A Week of Color Exploration

Still have two more days of our week to go, but we have done

so many fun, awesome things, that I wanted to share them 

with you!  Enjoy and hope it gives you some ideas!

We started off our week with reading Pete the Cat's I Love My White Shoes book.

We also watched some Pete the Cat things on youtube.  Found this printable at Coloring page

We followed along together and sang his song with each color.

We played this game quite a bit the last few days!

I just searched Converse shoes to get a sheet of shoe pics.  Printed and cut apart on tag board.

I also printed a little pic of Pete to hide under a shoe while the kids hide their eyes.

Before they could flip a card, they had to say...

"Pete, are you under the orange   shoe?"

This helps them learn to put full sentences together 

instead of saying, "Pete, orange shoe?"

We made this cute craft I had seen on pinterest.

Super simple and it was good cutting practice as they cut out

the curved belly part, the head, tail and shoes.....while I cut out the eyes

they made, whiskers, and shoelaces.

We found it stood easier if you folded the shoes outward and glued

the legs together.

The next day we watched my 25 year old VHS movie of

Rainbow Fish while eating popcorn for our morning snack.

For our craft we used celery pieces to paint scales on our fish.

I found the fish printable at Rainbow fish printable

We each had some foil "scales" to share with a friend :)

We used blue Play-doh and pony beads, shiny buttons and other beads to 

decorate some beautiful rainbow fish.

One of our science experiments was:

WalkingWater

We filled two clear cups with water and added a few drops of blue

food coloring in one and some yellow in another.  We sat those two cups up 

on a plastic container.  Then we sat another container down in front of those.  We took 

two long, thin strips of paper towels and put one end in the colored water and the other end of each on into the empty cup.  We let this sit  and checked on it periodically and you can see how the 

water walked down the paper and combined to make a new color.  This was a big hit :)

Tomorrow we are going to use red & yellow and then the next day we are going to use

red and blue and then use ALL the colors we used and made to watercolor with the next day :)

We used primary colors to do marble roll paintings

I wrapped construction paper around different tubes and taped to a big wipe-off board and supplied 

them with a bowl of colored objects to use tongs or tweezers to grasp and drop into 

the matching tube.  Once all objects were dropped we counted to find most/least/equal.

Colored Bean Bag Toss Game

We just laid out sheets of construction paper to match the bean bags we have.

You could also use colored tape to tape off shapes to throw colors into.

Then we counted how many total bags we could get on the sheets.  This game

was also a hit and played a lot.

Parking Lot Color Match

I made a parking lot with a large sheet of paper and construction paper 

parking spaces.  the easiest thing to use to make the white lines is...Wite-out or the one on the 

little wheel (which is what I used).  Just pick what cars you want to use and have the 

matching colors to park on.

Plastic trays & Plastic cubes to sort

Totty Tiles - Shape/Color matching game

Fun with Eye Droppers and colored water

Colorful Magnets

Color puzzles

We read Brown Bear, Brown Bear and made these 
take home story cards in an emvelope.

 The printable I used, but there are many
online if you like a different one.

Mixing new colors with two paints 

and some shaving cream.  We saved these to 

paint with outside at the end of the week.

Our second "Walking Water" Experiment
What will Red & Yellow make???

They made ORANGE!!

Painting the fence with our
shaving cream paint from the bags.

Our last "Walking Water" experiment
What will Blue & Red make??

Shaving cream sprayed on top of water and
watercolors dripped on top.

These make beautiful fireworks
under the water as the colors drip through.

Feeding the right colored block to each
of our very hungry Lego Monsters.

Matching colors and shapes flannel board activity

Using our shaving cream/eye dropper experiment outside to
fingerpaint pics

and Letters on the picnic table

Using up all the shaving cream water to throw
on the fence to clean off the water.

Red & Blue make Purple!!!!!

That is most of our activities for the week!
 Hope this helps you have a 

COLORFUL CLASSROOM!

St. Patrick's Day Fun!

St. Patrick's Day Fun!

                                                                           

  I know this is close to St. Patrick's Day, but thought I

would post anyway  just in case someone was looking for

some last minute ideas for their preschoolers!

Here we go!

Books

The Luckiest St. Paddy's Day Ever

Ten Lucky Leprechauns

Happy St. Patrick's Day Curious George

The Last Snake in Ireland

Crafts

Torn Paper Rainbows - Let them tear paper and glue into a rainbow (great motor skill)      

Rainbow Hats - Let each child cut one strip of each color of the rainbow.  Measure their head 

and staple a sentence strip into the band for the hat.  Let them color a pot of gold to be attached to the

front of the band.  While they color, you can staple the rainbow onto the front and backside of the band (creating a rainbow over their head. Let them add stickers or decorate their band while you cut out their pot of gold.  These are great to keep and wear if you go on a hunt for gold or for a leprechaun!                                            

Mixing Hands Rainbow - First, have child color their pot of gold to be cut out and attached to the white paper strip.  Next, have a sink or bucket of water ready and some towels.  Paint one hand red and press coming out of the gold.  Then paint their other hand yellow and press that where the third hand print would go.  Have them rub their hands together while saying:

                         Abracadabra, Alakazam......I'm going to find me some gold!

