Monday Preschool Camp - Fairy Tales

We looked at two stories this week - The Three Little Pigs and Goldilocks and the Three Bears. The kiddos were familiar with these stories. While we read the Three Little Pigs, we acted out the story using wooden peg dolls and paper houses. The paper houses were great because the kiddos were able to work together and pretend to be the big bad wolf. The houses were light enough that they could huff and puff and blow them right off the coffee table. We made a block house for the brick house so that it could not be huffed and puffed off the table. We also used the peg dolls to act out Goldilocks and the Three Bears. Each child got to go home with 3 paper houses, 3 small peg dolls and one large peg doll. I could not believe how long they played with these. The pattern for the houses came from Frugal Family Fun Blog
http://www.frugalfamilyfunblog.com/2010/08/rainbow-village-printable.html

After story time, we went into the kitchen for our cooking activity. We made homemade bear biscuits. The kids really enjoyed working the butter into the flour with their hands. They decorated their biscuits with mini chocolate chips, except for Boogs. He ate his chocolate chips because they were too yummy to put on his biscuit. I think the kids used at least half a bottle of honey while they were eating their bears.

During outside play time, I filled the swimming pool and the water table with bubbles. We also had the wavy sprinkler on. Boogs is really going to miss these Mondays with his friends.

Music Monday Preschool Camp

I got a little behind on my posts. Our summer is officially over this week. I go back to work at the Mother's Day Out program on Monday. We have had our last two Monday Preschool Camps at my house. Boogs has already told me he misses them and wants to keep having his friends over every Monday.

For Music week, we read Lentil by Robert McCloskey. It is a cute book about a town preparing for a visit by a VIP. One of the town's citizens tries to spoil the celebration by sucking on lemons to make the band members unable to play their instruments. Lentil, a young boy, saves the day by welcoming the VIP with a song on his harmonica The kids loved the book. We stopped reading halfway through the book and sucked on a few lemons to see if it would make us pucker up. Boogs looked so cute with his sour face. After we finished the book, I gave each of the kids a harmonica and we had a harmonica parade all around the house. 

One of Boogs’ favorite CDs is “Counting Games and Rhythms for the Little Ones” by Ella Jenkins. We got out our box of instruments and jammed for half an hour while listening to the CD. I am sure our neighbors love us.

For our kitchen activity we had a lemon/lime taste test and then made some lemon/limeade. All three kiddos had to work together to use the lemon juicer. We had a taste test between our homemade lemon/limeade and some store bought Countrytime Lemonade. Boogs said he liked the Countrytime best but then tried them both again and said it was a tie. 

For our craft, we used construction paper, popsicle sticks and rubber bands  to make homemade harmonicas. They do make a sound. The kids were much more interested in their real harmonicas, but did play with these for a bit. I found the directions here:

http://mayamade.blogspot.com/2010/07/diy-harmonica.html

It was a fun day together. 

Alphabet Monday Preschool Camp

Monday preschool camp was all about the alphabet. We read Pilobous - The Human Alphabet.  The kids loved trying to figure out the letters and pictures in the book. We tried to make a few letters with our own bodies. Boogs and his friend are making a lowercase letter "b".

We made pretzels for our cooking activity. Boogs had a lot of fun rolling his dough into shapes. We tried to make a few letters, but the most popular shape was a snake.

We read Chicka Chicka Boom Boom and made coconut trees for our craft. The kiddos got to cut letters out of the newspaper and use stamps to put on their very own Chicka Chicka Boom Boom trees.

I think the Alphabet Movement Cards were the biggest hit today. Each child got to throw a bean bag at the alphabet and then we all had to do the activity for that letter. They played this for at least half an hour.

It was a fun day. We ended up in the backyard playing in the water for the last hour of our day.

Monday Preschool Camp

Our theme today stemmed from the book How to Make an Apple Pie and See the World by Marjorie Priceman. It is a cute book about a little girl traveling the world to get the ingredients to make an apple pie. I told the kids we were going to make an apple pie using a recipe in a story book. They were so excited. As we read the book, the kids took turns placing red “apple” circles on our world map to show all the places the girl in our story visited. Three and four year olds saying “Sri Lanka” is priceless.

