The Olympics- The List

E was pumped up for the Olympics after our MOMS club did a big Olympic event the Friday morning before the opening ceremonies.  For that event, we made torches, flags, USA colored ribbon streamers, and medals for the kids to introduce them to some of the more iconic parts of the Olympics.  We watched the opening ceremonies to see a lot of those icons.

We are sports junkies in this house, so when the games started, I knew that we needed to find a way to make watching hours of sports interesting to E.  The first morning of the Olympics, we made a list of all the sports that we would have a chance of seeing over the two plus weeks of the international event.  

After we saw an event on TV, E would come over to the refrigerator, grab a sticker, and put it next to the sport.  We worked a lot on letter sounds to help her find the sports, making this a great time filler, but also a great phonics activity.  Also, each day we would count how many events had stickers by them.  This had her practicing counting up through the twenties.  We will definitely do this activity in two years for the winter Olympics, and probably each Olympics after (don't tell anyone, but E's parents love this activity just as much as E)!

Bugs- Worksheet Notebook

Ever since I have been getting onto Pinterest, I have been interested in using a set of worksheets with E from  1+1+1=1.  Here you can find the link to a list of their preschool packs, including the Pretty Bugs packet that I printed out, cut and laminated parts of, and placed in page protectors.

I know some people are very anti worksheets, but the truth is, once kids are in a formalized school setting, they are expected to show skills on paper.  I think the pages serve a great purpose as filler activities to supplement the activities we are doing.  

This particular activity involves graphing.  E rolls the die (or spins a spinner) and charts which bug the die lands on.  It was great for her object correspondence, as well as getting used to writing in a particular box or area of the graph.  

We have played or E has completed about half of the worksheets from the packet, and has had a blast doing them.  It is great seeing her work through some of the sheets on her own, and the games allow us to work on various skills together, too.  My labels for this post will reference the packet as a whole.  A big thanks to the creators of the worksheets!

Bugs- Sensory Bin

 To get excited about studying bugs, I created a new sensory bin representing a word we have been spending a lot of time talking about-- habitat.  The fillers in this bin include two one foot squares of fake grass (I found it on clearance at Hobby Lobby with the Easter items), pebbles, and green poly fill.

 I included two plastic posts which I filled with a coffee bean/split pea/colored spaghetti mix left over from another sensory bin.  I then cut apart a silk flower bush and a silk leaf bush and "planted" them into the pots. Utensils include tongs, magnifying glasses, and a cardboard tube.  Finally, I added a couple of bags of bugs from the dollar store, along with some self-stick ladybugs and spider confetti.  

 As soon as we opened the bin, E wanted her bug viewing container to collect the bugs from the bin. Her favorite was finding the little lady bugs, which I had placed "crawling" in different spots throughout the bin.

 Here she is counting some of the bugs before placing them into her viewing container.

And here she is making the ladybugs crawl on her feet!  Looks like she needed a pedicure!


I just can't emphasize how great these bins are.  They are fun to put together, a great way to learn, and very entertaining!

Exploring Valentine's Day and Emotions- Book and Math Activity

The Karen Katz book, Daddy Hugs, has been a favorite of Ella's for a long time. It tells about ways a dad shows a child love, using numbers (like 10 "I Love Yous"). Before we read the story, I spread out foam numbers around the room on the floor. As we read the story, we would act out what the daddy in the story did (pat pats, hugs, dancing on Daddy's feet, etc), then E would go grab the number from the floor.



It was a fun way of showing love and working on number recognition. This is a good activity for even those kids with a little less number recognition experience than E because they can see the number on the page then go find the number, making it more of a matching activity. At any rate, I would suggest this book (and most Karen Katz books) for a fun activity!