So today we learned about “wind” to go along with this month’s weather unit. The materials and idea were simple, but it appears that the @melissaanddougtoys washable paint 🎨 we used may have been too thick. The adults in the room tried to use the straws to blow the paint, sequins, and flowers 🌸 across the paper to no avail. Finally, one of the children decided to use his straw as…
I first learned about #magicnoodles in my 20s while teaching preschool, thanks to one of my favorite teacher friends, Cheryl Pinckney. Until just recently, I had forgotten about them but wow 😮 have I been missing out. What’s so special about them? You dab them with a damp cloth and they stick together, like magic, making any structure possible. In this case, we used the noodles to represent the brain…
A picture of an open mouth, white beads as teeth, a 🦷 toothbrush, and a pair if plastic tweezers…it really doesn’t get too much more simple. If you have a die laying around, you can roll it and have them remove or pull the corresponding number of teeth. We tried it with our 3-year-olds, but they’re just not there yet, and that’s ok. They still…
Sorting offers so many learning opportunities in one activity. In this particular activity, we’re learning about clothes, so the children were asked to sort the buttons by color. You’ll notice that the yellow buttons look like a little house and even shape patterns within the same color family begin to emerge. These are tiny glimpses into your child’s mind, and like most things, when…
There is something to be said about learning to follow directions in order to duplicate a product, but it’s not the ONLY way. In fact, I’d much rather not show or tell a child what it’s supposed to look like at all, and have them create something original using the same materials every other person in the room was given. Sure, it might look like total poop…
Every time I hear someone say that they’re basically paying for school so someone can “just play” with their child, my hair stands on end. Yes, it offends me. Why? Because I have 2 Master’s degrees that qualify me to know HOW to play with children, and what I can accomplish in 30 minutes with a child, the average person may not be able to…