"What Is It?" Cards

These cards are really easy to make and are an excellent way to build visual discrimination and cognitive skills. You will need colored cardstock paper ... velcro ... glue sticks and an exacto knife. You will also need to find pictures of a variety of things such as foods ... animals ... common household items etc that you will use to glue inside the cards. I got all of my pictures of the internet by typing in what I was looking for at google.com and then clicking on image search. You can also use magazine pictures.

Once you have your pictures you want to make sure they fit inside a sheet of cardstock paper that has been folded in half. I also made labels for each picture which helps with building literacy. I glued the picture and label inside of the folded cardstock and then cut out a rectangle shape on the side that does not contain the picture. You will need to make sure you cut the rectangle so that a portion of the picture shows through. On the front of the closed cards I glue a "What Is It?" label which you can download here. I laminated the cards and attached velcro to hold the cards closed.

You can use these at circle time and have the children try and guess what is inside the cards ... you can put these in a literacy center and have the children write down what they think is in the cards and then open the cards to see if they were correct ... you could also create a graph with what the children think is inside the card.

Lacing Beads

You can make your own lacing beads using a super easy clay recipe. You will need:

1 cup of salt
1 cup of corn starch
1 1/2 cups of flour
1 cup of water (added in small increments)

You will also need:

plastic straws
wax paper
cookie sheets
tempera paint
paint brushes

You will start by putting the salt ... flour .... and cornstarch in a bowl. Add small amounts of water to the mixture until you are able to knead the dough into a ball. You need to be careful with the amount of water you put in ... too much will make it to sticky and too little will make it dry and crack. It is important that you advise children that this is not a dough for eating.

After you have the dough in the right consistency break off small pieces and roll into balls. Place the dough balls on a cookie sheet that has been lined with wax paper. Push a straw into the center of each dough ball making sure the straw goes through to the other side. Let dry (the time it will take to dry the beads depends on the size of the beads ... usually 48-72 hours). You will need to flip the bead over periodically so both the top and the bottom of the beads get exposed to air.

Once the beads are dry you can paint them with tempera paint. Paint one side at a time and let dry. You can string the beads with laces ... or use them for sorting and making patterns. Use your imagination and have fun!!

Individual Dry Erase Boards

I purchased individual dry erase boards (expo brand) from K-Mart for less than 4.00 each (they are also at Wal-Mart in the back school supply section). One side is a plain writing surface with a dry erase marker attached and the other side is lined like handwriting paper. The boards are super easy to clean off with just a dry paper towel and you can purchase markers in several different colors. We use the boards in our writing center and at group time to develop fine motor and cognitive skills.

There are many activities you can do with these boards. Children can draw pictures on them and retell what is happening in the pictures. Children can practice writing letters ... numbers ... shapes ... and simple words. You can make a pattern on a larger classroom dry erase board and have the children copy or complete the pattern. You can ask the children to make a certain number of objects on their board ... for example "draw five circles" or "write three letters" etc. Of course the most favorite activity is just to draw anything they want ... erase it and draw more!!

Colored Pasta

To make your own colored pasta you will need:

Dried Pasta
Rubbing Alcohol
Food Coloring
Zip Lock Bags
Cups
Spoons
Paper Towels
Cookie Sheets

Put about a cup and a half of pasta into a zip lock bag. In a cup pour 1/2 cup of rubbing alcohol and add a few drops of food coloring (the more food coloring you add the darker the color ... you can also mix the food coloring to make different colors). Gently stir the rubbing alcohol and food coloring together. Pour a little bit of the food coloring mixture into the bag with the pasta in it. Pour enough in to make sure all of the pasta is coated with the liquid. Close the zip lock bag and gently massage the pasta as shown above. Let the pasta soak in the color and then flip the bag to the other side and repeat.

We let our pasta sit for about 20 minutes rotating the bag every five minutes (the longer you let the pasta absorb the food coloring the darker the pasta will be). We then lined cookie sheets with paper towels and took a straining spoon (a big spoon with holes in it) and scooped out the wet pasta and put it on the cookie sheets. After a few minutes we removed the paper toweling with the pasta on it and put new paper towel on the cookie sheets and put the pasta on the new paper towel to finish air drying.

The pasta was dry to the touch in about 15 minutes but we let it sit overnight to make sure it was completely dry. There are many things you can do with the pasta such as making collages ... stringing them ... using them for counting and making patterns etc.

A word of caution: You will need to watch the children to make sure they do not push to hard on the zip lock bags with the pasta and food coloring mixture as leaking can occur. Also make sure the children do not eat the pasta once it has the food coloring on it.

Alphabet Sequence Chain

This is a great activity for developing cognitive and fine motor skills. Children take the alphabet strips and put them together in order from A to Z. You can print these on regular paper and use glue sticks to put them together or you can print them on carstock ... laminate them and attach velcro to each end. You can download the Alphabet Sequence Chain here.

Number Sequence Chain

This is another great activity for developing cognitive and fine motor skills. Children take the number strips and put them together in order from 0 to 30. You can print these on regular paper and use glue sticks to put them together or you can print them on carstock ... laminate them and attach velcro to each end. You can download the Number Sequence Chain here.

