Here is an activity to go with the story “The After Christmas Tree” by Linda Wagner Tyler. The story is about happens to the family Christmas tree after Christmas is over. What do you do with it? Family members and friends take their Christmas tree into the backyard and decorate it with edible trimmings for the wild birds and animals. This is something that
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I saw these adorable snowman treats on The Amazing Mess blog – so I made a bunch for myself and bagged them up as small gifts. But then I thought – this was so easy and fun … the kids would LOVE this! And even though making these are fun (and tasty) – there were other ways to extend this activity so that the children learn
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We have been exploring “scents of the season” these past couple of weeks in preschool. As we get ready for Christmas, I saw these cute pinecone trees on The Wool Acorn blog, and I thought this would be wonderful for the children to make. But I wanted to incorporate a holiday scent for the children to explore … so we made sure our pinecones were
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Today we are sharing one of our Fall season Book & Boogie selections (where we incorporate books and literacy with music and movement activities) – and extending the fun and learning by adding a fine motor craft activity to go along with it. The Book “Fletcher and the Falling Leaves” by Julia Rawlinson I really enjoy this sweet story about Fletcher the fox and
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August through October is apple picking season here in Connecticut! Our family visited one of our local pick-your-own farms for some Macintosh and Gala apples which are in season right now. We’ll definitely be back later this fall for the Cortlands, Golden Delicious and others. Many local preschools schedule a field trip to an orchard, which helps the children learn about where apples come from
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We have some awesome college students who are lead the planning of our summer camp one year! Their enthusiasm and creativity are evident in all they do … and we just had to share it here! These are ideas from our “Sailing the seas” theme, which lent itself to great projects and experiences like building tin foil boats, making sandcastles and seashell picture frames. The week
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Caring for a small pet, such as a fish or reptile, can provide young children with the opportunity to learn more about animals firsthand. As preschool teachers, we know that young children are engaged and learn best by DOING. We can certainly teach about animals through books and pictures … but how much MORE will they learn when they can actually interact with one.
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A couple of Fridays ago, I was invited to attend a training for Educational Consultants on the Connecticut Early Learning and Development Standards (CT ELDS). As our state continues to encourage programs to use these standards, it is my job as a consultant to support programs when and where needed. During our 6 hour training, great conversations around early education, teacher responsibility, and child
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I may be going out on a limb here, but I imagine almost EVERYONE has a favorite Dr. Seuss story that they remember growing up. My personal favorite Dr. Seuss book is … “Green Eggs and Ham” … hands down! I could recite it by heart! For my children, it’s “The Cat in the Hat“. We are coming up on March 3rd and NEA’S
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If you are lucky enough to live somewhere with winter weather – you can bring the outdoor in for a little snow day fun! Painting with (and ON) snow is a fun way to let children explore concepts of color mixing and the scientific properties of snow. First, we scooped up a small bucket of clean snow and brought it inside (if you scoop
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