Creative Family Fun

Your one-stop shop for kids activities and family fun

Terri Thompson

Preschool Corner: A is for Apple

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My plans for at-home preschool with AJ (age 3) began with a letter of the week idea. Our theme each day will be a different word that starts with the chosen letter.

Last week was our first week; a week all about the letter A. Here are some of the activities we did for our “A is for apple” day.

Apple tree counting. For this activity, I took 10 index cards and drew a simple tree shape on each. I wrote the numbers 1-10 on the bottom of each card. AJ’s task was to put the correct amount of puff balls on each tree. It was simple to set up and she had a lot of fun counting out the correct amount of “apples”.

Paper plate apple craft. I set this up as a simple coloring and pasting activity. I used one paper plate and cut the sides to look like a half-eaten apple. I then cut out a stem and worm. I asked AJ to color and glue the pieces onto the apple. She’s not one for realism (she is 3 after all), and opted for a blue squiggly apple. And in case you’re wondering about the glue squiggles on the stem… that’s her name!

Apple stamping. When you’re talking about apples, you have to do some apple stamping. Or at least, we always do! We’ve done this project before, but this time I used a large sheet of brown wrapping paper. I taped it down to the floor and we got to work. We did this project before school so that Lizzie could join in on the fun. I cut an old apple in half and stuck a craft stick into it. This makes the apple much easier for little hands to handle. We used red and yellow craft paint and started stamping. When we were done, we had a fun piece of apple wrapping paper.

Book resources. We always have a variety of books on hand for each topic. Here are a few of our favorite apple-related books.

Apple Farmer Annie by Monica Wellington
Ten Apples Up On Top! by Dr. Seuss
The Biggest Apple Ever by Steven Kroll
The Apple Pie Tree by Zoe Hall

Other web resources: Here are some more fun apple projects I found.

No Time For Flashcards has a round-up of 15 fun apple activities from their archives.
Mom to 2 Posh Lil Divas also has a round-up of some of apples crafts and food they have done in the past.
2 Teaching Mommies has a fabulous free printable apple-themed preschool unit.

What is your favorite apple activity?

10 Ways to Play This Weekend: Week 9

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In Search of Turtles {World Animal Day 2012}

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We’re very fortunate to have a fabulous nature center located close to home. It boasts miles of trails, ponds, wildlife, a hands-on exhibit for kids, and even a fantastic nature playground consisting of logs, stumps and a small shed full of shovels for the kids to use. We still haven’t seen the entire place yet!

Earlier this spring, we went hiking and found their turtle pond. We had a wonderful time observing all the turtles resting on logs all around the pond.

All summer we talked about going back, but never did. Finally one day in late summer, I planned a morning to hike to the turtle pond.

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We came prepared. We brought along a picnic breakfast, water, camera, binoculars, turtle guidebook, colored pencils, and notebooks. We were ready to be naturalists.

We wanted to observe, record, and figure out what kind of turtles lived in the pond.

What we hadn’t counted on was the effect that our dry, hot summer had on the pond and the wildlife that lived there. Instead of a pretty wooded pond with turtles resting on the logs, we found a pond that was about half the size it normally is and covered in green.

Needless to say, we didn’t see a turtle.

Our learning took a curve that day as we discovered first-hand how the environment impacts animal habitats.

We understood that we couldn’t control the weather, but we talked about ways that we could help. We could keep areas clean by picking up trash and never littering.

We also talked about leaving areas alone so that animals still had all the food and materials they needed to live and thrive. Turtles are particularly vulnerable and we were grateful for our nature center and it’s turtle habitat.

Were all the turtles gone? No, they were most likely underwater. The turtles were still around, but their pond just wasn’t as nice of a place as it was this spring.

On our way out that day, we stopped by another pond to see what we could see and well… we didn’t see water.

But, we could tell that wildlife was still abundant in that area. In fact, it looked like they were having quite the party the night before as evidenced by all the tracks we saw in the mud. If you look carefully in the above picture, you’ll see some of the many raccoon tracks we saw.

What do animals teach my children? They teach them compassion for others big and small. They teach them respect for their environment. And, they foster a love of learning that I hope will become a lifetime habit.

What do animals teach your children?

 

Kid’s Co-op: Let’s Celebrate!

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It’s Kid’s Co-op time! Link up your favorite kid-related posts and then check out all the fun that has been linked up from other bloggers.