Sorting Bags

Sorting bags are easy to make and the children really enjoy them. You can make sorting bags for numbers ... letters ... shapes ... colors ... etc. I used white lunch bags and cut two inches off the top of each bag. In the example above I made apple baskets with numbers on them and glued them on the front of the bags. The children then put apples with the same numbers into the bag with the matching number. I also made plain apples that the children used to put the correct amount in each bag. You can download the Apple Number Sorting Bags here. You can also find more sorting bags in the download store.

Nuts and Bolts

Nuts and bolts are great for developing fine motor skills as well as math skills. I purchased these nuts and bolts (32 total) from Menards in three different sizes for about $4.50. The children had to find the correct nuts that fit on the bolts and then screw them on. Some children filled up a whole bolt with nuts and we counted how many nuts they put on each bolt. They also compared the lengths of the bolts and how many nuts it took to fill up each bolt. This activity is not recommended for children under three or for those children who put toys in their mouths.

Letter Hide and Seek

This is a fun activity that develops visual discrimination and letter recognition. I hid large letters around the room. I then placed the small letter squares that matched the letters that were hidden into a paper bag. I had each child pick a letter out of the bag and they had to find the letter that was on the small letter square.. After we found all of the large letters we placed them in alphabetical order on the floor. If you would like the patterns for the letter hide and seek activity you can download them here.

Counting Mats

Counting mats are a great way of developing math skills. Children place the correct number of items on each mat. You can use a variety of items for the counters that you place on the mats such as counting coins ... links ... counting bears ... links ... candy ... marshmellows ... cereal ... goldfish etc ... use your imagination and have fun. If you would like the patterns for the counting mats you can download them here.

Alphabet Floor Dominoes

These oversized dominoes are a fun way to develop letter recognition skills (you can also make dominoes for color ... number ... and shape recognition). We used black construction paper ... put a letter on each end and laminated them. You can download the Alphabet Floor Dominoes here.

Individual Sensory Tubs

If you are not lucky enough to have a large sensory tub (sand and water table) in you early learning environment you can make your own individual sensory tubs using dish pans. Children develop fine motor skills ... muscle control ... as well as social and cognitive skills. A sensory tub does not have to be limited to just sand and water ... there are so many items that you can put in the tubs. Supervision should be used with very young children but for the most part preschool and kindergarten children work well with the tubs. The nice thing about the individual tubs is that you can put several of them on a table and children will get a chance to interact and talk about what they are doing with the tubs. You can also put different items in each tub for a variety of activities on a single table.

Some things you can include in a sensory tub include:

Sand
Water
Noodles
Rice
Shaving Cream
Cotton Balls
Feathers
Toy Cars
Small Toy Animals

You will also need things that can be used for measuring ... pouring ... and digging. The possibilities are really endless!!

Balloon Painting

This is sure to be a favorite activity in your art center so have plenty have paint on hand!! Ballon painting helps develop cognitive as well as motor development. I used 9 inch balloons that can be purchased from the birthday section at Wal-Mart. I blew the balloons up just big enough for the children to grab hold of (you do not want to blow them up too big otherwise the children will have a hard time holding on to them and controlling where the paint goes). The children dip the balloon in paint and paint away. Balloon painting works best when the balloon is gently bopped up and down on the paper (like sponge painting) not dragged from side to size as there is a risk the balloon will pop. Supervision should be provided for younger children who put objects in their mouths.

Mystery Bag

The Mystery Bag is a weekly alphabet letter activity. Children are given a bag with their name on it to take home. Inside the bag is a letter to the child's parents asking them to help their children write down three clues for the mystery object that is placed in the bag that begins with the letter of the week. For example ... the letter for the week is Pp ... children find an object that will fit inside the bag (if it is too big a picture can be used) that begins with the letter Pp. Together with their parents the children comes up with three clues to what the mystery object is and they write the clues down along with what the object is. They bring their mystery bags back to class on the designated date and take turns reading their clues to see if the other children can guess what is in the mystery bag. The child then takes the object out of the bag to show the classmates. The bag itseIf is made out of fabric sewn together with an opening on the top. A name label is placed on the from of the back with clear packaging tape. I would like to thank my son's kindergarten teacher Mrs. Paula Ganser for sharing this idea with me. If you would like the mystery bag take home letter you can download it here.

Counting Cubes

These cubes are great for developing fine motor skills and can be used for many math activities such as measuring ... making patterns ... and counting. In this activity we used them for counting. I made number cards and put them face down into a pile. The children drew a card out of the pile and then snapped the same number of cubes together that was on the cards. They then took the cubes apart and drew a new card. If you would like the number cards you can download them here. I purchased the cubes online from classroom direct.

Letter Tiles

Letter tiles are perfect for letter recognition and "see and spell" activities. They are also great for developing fine motor skills. I purchased the letter tiles from WalMart for 9.99 you can also order them online from Office Depot. We use the tiles for sequencing and matching as well as first name and word recognition. If you would like the sight word cards shown above you can download them here.

Learning Links

There are many things you can do with learning links ... they are wonderful for devloping math as well as fine motor skills. You can have the children put together a certain number of links that you ask them to ... you can do measuring activities with them ... and you can also do matching activites with them as shown in the picture above. If you would like the link cards you can download them here. I purchased the learning links online from learning resources .

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