Hey there -
This week's theme was "Monsters" - and boy was it fun! The second half of the week we focused mostly on the book "Where The Wild Things Are" by Maurice Sendak - a classic! I decorated the dramatic play area to look like Max's room from "Where the Wild Things Are" - it had his boat and everything! We did many arts and crafts projects in which the kids made their own "monsters", "wild things" or crafted their own gnarly teeth for a monster. It was a blast!
We also had some creative snacks and lunch - one day we had "Monster Mash" which was applesauce, banana, honey, peanut butter and cinnamon all mashed together. Another day we had chocolate pudding (mud), pistachio pudding (green slime), crushed oreos (dirt), chocolate chips (bugs) and gummy worms (worms) all mixed together - another version of "Monster Mash". For lunch one day we made "Monster Pizza" which the kids really got into. Its basically English muffins with pizza sauce, cheese and toppings baked in the oven. I bought the little mini pepperonis for their teeth and then cut the normal sized pepperoni in half for their eyes and made them look like scary monsters. The fresh red pepper was the mouth. The kids loved it - one kid repeated verbatim the recipe to his dad when he was picked up so that his parents would make it for dinner one night :)
We did a ton of other stuff as well. A fun week was had by all!
Next week we'll be celebrating St. Patrick's Day and the week after that we'll be focusing all on Dr. Seuss (its his birthday in the month of March). So we have a lot of exciting adventures up ahead at Monarch Kids!
Have a great weekend and enjoy the weather!
Kendall Stark
Friday, March 11, 2011
Sunday, March 6, 2011
Castlewood Canyon State Park
Hey there -
This past Thursday, we went on a great field trip to Castlewood Canyon State Park to finish up our look at the 5 senses. We joined forces with some other adults and their kids. We had a blast! The weather was fantastic and the kids loved the hike. Boy, were they troopers - it wasn't that short of a hike but they hung in there until the end!
We talked about all the senses -
Sight - trees, boulders, birds, canyon, water, ice, snow...
Sound - water, birds, crunchy leaves...
Smell - ponderosa pine trees - they smell like vanilla waffle cones :)
Touch - tree bark, rocks, lichen, moss...
Taste - snack and lunch, of course!
It was a great review of the 5 senses. Now we're ready to move onto our next theme, "Monsters"!
Take care everyone -
Kendall Stark
Monarch Kids
Tuesday, March 1, 2011
5 Senses - Smelling
Hey everyone -
Today we wrapped up our look at the 5 senses with an exploration of the sense of smell. This was a fun day for us all as there is a ton you can do with this sense (really all of them!). For our art project today we made cereal rainbows - the kids simply glued different colored fruit loops on a white piece of paper in the shape of a rainbow. And don't worry, I gave them a small bowl on the side to sample the cereal as they worked :) That way they got to use their sense of taste too! Then we also made scented flowers - this was so easy and super cute. The kids decorated a flower cutout and then glued a cupcake liner on top of it. Then inside the cupcake liner they placed a pompom that had been sprayed with perfume. To top it all off, they attached the flower to a green pipe cleaner that represented the stem. So fun!
We of course, played lots of games where they had to smell different objects, guess what they were and also categorize them as "pleasant" or "unpleasant" smells. I used objects like cinnamon, garlic, onion, various baking extracts, tea bag, toothpaste... The kids really had fun with this, but I was surprised when they couldn't figure out what any of the objects were!
We read one of my favorite children's books today - "Stellaluna" by Janell Cannon. I don't think any of the kids had ever heard the story before and they really enjoyed it. It has some connection to the sense of smell (because they're bats and bats have a great sense of smell) but the greatest thing about the book is that they learn they can be friends even though they are so different. Really sweet.
Thursday is going to be a great day - we'll be going hiking and doing a nature scavenger hunt at Castlewood Canyon State Park. This will be a great way for the kids to use all 5 of their senses (although the sense of taste will mostly be used at snack and lunch time :))
Thanks for reading - I hope you guys get a kick out of what we do each day. We certainly have a blast!
Take care -
Kendall Stark
Monarch Kids Preschool Teacher
Today we wrapped up our look at the 5 senses with an exploration of the sense of smell. This was a fun day for us all as there is a ton you can do with this sense (really all of them!). For our art project today we made cereal rainbows - the kids simply glued different colored fruit loops on a white piece of paper in the shape of a rainbow. And don't worry, I gave them a small bowl on the side to sample the cereal as they worked :) That way they got to use their sense of taste too! Then we also made scented flowers - this was so easy and super cute. The kids decorated a flower cutout and then glued a cupcake liner on top of it. Then inside the cupcake liner they placed a pompom that had been sprayed with perfume. To top it all off, they attached the flower to a green pipe cleaner that represented the stem. So fun!
