St. Patrick's Day Bulletin Boards

We've been gearing up for St. Patrick's Day, getting our bulletin boards ready to display all the wonderful masterpieces the kids have been coming up with. I often use the caption "Pre-K Lucky Charms" or "Mrs. Ayn's Lucky Charms" but since a few other classes went with that this year before I got my caption up, we went with "Pre-K is magically Delicious!".

We added a few tie-dyed coffee filter and collage art shamrocks for detail. Some of the children were folding coffee filters and using watercolors to paint them. Others used markers to color the coffee filters and then sprayed them with a water bottle. This has become quite a popular activity in art area ever since the introduction of the marker/spray bottle technique was introduced. I'm sure it has more to do with the fun factor of using the water bottle than the final effect, but either way, they do come out pretty! After the filters had dried, I cut some of them into the shamrock shape. (We tried to let the kids do it, but the filters don't cut very well with kids scissors.)

Also available in our art center is a wide variety of collage materials and some shamrock cut outs. Since our kids LOVE glue, this is another popular art activity.

This is our door decoration.

I frequently visit other classrooms and see what they are up to. Here are some of the bulletin boards that other teachers in our center have up for St. Patrick's Day.

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Green Pepper Print Shamrocks

We've been making shamrock prints with green peppers and green paint in our art center this week. The one year old class used these peppers one day, and brought them down to us when they'd finished. There was plenty of printing life left in them, so we put them in our art center. It's been a lot of fun, as well as a great sensory activity!

                                 

                               

Some of the kids explored with the paint and used the pepper like brush, painting the entire paper, making lines and swirls in their paint designs. Anything goes~ explore and have fun!

                                 

I left the green peppers for the after-school class to explore with later that afternoon. This was one of the pretty designs I found drying on the counter the next day! 

Pepper shamrock printing has made the rounds at our school, and has been a BIG hit with every age group that has tried it! 


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Yeah, We're Chill Like That!

Some days on the playground are a frenzy of activity. Hula hoops, baseball, football, trikes, swings, running, chasing....you get the picture. Today was the first day of Daylight Savings Time, and we were all dragging just a little today. The weather forecast predicts rain for most of the week, and we'll probably be stuck inside. We cut our indoor center time a little short today and went out a little early. It was beautiful out~ 70's and party cloudy. 


When we first went out, the kids noticed this art work hanging on the fence. We had to go check it out! Earlier this morning, a sneaky little leprechaun crept into our room and took out some toys and rearranged our chairs. Initially, the children wanted to make sure this painting wasn't more the leprechauns' shenanigans. By the time we'd reached the top of the hill, the children were sure they'd seen leprechaun movement in the woods.

Can you spot the leprechaun? 
"Yeah, we should all come out here with our camouflage clothes. If we were really still, then they might not see us and come out."  "Yeah, that's how you do it when you deer hunt. I know, 'cause I go hunting!" 
(I hope, for the leprechaun's sake, that he is a fast little dude! I don't think I'd want to get caught by this crowd!)

As I walked around today, I did see some of the typical, very active play, but also noticed several pockets of kids playing relatively quietly. 

This group just sat at the top of the jungle gym, having a very riveting conversation. 

This group moved the chairs into the sandbox and made a movie theater. They sat for a while as if there were a movie playing on some imaginary screen and talked a lot about movies they either wanted to see or had seen. 

"These are my meatballs!" 

"I'm making a cake!"

There was a lot of "cake making" going on in various corners of the playground. 

This is a "surprise cake" because "when you eat it, you find out there is a big green truck under there and it's a surprise!" 

While one of the friends and I strolled around the playground, we found this heart leaf. What a special find! 

My favorite moment of the day was walking up on this scene: 
"This how you get a 'skin tan' !" 
"Dads get a 'skin tan' by sitting in chairs like this." 
Me: "So, you guys are just hanging out?"
"Yeah, we're chill like that!"

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20 Simple Ways to Transform Dramatic Play

Hooray!! It's my turn to post on the collaborative early childhood blog PreK+K Sharing and today I'm sharing 20 simple ways to transform your dramatic play center in the post "Setting The Scene in Dramatic Play". Hop on over and check it out!

Jump Rope For Heart in PRE-K!!!!

As readers here know, February was filled with fundraising activities for American Heart Month. In addition to participating in the heart project here, my class participated in our First Annual Jump Rope For Heart Event, Pre-K Edition. We collected and raised funds all month for this event. On "Leap Day", February 29th, we held our event. Our company has 3 schools with 5 Georgia Pre-K classes and 1 private Pre-K class, about 120 students in all. We invited all the classes to our school for this wonderful day of fitness and fun.

Just  because the majority of our kids are not yet jumping rope, we didn't let that stop us from making this a great heart healthy event. We managed to come up with 12 activity stations that involved a jump rope in one way or another. For some activities, we simply used a jump rope as the finish line.


Tug o' War
Even the teachers got in on the act! 

 


Jump Over The X!
We crossed two jump ropes to form an "X" and placed cards with the numbers 1,2,3,4 in each section. The teacher called numbers in a sequence and the kids had to jump back and forth between spots.

Limbo!
We had a Limbo station set up with Limbo music. This was definitely one of the favorite stations!

 




High Jump Limbo
 Sort of a reverse-limbo. The kids took turns jumping over the rope as it gradually raised higher and higher. 

 


Hula Hoop Obstacle Course

                          

 


Exercise Station
We used a Shawn Brown Exercise Drill to direct the kids in a mini cardio workout!

  

 

Bean Bag Throw
The kids tossed the bean bag as far as they could throw it. We marked the length with a jump rope. Everybody took turns trying to throw farther than the rope.

                           

 


Long Leap
How far can you jump? 

                          

                        




Potato Sack Race
Since the point of the day was to have fun while getting a little exercise, it was perfectly okay for teachers to help out a little. We had several friends in the different classes with physical disabilities,  activities were easily adaptable for everyone!

                                     

 

3 Legged Race
Team work!!!

                                

                            

 


We had two stations that were inside, the Estimation Station and the Refreshment Station.


The Estimation Station
In the Estimation Station, kids guessed how many friends would fit inside a jump rope, then two jump ropes  formed into a closed circle. The kids then tried to see how many kids actually fit inside and then compared their numbers.

The Refreshment Station
Definitely a favorite station, but instead of being "heart healthy" this station made the friends "heart happy"! Nothing is better than a day of fun that includes popsicles! 

                                

There were no losers --- everyone went home a winner! The point of the stations was to give each activity a try and have fun with our sister schools. I forgot to mention that it was also "Wacky Wednesday" of Dr. Seuss Week, so many of our participants were wearing their "wackiest wear"! The crazy outfits just added to the fun of the day! It was a lot of fun, and we successfully raised quite a bit of money for a very worthy cause. 


I'm linking this post up to two wonderful linkys on outdoor play. Be sure to check them out~ you'll find lots of ideas on outdoor play! 


Be sure to check out the "LEAPing In! Encouraging Children to Be Active!" post by Amy Ahola from Child Central Station on the group blog, PreK+K Sharing. You'll find wonderful posts and ideas like Amy's post there! I'm proud to be a monthly contributor on this wonderful collaboration of ECE bloggers! 

Also, be sure to check out "Outdoor Play Link-Up - Risky Business" by my friend Kierna over at Learning For Life. I'm linking this to the OUTDOOR PLAY linky by: 

 MAMA PEA POD

GREENING SAM AND AVERY

LEARNING FOR LIFE

THE GOLDEN GLEAM

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