Monday, February 28, 2011

Trinity Preschool Activities for Monday, February 28, 2011

Willow Room: MWF class

We read "I love you blue kangaroo" by Emma Clark

We looked at objects that begin with the letter "K and we asked the children "Do you have a "K" in your name? Only one child does, we graphed the results and compared the numbers.

We painted with wedge foam brushes using different colors. We had magnetic shapes at the easel.

We sang "Jump Jim Joe, and Toe" , "Leg, Knee -do re mi"

We had some new games in our classroom to play with the children.

Maple Room:

We read "Alphabet Rescue" by Audrey Wood

We painted with bolts today- we dipped bolts in paint and put them in a box, then tipped the box back and forth to make the bolts move around the paper to paint it.

We had oil pastel crayons at the easels.

We did the chicken dance, February song (last time), Johnny pounds with one hammer, and This is the way.

We are having fun in our dramatic corner with our construction zone.

We had some letter S activities

Oak Room:

We read "The sun is my favorite star"

We made sand planets- we cut out a circle, added glue and pouring on many different colors of sand to make our own planet. Then each child named their planet.

We talked about the letter V and the planet Jupiter. We read a book about looking through telescopes.

We sang "Dogs in school", "Today is Monday".

Our dramatic play area is still the space station. Another idea to add to the fun in your own home space station is to cut a helmet shape out of a gallon milk jug. It can be their own space helmet. Take a cereal box and add straps to make a space pack.

Friday, February 25, 2011

Trinity Preschool Activities for Friday, , February 25, 2011

Willow Room- MWF class

We listened to a story on a Cd today. It was Miss Mary Mack, and all the buttons down her back. We asked the children if they had any buttons on their clothes and counted them.

We did a chart of words that start with the letter J and we noticed how the letter curves, so we made curvy things today.

We painted with funny brushes at the easel.

We sang ring the bells song, snowmen and hats song, and 5 little monkeys song.

We had puzzles out and we played in our kitchen dramatic corner.

Maple Room:

We read "alphabet under construction" by Denise Fleming

We constructed our own alphabet for art today. We had rollers and brushes with paint at the easel today.

We sang The February song, sticky bubble gum, and bear hunt.

We practiced writing our letters A-Q.

We constructed stuff out of PVC pipe.


Oak Room:

We read Wilbur's Space Machine by Lorna Balian

We did balloon drop painting, a lesson in gravity. The balloons had different weights of sand, beans, etc in them. We talked about how fast they would drop.

We had out magnets wands and magnetic letters, paper clips, plastic bottles with magnetic objects and we saw what the magnets would do when the magnet wand was near them.

We did a lot of building with blocks today too.

We had out sequencing cards too.

We did some dancing song wearing jingle belts.


Thursday, February 24, 2011

Silent Auction Catalog

Our catalog is posted on our web page, trinitypreschoolmp.org. It has recently been updated with new donations added.

The auction is this Sunday, Feb. 27, 2011. Please join us!

Trinity Preschool Activities for Wednesday, February 24, 2011

Willow Room: Tue./Thur. class

We did vision and hearing screening today. Thank you for being patient as it took much longer than expected.

We are talking about the color pink. We asked if the children were wearing the color pink.
We listened to a book on CD today, Miss Mary Mack.

We mixed red and white paint to make pink. We painted with funny brushes.

We sang Ring the bells, a winter song, 5 little monkeys jumping on the bell, and brown bear.

We did 5 little snowman rhyme.

Oak Room:

We read "Oliver who would not sleep" by Mara Bergman

We dipped star shapes in glue and sprinkled them with glitter.

We had some magnet activities out, a space matching game, and puzzles about the letter "U".

We talked about gravity, we used scarves, throwing them up and letting them float down.

We talked about what starts with the letter U. We read some additional books about planets.

Our dramatic corner is set up like a space station. Some fun easy things you can do at home to make your own space station are : Cut a hole in a paper bag for the mask portion and make a space helmet. Cover a box with aluminum foil and glue on some buttons or knobs to pretend it is a control board.

Trinity Preschool Activities for Wednesday, February 23, 2011

SPECIAL NOTES:

The fire alarms went off today due to some work being done in a closet that tripped the alarm. We had no fire, but we did evacuate the building for a few minutes until we got the all clear. The children did a great job of listening and leaving the building quickly.

