Bear Hunt

Who doesn't love The Bear Hunt by Greg and Steve? It's a classroom favorite! Today we acted it out in dramatic play for the first time. It was a big hit. I had the song playing while the children went through the motions. It was easy to do. I cut up some paper to make wheat fields (i ran out of yellow so i used green) then i made a bridge from the wooden blocks in our block area. I used boxes wraped in butcher paper and topped with paper leaves for our "tree" then i used a dollar store blue table cloth for a river, we covered our igloo tent with a brown blanket for the cave.... voila! I also added some bear footprints to make it more fun!

Coming to a wheat field.....

Have to go through it....

Coming to a bridge

Have to go over it....

Coming to a tree...

Guess we'll have to climb it....

Coming to a river....

Let's get in the boat....

Coming to a cave....

Tiptoe inside......

SCREAMS OF JOY!!!!

Brown Bear Brown Bear

Brown Bear Brown Bear by Eric Carle is another one of my favorite stories for preschoolers. I usually include it in my Book theme as well as my Bear theme. It is easy to read and most of my children can read it by themselves. I love making felt pieces and activities to go with this story also. Here are some examples of fun activities to go with the story.

The website http://www.makinglearningfun.com is where i got some of the templates from.

Brown Bear I Spy for children to make themselves.
Instead of water bottles I used the baby food jars with small cut outs laminated of the Brown Bear characters and pasta noodles (rice works as well)

                                                                         Brown Bear felt board pieces. These i downloaded  years ago, i can't remember from where. I colored them laminated them and glued felt to the back. They held up really well (going on 6 years now)

Large version of Brown Bear I-Spy. Again I don't like using water bottles, because they easily break and lose
their shape. I used rice containers but any clear container will work. For this activity I use a picture checklist and the children can color in the animal after they "find" it.

                                             Here is the link for the picture checklist.
                                                             Brown Bear Checklist

 Brown Bear memory cards. I also downloaded these from makinglearningfun i laminated them to card stock to keep them longer, and they have held up well.

Chicka Chicka Boom Boom

Chicka Chicka Boom Boom by by Bill Martin Jr. is one of my favorite books for preschoolers. It's a fun book, it helps children learn their letters and there are so many different activities to do with it. We have the book on CD in our classroom and the children love reading aloud and turning the pages along with the CD. There are also a few songs on the CD too! Last week we had an alphabet review theme, so i made sure to include Chicka Chicka Boom Boom in my lesson plan.

The children made their own coconut tree and stamped letters on it, just like the story

I also made a coconut tree using formula containers covered in paper for our sand table. I put magnet strips along the sides so that the children could hunt for letters in the sand and the stick them to the tree. It was a lot of fun!

I also used a formula can to make a Chicka Chicka Boom Boom clank can. The children used letter tiles to "clank" inside of the can along with the story and song.

Lemonade Stand

Our children this year are very interested in money and counting. We decided that for our summer theme we would make our own lemonade to sell! The kids had a ball!! We squeezed our own lemons, cut up lemon chunks, put in ice, sugar and water until our lemonade was perfect. I then provided real coins and cash registers to the children, along with clip boards and paper to take orders. We opened up our lemonade stand to the whole center. Parents and children came and bought our lemonade for 25 cents at the end of the day and our kids were so serious about pouring the lemonade, taking money and even giving change. It was the cutest thing. I want to do it again soon but with baked goods this time.

Hatching Butterflies

For our bug theme we decided to hatch butterflies in our science area. If you are lucky enough to find a caterpillar outside then you can do this activity for free. I decided to get the butterfly kit. I saw it online for $20.00, but i happened to find the same kit at Walmart for $10.00. SCORE! Our kit came with 5 butterflies and the kit  guarantees at least 2 caterpillars to live. We were lucky and 4 out of 5 lived and turned into butterflies. Our kids loved watching them make their chrysalis. After the butterflies hatched we kept ours for about 3 weeks before releasing them. We fed them different fruits. Our butterflies liked pineapple chucks the best. Probably because they are so sweet. We spent a lot of time reading The Very Hungry Caterpillar and we even acted out the butterfly life cycle. I really recommend this activity for any children aged 3 and up.
https://www.livebutterflygarden.com/

                                         

                                           Our butterflies named: Woody, Buzz, Jessie and Rex

                                           Eggs on a leaf!

                                             In our chrysalis

                                           Breaking free!

                                               Fly away!

Importance of outdoor play

In our preschool room, we like to think of our playground as an outdoor learning area. Outside time is not a time for teachers to relax and watch kids play. It is important to engage in activities with your children. I love outside time, because it allows us to do really "MESSY" art projects and activities...which i may love more than the kids!

So far this year we have used our outside playground to:

Plant a garden: 

Children were given seed packets and plastic garden tools. We have two garden boxes in our play yard. One for preschool and one for pre-k. The kids loved digging and using the watering cans to completely saturate our poor little seeds! We have planted seeds about 5 times this year, because the children keep digging them up or over watering them! But finally this time i can see some seedling starting to sprout. HOORAY!

Play in the mud:

Mud play is so much fun and there is no reason to not let your children indulge. Put on their bathing suits and let them have at it!!! Kids use so many of their senses while playing in mud and it's a great way to cool off on a hot day! Plus in the summer you can hose them off when they're done!

Make S'mores in a solar oven:

We used small plastic trays lined with aluminum foil, but you can use a regular cardboard box. 

Line a box with foil and place your S'mores inside. Cover with a foil reflective top (we used poster board) then leave the S'mores out in the sunshine and check on them every 10 minutes to see them "cook"

Ask your children why they think the chocolate melted and the marshmallow cooked?

Eat and enjoy!

Teddy Bear Picnic:

Invite your children and their friends to a teddy bear picnic. Make sure you bring your favorite bear. Set out some blankets and play food for your bears. Some other activities we did at our picnic were teddy bear parachute (bounce your teddies on the parachute) Honey pot bowling with Winnie the pooh ( i decorated pop bottles using acrylic yellow paint and clip art bumble bees) But I must say our children s favorite activity at the picnic was our teddy swings! I tied rope around branches of our trees ( low enough for the children to reach) Then I allowed the children to tie their  bears around their tummies and swing them! It was so cute :) Don't forget the gummy bears and teddy grahams!