Flower Graphing *reusable

For this *reusable* graphing activity you will need:

• A simple, blank graph (like this one)
• A laminator + laminating sheets (or a sheet protectors)
• wet erase markers
• dry erase markers
• Spinner (I made mine, but there are some rainbow ones here or blank ones here)

First, print as many graphs as you have kids/students. Laminate those graphs or put them in a sheet protector to make it reusable.

Next, with wet erase markers draw one flower at the bottom of each column. I used the 6 colors in the rainbow, to go with my spinner.

Then, get a spinner with rainbow colors. [I made mine, using the back of a spinner from a board game we have, a circle rainbow sticker (printed on sticker paper and cut out), then pulled the arrow spinner off the board and to put it on the back.]  Or you can google spinner printables and use a paper clip!

Last, play the game! *take turns spinning if you are playing with a group.

• Spin the arrow to see which color you get.
• Find that color flower, mark it on the graph with a dry erase marker (we drew F’s because it was during our letter F week)
• Repeat, until one column is filled up.

When one column is filled, then you can ask questions about the graph:

• Which color flower had the most spins?
• Which color flower had the least?
• Which two flowers had the same amount?
• How many MORE red flowers are there than blue?
• How many orange and green flowers are there together?
• etc….

**You can use this graphing activity for ALL KINDS of
different themes (umbrellas, dogs, ants, kites, etc!!)

There are more flower activities HERE on the blog and you can watch more F week ideas HERE on Instagram.

Smokey the Bear

Smokey the Bear turns 75 on August 9, 2019!! We wanted to celebrate with some fun preschool activities. *A lot of these activities you can use again on B is for Bear day or F is for Fire day.

• Smokey the Bear size match
1. I made some Smokey the Bear stickers - big, medium and small - with my Silhouette Machine and sticker paper (or you can find some fancy, bigger ones here - these are just one size).
2. Make a simple page with different size fires - big, medium, and small
3. Have your child match and cover the small fires with the small Smokey the Bear stickers, the medium fires with the medium stickers, etc.

• Pretend play - putting fires out
1. Use chalk on a sidewalk, driveway, fence or somewhere else to draw little fires.
2. Use a squirt bottle or water gun to “put out” the fires
3. More advanced, tell your preschooler to put out the “pink” fire, or put out the fire above the F (you will have to use different colors and/or add letters for this game)

• Dress up like Smokey the Bear
1. There’s not a lot to Smokey’s outfit…my girls had to add a little extra in fact (a t-shirt, as he doesn’t wear one!). His outfit includes:
• jeans
• a ranger hat, or similar hat, with 'SMOKEY' on it
• a belt, with 'SMOKEY' on it
• a shovel
• bear (or bare 😉) feet!
2. Dressed up as Smokey, have them say out loud Smokey’s slogan – “Only YOU can prevent wildfires”!

• Make a campfire 

1. Talk about fire safety. 
• *If you know a cub scout, or have one in your family like we do, have them pass off one of their requirements and talk about fire safety.
2. Enjoy the campfire. Roast hot dogs and marshmallows while practicing good fire safety!
3. Put the fire out like Smokey has taught: using water, then a shovel, then more water

• Visit your local Forest Service
1. Or look here for local events happening to celebrate Smokey the Bear’s birthday.
2. High-five and take a picture with Smokey, if you can find him!\

• Go on a hike!! Enjoy the forest, and see if you can spot any Smokey signs!

• Look at forest fire pictures and talk about the facts
1. I was a wildland firefighter for two summers and I have some pretty neat videos of forest fires. Google 'wild land fires' and learn about wildland firefighters. 
2. Talk about how 89% of wildfires in 2018 were caused by humans (source: nifc.gov)
3. Once more, reiterate how important fire safety is!

• Smokey the Bear website activities
1. Make a coloring page
2. Make up a story with Smokey
3. Play Ask Smokey

Happy Birthday Smokey!!

C is for Colors (Fall Colors!)

I love all of the fall changes in the air. We enjoyed the fall colors for preschool. We made an extra colorful fall treat to celebrate the first day of fall!

