St. Patrick's Day Exploration Centers and Toddler Trays

Are you looking for independent work stations for your child for their toddler time, exploration, learning centers, or quiet boxes?  Here are some St. Patrick's Day inspired ideas. Each link leads to a collection of ideas, we have only chosen one picture to highlight here.

Playing House

Motherhood Moments

Second Story Window

 

Princess and the Tot

Simply Centers - Bit o' Math Blarney

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Snowflake Rhymes, Science, & Geometry

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Snowflake Rhymes from The Adventures of Bear
suggested age: toddler/early elementary


Snowflake Sculptures from A List Maker's Life
suggested age: elementary+

Snowflake Mosaics from Thomas Elementary Art
suggested age: upper elementary

Snowflake Symmetry from Love2Learn2Day
suggested age: elementary

The Shapes and Classes of Snowflakes defined from Somethin Ordinary: Nature's Spectacular Geometry
suggested age: middle school+

3D Paper Snowflakes from Mathematics World
suggested age: elementary+

Make a Flake - Interactive Online Snowflake Cutting Game
suggested age: any

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Nursery Rhymes

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There are many valid reasons for playing with rhymes with young children. Nursery rhymes are useful for building vocabulary. They are appropriate for developing listening, language, attention, concentration, and memory skills. The simple rhythms and gestures that often accompany nursery rhymes help children learn to communicate, explore language, and enjoy words. As parents we can enjoy the bonding time and imaginative exploration that playing with rhymes allows.

Here are a few nursery rhyme activities from our readers.

Rock a Bye Baby

April Flowers and her tot put together a special craft to act out this classic nursery rhyme. She also shares egg shaking motions to accompany the poem.

Make a visual representation of this rhyme using a tree painting and babies cut from magazines.

Humpty Dumpty
Live, Learn, Love made a Humpty Dumpty shape craft out of construction paper that you will want to click over to see!

Hickory Dickory Dock

Adventures in Mommydom constructed a grandfather clock from construction paper and a foam mouse for acting out the familiar nursery rhyme.

Five Little Ducks

Nurture Store submitted a child lead learning activity with math, songs, and creativity for the rhyme Five Little Ducks.


London Bridge



Play Activites put together a pretend and play activity to use with the rhyme London Bridge.


Little Red Hen


The Home Teacher put together three cute, interactive activities for involving her tot in this rhyme.


Various Rhymes

Preschool is Fun has put together a clever lesson plan incorporating many different nursery rhymes and subject areas for you to look over and print if you are interested.


Activity Mom shared a neat site she stumbled across for teaching with a nursery rhyme a week.


How about teaching simple science concepts with nursery rhymes?
Jack Be Nimble has a good tie in to physics and chemistry as you discuss concepts of fire. Humpty Dumpty has a physics lesson of its own built in. Perhaps you could kick off a biology study with Peter, Peter Pumpkin Eater or Mary, Mary Quite Contrary. Be creative!

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Nursery Rhymes

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Act out your favorite repetitive nursery rhymes and stories with 3D objects.  Whimsical Ways did just that with the 5 Little Monkeys.

Make animal softies to represent the characters in your child's favorite nursery rhymes.  Nurturing the Tender Years has a fun tutorial for how to put together animal softies with your children.

Put together a sock bunny following the step by step instructions provided for your children to use in acting out Little Bunny Foo Foo.

Adventures in Mommydom, shared a cute Ittsy Bitty Spider activity for their poem journal.

Mama Jenn also did a fun project based on that poem, can't figure out what the body is made of?  Check out her post to see what she recycled to make it.
Ask Baby has a huge list of nursery rhymes and their lyrics.

Mama Lisa's World shares lists of nursery rhymes and songs from around the world.

Check out this large selection of printable nursery rhyme coloring pages at First School.

Clever Toddler shares some action rhymes for your toddler.

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Calendars

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Thank you so much to today's fabulous guest writer, Elise, Inspiration Surrounds, Creativity Abounds.

She has put together a fun resource including different ways in which old calendars can become a valuable learning tool for young children.  She explains that, "old calendars, or ones that have been marked down in price as the New Year begins, are a great resource that we use a lot and I thought this post may be of use to your readers."  Enjoy!

'Tis the season to stock up on calendars. In our neck of the woods, calendars have been reduced by 40%. I know that they will be cheaper once the New year rolls in, but I wanted to make sure that there was still a decent selection to choose from, so this morning I went a little crazy and bought a heap of calendars that I plan on using for some of our activivities for next year. Alternatively, ask family and friends for their old calendars.

My mind has been going into over-drive with the possibilities for our Tot School activities for next year. We are going to use themes for the week to guide our learning experiences. I have been brainstorming and mindmappping our first few weeks and am really excited about the possibilities.

I bought calendars which feature: animals (endangered species, Australian animals etc), places of interest (wonders of the world), different artists (Van Gogh, Monet), flowers, scenery, landscapes, fairies, cars and trucks. I was thinking along the lines of the different themes we will be exploring, Savvy and Blake's interests, as well as seasonal activities.

I will be cutting up the pictures from the calendars (the large pictures within the calendars and the mini ones usually found on the back of the calendars) and laminating them.