Willow Room: MWF classroom

We read "It looked like spilt milk" by Charles G. Shaw. It is a story about looking up at the clouds and talking about what the puffy clouds look like. Sometimes they look like a rabbit, sometimes they look like spilt milk.
We then made our own cloud pictures by dripping white paint onto one side of folded paper and folding it over to make a print. Then the children looked at the picture and told us what it looked like to them. We have them in the hall, what do you think they look like?

We sang "The way we do it", couch potato pokey, put your hands in the air

We looked at objects that begin with the letter J.

Willow Room:

We are talking about construction, so we read "The house that Max built" by Maxwell Newhouse

We did a group painting project all working together to create one picture. We will use it for one of our construction bulletin boards.
We had spool painting at the easels.

We sang The February song, Construction song, Button Factory

We did some letter Q activities, a number recognition game (numbers 5-12) with a construction themed guessing game.

Oak Room:

We are enjoying our space unit. and today we read, "Little Rocket's Special Star" by Julie Sykes

We worked on painting our paper mache' planets to look like all the planets. We will hang them in the room over our circle area to look like the planets around the sun.

We were learning about Venus today.

Wednesday, February 23, 2011

Art Idea # 3- Name activities

1. Write your child's name in white crayon on white paper. Let your child use watercolors to paint on the paper and their name will appear.

2. Write your child's name on paper in black marker. Let your child paint over lines of their name with water on a paint brush (or use a q-tip). The underlying colors will "bleed" out of the black marker into the individual colors.

3. Write your child's name on paper with a black marker. Give your child small craft material, cereal, noodles, beads, pieces of paper, etc. to glue onto the lines to create a 3 dimensional name.

4. Remember when you teach your child to write their name, use an upper case letter for the first letter and lower case letters for the rest of the letters. That way they don't have to relearn how to write their name when they get to kindergarten.

February 23, 2011

We had vision and hearing screening today with our classes and will finish it tomorrow.

I will write about the classroom activities that happened today when I get to school tomorrow.

Tuesday, February 22, 2011

Trinity Preschool Activities for Tuesday , February 22, 2011

Willow Room- T/TH class

We read "It looked like spilt milk" by Charles G. Shaw

We had magnetic letters at the easel.

for art today, we used eye droppers to drop white paint onto blue paper to make our own spilt milk pictures. We dripped the paint on one side of the paper, and folded it over to make a matching print.

We sang couch potato pokey, brown bear, and If you're happy and you kow it.

We looked around the room for things that are the color white.


Oak Room:

We read Dog in space by Nancy Caffelt

We did a group project today. We paper mached balloons to make the planets. We used newspaper, flour and water. We will let them dry and then paint them and hang them in our room.

We sang the planet song, late last night, hide the balloon behind the cloud ( a guessing game)

We are learning about the planet Mercury this week, we read a book about Mercury.


The Adler Planetarium is a great place to take your child to learn more about the planets.

Sunday, February 20, 2011

Art Idea #2 Finger Painting

Children love to finger paint, but parents don't always like the mess. Use a large tray or cookie sheet to contain the substance. Finger painting is a great sensory experience for children, and you can use it as a fun learning tool. If you don't have a smock, use an old shirt with the sleeves cut off to protect clothes.

Here are some things you can let your child experiment with for finger painting:
1. Pudding
2. Shaving cream
3. Cook some cornstarch and water until thickened, add food color
4. Mix some flour and water together, add food color
5. Store bought finger paint (add a little liquid soap)
6. Use two different colors that will make a third to teach about color mixing. (red and blue makes purple, yellow and red makes orange, yellow and blue makes green). There are some fun books that talk about color mixing to extend activity into story time.

Ideas to extend finger painting:
1. Have your child practice writing letters, numbers, their name with one finger.
2. After they make a picture, take a piece of paper and make a print of it by pressing paper down over finger paint and lifting it carefully.
3. Give them plastic fork or plastic knife or other safe kitchen objects to make patterns in finger paint.
4. Add some salt to make a different texture.
5. Tape some bubble wrap to the tray and put finger paint on top of it; this makes a totally different feel to it. Make a print of this picture too.

Friday, February 18, 2011

Art idea - rubber band painting

It is easy to create painting materials by adding rubber bands to objects you have at home.

You can use an old shirt on backwards as a smock. Cut off the sleeves if they are too long.

Cut a thick rubber band and tape one end of it to the top of a pencil. Dip the rubber band in paint and move it across the paper. We add soap to the paint to make it easier to wash out of clothes.

