Shapes Worksheet

Shapes Prek-K

This is a shapes worksheet that I whipped up tonight.  Harmony needed to practice her shapes, which included the trapezoid and the hexagon.  Unfortunately, I couldn't find many worksheets offering this so I decided to get creative!  :)  You can have your child trace the shape and then draw it by free hand.  I also had Harmony practice writing the shapes name underneath when she was completed with the each set.

Enjoy!

Candice S

Science Experiment Saturday: Chemical Reactions- with Color

We have had such an excellent preschool week- mainly having fun and playing!  For a while my household was off track due to our move, but we are slowly and surely getting back up and running.  I often wonder if those are the most receptive moments in a child's mind, when they are learning and exploring something that they enjoy.  Nothing makes me happier then seeing Harmony or Mark spark at a new adventure, whether it's a new project, or reading a book.  Children amaze me.  This week we have explored colors, read a million books, and have done quite a bit of arts and crafts.  This has definitely been an artistic week for us, which is why I think we've enjoyed it so.  Since we are learning with colors this week, I decided that this would be an excellent way to incorporate mixing primary colors into secondary colors, as well as, seeing the two different substances have a chemical reaction!  Boy oh boy, did we LOVE this!

We mixed our colors first- just a drop of food coloring, per color.  Then we added the baking soda, grabbed our camera, and poured in the vinegar!  I think the best part was Harmony's reaction after she poured the vinegar in.. 

After we tried it the first time, we kept on making our mini-magic potions of color.  This time, I got it on video.... yeah, I'm a dork- but it was too cute!

What science experiments have you done with your kids?  I would love to hear about them.. :)

Candice S.

Linking to ..

Color of the Rainbow: Preschool Schedule

051711 Preschool Week Rainbows

Click on the "Fullscreen" to see it in larger print.  Any questions, feel free to ask.  Most of my resources are included as hyperlinks, which I will have to test to see if they work for you.  Also, I will be posting on the crafts, projects, and videos that are utilized during the week as we learn!  :)  Stay tuned!

Candice

Melissa and Doug Magnets- Amazing!

I decided to buy the Melissa & Doug Magnetic Wooden Alphabet for Harmony so we could easily spell words.  So far, we really like them.. although I think that my creative artist has enjoyed using them to create people, objects, and houses. 

I have recently purchased other Melissa and Doug products, which I love beyond words!  -I am not advertising here.. I am just a really satisfied customer!  If you are unfamiliar with their learning toys, you must go take a looksy!  :)

Happy Tuesday!

Candice

Easter Egg Counting Game

Our household has not had too many preschool activities going on.  I do apologize for not posting as often as I would like.  We are in the process of relocating and have started packing arts and crafts tools.  My husband and I also just started a small break from school so with all of these things in mind, I have slacked in maintaining Harmony's preschool schedule and sticking to it.  That being said, we are slowly getting back into the swing of things and will hopefully be creating some Earth Day, Easter, and Spring crafts and lesson plans within the next few weeks after we have successfully moved.  Until then, bare with our disarray of posts.

  Sorting, matching, color coding, or spelling- Harmony pretty much enjoys all of these things.  With this fun game, you can match the numbers to the eggs or you can have an egg hunt outdoors or indoors.  ..You can even just toss them all over your living room and have an egg party like our house did this afternoon. 

The possibilities are endless and enjoyable for children who are learning how to recognize numbers 1-18.

Happy Spring!

Candice S

Montessori Method, Letters, and Reading Fun

I have been studying and learning the concept and principles of Montessori.  I have been learning some methods of Montessori and why teaching a child during the open outlet of teaching is so important.  Although these moments of teaching occur during time periods in the earlier years of a child's life, it is imperative to grasp onto them and allow the child to absorb any information provided for them in their environment.  Allowing the child to absorb and create in their environment is the biggest principle in Montessori teaching.  You prepare the environment for the child and see where they decide how to use the tools provided for them.  They also gain knowledge of errors that they make during certain activities, such as simple tasks of lacing shoes or sorting marble colors.  There are different models and different Montessori Tools available that work as the cornerstone for this teaching method.  (Hainstock, 1997)  I am still learning the techniques for Montessori, and although I don't agree with everything that this teaching method offers, I love the fact that it relies on the child's motives and creativity.  I could talk about Dr. Montessori and her methods all day.  For more information, you can visit some of these websites:  Montessori and a real-life teacher/mom of Montessori's blog that I just LOVE reading about, Counting Coconuts.