Some ideas I plan on implementing using the calendars:

Photo below: Savvy at 18 months sorting different animals.

Pictures from calendars are a wonderful visual tool that can be used for sorting and grouping purposes. You can sort animals according to their characteristics, or you can sort pictures from calendars according to size or colour. There are plenty of options.

Photo below: Another activity that Savvy enjoyed when she was around 18 months old was pulling photos out of wallets and putting them back in. The little pictures on the back of calendars are perfect for this. Also, "posting" these pictures (for example, into an empty box) is fun for toddlers.

Photo below: When Savvy was learning about colours I made up an activity for her using different coloured cards that I coloured in and she had to put each card in the matching coloured bag. However, when I do it with Blakie I will be adding to our collection of cards and I will be using pictures of cars and trucks from the calendars I bought.

Another game I made up (which is pictured in the photo below) could also be played using pictures from calendars.

The game consists of two main components:

1. A paper plate displaying four options. An arrow is spun around by each player to determine what their task is to be. Once the task is determined, the player picks up a card (a picture from a calendar)

The options are:
Question Time: What do you know about......?
You ask a question about......?
Another player asks you a question about....?
Tell a story about.....
Act like....
Sing a song about.....
For older children I would add another category: draw a picture of....

Pictures from calendars could also be used to tell stories. They can be laminated and a magnet can be secured to them so that you can use a cookie sheet to display the pictures for the purposes of storytelling.

We may use the pictures to write our own story book

Photo below: Savvy using pictures (in this case from a magazine) so that we could write a story.

We are also going to use our pictures from calendars as a starting point to create a scene. We may draw, paint or use some other medium to create the scene.

Calendar pictures can be cut into puzzles.

Calendars can also be used for matching activities. A little while ago I was reminded of a matching activity that used calendars.

Photo below: Calendar matching activity.

Now is the time to request calendars from family and friends. Money spent on calendars that have been reduced is money well spent as there are so many options when it comes to using old, or cheap calendars.

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Color Activities: Purple

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First published in 1955, one classic book that always comes to mind when thinking about lessons for the color purple is this one, the start of a whole series featuring Harold and his purple crayon.  Here are some suggested lessons from the author's website.  We also like this one on KinderArt®.  The book's publisher also provides a coloring page and use your imagination to finish the drawing page.

More recent additions to literature on the color purple include:

The author's site has a downloadable coloring sheet of Lilly and her purple plastic purse and a maze.  Teaching Heart has a nice thematic unit crossing several curriculum areas, complete with many downloadable resources and PDF's appropriate for K-1 students. 

This titles continues on a popular book series started with Pinkalicious, but is recommended with some hesitation.  The teasing, bullying, and conflict portrayed in the narrative may be unnecessary to introduce to very young children, it does end on a possitive note but the reference to purple is minimal. 

As Allie from No Time for Flashcards stated in her post mentioning this title, "I think it’s better to let children know that they don’t have to be ashamed of someone is bullying them, to ask for help and to overcome it. This book can be a useful tool for that message."

This book was featured on the classic children's PBS show Reading Rainbow, but the video and teacher's guide is no longer available except by purchase.  Learn more about Amy Hest on her author's website.

Step By Step Childcare has a Purple Theme that includes: songs and fingerplays, arts & craft activities, thematic ideas, and quick starts for any color day.

Preschool Express and Childfun both have Purple Themes for early childhood aged students.

More Purple Activities:

Color Mixing: In two containers use food coloring to make water red and blue.  Use an eye dropper to add drops of the colored water into a third container containing clear water.  See how many drops it takes of each to turn the water purple.

Grape Prints: Students dip an empt toilet paper roll into a shallow container of paint.  Make circle prints onto paper, clustering them together into bunches of grapes.  When the paint has dried the circles can be colored in or filled with a variety of purple collage materials.  A stem and leaves can also be added.  You can also make a different version by painting the grapes with carrot rounds and purple paint.

Planting Purple Flowers: Make purple flower shapes out of purple construction paper.  Program each with either a numeral or dots to represent a specific number.  Tape to popsicle sticks.  Take an old shoebox, turn it over and cut slits in the bottom, the same number as you have of programed flowers.  Write a numeral by each, students have to place the correctly number flower into the slit.

Purple Snacks:

Plums
Purple Grapes
Eggplant, just be sure you look at it, touch, and smell it beforehand so everyone can see the lovely skin.
Purple Cabbage
Grape Juice to Drink or to Make Popsicles with
Grape Jelly on Crackers/Bread/Toast

Have you done a purple color activity?  Let us know in the comment section and share your link so we can all come see it.  Don't forget to enter our two great giveaways, links at the top of this column!

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Toddler and Preschool Idea Round Up

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Today we've put together an assortment of great activities that would all be appropriate for toddler and preschool aged learners, enjoy!



Starr from examiner.com shares how you can use beans to practice sequencing and patterning.

Melissa from Max and Ellie, has created a phases of the moon matching game inspired by the book I Took The Moon For A Walk by Carolyn Curtis. What a great book extension and she's provided downloads in several different colors for you to use too!

