Preschool Art Activities - Hands-On Activities: MESSY & FUN

I can't imagine a day with preschoolers without preschool art activities. These provide direct hands-on learning and can be done indoors or outside.

Here are a couple of activities that have been sent to me for all to try. The first one is using clay--an excellent medium to use at the water table and gives immediate gratification to children. They can learn to make shapes, figure out what shapes can hold things and which can't.

The second one teaches colors, mixing colors, cause and effect of actions and creative ways to use ordinary household items in new ways--Fly swatters!!!


Molding Clay Containers
All this indoor activity requires is:

Molding clay
Water- use judgment, enough to keep wet.

We put the clay and water on the table. Give the children enough to work with.
Wet the area with water(you may want to use sand/water table)
The children begin to create miniature bowls, baskets,(whatever their skill level may be).

Once they have molded their clay into their design, let dry for a couple days. Once dry good. Children can paint them. Fill the with miniature goodies, flowers, etc.

FAIR WARNING-- this can be very messy, but it is lots of fun.

Fly Swatter Art
I have a simple but really fun art experience for the theme BUGS!

I DO THIS ONE OUTSIDE. Smocks are essential. Messy but oh so fun!

You can either draw or print some flies onto large paper for the easels and give the children new fly swatters.

Place some paint onto baking trays, two colours that make a new colour is usually good and they dip their swatt in and swatt the flies.

This teaches hand & eye co-ordination and if the colours get mixed they learn about new colours.

The children love this! You just have to watch the over exciteable ones as they tend to swatt everything or swatt too hard making paint fly everywhere!!


If you like these animal themes for preschool, check out the other ideas in the Preschool Planner.

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

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


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

Mary
marys.plans@gmail.com


P.S. If you would like to receive my free newsletters for ideas for your preschool class, enter your name and address at the site below:

http://preschoolplanner.com/preschool-activities.html

Preschool Nature Activities - Wall Collage & Bird Nests

Here is in the US spring is finally here. I can't think of any better plan than to do preschool nature activities with my kids. These ideas are definitely not limited to the spring time but we are all anxious to get outside and enjoy nice weather--finally after so much snow.

Going outside for walks, observing their world around them, collecting things along the way provide hours of fun learning activities to do in the classroom or outside.

Here are just 2 of my nature activities that are always a hit.

Environmental Wall Collage
we like to walk around outside & find items to put on a giant wall collage. The children find the items, glue it to poster board if they want to or straight on the wall collage.

Next we write a short story on where we went, what we found, and the children get to show off to the parents or guardians. It’s a great way to get them to recognize the environment around them and then the gluing helps with the fine motor skills and the story helps the language & development.

Use this activity before an Open House in your school and all the parents get to see just how busy their children have been!

Bird Nest
Try making bird nests with your class. Go for a walk with your preschoolers and ask them to collect twigs from the school yard. Take your twig treasures inside for your project.

Show them a real bird nest or a picture of one and tell them they will get to make their own nest. You will need a disposable foam bowl for each child.

You will need to cover the inside with craft glue. They put their twigs inside their bowl and then they pour some more glue on top of it. Set them aside for two days (or until the glue has dried.)

After two days show them how to take it out of the bowl and they will have their own personal bird nest. They are so proud of the nest that they made.

If you like these preschool nature activities, check out the other ideas in the Preschool Planner.

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

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


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

Mary
marys.plans@gmail.com


P.S. If you would like to receive my free newsletters for ideas for your preschool class, enter your name and address at the site below:

http://preschoolplanner.com/preschool-activities.html

Preschool Earth Day Lesson - Garden Soil Friends

Friday, April 22nd, is Earth Day and I feel quite strongly about teaching my
preschoolers about it. Try the preschool earth day lesson below that one of my readers sent in.

This is a topic that you can teach in so many ways and of course, HANDS ON, is my favorite way to teach.

So many of my readers feel the same way and have sent me wonderful ideas on how they teach about Earth Day. Try the idea below. So simple and meaningful. Your preschoolers will love it and learn about how the soil becomes so soft and rich for planting a summer garden or flowers.


Garden Soil Friends
On Earth day/week,we studied worms first.

Our hands on learning experience consisted of briging in a pile of organic garden soil, from my garden, squirt it with water, and we waited for the worms to crawl out.

We touched them, smelled them, we could see them, listened to them, it was great!!

Each child took a bag of dirt home, named their wormie, and gave it a new home in their back yard.

It was magical to watch the children go from "ewe to wow". I want one, I want to hold one, can I take one home?

If you like this preschool earth day lesson, check out the other ideas in the Preschool Planner.

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

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


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

Mary
marys.plans@gmail.com

P.S. If you would like to receive my free newsletters for ideas for your preschool class, enter your name and address at the site below:

http://preschoolplanner.com/preschool-activities.html

Earth Day Preschool Theme - WHY IS EARTH DAY IMPORTANT

April is the month for Earth Day Preschool theme ideas.
It is never too soon to teach our children about Earth Day and how
important it is.

Preschoolers love learning about their environment and what better
time to teach them how to preserve it and take care of it.