Today, we’re going to do a little celebrating. You see, it’s my birthday today and I found three fun ways to celebrate from last week’s links. Let’s get started!

First, let’s celebrate with some activities from one of my favorite books and movies, Pollyanna. Thanks Our Treasured Home for all the fun ideas!
Next, we’ll take a virtual visit with Crafty Moms Share to a country I would love to visit someday, Australia.
Finally, we’re going to celebrate by teaching compassion and service to others with The Good Long Road. I love these 10 simple ways to fight hunger.
Now it’s time for you to share all the fun you’ve been having! Please join up and share your favorite post. (And, we’d love you forever if you’d link back to us!) Your link will show up on all of the hosts’ blogs. It’s time to link up, visit some new blogs, and have a lot of fun!

 

 

Name Recognition Sensory Bin

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I’ve read so many books, blog posts, and magazine articles about preparing my child for kindergarten.

It’s a huge deal. And since I’m the one in charge of preschool, it’s all up to me to prepare my girls. That’s a big responsibility.

So I read every thing I could find.

There were so many things to learn, but one thing really stood out to me. It was something so simple, so simple that I took it for granted. The one thing that stood out to me was the importance of name recognition for preschoolers.

Of course! We need a fun name recognition activity so we set up this Name Recognition Sensory Bin.

Set up a simple Name Recognition Sensory Bin to help your preschooler get ready for kindergarten. Kids will love this fun name recognition activity. #preschool #ece #CreativeFamilyFun

My preschooler needs to learn to recognize her name. It’s going to be everywhere.

Where will she hang her coat? Underneath her name. I don’t want her to have to wait around for help. I want her to confidently recognize her name and know which coat hook to use.

So, I created a simple Name Recognition Sensory Bin. It is a great hands-on way for her to get familiar with the letters in her name and help her learn to spell it. She’s learning and she’s having fun. You can’t beat that.

Disclosure: There are Amazon Affiliate and other affiliate links in this article which means, at no additional cost to you, we could receive compensation for our recommendations. You can read our full disclosure policy on our Disclosure Page for more details.

Set up a simple Name Recognition Sensory Bin to help your preschooler get ready for kindergarten. Kids will love this fun name recognition activity.

Set up your name recognition sensory bin

I started with a shoebox-sized plastic bin with a lid. That way when we’re not playing with it, we can close it up securely.

I then filled it with a variety of dried beans. I had several already-opened bags of beans in my cupboard, so I filled it with black beans, red beans, lentils, and split peas. There was a fun variety of colors and plan on using this for several other sensory bins I have planned.

Set up a simple Name Recognition Sensory Bin to help your preschooler get ready for kindergarten. Kids will love this fun name recognition activity.

Next, I added the letters.

I used our magnetic letters and added only the ones that made up my preschooler’s name.

I typed up my daughter’s name in a variety of fun fonts and colors, laminated them, and cut them out individually.

Also, I wrote the individual letters on milk caps. You could also use small wooden disks, wooden letters, alphabet blocks, foam letters, or anything else you can find to write letters on.

To complete the bin, I added a few bowls and spoons for scooping.

In order to control the mess factor, we lay out an old pillowcase and put the bin on top of it. There is only one rule: everything stays on the pillowcase.

It really was simple to put together. I don’t know why I ever hesitated in making sensory bins!

Set up a simple Name Recognition Sensory Bin to help your preschooler get ready for kindergarten. Kids will love this fun name recognition activity.

My daughter spent a long time playing with her bin. She ran her fingers through it, hid all the letters under the beans, and spent a very long time scooping and pouring. We also worked together to spell her name with all the different letters in the bin.

Some more playful learning ideas for your sensory bin:

Sort the letters into piles of like letters

Try to spell your name using different types of letters.

Close your eyes and pull out a letter. What letter did you pull?

Set up a simple Name Recognition Sensory Bin to help your preschooler get ready for kindergarten. Kids will love this fun name recognition activity.

I’m a lot lesson worried about my daughter finding the correct coat hook thanks to this Name Recognition Sensory Bin. She’ll be able to hang up her coat with confidence. And that’s important.

For more fun ideas for your preschooler, please see:

Ready for Kindergarten Book Study: Name Recognition

Go Outside: Shape Hopscotch

Rhythm and Number Rhymes

Easy Homemade Name Puzzle at Teaching 2 and 3 Year Olds