We of course, played lots of games where they had to smell different objects, guess what they were and also categorize them as "pleasant" or "unpleasant" smells. I used objects like cinnamon, garlic, onion, various baking extracts, tea bag, toothpaste... The kids really had fun with this, but I was surprised when they couldn't figure out what any of the objects were!
We read one of my favorite children's books today - "Stellaluna" by Janell Cannon. I don't think any of the kids had ever heard the story before and they really enjoyed it. It has some connection to the sense of smell (because they're bats and bats have a great sense of smell) but the greatest thing about the book is that they learn they can be friends even though they are so different. Really sweet.
Thursday is going to be a great day - we'll be going hiking and doing a nature scavenger hunt at Castlewood Canyon State Park. This will be a great way for the kids to use all 5 of their senses (although the sense of taste will mostly be used at snack and lunch time :))
Thanks for reading - I hope you guys get a kick out of what we do each day. We certainly have a blast!
Take care -
Kendall Stark
Monarch Kids Preschool Teacher
Thursday, February 24, 2011
5 Senses - Taste & Touch
Hey everyone -
We continued our exploration into the 5 senses today and focused on the sense of taste and touch. The kids and I had a blast doing lots of fun games and activities. Here's a sampling of what we did today:
*painting with shaving cream (added a little food coloring too)
*made goop - super fun! cornstarch, water and food coloring
*taste tests - the kids were blindfolded and given a starburst and a skittle and had to guess which flavor it was
*sweet, sour or salty? - the kids were each given a potato chip, piece of chocolate and a lemon wedge - they said if each one was sweet, sour or salty - the lemon wedge was my favorite - their faces were priceless!!!
*"Tootsy Touches" - a fun game I found in The Mailbox magazine where the kids feels all kinds of different textures with their feet
*for lunch the kids helped me make spaghetti squash - they scooped out the seeds and helped me get it ready to bake
In all of this we're focusing on the letter "s" and using all kinds of words that start with "s" that are descriptive - like squishy, soft, slippery, smooth, sticky... I've noticed that the kids really love when I use sign language - its amazing how much they respond. They're learning so many words so quickly and they really enjoy it!
Next week we'll focus on the sense of smell and then review all 5 senses. Then we'll take our field trip to Castlewood Canyon State Park for our nature hike. Should be a lot of fun!
Take care -
Kendall Stark
Monarch Kids Preschool Teacher
We continued our exploration into the 5 senses today and focused on the sense of taste and touch. The kids and I had a blast doing lots of fun games and activities. Here's a sampling of what we did today:
*painting with shaving cream (added a little food coloring too)
*made goop - super fun! cornstarch, water and food coloring
*taste tests - the kids were blindfolded and given a starburst and a skittle and had to guess which flavor it was
*sweet, sour or salty? - the kids were each given a potato chip, piece of chocolate and a lemon wedge - they said if each one was sweet, sour or salty - the lemon wedge was my favorite - their faces were priceless!!!
*"Tootsy Touches" - a fun game I found in The Mailbox magazine where the kids feels all kinds of different textures with their feet
*for lunch the kids helped me make spaghetti squash - they scooped out the seeds and helped me get it ready to bake
In all of this we're focusing on the letter "s" and using all kinds of words that start with "s" that are descriptive - like squishy, soft, slippery, smooth, sticky... I've noticed that the kids really love when I use sign language - its amazing how much they respond. They're learning so many words so quickly and they really enjoy it!
Next week we'll focus on the sense of smell and then review all 5 senses. Then we'll take our field trip to Castlewood Canyon State Park for our nature hike. Should be a lot of fun!
Take care -
Kendall Stark
Monarch Kids Preschool Teacher
Wednesday, February 23, 2011
5 Senses - Sight & Hearing
Hey everyone -
This week we've started a 2-week exploration into the 5 senses here at Monarch Kids Preschool. This is one of my favorite topics to use with kids this age - there is SO much you can do!
Yesterday, we started with the sense of sight and hearing. Here are some activities we did:
*Human Sounds - I recorded different sounds on my tape recorder and had the kids guess what the sounds were
*Sound Jars - 8 jars were covered and filled with different objects (rocks, pennies, rice, pasta) and the kids had to guess what was in the jar and then also find the matching jar
*It's a Tie - I put out 5 ties and had the kids make observations about the ties - then when their heads were turned I took a tie away and had the kids guess which one was missing
*Body Parts Collage - the kids glued cut-out pictures of ears, mouths, noses, hands and eyes to make a collage
*Many more activities and crafts...
