Bugs for Preschoolers - Part 2

I have a confession to make: my bugs unit was not nearly as hands on and Montessori-inspired as I would have liked it to be. In fact, most of this school year was not as Montessori-inclined as I thought it would be. A big part of it comes from my last minute planning and lack of "props". For example, I had no access to any rubber bugs for this unit which made it very frustrating in trying to create fun trays for Adrian. Resources being limited here, I often have to shop online and thus have to order very much in advance and often pay much higher prices than if I were, say, to shop at bargain stores of thrift stores. Anyhow, to avoid feeling this dissatisfaction next year, I am already planning what we will be doing next year in "tot school" and "Kindergarten". Here's to learning! :)

Coffee Filter Butterfly 

Who hasn't done one of those? It's one of the first craft that comes to mind when I think of coffee filter art. To make the butterfly more "symmetric", circles were drawn from the middle and outward on two coffee filters. Hey, butterflies have four wings after all! :) When Adrian felt happy with the circles and colors, he sprayed some water and left them to dry on paper towels set on our radiators (yes... they are still on at the end of May!) In a matter of minutes, they were dry and ready to be gathered together with a pipe cleaner. Adrian chose a  dark green color and had much fun making his insect fly through the air. 

Butterfly Craft in Progress

Counting butterflies

Although this was their first outing, these butterfly gems were picked up two yeas ago at Michael's craft store in the bargain section. They're officially stickers if you take the time to put the glue dot on the back which I didn't. I purchased several boxes of various colors and took them out this week for a counting activity. I wrote down several random numbers and Adrian proceeded to put the butterflies under. Notice how he chose to use a single color for each number? Made it look so pretty.

Butterfly bath applique, marbles and toast tongs

I finally got to have Adrian try a more "challenging" version of the marbles and suction cups! The spacing of the cups was good so I set out marbles, toast tongs and a butterfly bath applique and he set to work. I think he did this as fast as he would have with his fingers...Hmm. So much for a challenge. After this year is over, so will the bath appliques! :)

Adrian carefully setting marbles down

Insect Lore's Butterfly Life Cycle

To change things up, I purchased this Butterfly Life Cycle kit instead of printing cards. I like to use props over cards and Adrian was quite happy to see "the real thing". Prior to bringing this tray out, we watched a short video showing the life cycle of butterflies. Then Adrian had to re-create the life cycle using these props. 

Watercolor - Butterfly

A little while ago, I discovered Trilium Montesori School through one of their blog links. I was hooked. Trilium Montessori is actually a real physical school which also happens to blog every so often about what they do when class is in session. A few weeks ago, they shared a great post about Insects. I so wished my son could have been there and attended. It looked so fun. From that post I gathered the link to download this beautiful butterfly to watercolor. Adrian usually colors all over without much organization or care but this time, I asked him to try to respect boundaries a bit more (aka stay within the lines). I told him he could for example choose a different color for each section and even try to do a symmetric butterfly. These were all suggestions of course but I was happy when he showed me the finished butterfly. I could tell he had been careful.

Butterfly Matching

Thanks to PreKinders, I didn't have to create my own butterfly matching game although, if I had more time, I might have. PreKinders' isn't bad by any means but I would have loved to know the names and provenance of all these beautiful "creatures".  (One day, when time abounds (yeah right?), I'd like to make a small set of butterfly cards per continent.)

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Bugs for Preschoolers - Part 1

Well it certainly has been a few days (a week maybe?) since my last "mini-unit" post. Don't think for a minute that Sorting Sprinkles is shutting down...Far from it. In fact, I've got several more mini-units that will be coming to you throughout the summer but this week was for us sort of a mini-vacation. School was out (except for today) so we could enjoy the beautiful city of Dresden, Germany. As a result, I completely unplugged from the blog but am now back telling you in details what Adrian and I were up to last week.

