3D Art

 

When children are given materials to create with many times young children will create art that is flat and on paper. To get children to create more three dimensional art the teacher needs to provide a material to build off of or that can be used to attach items together. 

Foam, play dough or recyclable objects work great as a starting place to 

get children to think about creating three dimensional art. 

Hot Chocolate Shop

 Winter time is a great time to share a cup of hot chocolate with a friend. 

We turned our dramatic play center into a hot chocolate shop! 

So much learning can take place while children are pretending! 

The children took turns ordering hot chocolate and cookies as customers and other children were taking the orders. We counted out money as we ordered different size cups of hot chocolate. We had small, medium and large cups. As the orders came in the children also wrote down what was ordered.

Our hot chocolate and marshmallows were made out of felt.

 At clean up time the felt pieces turned into a sorting game.

We read a recipe when making hot chocolate.

We read a menu to find out how much things cost.

Book of the Month

Reading with children and instilling a love for books is one of the most important things to do with young children. Here at Lighthouse Learning Center we read several books each day that are meaningful and interesting to the children. Activities are also provided to expand learning with books. Props to retell stories are provided along with games related to books we have read. Each month a new book and activity will be sent home with the children. Check here for additional activities to do with your child related to the book of the month.

 

February 2014

Valentine Friends

By: April Jones Prince

 March 2014

May I Please Have a Cookie?

By: Jennifer E. Morris

Valentine Friends

The book of the month for February is 

"Valentine Friends" written by April Jones Prince. This book is a great book to use with young children as well as older children. 

The simple words on each page make it easy to focus on vocabulary with younger children. "I found the cat, can you find the cat?" "What is that cat doing." "Oh, the cat is cutting." The book also encourages children to create a valentine card or bake a valentine treat for a friend.

Older children can use this book in many ways too. Each page contains two words that start with the same sound. It can be used to work on sounds that they hear at the beginning of the word. Children can point to each word in the book as you read the story. Encourage children to figure out each word by looking at the pictures and by reading the first letter of each word as clues to what the words on the page says. 

This book of the month is being sent home with a matching game with words that start with the same sound. The matches are (Penguin - Pours) (Cat – Cuts) (Dog – Draws) (Snail – Shuts)

Igloos, Penguins and Snow

We were super excited 

to receive this kit from 

Scholastic Book Clubs. 

All we needed was some snow!

To get ready for our fun, I 

put together a couple of 

igloos and then sprinkled water 

on top. The igloos then went 

back into the freezer until we 

were ready to play.

The kids loved to see how much snow and penguins could fit into an igloo. 

Gloves kept their hands warm while playing in the snow.

 

The igloos held up really well and I was able to store them in the freezer after we were done playing. We used the same igloos for several days. Once we were done and the snow was melting outside, we placed an igloo and penguin outside to watch it melt. It took 2 days and it was fun to check on the changes of the igloo each day.

Our Pet Shop

This fall we had lots of fun playing in our pet shop. Everyone wanted to buy a pet and carry it around with them all day. We talked about how pets are a big responsibility. They need to be fed everyday, they need get exercise and they also need a place to sleep.

I found the kennels at the thrift store years ago. The cats and dogs I found at the dollar tree. It was fun to have matching pets on the shelf then clean up became a matching game. We used pom poms for our dog and cat food. We also have dog and cat dishes that came from the dollar tree.

Our fish tank on the table was the biggest hit though! I made large stuffed fish using two pieces of felt cut into a simple fish shape. I used the sewing machine and sewed around the edges. Once I sewed 3/4 of the way around the fish I put a little bit a stuffing inside the fish and then continued around the rest of the fish. I made two of each color of fish so the kids could work on matching again! The fish were very simple and took only an hour to create from start to finish.

This was the best part! I used the left over felt and cut it into 2 inch pieces. Then I put the felt pieces into an old parmesan cheese container. Felt fish food! Someone was always over feeding the fish! The pet shop also had 2 small plastic shoebox containers where the children could put the fish that they bought. In the bottom of the plastic aquariums there was a piece of blue fabric for water.

A price list also encouraged the kids to work on their math skills! I have younger kids currently so I only used the numbers 1-5.

There you have it. Hours of fun playing pet shop for under $15. Priceless!

Sorting Colors

A simple but fun activity for all ages. The younger kids work on taking the lids 

off and on while the older kids sort the colors into the correct container. 

Sometimes pretend play emerges from this activity too! Soup anyone?

The containers that I used for this activity came from empty milk containers my daughter got with kids meals at several different restaurants. I then cut strips of paper into the right size to fit in the the bottle along with a piece of paper that would fit around the bottle for a label. These pieces I laminated to make more durable. Cut a circle to fit the lid and then used modge podge to attach it to the top. 

There you go, simple, yet hours of fun!