Toddler Art: Merry Grinchmas!

I had a couple new faces for this month's Toddler Art and they made great additions to the group. We read a board book Grinch story for our theme and then we made two Grinch inspired crafts.

In I Am Max by Astrid Holm, the book explains the Grinch and his dog Max in Dr. Seuss rhyming fashion. The toddlers listened very well to the book and enjoyed the familiar illustrations.

For our first craft, we just had to make a simple Grinch face. I used light green paper plates and cut-out pieces. The kids got their motor skills practice in with the help of a parent.

Our last craft was well-appreciated by parents. The toddlers used tissue paper and a heart to make the Grinch's big heart. The toddlers were able to do this craft practically on their own and all of them turned out cute.

I try to find a balance of a cute craft and toddler ability for this program and it's always a plus when I come across a number of craft ideas that fit this criteria.

Merry Grinchmas!

Preschool Picasso: Merry Grinchmas!

I was really excited to put on my first Grinch program and am happy that it went so well and was a part of the Preschool Picasso program. There were so many cute Grinch crafts and ideas, but I knew I wanted to keep the reoccurring theme of one craft using paint and the other being somewhat unique to the other. We read a Grinch book and did our two crafts.

For our book, I read I'm the Grinch by Dennis Shealy. This is one of the newer Grinch books that are out and was a perfect length for a quick story for preschoolers. We talked a little bit about the Grinch and Dr. Seuss and of our favorite characters. This book told us about the Grinch and how he doesn't like Christmas, but of course it ends cute.

Our first Grinch craft was making a happy Grinch using a pre-cut paper plate and shapes. They enjoyed painting his face and I added some white paint to the green so they could color blend and get a lighter green color for our favorite holiday character.

Our second craft was making a grumpy Grinch mask. We colored our masks and added a Popsicle stick so we could pretend to be him. I was pleased to see parents taking pictures of the kids holding up their masks and other project.

Merry Grinchmas!

Family Storytime: Dr. Seuss

In honor of Dr. Seuss' birthday this Saturday, we read Dr. Seuss books and did Dr. Seuss activities for storytime. This was a fun theme with the biggest group for me in the session. I made sure to mention to register for the next session and a few said they already have.

We were able to only read two books since Dr. Seuss books tend to be longer, but the kids really enjoyed Green Eggs and Ham and Hop on Pop.

After we did our bean bag song and read the first book, it was time to get moving again. We danced with our scarves to Seussical the Musical's Green Eggs and Ham song. Afterwards, we read our second book, did the Ten Apples on Top flannel, and sang If You're Happy and You Know It.

They enjoyed their Dr. Seuss hat craft and we had Dr. Seuss stickers! I think the group really enjoyed this one and I'm glad I had a lot of movement ideas since the group was a big one and were energetic. 

A nice way to end the storytime session! Happy Birthday, Dr. Seuss!

Other Books:
Dr. Seuss' ABC
My Many Colored Days

Toddler Art: Dr. Seuss

Today's Toddler Art went well, but I was surprised it wasn't as fitting as Preschool Picasso's session. 

I read Green Eggs and Ham since we had a craft project tied-in with the story. I was worried that the book was a little long for this age group, but we got through it with only a few antsy moments. I had planned to read The Foot Book if the group was especially antsy, but I'm glad I read what I did since the crafts didn't take up as much time as I thought. 

 

As much Dr. Seuss craft options as there are, I found myself struggling to pick two that would both be age appropriate and offer some sort of sensory learning that was unique. I felt that both crafts that were picked fit this best, but that some in the group didn't want to take their time on them. Even still, that was okay because everyone had a good time and I put out some toys to play with at the end of our crafting. 

Next time, I think I will try to incorporate at least one craft that was a bit more challenging to slow down the group a little. 

For our first craft, we made some green eggs to go with our story. I had printed out some egg designs I made on sheets of card stock and had the kids practice their motor skills stamping green dots in the middle of their egg shapes with pom poms attached to clothespins dipped in green paint. One parent joked that her child made scrambled eggs. This craft provided motor skills practice and paint experimentation. 

For our second craft, we made truffula trees using yellow, pink, and orange tissue paper. It allowed the kids to feel the tissue paper, bunch it up, and use their hands to glue their pieces onto their tree. I pre-painted popsicle sticks for the trunks since the pattern would be too complicated for this age group. 

Overall, this program worked out well and I learned that I can always pull out the toys if the crafts go too fast. 

Preschool Picasso: Dr. Seuss

This month's Preschool Picasso went very well thanks to Dr. Seuss! I had the biggest turnout I ever had for this program and it was a complete success. 

Because this was our Dr. Seuss theme, I was excited to choose the perfect Dr. Seuss book to read to this group. Since they are older, I read The Cat in the Hat. It is always so fun to read this book and it was Dr. Seuss magic because the kids were listening so well to the story and were genuinely interested to hear it. 

After we read about The Cat in the Hat's mischief, I explained our two crafts for the day. 

Our first craft was making Thing 1from the story. I explained that we had Thing 1 on our paper, but he was missing his blue hair and his red shirt. They had to paint his red shirt on and have some fun making his blue hair. For his hair, they had to use a dropper and fill it with some diluted blue paint and then drop little dots onto the top of their paper. Once they were done experimenting with the droppers, they used a straw to blow the paint around and make his crazy hair. Both the kids and parents loved this part of the craft. Once our paint was dry, we added a Thing 1 name tag to our project.

Our other craft was making a truffula tree from Dr. Seuss' The Lorax. There are so many different ideas available to make truffula trees, but I went with the one that I think would be the most interesting and allowed the most practice with motor skills. I cut out sponge squares and put out forks and different colored neon paint. We used the sponge squares to make the trunks with yellow and black (or whatever color each child wanted to use) and then the forks were used to make the top of the tree but pressing our forks in paint and then onto our paper. The parents liked how this craft allowed their kids to pick their paint colors and experiment with colors, patterns, and prints.  

This is definitely a theme I would want to do again and Preschool Picasso and Toddler Art lets me get a bit more creative with Dr. Seuss as opposed to a standard program where I most likely wouldn't use paint, but some other art format. 

We'll be doing some easier, but similar Dr. Seuss crafts in next week's Toddler Art.