The Letter R

As I mentioned in my last post, we had preschool twice last week at my house. It was a bit crazy, but we made it through. I had been preparing for this for about a month. I went to at least 10 different stores trying to find what I needed for preschool and for some reason I couldn't find little toy alligators ANYWHERE!! I looked at Dollar Tree, Walmart, Target, K-Mart, two party stores, Honks dollar, and Family Dollar. I realize that's only 8 stores that I just named off when I just said I went to at least 10, but I also went to other stores to get fabric and felt. Anyway, it was very frustrating. So we went without the toy alligators.

Most of these ideas came from my sister, and you are welcome to use any of them to teach preschool or just to teach your little ones if you want.

The first day we learned about reptiles. We started off by talking about what makes a reptile a reptile. I told them that most reptiles hatch from eggs, so we played a little game and had Easter eggs with little toy reptiles in them. I played some music and whoever the music stopped on got to open an egg and reveal the reptile (This is where it would have been nice to have a toy alligator....grrrrrr). After we did that, I told them that we were going to focus on only three of these reptiles: turtles, snakes, and alligators. I read them books about all three. I let them paint turtles out of paper bowls. We played "count the number of bugs a turtle can eat" by telling the kids a number and having them count out that many toy bugs. We also learned a new song, "I'm being swallowed by a boa constrictor," and I had the kids get inside a big snake that I made. They loved that game! I also had them pretend like they were in a swamp and someone was "it" (who also carried a stuffed alligator that I bought at DI) and they had to tag each other. The kids had so much fun playing these games and doing their turtle craft.

Here's the boa constrictor

The turtle bowls

The kids painting their turtles

The next day we learned about rainbows. I had the kids go outside with me, and we made a rainbow with a glass jar, water, and the sun. I also taped a bunch of rainbows around our complex and had the kids find them. They loved catching rainbows! Then we read some books about rainbows and I had the kids do 4 different rainbow crafts: a rainbow kite, a rainbow bracelet made out of Fruit Loops, a "Things I love..." page with pictures of things they loved glued onto a rainbow, and a page where they could trace the letter R. Then we did a rainbow experiment where we put food coloring into a bowl of milk and added a drop of dish soap. Finally, we went outside and played with our rainbow kites.

Here's our "Rainbow Room," where all the crafts were done.

The rainbow kite

Hannah and Maille at the craft table

The rainbow treats

And the rainbow fruit

I wish I had gotten pictures of everything, but it was just impossible. If I turned my back for one second on these kids I would end up losing their attention for awhile and someone would start wrestling someone else. I think the kids had fun, and I had a lot of fun planning for these two preschool days, but let's just say I'm glad that being a preschool teacher is not my day job.

Now I have to start thinking about the letter K for December. Hmmmmm......