Halloween BINGO!

If you're looking for some not-so-scary fun for a Halloween party, try this idea! Make a BINGO game with Halloween symbols to play - great for matching, visual discrimination, and following directions.

Begin with a blank document and set up a five by five grid to form the outline of a BINGO board. Then, download at least 12 images of Halloween-related clip art to fill in your grid - I used each one twice! (For little ones, you could make it even simpler with a 3 by 3 grid.)  Make one board and then move the images around to make alternate boards, saving each time you have a new one set up. Make multiple copies of each - it doesn't really matter if two children get the same board! Copy the images into another document and enlarge to make cards for the BINGO leader to pick and call out.

Have your children use markers, coins or any small objects to play - maybe candy corn would be fun!! Multiple sheets and crayons would work, also - have the children "x" out the pictures as they're called.

While you are playing, you will be working on taking turns, focusing on the speaker and developing new vocabulary! Since there are no words on the cards, you could also have even the smallest students call the cards! They will LOVE it!

Have fun!

Summer Camp: Pirate Play!

Playing Pirates is always a BIG hit - with boys and girls! Gather some props to make a pretend pirate ship - a large box to decorate would be great, but just arranging some chairs together and tying on some black streamers or fabric to connect them will give your children a place to gather! Add a paper-plate ship's wheel  and they will be set to go!

Get in a bit of geography by having a globe on hand and spinning it to choose where you are setting sail for. Have the children find "home" on the globe as well! If there's no globe available, a large map will do :)

Every pirate needs a spyglass, so each child should start out with a paper towel tube and decorate accordingly - use markers or stickers to make them really cool! There are lots of clip-art pieces on Google images to try out - pick a few and assemble!

If you have any eyepatches lying around, or other pirate regalia, put them out in a dress-up bin - try some all-purpose vests turned inside out and some old shirts cut with ragged edges to make pirate gear! A sash cut from red and white striped fabric or an old scarf pulls the whole look together!

For more crafts, supply a key with simple mapping symbols and paper and markers for the children to make some maps - don't forget a big X to mark the spot where the treasure is!  If you're looking for more fine motor practice, you can find free pirate coloring sheets at several sites on the internet, as well!

Before all the fun begins, come up with a "treasure" to be split between the pirates - beaded necklaces from the party store and "gold" coins work well - and hide it all in a special container somewhere. Then, devise some clues that will guide the group from place to place, each time to find the next clue until the end of the hunt! Here are some to get you started:

Treasure Hunt!

Cut these clues apart and hide them as directed – or make up your own!

Under the fence where the squirrels run                        (have this ready to start the action!)

Look for clue #1!

Find a toy that’s the color blue – that’s                                   (hide this under a fence!)

Where you’ll find clue #2

Look around the base of the big tree                                       (hide this under or near a blue toy!)

If you’re looking for clue #3

Beside a window or a door,                                                  (hide at the base of a tree!)

You will find Clue #4

Look under a rock or two                                                     (hide beside a window or door)

To find the fifth and final clue!

This clue will send you around the lot                                         (hide under a rock)

Until you find where X marks the spot!

 (attach a rolled up REAL treasure map to the last clue -  ready to point out where you’ve hidden your “treasure"!)

 

If your treasure includes some gold coins, get in a little fun "arrrr"ithmetic - counting and adding up sums!

For snacks, try some "treasure" goldfish crackers in silver cupcake papers or some pretzel logs and fruit roll-ups cut up to form into a pirate ship - fun!

Books to read with your little pirates:
"Shiver Me Letters: A Pirate ABC" by June Sobel
"How I Became A Pirate" by Melinda Long
"The Night Pirates" by Peter Harris
"Tough Boris" by Mem Fox
"Grandma and the Pirates" by Phoebe Gilman
"What's Inside a Pirate Ship"

Have a great time!

Summer Camp: Knights and Ladies of the Castle!

Get ready for this week's camp idea by assembling a few arts and crafts supplies: some cardboard, markers or paint, some craft foam and writing materials.

Set up some props to center your activity, either outdoors or indoors. Mark this area by hanging some sheer fabric or paper streamers or use my idea - take a 10' by 10' outdoor tent canopy (borrow one if you can) and only raise it up to half-height. This makes a perfect castle area for pretend play, after you hang a few decorative flags and some streamers! You might want to designate one or two special chairs as thrones and have some space for craft assembly and "fine dining."

Of course, dressing up is always fun - see what you have in the way of royal garb and add fabric or towel cloaks, if needed. Jewels, such as party-store rings and beads of all colors go over well, also :)

For crafts, start with a crown or tiara for your young royals. Every prince or princess, knight or lady likes a crown! Use light cardboard or craft foam to prepare some crown shapes beforehand (or order from a catalog supply) and then make available some glittery baubles and colored foam pieces to make them sparkle. It's always interesting to see who will make theirs a repeating pattern and who will go for "more is more!"