Learning letters, their function in our language, and their function from a preschool perspective.

The letter's of the week are P, Q, and R.  I try to change up the learning methods for teaching Harmony these letters.. because lets face a fact about most four year old children, they do not have a long attention span especially when they know they could be doing something more exciting.  :)  If Harmony is not intrigued to begin with and seems bored, I might as well skip that lesson and move on. 

I usually always have Harmony do the writing sheets.  She use to struggle with this months ago, but now will complete them with ease.  I often let her use a pen.  She feels that she is rather grown up while doing this.  It makes her day!  Aside from that, we also work on letters by creating shapes out of play dough and using pasta, marbles, paints, textured material that is maneuverable, and other household materials.  I have done research into teaching the alphabet to children and it is important in cognitive development for a child to write and have a visual depiction by using fine motor function skills to complete an image that they create (forming play dough and using pasta to create picture of the example letter).  (CASRC, 2008) 

I am also trying something new, as Harmony and I have been working with phonics as well.  I want her to start familiarizing words with pictures so we place labels on objects that are lying openly around the house so she can associate the letter of the day with her environment.  I definitely walked around for an entire day with "pants" tapped to my leg!

I get so delighted when Harmony surprisingly says a word as I'm reading during story time, whether it's familiar to her or a sight word.  We do run through the sight words flash cards on a daily basis so Harmony can learn them to ease the reading process later on.  She is doing wonderfully with this!

In conclusion, children absorb a lot more information than we give them credit for!  They are truly amazing and are extremely intelligent creatures wrapped up in a cutie-pie package!  I could go on and on and ramble about my teaching methods.  They might not work for you, but at least I can provide you with some resources, personal experience, and ideas for your little one's!

Happy Friday!!
Candice S
References

CASRC. (2008). How Kids Develop. Retrieved on February 18, 2011, from http://www.howkidsdevelop.com/developSkills.html

Hainstock, E. (1997). Teaching Montessori In The Home. Penguin Group: New York, NY.

Weekly Preschool Planner: Weather Thematic Unit

021311

Science Experiment #2: Varying Sounds and Tones (Making Music!)

Our musical glass jar have had a prosperous life making music for well over an hour.  I decided to use some variety to allow us to hear different sounds other than just tones, so we also used a recycled tin can and a plastic container.

The goal was to determine the changes in tone by feeling up each glass jar with 1 cup water, another with 1/2, and then the last two with a 1/4 cup of water.  Then we added 1-2 drops of food coloring to each glass jar.  Harmony did this successfully while supervised. 

The experiment was to determine which glass jar was louder, why, and the differences in the tones that the jars that were filled with different levels of water.  We whipped out our observation booklet and documented the different tones that each one made, compared and contrasted, and determined what the possibilities (the water) were of the tones being so high, low, loud, quite, etc. 

Preschool+ age appropriate and beyond.  Even our Stud had fun banging wooden spoons around..  Simple enough for us and the supplies were easily accessible without purchase.

Happy Saturday!

Candice S.

February Sensory Box

Balloons

String and buttons (needle not included)

Art Toys

Pencil

Cookie Cutters 

Homemade Playdough 

Cupcake Liners

Confetti and Hot Pink Rice

Seashells for scooping

I wanted to share our sensory box with you.  I actually was running WAY behind on getting all of its contents together, seeing as its only a few days from Valentine's Day. 

Our sensory boxes usually end up with My Little Ponies, Strawberry Shortcake Miniature Dolls, and other small gadgets that Harmony enjoys playing with.  It promotes fine motor function and coordination, as well as compliments imaginative qualities and artistic means.  I love it!

(Does anybody else end up picking up quite a bit of rice from all areas of YOUR house?.. hehe)

Happy Friday and Enjoy Your Weekend!!
Candice S.