We had fun in the kitchen. Six little hands worked together to push down on the apple core/slicer, measure/mix sugar, cinnamon, and salt, shape the pie crust, make small pie crust apples to decorate the top, and brush on an egg wash.

While the pie was cooking we played outside for a bit and then read Ten Apples on Top. For a movement activity we pretended that beanbags were apples on top of our heads. We had an obstacle course to walk, hop, and crawl through while trying to balance an “apple” on our heads. Then we made “Apples on Top” headbands. The kids got to punch out apples and glue them on their headbands. They helped me count their apples and write that number on their headbands. I also made a lacing project for each child in the shape of an apple. We sang this song while lacing: The worm went through the apple (x3), to see what he could see.  And all that he could see (x2), was the other side of the apple (x3), was all that he could see. (tune-For He’s A Jolly Good Fellow). It was a really good day.

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.

Monday Preschool Camp

Monday we had preschool summer camp at home with a Daddy theme. We read two books about Dads and their kids, made a rebus handprint Father’s day card, made a fishing pole bookmark, sang a few Father’s Day songs, played house, played in a pool filled with beans, and made pizza muffins to give to the Dads. Boogs has been practicing his Father’s Day song to the tune of Yankee Doodle. 
Here it is:

Daddy is my special friend,

The two of us are buddies.

I always like the things we do,

I’m thankful for my Daddy.

Happy, happy Father’s Day,

Happy, happy Daddy.

Happy, happy Father’s Day,

I love you very much.

(My husband says he never reads this blog, hopefully he won't start reading it before Sunday.)

Monday Preschool Camp

During the summers, I take care of kiddos for extra money. This summer, like last year, I am having a "preschool camp day" every Monday during June and July. The kids are 3 and 4 years old. Last year I had six kiddos every week. This summer there are only three. Boogs has a lot of fun having friends over on such a scheduled basis, especially since his preschool does not run during the summer. This week our theme was rabbits. I chose rabbits because of an activity I found after Easter, http://www.gourmetmomonthego.com/2010/04/peter-rabbits-garden-snack.html

I realize this is an Easter kind of thing but we worked it into June. The kids did not mind. We read Peter Rabbit by Beatrix Potter, Barnyard Friends - Rabbits by Jason Cooper, and Grumpy Bunnies by Willy Welch.

The kids loved “digging in their gardens” using a toothpick for their gardening tool. They had to decide which food could not be found in a real garden – pretzels. After they finished their garden snack, the kids brought plastic bugs in from the playroom to put in their gardens. We had a lot of fun using tweezers to pick bugs out of the gardens. We even used magnifying glasses to see if the bugs damaged our gardens.

In Peter Rabbit, Peter hopped on the garden path to get to his tasty treats. So, I had a rabbit trail (poly spots) for the kids to hop along to get a treat. While they hopped on the trail we sang a rabbit song (can’t remember where I found it) with hand motions to the tune of I’m A Little Teapot:

I’m a little bunny, my name is Joe. (hands up for ears)

I hop fast and I hop slow. (hop up and down)

Whenever I get sleepy, my ears droop low (bend fingers down)

But after my nap, up they go! (hold fingers up)

Hop! Hop! Hop!

They liked this so much we had to do it four times. The treats were: graham crackers, tattoos, baby carrots, and bubbles.

 We spent almost an hour outside playing in the water, collecting june bugs, pill bugs, and caterpillars in some bug jars before we came in for lunch.

After lunch we moved on to a craft and a bunny game. For our craft, we made bunnies hiding in the grass because Peter Rabbit had to hide from the farmer in our story. I also had a rabbit color sheet and the easel out with paints. We played a game called Build a Bunny from Home School Creations. The kiddos had to use their counting skills for this game. http://homeschoolcreations.blogspot.com/2010/03/build-bunny-printable-game.html

We finished our time together by blowing bubbles in the front yard while we waited for parents. These days make me miss teaching full time.