Making a shield with your personal crest is next on the fun craft list! Cut some small shields out of cardboard with long rectangular strips to be mounted on the  back for holding. Decorate as you wish with your favorite things - symbols, initials, cut-outs, stickers, whatever you want! Stripes of different colors or contrasting colored tapes could also be fun! When you have it just the way you want, turn it over and attach your handle - now you're ready for anything!

When you're ready for another activity, story-telling is an old favorite "at court." If you want to use props, you could use paper cut-outs, or copies from your favorite stories (mount them on a craft sticks for puppets) or maybe you have a set of finger puppets lying around - I've had these for a long time (IKEA has great little finger puppets!).

Lastly, write your own fairy tale!  Draw or copy some pictures and have your children dictate a beginning, middle and end of a story - make sure there's some action (maybe a witch or a dragon!) and a happy ending ... and dress it all up with a special cover - it will become a new favorite!

When it's time for snacks, serve your royals on a silver platter - maybe some fancy cheese and crackers and a bowl of fruit - with lovely napkins and a special cold drink! Have fun!

Summer Camp: Pretend Camping!

When the summer starts to get "old" for your kids, here's a do-it-yourself fun idea: hold your own summer camp days, right at home!

All you need is a little pre-planning and some imagination - start now, while the fun is still fresh and plan ahead for later in the summer!

In the past, I've held camp during August (basically crafts, games, stories and snacks!) - parents and children were looking for things to do by that time of the summer! Plan a morning full of activities - you could even switch off with another parent or two to free up some me-time!! It's always more fun with a few:)

I'll start you off  with ideas for a theme that worked well for me - and follow up with more themes in more posts - so, check back!

Camp-In Day

Set up a small tent outdoors (or indoors!) and gather up some quilts and cushions. Make sure you have the fixings for a pretend camp-fire - I found a little aluminum baking pan that we adorned with yellow, orange and red tissue paper flames - some rocks or wooden blocks placed in a circle with some sticks in the middle would do nicely, too!

Meet around the "campfire" to get started - talk about camping and outdoor fun - then go on a little "hike" through your yard, neighborhood or a near-by park. Have a small plastic container along for a sensory tub to be filled with rocks, pinecones, leaves, small sticks, etc.

When you are finished, have a basket of books related to camping available :)  There is a Berenstain Bears book - "Go To Camp" and a great Kevin Henkes story "Bailey Goes Camping" to get you started! While some are checking out books, have the other children rotate through different activities, just like in school, so each child gets to try everything!

For crafts, have available some TP rolls to make into binoculars for viewing nature. Use paint or markers to color or have stickers available to decorate. At another spot, have some sturdy paper and glue to turn your nature finds into a cool art collage! Get a little letter/sound practice in by trying to label the found items! For pretend play, gather some plastic plates and picnic items and they will do the rest!

For a snack, try some trail mix (cereal mixed with raisins and nuts, if permitted) OR assemble your own kid-s'mores, using graham crackers with layers of chocolate cake frosting and marshmallow cream spread on top! Have water or juice available to stay hydrated!

Knowing how kids love "souvenirs," you could also find some tiny compasses and bandannas at a party store or on-line catalog! When you're ready, you can close the "camp" by singing some favorite songs around the fire! Have fun!

Under the Sea Handprints

Love, love, LOVE this end-of-the-year project! This is a close-up of a t-shirt that has a lot of person-ality in its design! My friend, Mary Ann, and her wonderful helpers, Tammy and Jean, were looking for a fun end-of-year keepsake, so this is what they did in their preschool class. Each little person in the class made a special handprint with paint on each little shirt. Then, with a little imagination and some fabric paint, they were all  transformed (Tammy's the artist-in-residence!) into a variety of sea creatures - one shirt for each child :).  I see a snail, a stingray, a jellyfish ... as well as some beautiful, colorful fish and seaweed!

This concept would transfer well to a cloth bag for a sweet gift, or even to paper for a fun craft project. Use it as part of an Under the Sea unit or for a party craft - have fun with it! Ask your children to interpret what they see in different handprints or shapes and add some touches to make them unforgettable!

There are so many great books to use for an Under the Sea unit! One of my favorite authors - Marcus Pfister - has a series of "Rainbow Fish" books that are fabulous for their lessons - themes of friendship, sharing, inclusion - and for their beautiful artwork! These are anytime books, but especially fun to read as it get closer to summer - have fun!

More Ocean Animals!

Getting in the swim of an ocean animals unit? Don't forget to include non-fiction books in your reading stack! There are many books with terrific pictures available at your library or bookstore. Don't let the volume of text get in the way of using books for reference - you may just share a picture or two to add some context to a story you are reading!

I have a Scholastic book that even the younger children love to pore over - "Seashore" by Sue Unstead. They are inspired to handle the book by the real sand in a pocket on the cover, but a lot of the vocabulary is unfamiliar ... so we read some sections, a little bit at a time and take picture walks through the rest. As you revisit a book like this, you may read more and more, as your child's interest and attention grows!

