Preschool Powol Packets

Do you need a dinosaur preschool activity that takes less than 30 seconds to set up ?   I have one for you today! Actually, I have a whole series of no-prep dinosaur activities ! I think you'll love them because they're SO easy to set up and are still super engaging! I know they've been useful to me!! Anyway, today's super-easy-but-insanely-fun dinosaur preschool activity is all about dinosaur footprints!  As an extra bonus, it works great for babies and toddlers too (as long as they're not allergic to wheat)! Dinosaur footprints are one of the ways we have learned about dinosaurs.  The footprints can tell us their size, if they likely walked on two feet or four, how big their gait was, and more!  You can talk to your kiddos about all the great science we can get from dinosaur footprints and how footprints are a type of "trace fossil" (meaning a fossil made by a living critter without any of the critter actually fossilized), and how fossils are m...

Space, astronomy, and planets have always been some of my favorite themes, so I love sharing them with my preschoolers! This little Playdough Planets activity can be a whole project on its own, or just a fun extension you can add in to your day next time you pull out some playdough! We started with Jupiter because I was talking about how you can see both Jupiter and Venus right now, easily, shortly after sunset, with my older kids. (If you live in the northern hemisphere, look for the two bright planets after sunset in the western sky.) My preschooler joined us while we talked about how some awesome Jupiter Fun Facts (see below), and then I pulled out the play dough. I limited the colors to red, orange, and yellow. He happily designed four different "Jupiters" and then -- on a different day -- asked to repeat the entire activity! Play dough is awesome for developing fine motor skills and pre-writing muscles. Pulling it out when you talk about science lets kids stretch their...

My preschoolers' new favorite thing this week has been how to make crystals -- they have been growing a new set almost every day, so I thought I'd share how to grow crystals with anyone else who might want to give it a try!   There are a lot of ways to grow crystals, but I'm sharing the easiest, fastest, most satisfying way here. It's the only one that gives you awesome, "big," results in less than a day! Growing salt crystals or sugar crystals are both fun because they are common kitchen items, but using borax let's you see the results sooner! PARENT WARNING : This method involves hot water . This is a child-assisted experiment, where you (the adult) does all the dangerous hot-water handling, and the kids help with the safer parts. Don't worry--they still feel very invested, involved, and they love the process! SUPPLIES : ** Mason jars ** Hot pad or tongs ** fuzzy craft stick, cut in half ** wooden craft stick or pencil ** string ** powdered borax ** ...

Coming November 8th: Water Cycle Activities for Kids!! Water Cycle Activities for Kids: To celebrate A Dinosaur Made Me Spill  coming out, I'm teaming up with a group of amazing teachers, homeschoolers, and authors to bring you the ultimate set of Water Cycle Activities for kids from preschool age up to middle school!! You will LOVE what we have coming!! There are science activities, art projects, STEM projects, free printables, and so much more! And all the details will be right here on this page--bookmark it, stick it on your calendar, and come back on November 8th for the links!! November 8:   Water Cycle Model - Schooling With Grace Water Cycle Word Search - Tree Valley Academy Water Cycle Unit Study - The Wolfe Pack Den November 9:   Water Cycle Lesson Plans - Hess Un-Academy 5 Water Cycle Experiments - With the Huddlestons Water Cycle Lapbook - Blessed Homeschool November 10:   Cloud Art Project - Tiny Green Earthling Sink & Float Activity - Britt Powitz ...

The third activity in our first day of our little  preschool dinosaur summer camp  is a fossil matching game!  Preschool Dinosaur Summer Camp (or Unit Study) Day 1 You can see the 4-day outline for our DIY preK summer camp  here !   The third activity is a fossil matching game! Everything we know about dinosaurs comes from fossils, and there are a lot of fossils in the world!  This matching games is super flexible--for younger kids, just print two sets of the images and match them together.  If you have kids that can read, print the text cards, and let them match labels to each fossil image! While you play, I like to talk about how many fossils were made from buried layers of mud, but fossils were also made in these ways: * freezing * fossilizing in tar * fossilizing in amber or other saps Click HERE to get the FREE fossil matching game!! After you play a few times, go back to  this outline  for more activities for the first day of the P...

Summer is coming up, and one of our preschool traditions is to do a "summer camp" at home! We never really planned it that way, but one activity led to another, and one year led to another, and... here we are! As I set up the schedule this year, I'm doubly excited to be doing a dinosaur theme! This fits right in with our Dinosaur Day Celebration (May 15th-June 1st), so we will be sharing even more awesome dinosaur-themed ideas and activities in my STEM group on Facebook . You'll notice that each day comes with a book recommendation. This is because literacy is SO critical for young children! It ties into everything we do with them because it prepares them for independent learning in the future! Since we generally do 4-5 day "camps," I'm setting up the format so that between May 10th and 21st you'll get links to all the activities right here! It would be waaaaay too long to put it all in one article, so this "landing page" will link out to 1...

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 winter-themed preschool activities for January and February? Then you will LOVE this Winter Preschool MEGA Packet!! I have combined all of my preschool winter printable activities to make this the ultimate preschool download for you this year! There are puzzles, patterns, letter activities, mazes, shadow matching, games, easy readers, and SO MUCH MORE!! It is the ultimate preschool bundle--all in one super convenient PDF!! It has over 180 pages of printable activities!! There are math, literacy, science, and more subjects covered!! Classic January and February preschool themes include arctic and Antarctic animals, penguins, polar bears, winter, snow, mittens, Valentines, and more!! What is in the Winter Preschool MEGA Activity Packet? Here is the Table of Contents: 1- Polar Bear Preschool Packet (over a dozen activities) 2- N is for Narwhal dot page 3- Who Likes the Cold?  (easy reader) 4- Awesome Arctic Animals Preschool Packet (over a dozen activiti...