May 23, 2013

What is a fun game that I play with my toddler or preschooler to teach shapes?

I have been waiting with such anticipation for this fun shape activity!! I had a blast preparing this activity to teach shapes and Smiley Man loved doing it. We made and topped shape pizzas! If you missed my shapes cutting practice post, you might want to check it out to see how we made the “pepperoni” for our shape pizzas. First off, I’ll start with some instructions.

I started by making several shape pizzas. I have only been practicing the four basic shapes with Smiley Man (circle, square, triangle, rectangle), so I only made four shape pizzas. I’ll use the square pizzas as an example. I started by cutting a square out of tan construction paper (this was the crust). I then traced that square onto red construction paper (this was the sauce) and then cut the square a little bit smaller than the one I traced. Then, I traced the smaller red square onto yellow construction paper (this was the cheese). I cut the yellow square a bit smaller than the one that I traced. Then, I glued all the pieces together so it looked like a square pizza.

I repeated those instructions with the other three basic shapes and ended up with a circle, square, rectangle, and triangle pizza. If you are doing this with a preschool class, I would definitely suggest making a shape pizza of all eight shapes (circle, square, triangle, rectangle, oval, heart, star, and diamond).

Next, I put two shape pizzas on the table at a time. If Smiley Man was a little older I would have done all four, but he would have been overwhelmed by that so I just did two at a time. I also got out the matching pepperoni that we had saved from our cutting practice from last week.

To complete this shape activity, simply have your child glue the correct shaped pepperoni to the matching shape pizza. This was a really fun matching game that Smiley loved because he really likes pizza! Also, he loves getting to use glue so he was pretty ecstatic during this shape activity. I was happy that Smiley had so much fun matching the pepperoni to the correct shape pizza. This was a great way to teach him shapes!

We've found some fun people with great linky parties. You might just see this post linked up on one of these amazing sites! Link and Learn from No Time for Flashcards Sunday Showcase from Train Up a Child Share it Saturday from Teach Beside Me Tot School Gathering Place from 1+1+1=1 Montessori Monday from Living Montessori Now Tuesday Tots from In Lieu of Preschool Show and Tell from ABC & 123 For the Kids Fridays from Sun Scholars Finished Friday from All Our Days Weekly Kids Co-op from Frogs and Snails and Puppy Dog Tails Preschool & Kindergarten Corner from Homeschool Creations TGIF Linky Party from 123 Homeschool 4 Me

May 22, 2013

What is a cut and paste worksheet for my preschooler that will help teach him numbers?

It’s time for another fun cut and paste printable. Last week, Little Bear enjoyed the color sorting cut and paste pages, but he wished there was only one page as opposed to three. So, this week I granted his wish and made a one page cut and paste worksheet for preschool. This one uses really big rectangles which basically tricks Little Bear into thinking there is less to cut. ;) Yep, I’m pretty sneaky like that.

 

This printable is pretty straightforward. All Little Bear had to do was cut out the numbers on the bottom of the page (the ones with the dotted lines). And then glue them into the correct place on the number chart. This was the perfect difficulty for Little Bear because he had to count to 12 several times to figure out which number was missing. I was really excited to get so much counting practice in without Little Bear even realizing it.

 

Little Bear was feeling so smart that he even noticed a mistake that I made on the worksheet. I have fixed it in the free printable version, don’t worry. I haven’t done very many “missing things” pages with Little Bear so far, so I wasn’t sure how Little Bear would do with this missing numbers page. Honestly, he did better than I was expecting.

 

This is a really fun printable kids activity and probably Little Bear’s favorite of all our cut and paste pages so far. He liked that the rectangles to cut were pretty big. I guess that made it easier for him to cut. He also liked counting to see where each of the numbers should go. Overall, I would definitely call this worksheet a success. I hope your preschooler enjoys this cut and paste page as much as mine did.

