Tag: Preschool

Any activity or post about our preschoolers

Kids Need Play

Red Poppy

Keira

Dear Reader,

Veteran’s Day is important in our family, although it’s not really celebrated besides telling our veteran family members a hearty thank you. I remember, however, inviting my grandparents to my Veteran’s Day programs at my school as a child, and they mean something to me as an adult. Although preschool isn’t gradeschool, and Covid has changed things this year (lots of elderly veterans in a school with young kids that *hopefully* have a good grasp on hygiene, and a virus that attacks the older generations the hardest? Yeah, that can’t possibly be a danger), but I still wanted to talk to my kiddo about why this day means so much.

There are a lot of people in the US that associate the poppy more with Memorial Day, but internationally, the poppy is a symbol of veterans day. And I think it is an easier symbol for preschoolers to understand than camo or soldiers or stars and stripes. Bright red is a strong color, a color with emotion, and the color of blood. Black is easily understood as dark, although I think that it’s association with death is above a preschooler’s symbol-association abilities.

I was running behind on some things today so I asked my teen to draw the flower. It was a good way to get her involved. And I think she did a good job! I told her to make it bigger and that the paper would cover it all so not to bother erasing, but it was still a shame to cover her artwork. I was pretty relieved to not have to draw it!

To be truthful, the main benefit of this activity is the bilateral movement in tearing the paper. And that takes a surprising amount of concentration, apparently, because it took us a long time to want to tear the paper, and I thought that is something she would have been all about! But it was such a pain to keep her on task! Once the paper was torn, it was pretty quick to dab some glue and tell her to stick the paper on the glue dots. She definitely liked that part better.

I think it turned out pretty cute! And it was a good activity to talk about veterans and who our family veterans are and why they’re important. I pray that my daughter can grow up respecting freedom and the men who fight/fought for us to have it.

Keira at searchforseven.com
  • probably more 4+
Kids Need Play

Letter Stomp

Summer

Dear Reader,

My children have been really rambunctious the last couple days. I have been trying to think of an activity that would help them learn their letters as well as get out some of their energy. And so Letter Stomp was born.

To play Letter Stomp place your letters down on the floor, preferably carpeted so that your letters won’t slip out from under their feet. Space them far enough apart that you can walk between them. Call your Kiddos over and have them take turns stomping on a letter that you call out, or if you want to have them call out the letter that would work too. Once they have found the correct letter stomp combination (have stomped on the letter you or they have named) they are allowed to pick up the letter and take it to a pile.

My girls loved stomping on the letters and picking them up to place in the pile. They still needed my help on some of them, especially my child who after a while just gives up and wants me to do all the work, but they still had fun and played a couple rounds. This is definitely one to repeat.

Summer at searchforseven.com
Kids Need Play

Crunch leaves

Keira

Dear Reader,

I am clinging on to each warm second of this gorgeous “second fall” weather we like to experience yearly around here. we get that super cold spell, and then all of the sudden, the weather gives us one last happy bright spot (I don’t hate winter, what do you mean? shiver, shiver).

It was so beautiful outside today, we just had to go out and play! The fall leaves are in that perfectly satisfying crunchy state so I took my preschooler out while my littles were napping (don’t worry, baby monitor in hand) and we stomped and crumbled and celebrated the joy of fall together. It was so fun to just let go of all the stress of the world right now and just let my inner kid out. I mean, really, who doesn’t like crunching leaves? There is something so satisfying about it. Maybe it’s the sensory aspect. Maybe it’s just the sunshine and fresh air (it’s so much more than that). Heck, maybe it’s just some leftover primal instinct.

No matter why it just feels so good, it was definitely cathartic and I am so grateful for the excuse to track these memories with my girly in her childhood.

Keira at searchforseven.com
Kids Need Play

Sticker Letter Match

Summer

Dear Reader,

Letter recognition is an important step towards literacy. As my preschoolers near the Kindergarten age I want them to be able to recognize more of them. Right now the knowledge is limited in this regard.

This activity you can use either lower case or upper case letters. As your children get better you can even have them match the lower case to the upper case or vice versa, maybe even mix which is where (have some upper case on the paper and some be stickers and the rest of both be lowercase).

Once you have all the letters on the paper and stickers you start out by asking your child to match one letter at a time so that they are hearing the name of the letter.

This is an activity you will want to do one on one with your child. I made the mistake of having too many children doing it at once and one of my children decided to just place the letters where ever they pleased.

If you would like to see how I adapted this activity for toddlers see: Sticker Shape Match.

Summer at searchforseven.com
  • probably more 4+
Kids Need Play

Field Trip: Visit the Zoo

Keira

Dear Reader,

I have been wanting to take the girls to the zoo for a while now and just never got around to it, but since our zoo closes for the season in the middle of the month, I decided we had better go before we have to wait until the next year. I have always felt like there is something magical about toddlers and the zoo. There is something so charming about preschoolers absorbing the experience. Animals are such a novelty at that stage, it’d be a shame not to take them to see some.

I know that normally, it’s better to go see animals first thing in the morning, but we didn’t make it there until mid-afternoon. We had one of those spin-your-wheels kinds of days that we just couldn’t get going! Honestly, though, I felt like that was the best time to go! Sure, in the summertime, I can see the benefit of morning, but in the fall, I think the animals were cool enough they weren’t conserving energy and hanging out in the shade. They were all pretty active. We got there right before the lions were anticipating an afternoon meal. They were pacing by the gate. Which was right by a great vantage point, so we spent a long time watching them. The pelicans are usually in the middle of the pond when we come, but this time, they were hanging out by the bank, right next to the trail! They’re *much* bigger in person than I anticipated. They were much taller than our kiddos – almost as tall as me!