Wrap rubber bands around a ball and roll it on paper to make designs. You can also roll it in a box back and forth with your child.

Trinity Preschool Activities for Friday, February, 18, 2011

Willow Room- MWF class

"Ish" by Peter H. Reynolds was our story today.

We had watercolors at the easel. We did "prickle ball" painting by using a box and rocking it back and forth so the ball would roll around and make a design on our paper.

We sang "on the count of 5", The teddy bear song, and 2 little blackbirds.

We made a chart of words that begin with the letter "I"

We had glue at the free art table.

Maple room:

We read "The Post Office Book - Mail and how it moves" by Gail Gibbons

We used crayons and markers to make pictures to mail home. We will see how long it takes for our mail to get to our homes. We had spool rollers and paint at the easel.

We sang the February song.

We did letter R activities today. we walked to the office to mail our letters home.

Oak Room:

"What is the moon full of?" by Shulamith Levey Oppenheim

We cut out a circle shape for a moon, we drew pictures insie of what the children thought the moon might be full of. We took ideas from the book.

We made toothpick and marshmallow sculptures, building space stations. We had a locks puzzle, and added farm animals to our building blocks.

We sang purple people eater- we danced to it, using maracas. We also sang our planets song.

Trinity Preschool Activities for Thursday, February 17, 2011

Willow Room:

We read "Harold and the Purple Crayon by Crockett Johnson

We fingerpainted as a group- across the whole art table. We mixed red adn blue to make purple.

We sang Hands are for clapping and little old wagon.

Our color today was purple. Bring in items for our color train in the hall.

Oak Room:

We read Bamboo and Friends- The moon by Felicia Law and we talked about the moon, shape, craters and no gravity.

We covered a circle shape with materials to look like moon craters, then we covered it with foil.

We had dress up magnetic dolls, shape sorting, and rocket ship puzzle.

We packed a pretend bag to take to the moon; each child decided one special item to bring to space with them. We did blast off, a pretend trip to the moon.

Wednesday, February 16, 2011

Trinity Preschool Activities for Wednesday, February 16, 2011

Willow room:

We read Harold's ABC's by Crockett Johnson

We asked the children if they have a letter I in their name?

We had "people pieces" to creat your own person. We used sponges to paint people - heads, legs, shirts, hair, feet, hands, shoes.

We sang Hands are for clapping, over the deep bllue sea.

We talked about the letter I and looked at objects that begin with the letter I.

Maple Room:

A letter to Amy was our story today, by Ezra Jack Keats

We did rubber band painting at the table. We had rubber bands taped to pencils and dipped them in paint and dragged them on the paper.

We had tooth brushes in paint at the easels.

We sang This is the way, The February song, and tap your toe and follow me.

We did some letter R activities and some rhyming words.

Oak Room:

We read "there was a bold lady who wanted a star by Charise Mericle Harper

We are beginning ot talk about planets. We did writing and drawing in our journals, things that start with the letter T.

We sang The planet song, where is the astronaut and some space songs.

We are talking about the letter t this week.

Tuesday, February 15, 2011

Trinity Preschool Activities for Tuesday, February 15, 2011

Willow Room: Tue./Thur.

We are talking about the color green and adding things to our green train. We read Little blue and little yellow ( a story about green) We looked for green things in our room.

We used little sponges to make the color green by mixing blue and yellow.

We sang 5 green and speckled frogs, and the freeze dance

We took down our post office and put our kitchen back together.

Oak Room:

There's no place like space! All about the solar system by Tish Rabe

We cut out a rocket ship shape and painted them. We will add the children's picture to the rocket to make our bulletin board.

We are learning the planet song, danced with ribbons, and sang floating astronauts

We are changing our dramatic corner into a space ship and the moon. We will be learning about the planets.

Trinity Preschool Activities for Monday, February 14, 2011

Happy Valentine's Day

Willow Room:

We read The night before Valentin's Day by Natasha Wing We talked about the letter H and made a chart of words that start with H.

We made Valentine wreaths, and we passed out our Valentines to our friends.

We sang Jump Jim Joe, and Sticky Bubble Gum

We decorated Valentine cookies and had them for snack.

Maple Room:

We read Franklin's Valentines by Paulette Bourgeois
We made spritz cookies with the children and we had heart shapes at the easel with tissue paper and glue.

We passed out our Valentines too.