• Read “Mouse's First Fall” by Lauren Thompson …  or any other book with great fall colors!

• Preschool Journal C Page
  1. Practice writing Cc and “Colors” … we used fun pencils with lots of colors so our page was extra colorful.
  2. Stick colorful fall leaf stickers to the page (I found these at Michaels).

• Colorful Fall Hand Trees
  1. Trace your preschoolers hand and forearm on brown paper.
  2. Let them cut it out (I helped my 3-year-old, but my 4-year-old did it all by himself)
  3. Glue their hand tree to light blue paper.
  4. Stick colorful fall leaf stickers to the page … some on the tree, some on the ground and some falling! We used these, but I found them at Michaels.

   

• Colorful Crayon Shaving Leaves … I love how these look in the window
  1. Use a sharpie to draw a large leaf outline on wax paper.
  2. Have the kids help remove the paper from several fall colored crayons.
  3. Make crayon shavings by using a manual pencil sharpener. I let my kids try to do this themselves, but it was a little tricky. They had more fun when I made a pile of crayon shavings for them to use.
  4. Sprinkle the crayon shavings all over the wax paper.
  5. Place another piece of wax paper on top.

     (before)                             (after ironing)

  6. Place a large piece of paper on your ironing board, then the wax paper leaf, then top with another large piece of paper.
  7. Carefully iron on top of the paper (on LOW heat). It doesn’t take very long to melt. The more your iron, the more the colors smoosh together. I like to do it until the colors are just starting to spread.
  8. Let cool. They cool very quickly.
  9. Cut around your leaf shape and hang in the window!

• Colorful Fall Scavenger Hunt & Wreath
  1. Make a simple colorful wreath
     • Trace around a large plate and a smaller cup to make a wreath shape.
     • Using the wreath as a pattern, cut out several fall colors & glue them around the wreath.
  2. Take your colorful wreath on a fall scavenger hunt walk. Find leaves and other fall items that match your colors.
  3. When you get home, glue the items to the matching colors.
  4. Hang up your colorful fall wreath!

• Fall Colored Sugar Cookies … these were a yummy treat to end our colorful day and were fun to make!
1. Make a batch of your favorite sugar cookies.
2. Divide the dough into four balls.
3. Color each ball a different fall color. We used red, orange, yellow, and green.
4. Take pieces from each ball and smoosh the colors together into a large ball.
5. Roll out your dough (and ooh and ahh at the cool colors)
6. Use a leaf cookie cutter to cut out your cookies. This is the one we used:
7. Sprinkle with colored sugar sprinkles & bake.
8. Delicious … even without frosting.

Fancy Preschool {Manners}

This preschool day with our friends was so much fun. The kids loved it. I loved it. It was so fun to see them enjoying themselves so much. Thanks Camie for a fun day!

Our preschool day focused on Manners and it was Fancy!

• Read “Fancy Nancy” by Jane O’Connor
  • So cute: I have two boys first, and then two girls, so I’m just learning about these Fancy Nancy books and I love them. Nancy decides her family is not fancy enough, so she brings out the accessories and they go out to a fancy meal.

• Read “Tea for Ruby” by Sarah Ferguson … and activity kit here
  • Manners: Ruby lets everyone know that she has been invited to have tea with the Queen. They all give her reminders about her manners. Cute story, especially the ending. Love the illustrations too.

• Please and Thank You Song … we watched this cute Barney song.

• Dress Up Fancy!
  1. Pull out all of the dress up clothes, glasses, shoes, necklaces, purses and dress up fancy!
  2. The girls loved dressing up. We had fancy ties and jackets for the boys, but they liked the “superhero” capes the best Whatever makes you feel fancy!

  

• Decorate Fancy Crowns & Tiaras
  1. Give each of the kids a blank crown (or tiara for the girls!) Just cut them out of cardstock or find blank crowns like we used at a craft store like Michaels.
  2. Use Do-a-Dot markers and stickers to decorate your crown! The kids really enjoyed this.

