning Community marketplace day!!!

Welcome to Mrs. Kats Daycare market voted best customer service!!!

Durning creative art we made wallets and also cut out play money with our Experience Early Learning curriculum. Next I placed small food items like cereal boxes, cracker boxes, popcorn, can foods and made the room into a small market. The kids took turns shopping and being workers in the store. It was a great learning experience from counting, sorting, using manners and kind words, and learning how to work together and help others.

Come fly with me!!

Our flight Around The World is ready for take off!! The children had a great time today thinking about where they would like to visit. Come take a seat and join us for our Journey today as we packed for our vacation, arrived at the airport and going through security, to boarding the airplane. After we landed we used our Camera props and Took a tour of different sites in the room.

(pictures of The seven wonders of the world.)

Wooden Airplane

The children had a great time coloring (2) jumbo wooden sticks and (1) small stick. I then helped the children glue the sticks together to make an airplane.

Our Map and globe lesson with experience early leaning was also so much fun the children loved learning about our planet Earth and discovering that the green on the earth is land and the blue is is water. In Art today the children used their sensory skills by swirling green and blue paint/shaving cream together on a plate and making look like planet Earth.

During our table top math time this week we would use the Transportation shape design mats from our preschool curriculum and our Tangrams. During independent play the children would explore turning and rotating the tangrams to match the designs on the mats.

I hope you all had a great week and we will see you again next week. Thanks for stopping by.

Jurassic Land

Welcome back friends this is our last week of our Dino Land unit with Experience Early Learning. we have had so much fun exploring dinosaurs this month. This week we talked about the Jurassic Land and and how the earth has changed.

Bubbling Lava Experiment

What do you think is inside a volcano? Explain that volcanoes look like mountains with hot lava and gases come out of the top.

Supplies

• clear bottle/container

• 2-3 Tbsp. Baking soda

• 1/2 c. White vinegar

• Red food coloring ( optional)

• invite children to carefully watch what happens when you put ingredients together.

Directions

• Place the container on a tray and pour baking soda inside.

• Squeeze 2 to 3 drops of food coloring into the vinegar ( if you choose to use red food coloring)

• Slowly pour vinegar into the container and watch it erupt.

Volcano

Supplies ( in your EEL box)

• bowl

• Red tissue paper

Your Supplies

• Brown paint

• Paintbrushes

• Glue

Make

• help children make a hole on the top of their bowl.

• Invite children to decorate the volcano with brown paint

• Play tissue paper on the bowl to look like lava.

One thing I love about Experience Early Learning is that each day is packed with fun and exciting and activities from songs, small groups, creative art, and math.

Here are a couple of fun games we played with our preschool curriculum.

Feed the Dinosaur

The whole game comes with your your monthly curriculum box. Here is a simple way to play with a younger age group.

Set up

• set out game board

• put all of the rectangle and oval leaves in a bucket and insert the cube cards into the cube.

Play

• Roll the cube and add the matching number and shape of leaves to the tree.

Tic-Tac-Toe

Discuss

• what types of games do you think dinosaurs would want to play?

Make

• Invite children to cut out of the game pieces

Play

• Invite each child to choose a dinosaur

• take turns placing a card on one of the squares. Continue until a child gets three cards in a row.

• Play again and switch cards.

My 2 1/2 and 3 year olds loved playing.

I thought them The concept of TicTacToe and they had a blast and caught on super fast. This was by far a huge hit with my older children in my group.

Counting dinosaurs

Play

• roll dice and place that many dinosaurs down.

I hope you all had a great week and we will see you again next week. Thanks for stopping by.

The Dinosaurs body

Welcome back Friends this week we studied the body parts of the Dinosaurs. We also talked about how Dinosaurs came from eggs with our Preschool curriculum experience early learning.

Cracked Egg

The children had a great time coloring their egg and then ripping it up and putting it back together. This activity was very fun and really expanded the children creativity by putting the egg back together.

Dino Headband

Supplies ( EEL supplied )

• headband

• Sticker eyes

• Paper

Your supplies

• tape

• Markers

• Glue

• Scissors

Discuss

• what do you see on a dinosaurs head?

Make

• invite children to create and decorate their headbands.

• Encourage children to cut out sharp teeth from the paper strip and glue them to the headband. ( I have a younger group so I cut the paper into triangles. this also gave us an opportunity to talk about the triangle shape)

• Fit the headband around their head and staple or tape it closed.

Play

• make a large triangle on the floor. Then walk around the triangle like Dinosaurs.

This month in our experience early learning curriculum box supplied us with different colored chin links. Many of our preschool activities have involved with using the links. Its been so fun!! Today we made some Dino tails and played a game called where’s my tail.

Where’s My Tail?

Supplies ( EEL )

• dinosaur cards

• Chin links

Your Supplies

• extra paper

• Crayons

• Scissors

• Hole punch

Set up

• Set out the dinosaur cards and links on the table. Punch a hole and attach one link to each card.

Independent play

• choose a card and continue coordinating the links to create tails.

• Match link colors to the dinosaur colors.

• With my younger group right sorting game. I would hand a link to the child and say “can you match this to the blue dinosaur”.

Dino tail

I put many paper strips on the table and had the children color and design them anyway they would like. Next we taped the ends of paper strips around each other to made a chain-link. Last we attached the string around the child’s waist to give them their very own tail. The children had a great time dancing around to the Dino freeze dance on you tube.

Dino skeleton

Supplies ( EEL )

• title Display

• Inspiration photo

• Pasta

• Background paper

Your Supplies

• glue

prompts

• what do you notice about the skeleton in the photo?

• How will you arrange your pasta bones to make a dinosaur design?

• Which dinosaur will you make?

• What other materials do you want to gather for your art?

I hope you all had a great week and we will see you again next week. Thanks for stopping by.

Types of Dinosaurs

Welcome back to our second week of Dino land this week we focused on different types of dinosaurs with our experience early learning curriculum. Dinosaurs were all different sizes and shapes. While children explore scientific dinosaur types, they will identify similarities and differences between them.

Brontosaurus puppet

Our preschool curriculum supplied us with cute brontosaurus shapes, craft sticks, paper, and foam dots. The children had a great time coloring their brontosaurus and making it in to a puppet. We also Cut out leaves and made a puppet with them because Brontosaurus are plant eaters. Once we got everything together We had a great time making up a story and using our puppets.

Dino stencil

we worked on Fine motor skills, Hand eye coordination, Color mixing. Loving the children’s eyes opening wide when we lifted the paper and they see their creations.

Supplies:

• sponge

• Paint

• Dino stencil

• Paper

• Tape

Dino Shapes

Dinosaurs grow to be different shapes and sizes. Some were as small as mice while others were as long as for fire engines. During this invention to create from our preschool curriculum, children looked at a photo of differently shaped dinosaurs and planned how to create their own dinosaurs. Children thought about what interest them, such as a dinosaur with wings or a long necked dinosaur and use their personal preference is to create art. For the little ones I drew dinosaur outline on their paper to help their little minds create their dinosaur.

Supplies

• shape cut outs

• Background paper

• Glue