Kinder Surprise Bees and their Elastic Stripes

Adrian and Zahavah's favorite treats now that they live in Germany are Kinder Surprise eggs. I'm not sure what they fancy the most; the chocolate or the toy inside. Either way, every time one of these is consumed, we are left with an empty yellow shell. Over time, we've accumulated quite a few and I've kept about eight just in case I'd find something to do with them. While brainstorming about bugs, I focused on bees for a while and thought about the shells and how they could become bee so I drew faces on the shells. For stripes, I thought we could use elastics because they are such a great finger strengthener. To add more fun, I added a die to determine the quantity of stripes each bee would sport. Adrian was so excited to see the Kinder Surprise shells and turn them into something else. He played with the bees for a while after.

Transferring Bee Nectar

Here's another excellent activity for little fingers in need of more fine motor work;  the famous eye dropper task. I colored some water yellow and Adrian had to transfer it all using the medicine dropper. If a spill happened, he used the sponge provided but not pictured.

Pouring Bee Pollen

Ever seen real pollen collected by bees? Apparently it looks a bit like yellow split peas! It is even sold for its health property and supposedly great when consumed by people who have seasonal allergies. Who knew? In any case, for the purpose of this activity, I did not purchase any real bee pollen but went ahead and used the yellow split peas we had on hand, poured one cup in the measuring cup, provided am empty honey bear bottle and funnel (with a hole big enough to let peas go through at a decent rate). Although simple looking enough, it wasn't all that simple when the pouring began. Adrian soon realized he had to hold the funnel and go rather slow so as to not clog the funnel. He quickly learned how to unclog it when it happened though.

Move like an insect!

Get your kids moving with these cards from Oopsey Daisy! We had a rough week weather-wise here so I thought I'd print these cards to get Adrian moving and get him laughing at the same time! Get bonus points if you dare move with your kid! ;)

Cutting Strips and Classification

Another week, another cutting strip. We're getting good at these and more confident. I feel like we'll be able to move up another notch. Adrian can now very well cut strips that require him to open the scissors twice to get through a strip so it's time to make it more challenging. This week, his cutting strip was provided by the Gift of Curiosity's Free Insects Package. When I first saw this package, I fell in love. It was a huge pack of printables with beautiful graphics but of course, we don't use a lot of printables in "mama's school" so I sifted through the pages to see what we'd use. This page is the one I finally went with. Adrian cut the insects strips one day and the "not insects" on another day. Later during the week, I brought out all the cut pictures and had him sort and glue them in their proper places.

Math - Butterfly Symmetry

I knew I wanted to do a butterfly symmetry activity with Adrian but didn't know how to introduce it to make it fun. I happened to stumble upon All Our Days' Busy Bag. With no time to order, I decided to make my own. Of course, mine don't look nearly as perfect as their kit but they did the job. If you really want yours to look like theirs, they can though...apparently, someone (aka me) was very tired  when first planning this activity and did not notice the free PDF to that symmetry busy bag! Don't I feel dumb, now? *sigh*  Anyhow...understanding the symmetry aspect wasn't easy. We looked at butterflies before but having no mirroring glass to shadow the proper symmetry, it was sometimes too advanced to Adrian. Still a good intro to symmetry though.

Giant Bugs Puzzle

Unless you are new to my blog, you already know that I love Melissa & Doug products, especially their puzzles. Adrian being old enough for floor puzzles, we got him (or someone did get him) this bugs puzzle for his last birthday. The pieces are huge but it's not that easy to put together...

Rescuing ladybugs from a water reservoir

I happened to have bought a pack of plastic ladybugs from Birthday Direct last winter for Zahavah's birthday party. I re-used them here in this flower planter filled with water and provided Adrian with a small mesh strainer usually used for decorating cakes with sugar icing. Let's be honest: the rescue was easy but nothing will ever beat the fun of the activity. I originally had set it up for outside but transferred it inside as the rain started before Adrian and I headed out.

