A is for Alligators and Animals

• Book: There’s an Alligator Under my Bed by Mercer Mayer

• Animal Print Alphabet
1. I found these stickers at the dollar store and printed a traceable alphabet page.
2. After tracing the alphabet, match the animal print ABC stickers to the letters on the paper.
3. Cut them out, then glue them in order.
   ***Lots of repetitive alphabet exposure!

• Animal stamps
1. Play with animal stamps (we have THESE).
2. Write numbers on the top of a piece of paper (or use magnent numbers like we did) and have your preschooler stamp and count that many animals underneath.
3. Start a pattern with animal stamps, have them continue it.

• Sing ‘5 Little Monkeys’ – see THIS post!

A is for Apple

Apple day is a MUST when we start preschool. This is one we did with our preschool group of 9 kids this year.

• Journals
1. Write a big A and a (have them trace it or draw it by themselves).
2. Add Apple stickers to the page, either on the line of the A’s or decorate the page with them.

• Apple ‘A and ‘a’ Tree picking!
1. Always a favorite game. Use butcher paper or newsprint (from your local newspaper) and hang up a big piece with a tree drawn on it.
   **You could also do this outside on a fence with chalk…we dont have a fence!
2. Using apple sticky notes (or these), write A’s and a’s on them and stick them to the tree.
   **We’ve also done this with the alphabet, writing ABC’s on the apples, not just A’s.
3. On another piece of butcher paper or newsprint, draw a basket for the “picked” apples.
   **You can either have 2 baskets, one for capital a’s and one for lowercase a’s, or a big basket with A’s and a’s writen on it.
4. The Game: Pick apples and sort them, by putting them in the matching basket or on the matching A’s.

• BOOK: Ten Apples Up on Top by Dr. Seuss
1. Play with apple bean bags (read THIS post for detailed instructions to make these).
• Sort them by size (we have two sizes, big and small).
• Put them on their heads. See how many they can stack!
• With apples on their heads, try to walk, run, jump, crawl, etc!
• Roll the die and play pretend baking with apples (think pies, applesauce, etc).
2. Print a picture of your preschoolers head at the bottom of a paper. With apple stickers, stick 10 apples stacked above their head.

• Apple Sensory Bin
1. Fill a small plastic bin with rice, oatmeal, wheat, or the like.
2. Add red, yellow and green pom poms (different sizes is even better) and magnent letters (letters in their name or ABC’s).
3. Give them a pair of kid friendly tweezers and have them pinch out what they find in their bins.
• As they pull the pom poms out, sort according to color and size!
• As they pull the letters out, have them match them on a paper or spell their name.

• PICK APPLES!!

Click here for a lot more APPLE preschoool ideas!

A is for Airplane

• Book: Fly by Nathan Clement
• Learn about the process of flying in an airplane!

• Visit an Airport
1. If you have an airport close by, go as close to the runway as you can and watch the planes.
2. Track the airplanes you see – Big, Medium, Small airplanes; White, Red, Black airplanes; etc.
3. Read more airplane books while you wait for them!

• Make paper airplanes!
• Usborne has a book “100 More Paper Planes to Fold and Fly”. Spend some time learning how to fold different types of airplanes, then fly them!

• Airplane Graphing
1. Do this graphing activity using different colored airplanes (like THESE that we used).
2. On a simple piece of graph paper, write an A next to each row (or column, however you are graphing) in the color of each different colored airplane.
3. Pick a specific spot you are aiming at (a chair, pillow, person, etc) and help your preschooler throw each airplane at that object.
4. The airplane that is the closest wins, put an A in their row.

Click HERE for a lot more A is for Airplane preschool ideas on our blog!

A is for Ants

Ant day is always a fun preschool day at our house! It’s one of the only days my girls are fascinated by ants, instead of scared of the bugs!!

• Fingerprint Ants
• Read Ants by Nessa Black and learn about ants.
• Make fingerprint ants (using black ink or paint) – 
• three fingerprints, for the three sections of their body
• draw 6 legs
• draw 2 antennas
• draw 2 eyes

• Weigh your preschooler to see how much they could carry if they were an ant! Using the ant they made above, draw something really big on the back of the ant to show how much ants can carry!