(Many of these activities/crafts/games are found in The Mailbox or websites I've found on the internet)
Tomorrow we're looking at the sense of taste and touch - should be a lot of fun!
Take care -
Kendall Stark
Monarch Kids Preschool Teacher
This week we've started a 2-week exploration into the 5 senses here at Monarch Kids Preschool. This is one of my favorite topics to use with kids this age - there is SO much you can do!
Yesterday, we started with the sense of sight and hearing. Here are some activities we did:
*Human Sounds - I recorded different sounds on my tape recorder and had the kids guess what the sounds were
*Sound Jars - 8 jars were covered and filled with different objects (rocks, pennies, rice, pasta) and the kids had to guess what was in the jar and then also find the matching jar
*It's a Tie - I put out 5 ties and had the kids make observations about the ties - then when their heads were turned I took a tie away and had the kids guess which one was missing
*Body Parts Collage - the kids glued cut-out pictures of ears, mouths, noses, hands and eyes to make a collage
*Many more activities and crafts...
(Many of these activities/crafts/games are found in The Mailbox or websites I've found on the internet)
Tomorrow we're looking at the sense of taste and touch - should be a lot of fun!
Take care -
Kendall Stark
Monarch Kids Preschool Teacher
Friday, February 18, 2011
More Valentine's Stuff!
We finished up our fun Valentine's week here at Monarch Kids Preschool. Yesterday we made some sugar cookies - the kids helped me roll out the dough, use cookie cutter shapes and frost the cookies. And then of course, the best part was eating the end result :) They really enjoyed the whole process - and we were able to talk about lots of kitchen/cooking ideas like cutting, rolling, dough, bake, flour, recipe...
Yesterday was so nice out - I gave the kids some sidewalk chalk for their outside time. We also had a "heart scavenger hunt" and our letter of the week, "v", scavenger hunt as well. They really got into this part. Our craft yesterday didn't turn out as well as I'd like but its always fun trying new things and experimenting. The craft was painting with jell-o. You take the powder mix, add a little water and the kids finger paint with that. It just didn't show up that great on the paper, but the kids loved the smell and "tasting" the paint! It was a great sensory activity involving all of the senses but hearing.
Speaking of senses...the next 2 weeks we'll be focusing on the 5 senses: sight, hearing, touch, taste and smell. I've got some great things planned for them and am excited to get the week started. Oh, and we're planning our next field trip soon. If the weather stays nice, we'll venture out to Castlewood Canyon State Park - one of my absolute favorite places to hike in Colorado!
Take care and have a great weekend -
Kendall Stark
Monarch Kids Preschool Teacher
Yesterday was so nice out - I gave the kids some sidewalk chalk for their outside time. We also had a "heart scavenger hunt" and our letter of the week, "v", scavenger hunt as well. They really got into this part. Our craft yesterday didn't turn out as well as I'd like but its always fun trying new things and experimenting. The craft was painting with jell-o. You take the powder mix, add a little water and the kids finger paint with that. It just didn't show up that great on the paper, but the kids loved the smell and "tasting" the paint! It was a great sensory activity involving all of the senses but hearing.
Speaking of senses...the next 2 weeks we'll be focusing on the 5 senses: sight, hearing, touch, taste and smell. I've got some great things planned for them and am excited to get the week started. Oh, and we're planning our next field trip soon. If the weather stays nice, we'll venture out to Castlewood Canyon State Park - one of my absolute favorite places to hike in Colorado!
Take care and have a great weekend -
Kendall Stark
Monarch Kids Preschool Teacher
Tuesday, February 15, 2011
Valentine's Day Party!
We had a ton of fun today - here's a small sampling of what we did:
*Sweetheart candy guesstimate - the parents had to guess how many candies were in the jar. The winners got to take all the candy home
*Games - "Sneaky Cupid" (hid a picture of cupid around the room and the kids had to find it), "Cupid Tag", "Cupid Says" (like Simon Says, just a different name...)
*Food! - painted with pudding, shepherd's pie that had red-dyed potatoes, strawberries (of course!)
*Crafts - "Sticky Heart" (2 wax paper hearts stuck together by corn syrup dyed red), "Shiny Heart" (heart-shaped cookie cutters dipped in glue, pressed on white paper, then spread glitter on top)
And much more!!
Enjoy the picture!
Kendall Stark
Monarch Kids Preschool Teacher
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
