Some Halloween Ideas from the Two's Room

Here are some things we did last October in the two's classroom.

Pumpkin Science Center

We put out different pumpkins and gourds along with pumpkin seeds, magnifying glasses, bowls, and rulers for the children to explore. 

Pumpkin Predictions 

Each of the children chose one of the pumpkins from the science center. We measured and weighed each pumpkin and I wrote down how the children described their pumpkins. Then each child predicted what they thought would be inside the pumpkins before we cut them open. Some of the predictions we got were a dinosaur, another pumpkin, and candy. 

 

Of course once we cut the pumpkins open, we saw that there were seeds inside. Everyone helped to scoop out the sticky seeds. 

And we made a jack o' lantern.

 

Seed Collage

We saved the seeds from the pumpkins and used them to make pumpkin seed collages.

Halloween Sorting

I found these Halloween erasers at Target.  We had lots of fun sorting them and making patterns with them.

 

Halloween Costume Dress Up

I found lots of Halloween costumes at Goodwill earlier in the year.  We put them in the dramatic play area along with Halloween bags and we pretended to go trick-or-treating. 

Spider Webs

We opened a bag of fake spider webs and the class helped to hang them around the classroom and put plastic spiders on them. 

Candy Corn Sorting

As a treat, we all tasted some candy corn and talked about the different colors on the candy. Then we cut strips of white, yellow, and orange paper into squares and glued them onto a paper candy corn cut-out. 

 Besides being a sorting activity, this also used lots of small motor skills as the children cut and glued. 

Happy Halloween!

Fall Leaf Necklaces

Autumn is here and, although we live in San Diego where not many trees lose their leaves in the fall, we were able to find a good number of very pretty leaves during a walk around the neighborhood. 

After our walk, we used plastic needles to sew the leaves together. 

The children asked to add beads to their necklaces. 

Beautiful!

Independent Art Center

Our classroom has always had a center for independent art. It is always stocked with paper, glue, markers, and scissors. I never put anything else in this center because I was afraid that the children wouldn't know how to use other art supplies on their own without making a huge mess. I always saved paint and other messy supplies for project time when a teacher would be supervising their use. The problem with this was that it didn't always give children the time they needed to explore different art supplies and techniques because the teacher-led project time is usually confined to a half-hour period. Some children wouldn't even get a chance to do the art project because they would be busy with something else during that half hour.

In order to give the children in our class more time to do involved art projects and the freedom to choose when to do them, I set up a new independent art center in the classroom. I choose a spot near the sink for easy clean up. Then I printed out easy, step by step instructions with pictures so that the children would know how to use the new art supplies. Today's art project had four steps:

1. Choose a coffee filter

2. Drip some colors

(we used eye droppers to drip liquid water colors onto the coffee filters)

3. Hang it to dry

(I provided clothespins and a line to hang the finished products on)

4. Wipe up your spills

(because it is important to clean up the center for the next artist)

We kept the center open all morning and the children really enjoyed the freedom to choose when they would do art and how long to do it. Besides allowing the class to try out our new liquid water colors, this art center encourages independence and self-reliance. It also promotes reading skills as the children make connections between the words on each instruction card and the action in the pictures. This art project itself helps to develop small muscle coordination and control as the children squeeze the eye droppers and clothespins.

Here are some of the finished products hanging to dry.

Posted with Blogsy

Marble Balancing

This is a great small muscle activity for toddlers and twos. It requires the children to use their fingers and thumbs in order to get the marbles balanced on the golf tees.

I stuck the golf tees into a block of styrofoam so that they were perfectly upright.

Once the children mastered the skill of balancing the marbles, they took all the golf tees out and reinserted them into the styrofoam on their own.

This made balancing the marbles quite a bit trickier because many of the tees were now at an angle.

Posted with Blogsy

Wrapping Presents in Preschool

Every year at Christmas time, I set up a present wrapping center in the classroom. Ripping tape, cutting, and folding paper are great small muscle activities for young children. Besides, it's lots of fun to wrap and open presents!

To set up, I fill the wrapping center with rectangles of wrapping paper,

bows,

scissors, tape,

an assortment of boxes,

and some small toys from around the room.

As children came to the center, I explained how to rip the tape and fold the paper around the boxes. After a little while, they can usually do the folding on their own, but the tape can be a bit more difficult (so be prepared to go through lots of it!)

Of course, opening the presents was the best part!

Even though they knew what would be inside, the children got so excited as they ripped the paper and opened the boxes!

Posted with Blogsy

Mixing Colors with Eye Droppers

Our class has been working a lot on small muscle skills over the past two weeks. One of my favorite small muscle activities is using eye droppers. Last week we used them to mix different colored paints. I started by squeezing about a tablespoon of washable tempura paint into a bowl and then filling the bowl with water to make a very watery paint solution. I did this with four different colors.

Next, I gave each of the children an eye dropper and a clear cup filled with water (I used clear cups so that they could really see the colors mixing). At first the children didn't understand that they had to sqeeze and then let go before the eye droppers would pick up the paint. But after a little practice, they were able to get some paint into them and squeeze it into the water.

Once they got the hang of it, everyone really enjoyed seeing the different colors and shades they could make their water.

They liked it so much that they refilled their cups with clear water and mixed new colors for about an hour.

Besides helping children to develop the small muscles in their hands and fingers, this activity is a good science project because it allows them to experiment with mixing. I loved that some of the children would try to remember the colors they had mixed previously so that they could reproduce the results.

 

Posted with Blogsy