Preschool Powol Packets

If you have been following this blog for a while, you know I am a huge advocate of sensory experiences.  About six months ago we began to discover that one of my children has some sensory processing challenges, and I began to be even more deliberate in planning (and allowing spontaneous) sensory experiences.  Today we are joining in the monthly Sensory Bin Challenge hosted at Little Bins for Little Hands , and the theme is sand!   If you saw the Dirt Challenge, you may remember that the goal is to set out a designated sensory material and let your children choose the tools and direction for the experience.   I love this kind of activity for three reasons:   1- It is empowering for children to decide what they will do. 2- Children learn better when they are invested and in control of what they are doing. 3- It is super easy!! So, I set out a bucket of sand: They immediately dug in with their hands, a shovel (from their "digging spot"), and a paper towel t

Pirates and Patterns and Preschool, oh my! I am excited to share this {FREE} Pirate Patterns Preschool Packet with you! As you can tell, the theme this month is all about PIRATES!   To celebrate, you can download these pattern pages {FREE} here !   These {FREE} printables can be used as a cut and paste activity where you child cuts the pictures out of the bottom row and glues the picture that comes next into the correct boxes.  Or, you can cut out the bottom row, laminate the pieces, and use them in a Montessori-style bin, as a center activity, or one-on-one with your child on different days!  Click here to get a copy of this {FREE} Pirate Patterns Preschool Packet!  What else can you do with pirates?  Click here to see how we made pirate swords out of household materials or click here to see the full 30+ page pirate preschool packet that these pattern pages are a part of! One of my all-time favorite pirate-themed preschool (and older kids!) picture book i

Frozen  has been popular around here, so I've been working on my ice powers (of science experiments)!  See this picture?  With this science project, I made the water freeze into a pillar of ice...instantly!   Ever since I saw "The King of Random's" video about freezing water , I knew my kids would love it. (By the way, you should check out his channel here ...he has loads  of fun ideas!)  Now that it's summer and super hot outside, and my kids have been singing Frozen for months, ice activities are even more popular for our crew!  So, we set out to make water turn into ice! And, since we've been playing with videos lately, I thought I'd share our experiment with you!  Detailed instructions are below.  If the video doesn't load, you can see it here . You can also use cool ice powers to freeze water (just like Elsa!) by following these easy steps: 1- (Preparation) Place several water bottles in the freezer for about three hours.  You

Whatever you call them, roly polys (or potato bugs or pill bugs or wood lice...) are everywhere!  They are great to learn about and fun to carefully experiment with!  Warning: This post has close up pictures of pill bugs!   So what is the deal with pill bug names?!  It can definitely be a bit confusing.  I will be calling them pill bugs, but let's take just a quick moment and talk about names and classification.  Remember how living things are divided?   Kingdom, Phylum, Class, Order, Family, Genus, Species Pill Bugs are in the Animal Kingdom, Arthopod Phylum (which includes spiders, insects, and crabs), and the Order Isopoda.  Isopoda includes literally thousands of species that look very similar, but some live on land and some live in the ocean.  The pill bugs that we see all over the world on the land are all in the sub-order Oniscidea, which also includes literally thousands of species (about 5,000 known).  There is no real order to the common names...pill bug

Making these squishy balls is an excellent fine motor and sensory activity.  When they're done, you can squish them, bounce them, or play tossing and target games with them.  They even work great as a stress ball or a distractor for a stressed out preschooler! Making them is super easy and only requires three items:  balloons, flour, and scissors!  Now if you want to see how to use additional fun items (including how to make your balls bounce!), you'll have to grab a copy of the 101 Kids Activities ...and it is so worth it!  More details about that are below! Here's the easy how-to: 1.  Fill a balloon with flour.  We used about 1/4 cup of flour in our balloons.  Tie a knot to keep the flour inside. 2.  Take another balloon and cut a few small holes in it. 3.  Stretch the balloon with holes over the balloon with flour so you have two different colors on your stretchy balloon.  If you have preschoolers like mine, hold on to a few extra balloo

My preschoolers love  sweet treats like ice-cream, but one of them has some serious sugar limitations.  I developed this ice-cream recipe so everyone can participate in the sweet fun...and everyone  loves it!! Letting your preschoolers help make the ice-cream gives you the opportunity to talk about things like solids, liquids, counting, colors, fractions, and more!  Cooking is excellent math time! Ingredients:   * 2 frozen bananas * 8 frozen strawberries * 1-1/4 cup almond milk * (optional) small dash of cinnamon and/or nutmeg Easy How To: 1.  Place all ingredients in a blender and blend until smooth.  I use the "ice crush" setting. 2.  If it is too thick to blend, add more milk. 3.  Serve and enjoy immediately!! TIPS: * Peel the bananas, cut them in half, and freeze the 4 halves in advance.  Then you can just pop them in the blender! * Riper bananas are sweeter! * This is best fresh--it can get way too frozen (or hard) w

This fun {FREE} printable game is perfect for helping preschoolers develop early math and reading skills!   Grid games give preschoolers the opportunity to practice counting and develop a concept of one-to-one relationships, which are important in learning to read.  Plus, the fun flowers and bees are loads of fun in the summer time! To play, simply print one copy of the flower page and one copy of the bee page for each player: Cut out the bees.   Take turns rolling a die and covering up the indicated number of flowers with bees.  You "win" when all the flowers are covered.  Keep playing until all players win! CLICK HERE to download your {FREE} copy of the Flower Hunt game ! Please note:  I am always thrilled to have you share this post and printable, but please do so by linking to this page, and not the actual file.  Thank you so much!!  I may share at any of these parties !

The next bug in our Backyard Bug series is the cicada! What is that buzzing sound?  Oh!  It's a cicada!   Every summer we notice the cicadas start "singing" about the beginning of June.  And while I know some people who find the sound obnoxious, I look forward to it...almost as much as I look forward to not having to wear a jacket!   Cicadas are large (often 1" to 2" long) insects with wings that have very clear veins in them.  They have two easy-to-see eyes and three very small "ocelli."  There are about 2500 species of cicadas, and they are very common in warm tropical and subtropical areas.  Ocelli: small eyes Cicadas are often heard before they are seen: during the hottest part of the day they make a loud clicking sound by vibrating part of their abdomen like a drum...over and over very quickly!  They have been recorded "buzzing" at over 120 decibels!  And even though both males and females have the same s