3D Handprint Spiders and Webs

It seems as if we just can't do anything simple around here anymore! So in our fine new tradition, we created these AMAZING spider webs and handprint spiders.

First, we took the paper plates I had recently bought for another craft, and cut in around the edge. The paper plate had neatly spaced fold lines that we used as a guide and cut in the depth of the first lip of the plate.

The children then chose the yarn they wished to use. I tied a knot into one end and placed it under a cut. The children were instructed to pick a slot on the opposite side of the plate, anywhere on the other half.

I helped them string it across into the slot they picked [2 1/2-3 year-olds], pulled it taught, and asked them which slot, to the left or right of the one the string was currently through, they wished to come back up through.

We brought it up and again they picked a slot on the other side, with encouragement to pick an open one.

We made tried to hit every slot at least once, but the randomness is what gives it it's great texture and movement.

We then traced their handprints with a white pencil, a white crayon would also work, overlapping the palms of both hands to form the body.

These we cut out, added google eyes, and I folded the fingers down from the body and up about a 1/2 inch from the bottom to make the spiders stand up on the web.

The children chose how to face their webs, marking the TOP of it. Then they chose where to place their spider on their webs and which direction they would face.

Where the feet met yarn, we added a good dollop of glue and placed that foot on top. If it wouldn't stick and I needed it to for stability, I added a clothespin while it dried.

I added string, and we hung them in the play area. The children LOVE them and are very proud of these.

A very fun, tactile, and multi-skill craft.

SKILLS:

Fine Motor tracing, cutting, gluing, lacing, sorting and placing google eyes

Sensory yarn, cut edges of plate, smoothness of plate

Math directional placement, lines, diagonal, intersection, perpendicular, 2/4/8, same, different, symmetry, opposite, half, logic/reasoning 

Art creative expression, lines, symmetry, tracing, cutting, lacing, gluing, placement

Tags: theme, unit, fall, autumn, Halloween, spider, craft, art, preschool, daycare, child, care, childcare, yarn, paper, plate, cut, paste, glue, scissors, handprint, hand, print, lacing, fine motor, 3D

Little Old Lady Flannel Board

One of our favorite books of all time for Halloween, a very fun interactive story. The children love doing all the movements.

Here's the FREE flannel board set we use along with the book, and as a self-selected activity for story sequencing with our ordinal count number cards. 

Tags: Halloween, fall, autumn, unit, theme, holiday, printable, kids, kid, children's, book, little old lady who was not afraid of anything, little, old, lady, afraid, anything, flannel, board, sequencing, story, daycare, childcare, care, preschool, free, scarecrow, pumpkin, jack-o-lantern, felt, theme, unit

Autumn/Fall Items w/FREEBIE

FREEBIE!!

A great pre-writing worksheet for children to work following a curve and practicing letter formation on the word PUMPKIN.

New File Folder Game just added to TPT!

At it's core, a simple color matching game. For children with more advanced skills, also included is shapes, counting 1-12, shape words, color words, and number words. The shirt manipulatives can be divided in half for additional game play opportunities. For older students, math facts equal to the button quantities can be added.

I purposefully placed similar colors together to work observation skills and logic/reasoning. 

$1.00

Tags: free, printable, pumpkin, halloween, fall, autumn, coloring, crayon, drawing, writing, fine motor, fine, motor, pencil, kids, child, children's, child's, preschool, daycare, care, kindergarten, math, shapes, colors, center, reading, sight, words, sight words, number, color, shape, word, matching, scarecrow, file, folder, game, file folder game, 

Fall Hand Print Tree

Our first group project in the new art studio!

It was SO nice to be able to leave it to dry! 

Before, I would be trying to locate a large enough, safe, area and then trying to move it there without demolishing all their hard work!

First, we worked on painting within the lines I casually sketched out. For these children, 2 1/2-3, that's something we are working on right now...staying in and on lines.

Next they each chose a color to paint. By doing it this way, each child can easily identify their own handprints, and the colors didn't get mixed and turn all to brown. I was actually surprised that they made such distinct handprints and didn't go nuts and just smear all over it. G swtiched to brown and H switched to orange at the end. My little sensory fusser A did a great job with green, but was done with it pretty quick.