Here is one idea I use to teach about pollution. It is my hands on
approach to teaching and quite effective.


WHY IS EARTH DAY IMPORTANT?

To teach my preschool class about pollution,
I asked each child to bring in a piece of recyclable garbage.

At circle time, I had prepared an imaginary pond filled
with paper fish. We sat around my pretend pond while I
told them a story about how the fish live in the pond
surrounded by the beautiful woods and how happy
they are to live in such a wonderful pond.

Then I explained that as people visited the area for picnics,
they begin to throw their trash into the water. I let
each child put their piece of trash in the pond and
they have to remove a fish. I let each child do this,
one at a time. As more trash goes in, the fish of course
have to come out. Soon the pond is full of garbage and
the fish are gone. How sad for the fish and the pond.

Next we all help clean up the pond by removing the garbage
and placing it into appropriate recycling containers which
I have made ahead of time by taping commonly recycled items
(newspaper, glass bottle, plastic container) to the outside
of a paper bag.

My preschoolers truly got the message of how important
it was to have the pond clean and the fish can come back to live!


If you like this earth day preschool theme idea, check out the other ideas in the Preschool Planner.

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

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


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

Mary
marys.plans@gmail.com

P.S. If you would like to receive my free newsletters for ideas for your preschool class, enter your name and address at the site below:

http://preschoolplanner.com/preschool-activities.html

Preschool Planning - Preschoolers Forum

I know how much time goes into preschool planning
for your weeks, themes, holidays, etc.

It is an ongoing process and always fun but here is
an outstanding idea that one of my readers
sent in recently.

She gives her preschoolers an
opportunity to be part of the process!

I can't think of a better way to build a sense of
self-esteem and ownership of a child's day than
to offer them the chance to plan!

Thanks for sending this. Love it!

Preschoolers Forum

My preschoolers and I have a preschool forum once a week where they get to be part of the planning process as to what they are learning and what their interest are.

We sit around the table and have "coffee"( in fun mugs mind you) and treats while we discuss what are plans should be.

This has been an amazing asset to my program as it gives the children confidence in themselves since they are an active part in my preschool planning.

Also, each of my students have a notebook so they can write down their thoughts (with my help of course) :)


If you like this preschool planning idea, check out the other ideas in the Preschool Planner.

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

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


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

Mary
marys.plans@gmail.com


P.S. If you would like to receive my free newsletters for ideas for your preschool class, enter your name and address at the site below:

http://preschoolplanner.com/preschool-activities.html

Preschool Alphabet Game - Mystery Letter Bag

Teaching the alphabet and letter recognition is one of the basics of preschool teaching. Use a preschool alphabet game to grab their attention and engage their curiosity.

Try this game that one of my readers sent in. I can't remember any preschooler who doesn't love mystery and guessing games! Thanks so much for sharing this.

Mystery Letter Bag
Every Friday my 4 year olds look forward to The Mystery Letter Bag.

A small white paper gift bag covered with question marks appears on a hook near our calendar each Friday. It's contents includes several small mysterious items that begin with our letter of the week.

I provide "clues" as to what they might be Letter O. "The first item in my mystery letter bag is a sea creature who starts with the letter O and lives on the bottom of the sea." If their hand is raised they will be given an opportunity to guess. If the correct object is not guessed I will provide further clues. "This item that begins with the letter O has eight legs".

I keep providing more clues until the correct answer is guessed. I will frequently put an interesting food item in for the children to sample Olives, Kiwi etc. They really look forward to this game each week.


If you like this preschool alphabet game, check out the other ideas in the Preschool Planner.

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

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


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

Mary
marys.plans@gmail.com


P.S. If you would like to receive my free newsletters for ideas for your preschool class, enter your name and address at the site below:

http://preschoolplanner.com/preschool-activities.html

Preschool Art Activities - Toddler Wall Mural

My preschoolers always enjoy their preschool art activities. I use art to teach as much as I possibly can--shapes, colors, science, nature, counting, numbers, etc.

Here is an idea that one of my readers sent to me that does exactly all of these things and can be used for your even your youngest preschool student.

Toddler Wall Mural
I have used this for my class of 18 to 24 month olds.

This time of year we are learning about our world starting with sea life, then insects, animals, then birds.

Each day I take one long sheet of colored paper (blue for ocean, brown for earth, green for forest, light blue for sky) and tape it on the floor covering **simple pictures of the types of wildlife we are discussing.

These **simple pictures I have outlined with hot glue so that my little ones can scribble over them and a "secret" animal will appear.

I then tape it to the wall: ocean lowest, earth next, forest, then sky highest.

We end up with a wall mural of different animals in their habitats and my students are so proud as they show Mommy where dolphins, earthworms, and deer live!

Thanks so much for sending in this idea.

I love getting these ideas and welcome any you want to send to me.

If you like these preschool art activities, check out the other ideas in the Preschool Planner and give them a try.


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


Mary
marys.plans@gmail.com


PS: If you would like to receive my free newsletter for more ideas for your preschool class, enter your name and address at the site below:

http://preschoolplanner.com/preschool-activities.html