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Our Home School Library

You may (or may not) have noticed that I don't mention books in my posts. I hope you don't think we don't read or refer to books! :) We certainly do and not just a little. The thing is that when you live abroad, access to books in your own language (or even languages as is the case here) can be a bit inhibited. Now don't feel sorry for us; we do have an English library about half an hour drive from here but the choice is limited. More often than not, when I look at titles I'd like to borrow, they're either out or most usually, not part of the collection at all. Thankfully, I built a pretty big book collection for the kids over the years. I started before Adrian was even born knowing we had only a tiny English library within our range (Adrian was born in Denmark) and well, reading to my child was important to me so I had to be proactive and buy titles if I wanted to have some variety. 

The Kids' Home Library

Over the years, our library has grown quite a bit and books are always on the kids' wish lists for birthdays and Christmases. We currently house a lot of English books and quite a few French books as well. Most of them are fiction but we are now starting to invest into non-fiction volumes as well following the interests of the children. 

The main library is located on our top floor, in the playroom, and the door is never closed. The children are always welcomed to go pick up a book (and they do) but to encourage reading even further, I also "scattered" book baskets around the house. You'll thus find one in each of the kid's bedroom (each contains seven books and these are rotated every Tuesday) as well as a much bigger book basket in the living room. That one contains about 20 books that I rotate about every 3 weeks but as it contains borrowed books from the library (I try to stop there weekly), there is always some novelty in the basket. That is also where our newest "arrivals" (and thematic books) are located.

Zahavah's Current Book Basket

How do we choose our books? Well, classics are always nice to have. There is a reason why such books are classics, right? The themes are timeless, the illustrations beautiful and the children, whether they are about to be born or were 20 years ago, will or enjoyed the reading. I also go with my children's interests of course (lots of "Space" books have "invaded" us since January). Finally, books that are recipients of medals such as Caldecott and Newbery are always winners in this home; after all, living far from English bookstores sometimes mean we have to rely on critics to pick the best books...We wouldn't want to miss out on great books now, would we? ;)

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Pirate Week for Preschoolers Part 2

As a child, I never really cared much for pirates and so my knowledge of them is quite limited. I was a bit afraid I wouldn't come up with enough activities for this week but in the end, the planning was quite smooth. How I wish sailing through some waters was as smooth!  I did not tell Adrian that pirates really exist because he's a bit young and far from the affected waters (why worry him?) but older children might be interested in comparing and contrasting the "tale" pirates from the "real" pirates currently "plundering" around Indonesia, Somalia, Nigeria and al. 

Science & Art : Pirate Island

Having learned a few weeks ago about different land forms and water forms, I thought it'd be great to re-visit the island form. Pirates love islands after all! A square bowl was used as a way to contain our island and some gems and coins were put in a small bowl so the island would be filled with treasures. Prior to going outside, Adrian designed his own pirate flag. He took it very seriously and colored the entire flag template. Once outside, I asked Adrian if he remembered what the island looked like on the forms cards and he did. I asked him if he could replicate it in the bowl. Of course, a pitcher of water (lightly colored blue) and a bucket of sand and small shovel were available for him. Adrian loved his island so much that we brought it inside and kept it in for the entire day.

Math: Measuring Pirate Swords

Measuring with a measuring tape is something Adrian loves to do. You'll see him pick the tape out of the drawer just for fun. Today, I introduce a ruler with both centimeters and inches to show him we have other ways of measuring. We usually measure in inches but today we used centimeters to be more exact with the sword length. I made the swords myself using card stock and aluminum foil. Once all the swords were measured, we also discussed which was the longest and shortest and ordered them from longest to shortest.

Sorting Pirate Jewels

For the next activity, Adrian first needed to sort the jewels. I put in a "pearl" necklace, some "silver" coins (US dimes and quarters), some "gold" coins (euros cents), and mosaic gems of various colors. I color coded the names of the gemstones and Adrian quickly set to sorting them. Once they were all sorted, he was able to weigh them all separately.  This gave us a nice discussion after. The gold coins weighed the heaviest and amazingly, the "sapphires" weighed less than the "agate" although there was more of it! It was quite surprising to Adrian! :)

Weighing the bounty; Adrian loves weighing things

Art: Cutting Strip Sails & Pirate Ship Craft

A pirate ship...as seen in the movies! Although there are many ways to craft a pirate ship, I chose to go with Busy Bee Kids Crafts's template and idea because it looked really cute and simple for a preschooler. Adrian likes to practice his scissor skills so I cut turned the sails into cutting strips as well. I also had Adrian tear the dark blue sheet so it would look like water a bit more. Tearing paper is a good exercise for little fingers after all. As for the rest, he inserted the mini popsicle sticks (where did my regular sized ones go?) into the sails and glued them, just like he glued the sea, ship and "Cheerios" cereal. For a craft, I thought it involved Adrian much more than usual and he liked it. Hey, he's nearing 5, he can do a lot more now!

