Remembering Mom on Her Special Day

I hadn't planned to do much with my students for Mother's Day this year. Not that I haven't been thinking about it, but we are down to the final stretch---the last several days of school and we seem to have activities, field trips, activity days, etc. going on every day. But then I read Amy Wruble's post on Huff Post Parents "Let's Move Mother's Day" (check out the post, it's pretty funny and may hit home if you have one of those spouses that doesn't go all out for Mother's Day :) and remembered those little trinkets my kids made for me when they were small and in preschool. I know that now that my kids are much older, I won't get those anymore. And I can't bear to rob the moms of my students even just one of those precious keepsakes. I'm still finalizing our plan, and can't share it or it will spoil the surprise, but I saw this idea in our three year old class and knew I had to share it with you here. 

Mother's Day Corsages
They used 3 coffee filters, each scrunched together in the middle and each end dipped in watercolor paint. After drying, they were wrapped together with a chenille stem folded in half and poked through a lace doily. I would be proud to wear one of these corsages on Mother's Day! 

Last year, we made these little votives for our gift for Mom. Read more here.

If your are looking for some good books for Mother's Day, here are a few of my favorites:





I wish all the Moms, Grandmas and "Mom figures" (babysitters, aunts, teachers, etc.) a wonderful and very Happy Mother's Day!!! 
I'd love to know---what was YOUR favorite "priceless" gift for Mother's Day? Share it here in the comments!

Santa-Tizer! A Quick and Easy Gift To Make For Christmas!

Here is a quick and easy idea you can easily make for a last minute gift. I made these this year as teacher/staff gifts and I'm making a few more to put under the tree for those "just in case" gifts. I think next year, I'll experiment a little more with them and add some white fur embellishments around the top and
bottom, and possibly think about laminating the outside label.

Initially, I made 2 to see how they would come out before purchasing all the bottles of hand sanitizer I would need. When I bought the bulk, I didn't realize the bottles were curved (ergonomically to fit the hand, I suppose). Be sure to closely check the shape of the bottles!

I printed the words "Santa-tizer" on red paper and glued it onto the bottle to cover the label. Make sure to match your suit label size to cover the packaging label completely.

I added a thin black strip of paper around the bottle for a belt. Use glue and ultra-fine craft glitter to make a buckle.

The friends and staff I made these for loved them!


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Deck The Halls With Holiday Ornaments

Looking for a few ideas for holiday ornaments? I've got just the thing! Our preschool puts a large Christmas tree in the lobby every year and each class makes ornaments to decorate it. Here are a few of the cute ornaments adorning our tree this year:

School Glue Snowmen
These started out as those adorable "melted snowmen" I've seen all over Pinterest. It turns out that our floor is not quite level and the first few of our "melted snowmen" just didn't work out. The glue spread far and wide and the decorations all spread to the outer edges. We thought we'd place a plastic lid under the plastic wrap to help them retain some of their shape. Well, as they spread, they took on the shape of the lid. Not quite what we'd set out to make, but they did turn out pretty cute!

Cute As A Button
This it cute and simple! Arrange craft sticks in a triangle and glue on some colorful buttons!

Holly Wreath Frame
 Paper holly leaves glued on a painted paper plate circle make a cute frame for a holiday photo. This is also cute with puzzle pieces painted green as the holly leaves.

Reindeer Kids
Use a photo of your child has the reindeer face and add handprint antlers! Don't forget the red nose!

Collage Christmas Trees
These are cute with whatever loose parts you have lying around. I've done them with confetti glitter, too.

 

Handprint Wreaths
  Green construction paper handprints make the greenery and red handprints make the bow on this wreath.

And in case you missed it or need a few more ideas, there are several more in my December  PreK+K Sharing post, 10 Easy Gifts Kids Can Make For Christmas.

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A Gift for Dad, A Book To Share and A Blog Hop!

I'm thrilled to participate this month in the Preschool Blogger Network's "Father's Day Book and Activity" Blog Hop! 

I am always stumped for good ideas for gifts kids can make for Father's Day. I came up with this simple pencil can that is so easy for kids to make and can be decorated for any theme or interest. 


First, wash a empty can from the recycling bin. Soup and vegetable cans are the perfect size for this. If you are worried about the top edge, simply place a strip of duct tape over the lip to cover the edges. Glue craft sticks to the can until the surface is completely covered. (Be careful to make sure the sticks are aligned with the bottom of the can or it won't sit level.)

After letting glue dry, paint and decorate to suit Dad's interests. My husband has an affinity for sailing, so we made our can with a little sailing scene with a banner plane that pulls a banner that says "Dad".  We used foam stickers for embellishments. 

