Playdough - With Recipe

Playdough is so much fun and so good for developing fine motor skills and socialization. In our classroom it is a one or two person work and we have added tools over the year. Currently, we are using a plastic egg dish, a hard boiled egg slicer, a plastic knife, a dull pair of scissors, cookie cutters and a plastic and wooden small rolling pin.

Here is a great recipe for home made playdough:
3 c white all purpose flour
1/2 c salt
1 T powdered alum
Mix these dry ingredients in a big bowl.

Mix  in another bowl in order shown (important for some reason!)
3 T vegetable oil
Food coloring
2 c boiling or really hot water
Optional: A few drops of essential oil - I have used lemongrass, peppermint and lavender.
Pour wet ingredients into dry. Stir to mix. Let cool for a few minutes. Knead and play. Store in a plastic container or zip lock bag for more use.

Soap Grating

This week we added soap grating to our practical life shelves.  This is a multiple step activity which allows the child to sequence the steps and coordinate their movements. 

We grated soft soap into a dish with our tiny spice grater. We used the handle of a small spoon to help get the grated soap out of the grater.

Then we brushed the soap gratings into a small wax paper bag.

We folded it up and sealed it with a sticker label. The children took their grated soap home. It can be used for handwashing or in a bath.

Reading - Sight words

Now that this child can read 3 letter c-v-c words independently, we have introduced some basic sight words so she can read phrases and sentences. Here she is making her own sight word book to practice at home. Her parents will help her practice. Sight words simply have to memorized as most are not phonetic. In order to progress to reading phrases and sentences with three letter c-v-c words, she will have to read a few words that are not phonetic such as I and for. 

Combining her phonetic knowledge and her sight words she will confidently move into reading phrases, sentences and books that really address phonetic learning such as the Bob series.  From here we move onto learning more phonetic based sounds that contain two or more letters such as sk and tw.  She will have the phonetic skills and add these before moving onto phonograms.

The many flags of Asia

There are many countries in Asia and we have many flag cards to match. This child decided she wanted to match all of the cards. She put three rugs on the floor and first put down all of the cards with the names of the countries on them. She then matched all of the cards without names next to them. She was very proud of her work.

She has now decided to draw every single flag of Asia we have and create her own book! She will often take breaks as this is a labor intensive work but she is really enjoying the many flags.

Here she goes!

We have decided to laminate the pages to make a sturdier book.

Here is the book. She was so happy to take this home and share it with her family! (Just wait until Africa!)

Asia studies - Japan

We have had a lot of fun during our week studying Japan! Thank you to our two moms who came in and shared their culture! We had several items from Japan for the children to look at and experience.

We colored a map of Japan!

We colored different images from Japan.

We made sticky rice balls. This was made in a rice cooker which one Mom donated to the school! (THANK YOU- we will be using this a lot as we have discovered the children love sticky rice!) The children helped form them into a pyramid shape. We used our geometric solid shape as a model.

Wrap the rice ball in a piece of nori and eat. This way the rice does not stick to your fingers. Some of the children tried it and others preferred rice without the nori, sticky fingers and all!

One of our mothers wrote the children's names in Hiragana. This is Japanese writing. Some of the sounds such as v and th are not present in Japanese. The writing is phonetic, not a direct translation. Here are a few names.

We also had origami making. This was so fun! The children loved to see how a piece of paper can become a dog, cat or even a ball!

After our craft activities, we shared our special snack, looked at pictures of Japan and the teachers tried on Kimono!

A BIG thank you to our mothers who came and spent the morning with us!!! 

Valentine Activities - Practical Life

The magic of hearts! For Valentine's Day we have adapted some of our practical life work to incorporate this sweet holiday. There are many fine motor benefits from completing these works and the children are attracted to the colors and to the hearts!

Cutting out hearts. As soon as this was on the shelf, the children are surrounding the area and waiting their turn to cut out a heart. Scissor skills are used and learned during this task . This is easy to do at home, put folded pink and red paper in a basket with half a heart traced on them. Also put a pair of child sized scissors on a tray.

We always have cutting strips on the shelf but here we made them with red construction paper and hearts. Again, scissor skills are strengthened while cutting out tiny hearts. The children put these cuttings in an envelope and take them home.

As heart cutting has been so popular for the last few days, we have added another optional step. Cut the heart, glue the back and place on a white doily.

Transferring with red jewels. Here the child practices their transferring skills using brilliant red jewels. They are attracted to the color. We always have several transferring activities on the shelf but here we have added a red color.

Another transfer activity but into a heart shaped ice cube tray. Here a child is using chop sticks to transfer the pom pom balls into the tray. These trays are pretty easy to find right now.

Gluing hearts onto paper. This is in our free art area along with the cutting hearts work. The child glues hearts to construction paper.

India crafts

During our week studying India, we had been coloring Rangoli designs in the morning and decided to try to use colored sand to make the real thing. It was not difficult to do, we printed off designs, painted glue on the different areas and then gently sprinkled on sand. Some decided to make a design and others just wanted the colored sand all over their design. They had a lot of fun exploring the colors.
The morning children had an opportunity to make their own rangoli as well.

We also made diyas which are used to hold a candle in India. Usually these are heart shaped as the wick hangs over the edge and oil is used. For children using a tealight is safer. We used our special clay and made a ball. We then flattened the clay a bit and pressed in a tea light.

After a few days when the paint was dry, we painted with sparkly gold paint and will put in a tea light.