Sensory: Pirate Bin with I Spy Map

Seeing that Adrian's interest was back in regards to sensory bins, I prepared this one after seeing Counting Coconuts'. With a "I Spy" map to accompany the bin, it was "grown up" enough for Adrian to enjoy it yet very simple for me to put together. I used black beans as a filler, added our big treasure chest (Michael's), a jewelry velvety pouch, a silver spoon, some mosaic gems in different colors (was hoping to get our big "jewels" we ordered but they arrived too late), our pirate gold coins (Hobby Lobby), a pirate figure our neighbors gave Adrian, and a few necklaces from my huge stash of Mardi Gras bead necklaces. Then, armed with the I Spy "map", Adrian started looking for items. It was very easy of course but it gave him a little task other than simply "play" with the bin which he still did by the way...An agreeable surprise indeed!

I Spy "Map" for the Sensory Bin

Matching Eye Patches

What's a pirate to do without an eye patch? Here, a simple matching and memory game with eye patches I printed from Guildcraft Arts & Crafts. I also wanted to do some bandanna folding but I had none on hand. Shame! :(

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Pirate Week for Preschoolers Part 1

Welcome to Sorting Sprinkles' 100th Post...and Pirate Week! I had hoped to hold pirate week later in the school year since it's more of  a "lighter" theme and more of summery/party theme but somehow, it came upon me that the school year was pretty much over (it is mid-May after all) unless like us you live in Germany where children like Adrian attend school until July 31 (Adrian attends a German Montesori-styled preschool 4 mornings a week). Anyhow, pirate week, whenever you choose to have it, is a blast! I am not big into pirates and don't know much about them but it seems like a topic well liked by children and I felt Adrian should know about "common" themes such a this one despite the fact that it's not exactly anchored in reality (at least not in the way it is usually portrayed to children).

 
Art: Handprints & Footprint Parrot Craft

Pirates are often seen with a parrot perched atop their shoulder or perched on top of their pirate ship so I tried to include the beautiful tropical bird into the week.  After seeing this beautiful craft on, I knew I had found what I was looking for. Adrian doesn't mind getting dirty so painting his foot red and stamping it on the paper was no trouble. For the hand painting, considering it was two colors on each hand, I had to help a bit. The next day, when the prints were dry, Adrian glued the goggly eye, the construction paper beak, leaf and branch (he rolled a sliver of paper). The tail of the parrot is an actual "oops" so don't ask me how to replicate it! :) While cleaning, the red paint fell and made a puddle. Adrian was not at all happy about his art having a mess on it so I had to think quickly and told him it looked like the tail of the parrot. He was happy with the possibility and didn't ask for a do-over.

Fine Motor: Retrieving coins at the bottom of the sea

You are welcome to submerge your treasure chest and coins into a bin if you wish. I did not want our Theraputty or chest to get wet so I we just pretended the table was the bottom of the sea where a big chest fell and coins were stuck in the sand. Adrian the Pirate then had to retrieve them using his fingers. If you are not familiar with Theraputty, we've been using it for a few months now in medium strength to strengthen Adrian's fingers and hands. It is similar to silly putty but comes in different strengths. The activity could be done with Play dough or sand of course but the coins would not be stuck at all in this case so a pair of tweezer might be nice to add a little challenge.

