Creating a Mouse House!

No...not THAT kind of mouse house (although pet mice do generally make very good classroom pets)!  A house for the computer mouse, of course!  Recently, we've introduced a simple computer program for the children to try during small group time.  Have you ever seen the computer mouse travel across the table top and keep right on going since the children continue to move it in one direction as they are causing things to happen on the screen!? 

In reality, a touch screen would be the best possible idea for my classroom since many of the children in my room have difficulty understanding the relationship between the mouse movement and the action on the screen.  Given that a touch screen is not headed in our direction any time soon; I created a few other adaptations to assist the children with manipulating the mouse a bit.

First, we were provided with a small laptop mouse for the desktop computer.  Of course, an adapted "roller-ball mouse" would be even better...but, you take what you can get!  And this is better for the children to handle than a typical sized computer mouse. 

I attached a small foam sticker to the left click button so the children are able to easily click on the correct side.  Now came the fun part!  I used a $1.00 box from the Dollar section of Target for the actual mouse house.  I removed one of the short sides and used colored duct tape to cover the edges.  (I notice now, I may have to go in and add more tape just so it looks a bit better!)

I slid the cord for the mouse through the other handle and plugged it into the computer.  (Of course, wireless would be better...but, again, you take what you can get!)  I then used several strips of Velcro to attach the box to the table top.

Done.  Done.  And Done!  The mouse is now secure in it's little house and is only able to go so far on the table!  The children will be able to manipulate this within a defined area and view what happens on the screen!  So, while we wait for our touch screen computer... :) .... we will make use of our mouse house!

Carpet Circles!

We may be the class that wears our carpet squares on our heads on a regular basis, but I'm determined to use this small piece of our day to help reinforce name and/or symbol recognition!  I found these round (very patriotic) placemats at the Dollar Store and scooped them up as carpet CIRCLES!  

So, because I've gone a bit crazy with the milk machine filter ideas lately, I also printed each child's name and symbol on a milk machine filter.  Now, to figure out how to ATTACH the two!

I decided to simply hand stitch these round milk filter circles directly to the round placemats (took me about 1/2 hour to do six carpet circles)!   I added a stitch in the middle of each circle to help keep it stable as the children sit on it!

I realize that these may be even more enticing for the children to wear as "hats," but, never mind, those name recognition skills will simply be absorbed better directly through the brain! :) 

(A follow up:  We have used these for 2 days now and the children haven't once put them on their heads! They also are holding up wonderfully!  And the best thing is that two children have pointed to their own name and said "mine"!)

Boardmaker Pictures on the Flannelboard?!

I just knew I would have more ideas to go along with those flannelboard activities made from the milk machine filters!  Now that I know the filters can go right through the printer; I keep thinking of other things I could do with them!  (and, yes, it's driving me crazy) 

Well, wouldn't you know it; I needed to print some Boardmaker pictures for the week.  I wanted pictures to go along with exploring colored glue.  Of course I asked the logical question when obsessing over creating new things:  why not put the pictures on the milk machine filters?! 

While we are exploring the colored glue in class, I will attach two color cards and the glue picture to the flannelboard (or my flannelboard apron- can't decide yet) and the children will pull off the picture of the color they want to use!

One thing to keep in mind:  the colors aren't as vibrant as if they were printed on paper.  If you have a child with low vision, I would probably print these on paper rather than the milk machine filters. 

Of course, we are still using Boardmaker pictures along with our activity.  We aren't really adding anything new to this or changing the activity in any way.  But, I'm pretty sure the children will think it's great fun to chose a color on the flannelboard and pull it off rather than using paper pictures placed in front of them on the table! 

Besides, I have approximately 210 more milk machine filters to use...oh, make that 205.  I used a whole 5 milk filters for the Boardmaker pictures!  Hmmm...what to come up with next?!

This post is linked to Teach Preschool's Every day Flannelboard Play Link!

Story Circles for the Flannelboard

Oh my goodness!  I am so happy I happened upon a discussion on the Teach Preschool Facebook page yesterday!  Kimberly K. mentioned using milk filters for flannelboard pieces.  I assumed she had had to go through the process of hand drawing and coloring the pictures onto the milk filters as I described HERE.

Oh, but NOOOO, she simply cuts the large circles to paper size and puts them right through her printer!!!!  I was intrigued!  I ran up to Farm and Fleet (I live about 5 min. away) and proceeded to look for the large milk filters.

After asking several people and searching several isles, I realized that they only sold the smaller circles (6 1/2 inch) and had discontinued selling the larger circles.  UGH...I decided for $3.00 I would go ahead and buy the smaller circles and see what I could do with them.  (NOTE: They discontinued them at the store by MY house, but they do still sell them on-line HERE and at many of the other Farm and Fleet stores.)