• Make an Ant Restaurant
• After reading Ants by Nessa Black, and a Zootles magazine about Ants, discuss what ants like to eat.

• Make an “Ant Restaurant”
• Use a paper plate or preferably a piece of paper (it’s easier for the ants to get to quicker)
• Have your preschooler choose food items they think ants would like to eat. Put them on their restaurant.
• Set the plate/paper outside where there might be ants nearby.
• Check back later!

• Ant Sensory Bin
1. Using rice, wheat, oatmeal, beans, etc in a container, add large plastic ants for the preschoolers to find using tweezers/tongs.
• you could also add black pom poms or black sticker felt pads and have your preschoolers pretend those can be made into ants.
2. After they have found all the ants (and are done playing in their bins), use the ants for math! (see below)

• Ant Math
1. Using large plastic ants (that they found in their sensory bin, above), work on math skills.
• Use a layout like our ant page (with + and =), or simply write + or - and = on a piece of paper.
• Put a number on plastic ants on the left side of the + or - and a number of plastic ants on the right side of the + or – and have your preschooler add/subtract the ants and write the number answer after the equals sign.
• Practice this a few times, saying the math equation with your preschooler. IE:  “3 ants plus 2 ants equals 5 ants”

• How to Walk an Ant by Cindy Derby
• Read How to Walk an Ant, looking for letter Aa’s throughtout the book and finding all the ants.

• Walk an Ant!!
• With the large plastic ants, as used before, tie a piece of yarn around the ant and take it on a walk.
• In the book she walks a lot of ants, so the more the merrier (we stuck with one ant each though!).
• While on your walk check your ant restaurant and observe the ants!

• ART: After your walk, see how tangled your ants got, like in the book!

• Paint a “tangled” art picture, like in the book!
• Use the remnants from the ant lease to dip in paint and pull it across the page to make of colorful line art.
• Add ant stickers.

Chicka Chicka Boom Boom ABC preschool

Chicka Chicka Boom Boom is a traditional way we start the preschool year in our house. It is a fun story to introduce the whole alphabet.

• Sensory Bin
1. Fill a small container (6 qt size is what we use) with rice, wheat, beans, oatmeal, sand, or etc.
2. Add ABC letters of some kind – scrabble letters, printed construction paper letters, magnetic letters, etc.
• Magnetic letters are needed for the last project, or you can use tape!
3. Use tweezers or tongs to pinch the letters out.
•  great for fine motor skills!
4. After they find all the letter, start the next project, or let them play in the sensory bin, putting letters back in and finding them again!

• Chicka Chicka Boom Boom by Bill Martin Jr. and John Archambault
1. Read this book (or watch it on youtube) to your preschooler.
• They can point out each letter as you say them in the book
2. After you’ve read it at least one time through, use the ABCs your preschooler found in the sensory bin for the next project

• DIY Coconut Tree
1. This is a fairly simple DIY project. What you need:
• 3 tin cans – glued together and painted brown (I used hot glue and spray paint)
• add three palm leaves to the top
• if you have clay, playdough, or wooden balls, set those on the top
2. As you read the book again, tell your preschooler the letters and have them find the magnet letter and put it on their coconut tree.
3. After all the letters are in the tree, let them tip the coconut tree over and let all the letters fall off, just like in the book!

More Chicka Chicka Boom Boom preschool activities can be found HERE.

A is for Apples

• Make apple pom-pom necklaces
  1. PREP: (need red pom-poms, green felt, brown pony beads)
     • Cut out several small green leaves from felt.
     • Hot glue the leaf to the pom-pom.
     • Hot glue the brown pony bead on top of the leaf.
  2. Have your preschooler string apple pom-pom beads onto a length of cording.
  3. Alternate with green pony beads to work on patterns.

