Tag Archives: learning through play

Preschool Playdate: Hat Day

We are back with “sneak peaks” into our daily activities!  One of our favorite days of the week is Thursday, when we host Preschool Playdates for our alumni families.

Our first playdate for the 2016-2017 school year fell on the celebration of “Hat Day” on September 15th. We had lots of fun exploring around hats and the letter “H”.

STORY TIME
Harry’s Hats, by Ann Tompert, illustrations Marcelo Elizalde
I picked this book because of it’s obvious tie-in to our theme. I also like it because it helps teach the days of the week.  We follow the main character, Harry, through a week where he wears different hats and enjoys different activities.

image1

LITERACY CENTER
This week we kept it simple.  I put out mini-whiteboards and dry erase markers so that the Sweet Peas could explore writing.

We also had this “H” sound box for the children to play with different toys that either showed the letter H or started with the letter H.  The items included: handbag, hair bows, headband, and horses. Other great “h” words: house, hippo, hydrant – we didn’t have small toys to represent those!

image4-1

MATH CENTER + IMAGINATIVE PLAY
We used hats for imaginative play, counting, and sorting

image3-1

ARTS+CRAFTS
Craft hat and magnet play!

We upcycled some oversize coloring pages the kiddos had outgrown, then we folded the colored papers into hats! They enjoyed wearing the points in front and on the side.
You can also use the letters to teach sounds and upper case and lower case, as well as reinforcing the theme.

image6

paperhatInstructions from http://www.hittyprintmini.julieoldcrow.com/camp/camp2005.htm

We finish our Preschool Playdate with a sharing time: each child that wants to share gets to say what (s)he enjoyed the most about the morning.  We close with a good-bye song where children are welcome to give hugs.  It helps to set a formal end to the time together so that parents have a clear reason to insist that it’s time to go if they have somewhere to be afterwards.

Next week: Fall Fun!!

Preschool Playdate: Space Day

 

Preschool Playdate: Space Day
April 28, 2016

— Welcome song in English (emphasizes printed name recognition as Sweet Peas find their card in a line-up and place it on our Name Ledge)
— Welcome song in Spanish (reinforces names as Sweet Peas sing to their peers)
— Discussion of theme: looked at pictures from the HUBBLE telescope – planets, comets, asteroids and the Milky Way
— Storytime
— Unsquiggle activity
— Poem/Song before we break for Centers

 

STORY TIME
Stella Goes to the Moon by Simon Puttock, illustrated by Philip Hopman
A whimsical bedtime tale of a little girl’s trip to the moon. We had the sweet peas check out the detail on her desk (lots of great science themed items!! and other toys) and find them throughout the other story pages.

The storyline lends itself to lots of acting out as you read along. Although it’s set at a child’s bedtime, not sure that it really works because it’s not necessarily a “quiet” story.

IMG_6263

 

LITERACY CENTER
“S” Sound Box
Featuring the letter “S” for space…I like putting in other items so there is some “no” as well as lots of “yes” when they are doing the matching.
This sound box had a square, soap, strawberry, sock, sponge, sword, and shark!

IMG_6042

MATH CENTER
This was a fun number matching game from the DLTK Kids website. Charger noticed that the numbers were higher…our observant little guy said, “Mommy, you usually only go up to five – why are you doing six?” After all the practice, they are ready for more!! HERE is the place to print your own game 🙂

IMG_6041

 

DISCOVERY TABLE
Space Play
I found a neat idea for planet play HERE and I had to make the color elements! I also found a different way to color the rice HERE which makes me happy because I don’t have to buy a powdered sugar drink to make it anymore. Three ingredients: rice, food coloring and vinegar!! The use of chick peas added a different texture and opportunity for play…some of the sweet peas said they were stars (and even called them red giants!) while others said they were planets…like Mars. I love it when the kiddos are already knowledgeable about our topic!

IMG_6043

Alien Play dough
We brought this idea back from last year’s Space Day. The book we read last year had a storyline where the little girl makes friends with an alien on her space travels. Even though this year’s book didn’t include an alien, the kiddos had fun creating them!

IMG_6044

ARTS & CRAFTS ~ Make & Take
The astronaut craft was another idea from the DLTK Kids website. We used a toilet paper roll as the base – the rest of the pieces are a printable that you can get HERE.

IMG_6040

Fun fact: all astronauts have a band on their space suit of a different color so that they can be identified once they are in. The visors on the helmet are not really see-through since the visor has to protect them from the sun’s rays and is dark from the outside.

