Preschool Powol Packets

Pumpkins are some of my favorite things ever! You can cook with them, play with them, smell them, and do all sorts of pumpkin-themed activities! This free preschool printable lets your kids design and build their own jack-o'lanterns. It's perfect for small groups or even a craft station! You can print this free packet on colored paper or let your kids color their pumpkins any way they like! And you can use the provided facial pieces or just give your preschoolers black paper and let them cut and design their own faces! Craft activities like this one are lots of fun and they help your child develop important skills, like the following: ** eye-hand coordination (important pre-reading skill) ** fine-motor control ** problem-solving ** multi-step project skills ** design and engineering ** confidence If you would like to print the free build-a-pumpkin packet, just click here to get a copy ! Also, consider being inspired by the printable packet, and just providing your children wit...

Day five of our Preschool STEM Summer Camp is all about electricity, robots, and art! I could call it STEAM, but I think STEM Creation Camp has a "catchier" sound. Anyway, it's perfect for homeschool, summer camps, maker spaces, and more! Here's the step by step science, art, and storybook lesson: {To see the rest of the themes, supply list, and lesson plans (5 days, with one and a half hours of STEM activities planned each day), click  HERE !} Today is the DIY Preschool STEM Summer Camp DAY 5: Electricity, Robots, & Art Supplies : book ( That's Not My Robot ), squishy circuits set (or batteries, wires, and LED lights), paper or plastic cups, glue, and art supplies Gathering Activity:  As children arrive, direct them to a building station. Today I put out (Amazon affiliate links):   Magna-Tiles  and flashlights. The lights create a really fun effect as you shine them in, around, and through magnatile buildings!  We often build on t...

Are you looking for a fun preschool penguin craft? I have a couple preschoolers who would like to make something every day, and these little penguins were perfect! Honestly, the prep for this was so easy that I did it while the kids watched! Preschool Penguin Craft: Supplies:  1- Toilet paper tubes (or paper towel cardboard tubes cut in half) 2- White paper 3- Black paint 4- White paper 5- Glue (I used hot glue, but if you're more patient, you can use school or craft glue) 6- Markers (optional) How to Make the Preschool Penguins: 1- Let the kids paint the toilet paper tubes black. 2- Cut out belly, wing/arms, feet, and eyes from the white paper. I actually was going to use wiggly eyes, but I couldn't find them when we sat down. So, I just kept cutting pieces! 3- Let your preschoolers paint or color with markers the wings/arms, feet, eyes, and/or belly! My kids used different colors, decorated the bellies, and designed the expressions! When they're done, glue the penguins to...

I was putting some preschool penguin crafts on our calendar for next month, and I realized we've already done a few through the years--it would be good to put them all in one spot! We've had preschoolers at our house for more than a decade now, so I'm always cooking up new crafts and art projects for them. Some of our kids have really loved crafts while others will blow through them super fast and want to go run in circles! My preschoolers right now are crafters. They will do an art project for more than an hour straight, so we have a lot of options with them. Obviously some of the projects we've done in the past were for kids with slightly shorter attention spans! Another fun thing that I've noticed is that since we homeschool, my older kids often enjoy doing the same project as the younger kids, but the older kids refine it, add their own touches, and create a very different project inspired by the one the younger kids were doing! Anyway, here's the collection...

What is it about a preschool craft that you can put on your head that makes it so much fun?? I wonder this every year! Whatever the reason, these pumpkin crowns are adorable, and I have both a pre-colored one AND a coloring-book style version that you can use! You can make these little headbands in advance to use with pumpkin activities (how fun would counting "pumpkins" be if the pumpkins were your kids?!) or use the coloring book version so that your kids can color their own pumpkin (ANY color!) and practice cutting. Doing the entire project as a pumpkin craft lets your preschoolers strengthen fine motor skills that they will need for writing too! Or, if your preschoolers really love to design, you can just use the idea -- give them a "blank" pumpkin by cutting a circle out of white construction paper and let them design the entire project! There really are tons of options for this! I also have LOADS of pumpkin themed preschool science, art, literacy, and other pr...

One of our favorite summer themes is Sharks --  we totally started doing it years ago when I first found out about Shark Week, and it is one that I look forward to every year! This year we're kicking off with a fun craft! I was inspired by this newsprint shark , but I wanted to let my preschoolers design their own sharks and experiment with painting with watercolors and salt, so this variation was born! It is still wonderfully simple, gave the kids tons of room for personal expression, and let the kids experiment with some science concepts too! And, my 3-6 year olds did everything all by themselves. They LOVE the feeling of accomplishment when they make things independently! Simple Supplies: * watercolor paper (you can use cardstock or construction paper, but watercolor paper is really wonderful because it holds together so well, even when it's soaking wet! You can get notebooks with 20 sheets in them for very reasonable prices too!) * construction pa...

We are doing one more big art project in our  Preschool STEM series !  If you visit here much (or even just our last Preschool STEM post!) you've heard me mention how much my youngest daughter loves to do art projects, and I love to let her--partly because art is a magical experience for her, and partly because there are so much educational value to art! This particular project has 5 important supplies: 1- canvas 2- paint and brushes 3- buttons 4- glue (We used Tacky Glue so it dries faster) 5- glitter (okay, this is optional, but my girls loooove it!) I introduced the project by suggesting they use paint and buttons to create a tree from their imaginations. I encouraged them to paint backgrounds first, but many made their trees first and then added backgrounds! Either way, the results were fantastic! Since then we've done similar projects, but I didn't even need to introduce anything...the kids had their own ideas and wanted to try out their own proj...

I have an adorable 3 year old who thinks that glue and paint are some of the best things in the world, so our next project in the  Preschool STEM series  is a mixed media art project! One of the truly glorious things about this project is that there are never two identical products...each is its own beautiful masterpiece! Sidenote: there might be a certain cartoon that my preschooler also loves that involves kids making "masterpieces" in every episode. I won't lie...my heart melts a little every time she holds up a completed project and declares it "my masterpiece!" This is doubly fun to do outside. We usually work indoors to contain the mess, but a lovely woman in our community started hosting Art in the Park twice a month. She uses this exact same method, and the kids LOVE working outside! Since then I've let my own girls work outside more often, and they really enjoy it! I sometimes have to remind them to bring in the supplies when we'...