Creative Family Fun

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Preschool Activities

Outdoor Shape Hunt

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We’ve been having a lot of outdoor shape fun lately (at least when the weather has been nice enough to enjoy).

In addition to some fun games of Shape Hopscotch, we also went on a shape scavenger hunt.

I didn’t write up a list or come up with clues, although you certainly can if you would like.

Instead, I challenged the girls to find as many shapes as they could around our yard.

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They looked around aimlessly at first. Then, I got them started.

I pointed at our bricks. “What shape are they?” It clicked and they were off!

They found squares in our windows and outdoor lights.

Our chain length fence has hundreds of diamonds, too many to count.

We found a rock shaped as a triangle and more circles than I even imagined.

We found shapes in everything!

I think the game could have gone on for a long time… except for the lure of their bicycles.

There are endless ways to have a shape scavenger hunt.

  • Set up challenges. Find 3 squares, 5 circles, 2 triangles, etc.
  • Find three-dimensional shapes: spheres, cubes, pyramids, etc.
  • Bring a notebook and sketch each of the different shapes you find.
  • For younger kids, you can concentrate on just one shape. Have them find as many circles as they can.
  • Use cameras to capture pictures of the shapes like we did in this post.

Have you ever gone on a shape scavenger hunt? How did you play?

Music: Exploring Drums & Found Sound

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Homemade musical instruments are always a lot of fun and they’re even more fun when you can play them in a multitude of ways.

We made our own drums to help illustrate the idea that music can come from anywhere!

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We began by reading Drum City by Thea Guidone. It begins with a boy drumming in his yard with a pot and spoons. Soon, people begin to join him, each bringing their own “found” drum until an entire parade was formed.

My girls were in love and were ready to create their own drums.

Supplies Needed:

Empty canisters (bread crumb, oatmeal, coffee, etc.)
Construction paper (enough to cover your canister)
Scissors
Tape
Stickers
Markers
Crayons

To make our drums, we took construction paper, cut it to size and taped it around our canisters.

Our paper was not quite large enough to fit around the canister, so we had to piece it together with a couple of different strips of paper.

The girls then used stickers, markers, and crayons to decorate their drums.

Once they were ready, it was time to play.

They experimented with the different sounds.

It sounded different on the sides of the canister than it sounded on the bottom. It also sounded different when they banged with their fists than it did when they used the palms of their hands.

After experimenting with sounds, we turned on some music and started drumming. We marched, we drummed, and we enjoyed our found sound.

As an additional example, I found this video clip from Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood. In the clip, Mr. Rogers visits with the cast of Stomp and they show him how they can make music with a variety of objects.

We loved our “found” sound!

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?

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.

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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

A New Rhythm to Our Week

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Our days and weeks are about to get different.

Lizzie starts Kindergarten soon, so five days a week every afternoon, she’ll be enjoying the big, wonderful world of school.

No longer will the three of us be spending all day, every day together.

While Lizzie is at school, AJ will be doing preschool at home with me. I’m planning a fun Letter of the Week program with her that should be fun for both of us. And don’t worry, I plan on sharing our fun with all of you!

I’m also planning a loose weekly schedule for Lizzie when she’s not in school. She’ll be learning a lot in Kindergarten, but I would like to continue on with some of the subjects we’ve been learning.

I’ve picked subjects that Lizzie loves as well as some that are often neglected in public schools due to funding and standardized testing. If they can’t get it at school, I’ll make sure that they get it at home!

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Monday will be all about art. We’ll do a lot of process art, we’ll learn new techniques, and we’ll even learn about some of the great artists. But, most of all we’ll use this time to be creative. Lizzie loves art and I want to make sure we make time for it every week.

Tuesday is for music. Sadly, music education is often one of the first things cut in schools. There is so much to learn about music. When you learn about music, you learn about math, literature, history, and physical movement. I plan on having a lot of fun with music. We’ll sing and dance. We’ll learn about different genres of music and dance. We’ll learn about music from around the world. And, we’ll also learn about different musical instruments.

Wednesdays, we’ll explore world culture. World culture is sorely neglected in our public schools. Yet, I think an understanding of world culture is one of the best ways to teach tolerance and to show my girls that there is much more to the world than their own small town. Plus, it’s fun! We’ll be learning about world culture through cooking, crafts, games, and stories.

Thursdays are for science. Lizzie loves science and as long as she loves it, I will nurture this love. I know she’ll be receiving an ample science education at school, but I still want to have fun with science at home. We’ll continue learning about nature and animals. We’ll do fun science experiments. We’ll also work on creating nature journals.

Fridays are all about literature. We love doing projects based on books. We’ll have fun reading and exploring fun books. We’ll make crafts, play games, and explore dramatic play. We’ll be learning that books are fun!

Even though school doesn’t start for another couple of weeks, we’re going to try out our new weekly schedule this week.

It will give us time to start getting in a routine before school starts and it will give me time to tweak the schedule if it’s not working.

I’m sure you’ve noticed that it’s been quiet around here. That’s because I’ve been planning and planning. I can’t wait to share with you all of our new fun and experiences!