P is for Pumpkin

On the 27th we learned about the letter P. We also got a surprise outside, a snowstorm during preschool! We started off playing with pumkin pie playdough. It was hard getting them to put it away and move on to our next activity!
Next, we printed some pumpkins with potatoes and paint to make placemats.

While those dried, we pressed out some pizza dough,

put on the sauce,

and placed the cheese and pepperoni to make them look like pumpkins!

As they baked and cooled, the kids beaded pipe cleaner pumpkins.

For a poem, we did the five little pumpkins fingerplay. Then it was time for snack and the kids loved how these turned out!

We read LOTS of pumpkin and Halloween books and then made paper bag puppy puppets,

and adorable paper plate pandas.

The kids then drew faces on their pumpkins and I laminated them in my handy pouch laminator. Next time I think I'll add some green vines to them, but they still turned out cute.

So many pumpkin themed activities, and we had a blast! HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!

G is for Ghost

On October 20th we learned about the letter G. We practiced with scissors cutting crepe paper streamers for the ghosts.
A big hit was the gumdrop geometric shape making activity.

But warning--be careful with toothpicks! Sierra ate the gumdrops off her creation when she got home and misplaced a toothpick in the carpet. As she was jumping around, the thing impaled her foot and broke off. It was so deep that she had to get it removed by the doctor!

They fingerprinted the spots on their jointed giraffes.

We had granola bars for snack and made glitter bottles which I didn't get a good picture of. We read "Inside a House that is Haunted" because one of the creatures in the story is a ghost. It is so cute! It is a rebus read-along book and the kids loved shouting out what the little pictures were. At the end of class we made kleenex ghost suckers and counted out some gummy bears.

We didn't get around to doing some math excercises with these lima bean ghosts, but the kids had fun playing with them for a bit.

H is for Horse

Some H themed craft ideas-click for links!clothespin horse

Art Projects for Kids

handprint turkey
All Kids Network

house craft
Southern Moms

hamster ball
Craftzine

Halloween haunted house
eHow

Head, shoulders, knees and toes song cards
ESL Kid Stuff

Pilgrim hat cookies

Woman's Day

handprint hedgehog

Activity Village

pompom hummingbird

The Ramblings of a Crazy Woman

hibernating bear cave craft

Almost Unschoolers

hippo puppet

Preschool Storytime Crafts

shape house

Texas State Library

framed handprint turkey

Kaboose

Hickory, dickory, dock activity

Adventures in Mommydom

collage horse

1st Presswood Rainbows

homemade hummingbird feeder

eHow

heart match-up file folder game

Preschool Printables

hula skirt

Preschool Playbook

Backyardigans printable hopscotch mat

Nick Jr.

hedgehog cupcakes

Family Fun

hungry hippo craft

Casa Camacho

recycled play house

This Blessed Nest

hummingbird

The Ramblings of a Crazy Woman

X is for X-ray

October 13th we tackled the letter X. Not many things start with it, and those that do don't really make it's sound, so we did a lot of activities that involved words ending with X, as well. We also got creative about it. . .

We started off talking about the X in the skull and crossbones symbol for pirates and put together these awesome hats and eye patches.

We then found a pirate treasure map where X marked the spot. The hunt took us all through the house and the kids took turns finding the clues and figuring them out.

These were our different maps. Each one had a new location on it, taking us closer and closer to the X! The last map showed the X next to the decorative pine trees by the kitchen.
And there it was! There was a box under the X, so they opened it to find

six tupperware containers full of ingredients needed to fix sugar cookies.

We went to the mixer and took turns pouring in the contents.

While the dough chilled, I read the book Jessica's X-ray which had a few real x-rays on some of the pages. Then the kids colored a person outline to look like them.

Here's the one I did as an example. I then carefully lined up the matching skeleton and stapled it to the back. When you hold it up to a sunny window,

you can see the bones inside and it's like an x-ray. If you would like a pdf of this project, click here.

By then our cookie dough was ready and I had the kids make X shapes with it for our snack.

Here, the kids are twisting pipe cleaners into an x shape to be whiskers on the fox masks they were assembling.

We talked about the poison sign and that most things that are dangerous don't have this symbol to warn us. I told them that cleaners, medicine and lawn chemicals can be poisonous.
I set up the coffee table with lots of items and had them place a poison symbol on the things they should never play with.

At the end of class, we played some tic-tac-toe with sparkly pipe cleaner x's and o's.