Halloween 2013: Apothe-scary Jars & Potion Bottles {DIY}

Halloween is almost here! Just two days away now! Here's a quick craft for those of you who tend to lean toward the procrastination-side of things. I made potion bottles and I have some apothecary jars to decorate still, but haven't had the time to do it this year. 

For the potion bottles,

you will need:

-bottles in fun shapes & sizes

-Halloween-themed stickers

(I found mine at Michael's)

Then you mix and match the stickers and voila! Instant Halloween decor for years to come! I have a bunch of stickers left to use and I can't wait to build up my collection of potions and witchy-things!

[Enter witch cackle here.] 

What are you doing to celebrate All Hallow's Eve?

xoxo

Pre-K Wednesday: The Halloween Frenzy begins!

October is here and so our Halloween activities have begun! We dug out some Halloween themed books and have found plenty of Halloween crafts and snacks to keep us busy for almost the whole month!

Pictured above, as well as below, were our smoosh-paintings: we just used Halloween colors: black, orange, and white, then let the kids put the paint wherever they wanted on construction paper. After that we fold the paper and let the kids "smoosh" it with their hands, and voila! Weird shapes in fun colors. 

There were lots of outcomes and funny shapes; the kids really enjoyed this activity. My example piece (above right) looks like lungs!

These collage pumpkins are silly and so cute:

We also read a variety of books, including:

Rattlebone Rock

And we sing the song in this book:
  Five Little Pumpkins (Harper Growing Tree) So far we teachers have been having just as much fun with Halloween as the students!
What are your favorite Halloween activities to do with kids?
xoxo

Pre-K Wednesday: Welcome Week!

Our preschool has been back in session for a week and a half now, and we are finally able to get some crafts in with the kids! Last week was our welcome week, so we let the children adjust to their new school and surroundings.

With Autumn approaching, we will be doing many apple-themed projects. We did a dot-paint worksheet (pictured below; I found the worksheet here) and the kids did a great job learning the first letter of the alphabet! We also had a fun apple snack: we used a twist apple corer, and the kids were able to "make" their own snack! It was lots of fun for the kids and teachers.

Since the majority of the children are younger (age 2), we wanted to have activities that were fun but not too difficult! We decided upon painted hand prints with a poem below them (pictured at the top of this post, and below). It was a little bit tickly, which made the kids laugh! 

It was a very amusing sensory activity. They all enjoyed seeing their hand prints up on the wall!

We will certainly continue to see how their hands grow throughout the year!

xoxo

Pre-K Wednesday: Dinosaur Week!

My example

Since we have had a lot of boy students this summer, most of whom are headed to Kindergarten, we had to find some dinosaur related activities for them. They've spent weeks finding all of the dinosaur books possible in the classrooms, so I came up with an activity sure to get their attention: paper-plate stegosauruses! 

Pretty close to the example! 

They were all so adorable, but I really liked the ones done by the younger kids (age 3 and 4):

Aren't they just the cutest?

Some of the books the kids loved to read were: Dinosaur Dinosaur by Kevin Lewis and Dinosaur A-Z: For kids who really love dinosaurs! by Roger Priddy. We also told many dinosaur jokes, which always make the kids crack up. A personal favorite is:

What do you call a sleeping dinosaur?
A dino-snore!

xoxo

Pre-K Wednesday: Ocean & Sea Creatures!

Hand-print crab!

Since the Summer is drawing to a close, we wanted to make sure to include a week (or two) dedicated to the ocean before we send off our kindergarten kids and begin our new school year.  Since we live by the beach, it was easy to create a sensory tub full of shells and seaglass, and I even found a fully intact sand dollar to show the kids! We created hand-print crabs (my example is pictured above) at the beginning of the week, hand-and-foot-print lobsters (example pictured below), and paper-bag jellyfish.

We also did a variety of circle time activities involving music and books. The kids' favorite song to sing is called "Slippery Fish," and it goes:

Slippery fish, slippery fish

Swimming in the water

Slippery fish, slippery fish

Glub, glub, glub

OH NO! I've been eaten by a...

Octopus, octopus

Swimming in the water...

And it continues with a tuna fish, great white shark, and finally, a humongous whale! After you sing about the humongous whale, rather than saying you've been eaten again, you sing, "Glub, glub, glub... BURP! Excuse me..." The kids love to hear their usually-ladylike teachers letting out a huge, fake burp!

We've also been reading a large number of sea-related books, like Eric Carle's Mister Seahorse (you can buy it at my Amazon store) and A House for Hermit Crab (buy here). We also read The Ocean Alphabet Book by Jerry Pallotta, and the kids loved hearing all about the creatures we could find in the ocean.

Enjoy your last days of summer!

xoxo

Pre-K Wednesday: Camping Theme! (With Mason Jars!)

The school where I work is up-and-coming, which is great because our class sizes are low and we get to come up with new ways to teach, finding what ways work best. Right now, we're trying theme weeks in order to inspire our creativity as teachers and give our students some structure. So, our very first theme week is: Camping!

We set up a tent and a "picnic table" inside the rec. room, and with our mural, it looks like the kids are camping on a beach! For snacks, we've been doing things like graham crackers, hot dogs, and we're even going to have s'mores! Since we can't have the kids around an open flame (danger alert!), we're going to cook them on the stove and let them pretend to make s'mores with their own "campfire:" 

Link

Earlier this week, we did a mason jar printable project: since we don't have fireflies/lightning bugs in California, we used the printable on top of black construction paper, and let the kids finger paint lightning bugs!

My example piece

Example in the middle, with two great projects by the kids on either side.

This project was great: it was easy, quick, and the kids loved it. We will definitely be doing things like this again.

xoxo,
Caryn Elizabeth