Beautiful Bottle-cap Bugs

Things got "buggy" during my preschool
Monday Fun class,
especially after I read...

...Mystery in Bugtown.
It is one of my FAVORITE
read aloud to kiddos...

I mean, with giant eye-balls and illustrations...

...like these,
who WOULDN'T enjoy the book?

I also slipped in some Science by discussing
what makes an insect an insect:

2 Antennae
3 Body Parts
6 Legs

We discussed which critters in the book
were insects,
and which ones were not.

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After book and discussion,
I gave the kiddos a variety of plastic jug caps,
paint pens, craft glue, and googly eyes
so they could make
Bottle-cap Bugs.

Some of the kiddos chose to make add the googly eyes...

...and some did not.

Either way, they created...

...some simple and sweet insects.

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I brought back the explorer boxes,
and with them...

...I gave the kiddos a mission.

Inside the boxes were a wide variety of critters...

...some of them being insects,
and some of them were not.

After "digging out" the critters from the
"grass"
(aka colored macaroni)...

(I used the recipe found
HERE to color the macaroni)

...the kiddos sorted them:

Red Bowls: Not an Insect
Green Bowls: Insect.

We just go "bug"-listic over bugs!

Up Next: Foodie Fun...

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Check out more fun for your kiddos by
heading on over to:

Feed Me Books Friday,
Get Crafty,
Preschool Corner,
Read, Learn, Explore,
and stART...

St. Patty's Day Palooza!

A couple of weeks ago,
I led my stART Enrichment group
through some St. Patty's Day "Preview" fun,
so posting this ON St. Patrick's Day seemed appropriate...

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I began the class by reading...

...this book...

...and this book.

Since the books featured some funny little men in green,
we discussed how legend says leprechaun's hide
their treasure at the end of a rainbow.

Naturally, we then had to make
"Rainbow Sculptures."

I gave each kiddo a floral form...

...which they put rainbow colored pipe cleaners into.

Then they added as many rainbow-colored beads......as they wanted to the pipe cleaners.Then they completed the sculpture
by poking the pipe cleaners back into
the floral forms...

...to form rainbows.

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Once the rainbows were done,
I brought...

...Lime Green Jello Playdough......for the kiddos......to play with.

(You can find the recipe I used
for this Playdough over at
Hubbard's Cupboard.
I used the September recipe,
substituting Lime Green Jello
for the Green Apple.
ALL her Playdough recipes ROCK!)

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I hope you find your St. Patty's day...

...leaving a smile upon your face!

Next week's theme: Crazy Cars!

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Check out more fun for your kiddos at the following:

Feed Me Books Friday,
Get Crafty!,
Preschool Corner,
Read, Explore, Learn,
and
stART...

Penguin Pride

In this week's preschool stART class,
the theme was Penguins.

I decided to base the class activities around...

...this book,
Three Cheers for Tackyby
Helen Lester.

Such-a-fun-book!

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Before I read the story,
I had the kiddos begin work on
the day's craft...

...these Styrofoam ball penguins.

(I needed them to paint the two Styrofoam balls
so they could dry a bit before
we put the rest of the penguins together.)

(Don't these fellas just look
psyched to be in my class?) :0)

To help them paint the balls completely,
without getting the paint all over themselves,
I put a toothpick in the head...

...and the body.
(AHHHHH! It's the headless penguin!)

This allowed them to hold onto the parts
and paint with ease.

The toothpicks also served as the way to keep the
penguins together.

Instead of using glue,
just push the head and body toothpicks together.

Later, after the penguin forms dried a bit,
I used glue dots to adhere the googly eyes
and felt parts of the body.

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Side note: If I did this again,
I would use craft glue, NOT glue dots.
AND I would have let the paint dry completely.
Basically, I probably would not do this craft again
in a situation where I only had 45 minutes to get it
completed.
It DEFINITELY needs dry time!

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After the story,
I pulled out the day's Exploration Boxes...

...which had a "Black and White" theme,
in honor of the penguin.

As you can see...

...there was a flurry of excitement when I
pulled the boxes out and let the kiddos go!

I added another fun element to the box
this week...
...Black and White I Spy Cards.

I took pictures of different items from the boxes
and had the kiddos search for them.

That added the amount of challenge some of the
kiddos needed to keep their interest in the boxes.

Up Next: Valentine's Day...

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Soooooooo,
for more creative learning experiences
for your kiddos,
heard on over to
Feed Me Books Friday,
Kids Get Crafty!,
Preschool Corner,
Read, Explore, Learn,
and
stART...

Whistlepig Whimsy

This past week in my Monday FUN
preschool stART class,
the kiddos and I read...

...Groundhog Gets a Say
by
Pamela Curtis Swallow.

(I also used this book last year with my own kiddos-
you can read more by clicking HERE.)

I then gave the kiddos craft supplies and they got busy...

...decorating burrows for their wooden spoon groundhogs.

(Oh, and in case you didn't know,
groundhogs love to practice their ninja moves
with each other...)

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After we finished the crafts...

...the kiddos dug into the activity boxes.

This week's boxes included rocks,
brown and black floral dot filler,
and plastic snakes, lizards, and insects.

(You can see what our activity boxes
were like last week by clicking HERE.)

The kiddos had fun making patterns...

...and soup...

...which the groundhogs greatly enjoyed.

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Oh, and I was so proud of Jungle Girl
this week.

She is my unofficial "helper" in class,
since she is in the 3rd grade.

She is VERY helpful, by the way,
and this week she was also very thoughtful...

One of the girls in our class was sick,
so Jungle Girl decided to make a puppet for her.

She went ABOVE AND BEYOND the call of duty...

One side of the puppet
showed Miss Groundhog
happily looking outside of her burrow
and not seeing her shadow...

...while the other side of the puppet
showed Miss Groundhog
being rather frightened by
her own shadow.

How creative is she?

On tap for next week's class:
Penguins

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For more fun and creative ideas for your kiddos,
head on over to
Feed Me Books Friday,
Kids Get Crafty!,
Preschool Corner,
Read, Explore, Learn,
and stART...