When it's time for a craft, make a jellyfish! Here's a simple one for younger children, similar to the crab in a previous post. Here's what you need:

One small paper plate

tissue paper

googly eyes

Fold paper plate in half and color to match the tissue paper - cut mini-streamers for tentacles and add eyes. Add something to hang it, like a length of yarn or a chenille stick - and you're done!

Another jellyfish that the children love to make incorporates a squishy center for tactile fun! I used hair gel, but warned about possible leaks, letting the "goo" out! If you have an idea for a filling, let me know! You'll need:

Purple construction paper

Sandwich-size ziploc bag

A squirt of hair gel (or another gelatinous substance)

Glitter

Tissue paper (light purple would be great!)

Fold a piece of construction paper in half and trace or have children cut a half-circle shape through both. Cut a second, smaller half-circle, as shown in the photo. Take your sandwich bag and add a squirt of hair gel (I found some purple, inexpensive gel) and glitter. Seal the bag. Center this in the smaller half-circle and attach, using staples and/or glue to try and contain the gel in that "window." Add tissue paper tentacles and secure between layers of construction paper.

Let your children feel the squishiness and talk about the flourescence that the glitter represents. There are jellyfish that are luminescent - look it up in one of your non-fiction books! Have fun!

Bug Party: Early Childhood Exploration!

Plan a "party" to celebrate and explore BUGS! Gather a few things together to make your children feel like explorers - we chose safari hats and bandannas from the party store, a simple bug collecting case (ours was from a craft store, but you could make one from a recyclable container) and a magnifying glass. Then, round up your bug-hunting crew (we did it for a small birthday party!) and get ready for an adventure. Plan on visiting a nearby park or garden, and plan your route with a rough map - map-makers welcome! (On our walk with a few three and four-year-olds, we decided to make a work-crew guidance device (!) using a length of rope and making a big knot for each child to hold onto - the leader held one end of the rope and a spotter took up the rear! We told them we all had to help carry the rope in case we needed it!)

Once you arrive at your destination, have an adult or child model for the other children how to move  rocks without hurting bugs, how to slow down and look carefully, and how to stay very still while "hunting" - then, set off on your own or in pairs, once a perimeter has been established! Cries of "check this out!" and "quick, look at this!" will ensue as everyone has fun finding a variety of insects.

Make sure to have a digital camera on hand to record some of your finds for review later! Have some books about bugs along to read or another activity for when you start to slow down ... we sat down and did some body art, coloring ants and ladybugs on forearms or cheeks with face-painting crayons.

Later, prepare some special treats with your "buggy" crowd:

Ants on a Log
Use sections of celery sticks, spread on cream cheese and add a row of raisins for ants. I've also seen this done with variations using pretzel logs, peanut butter and craisins :) Watch your food allergies!

Dirt Dessert

Mix together one large vanilla pudding mix and two cups of milk. Add 1/2 cup of powdered sugar and 8 oz. of softened cream cheese - mix until blended. Stir in 8 oz. of Cool-Whip type topping. If you do this with the kids, make sure to count and measure along the way - math!

In another bowl, combine 1 1/2 lb. package of crushed Oreo cookie crumbs and 1/2 stick of melted butter to look like dirt. Alternate layers in a cups or a bowl, ending with crumbs on top! Add some gummy worms for fun and refrigerate!

Yum!

Space is the Place!

Space is a fun topic to explore with your kids - and, right now, it's very current with the space shuttle launches going on!

I like to read a variety of books with my kids - both fiction and non-fiction - and do all kinds of projects to get immersed in the subject! There are Curious George books and other books on space by H. A. Rey, Usborne books, even books with Dora and Cat-in-the-Hat. Visit the library or a bookstore and you can search by the subject - if you're not familiar with the process, there are people there to help you get started. If you have access to a computer at home, search for books about space and put in the grade level to narrow it down. I like "Me and My Place in Space" by Joan Sweeney - it's a great conversation starter! Read the books, talk about the books and have your child "read" to you by describing what is happening in the pictures. Each opportunity you and your child have to explore new worlds will increase vocabulary and knowledge - you'll be surprised at the connections they make!

When you have sparked some interest in the subject, you can move on to some great recyclable crafts! Paper towel tubes make great rocket ships, with a little imagination ... and some stickers, markers, paint, etc. Making sure there is a little round window for your child's picture to peek out of will make this a treasured toy!

A big favorite with my classes in the past has been assembling their very own control panels to use for imaginary flights in space! Take a piece of black posterboard or a piece of cardboard (about the size of a piece of computer paper - or any size, really!) and cover it or accent it with aluminum foil. Look for a picture of the earth ( I checked Google images) and some other graphics that you can either cut out, copy, color or print.

Save some drink container tops from apple juice or gatorade that are varied colors to attach as "control" buttons. I've also used colored stickers and buttons from my button collection on past panels. The little looseleaf hole protectors are easy to find at drug stores or stationery stores and make cool additions. Assemble all this in any fashion you wish and model playing with your child - they will enjoy counting down from 10 and blasting off on many adventures!

10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1-Blast off! Have a good trip!!