Hand Made Blocks

We had each child bring in an empty shoe box. We covered each box with white butcher paper and clear packing tape for durability. Next we had the children paint the boxes and embellish them with items that would make them look like buildings.


Who would of thought that such a simple and cheep addition to our block area would bring on such enthusiasm for our future builders.

Construction Zone

Block play provides children with opportunities to develop many skills and concepts, but don’t leave your block area to just blocks. When adding different props to the block center children’s play will be enhanced.

• Blue prints
• Carpenter pencils
• Clip boards
• Fabric measuring tapes
• Hard hats
• Safety glasses
• Books on building, bridges, equipment, and homes

Here is a group of boys building in the block area. They went back and forth between the blue print they had laid out to the structure they were building. They are at play but what are they learning?


• Literacy Skills
• Language
• Conversational Skills
• Collaboration
• Problem solving
• Math Measurement/Size

Five Little Sandpals

Since we do not have snow where we live we had to come up with a substitute for a snowman, which was a sandman.  Here is the song that we came up with to go with our sandman.

Five little Sandpals sitting on the beach

Five little sandpals sitting on the beach.

The first one said “We are made out of sand.”

The second one said “We have sunhats and shell eyes, what funny guys.”

The third one said “The sun is high in the sky, I’m beginning to dry.”

The forth one said “The ocean is beginning to rise, oh my!”

The fifth one said “My toes are getting wet, oh No!”

In came the tide, out went the sand, and the five little sandpals washed right in.

Five Little Sandpals Fat Sung to the tune “Five Little Snowman Fat”

5 little sandpals fat (circle your hands in front of your stomach)

Each of them wearing a funny hat (hand over head like a hat)

In came the wave (move hand up and down)

And washed one away (put hand over eyes like your looking to see)

What a sad thing was that (make a sad face)

Down, down, down

Repeat until non are left

One Snowflake at a Time

Children’s Picture Book

Written and Illustrated by: Tami Sanders

From mountains high to valleys low, One snowflake at a time. Where will your child find their snowman? This delightful children’s book takes you on an adventure from urban streets, to desert sands, to rural rice lands. Your child is sure to enjoy this cleverly illustrated book for years to come. Sure to capture your child’s imagination as well as provide them with an association to their own personal individual environment. One snowflake at a time, snowmen are not just for snowy climates anymore.

Newpaper Sculpture

Who does not have a stack of newspaper in their classroom that keeps on growing? We decided to turn our rather large stack into art. We rolled up newspaper and taped them into long and short tubes. We placed these newspaper sticks (tubes) in the middle of the table with masking tape and let the children create what they wanted to out of the items. This is what they came up with. Once they were done with assembling it they had to paint it. It was a rainy day and this turned into a great project for the day because they stuck with it for about 45 min to 1 hour. Not bad for a 10 hour day with 24 children on a rainy day.

Gingerbread Man Story Extension

Over the last two weeks we have been reading the Gingerbread Man and other variations of the classic tale.

Following the story on the first day the children tried to see if they could catch the Gingerbread Man. They followed clues that lead them through out the school and as they got to each clue they discovered that they had just missed him. On the last clue they ended up in the school kitchen to discover the Gingerbread Man pulling out fresh baked gingerbread cookies for the children to enjoy for the morning snack.

Bringing stories alive will build on the children’s comprehension and vocabulary. It will also help children learn the joy of stories.

Five Gingerbread Kids

Five Gingerbread Kids
Use flannel board pieces as you sing the song.

Five Gingerbread Cookies jumping on the bed
One fell off and bumped her head
Mama called the Baker and the Baker said,
“No more Gingerbread Cookies jumping on the bed.”

Four Gingerbread Cookies jumping on the pan
One fell off and bumped his hand
Mama called the Baker and the Baker said,
“No more Gingerbread Cookies jumping on the pan.”

Three Gingerbread Cookies swinging in a tree
One fell off and bumped her knee
Mama called the Baker and the Baker said,
“No more Gingerbread Cookies swinging in a tree.”

Two Gingerbread Cookies standing on a chair
One fell off and bumped his hair
Mama called the Baker and the Baker said,
“No more Gingerbread Cookies standing on a chair.”

One Gingerbread Cookie jumped and did a flip
She fell down and bumped her hip.
Mama called the Baker and the Baker said,
“No more Gingerbread Cookie doing the flip.”

Gingerbread Craft

*Gingerbread people craft

Get out different colors of brown paper, yarn, lace scraps, buttons, glitter, felt scraps, fabric scraps, markers, glue, and scissors. Let the children create their own gingerbread person. Remember do not pre-cute or pre-draw on the brown paper let them do it themselves so that it is their project and not the teacher’s project.

Gingerbread Lesson Ideas

Gingerbread Boy Lesson Plan

Cognitive Development
*Gingerbread Boy Color Bingo GamePrepare a supply of gingerbread children with color dots on the hands, feet, and for the buttons. Make color button cards. Have children flip the color button cards and identify the color. Once the color has been identified have the children place a matching color pom pom on that button.

*Gingerbread Memory
Build their vocabulary and compression with object memory. Get objects that correspond with the gingerbread story. (rolling pin, cookie sheet, gingerbread man, cow, horse and fox) Have the children name all object that you have. Once they have named the object place two and a tray and have them tell you what two are on the tray. Next place a cloth over the tray and pick up one object with the cloth. See if the children can identify which object is missing. Repeat until all children have had a turn.

Gingerbread Boy Lesson Plan

Bubbles, Bubbles and More Bubbles

Bubbles

Today we sat out dish pans with dish soap in them so the children could wash dolls and other things in the play house area. Instead it turned into a bubble experiment. The children brought different items from around the classroom to see if they could blow bubbles with them. Some of the items were successful and some were not. One child discovered that she could blow the best bubbles just using her hands. Once the others saw that she was making large bubbles they all started blowing bubbles. We need more dish pans!!!

Bubble Painting/Prints

Bubble blowing turned into bubble prints. We filled bowls with water, milk and food coloring. The children blew into the mixture with straws and watched the bubbles rise. Once they got a mountain of bubble they placed a white sheet of paper on top, making bubble prints. We had different colors in each bowl so as they went around to table they layered the different colors on top of one another, which made wonderful designs.