On my trek to Michaels this weekend, I found the frisbees 1/2 off, .50@, so I bought 6. I just hadn't taken them outside yet and they were lying around. I needed something relatively small with sides, but large enough for their hands, that the children could use as paint palettes. I saw these, and thought, "Ah, ha!" [Seriously. I thought that.]

They worked out perfectly. These frisbees will be staying in the art studio and I'll have to make another trek to Micheals THIS weekend, too!

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Tried to get the labels off. Not happening easily. I'll have to get out the peanut butter and let them set a day or so. I like using PB to get off stickers for anything the children will use. It doesn't leave any chemical residue or possibly mess up the plastic in any way. 

 The end result is a wonderful composition that we can leave up for the season.

Tags: mural, group, team, hand, print, painting, finger, finger painting, hand print painting, leaves, fall, autumn, tree, red, orange, green, yellow, red, brown, art, craft, daycare, child, childcare, care, preschool, theme unit

Pumpkin Pie Play Dough

Made up a batch of this YUMMMMY smelling play dough this afternoon. Miss H helped determine how much spice was needed for it to smell JUST RIGHT. Her momma had a a good sniff as well. I think this will be a huge hit tomorrow!

My usual recipe, plus some spices and coloring...

MIX DRY

2 1/2 C flour

1/2 C salt

1 t cream of tartar

1 T cinnamon

1 t pumpkin pie spice

MIX WET

2 C boiling water

3 T canola oil

15 drops yellow food coloring

5 drops red food coloring

Combine wet and dry. Kneed a few time to get to elastic consistency. Add flour as needed if too wet. 

They like the smell.

They like the feel.

Even the big kid couldn't keep his hands off of it! 

Tags: pumpkin, pie, play, doh, dough, art, sensory, fall, autumn, kids, child, childcare, daycare, preschool, care, fine motor, cinnamon, kids, spice, playdoh, theme, unit 

Autumn / Fall Sensory Bin with Learning Activities

Our new fall sensory bin may look rather unassuming, but it is CHOCK FULL of learning opportunities and a sensory explosion!

The tools are not in there. Once they are, the bin really has very little extra room. We had to remove the Indian corn when it wasn't being used.

WHAT IT CONTAINS

FILLER
(2) 42 oz/1.19 kg Large containers of old fashioned oats
(1) .75 oz/21 g container of Pumpkin Pie Spice
*I bought a third container of oats, but 2 was sufficient to fill it nicely.

MANIPULATIVES
12 Pinecones [found, but they do have in floral at Dollar Store]
12 Each red, yellow, green silk leaves [Dollar Store]
12 Small mixed colored pumpkins [Dollar Store]
12 Each red, yellow, green multi-sized pom poms as apples
(1) Mini straw bale [craft store]
(3) Ears of Indian Corn [grocery store]
(3) Toilet paper tubes [from NEW rolls]
(3) Autmn/fall 4" pom poms as apple trees [yarn from WalMart]

*I purposefully didn't use any real pumpkins or apples due to wanting to re-use the filler at a later date. So, nothing organic that could drop bits if played with roughly. They have those for other areas and other activities. They also must wash their hands well prior to playing in it.

TOOLS
Mini scoops [formula measuring cups]
Tongs
Ladles
Large tweezers
Measuring cups
Measuring spoons
Scrapers
Funnels
Tubes
Various small containers
Various misc. items to scoop with or into.

Here are the regular tools in their tool box. Additionally, they are open to bringing anything they want from other play areas, such as funnels, play dishes, figures, cars, etc. I try to keep the manipulatives fairly small, so no great big measuring cups, since the goal is fine motor and sensory, not massive dumping with immediate results as we have in our outside sensory areas.

WHAT IT DOES

As with all my sensory bins, this one is set up to work specific preschool/kindergarten skills.

COLOR MATCHING/SORTING. Leaves, pumpkins, and pom poms can all be sorted and grouped by color into the colored bowls, as the girls were doing here, out on the table, or within the bin. Or, individual items can be sorted out by color. 