Furthermore, in the morning we would have been racing naptimes. But mid-afternoon, our littles were fully rested from their mid-day nap, and not “starving,” having just had a snack (and lunch before naptime), and not needing more food until dinnertime.

Another perk to going in the fall that I never realized before: not only is it not super hot in mid-afternoon, it’s not super crowded either. Although we passed other families, and even had to wait at some popular exhibits (with Covid, we wanted to give plenty of space between us and everyone else), for the most part, we had each animal viewing area to ourselves. I could definitely get used to that!

Toddlers really eat up animal sounds. They roar when we roar at them. they’re currently obsessed wit howling because a book we read frequently has a coyote in it and we make the sound, so they do, and they love that first little line of communication. Plus the animals in the zoo are new to them! the only giraffes they’ve seen are in books. Books are great, but a real animal in front of them is a totally different experience. The same is true for preschoolers, though! Animal sounds haven’t quite lost their charm, but more importantly, they see an animal move and act and react. It is right there in front of them! And it creates questions and conversations, and expands their understanding in a way a show or a book couldn’t capture.

I cant wait to go back next season!

Keira at searchforseven.com
Kids Need Play

Car Wash

Summer

Dear Reader,

The girls have been begging me to take the van to a car wash for weeks now. I didn’t really think that it needed one, but I decided it would be the perfect thing for them to do themselves.

Did I think that my van would get truly clean? No, not really. I just wanted to let them have some outside fun.

Even the youngest got in on the fun and “scrubbed” the bumper. It was really cute to see my one year old rubbing the bumper with a sponge. I am categorizing this as a Preschooler though because while it was fun to see the toddlers try it is more of a preschooler ability range to clean the car.

Summer at searchforseven.com
Kids Need Play

Handprint Spiderweb

Keira

Dear Reader,

After a week focusing on harvest, my preschooler was really excited to do another craft. We all love tomatoes (except the teen. She’s broken) but after so many days spent toiling in the kitchen, I think we are all wanting to work on some other thing. So, with paint, a paintbrush, a plate, some string, and a holepunch, we made a spider in it’s web.

To make your own, start by poking holes around a plate. I totally lucked out on my first guess, and every 4 grooves worked out perfectly to go evenly around.

then, we painted her hand. Don’t do the thumb, but do all the fingers and the palm. put her hand down on the plate, then paint again and put her hand down again the other way, so that your spider has 8 legs. Some spiders, ours included, are wiggly and you somehow randomly end up with a 9-legged spider. Roll with it. Love your spiders no matter the deformities, haha. My daughter was determined to stick the paper punches on as eyeballs, but one got lost pretty quickly, so we also have a 1-eyed spider.

Then, take a long piece of string, find the middle, and tie it around one of the punched holes in the plate, so you have two shorter strings (less knots) let your kid weave through any holes on the plate, crossing the front of the plate as much as possible. We do a lot of “sewing” so it was kinda hard for my preschooler to cross the plate when she knows sewing is supposed to go through consecutive holes. Isn’t that the way it goes; you try so hard to get her to learn a skill one way, just to need to do it another way later.

I actually really enjoyed making this with my kiddo. I think she enjoyed it, too. and, even if we do one every year, they’ll be different because her handprint will change as she grows. It was really just fun to slow down for a second and work on something together.

Keira at searchforseven.com
Kids Need Play

Spiderweb Walk

Summer

Dear Reader,

The idea behind this activity was to get the girls to work on walking on a line as well as letter recognition. As sometimes happens though one of these fell by the wayside as I focused more on letter recognition while trying to fend off their toddler sister.

This is definitely an activity you either need to do during a nap or when your littles are distracted elsewhere. My toddlers thought it looked so fun that they had to either sit on the web or stand in the middle making it hard for sisters.

Start by making the web out of masking tape. Then make letters for your littles to find on the web. We used some cards we had lying around. Place the letters on the web.

Call out letters for your child to find. Have them walk on the tape in a line until they find the letter. Then have them bring the letter back to you.

This will help them work on balancing and letter recognition.

Summer at searchforseven.com
Kids Need Play

Field Trip: Corn Maze

Keira

Dear Reader,

We have made it a tradition in our family to visit the corn maze every year. We have managed to do it with kids in a stroller, kids in a hiking backpack, and kids making the decisions on where to turn, but we have kept the tradition alive! Personally, I love the maze. Sometimes I think everyone else just humors me. There’s just something fun about making decisions together as a family (or group) in a way that doesn’t have any serious consequences. There is probably some psychology term for that. But it’s fun to ask a preschooler to make the decision every once in a while, just to see where you end up.

Keira at searchforseven.com
Kids Need Play

**Freebie** Pumpkin Poke

Summer

Dear Readers,

Today I wanted to practice the pincer grasp with my preschoolers. We started with a pushpin and a printout that my sister made us. I did have a little difficulty because nothing I was using was allowing the give that the pin needed to get through. The cardboard I had was too thin and the table was too hard.

Then I had a brainstorm, why not use a folded blanket? We had a lot of muslin blankets still lying around from the baby stage of the kids, so why not use them?

This activity was definitely too hard for my oldest toddler (she didn’t even really poke any of the dots), but it was a good stretch for my youngest preschooler. If you are looking for a good craft for your preschoolers to do during the Halloween season these are a great option. Just don’t expect them to finish them the first time you try doing something like this.

The first one we did might have been way over the kids heads but my oldest did about a third of the pumpkin before she decided she was done. I will link that one for older kids if you would like to do this with elementary aged kids it will be there for them too.

The second one we did is more preschool friendly, so definitely try that with your preschoolers.

Here is the preschool version:

Click here to download

Here is the elementary aged version:

Click here to download

Have fun, whichever one you choose to do.

Summer at searchforseven.com
  • probably more 4+