Preschool Corner ~ Ocean Week 3

Aiden has been having so much fun with the ocean theme that we decided to continue it for another week. 

Book of the Week and Craft:

This week we read Starfish: Stars of the Sea and made a starfish out of Crayola Model Magic.  I helped him shape the starfish and he used a small strainer, which he pushed onto the starfish, to add some texture.

 

Alphabet Fun:

I bought some sea shells from the Dollar Store and wrote the letters of the alphabet on them.  Here are some of the fun activities we did with them.

I hide the shells in the sand and Aiden hunted for them ~ naming the letters written on the shells.

 

We lined up the shells, letter side up, and Aiden and I worked on letter sounds and naming words that started with each letter.  

Aiden’s favorite activity was tossing a pearl (marble) into the container and naming which letter in landed on. 

Lastly we played find the pearl.  I took a couple of the shells and hid a pearl under one of them.  Aiden tried to guess which shell the pearl was hidden under.

Numbers and Counting:

Aiden is completely fascinated with sharks so I made a shark bucket to use for a counting game.  I used a sand bucket and added two rows of teeth and a fin that I cut out of foam sheets.

Aiden rolled the dice and feed the shark fish that I cut out of foam.

Shapes:

Aiden loves fishing so I added some shapes, cut out of foam sheets, to a container of water and let Aiden fish for them. 

After he caught all the shapes he had fun catching his sister! : )

Next week are heading to the beach {insert HAPPY DANCE!}.  Hopefully we will see some of the sea life we have been learning about ~ NO sharks please!  I won’t be posting a Preschool Corner post next week but I look forward to reading about everyone else’s week while I am kicked backed relaxing!

To check out more Preschool ideas and activities visit Preschool Corner!

~Cindy

Feed The Shark Counting Game

To make the shark for this game I used a sand bucket that I got from the Dollar Store.  I cut two rows of teeth and a fin out of foam sheets and taped them to the bucket, then I added two big eyes.

I put fish, also cut out of foam, in a basket and number dice.

Aiden rolled the dice and feed the correct number of fish to the shark.

 

I had to laugh ~ every time he feed the shark he would throw the fish in the sharks mouth really quickly so the shark wouldn’t bite him.

~Cindy

Alphabet Sea Shells

Aiden LOVES sea shells!  He loves to sort them, hide them and just look at all the different kinds of shells.  Since he is loving shells right now ~ I took some shells from the Dollar Store and wrote the letters of the alphabet on them.  Here are some of the fun things we did with them.

I hide them in a container of sand.

Aiden hunted for the shells, and we worked on naming each letter written on the shell.

I put all of the shells letter side up and Aiden and I worked on letter sounds and naming words that started with each letter.  

We also took turns tossing a pearl (marble) into the container and naming the letter it landed on ~ or close to.

I took a couple of the shells and hide the pearl under one of them.

 

Aiden would pick up a shell, looking for the marble and name the letter written on the shell.

When we work on activities like this I let Aiden decide how long we play.  I am really trying to get him to sit and focus on activities more as he gets older.  Keeping his attention is not always easy!  After about 15-20 minutes Aiden was ready to move on to something else.

~Cindy

Preschool Corner ~ Ocean Week 2

We are still learning about the ocean and all the fascinating creatures that live there.

Book of the Week and Craft

We read lots of books this week, but Aiden’s favorite books were Clumsy Crab and The Magic School Bus Gets Crabby. 

   

I found a cute crab craft here.   We changed our crab a little and added toothpicks to the small Styrofoam balls, the eyes, so they would stick up and adding claws cut out of construction paper.

      

Letters, Numbers and Colors

Aiden still doesn’t understand the difference between a letter and number.  He calls everything letters ~ such as “that is the letter 1”.  To help him understand the difference between a letter and number we played a Number or Letter ~ Sorting Activity.  I added foam letters and numbers to a pan of water and gave him a small strainer to fish out them out.

 

I printed pages titled Letters and Numbers, put them in page protectors so the letters and numbers would stick, and taped them to the wall.