We also like Melissa's Color's of Nature sacavenger hunt, which didn't go as planned but we agree it is a good idea!

While we're talking about colors, Jess at Making of a Montessori Mum shared a colour matching activities for toddlers. We also like her idea to make matching cards, shared in the same post.


Did you kids get any twizzlers for treats last Saturday? The Pink and Green Mama has a great idea for using to practice making shapes. This would also be a fun way to practice forming letters as well. We also like her recent posts on sorting pom poms with tweezers and her one of practicing with scissors.

Melinda at Mama Bear's Clubhouse sent us two great activities that work on fine motor skills and get them ready to be more independent in the all important realm of self care skills.

Buttoning and

Practicing using hair clips

Nicole from Tired, Need Sleep make a game book for her son with several activities that help him practice prewriting skills. She provides links to where she found the ones she included in her book.

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Apples, Apples, Everywhere!

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Apples are often synonymous with autumn and back to school and it looks like a lot of our members have been enjoying this popular seasonal theme. We'll also be featuring favorite cooking activities with apples tomorrow, so come back for some tasty ways to use apples!

And this Saturday will be our first Show and Tell Linky, we'd love for you to share your in the kitchen with kids posts. Any activity that incorates food, tips on making cooking with kids successful, or receipes that are kids friendly would be great ones to link up. You are of course, always welcome to link up any kind of post that you'd like to show us!


Maureen at Spell Outloud made up these very helpful apple pattern cards, using pictures she took herself! You can find the print out as well as several very useful links in her Everything Apples post.

You should also visit Spell Outloud to see how she incorporated apples into an activity to learn about technology.

Being primary teachers, we've seen A LOT of apple ideas, but this one is new to at least one of us! Aren't Beth's paper bag apple trees cute? We also like the apple stamped note cards and napkins that they made previously.

Jackie at Pocketful of Posies did several apple themed activities. They started with a Ten Red Apple's book activity, that would also translate well into a felt board retelling activity. They made apple prints and also used the apples to paint letter A's before enjoying peanut butter and apple slice sandwiches.

They also made paper scrap paper plate apples, and Jackie had a great idea to incorporate cutting practice into it. They laced around apple shapes and played a fun apple fishing game that practiced number recognition.

Mama Jenn shares this fun "Worms in My Apples" file folder game that teaching one to one correspondence. She got it from a great resource that Katie from Katie's Nesting Spot has personally used A LOT, Hubbard's Cupboard. There are several other apple related activities on the site, pictures of suggest activities we like and have used can be seen under The Fall of Man, scroll down to the bottom of the page under Related Resources for links to many of the printables used in the hands on activities.


Joann at Ten Kids and and Dog made this adorable seasonal handprint apple tree book with her kids, inspired by the book The Season of Arnold's Apple Tree. What a fun way to show the changing seasons.

Rachel at Quirky Momma used Muffin Tin Monday as a jumping off point for several apple related activities from counting, fractions, shapes, tastes, and textures. Head on over to Her Cup Overfloweth for many other apple inspired Muffin Tin's, it was the theme the week of September 14th.

Kristi at Run the Earth, Watch the Sky taught her daughter about the fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22-23) using this apple print activity. She also gives a good tip to use freezer paper so the paint doesn't bleed through. She also shares many other apple related activities such as comparing different types and using comparison language and shares her successes with their first dictation project. Kristi, we're glad to hear it went so well!

We love the happy faces on The Harris Family, shake those apples girls! Crystal also shares other fun projects, like one based on an apple tree originally on one of our founder's blogs. She also provides links to some fun related resources like the a apple puzzle and books she used.

Beth at Apples and Jammies, appropriate that she's contributed to this post don't you think, shared her apple unit. It's very well organized into content area, and we love this apple doll perfect for upcoming Halloween.

Root and Wings Co. had a great idea for an apple themed bulletin board with a twist. Each child will get to add something that they are looking forward to during the coming year, add it to an apple, and then to the display. This is away to show our children, that they can to choose to be happy. Great idea!

More great apple units can be found at:
K-Crew, Apples Unit
Kinder Korner, A is for Apple
The Virtual Vine, Apple Pickin' Time

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Red Activities

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Theme Suggestions:
Elmo
Fire Trucks
Apples
Cardinals
Hearts
Lightning McQueen
Clifford, the big red dog

Check out the collection of Red Craft Ideas at Preschool Education.

Sing a Song about the color red.

Make some red bath paint using Quirky Mom's recipe.

United Teaching submitted her post which includes downloadable Montessori cards for the color red.

Put together a Red Glitter Discovery bottle.

Snack Suggestions:
Apples
Red Licorice
Strawberries
Sliced Red Peppers
Fruit Roll Ups
Cherries
Tomato Soup

Read:
Info Soup has a fantastic list of books about the color red!
How to Teach Kids also has a nice line up of red books.
Little Red Hen
The Red Pony
Little Red Riding Hood
The Red Umbrella
Make your own Red Mini-Book
Games:
Red Light, Green Light
Red Rover
Little Red Wagon Races
Scavenger Hunt for Red Autumn Leaves

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