 

Another thing I like about this project is that it is easily adapted for any person or occasion. If a student does not have a father, or a father figure, it can be decorated for Mom or Grandma. I take note of those situations at the beginning of the year and ask the family how they want to handle it. Often, there is a grandfather, uncle or other father figure in the picture. If this is the case, you may want to read a book about non-typical families. I've heard really good things about the book "Love is a Family" by Roma Downey from Touched By An Angel. 

There are tons of good children's books out there about Dads. My favorite is "Kevin and His Dad" by Irene Smalls. Dad and Kevin spend the day together doing chores and enjoying their time together. I love that the focus is on finding the joy together in simple, everyday activities! 

Be sure to stop by these wonderful blogs and check out the books and ideas they are sharing today!


Teach Preschool : Aunt Annie's Childcare : Living Montessori Now : The SEEDS Network : Music Sparks :Males in Early Childhood : Little Illuminations

Celebrating Chinese New Year in Pre-K

GUNG HAY FAY CHOY!!! Yesterday was the start of the Chinese New Year. It's the Year of the Dragon! We celebrated the occasion by reading a story and making paper lanterns to decorate our classroom. The children chose either yellow or red construction paper and decorated it however they wished.

They folded the paper in half and traced lines with a ruler. The next step was to cut on the line, without cutting all the way through. This year's group has really struggled with cutting skills, so this was great practice. 

We stapled them together to make a cylinder shape.

They turned out pretty cute! Later, we punched holes in the top and ran string through the top so we could hang them up in our classroom. 

I discovered this wonderful little lift -the- flap book, "Dragon's Dance" by Joan Holub. It has great illustrations, easy to understand text and is quite informative, giving the reader a nice glimpse of families celebrating Chinese New Year. It was a great way to introduce the holiday traditions some children celebrate! 

Gung Fat Hay Choy! Happy Year of the Dragon!

Christmas in Pre-K

We celebrate all the winter holidays in my Pre-K class.  I believe it's a great time to promote multiculturalism. Be sure to hop on over to Pre-K and K Sharing for more on what we do for other holidays and to read my post: "Using Holiday Celebrations to Promote Multiculturalism in Early Childhood Settings." 


Christmas is such a magical time, and I definitely take advantage of it! We had so much fun making giant gingerbread people, that we made a few giant candy cane decorations for the classroom.

 

 

We made a couple of ornaments for presents for the parents. We made cute snowflakes from foam die cuts and added a picture of each child on one side and let the kids decorate with winter foam stickers, glitter and sequins on the other side. They turned out beautifully, but somehow managed to miss getting photographed before being wrapped.(Had the kids not wrapped the gifts themselves, I would have definitely unwrapped for a few shots and rewrapped! ) We also made these cute snowman handprint ornaments for the tree in our preschool lobby. On the last day of school, parents were invited to take their ornament with them to use at home.

 I put seasonal items in our centers to make things fun.

And added a few props to change our scenery.

 


I saw this CUTE snowball toss game on Teaching Heart Blog in the post: Winter Party Planning Printables. It took me about 15 minutes to make and about $2 in supplies.  I simply cut a few simple shapes from construction paper and stuck them onto clear contact paper and applied the whole thing to the front of the pop-up hamper. I ended up stapling the contact paper to the front of my hamper, as it didn't stick well to the fabric for long. We played this all week and will probably use it in January for our winter/snow and polar pal units, as well! 

We made Santa Claus decorations from paper plates, cotton and a little red construction paper.

And these reindeer handprint puppets from paper bags and brown paper:

We did a lot of singing and dancing. Our favorite songs were The Tractors': "Santa Claus Is Coming On a Boogie Woogie Choo Choo Train" and Raffi's: "Must Be Santa".

The morning of our party, we made these reindeer cupcakes from chocolate frosted cupcakes, pretzels and a few candies. We saved them for our party later that day. 

My absolute FAVORITE holiday idea this year came from The SEEDS Network. I found these adorable (and very yummy) melted snowman s'mores over there and immediately knew they would be perfect to include in my gifts to my students this year. I have shared this idea with every teacher I know! I am also making a batch to take to all of my nieces and nephews on Christmas Eve. 

I never know exactly what to get my little friends. I usually try to get them a coloring book, because we don't do any coloring "inside the lines" in Pre-K (to find out why, read here). These are the goodies I finally decided upon.

Our final day before the holiday was celebrated in true Pre-K style! We wore our jammies and had a Polar Express movie party while drinking very cool hot cocoa. A nice way to end a very hectic season!

My holiday wish for you, whatever holiday you celebrate,  is that your days are Merry and Bright!