Blog Archives

Shamrock Playdough

2/27/2015

I made shamrock playdough for our upcoming shamrock theme next week. I used my favorite recipe and just added a couple of extra ingredients.

To make the playdough you will need:

1 cup of flour
1 cup of water
1/4 cup of salt
2 tsp of cream of tartar
1 tbs of cooking oil
6-8 drops food coloring
2-3 drops of mint extract
gold glitter (stirred in after I took the pan of the burner)

You just mix the ingredients together and cook over medium heat. It only takes a few minutes before it forms a lump of dough. You will need to stir the mixture continuously to prevent it from burning. Remove the dough from the pan and let it cool. You can then squish and squeeze it until it forms a playdough consistency. Store the dough in an air tight container.

I purchased gold jumbo glitter at walmart and I really like the way it added sparkle to the dough. I was going to use regular glitter until I saw the jumbo glitter. I was worried that the glitter would fall out of the dough and get all over but that did not happen.

The mint extract made the dough smell really yummy and I was really pleased with how the dough turned out. Besides free play we will be using the shamrock playdough with a mat that I will have available next week so keep and eye out for that!!

You can see a video of the shamrock playdough here or by clicking below:

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Fine Motor Color Match

2/24/2015

4 Comments

Fine Motor Color Match For Preschool and Kindergarten

I made a color matching activity that also works on fine motor skills. I used a large circle punch to make the circles out of various colors of construction paper. I also made color word labels and printed those out.

I glued the nine color circles onto a 12x12 sheet of cardstock paper and put the color labels directly under each color circle.

I set out a small container of matching color pony beads and the children put the pony beads on the same color circle. I put fifteen beads for each color in the container but you can do more or less and have the children count how many are on each circle after they have put the beads on.

Fine Motor Color Match For Preschool and Fine Motor

Because of the size of the pony beads you will want to use supervision when working with children under the age of three and those still in the stages of putting small items in their mouths.

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Marshmallow Paint

2/20/2015

9 Comments

Marshmallow Paint Art Center Activity For Preschool and Kindergarten

We made marshmallow paint today and the children really enjoyed creating pictures with it. You just need to have marshmallow cream and food coloring. I got the original recipe from an early childhood art training that I attended but found that it was way too thick to be used easily by my students.

We scooped out the marshmallow cream and divided it evenly into a six section jumbo muffin tin. We added food coloring and stirred the marshmallow cream with craft sticks.

The mixture was really stiff so I modified the recipe by adding a little bit of warm water to each section and the children once again stirred it. The paint was still nice and thick but spread much more easily with a brush while the children were using it.

The paint was also very shiny and does take a bit to dry. When the children left for the day the pictures they had made were still a sticky but they were hangable. We used cardstock paper which was much more thicker and could hold the weight of the paint better than regular paper.

You can see a video of this activity by clicking here or below:

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Tooth Fairy Letter Sort

2/18/2015

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Tooth Fairy Letter Sorting Activity For Preschool and Kindergarten

We worked on letter identification with an uppercase vs. lowercase sorting activity. I printed the patterns on cardstock paper and laminated them. I then attached the uppercase and lowercase tags to baskets I purchased from the dollar store.

I set the baskets and letter cards out in our center and the children picked a card ... said what letter it was and then put it in the correct basket based on whether it was an uppercase or lowercase letter.

The children really enjoyed this activity so I will be making more of them for different themes!! I did include alternate sorting tags that read "Uppercase Letters" and "Lowercase Letters" instead of tags with all upper or all lower.

You can see a video of this activity here or by clicking below:

4 Comments

Button Tooth Roll and Cover

2/17/2015

1 Comment

Botton Tooth Roll and Cover Math Center For Preschool and Kindergarten

I made roll and cover math center activity for our dental health theme. I folded a red piece of colored cardstock paper in half and cut out a three-quarter circle shape. I opened the shape and glued a cardstock paper tongue on the bottom half of the mouth. I also drew sixteen circles on both the top and bottom of the mouth for a total of thirty two. The final step was to laminate the mouth.

Button Tooth Roll and Cover Math Center For Preschool and Kindergarten

I set out white buttons and dice for the children to use with this activity. They rolled the dice and then used the buttons to cover up the same number of circles on the mouth. Play continued until all of the circles were covered with buttons.

This can be done as both an individual as well as group activity. If playing as a group each child would get their own mouth mat and buttons. I have also used white playdough in the past for this activity and it turned out well.

You can see a video of this activity by clicking below:

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Fine Motor Water Bead Transfer

2/13/2015

1 Comment

Fine Motor Water Bead Transfer Activity For Preschool and Kindergarten

Today we did a water bead transfer activity that was great for developing fine motor skills. I put the water beads in a bowl of water and about six hours later they were ready for use.

Fine Motor Water Bead Transfer For Preschool and kindergarten

I set the water beads out in a large shallow bowl along with an empty large parmesan cheese container that had three holes on one side and a large open space on the other side. Remember to use close supervision with children under the age of three and those still in the habit of putting small items in their mouths.

I also set out a special scoop tool that was from a Learning Resources fine motor kit that the children used for this activity along with their fingers. The water beads have a wet feeling to them which most of the children really enjoyed.

The children transferred the water beads into the container by either pushing them through the smaller holes or by dropping them into the large opening side. You could request that they find a certain color of water beads or count out a specific number if you wanted to extend this into a math and sorting activity. We did estimations of how many water beads were in the containers and then counted them.

You can see a video of this activity by clicking below: