Owls

I never really thought much of owls until this year. When I started planning Lil Pumpkin’s room, I came across so many adorable owl items! Who knew they could be so cute? Her room now has owl bedding from Target and owl wall decals.

This owl-decorating obsession was the perfect thing to incorporate into one of our letter of the week lessons. We read about owls, made some crafts and played some games. One night after coming home from a late-night grocery trip, my oldest daughter and I saw an owl perched on our garage roof. It was so cool to see one up-close —especially since we had been studying about them that week! You can see all that we did over at Totally Tots: Oo is for Owl

For even more Owl-themed ideas, check out all the fun stuff I’ve pinned on my owl board on Pinterest:

Toddlers and Preschool Doctor and Nurses Day

This week in our toddler/preschool co-op class we talked about doctors and nurses. The kids dressed up like doctors, took each other’s blood pressure, and listened to hearts. We also did some fun doctor-theme crafts and projects.

The Lady with the Alligator Purse

Our main book was a bit unconventional for a doctor theme, but it was the only one I had on hand. I figured it mentioned both a doctor and a nurse, so it would work! This actually turned out to be a great pick to introduce our topic. Since it is a short book, I read it first, then I told the kids that it is a song. So we went through the book again while I taught them the song. They loved it and soon could repeat portions of the book with me!

I always divide our group in half after our story-time. Half of the group played a doctor-themed shadow match game, worked on tracing practice, and played with the doctor dress-up costume.

I laminated the tracing pages and figured out that regular crayons work just like dry-erase crayons on this laminating paper. (These tracing pages and the shadow-match game are from the Doctor and Nurses Preschool Pack from Homeschool Creations.)

The other half of the group worked on making their own doctor kit. I borrowed this doctor kit craft idea from Jolanthe---I thought it was so clever!

Before class I made the doctor bags from construction paper.  Then the kids glued various items into their kit.

 

I printed some of the items from the Doctor & Nurses preschool pack and used them in here (the Bible verse and the medicine bottle). Then we added some cotton balls, Q-tips, tongue depress0r (I only had foam ones on hand) and a band-aid. They turned out so cute!

 

I made this to easily print-off and use on the front of our kit. Feel free to use it.

Other Doctor and Nurse Resources:
Doctor and Nurse coloring page
Doctor and Nurse Preschool Pack

Linking to:
stART : A Mommy's Adventures
Read. Learn. Explore.
Preschool Corner

Ee is for Egg: Craft

We've been reading lots of books on eggs while learning about the letter Ee!  Our favorites books were An Extraordinary Egg, and Guess What's Growing Inside the Egg. We decided to do a craft that combined the egg theme and the letter E.

 
Supplies:
Egg template cut out of cardstock or craft foam
Mod Podge or white glue
Foam brush
Craft foam or cardstock for the background
Colored egg-shells
Brass fastener
Letter E cut out of craft foam or cardstock

 
You can either color the whole egg after boiling, or color the shells after peeling them off the hard-boiled egg. That’s what I did in the photo above. I mixed the shells with some drops of food coloring and rubbing alcohol and stirred. Make sure the shells are completely dry before using.

 
Place a brass fastener on the egg to hold the two halves together. Then let your child paint the egg with Mod Podge or white glue.

 
Sprinkle the egg shells over the glue.

After the egg is covered, set aside to dry.


Once it is dry, glue only the bottom portion of the egg onto the background. Glue a letter Ee underneath the top portion of the egg.

To see what else we did for our letter E week, check out my post on Totally Tots.

Shared on:
stART : A Mommy's Adventures
Read. Learn. Explore.

New Printables

Yesterday was my first post on Totally Tots! I shared what we did for our “Aa is for Astronaut” unit.
I created these printables to go along with the unit, so be sure to check the post out!
 
I love creating free printables for others to use with their children or students. The biggest problem though, was finding them on my blog. I tried to keep my link list current, but I would forget to add them. The link list also didn’t do a good job showcasing what I had available. So I decided to go ahead and make the printable section easier to use. Now when you click the free printables tab(I’ll be switching it to the new link this weekend), it will take you to a printables homepage. From there you can click on various categories.

It will take me awhile to get everything moved over, but I am excited about the ABC printables page. I’ve already have it up and running. I hope you find this helpful!

~Maureen

ABC Preschool Ideas

One of the things on my scrapbooking to-do list is create a custom ABC book for DD#3. That way I can start to introduce her to letters informally. I love that Pattie Knox has it all planned out for me with her ABC templates. All I have to do is add some digital paper and photos, upload to Shutterfly and I'll be done! (Those who know me know that I am a very slow scrapper!LOL!)

Here are some more great ABC finds that I've come across:

Letter Notebook:
http://www.homeschoolshare.com/alphabet_notebook.php

Letter Crafts:
http://www.notimeforflashcards.com/2008/12/best-of-2008-count-down-4.html

A-Z letter sheets:
http://homeschoolcreations.blogspot.com/2009/05/preschool-alphabet-worksheets.html

Alphabet Book:
http://homeschoolcreations.blogspot.com/2008/11/preschool-corner-catching-up.html