• Have a fancy tea party!
  1. Camie was amazing and pulled out the glass plates and goblets. Oh, did the kids think that was special and fancy!! The fancy snacks were displayed on fancy dishes and they even had fancy pudding parfaits with whipped cream and sprinkles (just like Fancy Nancy!) I didn’t get very good pictures, but the kids were loving it What a fun party!
  2. Remind the kids to say please and thank you.
  3. NOTE: the glass goblets are from the dollar store!

Scarecrow Colors

This is a fun little book that you can print out and color with your kids. I love it because once they’re done coloring, they can look at the pictures and “read” the story themselves!

  

• Print all 4 pages of the book
1. Click each picture to download.
2. Print the pages front to back.
3. Stack, fold & staple.
• Color the book
1. Read the words on each page and follow the directions (“The hat is brown.” = color only the hat brown! Leave everything else white.)
2. Color the whole picture on “The End” page again following the descriptions from the previous pages.

Healthy Day + a Giveaway! (CLOSED)

We had a busy week last week and didn’t have a lot of sit down preschool time. We did manage to do a day of Healthy for H week which I love doing with my kids. We have a chance to talk about what is healthy and what is junk food. It was perfect timing after a sugary Halloween weekend.

 

• Color MyPlate
  1. Print out a blank MyPlate pattern.
  2. I also added a smaller colored version on the same page so that my 3-year-old could match the colors.
  3. Talk about each section as you color it. Think of foods that would fit into each section.
  4. Help your preschooler notice that half of your plate should be filled with fruits and veggies!

• Sort food on MyPlate
  1. Use a plastic food set (or print out several pictures of food or cut them out of magazines.)
  2. Sort the different foods onto the sections of MyPlate. Talk positively about each kind of food!

• Make a Healthy Lunch
  1. Prepare a lunch matching the MyPlate guidelines. Fill half your plate with fruits & veggies, a serving of protein and a serving of grain. We added a serving of yogurt on the side for our dairy.
  2. I think the most important thing is to let your preschooler help make the choices. Give some options and let him choose!
  3. My preschooler loves strawberries, so he chose those for his fruit. Then he chose carrots for a veggie. We had half a bagel (with Nutella) and he was excited to see that he could choose cheese for our protein.

  

• Super Healthy Kids Plates … Like the plate we used?! We had a chance to review this great dinner set from Super Healthy Kids.
  1. Amy at Super Healthy Kids, has an amazing blog filled with information, healthy tips, recipes, weekly meal plans and much more. I visit her blog regularly to get healthy menu ideas (and she’s done all the work … breakfast, lunch, snacks and dinner are all planned out, with links to the recipes!)
  2. My only negative is that we only have one plate set and my kids ALL wanted to use it We did a lot of sharing … and washing the plate!
  3. What I loved …
     • This dinner set is sturdy and well-made. I was actually surprised at the great quality. Made from melamine, they are perfect for kids. And dishwasher safe!

• My kids loved the pictures in each section. My 4-year-old insisted that he needed to eat even more strawberries for his snack because there was a picture of a strawberry and plenty of room for “more strawberries mom!”

• The cup has a large water drop with the words “drink water” on it. My 6-year-old is a little reader. Every time he saw that cup he told me “look mom, we’re supposed to ‘DRINK WATER’” and he’d help himself to another big drink.
• The plate was a great reminder for me. I tend to start our lunches with a sandwich and go from there. Using the plate, I tried to start with the fruits and veggies then portion our grains and proteins accordingly. It was fun!

Amy is offering one Healthy Habits Plate Set (plate, cup, and bowl!) to one Preschool Alphabet reader!

• 3 ways to enter (leave a separate comment for each entry with your email so I can notify the winner):
  1. Leave a comment telling what you do to encourage healthy habits in your kids!
  2. Become a follower of Preschool Alphabet (or let me know if you already are!)
  3. Visit Super Healthy Kids, then come back here and let me know what you liked! I recommend checking out her healthy lesson plans for every letter of the alphabet from A-Z …. amazing!

• One Winner
  1. Will be chosen Friday evening and posted Saturday morning.
  2. Open to U.S. residents only.

Good Luck!