J is for Jelly Beans

Did you know that next week is National Princess Week?

We are busy around here getting all of our ideas ready!

Although we know it is a marketing scheme, we still love princesses,

and are excited to spend a week on that theme.

Meanwhile,

Here is what we did at Preschool today.

We learned all about the letter Jj,

and we focused our day around jelly beans.

This is actually the PERFECT time to learn about the letter Jj,

because all of the Jelly beans are 50-70% off at the stores.

During circle time we used our jelly bean pointers,

to work on our learning mats.

We read My "Jj" book by Jane Belk Moncure.

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I love these books!

They are so vintage,

I was thrilled when I found the WHOLE set at my thrift store.

In the book little "J" finds things that start with the letter J,

and puts them in his box,

and often he jumped over his box while he did it.

We held the things that started with Jj and jumped over our box too.  Then in our journals we wrote down words that start with the letter Jj.

Next we had fun with Jelly beans.

Our current Math unit is to learn about patterns.

I was delighted to find this printable!

The children had a blast extending the patterns.

And making their own patterns too.

We also sorted our jelly beans,

cause why not!

I found this printable here (as part of a jellybean kit)

We used milk jug lids to match the circles.

I've been saving them up for months!!

Then it was time for snack.

I made an Amish eggless sugar dough recipe, found here.

I rolled out the dough and cut out the letter Jj.

Then I had them use....you guessed it...jelly beans

to make a pattern on their letter Jj.

Yum and fun!

The ended up throwing away most of their jelly beans.

Your welcome Mr. Dentist.

Last but not least we learned the rhyme, Jack be nimble.

I put a real candle stick down,

and they jumped over it while we said the rhyme.

Thanks Preschool Daze for the idea!



Button, button who has a button?

Spring is a great time to have rainy day activities inside.

On this rainy day, we had a great time doing some button sorting.

We read the vintage book called,
The Button Box, by Margarette Reid


Each page is filled with different ways to sort Grandmother's buttons. 

 

They both loved touching the buttons and sorting them.

Thanks to StrongStart for this great book activity!

Next we decided to make a button necklace.

So we strung buttons onto a thread and needle.

She had a great time and was so focused.

It was a simple activity that was really engaging for both a 4 year old, and a 18 mo. old.

 

Valentine's Love

We are feeling the love around here!

By second week of January I hung all of my Valentines decorations,

I was feeling the void of all those Christmas Decs,

So I decided to spread the LOVE!

And now we're ready for Valentines learning time!

We started by sorting these hearts by colors.

She was into this!

I have seen lots of fancy products out their for sorting,
and they are great,
and expensive,
So I was thrilled when I found these hearts at our craft store.

While she was sorting,

he was doing some fine motor work

by putting the hearts into a jar.

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Sorting is so good for everyday life,

Think about it, when you are cleaning your house,

You are sorting.

 (This goes in the bathroom, this goes in my room, this needs to be thrown out.)

So it's a great life skill.

Here is a great book I recently found about sorting:

It's called Sorting by Henry Pluckrose.
It helps children understand the idea of sorting.

Next we did some fine motor skill,
and sharing work.

I found this canister and these hearts at the dollar store.

Both of them loved taking turns to put them in the holes.

They were so sparkly and pretty,
so that didn't hurt the appeal factor either!

So the great thing was, these two activities didn't take too long,
but it was a definite boredom buster.
Once I got them started on the last activity I went upstairs and started dinner. 
Because they got a little brain candy, they played together nicely for a good half hour.
And that, is why I do learning time!

So how do you start?
Pick a book, an idea, or an art project.
Read the book,
then extend the learning.
It could be as simple as getting out the playdough,
and retelling the story with playdough figures.
Simple good fun. :)

Taste The Rainbow

Skittles...Taste The Rainbow

 

It's great for kids to learn with more than one sense.

So continuing with yesterdays theme,

We learned about color with our sense of sight and taste.

I like to keep things simple,

So while I was drawing a Rainbow for Miss Sassy to use,

She was drawing her own Rainbow

I did this right after Lunch.

I quickly cleaned off the table,

Grabbed some markers, papers and Skittles and we got learning.

I gave her my drawing of the Rainbow

And she sorted the Skittles by color.

The only stipulation: No eating the Skittles until they were all sorted.

I kept baby H in his highchair and gave him books to read.

It was fun and tasty!

It's great for kids brains to sort any item.

And colors are right up my 3 year olds alley now.