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?