Oak Room:

We read Clifford's Valentine's Day by Norman Bridwell and I need a Valentine by Harriet Ziefert

We passed out our Valentines. We decorated heart shape cookies and ate them for snack.

We sang "Pass the heart " with music (like hot potato)

We are talking about the letter T.

Trinity Preschool Activities for Friday, Feb. 11, 2011

Willow Room:

We read Valentine Cats by Jen Marzollo. We did some Valentine rhymes too. We also asked the children if they have the letter H in their name and made a graph of the results.

We decorated our Valentine bags to get ready for Valentine's Day on Monday.

We sang Clap if you want to, and the bear went over the mountain.

We are having fun in our post office.

Maple Room:

We read The Giant Hug by Sandra Horning

We made a special Valentine's project to give to our parents on Valentine's day. We used the bottom of a bunch of celery cut across and dipped into paint. The result looks like a bouquet of flowers. We added a paper vase. We had heart shapes and dab a dot painters.

We sang The February song, Down around the corner, and H-E-A-R-T

We did some letter P activities and we practiced writing letters on our dry erase boards.

Oak Room:

We read Arthur writes a story by Marc Brown. We are having fun with our library. WE made a special handprint heart to give our parents for Valentine's day. We used tissue paper and glue. Then added our handprint.

We sang the pirate song, and join in the game.


Friday, February 11, 2011

Trinity Preschool Activities for Thursday, February 10, 2011

Willow Room:

Our story today was Mouse's First Valentine by Lauren Thompson

We did a Valentine rhyme called 5 little Valentines

We decorated our Valentine's Day bags and the children passed out the Valentine's they brought to each of their friends.


We had pink and red chalk at the easels.

We sang the fish song, skinnamarink and the Happy song.

We played in the gym today.

Oak Room:

We read IQ gets fit by Mary Ann Fraser

We talked about what starts with the letter S.

For art today we gave each child a tray with an assortment of bright colors to paint a picture. They had a separate brush for each color. They could paint keeping them separate or mic them to make a new color. They looked so bright and spring like, the bright colors helped to make this cold winter day brighter.

We did stomp, stomp, clap, and the freeze dance.

Wednesday, February 9, 2011

Trinity Preschool Activities for Wednesday, February 9, 2011

Willow room- MWF class

Our story today was "There was a cold lady who swallowed some snow" by Lucille Colandro

We asked the children who brought them to school today? We did a chart of words that start with the letter G.

We fingerpainted on bubblewrap, it gave us a new texture to feel the paint on. Then we made a print of our painting on a heart shape paper.

We had red and pink chalk at the easel.

we did The fish song, and Pass the heart (a bean bag song)

We had fun in our post office.

Maple room:

We read Mr. Griggs' work by Cynthia Rylant

We made letter carrier mail bags for art and we painted at the easels with textured rollers. and brushes.

We sang The February song, H-E-A-R-T and alphabet sounds

Oak Room:

We read Library Mouse - A friend's Tale

We worked in our journal notebooks- letters R and S pictures

We had out puzzles, and new pink play dough. we had a mat with heart shapes traced on it and the children made hearts out of playdough to match the sizes. They could also use the heart shape cookie cutters to match the sizes.

We sang on the count of 5, a polite old man ( about manners)

We are working on patterning, what comes next?


Trinity Preschool Activities for Tuesday, February 8, 2011

Willow Room- T/TH class

We read "The Jolly Postman" by Janet and Allan Ahlberg

We glued foam letters onto an envelope and we painted at the easel using red and yellow paint to make orange.

We sang Tommy Thumb, Love grows, one by one, skinnamarink, Hello everybody.

We are enjoying our dramatic corner as a post office.

Oak Room-

We read "Arthur's Valentine" by Marc Brown

We made "Love bugs", we cut out a lady bug shape and added spots on the wing. We put a special message inside.

We sang 5 little Valentines, and Valentine made of pink.

We are talking about the letter S.

Monday, February 7, 2011

Trinity Preschool Activities for MOnday, February 7, 2011

We played in the gym today with soccer nets and balls, hula hoops, our tunnel, bean bags and more.


Willow Room- MWF class:

we read "The Jolly Postman" by Janet and Allen Ahlberg and we talked about the letter "G". we asked the children "DO you have the letter "G" in your name?

We glued fun foam letters on the outside of an envelope. We painted at the easels today.

We sang "Love grows one by one" and "There's a dog in school"

We are enjoying our post office in our classroom.