After experimenting, I realized I could put a small loop of tape on the back of one of the milk filter circles and attach it to a piece of printer paper.  The milk filter slid right through and the picture printed to the filter itself!  Who came UP with this idea!? 

I proceeded to make pieces for Old McDonald Had a Farm by printing out clip art animals and a barn!  (I found that many of the on-line flannelboard pieces come as groups of 2 or 3 images...which wouldn't work with the small filters.  Clip art worked better because I could adjust the size and print one image at a time.  They still end up large enough for use on a flannelboard.  You just need to print one at a time.) 

Then I hit on an interesting way to create sequencing circles for children to sequence the story Goldilocks and the Three Bears.  I found pictures for the story, copied these into a word document and wrote the story below each picture.  Basically creating a sort of circular book for the flannelboard.  I was excited to see that the picture goes a bit off the circular filter making it look like it is in some type of frame!

The children can listen to the story and follow along.  Then after repeated readings they can sequence the events in the story with the pictures on their own during center time.  Usually flannelboard pieces are simply made of pictures.  My hope is that the children will notice the print and pretend to "read" the story that they know well as they are sequencing the pictures.
 

Just another way to encourage those pre-reading skills!

The Colors of Nature

I made nature color packets today!  I gained inspiration for this idea this from Deborah's Forest Treasure Box at Teach Preschool. I really liked this idea; but just wanted to use the items we find while we're outside, rather than making up a box. I also didn't want to have to go around our outdoor area picking up small paint chip cards all over the place! :)

Here was my solution:  I started by finding paint chip cards in many different shades of browns, yellows, oranges, greens and whites, sorted them into color packets (I did combine the yellows and oranges since there were fewer) and sequenced them from darkest to lightest. I then punched holes in each at the bottom and used a brad (paper fastener) to attach each group of cards so we can fan them out and see all the shades and seperate colors! 
 

I think I will just pop these in our outdoor backpack to take outside with us! This way I can just use them informally with the children while we are outside and while they are interested. I think these will be a good way to introduce the children to looking more closely at natural items they find while outside! We can use these to find the color of a rock, the color of the grass they are sitting on or the color of the tree trunk. 

This will also be a good way to begin to introduce the idea of shades of color. Most natural items may fall somewhere in between the colors on the paint chips. Mentioning that an item is a bit darker or lighter is a way to introduce the children to the concept that natural items are generally not simply..."yellow" or "brown"...they may be dark brown or light brown or somewhere in between!

I'm also excited to introduce the children to the wonderful names of some of the colors on the cards! I think it's much more exciting to call the color of a tree trunk "Toasted Sesame"...or "Afternoon Tea" rather than...brown!

**On a side note:  I have no idea why I thought of using paint chip cards for this idea...and when I was making my color matching file folder game....I DIDN'T think of using them! Check out Debbie's comment on my color matching file folder game. She's absolutely right!  Use paint chips rather than your color printer ink!

Color Matching File Folder Game

Sometimes I do think I over think things a bit, especially when I create new items for the classroom!  Oh, but not this time! :) 
I made this several years ago for a little girl who was just beginning to match colors, but who was SO highly distracted by everything around her, that she simply could not focus on matching colors if it involved anything else! 

I have a few children now who could benefit from this very simple, basic matching as well, so I have it packed up and ready to go back to the classroom!

I basically just used Word to make color rectangles.  Then I cut out, laminated and put Velcro on the back of one set.  I kept the second set together on the page, laminated the entire thing, put the other side of Velcro on each color and attached it to a file folder (you could laminate the entire folder before you add the Velcro).

Of course, I added an envelope to the opposite side of the file folder to hold the individual color rectangles.  When I use this with a child, I always start by taking a plain piece of paper and covering all but a few of the colors for the child!  I always want this to be a successful, enjoyable activity for the child...a challenge...but not so difficult that the child doesn't want to participate.

This is an extremely simple idea, but effective.  For some children it is nearly impossible to "tune out" the visual stimuli around them and focus on any one activity.  Taking out ANYTHING visual that is not necessary to the activity allows the child to actually focus on the activity and complete it.  And this can bring such a sense of accomplishment that they want to try again..and again!

5 Green and Speckled Frogs

This is one of my most often used, most loved by the children and definitely, my favorite song prop!  This is simply a Pringles can covered with construction paper.  I drew black "speckles" on the construction paper and then wrapped the entire thing with contact paper.  I then added Velcro squares to the side of the can. 

I bought some plastic frog bath toys and added Velcro squares to the bottom of the frogs (I think it took me 2 sets of frog bath toys for this).  I added some Sharpie marker spots to the frogs and stuck them to the Velcro on the can!

