Preschool Curriculum Activities - April Fool's Day Fun

What better way to celebrate a new month than with preschool curriculum activities for April Fool's Day! The basic idea is to have fun, play jokes, and laugh.

Try the ideas below and enjoy yourself and let your preschoolers have pleasant fun. Preschoolers love this day and tricking their friends and parents.

For preschoolers, "Knock, knock" jokes are a favorite. Here is a joke I have used for years and as simple as it is, the kids enjoy it:

APRIL FOOL Question:

Q: Why are people so tired on April 1st?
A: Because they just finished a 31-day March


Silly Pictures

Find pictures from magazines, old books, (even draw your own) that are familiar to your children in everyday life.

Next cut out a section of the picture which makes it look silly or "wrong" such as gluing it upside down, cutting a wheel off of a bicycle or car, gluing flowers upside down in a flower pot. etc. Make as many silly pictures as you can.

Use Circle Time to show them the pictures and ask what is wrong with them. The kids love this. You can make some easier than others so that even the youngest will be able to participate!

April Fool's Snack:

BUGS IN THE SAND

Graham crackers (sand)
Chocolate sprinkles( resemble ants)
Raisins (resemble beetles)
Red Hots (resemble lady bugs)
Oyster crackers (resemble spider eggs)


Place graham crackers in a plastic sandwich bag and crush with a
rolling pin. Use these individual plastic bags or small cups and put the crumbled graham crackers in them. Then put one of the ingredients above to make the bugs, then seal the bag or cover the cup. Give these to the kids to take outside and eat or let them pour it into a small bowl and eat at the table--using their fingers, of course.

Ask for their ideas of what the bugs are that are in the sand. Give hints and have fun. You can serve juice that is colored green and call it Bug Juice!

For a fun April Fool's Snack, try these "Fooled Ya French Fries". I saw this recipe at the link below:

http://www.recipezaar.com/April-Fools-Fooled-Ya-French-Fries-159047

My kids loved this and had so much fun being "tricked"!

If you like these ideas, you'll love the other ideas in the Preschool Planner.

Check them out:

http://www.preschoolplanner.com/thefullstory.html

There are Two Editions now for the Preschool Planner: Basic or Platinum.

If you prefer lessons which have ideas for the Toddler Age, go here to the second volume of lessons. There is an entire bonus section devoted to TODDLERS.

http://www.preschoolwhiz.com/v2.html

Send me any ideas you would like to share and I will post them on my Blog.

Mary
marys.plans@gmail.com

Preschool Curriculum Activities - Fine Motor Skills Activity

Special thanks to Deanna, one of my readers, who sent me one of her favorite preschool curriculum activities.

I find that this age group loves any lesson or activity that involves using
their hands or bodies and mastering their abilities to do things themselves.
Deanna has tapped into this and come up with a delightful and effective way
to help them with fine motor skills and counting. How great is that!

Fine Motor Skills Activity

From Deanna…I like to do a lot of fine motor style activities with my three and four year olds....of course, you can incorporate many skills along the way as you do
so. When doing a unit on Farm Animals, I give the kids various large prints of farms animals (depending upon which animal we are working on that day),
and then they "cover" their animal with objects, by first counting out 10
objects to use, and then making that same amount of 'dots' of glue in
different spots on the animals body. They then proceed to place the object
upon the glue.

For example, for the Sheep....we use "cotton balls" to cover the
body....therefore counting to ten several different times. (for four year
olds, 20 is more challenging); for the Horse...we use brown construction
paper, and make the activity into a "tearing" project; for the Pig...we use
our thumbs dipped in pink paint to push and press to make thumb prints to
cover the body, again counting along the way; for the Cow...the three year
olds work on cutting out pre-drawn circles, and then gluing then onto the
cows body, but for the four year olds, they are cutting out their own version
of circle to glue to the cows body; and for the Chicken...we use "feathers"
and get to count and glue again.

The children always love to use their hands in projects, so they have
always appeared to love this!


If you have ideas to share, send them along and I'll post them here for all
of us to use and enjoy.

Thanks,

Mary
marys.plans@gmail.com


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