Maple Room:

We read "Tortoise brings the mail" by Dee Lillegard

We have a post office set up in our classroom dramatic corner.

We decorated bags to use for our Valentine's next week. We had "design your own stamp" at the easel with paint and brushes.

We are starting to talk about the letter P, so we had some "P" activities. We played a memory game at circle time, guess which mailbox is hiding our letter. This helped us learn the shapes.

We did The February song, months of the year, H-E-A-R-T, and 5 little hearts.


Oak Room:

We read "Froggy's first kiss" by Jonathan London

We made bags for our Valentines next week using stampers and hearts.

We sang "Come and buy a Valentine, and animal actions.

We are working on the letter "S" this week.

We are having fun playing library in our dramatic corner.

Sunday, February 6, 2011

Trinity Preschool Activities for Friday, February 4, 2011

Wow, We are glad to be back after the blizzard of 2011 forced the schools closed for two days.

Willow Room- MWF class

A silly snowy day by Michael Coleman was our story today. We talked about the snow and what they children did with the snow.

We made heart prints using violet, red, and magenta colors on white paper.

We sang skinnamarink, and everybody clap your hands.

We talked about what words begin with the letter F and we made a chart of the words.

Maple Room:

We read "Franklin's Neighborhood" by Paulette Bourgeois

We cut out house shapes for our bulletin board and we had paint at the easels.

We played an alphabet letter game.

We had letter O activities and the water table out today.

Oak Room:

We read "IQ goes to the library" by Mary Ann Frazer

We used number shaped sponge stampers to make a cover for our math book we will be making.

We have our classroom library set up in our dramatic corner. The children are having fun playing library. Make sure you get your children to the public library too.

We had a "broken hearts" matching game at the table and a positions pieces, the children follow the pictures to place houses, trees, and other pieces, behind, in front of, beside, above...

We used rhythm sticks and sang wheels on the bus, tap and count and a marching song.

We worked on a color sorting page for our math book.

Tuesday, February 1, 2011

Trinity Preschool Activities for Tuesday, Feburary, 1, 2011

Willow Room:

Today in The Willow Room the children talked about the color Orange. They read the story Never Mail an Elephant by Mike Thaler. At art they painted with colored corn starch. They had magnetic snowman shapes at the easel. They sang Ring the Bells it's Wintertime and The Sunshine song. In the gym they played with scooters, hula hoops, alligator and the garage with cars. They watched the snow and played post office in the dramatic corner. Snack today was Sugar snap peas, Catalina dressing, crackers and Orange Juice.

Oak Room:

Today in The Oak Room they read the story Library Mouse and Geraladine;s Big Snow. They made postcards to mail home. The children colored and signed the postcards. For music they did the bean bag boogie, animal actions. In the gym they played with scooters, hula hoops, alligators, and the garage with cars. Their dramatic corner is now a library, the children check out books with their own library card. Snack today was Rice Crispy Treats and Juice boxes.

Trinity Preschool Activities for Monday, January 31, 2011

Willow Room:

Today in the Willow Room they read the story Never Mail an Elephant by Mike Thaler. They talked about the letter Ff and graphed whether the children had the letter Ff in their name. They painted with colored corn starch on black paper, mixing colors. They had magnet snowmen and shapes at the easel. During music they sang Ring the Bells-Winter time is here and the Sunshine song. During gym time the children played on the tumbling mat, rode bikes, did hula hoops and played basketball. Madeylin had show and tell today and Madison is back from Florida. They have a post office set up in the dramatic play area. For snack they had grape juice, fishy crackers and applesauce.

Maple Room:

Today in the Maple Room they read the story Franklin is Messy by Paulette Bourgeois. They talked about the letter Oo. They used six different colors of tempra paint to create their own picture. At the easel they had heart stampers with pink, red and purple ink pads. They measured how high the different amounts of snow would be on each child, check out the list outside their door. In the gym they played with the tumbling mat, hula hoops, bikes and basketball. At music they sang Little Fish and Brown Bear. For snack they had apples, cheese and apple juice.

Oak Room:

Today in the Oak Room they read D.W.'s Library Card. At art they cut out heart shapes and painted them with marbles. They will be hung on the bulletin board make sure you look at it. At Music they sang Hello My Name is Joe, Put Your Finger On, Where is Thumbkin. In the gym they played with the tumbling mat, hula hoops, bikes and basketball. They talked about the library and the letter Rr. For snack they had carrots and sesame sticks.