Preschool Listening Skills - Who's Under the Blanket

With the start of the school year, we focus on providing our preschoolers the necessary skills to learn and the expectations of how to behave in preschool. Preschool listening skills are at the top of the list for sure.

One of my readers sent this in and I couldn't wait to share it.

It works on listening skills but it can also be used to help them get acquainted with their new classmates.

Give this game a try. You'll be as hooked as I am.

Who's Under the Blanket?

This is a game that the children just can't get enough of.
It's called "Who's Under The Blanket?"

Choose one child to go hide their eyes(behind a shelf maybe).

Motion for another child to quietly hide under the blanket, then everyone chants "Who's under the blanket,who's under the blanket, come and guess, come and guess".

The child hiding their eyes tries to guess who's hiding under the blanket.
Give hints by letting the child know if it's a girl or a boy or the child under the blanket can say "Hello"; that will usually give it away pretty fast.

Then the child under the blanket gets to go hide their eyes and choose another child to go under the blanket.

You can put your own twist on the game.

You can even gear the game for your theme, for example Dinosaur theme--"Who's the Dinosaur Under The Blanket, Come And Guess".

The children have to work really hard in not blurting out the name of the child under the blanket, great for practicing the rules of a game and listening skills.

Do you like this preschool listening skills game,?

Check out the other ideas in the Preschool Planner.

http://www.mypreschoolplan.com/p/ar.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 here.

Mary


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

Teaching Preschool - How to Get Preschoolers to LISTEN

Fall is just around the corner and all of us are getting ready for our new group of children. Teaching preschool means you are their first teacher and they have no expectations or experiences of what school is all about.

I believe that the sooner you set teach your preschoolers how to pay attention is with a rhyme that they can easily learn and know the expectation when they hear it.

Even better is that they begin to complete the rhyme when you start it and give you their attention quickly.

This idea is similar to one I have used but works even quicker! One of my readers sent it in for all to try.

123 Eyes on Me

When you start teaching your class and the children are not listening just say, "123. They will look at you and wonder what you are doing.

Say to them, when I say 123, I would like you children to say, "eyes on me".
They love it when I say this to them.

They love to answer back and it helps remind them to listen.

I get more done in the classroom setting because if it does start to get out of hand, I will just say 123 - eyes on me .

Once you start doing this they will automatically stop. It works every time! Most important--don't move on until they are quiet.

The whole point is to teach them politely to listen and they will mirror it back to you.


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

http://www.mypreschoolplan.com/p/ar.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


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

Fine Motor Preschool Activities - Scissors & Cutting Skills

Teaching preschoolers how to use scissors and is an ongoing task for us preschool teachers. This is one of my favorite fine motor preschool activities which allows time, fun, practice and "mess control" all in one activity.

This can be one of your centers in your classroom and four at a time is the maximum number of children I allow at any one time. Use this as a rotational activity with other similar ones.

Swimming Pool Cutting Center

One of the skills we are always working on is fine motor cutting with sissors.

You can buy a hard shell swimming pool for around 10$. It fits four students with lots of room to spare and it fits in the corner of the room nicely.

Fill it with old magazines and let them pick their favorite pictures to cut. They love being in the pool and all the mess is contained.

Be sure to make one of the rules--no standing!

Try this to allow them time to practice this necessary skill. They can simply enjoy the process and not have to worry about accuracy.

Let me know if you have any special ways you have of teaching this skill.

I will post them here for all of us to enjoy.


If you found these fine motor preschool activities helpful, check out the other ideas in the Preschool Planner.

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

Easy Preschool Summer Crafts - Summer Fish, Mirror Images and Sculptures

I hope your summers are going well and the kids are having fun. I have a few easy preschool summer crafts to share with you.

Thanks to all my readers who are flooding me with wonderful ideas! Preschoolers love to have hands on crafts that produce immediate results they can share with their classmates and families.

Give these a try and enjoy! Please send in your ideas to share. I will post them here on the blog.

Giant Wall Fish!
Here is a summer idea for giant fish! I cut a master copy of a giant fish from tagboard and let the kids trace it onto another piece of tag board (paint paper works too) and let them decorate it. The face was painted on and a giant eye was glued on the painted face.

We then used watered down glue to "paint" the fins and covered them with glitter. Last but not least we used colored "post-its" (we hat pre-cut one side round and left the sticky side straight) as the scales. Each child has a unique fish to call their own!! We put them on our bulletin board with other sea creature and they look awesome!

Styrofoam Sculptures
Mary, I've done this idea for a few years now and some of the things my preschooler's like the best is pieces of styrofoam. I borrow golf tees left over from summer, and go through my junk drawers to find anything they can hammer or press into the packing material. I take duct tape and secure each edge and provide plastic hammers and let them go! They love it, they love the mess and they love their sculptures, they love pulling pieces in and out and rearranging. It's messy but it's preschool!