We've found some fun people with great linky parties. You might just see this post linked up on one of these amazing sites! Link and Learn from No Time for Flashcards Sunday Showcase from Train Up a Child Share it Saturday from Teach Beside Me Tot School Gathering Place from 1+1+1=1 Montessori Monday from Living Montessori Now Tuesday Tots from In Lieu of Preschool Show and Tell from ABC & 123 For the Kids Fridays from Sun Scholars Finished Friday from All Our Days Weekly Kids Co-op from Frogs and Snails and Puppy Dog Tails Preschool & Kindergarten Corner from Homeschool Creations TGIF Linky Party from 123 Homeschool 4 Me

May 21, 2013

Where can I find a tutorial for a wind chime?

About a week ago I did a fun wind lesson with my kiddies. We talked about the wind and observed how different objects changed when they were in the wind as opposed to inside. During the lesson, one of the objects we observed was a wind chime from the dollar store. Unfortunately, it did not work extremely well with this lesson. However, Little Bear and Smiley Man have been fascinated with it, so I decided we should make our own that would work a little bit better in a light wind.

 

To make this wind chime spring craft, you will need a few materials to begin:

• Shells (I got a bag of shells from the dollar store and they worked great)
• Yarn (we used a funky and fuzzy yarn, but you could also use regular yarn, fishing line, thin twine, jewelry wire, etc.)
• Pipe cleaner
• Hammer
• Nail
• Small piece of wood

First, spread out your shells and remove any broken pieces. Next, you will make a hole in each shell for your yarn to go through. I placed a shell on top of my piece of wood. Then, I put a hammer on the shell, then I carefully hammered the nail into the wood to put a hole through the shell.

 

Make sure you don’t hammer too slowly because it will be easier to crack the shell. Some of the more fragile shells may crack anyway. I only had one or two shells crack so much that I couldn’t use them. I still had plenty of shells for the wind chime.

Next, thread yarn through the hole and tie a knot. Decide how long you want the yarn to hang, then cut the yarn. You will want the yarn lengths to be similar, but not exactly the same. This will make it more pleasing to the eye and it will also make it work better as a wind chime.

 

When you have holes in all the shells and yarn tied through all the holes, get your pipe cleaner. Make a small circle with your pipe cleaner. You could also use a small embroidery hoop, but the hole I made was even smaller than a small embroidery hood, which is why I used a pipe cleaner. I liked the look of a really small hole.

Now, tie each piece of yarn to the pipe cleaner circle. When you have tied all the yarn to the circle, tie more yarn to the top to have a way to hang your wind chime. This craft is definitely a fun one to do with kids. If you do it with children, I suggest making the holes ahead of time so your child doesn’t ever touch the hammer or nail. Also, the awesome yarn I used was really fun, but also hard to see while tying. It was not something Little Bear could easily help with. So, I also suggest using a regular yarn if you want your child to help.

When our wind chime was all finished, I hung it on the light fixture just outside our back door. It has only been slightly windy, but I can hear the shells hitting and making a beautiful sound. Luckily, I can really only hear the wind chime when I am outside. That means it doesn’t bother me when I am inside working. Win win.

We've found some fun people with great linky parties. You might just see this post linked up on one of these amazing sites! Link and Learn from No Time for Flashcards Sunday Showcase from Train Up a Child Share it Saturday from Teach Beside Me Tot School Gathering Place from 1+1+1=1 Montessori Monday from Living Montessori Now Tuesday Tots from In Lieu of Preschool Show and Tell from ABC & 123 For the Kids Fridays from Sun Scholars Finished Friday from All Our Days Weekly Kids Co-op from Frogs and Snails and Puppy Dog Tails Preschool & Kindergarten Corner from Homeschool Creations TGIF Linky Party from 123 Homeschool 4 Me

May 16, 2013

How can I teach shapes to my toddler or preschooler? What is a fun preschool shape activity?

Smiley Man is getting into this stage where he really likes scissors. I’m in this stage where I like to ban scissors because of a few scissors cuts that have happened somewhat recently (cuts in the couch, haircuts, cuts in my favorite rice warmer). Yeah, let’s just say that not everything is perfect in my household. ;)

 

Anyway, I wanted to capitalize on Smiley Man’s interest in cutting, but I also wanted to provide a controlled environment for him to practice cutting. Luckily, this cutting practice goes perfectly with learning shapes. Not only will this activity help to teach shapes, but it will also give your toddler or preschooler some great cutting practice!

