Monster Monday Preschool Camp

We had MONSTER MADNESS here on Monday for our preschool theme. I made sure to emphasize friendly monsters so that the kids would not be scared. I found some really cute monster cards and sorting mats here: http://www.activityvillage.co.uk/monster-printables.htm

We talked about the different attributes of the monsters – color, number of eyes, teeth, horns, and antennas.  We each chose two monsters to dance with and jammed to The Monster Mash. Then I had the kids go into the playroom while I hid the monster cards in the living room. They had a great time going on a Monster Hunt. Boogs was really sweet about making sure his friend was able to find some cards, too.

After all 28 monsters cards were found, we used the sorting mats to sort the monsters by color. Then we made a tally chart to see how many monsters were in each color. Next, the kids helped line up the mats from least to greatest.

I used the Colorforms Silly Faces game as our monster game. Boogs liked playing the game and started putting things in odd places, like hats for ears. We had to play it a couple of times. I found it interesting that Boogs wanted to continue playing this game as a monster game, but really has had no use for it as a silly face game. Maybe I should start renaming some of his other toys.

We read three monster books: Where the Wild Things Are, Go Away Big Green Monster, and Grover’s on the Case. We sang - If you are a monster and you know it grunt and groan, stomp your feet, make a face, show your claws, gnash your teeth.

For our cooking activity we made monster toast. The kids put a few drops of food coloring into small bowls of milk and used the milk as paint. I bought new paintbrushes just for this. We toasted the bread and enjoyed eating it with a little bit of butter.

For our craft today, we made monster masks. Michaels had a good deal on packages of face masks. I simply opened the craft cabinet and let them choose whatever they wanted to use to decorate their monster face. Boogs decided that he did not want to get too messy today so he used stamps and inks for his mask. The other child used mostly buttons.

It was a really good day. Boogs likes knowing that Mondays are for company.