Preschool Powol Packets

Do you need a dinosaur preschool activity that takes less than 30 seconds to set up ?   I have one for you today! Actually, I have a whole series of no-prep dinosaur activities ! I think you'll love them because they're SO easy to set up and are still super engaging! I know they've been useful to me!! Anyway, today's super-easy-but-insanely-fun dinosaur preschool activity is all about dinosaur footprints!  As an extra bonus, it works great for babies and toddlers too (as long as they're not allergic to wheat)! Dinosaur footprints are one of the ways we have learned about dinosaurs.  The footprints can tell us their size, if they likely walked on two feet or four, how big their gait was, and more!  You can talk to your kiddos about all the great science we can get from dinosaur footprints and how footprints are a type of "trace fossil" (meaning a fossil made by a living critter without any of the critter actually fossilized), and how fossils are m...

Summer is coming up, and one of our preschool traditions is to do a "summer camp" at home! We never really planned it that way, but one activity led to another, and one year led to another, and... here we are! As I set up the schedule this year, I'm doubly excited to be doing a dinosaur theme! This fits right in with our Dinosaur Day Celebration (May 15th-June 1st), so we will be sharing even more awesome dinosaur-themed ideas and activities in my STEM group on Facebook . You'll notice that each day comes with a book recommendation. This is because literacy is SO critical for young children! It ties into everything we do with them because it prepares them for independent learning in the future! Since we generally do 4-5 day "camps," I'm setting up the format so that between May 10th and 21st you'll get links to all the activities right here! It would be waaaaay too long to put it all in one article, so this "landing page" will link out to 1...

SHARKS!!! We seriously love them!! Even my preschoolers think they are super cool, and if my kids like them, I imagine there are other kids who like them too! Sooooo... I put together a new Shark Preschool Activities Packet! Just in time for summer! This packet has SIX sets of hands-on movement-filled learning activities! Do you need a quick game for your preschooler? Got it! Do you want to teach about a shark's life cycle? Got it! Does your preschooler like to color? Covered! What about matching or puzzles? Got them both! I even have letter cards in this set!! Here's a quick overview of all the Shark Activity Printables you'll find in this packet: 1- Life Cycle Spinner! Use this to learn about the life cycle of sharks that lay egg sacs (also known as mermaid purses)! I also included some fun biology information about the brown banded bamboo shark that is featured in the spinner! NOTE : You can get this activity FREE as a sample HERE ! ...

My preschoolers LOVE boats, so it totally makes sense to kick off our Preschool STEM series with a boat project! To make this project more meaningful , chat with your preschoolers about their boat experiences before you get started. Have they seen boats before? Have the ridden on one? Do they own one? Is there a boat or ferry nearby that you could visit or ride as an extension?  To get started , show your kiddos the supplies, and tell them that today they get to design their own boat! If you want, you can offer to let them sail it too!  Or see how many "sailors" can fit on it--I just let them see how many pennies can "safely" ride on their boat! Keep a tub of water close by--they will want to test as they work! You can build boats indoors or outdoors--it is totally up to you...and maybe the weather! The easiest set of supplies is just a roll of aluminum foil and perhaps tape or glue . Scissors are also helpful.  Usually the aluminum foil ...

Today I am happy to welcome Nikki from  Angels of Heart  with some fun and yummy octopus and jellyfish crafts for preschoolers!    This is the ninth (and last) week in the Summer Fun For Preschoolers series!  Thank you so much for joining us, and a huge thank you to our contributors!!  Click  here  for a list of all the weeks, and check out the contributors in the left hand sidebar! Hi everyone on Preschool Powol Packets!   It is so great to be able to come by and share some of our preschool summer days. This summer our family of 7 is having a staycation.  We have been keeping busy with house cleaning projects, swimming at the local pool, visiting our library, playing at tennis camp and walking through our local parks with the parks program. My little Sweet Pea, who is 3, walked  almost a mile last week. That is amazing with such little legs. Preschoolers sure are movers! This week we decided to tak...

Today I am happy to welcome Becky from For This Season with an awesome way to teach your children time concepts while using their active large muscles!!  This is the eighth week in the Summer Fun For Preschoolers series! Each Friday this summer I'm sharing a guest post with wonderful ideas of ways to intentionally spend time with your young children!  Click  here  for a list of all the weeks, and check out the contributors in the left hand sidebar! If your preschoolers are anything like mine, they have no concept of time.  Sure, we give 5 minute warnings all the time to make transitions easier, but do they know what 5 minutes really means?  For that matter, do they know what a minute feels like?  How about a second or an hour?  I have found the summer excitement of playing outside all morning to be a perfect opportunity to explore the passage of time with my boys. We started by timing our races.  Armed wi...

Today I am happy to welcome Ashley from  Life with Moore Babies  with an outdoor sensory / science activity great for short attention spans! This is the sixth week in the Summer Fun For Preschoolers series! Each Friday for the rest of the summer I will share a guest post with wonderful ideas of ways to intentionally spend time with your young children!  Click  here  for a list of all the weeks, and check out the contributors in the left hand sidebar! My kids have loved shaving cream ever since they were introduced to it a couple years ago. They love painting with it in the tub, or on the floor, or on their legs, or just generally making a mess with it! Once I added color to make shaving cream paint  it was even more enticing! With the warm weather, I decided to make some Frosty Shaving Cream by simply freezing the colored Shaving Cream Paint! To start with I colored the shaving cream (the super cheap shaving cream) with food coloring...