He would say the letter or number and the color and stick it the correct sheet.

Science:

I gave Aiden a container of dirt and grass and a container of water. 

 

He sorted our plastic animals into the containers ~animals that live on land and animals that live in the water.

           

Lunch Time

Just for fun ~ we had octopus hot dogs and

 

clam cookies for our lunch one day.

 

That was our week!  To check out more Preschool ideas and activities visit Preschool Corner!

~Cindy

Sea Animal Soap Craft

This is one of those crafts that makes me say ~ why haven’t we done this before?  It was super easy and fun!

What We Used:

• Clear Glycerin Soap Base
• Container to melt soap base
• Soap molds
• Plastic sea animals

 What We Did:

• We added the glycerin soap to a 6 cup measuring cup and melted it in the microwave. ~ it took about 3 minutes to melt.
• We poured a small amount into each mold.
• Emily added the sea animals and poured the remainder of the melted soap, enough to cover (or almost cover) the sea animals.  We left the fin of the shark and fish sticking out of the soap.

 

• After about an hour we popped the soap out of the molds.

We added our soap to shells ~ which we are using as a soap dishes.

This is another craft that we are going to give as Christmas gifts.  Wouldn’t they be pretty if we used dried flowers?

~Cindy

Letter or Number ~ Sorting Activity

Aiden hasn’t quite grasped the difference between letters and numbers.  When we are working on counting he will say “that is the letter two”.   To help him understand what is a number and what is a letter we “fished” for letters and numbers and sorted them. 

I added foam numbers and letters to a container of water and gave Aiden a small drainer to fish them out.

 

I printed pages titled Letters and Numbers, put them in page protectors so the letters and numbers would stick, and taped them to the wall.

Aiden fished a letter or number out of the bucket, said what it was (with help from Mommy) and stuck it to the Letter or Number sheet.  

   

We packed a lot of learning into our 15 minutes of fun!  Aiden worked on sorting, naming the numbers and letters of the alphabet and colors. 

~Cindy

Science Sunday: Sand Experiments

What is sand?  Where does it come from?  Do people buy it from Lowe’s and spread it on the ground to make beaches?

To figure out what sand is, the kids grabbed some magnify glasses and took a closer look.  They found small pieces of rock and shell.  The conclusion:  Sand is made from small pieces of rock and shells. 

 Notice another child?  One of our neighbors decided to help with the experiments.

Next we built a “beach” to show how waves move rocks and shells.  We added equal amounts of sand, aquarium gravel, and water (tinted with blue food coloring ~ just to make it pretty.) to a plastic container.    

We took turns rocking the container back and forth to show how waves form and wash through the rocks, distributing the sand and rocks over the entire container.  

The conclusion:  Waves move the sand and rocks.  I explained that water bangs the rocks together, wears the rocks down (erosion), and helps form sand.  Water and wind carries the sand to form beaches and dunes.

Next came the fun part of the experiment ~ we made sand.  To do this the kids added some small rocks, which I washed really well to remove any dirt, and water to a plastic container.  Emily shook the container, shook it some more,

    

and shook it some more.

  

After about 3 minutes we opened the container to see what was happening to the rocks. We discovered brown water.  I poured some of the water into a clear container so they could see what was floating in the water. The girls conclusion:  I didn’t wash all the dirt off the rocks. 

I assured them that I did wash the rocks and had them look in the bottom of the container we used to shake the rocks.  They discovered small pieces on the bottom ~ sand!

 

The Final Conclusion:   I did wash the rocks!  The brown water was caused from tiny rock particles floating in the water.  The girls agreed that the water bounced the rocks together, forming sand.

We ended our experiment by reading Jump into Science Sand.

Wonder where Aiden was during all of this?  I really thought he would enjoy this experiment.  It included jumping around and water, two of his favorite things!  Not this time ~ he worked on his tractor most of the time.  

He did find a dead caterpillar. 

I’ll just consider that his contribution to our science lesson!

~Cindy