Start with a red piece of construction paper. You don’t have to use red, but we will be using these cut shapes as “pepperoni” to go on our shape “pizzas” that I’ll be posting about next week. Fold the paper into 8 long strips and cut them apart.

Each strip of paper will be used for a different shape. Draw lines on the rectangle to make a bunch of that shape. Okay, I know that sounds really confusing, but here is a picture of Smiley Man cutting my long strip that will be a bunch of squares.

Hopefully that makes more sense now. For the non-straight shapes (circle, heart, oval, star) you can just draw lines to make squares and then draw the shapes in the squares. Here is my long strip for circles.

Once you are done prepping the rectangles, get your toddler ready and pull out the scissors. Usually toddlers will need help with holding the paper and sometimes they will need help with opening and closing the scissors. Try to let your toddler do as much as he can by himself, but don’t worry if he needs a lot of helping.

 

When you finish cutting a long rectangle into the shapes, talk about that shape and its characteristics (look at these squares, they all have four sides, let’s count the sides, etc.). We made little piles of all the shapes to keep them separate, then we put them into baggies to save for our shape “pizzas” that we’ll do next week.

 

This was a great way to give Smiley Man some controlled scissor practice and it was also a great way to teach shapes!

We've found some fun people with great linky parties. You might just see this post linked up on one of these amazing sites! Link and Learn from No Time for Flashcards Sunday Showcase from Train Up a Child Share it Saturday from Teach Beside Me Tot School Gathering Place from 1+1+1=1 Montessori Monday from Living Montessori Now Tuesday Tots from In Lieu of Preschool Show and Tell from ABC & 123 For the Kids Fridays from Sun Scholars Finished Friday from All Our Days Weekly Kids Co-op from Frogs and Snails and Puppy Dog Tails Preschool & Kindergarten Corner from Homeschool Creations TGIF Linky Party from 123 Homeschool 4 Me

May 15, 2013

What is a fun cut and paste activity that is good for preschool?

I have another fun cut and paste activity for you today and it is perfect for preschool. I made some sorting colors cut and paste pages. There are three different pages you can print or you can just print one for your preschooler. Each page has 8 pictures with two different colors. Simply have your preschooler cut out each picture and then glue it in the box with the same color at the top.

Little Bear went through a small phase a few months ago where he didn’t want to cut anything. I guess it was getting difficult for him and was taking a long time and the end result didn’t turn out perfect. Little Bear can be a bit of a perfectionist (unfortunately he gets that from me and from my amazing husband, so the poor kid has a double whammy). So, I think cutting was frustrating because it took so much effort and he could see that he hadn’t done a good job.

For a while I tried to limit the number of cutting activities that we did because I was trying to be sensitive to his frustrations. However, when we did do cutting activities, I tried to make them extra fun so that he would be willing to try. I found that colorful cutting activities (like these sorting colors cut and paste pages) were the perfect thing to get him motivated.

These sorting colors pages are pretty simple and don’t really need much explanation. Little Bear didn’t really need any instructions to complete the pages; he just needed some scissors and glue. These pages are in color, but you could also print the pages in black and white and start the activity by coloring the pictures the correct color. That way, this becomes a color, cut, and paste activity. Hopefully your preschooler enjoys these sorting pages. Don’t forget to check out my cut and paste apple tree from last week.

We've found some fun people with great linky parties. You might just see this post linked up on one of these amazing sites! Link and Learn from No Time for Flashcards Sunday Showcase from Train Up a Child Share it Saturday from Teach Beside Me Tot School Gathering Place from 1+1+1=1 Montessori Monday from Living Montessori Now Tuesday Tots from In Lieu of Preschool Show and Tell from ABC & 123 For the Kids Fridays from Sun Scholars Finished Friday from All Our Days Weekly Kids Co-op from Frogs and Snails and Puppy Dog Tails Preschool & Kindergarten Corner from Homeschool Creations TGIF Linky Party from 123 Homeschool 4 Me