Practical Life: Matching and Opening Locks

Looking for an easy set-up activity? This is it! It kept Adrian working for a loooong time! The task, as simple as it seems to grown ups, can be tough for kids. Adrian first had to find the right key for the right lock, insert, turn and get the lock to open. The first time around was the hardest. Finding how to insert the key took a bit of time. These keys are meant to go in only one way. Once he found how to get the key to go in, he had to realize that the key would turn only if it was inserted fully. Some help was required at that point despite the initial demonstration (excitement must have overtaken him during that time). Then, the real fun began. Unsatisfied with his initial speed at opening locks, Adrian set to perfect it the way a pirate would. :)

Math: How Many Coins did the Pirate Find on This Continent?

Adrian loved using the World Puzzle Map last week and has been wanting to do more with it so I brought it out thinking we'd revised the continent names. The scenario? Pirates are going around the world finding treasure chests filled with gold coins. How many did they find in Africa? To play the game, I would first ask Adrian to find a continent and to set it on the table. Then I'd tell him how many coins were found (practicing oral numbers is fun too!) on that continent and he'd set them down below the continent. Once finished, we discussed which continent had the most/least coins in their chest. We also discussed which continent had an even/odd number of coins found. The game was big success.

Fine Motor: Making an Emerald Beaded Bracelet

Who wants to fool a pirate? Wanting to protect his real treasures, Adrian made a pony beads and pipe cleaner bracelet so the pirates wouldn't steal the real emerald bracelets in his chest! It could have been any color honestly but Adrian decided to pick only the green beads that day! :)  He's used to stringing only shoelaces and big beads so I was massively impressed by how well he could thread these small beads onto a fuzzy stick!

Adrian Focusing on the Task

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Dental Health for Preschoolers Part 2

As we concluded our dental health unit, I felt quite happy with what we covered. This was a mere introduction for Adrian who is still, after all, only 4, so we didn't go through the parts of a tooth and things like that but I wanted to make the unit fun so he'd understand why we have teeth, why we need to take care of them and most of all...why dentists are around. After all, this dental health unit was part of our community worker/helper section. More helpers/workers will be covered of course but that may have to be in a different month... :)

Toothpaste Flavor Factory - Color Mixing

After seing this on The Nature of Grace, I was sold. I had to "make my own"...even though Adrian is pretty good at color mixing and knowing what will make what. I considered it a "revision" lesson! :) Using some shaving cream and washable water-based paint, Adrian mixed colors to create "toothpaste flavors" in the "toothpaste factory". It was really fun. Adrian could have gone all day. Naming the flavors was fun too. Adrian's favorite to make was "chocolate" he said because it used lots of colors and because he loves chocolate! :)

Pratical Life / Fine Motor - Brushing Off Plaque

This was actually a lot harder than it looks. I printed some teeth templates, laminated them, cut them up and drew some "plaque" in red with a dry erase marker. Adrian had to remove the plaque with an old toothbrush he had. Applying the right pressure and making sure the plaque was all gone was quite strenuous.

Adrian in Action

Language - Sorting Teeth by Word Family

3Dinosaurs recently came up with a free package (yes, yet another!) about the Tooth Fairy. Now the tooth fairy thing has never been explained to Adrian and hopefully won't have to for a while (if ever...still debating) so I didn't bother getting into the details here. I really only wanted to use this one page from their package where Adrian would have to sort the teeth. We've been working hard at beginning sounds so providing all the letters and then choosing the word family was a huge surprise to him. Usually, he only looked at word families to get to know them so today he proceeded carefully in the matching and and did very well.

Happy Tooth versus Sad Tooth

I saw this activity on so many blogs and websites. I actually got the teeth from Pre-K Fun but decided to use real foods instead of the cut out foods provided with the teeth. I like using manipulatives and well, I thought it'd be nice for Adrian to sort with the foods he actually likes eating. Prior to sorting the foods, we discussed what makes teeth strong and healthy and how some foods stick to the teeth and how food in general can cause cavities, how to prevent them and how moderation is key when it comes to certain foods. Then, off he was sorting lollipops, chocolate, crackers, banana, tomato and yogurt.  He did well but was really hoping crackers would be on the "good side".  Can hardly blame him! :)

Spray painting with a toothbrush

I remember this technique being all the rage when I was in high school. We'd decorate anything from birdhouses to shelves using paint and toothbrushes. I thought I'd introduce Adrian to the technique since we so happened to have his old toothbrush on hand. :) He quickly understood he had to dip in the slightly thinned water-based paint and use his thumb to make a spraying motion towards the paper. Thankfully, it was a nice day out because paint still flies in unwanted areas during the learning process. If you do try this, I highly recommend being outside and wearing old clothes...and using washable paint! :) One last tip, putting less paint on the brush means less splatter on the paper and as such less undesired run offs.  