Mirror Image Paintings
Let children paint a picture, when they are finished, we put another piece of paper over painted picture and use a rolling pin over it. It creates a "mirror image". They always think this is very neat!

If you like this idea for easy preschool summer crafts, check out the other ideas in the Preschool Planner 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

Preschool Science Activities - Jumping on Air

If you are looking for hands-on preschool science activities you
must try the activity below.

In the spirit of sharing one of my readers sent this in and I couldn't wait
to share it.

It involves the kids, lets them experience and discover so many concepts--their own weight, what will hold them up, counting, cause and effect and even recycling!


Jumping on Air
Materials: plastic bags from grocery
plastic ties,large garbage bag

What to do:
1.Blow up a plastic bag.Secure it with a tie.Let a child sit on it.What happen?It will pop
2.Discuss the fact that one bag is not strong enough to hold us up.How can we make stronger? By adding more bags and bunching them together we can create a cushion of air. These can support not only one child but many.
3.Let the child help to blowup numerous plastic bags. Use the tie top to secure tightly.
4.Place many inflated bags into a large garbage bag. Secure the bag with a tie when it is stuffed with the air filled produce bags.
5.Let the children sit on,fall onto or jump on it.
6.What happens? Did the bag burst? Why not? The air distributed and formed a natural cushion for the children as they jumped.

Your preschoolers will love doing preschool science activities. Get them involved and learning takes place and so much fun.

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

Circle Time - Quiet Bottles and Calendar activities

One of the special times each day in preschool is circle time.

It helps to set the tone for the day, to regroup after a boisterous activity and to review the events of the day. So much can be done at this special time.

Here are two wonderful ideas my readers sent it to share. We all can use ways to bring quiet time to the circle. Try the Quiet Bottles. Teaching calendars is so much fun and often challenging so try the Calendar Circle time idea with your kids.

Quiet Bottles
This is an idea that my 3-4 yr old class loves

I saved several of the smaller, plastic Coke bottles to make these.
(I make these in front of the children so their question of "How did you do that?"
is answered by observing.)

Fill each bottle about half and half of water and cooking oil.
Add a few drops of food coloring. Glue the lid back on
and twist tightly. I make several bottles and make them different
colors. The children can hold these during circle time and watch the
"waves" quietly while listening to our story, etc. I remind the
children to be as quiet as their bottle is. The bottle keeps busy hands
occupied instead of bothering a neighbor.

TIP: these bottles are also ideal for calming really hyper children.

Circle Calendar Time

One idea that I like to use during circle time when I do my calendar is:
When counting down the days of the month that have passed I like to incorporate movement, for example, in the month of October we pretended to pick pumpkins for every day of the month that passed.

Each month the theme changes and so do the type of movements. January we snow skied down the slopes, Feb. we did heart beats, March we were dinosaurs, etc... Use your imagination and let the children help decide, it is a fun way to get the wiggles out!

Thanks so much for sending in your ideas. Keep them coming and I will post them for all of us to use.

If you like this idea for circle time, check out the other ideas in the Preschool Planner 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

Preschool Travel Games - Train Travel

With summer vacations starting I like to use preschool travel games and transportation themes in June.

Preschoolers love to pretend and what better way to to stimulate their
imagination than to take a pretend train ride.

I use circle time to talk about trains and ask about their own experiences with trains. Some children may have been on a train and others only read about them in books or seen them in videos or on television.

Train Depot Game

I often bring in a model train display to the preschool to show the preschoolers.

I set up a train depot with tickets.
The children buy tickets with fake money. The children give their ticket to my assitant, or to another child who acts as the conductor, so he/she can punch the ticket as they go in to watch the train display.

I allow them to take turns and run the train around the track.

They like to make the sound effects of a train engineer or conductor. Lots of fun here!


Crafts: Train Car

Each child will need color construction paper, large rectangle shape for the train car, 3 small rectangles for windows and two circles for wheels.

Use this activity to teach shapes, counting, and color recognition.

You can have an engine already displayed on a wall or bulletin board.
The students add their cars when they finish.

Each student starts with a piece of colored construction paper. If you have students who are able to use scissors, help them cut out rectanges and circles. If not, pre-cut these shapes for the younger ones to glue to their cars.

**(Remember that cutting can be difficult so depending on the ages of your children, you may want to precut some of the shapes or you can use stickers and labels of varying sizes. Mailing labels will make great windows.)

They can cut out a rectangle for the car (or you can help them cut.) Then, they can use several small, white rectangles to serve as the windows of the car.

Once those are glued in place, students can use two small, black circles for the wheels. When everything is glued together, students may decorate their car however they wish.

Each student makes a train car that will join with everyone else’s to make a full-length train.

If you like these preschool travel games, 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