Stick a Fork In It

Today we are presenting Masterpiece Monday---An Art Show and we are so very excited for our friends and family to see what our students have been working on all year. 

We often work on large pieces of art.  This past week we worked with primary colors and secondary colors and a unique way to paint. 

Children chose a primary color and pulled the paint with a fork.

We let the primary colors dry...

Secondary colors were placed on top of primary colors. 

The Carrot Seed 2017

We are having a lot of fun with seeds and plants with our TTh 3 y/o class.  Today we found out who likes carrots and who does not like carrots.

We planted carrot seeds and pumpkin seeds from our fall pumpkins.  The cups your child brought home are marked 'pumpkin' and 'carrot'.  Next week we will plant flower seeds.

We are looking at seeds and roots.  Check out what other activities we have in our classroom---

http://metamoracommunityprek.blogspot.com/2015/04/the-carrot-seed-2015.html

http://metamoracommunityprek.blogspot.com/2016/04/the-carrot-seed-2016.html

http://metamoracommunityprek.blogspot.com/2016/04/creative-carrots.html

Hike a trail at Black Partridge Park!

http://www.metamoraparks.org/webpages/bpp.php

Visit a nature park or botanical garden!

https://www.peoriaparks.org/forest-park-nature-center/

https://www.peoriaparks.org/luthy-botanical-garden/

Your local stores and nurseries are filled with seeds and plants.  Go visit and explore plants with your child and nurture a love of nature. 

Earth Day 2017

"I was taught from a very young age to serve, so that turned into me thinking I had to save the planet."

Alanis Morissette

I was also taught from a very young age to volunteer and serve the community.  I don't have a big enough platform to save the planet but I do work on my corner of Mother Earth. 

Paper is extremely expensive and preschoolers are big consumers of paper.  Coloring, writing, painting and just adding a few little squiggles to a piece of paper occupy the children at many of our centers.  It's an important part of our program and important to their growth and development.  We are very fortunate that over the years we have had donations of various types of office paper that we use in our art and writing center which saves MCP's budget.  We recently had a family move back into the area and she very graciously saved lots of the beautiful packing paper for our program.  This paper will be used at our easel for painting projects and will last us for several years.

Our budget means we have to be creative with projects and classroom activities.  Check out these past posts to see how MCP recycles and repurposes items in the classroom. 

http://metamoracommunityprek.blogspot.com/2012/04/earth-day-2012.html

http://metamoracommunityprek.blogspot.com/2013/04/earth-day-2013.html

The Three Little Pigs---2017

The Three Little Pigs and the Big Bad Wolf have our preK students busy in a lot of different ways.  We have added two new activities---

Our favorite ABC game!

The container is a red plastic flower pot with black Sharpie lines for bricks.  The children love it!

At our local dollar store I saw these little clips and had to turn them into an ABC game!  Piggies are fun from A to Z!

The circles are 8 inch cake rounds. There's more!  Check out these past posts---

Books---

http://metamoracommunityprek.blogspot.com/2012/04/ill-huff-and-ill-puff.html

Dramatic Play & Snack Mix---

http://metamoracommunityprek.blogspot.com/2015/04/pigmania.html

http://metamoracommunityprek.blogspot.com/2012/04/little-pigs-little-pigs.html

Discovery Center---http://metamoracommunityprek.blogspot.com/2015/04/straw-sticks-and-bricks.html

My Mondrian

Last year was the first year for our Masterpiece Monday program and some lessons needed to be modified this year.

It requires two lessons to complete the Mondrian canvas.  The first Monday is sketching and painting the black lines (last year we allowed the children to choose a color and logistically it was just too much).

Last Monday, the children were allowed to choose a few colors to fill in some of the white spaces but not all! 

More on Mondrian---

https://www.wikiart.org/en/piet-mondrian

http://www.piet-mondrian.org/

Have some fun with Mondrian at home with your child!  Grab some paper, a ruler and crayons!

Fun Food Friday---Jelly Beans

Fun Food Friday is new to our program and is a huge hit with kids and teachers.  Last Friday, each child received a small amount of jelly beans.  We love to have the children play with their food.  When we sort we can introduce words like greater than, less then, more, zero and equal. We can work on patterns and counting out ten items.  

Buy a bag of jelly beans and watch your child sort, count and create patterns!

The Gingerbread Man 2017

Last Friday we gave each of our MWF preK students a 'gingerbread cookie' to decorate as they wish.  We had googly eyes, beads, paper scraps and much more.  Die cut shapes and markers were at each table and each student had scissor, glue and their imagination! 

A sweet garage sale find for our classroom!

Try and retell the story of the Gingerbread Man with your child's gingerbread cookie!  Next week---The Three Little Pigs

Easter Basket 2017

Each year we provide an empty basket for the children to fill with eggs. More scissors use!  Our MWF classes will estimate the number of eggs when we are all done.  Stay tuned for the 'after' picture.

For more ideas on creative bulletin boards, look under our label "Bulletin Boards."

The Caterpillar

The caterpillar does all the work but the butterfly gets all the publicity. 

George Carlin

It's time for our TTh 3 y/o class to have some fun with Eric Carle's The Very Hungry Caterpillar.

http://metamoracommunityprek.blogspot.com/2012/04/but-he-was-still-hungry.html

http://metamoracommunityprek.blogspot.com/2015/04/the-very-hungry-caterpillar-2015.html

Hoe, Hoe, Hoe

It's time to get out in the yard (once everything dries out).  In our dramatic play, we have lots of props so the children are able to garden indoors.  Plastic milk caps and marker caps make good dirt.

Local nurseries are filling up with plants.  Visit your local nursery with your child and nurture a love of nature!

Make Way for Ducklings

Have You Seen My Duckling?   by Nancy Tafuri made it a fun week with our 3 y/o class.  The children are getting really good using a scissors and cut grass for their ducklings.

 

Glue the grass...

 

Add some ducklings...

 

   

Ducklings and office stickers make counting fun!

Ask your child what they learned about birds!

At the Hop

Things are hopping in our classroom!  Easter is just around the corner and there is a lot for your child to do in the classroom. 

Check out what is happening in our classroom---

http://metamoracommunityprek.blogspot.com/2014/04/easter-activities.html

Masterpiece Monday---Mondrian 2017

Before break, we introduced Piet Mondrian as our new artist.  Inspired by our new artist, the children were give rulers, papers and crayons.

 

 

 

 

Today we are going to sketch and paint the lines on canvas. 

http://metamoracommunityprek.blogspot.com/2016/04/masterpiece-monday-piet-mondrian_18.html