Teaching Science To Your Preschooler

"Science is an intellectual activity carried on by humans that is designed to discover information about the natural world in which humans live and to discover the ways in which this information can be organized into meaningful patterns.  A primary aim of science is to collect facts (data).  An ultimate purpose of science is to discern the order that exists between and amongst the various facts."  (Gottlieb, 1997)

Every child has an hypothesis based on a collection of simple data that they over analyize.  A child is constantly exporing the world around them.  They crave learning new things.  It is in the way that material is presented to them that awakes the want to learn and explore.  Science comes quite a bit more naturally to us because the human brain is relentless for asking "why" and "how" things are.  We are always asking questions about the way life works, the way objects work, and how everything falls into place.  Science allows us to form an opinion, to collect data or facts about that opinion, and gain perspective on the information we accumulate.  Children gather information every single day and form opinions on the simplest forms of science.

I am going to start a little series for parents that has idea's on science experiments that allows a child to form an hypothesis and collect data to test their hypotheses.  This series is not made to be so structured that it's boring and it isn't going to just be "experiments" but more "ah ha" moments for a child to really pursue how things work.  To test the simple things such as watching ice melt to applying two colors together to form a new color. 

My goal is to provide other sources for preschool science lessons and experiment's that allow parents to have options.  There is not an adequate of age appropriate material out there that is available without a fee.  wanted to be another Mom to post some fun experiments or "ah ha" moments that we do here at Rattles and Redheads.

I will be posting some science projects that Harmony and I have done over the last few weeks.  I will make an attempt at posting these on Saturday morning's.  In the meantime, check out our tutorial on changing a liquid to a solid.. 

Happy Thursday!
Candice S.
References

Gottlieb, S. (1997, April 8). Religion and Science. Retrieved on February 10, 2011, from http://www.theharbinger.org/articles/rel_sci/gottlieb.html

Reading List for February

Here's our nice fun pile of books that we are pursuing for this month!  Usually we keep our books anywhere between 1-2 weeks (an average of 12-20 books) and read most over and over again.  There are some books that are geared towards our thematic units for preschool, while other's we read a chapter or two on a daily basis.  

Charlotte's Web is a "big girl" book that Harmony and I have been reading during storytime in the day and in the evening before bed.  Although, as I read I ponder if the realistic farm life is a little too difficult for my little mini-me to grasp.  She's intrigued, none the less and loves hearing about Wilbur's adventures.  

Harmony loves the Fancy Nancy Series.  We recently checked out Fancy Nancy: Every Day Is Earth Day (I Can Read Book 1) and Fancy Nancy at the Museum (I Can Read Book 1).  We have read almost all of the Fancy Nancy Books, and I cannot find one reason why every preschool girl who enjoys dress up and succumbing to the princess inside of them cannot enjoy the pleasurable experiences of these books.  

If You Give a Pig a Party (If You Give...)

Too Cute!  We have "If you give a pig a pancake"..It discusses the adventures of pigs and the "fun" ..and some trouble that come along with them.  Such a fun book!

Our thematic units for this week are birds and how to tell time.  I do not go strictly to every single aspect of our lessons having geared towards our "theme" but I do try to keep the direction pretty clear, as to not confuse us.  The following books will help us with coordinate with our lesson plans.

Little Red Hen Big Book

Grumpy Bird

My First Book of Time

Owl Moon

It's About Time! (MathStart 1)

Valentine's Day (Rookie Read-About Holidays)

The Graphic Alphabet (Caldecott Honor Book)

Little Wolf's Song

Arthur's Teacher Trouble (Arthur Adventure Series)

Charming Opal (Toot & Puddle)

Will You Still Love Me?

I can't wait to see how amazing these books are!  

..And last but not least.. Some awesome baby books that Mark Jr. and I have been enjoying from our own personal library.

Baby Faces (Look Baby! Books)

Pooh First Songs (A Play-A-Song Book)

One Bear in the Bedroom (Leap Frog Little Touch)

If you know of any great Valentine's Day books or more books on learning how to tell time, please share!!

Have a great Wednesday!

Candice S.