Discovering Glue

So many preschool and even kindergarten teachers cringe when the white glue comes out.  They envision puddles of glue, glue seeping onto the tables, onto the floors, scraps of paper floating in pools of glue.  So they grab the glue bottles and say "let me help", "just a dot, not a lot", "I'll do the glue for you".

I have been guilty of saying these exact things in my first year or two of teaching.  That was, until I had my "A-HA" moment.  I asked myself, "what are the children learning by me doing it for them" and "what is the worst that would happen if I let them hold and glue for themselves?"

 So I let go and let them...and they puddled the glue, and it seeped all over the table and floor, and soaked the papers until we could no longer move them. But something else happened.  They had fun. They began to understand that if they used to much glue the project was immovable. Their hands became stronger, their muscles developed, they learned to control the amount of glue they intended to use.  They learned because I provided the materials and let them explore, discover and make mistakes.  Something else happened too.  I learned.  I learned that I do not need to control the materials.  I learned that I do not need to "help" them.  I learned to sit back and give them control over what they created and they learned responsibility.



I understand there are budgets to keep to and it can seem wasteful to let the children puddle the glue in what seems to be a senseless act.  But it isn't senseless.  They are learning, as children do, by doing, by experimenting, by immersing themselves in the experience.  Compared to the experience, glue seems cheap. 

 





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Bob Books Level 2

Now that my daughter is an official "reader", she reads anything and everything she sees.  We have used the Bob Books for quite some time now.  Did you know you can get them on Kindle?

 

We received a gift copy of Bob Books set 2 advancing readers  to try out.  My daughter read them all in one sitting, book after book.  She was absorbed and I loved it!! 

 

 

What I love about Bob Books are the simple pictures and text.  The simple pictures make it easier to focus on the words and yet, the pictures go along with the text.  I also enjoy the humor in the books. I think the proof is in the fact that my daughter could not stop reading them.  She read to me, her Dad, even her dog.  Thank you Bob Books! 

 

You can find them all at this link....bobbooks.com

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Sight and Word Family Games

Now that my daughter is in Kinder, part of her curriculum  is working on sight words and word families. I am trying to add some engaging, hands on ways for her to practice learning them.  Here are a few of the games I've come up with to help her.

Swat the Word

 

This game, I simply set out the sight words, I happened to have this set, but you could easily write the words on index cards or such.

 

I gave my daughter a clean fly swatter.  I keep a couple on hand for painting, balloon tennis, etc. I got these at the Dollar Tree for 2/1.00. Then I call out the word and she "swats" it. 

  

We took the words away as she swatted. Easy Peasy!

 

Word Family Flower

 

 

I wrote the word families on the edge of the craft sticks, then she matched all the word families,

 

put a dot of glue in the middle and glued them all together.

She added a little button center,

and voila...a word family flower!

 

Roll a Sentence

 

I found these fun word dice at the Dollar Tree and bought 2 packs of them.

 

 

I gave each child 3 dice to roll.  Then they either tried to make a sentence or just read the words. This is one of their favorite games to play.  It can get quite silly and that makes it fun!

 

(looks like my camera needs a little cleaning...sorry about the blurriness, but you get the point, right?)

 

 

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Pom-Pom Coloring Matching

So this is pretty quick and easy to set up.  I just used an egg crate and some paint.  Just paint the inside of the egg holders various colors to match the pom-poms.  This is great for fine motor, counting, color matching/sorting and problem solving.

 

You could also add some tweezers or chop sticks for the child to pick up the pom-poms for an added challenge.



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Pumpkin, Rubber Bands, and Golf Tees

When I saw some really cool Hands on Pumpkin Math, over at Fun A Day, and what her kids did with push pins, rubber bands and a pumpkin, I knew that would be right up our alley! 

 

I wanted to give the kids the opportunity to use the hammers and golf tees, since it such a great experience in hand/eye coordination and fine motor skill.  So, I put out the pumpkin, rubber bands, golf tees and wooden hammers. 

 

I did show them how to stretch the rubber bands from on peg to the other, and then they took it from there.



It was a great effort in team work, cooperation and lots of language skills too!  Thank you so much for the inspiration, Fun A Day!  

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Linky Shapes from the Dollar Tree

I'm quite fond of popping in the Dollar Tree to find some good deals.  I saw these in the toy aisle and grabbed 5 packs.  There are so many activities you can do with them.

Just some of the ways we have been exploring with them:

Sort them by color

Sort them by shape

String them together

Create Patterns

Make necklaces

Make bracelets

Use them to measure lengths

 



 

I placed some on my copier and made some pattern cards for the kids to follow too.

 

 

I covered them in clear contact paper so they would last a little longer. 

 

These are a great deal.  If you have a Dollar Tree near you, go grab some.  Your kiddos will gain some great skills using them....counting, patterning, color recognition, fine motor, problem solving, creativity....for cheap, cheap!





 

 

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Pipe Cleaner Spiders

My son brought home a book from school about spiders the other day.  It had pictures of all sorts of different ones, hairy, smooth, big, little, all different colors.  I thought it would be a good extension is we each made our own unique spider.  We used pipe cleaners, pony beads, and straws cut into small pieces. 

 

We twisted 4 pipe cleaners together, then formed the spiders body by squishing the pipe cleaners together.

Then we pulled apart the legs and adjusted them so we could put on the beads and straws.

This was great for their fine motor skills and also expressing their creativity in creating their very own spiders.  I love how they look.  You could also use play dough and pipe cleaners for a different creative opportunity.

 

Here are some other great spider crafts,

 

These silly spiders from Preschool Playbook

 

and these super cute egg carton spiders from Go Graham Go

Have a wonderful day!

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Humpty Dumpty Experiments

Humpty Dumpty is probably one of my most favorite nursery rhymes to explore with kids.  There are just so many activities and experiments that naturally go along with it.  We started by reading the rhyme and I found a animated cartoon song of it on YouTube for the kids to watch.  That was followed by an amazing discussion as to why Humpty was sitting on the wall in the first place.  

 

Next, each child choose a plastic egg and created their own "Humpty Dumpty".
We each built a wall for Humpty and tried balancing him on it to see if an egg could actually sit on a wall.  As you can see, the kids got very creative with their walls in order to balance him on it.  Very important problem solving and critical thinking going on in these pictures.

 

Our next experiment wasn't really about the nursery rhyme, but it was a fun experiment to try.  We decided to find out if Humpty likes floating in salt water or fresh water.  We used two pitchers, one with tap water in it and the other we dissolved salt into.  Then we plopped Humpty (a real, fresh egg) in the pitchers. We learned that the salt makes the water more dense so the egg was able to float in it. After a discussion, the children determined that he liked floating in the salt water, but liked to dive to the bottom of the tap water. 

 

 

Our next experiment was to figure out if Humpty would survive a fall.  Again, we used the plastic eggs.  We stood on chairs and dropped the eggs onto the bare floor.  Lo and behold, he cracked open.  One of the kids suggested we try it on the carpeted area, because maybe it would cushion his fall.  So we took the chairs to the carpet and tried the experiment again.

 

The carpet did break his fall!

 

Finally, we drew before and after pictures of Humpty, him sitting on the wall and what happened and how he felt after his fall.

 

I love exploring the nursery rhymes with young children.  There is so much to learn from nursery rhymes.  One, they are a connection to our past. I'm sure you learned them as a kid. My mom taught them to me, so I know her mom taught them to her.  They are great for learning rhythm and rhyming words. Most importantly, they are fun!  Most make very little sense and are quite silly. 

 

I wonder which nursery rhyme you remember best from being a kid? 

 

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