Then watch them be amazed that their hands have turned ORANGE!!!  LOL  They love it. Keep painting their hands and saying the chant until they have their rainbow completed.

                                                                        

Leprechaun Mask/Hat - Give each child a paper hat to color or decorate with shiny paper and whatever they would like.   Then give them a sheet of paper and let them cut little snips that whole way around to make a beard.....you can curl the pieces a bit.  Attach the beard to the hat with an opening for their face.  Attach the entire thing to a headband.  It is fun to take a picture of each student with the mask on and print them out and place on a bulletin board to see if they can guess who is who.                                           

Collage Shamrocks  - Give each child a cut out shamrock shape and place lots of different 

green collage items on the table (such as green foam, glitter, markers, yarn, stickers, tissue paper, etc).  Let them decorate it how they want using all green.  They can add a rainbow if they would like.

                                                                     

Shaving Cream Shamrocks - The picture shows a heart we were doing for valentine's Day, but you can do three hearts and let them glue them into a shamrock.  First put some shaving cream on a plate.  Next squirt green, yellow and blue coloring onto the shaving cream and use a craft stick to pull through the cream to mix the colors a bit.  Then take a heart shape and lightly press on the shaving cream.  Pull it up and then scrape off the excess cream...it will leave the coloring on the paper in a very cool design.  Glue your hearts together onto a sheet of paper and add a stem.

Paint Dotter Rainbows - use paint dotters on half of a paper plate to make a rainbow.

Add the things that you need to make a rainbow - sun and rain.  We added cotton ball clouds. One cotton ball per child was enough......they just pulled them apart into bigger sections.

                                                   

Shamrock Glasses - I had these made ahead of time for the kids to wear.  I used green tag board or cardstock.....folded it in half and cut out a shamrock shape and the ear piece and then unfolded.  The kids really liked them and they held up quite well. (Sorry the pic is blurry, but it is from 18 years ago, scanned and blown up LOL)

                                                                             

Centers & Activities

Matching Leprechauns - I printed out a sheet with two leprechauns and laminated.  Set a pile of numbered shamrocks on one leprechaun's belly and set out a small pot of gold pieces for your child to match the number of gold pieces to the card so they become twin leprechauns.  If the child does not know their numbers yet, they can turn the card over and count the dots on the back of the card.                                                                               

5 Little Leprechauns Flannel Story/Song - I printed out 5 leprechauns and other pictures to go with the song, laminated them and added velcro to the back because I still love flannel boards and think the kids do too!  You can do this activity during circle time and hand out a picture to each student to bring up to the board when it is mentioned and then you can also leave this out as a center for them to retell the story on their own with all the pieces.

                                                                       

Five Green Shamrocks Song - Once again, I printed shamrocks and laminated them and added a craftstick stem.  I had this little pot the I could stick them into, but you can take some green play-doh and put in a cup and that works just as well.  As you sing the song, add a child's name to come pick a shamrock....repeat the song until everyone has had a turn.

                                               

Blarney Stones (One to One) Activity - Use an ice cube tray (I just happened to have a green one - this pic is from our dinosaur week where they used the stones as dino eggs) and green gem stones to have them match one stone per cube space.

                                                          

Patterning, Sorting, and Sand Table - find lots of different green items, poms, shamrocks, gold, etc and these can be used at a center for sorting and patterning or in the sand table or sensory bin.  Children love to look for treasures as much as the leprechauns do!

                                                                     

Hot Potato - We use either a little leprechaun troll, a gold egg or even a piece of gold and play some Irish music while passing the object around.  The last child holding the treasure, is The Lucky Leprechaun!!                                                

Leprechaun Hat Game - This pic is from about 18 years ago of my son and the day care kids during our St. Patrick's Day party :)  I just used an empty oatmeal container and wrapped with paper and a green piece of poster board for the bottom.  They were on teams and had to stand back all around the hat.  Each team had different colored gold pieces (gold, green and purple)  They all threw their coins one at a time till all coins were thrown and then we tallied up each color.

                                                                            

Magic Magnets - if you can find some magnets for St. Patrick's Day.....these are great to make up songs with or let the children each make up a story during circle time.

                                                                

Songs

Snacks

( I think both of these were from Family Fun 2007)

You can also make rice crispy treats with Fruity Pebbles or Lucky Charms

You can search for the recipe to make the layered Rainbow Cake/cupcakes.

Hope this gives you lots of ideas to have a 

Happy St. Patrick's Day!!

You can also make the hat at the very beginning, using an empty

popcorn tin and shiny wrapping paper with a piece of

cardboard for the brim.  

Fill it with green necklaces, treat....such as those listed above or 

you can add Rolos (gold), ring pops, etc!

Leave a note from a leprechaun that snuck into your house or room

during the night and left a surprise for you to find.  Go on a hunt 

and find the hat with treasures and maybe a treat to eat for snack 

time!  So much fun to be had!

May the luck of the Irish...Always be with YOU!!