Veterans Day

Veterans Day is a day that honors those who have served or are currently serving in the armed forces. Our little ones learned that on this day we say "thank you" to these very special people who keep our country safe and free. 

In honor of Veterans Day we made poppy flowers. The children used red water color to dye coffee filters red the day before this craft. Then they crumbled up the coffee filter to texturize it then glued it onto the blue paper. They finished it off by gluing black buttons in the middle and adding the saying "thank you to our Veterans" on the side of the flower. I love how it turned out. 

 Last year we made soldiers in honor of Veterans day. I found the idea from Mrs. Karen's Preschool Ideas a while back and knew this was a keeper.  The day before this craft I had the children sponge paint with brown and green onto a piece of construction paper. I brought the paper home and cut out the hat, arms, legs and body (I've attached the template below)so we would be ready to go on Friday. It was SO much fun for them to put their soldier together. To finish it off they each glued an American flag to a popsicle stick and glued it to the soldiers hand. I LOVE how they turned out, don't you?

Columbus Day, Wild West Day and Fire Safety

There were so many special days we enjoyed together in our classroom in October. To begin, for Columbus Day we learned about our friend, Christopher Columbus. After learning a little bit of the history of Columbus Day the children made the "ship" he sailed on the ocean blue. In previous years I made the three ships (nina pinta & santa maria) but when I saw this craft on Pinterest I knew my little ones would love it. I modified it quite a bit from the original but I really wanted to incorporated the fine motor skills component of the yarn threading so that we kept. I think they came out great. 

 Here are some other Columbus  Day crafts from other classes in our preschool in years past. 

Wild West Day was so much fun in our class this year! The children made a cactus complete with rice and wiggly eyes.  They also made a cowboy/girl boot using small colorful wooden squares and shiny spurs.  During snack time we read a book called Cowboy Small. Another one of my classes made Horse shoe photo frames which they finished off with a shinny gold glitter star. During class we played "throw the handkerchief into the hat" and "pass the horse". They had a great time. 

Here are some things that have been made for Wild West Day by my two children in previous years. 

October in our class we learn about the important job of fire fighters. We had special guests come into our room dressed in their uniforms they wear during work each day and talked about their jobs. The children were so well behaved when the firemen came in, I was so proud of them. After we learned all about fire fighters we made dalmatian fire dogs. They used their fingerprint for the black spots on the ears and glued our preschools shield onto the top of their little fire hats. I found the original idea here, which has the template I used for this craft too!  

We made fire safety rules too! 

My two children made these adorable fire fighters previous years with their teachers during October. 

All about October!

I love everything about the fall! The leaves change to so many beautiful colors, the air is crisp, apple and pumpkin picking time is upon us and the children are all acclimated to our classroom routines. It's just a simply perfect time of the year. 

In October we learned about triangles, which is the shape of the month! The children painted candy corn triangles with orange and yellow paint, I found the template here. I use liquid water color paints for this project so it allows the paper to be more translucent against the window. 

They also made an autumn tree using different fall colored triangles for the leaves and their hand/arm for the bark and branches of the tree!  

Of course we couldn't finish October off without making triangle shaped Witches Hats. I found the original idea here, on pinterest, of course :) I printed out a black and white polka dot pattern on printer paper and used that as the backing for the hat. The children glued the pre-painted black popsicle sticks onto the paper making the triangle shape. I thought these came out SO cute! 

 This was a hat glued onto the printed polka dot paper. Once everything dried (I used tacky glue) I cut out the hats right along the sticks. It worked out great! 

They learned about the color orange by gluing tissue paper onto orange construction paper, which they made into a pumpkin later that week- personalized with their tiny hand for the leaf. We used a pool noodle and orange paint to make pumpkins! After the "pumpkins" dried I used their finger dipped into green then brown paint to make the stem and leaf. They also painted a white party bag with orange paint and made them into pumpkins which we used for our classroom Halloween party! 

For the color black, the other color of the month, they made a black crow using different shapes. We also made bats and spiderwebs! I love the spider web craft because it promotes fine motor skills development. Even if they had difficulty I was able to assist with hand over hand directions and by the end they were doing it themselves! 

This was my bulletin board downstairs in the preschool last year. 

Here are my own two children's from previous years at our preschool. 

Pumpkins, pumpkins everywhere! We have done SO many fun things surrounding the food of the month, pumpkins! My little ones made their very own five little pumpkins sitting on a gate craft. This was a lot of fun for them since for the past month we worked out the song "Five little pumpkins" so they knew exactly what we were making when I lined up the 5 little precut pumpkins. We also explored and played with the inside of a very big pumpkin. 

The children made monsters, using the book, "Go Away, Big Green Monster" for inspiration. The day before we gave our monsters faces the children helped to drop green, purple, and blue paint onto one side of a piece of paper. We then folded the paper in over and pushed all the paint around to make a design. Once the paint dried I cut out the faces. They glued the pieces of the monsters face on by following the pages of the book. I love how we added sequencing into this project in such a fun way. 

Every year in our preschool year class gets to decorate a class pumpkin to put out on display for everyone to enjoy! This year our friends made Mike Wazowski and Sulley from Monsters, Inc. 

I love how they turned out! Everyone's pumpkins looked great, didn't they?!? 

This was last years pumpkins! My class made the mummy :) 

Here is my classroom bulletin board. We made mummy's using tissues that they tore up. Fine motor skill development at it's finest. After they glued all the tissues on, I put two drops of tacky glue on and they added google eyes. 

This year for Halloween I dressed up as a scarecrow, and since I am expecting (due March 2016) I ironed a simply adorable pumpkin transfer onto my white shirt. As I told my little ones, "this scarecrow picked the most precious pumpkin in the patch". 

Here are some things my own two children did during the month of October in years past. 

I made this sensory bin for my preschoolers last year. They loved the pasta but after a little while even with the EVOO that I added into the pasta it started to stick to them.