Final result of the toothbrush Art!

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Dental Health for Preschoolers Part 1

Dental Health Week in May? "Wasn't National Children's Dental Health Month back in February? At least in the the United States?" you may ask. Well, it was but somehow, when I planned this school year, I planned this week to be all about community helpers/workers and somehow, I hadn't thought about how many possibilities there would be for just, say...the dentist. When I sat down to plan the unit a few weeks ago, I realized that one week to talk about ALL community helpers would be impossible. I then decided to pick one and spend a week on that one. The other helpers would have to...sadly wait for another week to come by. Why was the dentist picked first? I don't know. I think it's because when I started planning the unit, I started jotting down ideas for that helper first and that's why I realized I wouldn't be able to cover anyone else. On another note...it might also be because at some point I did think about working in dentistry. :)

Fine Motor: Extracting rotten teeth from Theraputty

Rotten smile anyone? Could barely help it. The idea here was to include Theraputty this week again (a great hand and finger strengthener and always a favorite of Adrian's). I put the two gums together only for the picture. (Theraputty sticks together quickly so for Adrian's sake, the gums were placed separately on the tray.) Adrian was provided with a bowl and a lid for  this task. After the rotten teeth (black beans) were extacted using his fingers, they were to be put in the bowl. Once this first step was completed for both gums, the rotten teeth were replaced by beautiful pearly whites to be found on the lid (Cannellini beans)! 

Adrian extracting teeth carefully

Toothbrushing Cards Sequence

Sequencing is something that's always given Adrian a bit of trouble, even when only 4 pictures were presented. I thought we'd try to sequence something he knows well: toothbrushing. This sequence had many more cards but these were all steps he knew well. He simply had to think it through and carefully. It worked well and he felt quite accomplished this time. These cards were found at Williams Syndrome Family of Hope. They have other sequence cards for routines you may like as well such as hand washing, shoe tying, etc.

Overview of the Toothbrushing Sequence Cards

Practical Life: Brushing Teeth

What's better than putting the toothbrushing sequence in practice? And to my surprise, I did not even get a "But mama, I already brushed my teeth this morning!" Instead, Adrian was actually excited to brush his teeth (not that he ever complains about it honestly). I wonder if it has anything to do with the fact that he brushed them in the powder room instead of the upstairs bathroom?

Practical Life: Flossing practice

After seeing this great floss practice on the Preschool Experiment, I knew I'd want Adrian to try it too. So we did. I just wish we had a red/pink MegaBlok to represent the gums better. :) Well, whatever the color though, the practice was great. The concept still stood and fine motor-wise, it was a nice exercise. Adrian (and the entire family actually) is quite fond of "Plackers" instead of the regular floss string so I had to show Adrian how to twist the floss (wool string) around his fingers to get the food (play dough) out from in between the teeth (Mega blok).

Adrian removing "food debris" with the "floss"

Counting Cavities with a Magnifying Glass

It has been a while since we last used our magnifying glass and I remember how Adrian loved using it so I thought it'd be nice to include it this week seeing how dentists use tools to look for cavities. I drew mine with a marker on cards I already had so they were quite obvious unfortunately but Adrian still liked using the magnifying glass. To add to the challenge, I suggested Adrian write the number of cavities on the tooth once he figured out how many there was. He was quite happy about that part even though he was a bit careless in the writing process.

 

"Hmm. This person did not brush enough", Adrian said.

Writing the number of cavities found on the front of the card;
small control of error number found on the back of the cards

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