Marshmallow Painting

    Introducing... Number 5

When we talk about a number, we like to do a complete number study which usually includes

• Prewriting Activities
• Tracing
• Counting
• The Number Word
• Ways to Make It  (2+3, 4+1,etc.)

For the number five, we decided to use marshmallows to stamp out five and continued by circling "ways to make" five.  Of coarse, the marshmallows added an extra fun factor as well as a snack when we were done.

Marble Painting

    Some days we just need a break from our regular curriculum for some painting fun but we hate to clean up a big mess.  We tried out marble painting which we've heard so much about and it worked wonderfully.  We give it two thumbs up.  First, we covered the inside of a big plastic box with foil.  Next, we put a blank sheet of paper in the bottom of the box.  Last, we put paint on opposite ends of the paper's edge and began rolling our marbles from the paint to the paper by tilting the box from side to side.  When we were done, we had awesome refrigerator art and hardly any mess to clean up.  This is the perfect preschool activity.

Eating The Letter T

    Learning the letter T turned out to be lots of fun.  One activity that Tony and I did was to eat the letter T.  Every day for "T" week,  we ate a letter T snack.  We used a sandwich cutter we found at Wal-Mart to cut his sandwich meat into trains (to be expected, Tony named the train Thomas the Tank Engine) and then we added a "cheesy" Sir Thomphan Hat to top it off.  Some other T foods we ate were:
Tortellini with Tomato Sauce
Teddy Grahams
Taffy
Twizzlers

Prewriting Numbers and Counting Practice

    When Tony turned three, we bought him a preschool curriculum consisting mostly of worksheets but found that we only use it to reinforce our "hands-on" activities.  This activity shows how we combine both the workbook and the tactile lessons.  Tony first traces the number.  He and I do a counting song (Ten Little Indians, This Old Man, etc.) and place stickers or Bingo dotters on the traced number.  We then use post-it notes to count out again using stickers.

Tanagram Puzzles

    This activity could have lasted all day.  My son, who is three, loves a challenge.  He'll sit for an hour at a time doing puzzles.  For school, we decided to break out the tanagram shapes.  We happen to have some tanagram work mats to use but have printed them off of the computer before at http://www.abcya.com/shapes_geometry_game.htm.

Fine Motor Development

    I'm always concerned about the ever closing window of opportunity for developing fine motor skills.  Hardly a day goes by when I don't do a fine motor activity.  We love to string and lace things, from cheerios to pasta.  Usually, we follow up with tracing, cutting, or coloring.

Tot Food

    I've discovered that my preschooler loves his food to be in little compartments.  No more fighting to get him to eat.  If he had his way, every meal would look like it came out of Seussville!  Who knew that he would eat peas from an icecube tray or a muffin pan?

Prewriting Marshmallow Name

    There's nothing more motivating to preschoolers than being allowed to play with their food.  Learning to spell his name orally seemed easy enough for my Tony but I realized when he first turned 3 that he would need more practice before tracing it in written form.  We came up with the idea to write his name as large as would fit on a piece of construction paper.  The contrast of black paper with white chalk seemed to work best.  He loved covering each letter with mini marshmallows, eating them, and doing it all over again.  We've used beans, un-popped popcorn, popped popcorn, cooked spaghetti, and more for the same activity.

Bottle Cap Patterns

    One thing that I always enjoy teaching to preschoolers is sorting objects.  We've found that using inexpensive items that we have around the house works best.   My 3 year old and I use a collection of bottle caps we have to sort by color and size.  We began with a simple A,B pattern (red, blue, red, blue).  Next we added an AA, BB pattern (red, red, blue, blue).  From there the patterns just kept getting more elaborate; A,A,B  and A,B,B,C, etc.  We had so much fun with this activity.   For days he was noticing patterns everywhere we went. Another golden opportunity seized!

Prewriting Skills Using Sticker Dots

    This activity always seems to go over big with three and four year olds because it is both tactile and visual.  We begin by using DOTS printouts from http://totschool.shannons.org/?page_id=2360.  First we trace the letter and then we cover each dot with circle garage sale stickers or bingo dotters.  We use this as a "teaching patterns" moment and discuss the different color patterns we can make.  When we're finished we always cut and paste magazine pictures and objects that begin with the appropriate letter sound.

Counting Reinforcement With Toilet Paper Tubes

    It's amazing how much learning can go on with just a few recyclable items.  Some empty toilet paper rolls and a bag of mini marshmallows and you can open up a two hour window of brain power.  My preschooler and I began by labeling each roll with numbers greater than ten.  First we decided just to count out the marshmallows and drop them into the correct tubes.  Before I knew it, my little guy decided to put two in at a time, hence teaching himself to "count by twos".  Afterwards, he had a high motivation to EAT the marshmallows, which we quickly made into a subtraction lesson.  When we were done, we made toothpick and marshmallow geometric figures.  The whole while, his fine motor skills were being developed.