• Examine apples
  1. Have several different kinds & colors of apples for the kids to observe.
  2. Ask them what they see. We noticed the smooth skin, spots on the skin, the stem, the different colors, the shape…
  3. Cut the apples into slices. I sliced them horizontally so we could see the star inside.
  4. Let the kids taste each different apple.
  5. Let them munch while you read apple books.

• Read “Ned's New Home” by Kevin Tseng … I grabbed this one at the library because of the big apple on the front. It is such a cute book. We may use it again for our Fruit Day. Ned (the worm)’s apple house has started to rot, so he goes through several other fruits trying to find a suitable new home. Available here.

• Read “Apples for Everyone” by Jill Esbaum … I’m loving this series of books by National Geographic Kids. The text is simple, very informative and the photos are wonderful. The book is only 16 pages, so a quick read for kids. Available here.

• Read “The Apple Pie Tree” by Zoe Hall … we have to read this book every fall. It is a cute story with a simple explanation of the life cycle of an apple, ending with a delicious apple pie. Available here.

• Do ‘A’ journal page
  1. Write ‘Aa” on the next page.
  2. Write “APPLES”. I show my 4-year-old the word “APPLE” on the cover of one of our books and she copies the letters into her journal.
  3. Practice writing big A’s and little a’s.
  4. Put apple stickers all over the page. We used scented apple stickers, but any would do

• ABC Apple Post-It Game … this one is always fun. A great way to get up and move around. I find apple post-its at Office Depot or Office Max or on Amazon here. 
  1. PREP:
     • Write A-Z on apple post-it notes. My preschooler loves writing her letters, so she helped me write another set of lower-case a-z on the green apple post-its.
     • Make a large apple tree. Ideas:
       1. Draw one with chalk on a fence.
       2. Paint one on a big cardboard box
       3. Cut out a large tree from brown & green butcher paper and tape to the wall.
       4. Draw a large apple tree on a window, mirror or glass door with dry erase crayons.
     • “Hang” all of the ABC apples in the apple tree (stick them on)
     • Write A-Z outside of the tree.
  2. TO PLAY:
     • Have your preschooler pick an ABC apple from the tree.
     • Have her match it to the ABC outside of the tree.
     • We did this game twice with upper and lower-case apples.
     • Give them plenty of help, so it is fun and not frustrating!

• Read “Ten Apples Up On Top!” by Dr. Seuss … spread out a blanket outside and fun apple book. Book available here.

• 10 Apple Bean Bags Up On Top! … this little game had my kids belly-laughing. It’s worth the prep work
  1. PREP: Make several apple bean bags. Detailed instructions with PHOTOS here.
     • Cut out 2 red felt circles
     • Cut out 1 brown felt stem
     • Cut out 1 green felt leaf
     • Sandwich the stem & leaf between the red circles.
     • Sew around the apple, leaving a 2-inch gap.
     • Fill with rice or beans.
     • Finish sewing around the apple.
     • TIP: This year, I didn’t feel like sewing, so I hot glued the apples together It worked.
  2. TO PLAY:
     • Read “10 Apples Up On Top” again.
     • When the characters put another apple “up on top”, have the kids try balancing an apple on their head.
     • Add 2, then 3, then 4!
     • Have them try to stand up or walk with the apples up on top.

• 10 Apple Stickers Up On Top!
  1. Print a small picture of your preschooler.
  2. Glue it to the bottom of a half sheet of paper.
  3. Have your preschooler stack 10 apple stickers up on top of their head!
  4. Count the apples 1-10 (or 14 in our case)

• Make Apple Cookies for our Snack … would you be surprised that these got rave reviews from all five of my kids and my husband? There weren’t supposed to be quite so many mini M&Ms, but my 4-year-old was helping, so that’s what happens!
  1. Slice apples horizontally.
  2. Immediately soak in a bowl of cold water and lemon juice (a few tablespoons for a medium bowl). This keeps the apples from browning. Let them soak for 10-15 minutes.
  3. Take the apple slices out of the lemon water and dry them with a towel.
  4. Spread peanut butter.
  5. Sprinkle toppings … mini M&Ms, chocolate chips, coconut, raisins, chopped nuts.