Preschool Powol Packets

Pumpkins are everywhere!  I love Fall and all the fun things you can do with pumpkins! Pumpkin Print Painting is a fun way to smell pumpkins, talk about seeds and vines, predict what is inside a pumpkin, and create a personal, free-style painting project! Simple Supplies: little pumpkins sharp knife spoons paint  paper plates or tins for the paint paper to paint on Easy How-to: 1- Ask your kids what is inside the pumpkin. How many seeds do they expect?  What will it look like if we cut it in half?   Click here for great pumpkin science activities for preschoolers ! 2- Cut the pumpkin in half and let your kids clean out the insides. 3- Squirt paint onto the plates, and show your kids how to make a print.  It works best if you wiggle the pumpkin around in the paint and again on the paper.  Let them loose to explore and create!  Don't worry if they decide to paint with their hands too--pumpkin print painting is an experience!

These leaf print paintings are a fabulous sensory experience that can be used with your preschoolers to review colors, talk about Fall, and create art! They also require very little set-up and can even be made outside!  Here's the easy how-to: Simple Supplies: leaves (go outside and let your kiddos find the perfect leaves!) paper paint (we used Fall colors: red, yellow, and brown) paint tin or paper plate paint brushes Easy How-to: 1- Put a squirt of each paint color in the tin or plate. 2- Show your children how to make a leaf print.  Invite them to create a masterpiece! Here are our finished Leaf Print Paintings: I love how some of the children glued their leaves to the picture with paint and others worked on a design they had in mind. In the end, even their plates looked like art works! This activity works great by itself, or you can tie in a discussion about seasons and why leaves change colors! Do you have "Fall&qu

Teach Me Tuesday is live at the PreschoolPowolPackets Facebook Page !! Click on the "Highlights" button and change it to "Posts by Others" so you can see all the awesome things people are sharing!! I may share at any of these parties !

Last week I taught a letter-themed preschool co-op focusing on the Letter C and the Number 3.  Our group has four high-energy boys and one girl, and they all turned three a few months ago!  So we, of course, filled the morning with lots of exciting letter-C activities, and now I'm sharing them with you! Gathering Activity:  Construction Site A sensory activity with bulldozers, excavators, and other construction tools! Circle Time:  Letter C Introduction  with Carpet Scraps cut in a c-shape.  Name review, A & B review, News Share (each child gets a moment to talk).  Put the C's in groups of 3. Cave Activity.   Build a cave with couch pillows and blankets.  Go on a Bear Hunt to find the cave (review Bear starts with B).  Pretend Play: Bears in a Cave.  Find 3 fish to eat. C Maze.  My six-year old daughter really wanted to help plan the day.  She volunteered to make a maze for the kids that they could complete by tracing the C's down t

This free Preschool Pumpkin Maze packet an be used two ways: as a maze or as a roll & cover game! It's perfect for fall or autumn themes! The packet has ten mazes: 5 with a blank background and five with corn in the background as a distractor. You can put the pumpkin mazes in a sheet protector or laminate them for repeated use.  Simply use a dry erase marker and wipe it off with a paper towel when you're done!  These mazes strengthen the small muscles in your children's hands and prepare them for more rigorous writing and cutting.  You can also let older preschoolers cut along the pumpkin path or color in the blank rectangles! To use as a roll & cover game, grab a die and give it a roll.  Cover the number of pumpkins indicated with BINGO markers, beans, or candy corn!  Your children can fill a page as a team together or you can give each child their own page, and let them race through the maze individually.  Games like thi

I love serving healthy food in a fun way, and these Apple Cinnamon Apple Bowls have been a hit every time we make them! My preschoolers (and older kids too!) think it is so fun to eat out of an apple!  The cinnamon stick brought an unusual conversation to the table and we all enjoyed a little breakfast variety! You can make Apple Cinnamon Apple Bowls in three easy steps: 1: Cook your oatmeal.  I like to add a bit of applesauce, brown sugar, cinnamon, and nutmeg.  Yum! 2: Cut out your apples.  I use a knife to cut a bowl shape, and then a spoon to scoop out anything left behind. 3: Scoop your oatmeal into the apples.  Add a cinnamon stick.  Serve with a spoon... and a cup of milk! Obviously we did not eat the cinnamon sticks, but it was fun to taste them and talk about how cinnamon is made.  Most of the kids refilled their apples several times and then ate most of their bowls too!  Super fun, and super easy! You can probably think of tons of ways to change this

Are you ready for some big news? Teach Me Tuesday is moving to Facebook ! This blog is not leaving, but the weekly linky party is moving to Facebook. Before I go any further, I want to tell everyone who has linked up to Teach Me Tuesday in the past, "Thank you so, so much for joining me here!!   I have truly enjoyed hosting Teach Me Tuesday at Preschool Powol Packets.  It is an event that I look forward to each week and I love promoting your posts on Facebook and Pinterest too!  I feel like I have "met" many of my favorite bloggers through this linky party and I really want to stay in touch with you!   Please join me at  https://www.facebook.com/PreschoolPowolPackets  each Tuesday to share your wonderful posts! Because I have loved Teach Me Tuesday here so much, this was a very difficult decision for me.  I do not want to bore you with all the details and research that went into this decision, but I will tell you a few things:  I have hosted Teach Me T

Last year I made this giant  Spooky Ghost  the night before Halloween, and he greeted my kids as they came downstairs: The Spooky Ghost is super cute, stands up by himself, and is the perfect Halloween decoration!  I didn't post about him last year because Halloween was over by the time we made him, but today I'm going to tell you everything you need to make one yourself!  While I have seen several people making these ghosts, I want to give a shout-out to Love and Laundry for first introducing them to me! How to Make a Spooky Ghost:  Simple Supplies: microwave-safe bowl water corn-starch spoon drying stand (I used a balloon taped to a vase.) cheesecloth (*see note at bottom) black construction paper and glue Easy How-to: 1- Stir 1 cup of corn-starch into 2 1/4 cups water.  Microwave for 2 minutes.  Stir.  Microwave for 20 seconds.  Stir.  If it is still watery, microwave for another 20 seconds.  It should look like this: 2- Mash the cheese