Write a Comic Strip

It's been awhile since I have posted! I'm still teaching preschool, and I have started doing after school activities with all of my kids. Recently, we made a comic strip. First we talked about types of comic strips, read a few, and discussed various parts (like dialogue, action, caption). I used this website for info.

The website also provided a planning worksheet, seen here.

And finally, we used this comic creator.

My six and eight year old did most of it by themseves, and my three year old told me which character he wanted and what he wanted them to say. They turned out great!

W is for Whale

1. Whale worksheet

2. Shark Game:
Tell the kids that they are fish and you are a shark. Pick a safe spot (like the couch) and tell them to hide. As soon as the shark finds them, they must swim back to the safe spot before the shark gets them!

3. Learn about whales here.

4. Whale puzzle: color, cut, put together, paste.

5. Art time! Draw an oultine of a whale on contact paper. Paper punch holes in various colors (we did blue, light blue, and white). Tell the kids to put the dots inside the whale outline on the sticky contact paper. Seal the whale with another piece of contact paper.

6. Measure a whale - use measuring tape and string to measure out 100 feet (we pulled the measuring tape out to 10 feet, and measured the string 10 times).

Picasso for Kids!

I started an art class once a week with my kiddies, and this week we learned about Picasso. Picasso is such a versatile artist. He's mostly known for his cubist period, but there is so much more! You can't say you dislike his artwork until you have seen it all. Like most people, my kiddies thought some of his artwork was very odd, but it was a great teaching moment. I explained how creative and innovative Picasso really was, changing the artworld forever. Sometimes it pays to think differently!

1. This website has a great info about the artist.
2. And this website was lots of fun - the kids got to create their very own Picasso head!
3.We also made our own Picasso work, using The Three Musicians for our inspiration. We used sheet music, musical instrument templates, colored paper cut in geometric shapes, and cardboard for canvas. It took a little coaxing to use triangles and squares for heads, but they were really proud of their finished masterpieces!

R is for Rainbow

Wow, it's been awhile! We are still learning, just not blogging so much. But today was fun and blog-worthy!

1. Made indoor rainbows and traced them onto paper, instructions here.

2. Made rainbow flowers with leftover flowers from Valentine's Day.

3. Finished an online rainbow puzzle.

4. Played a rainbow game, found here.

5. Had a rainbow lunch with red jello, orange carrots, yellow bananas, and green lettuce. The kiddies ate all of it! And when they asked for seconds, they asked for carrots and lettuce! Apparently food art makes it taste better!

See Spot

I love the spot books, probably as much as my kiddies do. I just found this website with great stories and educational games: Fun with Spot.

G is for Giraffe

1. Online jigsaw puzzle, found here.
2. Learn about giraffes here.
3. Make this fun giraffe craft!

F is for Fall

1. Collect fall items: leaves, acorns, pinecones
2. Sort
3. Make a fall wreath and leaf book, instructions found here.
5. Learn about falling leaves here.

E is for Elephant

1. Measured the size of an elephant, instructions here
2. Learned elephant facts, found here
3. Made an elephant puppet
4. Snack: elephant biscuits

E is for Egg

1. Learned about animal eggs here
2. Painted tin foil eggs, instructions found here
3. Had an Easter egg hunt without the candy
4. Snack: Sandwiches cut in the shape of eggs

D is for Dinosaur

1. Read "How Do Dinosaurs Say Goodnight?"
2. PBS Dinosaur Train
3. Made Pipe Cleaner Dinosaurs
4. Snack: Dug for dinosaur fruit snacks in chocolate pudding

C is for cat

1. Read the Cat in the Hat
2. Played Cat in the Hat online games
3. Read Three Little Kittens Nursery Rhyme
4. Played Littlest Pet Shop

B is for Bear

1. Read this book
2. Read Goldilocks and the Three Bears online
3. Watched Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?
4. Played this matching game
5. Did this pattern worksheet
6. Made a hibernating bear craft, as seen here.

B is for Butterfly

1. We talked about the life cycle of a butterfly

2. Watched The Very Hungary Caterpillar

3. Flew like butterflies

4. Made a butterfly snack: add colorful snack food to a ziplock baggie, tie the middle with a twisty tie. Eat!

5. BBC online book: The Butterfly Trail

A is for Astronaut

1. Snack: Make astronaut food! Add instant pudding mix and milk to a ziplock bag. Shake, refrigerate, eat! Snip the corner to eat right from the bag.

2. Go to the NASA Kids website

3. Make your own spaceship! Cover a laundry basket with a white sheet, add steering wheel and buttons. We had one astronaut costume and used an adult white shirt for the other space suit.

Preschool - Apple Theme

Summer camp is over and school has begun! I wanted to spend more time with my little girl this year, so we are doing preschool at home. I thought I would post my lesson plans, 2 or 3 times a week.

We are starting with letters, and right from the beginning.

A is for Apple

1. Play hide and seek with an apple
2. Sample three apples (different varieties). Make a chart, writing down the name, the color, and a smile or frown depending on the taste. Gala and Golden apples were well liked, Granny Smith - not so much.
3. Cooking lesson: applesauce.
4. Art project: draw a tree and use a red ink pad and fingers to make the apples.
5. Field trip (planned for later this week): visit an apple farm.

Cooking / Science Camp

We took a break from our summer camps and went on vacation. Much needed.

This week is Science/Cooking Camp!

Ideas:

Food Art
Bubbles Recipe
Rock Candy
Farmer's Market

And as many activities as we can fit in from this website:

http://pbskids.org/zoom/activities/sci/

Water Safety

We are off to the pool! Found this website with a download study unit on water safety - it's 40 pages but I just printed off a few. I found the safe swimming rules and buoyancy experiment especially useful.

Grass Heads aka Homemade Chia Pets

We made grass heads! A boy and girl with no names, as of yet. Here's how we did it:

1. Eat applesauce, yogurt, or pudding and wash out the containers.

2. Find an old pair of nylons, cut off feet

3. Add about 1 tsp of grass seed to nylon foot

4. Add about 1 cup soil

5. Tie a knot

6. Keep about an inch of the tail and cut off the rest.

7. Work the seeds into the soil a bit (you can see them a little on the top)

8. Fill container half way with water

9. Place grass head on top with tail submerged in the water

10. Decorate, place in a sunny location, and watch them grow!

11. They will need a hair cut from time to time.

Scout Camp

This one has been a little harder for me to plan. I have no experience with scouts, except a faint memory of my brothers repeating the scout motto over and over again. None the less, here are my ideas:

1. Visit the county fair, see all the animals

2. Indoor camp in a new room each night

3. Go on a hike with a map and compass

4. Bike Safety

5. Water safety at the pool

6. Knot Tying

7. Have a Pinewood derby race

8. Geocaching

9. Fire in a can and roasting marshmallows

10. Rock Museum

The Wetlands

Made a trip to the wetlands this week. All were impressed! So much wildlife in such a small area. I'd like to go back again (with a bird book), maybe in the spring?