Preschool Powol Packets

Preschoolers love drama!  When you look at all the positive benefits it has for them, you will love it too!  Here are five reasons to use dramatic play with your preschoolers and two ways to get started: Five Ways Your Preschooler Benefits from Dramatic Play: 1.  Dramatic Play improves your child's memory!  Drama activates (or pretends to activate) all five senses in activities that mimic real life.  Each sense that is associated with an experience reinforces the memories tied to that sense. 2.  Dramatic Play teaches communication skills!   Speaking clearly and listening are skills that will be important throughout your child's life.  Drama is a great way to practice both of them. 3.  Dramatic Play engages creativity and imagination!  Activities that allow your child to express and grow their creativity and imagination will improve their problem-solving skills for years. 4.  Dramatic Play is an outlet for children to fix reality!   Life isn't always fair f

Shapes!  Colors!  Leaves!  Turkeys!  Oh my! You can cut out the pieces for this Thanksgiving Turkey Craft for your preschooler or you can trace them and let your child cut them out herself!  Either way, the assembly allows for lots of personal creative expression. You can let your child glue the pieces together with craft glue or glue dots.  If you want to speed the drying process you can slip a little hot glue on for your child too! Supplies:   pre-cut felt leaves felt circles for the body and head felt triangle for the beak felt snood wiggly eyes Assembly: Let your child arrange the eyes, beak, and snood on the head.  Let your child arrange the head and feathers however she chooses.  Glue the pieces together. Note:  A snood is the red dangly thing that attaches just above the turkey's beak.  The wattle is the red patch of skin on the turkey's neck.  Both can become bigger and brighter during different activities.

Thanksgiving is in less than a week...it is time for the Turkey Bowl!  Preschoolers experiment with inertia, momentum, and direction without even knowing about it!  While you can always "debrief" afterwards, it is important to let young children discover their world naturally...through play!  Remember that babies discover gravity by throwing things down over This game (with a Thanksgiving twist!) exposes children to concepts in physics while strengthening their gross motor skills and giving them a chance to take turns.  Even better, it appeals to a range of ages, so you can play it in a family setting too! First, make your "turkey pins" by taping pictures of turkeys to toilet paper tubes.   You can print a set of turkeys here for free ! Second, line up your pins and let your children take turns "bowling" them down!   Offer them a variety of balls with different sizes and weights. Third, stack the pins and let your children take turns "bowling" th

Rhymes for kids help children learn to speak and read, so I was very excited when I saw Katie's post about owl finger puppets at Playing With Words 365 !  She inspired me to make several sets of owls and start singing some rhymes! You can make owl finger puppets a million different ways.  I used Katie's basic tutorial design and sewed most of the pieces together.  I love how each owl seems so full of personality! Here are two of the owl rhymes I made up for us: Owl Counting Rhymes for Kids: Five Little Owls   (to the tune of Five Little Ducks) by Carla at Preschool Powol Packets Five little owls went out to fly Over the trees, up very high! When the mother owl sang, "To-whit-to-hoo!" One little owl went down and flew! (Repeat for four, three, and two little owls.) One little owl went out to fly Over the trees, up very high! When the mother owl sang, "To-whit-to-hoo!" Down she went and home she flew!

Here's an easy-to-prepare game that toddlers and preschoolers alike love!  It reinforces colors, matching, counting, and taking turns! How does it work?  Use a bucket filled with colored balls (or plastic easter eggs or other colorful toys).  Drape a blanket over the bucket.  Take turns with the kids reaching your arms in, grabbing two balls, and pulling them out.  Don't peek while your hands are in the bucket!  If the balls match, you get another turn!  If they don't match, put them back and wait for another turn!  Older preschoolers can save their match and work toward a goal...say, six balls or three matches.  Younger children can just play for an allotted time.

The Thanksgiving Preschool Packet is a free download from me to you!!  I hope you love it and have loads of fun with it! Included are nine preschool worksheets with activities like "Which one is different?" "What comes next?" and more! Check it out here ! I'd love to hear how you use it...Google tells me many, many of you visit these free downloads, and I'd love to hear from you personally!  You can email me at PreschoolPackets AT gmail.com or leave a comment!

November is a fabulous month for viewing the planets in our solar system! From the northern hemisphere, Jupiter is the easiest to see.  Without a telescope, Jupiter "rises" in the East at about sunset, stays up all night, and then "sets" in the west about sunrise.  At the end of the month it will set an hour or two before dawn.   Jupiter is the brightest "star" in the November night sky.  If you have a telescope or strong binoculars, you can easily see Jupiter's biggest moons too! Mars rises in the East at about midnight and shines in front of the constellation Leo until dawn. Saturn rises in the East shortly before dawn. Mercury and Venus can be seen in early evening, if you can get a clear view of the Western horizon.  By the end of November, Mercury will set shortly before dusk (making it impossible to see).  Venus, however, will set later and later, making it easier to see immediately after sundown.  If you have binoculars or a telescope, and can

Countries as diverse as China and ancient Aztec cultures developed traditions similar to our modern piñatas.  This fun party game is popular with all ages, and making your own only adds to the fun!  Preschoolers especially enjoy building piñatas.  They like to see their creation take form, but they do need a lot of supervision! Remember to start about three days early, and follow these easy instructions! 1.  Gather Paper-Mâché Supplies: a large balloon (or more than one, depending on the shape you're making--this tutorial will show you how to make a spider-shaped piñata!), newspaper strips about 1" wide and 4-8 inches long (younger children work better with shorter strips), water, and flour.  2.  Mix Paper-Mâché Goop:  Use equal parts water and flour.  Start with about 1 1/2 cups of each and stir them together in a bowl with a fork or your fingers.  (Alternatively, if you want the piñata to last a particularly long time, you can use a water/glue mixture--again, use about equ