Birdseed Sensory Table

Towards the end of this past week, I decided to take out our cotton balls from the sensory table and add birdseed instead.  Previously, we had cotton balls and tongs and scoops to explore.  The children enjoyed this, but needed quite a bit of assistance to manipulate the tongs in order to pick up the cotton balls (and probably a better skill to work on at a different time of the school day).  So, I kept many of the accessories: the heart shaped scoops, measuring cups and spoons, the red sifter, the red heart shaped bowls and the pink boxes; and simply swapped out the birdseed for the cotton balls.  

The children CLEARLY enjoyed the change!  Several children have spent long periods of time at the sensory table scooping, filling, pouring, and sifting birdseed!  With past classes, we have seen a great deal of birdseed scattered across the floor when we've done this; but not with this class!  Not yet, at least!  Most of the birdseed has stayed in the table!

The children took the time to experiment with how full each bowl or box could become!  One child experimented with what would happen when he flicked the scoop up in the air very fast!  (This was pretty much our only birdseed on the floor!)  Interestingly enough, he didn't continue doing this, but went back to scooping, filling and pouring the birdseed in the table!

Another child decided holding the birdseed in his hands and slowly letting it sprinkle out was more rewarding than scooping with cups and spoons!  When we are finished using the birdseed in the sensory table, I generally would just sprinkle this outside for the birds. 

However, I'm tempted this time to roll the whole darn sensory table outside and see what happens!  I have a feeling the children may be more interested in watching the birds eat the birdseed directly out of the sensory table!  Then again, I'm not sure I want to CLEAN the sensory table after THAT experiment! 

February Friendship Fridays!

This year I decided to do something a bit different during the month of February.  Rather than just having a small "party" on Valentine's Day and allowing the children in my classroom to bake cookies to eat in the afternoon, I decided to focus a bit on friendship throughout the entire month of February!

So we decided to celebrate Friendship Fridays!  Each Friday in the month of February we are baking "friendship cookies" (yes, regular heart shaped sugar cookies) to take to our friends in the other preschool classrooms.  So, today, for the second Friday in a row, we baked cookies!  The children helped to put the cookies on the cookie sheets, put the cookie sheets in the oven and waited for the timer to ring to tell us the cookies were done. 

After the cookies cooled a bit, we put some in small pails.  Each of the children then got to carry a pail to our friends in another classroom to deliver our "friendship cookies".  We had a pail swinging from a hand, swinging from a wheelchair and clutched to a chest in order not to trip and fall! 

Since we have four other preschool classrooms in our building, we plan on doing this each Friday in February so we can deliver "friendship cookies" to each classroom.  

 

Of course we make enough cookies so each of the children in my classroom can take a cookie home with their family to enjoy! What fun it is to show our friends how much they mean to us!

Valentine's Day Heart Roller Stamps

I found these wonderful heart roller stamps at Micheal's.   They were $1.50 a piece and a GREAT deal!  We tried them out today during center time, along with sheets of pink paper taped in a long strip around the table.  This way the children could stand and actually walk all the way around the table while rolling!  What fun is THAT!    

We used purple and red ink to stamp with.  The children did need a bit of assistance pressing down hard enough to soak up enough ink to make a long print.

We also attached some thick foam tubing to the handles of the rollers since originally the handles were very flat and a bit difficult to hold on to. (The foam tubing is often used to help children or adults who have difficulty with strength and fine motor skills hold on to paintbrushes/ toothbrushes etc.)  You can find the foam tubing through Beyond Play or simply use Styrofoam tubing (this is what we used on these).   

When the children grew tired of using the heart rollers we brought out the pipsqueak markers to color with!  (The pipsqueak markers are much shorter than regular markers and better for small hands to hold and work on those fine motor skills)

This was a great activity that I think we might pull out again some day soon!  I think next time, though, we may just cover the ENTIRE surface of the table with paper as some of our children found it very interesting to roll the stamper in the MIDDLE of the table...or color with marker in the middle of the table!

The Lazy Teacher's Chocolate (Hot Cocoa) Playdough!

I got the great idea of making chocolate play-dough and making pretend chocolate candies from "Counting Coconuts."  But by the time I got around to making the chocolate play-dough, I realized I had NO regular cocoa powder in the house and I really didn't want to take the time to make homemade play-dough!  I know, I know,  LAZY!   (I had already been to the Dollar Store, Target, Walmart, Walgreen's and a craft store....I was NOT about to go out again!)

So, I used what I had!  I had two containers of brown play dough:  Play-Doh brand play dough.  I had packets of Nestle hot cocoa mix (rich milk chocolate).  I basically poured a packet of hot cocoa mix on a plate and kneaded the dry mix into the brown play-dough. 

I used 2 packets of hot cocoa mix for one container of play-dough.  Now, I'm SURE the homemade chocolate play-dough probably smelled better than my version (You know that play-do smell?  It still retained a bit of this smell.)  But, it DID smell surprisingly like chocolate! 

I brought several more packets of hot cocoa mix to school with my second container of brown play-dough so the children could help mix and knead this into the dough themselves.  So, for anyone else who is lazy out there- this really does work!  And basically just takes enough time to knead the hot cocoa mix into the play-dough!

*****This has been linked to...

The "bonus" snow day!

The second snow day is always more fun than the first!  On the first snow day I feel trapped in the house.  There's no way I'm going out before the streets are plowed!  The second snow day is a whole different story.  The second snow day always feels like a "bonus day"! 

Second snow days don't come around very often.  So you have to make them count when they do!  Baking cookies and staying in your PJ's is for the FIRST snow day!  Going out to lunch and heading to the mall is for that "bonus" second snow day!

So, here I sit, at my computer...wondering what to do with my bonus snow day.  Darn, I need to start planning for snow days!  Next time I must have a list of fun things to do that don't require much money for my bonus snow day!  But for today, I'll have to wing it!  I'm sure I can come up with something for my bonus day!

Brrr....Winter Clothing Book and Game

One of my favorite super simple winter books for my classroom is "Under My Hood I Have a Hat" by Karla Kuskin.  This is a very simple predicable book that goes through several winter weather clothing item a child will need to put on before going outside. 

 We created a bit of a game of naming each winter weather item we need to put on.  Now, I'm not sure how it happened, but this little song (below) literally just jumped into my head the other week when I was planning.  I'm sure I must have heard it somewhere.  If I could remember where, I would certainly credit that person with this.  So, if you posted this song on your blog or have seen it in a book, please let me know, so I can link back to it.  We sing this song while holding on to the handles of our parachute and going around in a circle.  Each time we sing about a new winter weather clothing we put that item in the middle of the parachute and go around while singing.

(sung to the tune of Here we go round the Mulberry bush)

"What do we wear in winter time, in winter time, in winter time?
What do we wear in winter time...when it's cold outside?

We wear a hat on our head, on our head, on our head.
We wear a hat on our head, when it's cold outside.

We wear a scarf around our neck, around our neck, around our neck.
We wear a scarf around our neck, when it's cold outside.

We wear snowpants on our legs, on our legs, on our legs.
We wear snowpants on our legs, when it's cold outside.

We wear boots on our feet, on our feet, on our feet.
We wear boots on our feet, when it's cold outside."

Super Simple Snowy Sensory Table

The last few days we have really enjoyed playing in the snow...in our sensory table!  We added a spray bottle with water and red food coloring to turn the snow pink, several cups and rollers and let the kids explore!

We offered mittens if hands were getting cold, but several children enjoyed playing in the snow without any mittens on at all!

A super simple sensory table, but lots of fun!