We finish our Preschool Playdate with a sharing time: each child that wants to share gets to say what (s)he enjoyed the most about the morning.  We close with a good-bye song where children are welcome to give hugs.  It helps to set a formal end to the time together so that parents have a clear reason to insist that it’s time to go if they have somewhere to be afterwards. This week making the astronaut and the “S” Sound box were the big winners 🙂

Preschool Playdate: Science Day

Held on April 23, 2015

The inspiration for this day was the fact that World Laboratory Day was observed on April 23, 2015.  I thought it would be fun to have the kids attend their own Science Lab and get a chance to be immersed in exploration and discovery for an hour.  I planned out this day by focusing an experiement on different aspects of science: measuring, magnets, animal kingdom, and weather.

As you will notice, most of our Sweet Peas made or contributed to the sign for their station. Puma was at the Water Cycle, Night Owl was at the magnets (I made this one before the kiddos all piped up that they wanted to make their own!), Charger did the Wind Power, and Otter contributed to the Mass sign.  It was cool to see how her lines were denser in some areas than others….she got the concept in her own toddler way!! Even our nanny got involved and ran an activity since I got carried away with the planning…once I got started, I was on a roll!

— Welcome song in English (emphasizes printed name recognition as Sweet Peas find their card in a line-up and place it on our Name Ledge)
— Welcome song in Spanish (reinforces names as Sweet Peas sing to their peers)
— Discussion of theme
— Storytime
— Unsquiggle activity
— Poem/Song before we break for Centers

 

STORY TIME
I found THIS slide show online that I printed to share with the children.  Big pictures, simple explanations, and lots of vocabulary!! Perfect for preschool!!

 

LITERACY CENTER
Here we explored the concept of feathers, fur, and scales.  It is an activity out of the Mailbox Superbook. The Sweet Peas identified the animal, and then sorted them into the correct category according to the type of skin covering the animal has.  We added a sensory component by having examples of the different kinds of skin coverings for the children to investigate and discuss.

IMG_5523

 

MATH CENTER
This center explored the mass of different items.  They measured different quantities into the scale basket, noticed whether or not the same amount of different items weighed the same,We also had them make a prediction about how much the half-full bean container and the full container of feathers would weigh, and which was greater.  This led to a conversation about how much air vs. mass were in the different things we weighed.

IMG_5521

 

DISCOVERY TABLE

TABLE 1: Magnets
Sweet Peas got to play with magnetic fishing poles to see what was and wasn’t magnetic.  Once they items were worted into two piles, we talked about the qualities of both sets.

IMG_5522

TABLE 2: The Water Cycle
This simple experiment using water and cotton balls allowed the Sweet Peas to physically experience how water droplets collect together to form clouds until they are too full to hold any more condensation, and then see how precipitation happens when the cloud is beyond capacity.  We introduced the words “evaporation”, “condensation”, and “precipitation”.  It was neat to see everyone at this station have lightbulb moments.IMG_5520

TABLE 3: Wind Power
The Sweet Peas got to experiement with the power of air at this station.  First they blew through the straws onto their palms to feel what they could do with their own lungs.  Then they got to experiment with blowing “wind” across our little “pond” to see how the boats moved.  They could blow along the bottom, the top, turn the sails and blow into the sails…another favorite since water and straws were involved.IMG_5519

 

ARTS & CRAFTS ~ Make & Take
First the Sweet Peas colored a coffee filter with water-soluble markers.  Then we attached the filter accordian style to a prepared-ahead popsicle stick on which Puma had a hot-glued a pipe cleaner.  We twisted it at the top and formed antennae.  Once the “butterfly” was assembled, we used water that we trapped in the straws with our fingers to stain the wings.  The Sweet Peas got to experiement with how much water they could trap, how fast the flow was, and see how the colors blended and make predictions about the new colors that might result from the color blending.  Once the “wings” dried out, they had a take-home butterfly puppet.

IMG_5518

 

We finish our Preschool Playdate with a sharing time: each child that wants to share gets to say what (s)he enjoyed the most about the morning.  There were lots of different favorites on this day…even some of the moms mentioned stations where they learned something new – that was pretty cool!

We close with a good-bye song where children are welcome to give hugs.  It helps to set a formal end to the time together so that parents have a clear reason to insist that it’s time to go if they have somewhere to be afterwards.  Otherwise, the kiddos and parents that don’t have to leave right away will stay and play until the music teacher for our older Sweet Peas arrives.

I hpe you enjoyed our tour through Science Experiement day!! My intention was to show our friends that science doesn’t have to be this daunting thing – every day things around the house can easily turn into an opportunity for discovery, and to awaken curiosity and exploration.