Preschool Powol Packets

We had so much fun making tile prints that I think I should warn you:  you will enjoy the activity at least as much as your preschooler will!  You can make the prints as an artwork or let your child sign and date it and give it away as a Mother's Day present--the possibilities are endless! We recently replaced our bathroom floor with tiles and had quite a few leftover tiles.  Tiles are wonderful to use with young children because they wipe off so easily and are relatively inexpensive--if you didn't just replace your floor you can purchase laminate tiles from a hardware store for under $1 each.  Keep them when you're done with this craft--there's more to come! Simple Supplies for  Tile Prints: a tile for each child (and adult!) paints and paintbrushes print paper (white computer paper, watercolor paper, etc.) The Easy How-To: 1- Paint the tile.  Let your child enjoy this process!  The tile is a unique texture and can be painted on with paint

Does your preschooler like mazes? It's time to find out! Try this life-size maze with your kiddos! You can use books, toys, or more! Turn your play room into a maze!  Even better, turn your whole house into a maze!  Mazes do wonderful things for your child's development, and actually building a maze pays off in even more ways! Here are a few benefits from playing with mazes: Mazes can enhance your child's spacial awareness and perception. Solving mazes can improve your child's confidence and patience. Focusing on mazes can sharpen your child's memory. Concentrating on mazes can strengthen your child's problem-solving skills. While paper mazes may increase your child's eye-hand and small muscle coordination, this life-size maze uses their large-muscles too! Actually helping build the maze demands fun, new workouts from their quickly growing cognitive skills! Making a Life-Size Maze The supplies are s

Yay!  Teach Me Tuesday is here!!  I love coming to your blogs, pinning your posts and sharing them on Facebook, and getting ideas to use at home!  THANK YOU so much to everyone who linked up last week--you make this party great! This week I'm making a change to the features...I think you'll like it!  Instead of featuring only the most clicked on posts, I'm going to choose some that I think will be most beneficial to you!  I will still include the most clicked on (because they are always awesome!), but I will also include a couple less-clicked on that are also awesome.  To make this work the best way possible, I'll be featuring four (instead of three) links today!  So, without further ado....I give you this week's features:   <div align="center"><a href="http://PreschoolPowolPackets.blogspot.com" title="Teach Me Tuesday at Preschool Powol Packets" target="_blank"><img src="http://i1082.photobuck

  If you're doing this science experiment with preschoolers, making colored fire is more of a demonstration that they get to help organize...see the safety precautions below for this science project! Simple Supplies: tissues or other flammable kindling rubbing alcohol powdered boric acid long-handled lighter Easy How-To: In a dark, well-ventilated area, pour some alcohol onto your kindling. Sprinkle boric acid on top of the alcohol. Use the lighter to carefully ignite the alcohol. If you want an extra splash of color as the alcohol and/or kindling burn, carefully sprinkle a little more boric acid on the flame! A Few Notes on SAFETY: 1-- Alcohol is very flammable and fire is hot.  Please take the necessary precautions to keep your children safe.  Never let a child handle fire or lighters.   2-- Make sure you perform this experiment outdoors or in a well-ventilated area.   Do not breathe fumes. 3-- If you do additional burning experiments with chemic

Science experiments, art, and language...here's one morning's adventures with aluminum foil!   Language :  We started the aluminum foil boat-making started with a poetry lesson from my free Poetry Unit for Preschoolers . It also took a bit of practice for the kids to be able to say "aluminum!" Art : Everyone designed their own boats!  Then, they moved on to create many of their own ideas, including crystals, jewels, statues, animals, people, and Pokemon. Science :  The science experiment options with aluminum foil boats are endless!  My kids predicted whether or not their boats would float and then tested them!  Their science project included making boats of different sizes and shapes.  They also tested other objects while we talked about floating and sinking.  They experimented to see what would happen when they placed a rock that sank inside a boat that did not sink.  They experimented to see how many rocks a boat could hold.  And, they felt the di

My daughter has been requesting science experiments that explode, sparkle, and use fire!  I love child-led learning because it helps cultivate a love for education and skills to learn independently in the future.  Science projects like this can also be a form of assessment because you can see exactly how your child is processing the information you have already taught.  This little gem is completely my daughter's creation, but we all loved it.  I hope you have as much fun with it as we did!  And don't worry--I have several more fiery experiments and demonstrations to put up soon! Simple Supplies for a "Sparkly Explosion:" vase baking soda vinegar food coloring (we used neon red in the first picture and regular red in the rest) blue glitter (this is very important, though you can use any color) other supplies--see step 4.  pan to contain the mess The Easy How-To: Place 2-3 Tablespoons baking soda in the bottom of the vase.  Put t

Teach Me Tuesday is here!!  Woo hoo!  I love visiting your blogs and seeing what you're doing!  I really appreciate everyone who shares their ideas here!  This is a great big THANK YOU to everyone who linked up last week--you make this party great!  As usual, we'll start the most clicked on links from last week-- If you're featured, feel free to grab the button from the right sidebar! <div align="center"><a href="http://PreschoolPowolPackets.blogspot.com" title="Teach Me Tuesday at Preschool Powol Packets" target="_blank"><img src="http://i1082.photobucket.com/albums/j368/cmg38/TeachMeTuesdayButton.jpg" alt="Teach Me Tuesday at Preschool Powol Packets" style="border:none;" /></a></div> Our features this week (the most clicked on links from last week) are: Teaching My Blessings shared some fun and low-preparation Easter and Spring ideas and activities!  C

Today I am guest posting in the Lesson Learned series at H is for Homeschooling .  I'm sharing a personal lesson I've learned (and re-learned many times!) in parenting and teaching, and why this quote is so meaningful to me!  I'd love to know what you think! I may share at any of these parties !

April is National Poetry Month, and I am so excited to share this {FREE} Poetry Unit for Preschoolers with you!!   Preschoolers have a wonderful sense of language and it is incredibly fun to share poetry with them. I used Shel Silverstein's Where the Sidewalk Ends as a text and chose 10 poems from it to form the basis for 10 poetry lessons.  Each lesson refers to a poem (so it helps a lot to have access to that book), includes an activity suggestion, and instructions for a writing project (mostly poems).  You can use all the lessons, or just a couple! This unit also works well for older children (up to about Grade 3).  These children will not require the same amount and type of instruction as preschoolers will, but may still enjoy the poetry and activities.  These lessons can also be adapted for older toddlers! You can download your own copy {FREE} here ! You are welcome to share this file, but please link back to this blog post and not just the file.  Thanks so mu

  Earth Day is April 22nd, so I thought I would post a list of fun ideas you could do with preschoolers to help them learn more about their planet and appreciate the ways we benefit from it!  I have plans for several of these ideas and will link to them as I post about our activities.  If you do anything on this list, I'd love to have you share the link in a comment or email, and I will add a link to your post after the list.  One thing I love about Earth Day is that we live on Earth all year, so if you don't have time to celebrate on April 22nd, there's no reason not to on any other day of the year.  If you have any more ideas or suggestions, I'd love to hear those too! Ready?  Here we go! 30 EARTH DAY IDEAS FOR PRESCHOOLERS: Make your own paper! Make an artwork using recycled markers or paints.  Have a Recycle Day!  Talk about how recycling works, gather up materials to recycle, and dump them in the recycle bin.  If you don't get curbside recycling,