Preschool Picasso: Numbers

It was great to see everyone back after holiday break and a few new families. This month's theme was numbers and it turned into a numbers/ocean theme because I found two craft ideas that I thought were perfect for the program and a rhyming ocean and numbers book to go with the whole theme.

We read One Nighttime Sea by Deborah Lee Rose and counted sea animals along the way. The group enjoyed the pictures and helped count the creatures with me.

For our first craft, we did a paint-by-number fish using cardstock and six types of colored paint. Some children freestyled their painting, but the majority did try to follow the colors for each number.

Our next craft was making an adorable jellyfish with eight tentacles. The kids added eight colorful pipe cleaners onto their pre-cut and pre-hole punched jellyfish body. Then, they added beads to each tentacle depending on how many beads were needed. Some of the group even color matched their pipe cleaners to their beads.

The group loved these crafts and I had compliments on the jellyfish, as well as parents saying they would buy their kids some color-by-number books.

I liked that I was able to incorporate a painting craft using numbers and how the jellyfish craft helped them work on their fine motor skills and offered a different craft approach.

Optional Book: Swallow the Leader: A Counting Book by Danna Smith

Family Storytime: Fish

We started off the first session of summer storytime using the theme fish. My storytimes are usually smaller in the summer so I try to plan them accordingly. 

My newbies learned the bean bag rock song and then we read our three short stories and did some activities, including a Five Little Fishies flannel and a Sea Star Wish color flannel.

The three stories we read between activities were Paul Meets Bernadette by Rosy Lamb, Where is Little Fish? by Lucy Cousins, and In the Sea by Laura Ottina.

Out of all the stories, Paul Meets Bernadette was the most fun to read to the kids. I would recommend this one to slightly older kids because of the comparison of things throughout the book, but it is still short enough for storytime and I started with this one to allow for some more time to explain the story.

Where Is Little Fish? was the group's favorite because they loved the flap books and trying to find Little Fish. In the Sea was a great, short non-fiction book to incorporate into this fish storytime.

For our craft, we made a big fish eating a little fish using construction paper, pipe cleaners, and straws. The group I ended up having were on the younger side, so next time I'll use just a Popsicle stick. 

I always enjoy this theme and the group had a good time learning a lot of new things. 

Next week, we'll be having a safari storytime!

Family Storytime: Fish

Another appropriate theme for summer, fish! This theme has so many possibilities it really is endless. I never get stuck on this theme when it comes to both finding books and crafts and it seems like new wonderful books and fun craft ideas are always around the corner.

Once we were done bean bag rockin', we read Fidgety Fish by Ruth Galloway. What child can't relate to a curious, fidgeting fish who likes adventure. This book has good flow with its wording and is a pleasure to read to a group.

 We took our usual break with reading by going over some colors and counting using a "Sea Star Wish" rhyming flannel. Each in the group was able to bring up a flannel piece, which they absolutely love, and shared well too.

Next up was Ugly Fish by Kara LaReau and Scott Magoon.  Ugly Fish, is well ugly. And to top it off, he doesn't like to share. This makes him uglier. Will this bully get what's coming to him in his fish tank? This is a slightly silly one that the group sure enjoyed.

Our next break was a five little fish flannel. We counted and went over the colors of each fish and how they were each different. 

Our final story was my favorite, Hooray for Fish! by Lucy Cousins. She has a Hooray for Birds! book that I need to remember to use for a bird storytime.  

For our craft, we continued with the cupcake liner theme and made a fish cupcake liner craft out of construction paper and cutting the liners to make fins. We were even able to practice our "w's" by making waves in the water.

Time to "fish" for more books...

 



 

Toddler Art: Rainbow Fish

July's Toddler Art theme was a Rainbow Fish theme. I changed the program format from three crafts to two crafts and a book to get more reading in there. This turned out to be a great change because both the parents and kids enjoyed the book and we still kept the fundamental idea of sensory crafts. 

I like the idea of tying in crafts and picture books together and found that I didn't have to rely on finding pairings online, but that I could come up with my own craft ideas if I loved the book and wanted to use it. I will usually base the craft on characters/animals in the book, the style of illustration used, and/or if anything was made or crafted in the story. 

Rainbow Fish was a perfect way to try out the one book, two sensory crafts switch. 

I'm sure you are already familiar with this classic book, especially if you are in any teaching profession, but just in case, The Rainbow Fish is about a beautiful, shiny fish who after a little hesitation shares his scales with his friends. 

Even though I'm sure the group has heard this story before, they had no problem listening to it again and awing over the shiny illustrations. 

Segueing into our crafts, we of course made Rainbow Fish and his wise Octopus friend. 

For Rainbow Fish, celery was used as stampers to make Rainbow Fish's scales. We used all the colors of the rainbow, with some kids going from red to purple and others not having any pattern to their scales. The celery was interesting for the kids to smell, some mistaking it for cucumber, and they practiced stamping neatly onto their fish.

For Octopus, fruit loops and white paint were used to make the suckers on each of his eight legs. Some in the group used all fruit loops, and ate some too, while others used their fingertips to make white prints. 

This was another fun time and reassured me that adding a book was a good idea.

Toddler Art: Bubbles

Bubbles are a fun theme and I usually like keeping the Preschool Picasso and Toddler Art the same themes, so bubbles it is!

We had three crafts, but I'm thinking of switching it up a bit and adding a story and only having two crafts in the future. 

For our first craft, we did bubble painting. I used bubble solution and added a few drops of food coloring in small containers. The kids were able to practice blowing bubbles, pop bubbles onto their paper, and make colorful art. I had some older siblings in this one and they seemed to like this craft the best. 

The second craft seemed to be the most popular. We made fish using bubble wrap and paint to make the scales. I have to remember to use the fish theme more because a lot of the kids like it. This was good for feeling the texture of the bubble wrap and pressing it down, using it as a stamp. We used sticker eyes for the complete look.

The last craft involved finger painting. I used a dog die-cut shape and cut out bath tubs. The group glued their craft together and then used finger paint to make bubbles around their dog that was taking a bubble bath. Hand-eye coordination was used and the group is getting more used to the feeling of paint on their hands.

I had a great turn-out and the bubble theme felt perfect for the start of summer!