SIZING. The pinecones and pom poms can all be sorted by small, medium and large. The pom poms can be advanced to 2-characteristic sorting by color and by size.

They can also sort the pom poms by color or size ONTO the apple trees, adding in an additional element.

COUNTING. Works on 1-12 and the concept of a dozen, the children can count out the 8 different elements that have 12 items within the bin.

1-1 CORRESPONDENCE. The children can match pom poms to leaves, pinecones to pumpkins, apple trees to ears of corn, etc.

DIRECTIONAL. "Look, I put a pumpkin on top of the straw bale!" was one of the first things I heard. Apples ON the tree. Items IN the containers. Leaves UNDER the pinecones. Pom poms going THROUGH the TP tubes. 

SENSORY. BUMPY, SOFT and SMOOTH were said about the corn kernels. CRINKLY was said about the corn husk. ROUGH and SCRATCHY were said about the straw bale. YUMMY was said about the oats and spice mix. That was within the first 5 minutes of play.

SHAPES. Sphere, cylinder, circle, cone, square, rectangle, cube, rectangular prism, 

FINE MOTOR. Filling, scooping, stacking, placing, moving manipulatives. Writing into the oats. 

GROSS MOTOR. It's a large bin. The children have to use quite a bit of gross motor work to reach everything they want to and move items from one end to another.

Filling the pumpkin pie spice jar that was emptied into the oats.

They ask to play in the sensory bins every day! 

LOVE THEM!

Keep in mind that if you don't want to spend much money, even having one sensory bin for each season is a great place to start. Seasonal ones can be used for the 3 months with just changing out a few items here and there. Purchase items on clearance for the season just past for next year. 

Tags: autumn, fall, season, seasonal, sensory, bin, sensory bin, kids, child, childcare, math, science, shapes, counting, oats, apple, pumpkin, leaves, leaf, pinecone, straw, tools, how to, fine motor, gross motor, care, daycare, preschool, kids, theme, unit

Autumn Trees from Paper Bags

Preschool time in October for us includes a lot of crafts. One of these is making autumn trees from lunch sacks.

 

• Trace and cut a square from a cereal box
• Trace and cut a square from green construction paper and glue onto cardboard piece, aligning them
• Cut a square from orange construction paper and then cut the corners off to create an octagon
• Using black marker, draw a face onto the octagon
• Cut a rectangle from orange or green construction paper no longer than bottom edge of the pumpkin octagon, fold in half long ways and glue one end to green board in middle front and one edge to the pumpkin to make stand up
• Twist the lower 1/3 of a brown lunch sack and glue the bottom to a corner of the green board
• Snip with scissors the top of the sack 
• Tear off pieces of autumn colored tissue paper, wad up and glue randomly to the upper 1/3 of the lunch sack 

Skills
Art: creative expression, cut, paste, 3D sculpture, mixed media, composition, color

Fine Motor: tracing, cutting with scissors, cutting a line, gluing, twisting bag, writing faces

Social: following directions, facial expressions

Math: logic/reasoning, shapes, geometry, directional placement, fractions 

We had 6 pumpkins/gourds out. 

• 2 were regular and orange (in picture), 
• 2 were orange with a lot of warts/nubbies on them, and 
• 2 were white with one nubby and one not 

All were of different sizes, but with a distinct difference between the 3 larger and 3 smaller (one of each kind). The children could group by smooth, nubby, color, size or graduate sizes. 

We measured their height, weight and circumference and charted this on the white board, along with the same measurements of the children. We used a measuring tape, yard stick, ruler, pound scale and ounce scale to measure and the children had to debate which tool would be best and jointly decide on which one was best to use. H wouldn't quite fit on the ounce scale we found out.

Skills
Fine Motor: measuring one another
Social: following directions, cooperation
Math: graphing, measuring, logic/reasoning, units of measurement, measurement vocabulary, 

Tags: October, fall, autumn, pumpkins, trees, preschool, craft, cut, paste, glue, theme, unit, art, sculpture, daycare, preschool, child, care, childcare, halloween, pumpkin, tree, leaves, paper sack, kid, kids, theme, uniit