Wacky Garden CD Giveaway

Here is another delightful collection of original songs by Kati Bee. She has been able to design music CD’s for learning, that will encourage and support participation from the very first beat. Her music style incorporates a variety of musical styles that your children are sure to love and want to hear over and over.

Kati is a veteran teacher and entertainer who has a clear understanding for what young children want and need from their musical experiences. This CD is filled with 12 songs that will get the kids up, moving and singing along with you. Here, CD’s are made with teachers in mind. Knowing that your planning time is valuable, she has designed the backs of her CD covers to show the theme that each song will go with for easy planning.

Go ahead a sneak a peak at her songs by clicking the picture cover below.

Guess What? Kati Bee and Friends has generously offered to giveaway a Wacky Garden CD to one lucky reader of Learning and Teaching with Preschoolers. All you have to do is..

1) Leave a comment with your e-mail address on this post. I simply ask that you either follow on Google Friend Connect, on Twitteror Like on  Facebook

OR subscribe via e-mail (see top right sidebar).

For an extra entry

2). Join a discussion of my blog frog community Blogfrog and then leave a comment.

3) Share about this giveaway on Facebook, Twitter, or your blog! Then, leave a comment.

This giveaway will close on Friday March 4, at 12:00pm. Good luck!

More Dinosaur Fun

Dino Color Bingo Mats

We played color bingo with dinosaur shaped mats.  To add fine motor skills to the activity we had the children use tweezers to pick up the right colored pom pom with.

Process Art Dino Style

We sat out construction paper shapes, scrap paper, paper tubes, scissors, glue, wiggle eyes and markers.  We also had different pictures of dinosaurs hanging in the creative art area.  Children where encouraged to create a dinosaur of their own and not one turned out alike.  

B is for Bones

We wanted to give the children an opportunity to explore bones like paleontologists, scientist that study dinosaur bones.

We sat out trays of cleaned chicken bones and bared them in clean play sand.  We placed magnifying glasses and small paint brush for the children to brush away the sand with, just like paleontologists do.  As they found the bones we had them place the bones on mates to see if they could figure out how the bones went together to form a skeleton. 

How to clean Chicken Bones

We boiled the chicken bones until all the meat and cartilage cooked off. Next we scraped the bones to get any remain stuff off the bones. Once the bones were clean we then placed them in a solution of bleach water and let them soak for about 30 minutes. We rinsed and placed them in the sun to dry.

Once you have gone through all the hard work they will last you for several years to come.

Dino Wall

The children have really been into dinosaurs so we turned the writing board into a large dinosaur.  Each child painted a spike for the board.  When the parents come in on the day we put it up each child was so excited about showing their parents the board and which picture they drew.  It is so great to see the excitement.

Dino Math Patterns

For our math unit on patterning we created dino shape mats for the children to create their own dino spike patterns with. We set out different baskets with pattern blocks in them for the children to use for their pattern making these baskets where then placed onto activity trays with a dino shape mat.

We found that by us adding the dino element to the activity the boys were more inclined to wanting to working on the project. It also kept their interest for a long amount of time.

Discovery Bottles

When children get to make their own discovery bottles they get to wonder and explore the physical properties of objects and materials that they place in them.

Environments which facilitate exploration, cultivate creativity, encourage wonder and problem solving, are environments that plant the seeds for a love of life long learning.

First let the children pick out a plastic bottle.

Next have them fill up their bottle at the bottle filling station.  Provide measuring cups, funnels and measuring spoons.  To add to the learning have them guess how many scoops it will take to fill their bottle. 

Once they have filled up their bottle with water have them move on to the color mixing station.  Provide the children with containers of water color and eye droppers so that they can add their own color to their bottle.

After they are done with the color mixing station have them move to the station where they can add different types of objects to their discovery bottle.  Make sure that you provide objects that can float and sink.  We used small pieces of straw, buttons, glitter, shimmer powder and sequences.

When the child is done with their bottle we applied a ring of hot glue around the edge of the bottle and twisted the lid on tight.

Discovery Bottles

Children will develop science skills about gravity in motion, liquid separation and buoyancy.

• Fill recycled water bottle with different liquids.
• Add colored water or colored distilled water.
• Add glitter, marbles foam pieces.
• Hot glue lid


Liquids
• Oil
• Mineral Oil
• Corn Syrup
• Maple Syrup
• Olive Oil
• Clear Hair Gel
• Clear Shampoo
• Water
• Isopropyl rubbing alcohol

Keeping Your Tables Clean

When it comes to preschoolers mess is the name of the game.  So if you want to make cleaning up some of those messes easier here are some tips to help keep those tables clean.

