Preschool Powol Packets

"Are we going to paint today?" my preschooler asked this morning. If she had found out what we were going to paint at that point, she would have been too excited to finish breakfast! I couldn't tell her, though, because - at that point - I didn't know either! I did know better than to disappoint her at the start of the day, so I kept my answer simple: "Yep! Of course we'll paint today!" My little princess loves to paint so much she would do it twice a day if I let her. On days when we're home I usually try to make sure she gets to paint at least once, and I knew we'd be home most of the day today. I did not know we would be doing this painting activity until we were outside. Today was the first day all fall where the weather and our schedules were so perfect that we spent a couple hours playing outside! The kids explored everything from leaves to the stuff in the garage (that desperately needs organizing again). As a pile of HU

These pumpkin egg shakers were born after my 3-year old had a melt-down in a preschool music class. Normally my kiddo loves our mommy & me preschool music class, but this week she got upset: When the teacher pulled out a bin of egg shakers, my preschooler went straight for her favorite color: purple. The second she had it, another kiddo grabbed it and ran away. It was so fast that nobody realized what had happened...I was watching her and I hadn't even seen! We all expected her to just take another color, but she was not having it. The scales of justice in the universe were tipped and she was not pleased. I pulled her aside because she was starting to make a scene, and she explained to me what had happened. At this point, too much time had gone by and I didn't want to stop the whole class to get her shaker back. I suggested that when we get home she could make her own purple music shaker and use it whenever she wanted. She agreed (and I breathed a sigh of rel

Do your preschoolers like to rhyme words? Then you will love this {FREE} Pumpkin Sorting rhyming word packet! All you have to do is print the two pages of pumpkins and rhyming words, cut them out, and you're ready to play! How can you use them? Here are a few ideas: * Set the pumpkins out face up and the eight cards out face down (you can choose if you want to spread them out or stack them up). Take turns drawing a card and placing it on the correct pumpkin! * Glue or tape the pumpkins down to a folder to make a file folder game! Store the cards in an envelope. * Use the cards to play a memory-style game where matches are made by rhyming words! * Use the cards to play a Go Fish-style game where matches are made by rhyming words! * Put the pieces on a metal door and hold them in place with magnets while you sort vertically! * Use a hanging pocket chart to hold the pieces while you sort vertically! How will you use them? Click HERE

Preschool + Science Experiment + Leaves = Awesome Fall Activity! Seriously, though, this has been one of my favorite preschool science projects this year. It lets the kids explore and experiment on their own terms, while providing a rich investigative experience. It actually turned into a preschool STEM project too (more on that in a moment)! Preschoolers are natural scientists, and I love encouraging their curiousity! About this time of year, they start noticing changes in the plants around them: some are changing colors, some are losing leaves, and some don't seem to change at all! I answer their questions about leaves and change as often as they come up, but sometimes, they just need to get up close and investigate the differences for themselves! This leaf science experiment takes a tiny bit of planning (you need about two minutes of prep the day before the activity), but it is so worth the time to watch your child experiment with the set-up.   Here's the