Our preschoolers turned our classroom into Santa’s Workshop today as we turned red licorice and white yarn into a candy cane! This is no ordinary candy cane….it’s a number nine candy cane! In order to make this yummy creation, the children had to follow step-by-step directions, use their fine motor skills to twist, and use number recognition to create the number nine. It was a quite a treat to work on so many skills in one fun activity!
Pencils and crayons are not the only materials we use for pre-writing skills. The children were given M&Ms to work on fine motor skills by outlining the first letter of their name.
We created our own individual M&M graphs today to compare the quantities of different groups of colors in a bag of M&M’s. They REALLY enjoyed this activity and I was VERY surprised at how many kids did NOT want to eat them at the end of, but rather take them home to repeat the activity at home. TOO CUTE
The fun part about gingerbreads are decorating them! Today, we traveled to our favorite nation, the imagination, and had a fun time pretending to decorate our gingerbreads. Using number recognition, the children pulled a number, then put their one-to-one correspondence skills to work by putting the corresponding number of buttons on the gingerbread. Working with the numbers four through nine really helped the children focus on their counting skills.
As a preschooler, numbers and matching are two skills they will become very familiar with. Today, we merged the two by having the children use number puzzles. Each child had puzzle pieces with numbers and had to match the number to corresponding pieces with pictures on it. The children enjoyed the challenge of the hunt and practiced those number recognition and counting skills.
The young 3’s counted at least 8!
We used 3 of our 5 senses to Taste, Smell and Touch!
We also discovered we can make pottery with “corn” meal!
Math is always a little more fun when there is food involved! This time, we used paper plate pumpkin pies (next Tuesday we will be baking the real thing!). Everyone loves add a little whipped cream to make a pie extra delicious. Using some cotton balls and our imaginations, the boys and girls topped their pies according to the number in the middle of the pie. Ms. Lori challenged the children by starting with lower numbers, then switching them out for higher numbers. By the end of this activity, we were all ready for yummy Thanksgiving treats!
Today we practiced the letter “M”!
“M” is for Mouse!
How many mice are in your Barn?
Sorting items is usually done by their obvious attributes: shape, and color. Today, Ms. Courtney challenged the children by suggesting different ways to sort squares, and then letting the class decide which way was best. The children came up with the first way: to sort them by color. After that was complete, suggestions were made, and they decided to sort by how many holes were in each square (very clever!).
Creative Tots has specialized in the private education of both toddlers and preschool age children for over 15 years. We began in the heart of Madeira and now also have a new Mason location. We are specifically designed to focus on early childhood development for children ages 18 months to 5 years.
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