Art trays, we have a stack of art trays in the creative art area and the children know that if they are working on something that requires glue, paint or glitter then they need to get themselves an art tray.  These trays contain the mess for easy clean up and help children with their independent skills.

If you have a group of young children then when it is work time for the children stretch a fitted sheet over the tables that will get messy.  Once the projects are done remove the sheet and toss in the wash.

You can get these art trays through

Easy-Clean Craft Trays - Set of 4

These big, heavy-duty plastic trays make craft projects neater—and easier—than ever! Jumbo trays are great for painting and collaging…with deep 1 1/4" edges that keep messes neatly contained, and smooth surfaces for easy, wipe-clean care. 4 trays in 4 colors; each is a big 12" x 16".


BX532 • $14.95

T is for teeth

We made collage teeth people in the creative art area. 

We played a dice game using a mouth mat and unfix cubes.  Children rolled the dice and placed that amount of cubes in the mouth.

We made teeth shaped booklets for the children to write and draw in.  We placed these teeth booklets in the writing area for the children to use.

Here is a link to more ideas for a dental unit.



  D is for Dental

Building the Bridge Between School and Home

Parent involvement is key to school success. Building the bridge between school and home is a vital part to creating a classroom with the child’s success in mind.

There are many ways to help build this bridge; one of the most successful ways that I have found is to place a dry eraser board where the parents sign in and out. We all know that it is hard to be able to talk to every parent and remind them of daily things everyday. I find that it is helpful to give them those reminders right where they sign daily. Example “Don’t forget your mittens for our Three Little Kittens tomorrow.”

Here are some other ways to make sure that you are building that bridge:

• Send out a weekly newsletter by email or by paper

• Have a parent bulletin board in your classroom (where parents can see what is happening in the classroom and community)

• Send home important fliers or letters. (Pajama Day)

• Create take home backpacks of home projects that the parents can check out

• Have sit down parent conferences

• Have student/parent family nights

Don’t forget to enter the Giveaway Giveaway

S is for Spaghetti

Letting children explore the world of spaghetti

We cooked a batch of spaghetti and placed the spaghetti with a little oil into separate bowls so that the children could explore the texture.

Some of them even tried to see what it would feel like on top of their heads.

Mrs. Flutterbee Funny Farm CD Giveaway

Mrs. Flutterbee and the Funny Farm CD is a delightful collection of original songs. Written and designed for learning, that will encourage and support participation from the very first beat. Her music style incorporates a variety of musical styles that your children are sure to love and want to hear over and over.

Kati is a veteran teacher and entertainer who has a clear understanding for what young children want and need from their musical experiences. This CD is filled with 12 songs that will get the kids up, moving and singing along with you. Here, CD’s are made with teachers in mind. Knowing that your planning time is valuable, she has designed the backs of her CD covers to show the theme that each song will go with for easy planning.

One of my favorite songs is “Who Am I?” This is a wonderful song to go along with your Community Helper unit. The children hear different sounds that happen through out the community, and then it gives them the opportunity to guess what helper it is.

Listen to one of Funny Farm CD hits Monkey Mambo

It’s tons of fun

      when learning with

             Mrs. Flutterbee and friends!

Click on the link to hear sample sound tracks  

Guess What?   Kati Bee and Friends has generously offered to giveaway a Mrs. Flutterbee Funny Farm CD to one lucky reader of Learning and Teaching with Preschoolers. 

All you have to do is..

1) Leave a comment with your e-mail address on this post.  I simply ask that you either follow on Google Friend Connect, on Twitter or Like on Facebook    Facebook 

OR subscribe via e-mail (see top right sidebar).

For extra entries

2). Join a discussion of my blog frog community and then leave a comment.

3) Share about this giveaway on Facebook, Twitter, or your blog! Then, leave a comment.

This giveaway will close on Friday February 17, at 12:00pm. Good luck!

Mail is in the Air

With valentines around the corn the children have been really interested in sending cards and mail to their friends and staff in the office.  To help them with this experience we set up a post office by the writing area. 

We included ink pads with stamps so that they could cancel out the postage as it came through the post office.  We add a balance scale so the children could weigh the mail before they delivered it.

We placed out different colored house boxes with address so that the children had to sort and mail the mail to the right address.  We have 3 house boxes (yellow, blue and purple).

The children had to deliver the mail (yellow, blue and purple mail) to the right address, by placing the mail in the right colored boxes.

To keep the learning fun going we made an area outside that they could continue the mailing things to their friends.

Making Learning Fun