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Making Valentine’s Day Meaningful to Preschoolers
Valentine’s Day is more than just a day for a party, it’s a holiday that’s perfect for exploring social emotional concepts. Focusing on some of these specific skills, such as relationships with adults and peers, empathy, and emotion recognition and expression, is a perfect way to give meaning to a holiday that otherwise might just be a day for a party. Using holidays to teach specific content is how we make that content relevant and meaningful for preschoolers. I always try to focus on special relationships during the weeks leading up to Valentine’s Day. We talk about love, and what that means. In a preschooler’s world love usually means having…
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Friday Freebie – Friendship Valentines
Happy Friday! This has been one of those weeks where I’ve had something crazy every night, and I am so ready for the weekend – I’ve got some sleeping in to do! Today’s freebie is perfectly timed. It goes with my posts this week, which have been all about friendship, collaboration, and building your classroom community. It would also be a perfect addition to your writing center for Valentine’s day. These cute little notes are fun for kiddos to color, and they each have a fun little message. Children can decorate them and share them with their friends all week long! You can download them from A Burst of First so…
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Community art projects
I love to do community art projects! When children work on the same project they learn to value others’ ideas and perspectives, they have to share materials and work space, and they practice communicating with each other. On top of all of these wonderful lessons, community art projects are also better for the classroom logistically. You don’t have to worry about having the same amount of materials for everyone, you can hang one large piece of finished art work instead of 20 little ones, and cubbies don’t fill up with excessive amount of artwork to send home. Plus they require far less drying space! Here are some amazing ideas for…
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Finding the motivating factor
I just came home from the dentist, I had to get three cavities filled. Yuck. To be honest, the actual procedure doesn’t bother me, I’ve had enough dental work done in my life that I’m used to the noise and the numbness, it’s the price tag that really hurts. I’ve been told for the last 20 years that I need to be flossing every day, and I finally learned the lesson – because I finally figured out my motivation. The cavities don’t motivate me, but the money definitely does. So what does this have to do with preschool… I promise, it actually flows quite well! This is why it is…
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Currently – February
I’m not quite sure what happened to January, it flew by! I can’t say I’m complaining, the faster that warm spring weather gets here, the happier I’ll be. Since it’s officially February, that means its also time for a Currently. Here’s what I’m up to right now: Listening: I didn’t have a great day. It was a bit of a stressful Monday, so I figured the best way to put things in perspective was to watch the news. Between the local news and the national news, someone must’ve had a much worse day than I did. I sat down to watch with a cookie and a glass of wine, so…
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Building and celebrating friendships
The major focus of preschool is all things social emotional. Learning how to build friendships, express empathy, and take another’s perspective are lessons that take time and practice. While many of these lessons are organic – happening throughout the day as a natural part of your routines – they can also be planned intentionally. When you’re trying to encourage friendships, it helpful to spend time making sure that children know each other really well. When a child can say “I have a brother, just like you” or “My favorite food is pizza too!” They start to form bonds over these similarities. Here are some fun ideas for helping children get…
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Friday Freebie – Color Words
Happy Friday! I love typing those words, because I love it when Friday finally gets here, and because I love sharing freebies with you! Since this week has been all about crayons, I thought I would share one of my favorite freebies that you can use your crayons with. These color word practice sheets are easy for little ones to complete independently, and they promote color recognition and color word practice. Go download your set and enjoy using them with your class!
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Melted Crayon Activities
Melting crayons is pretty trendy right now, and while it can be a little messy for the classroom, there are still some really amazing activities that you can do with melted crayons. PLUS, these activities are a great way to explore liquids, solids, color mixing, and temperature concepts. Here are some perfect ideas for melted crayon activities; Ice Cube Tray Crayons Make your own crayons! Children are always more likely to use something that they made themselves, and it’s a well known fact that no child wants to use a broken crayon. Melting all of your broken crayons into new crayons is the perfect way to get rid of those…
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Crayon Art for Preschool
I think that crayons are one of those art supplies that we take for granted. They are always available, so we don’t necessarily use them to their fullest. There are SO MANY different things that you can do with crayons, so here are some great drawing activities for little ones to explore: Crayon resist with watercolors Draw on sandpaper Use hot glue to make rubbing plates Use multiple crayons at one time Give them plenty of space to draw Try a batik-type resist Make your own scratch art Tomorrow I’m sharing activities to try with melted crayons, so be sure to check back for more ideas!
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Fun Crayon Products
While I fully understand that preschool budgets can be tight, sometimes it’s fun to splurge (or window shop). Since this week is all about crayons I thought I’d share some fun crayon products for you all to drool over. All links are affiliates, but I really love these items and I may have already purchased a few for myself! Twistables Fun Effect Crayons Some are metallic, some are neon, some are multi-colored! Crayola Triangular Crayons 8ct Yes, they promote proper grip, but let’s be honest – the best thing about these is that they won’t roll off the table! Color Appeel Crayon How fun are these?! Not only are they…