This is the perfect prop to use with "5 Green and Speckled Frogs"  Below is the song, in case you've forgotten it! 

5 Green and Speckled Frogs

Sat on a speckled log

Eating some most delicious bugs,

Yum, Yum.

One jumped into the pool,

Where it was nice and cool.

Than there were 4 green speckled frogs,

Croak, croak...

(continue with 4,3,2,1 frogs)

The children LOVE to help take the frogs off as we sing the song and stuff them back into their "log" (of course, you could have some blue felt on the floor for the "pool", but the children in my room seem to just love stuffing them into the "log"!) 

Another added benefit:  all five of the frogs fit into the "log" with just a bit of squishing...so it makes a wonderful storage container for the prop as well! 

(This was originally posted on my previous blog- which has since been deleted- but I love this so much, I decided to write a blog post about it again. :)

All Time Favorite Play-Dough Recipe!

At some point I said I would post my very favorite homemade play-dough recipe.  Since I just have the recipe written down, I don't remember where I got this recipe from, but I've used it many times over the past ten years!  (This is the recipe that got me started on adding olive oil to ALL the play- dough recipes!)

Here's the recipe:

Water - 2 cups
Olive Oil -3 Tablespoons
Food Coloring
Flour -2 cups
Salt- 1 cup
Alum (a preservative sold with spices)- 2 Tablespoons

In a saucepan, bring water to boil.  Add food coloring and olive oil.  Remove from heat and add flour, salt and alum.  Mix well.  Knead the dough when the mixture cools a bit.  Add flour as needed.  Should last up to 3 months if sealed and not allowed to dry.

Yikes! Playdough Tip Follow-Up!

I felt I MUST do a quick follow up to the playdough tip post!  I saw a comment about sticky playdough on the Teach Preschool facebook page after the link to this post. 

You will really need to play around with the amount of extra virgin olive oil you add to the dough after you have made it! 

Some playdough will not hold a lot more without going overboard and becoming sticky and losing consistency!  Sometimes humidity will change how much it can hold!  In other words; I simply add a little bit, mix it in then add a little more if it is not yet the consistency I want.  It is definitely NOT an exact science!  I did add almost a tablespoon to this particular recipe...but if I made it today, it may not hold that much! 

I don't want people to start tossing out whole batches of playdough because it is too sticky!  Deb is correct, letting it air dry a bit or adding more flour should help if you find the dough does get too sticky.  Just make sure to go slow with the addition of the olive oil.  Remember, the other oil was absorbed as you cooked it; this oil is really sitting on the top of the dough, so it can only absorb so much at a time!  Hope this follow up post helps!

Playdough Tip!

I just finished making our strawberry sparkle play-dough for the week and thought I'd share my tip to make sure homemade play-dough is smooth and soft!  I found the recipe for the strawberry sparkle play-dough at the Imagination Tree.  (It smells delicious!  Hope no child tries to sample it tomorrow!) 

No "sparkles" yet!  Tomorrow, the children will help add these!

So, here's my tip:  After making the play-dough according to the directions, I knead the dough until all the ingredients are mixed, then I add a tablespoon or so  add small amounts of of extra virgin olive oil to the top of the play- dough and mix this in- then add a bit more and mix it in, until the dough feels smooth to the touch, but not sticky.  (If, at some point, while playing with the dough it begins to dry out, simply place a few drops of extra virgin olive oil on the dough and re-mix!)

Now, if you want REALLY smooth and silky play-dough, substitute extra virgin olive oil for the vegetable oil.  However, I would rather COOK with the extra virgin olive oil, so I just add a bit after I make the play-dough!  And, of course, also keep the dough covered when the kids aren't playing with it! 
*If you are having difficulty with the dough becoming sticky, please read the playdough tip follow up post.  If your dough is sticky and loses consistencey, you've added too much extra oil.  Don't add too much extra oil all at once- a little extra should do the trick!

Paint Cup Tip

Many years ago, I found the absolute perfect paint cup/water cup for painting and watercolors.  I happened to eat a certain brand of yogurt at the time, that came with a small cup attached to the top with granola or M&M's.  Probably not the healthiest yogurt, but it was pretty darn good tasting!

I ate these every day for probably more than six months before I realized that these small plastic cups could come in very handy!  Before this, they were routinely thrown in with our recycling. 

We found that these are simply the perfect size to hold enough paint to paint with, but not so much that the paint is wasted or needs to be covered for another day.  This is the reason I have always detested the larger paint cups that are sold for this purpose!

These cups have such a broad opening and flat bottom that the children can easily see and reach the paint or water with their paintbrush, but it is nearly impossible to spill the paint or water!  These are especially handy for holding water for watercolor painting!  If, by some chance, the water does spill, it is such a small amount, that it is very quick to clean up and refill the cup!