Easter for Preschoolers - Part 3

Well I hope everyone who celebrates Easter had a delightful one! We certainly did! The children enjoyed their first Easter egg hunt outside under the marveling eyes of our neighbors (maybe the Germans don't have a egg hunt?) and are now enjoying their chocolate eggs a little bit at a time. And, better late than ever, my last post on Easter activities, enjoyed by my preschooler...

Dyeing Easter Eggs & Trying New Techniques

Believe it or not, this was Adrian's first time of dyeing eggs...and mine too possibly? I remember decorating mine (always blown out, never hard boiled) with markers and stickers and stencils. Well this year, I hard boiled a few eggs for Adrian and the next day, Adrian helped me dye them. He chose the colors and helped all along. He was very excited. He also assisted with the other half of the eggs which were blown out (my traditional way). We decided to try a new technique for the "empty" eggs by "marbleizing" them to look like robin eggs. Adrian loved to help with that part but hated the oil on his fingers! :) Liking the look? Visit Martha Stewart for some information. She'll guide you through the easy process and will show you other techniques we may try next year! ;)

Homemade Basket -Weaving & Stapling

I used to try and made my own Easter baskets as a kid and loved it. I guess I thought I'd pass on that "gene". I figured it would be a nice way to incorporate weaving and an initiation to stapling at the same time. I guess I forgot how difficult it was to actually do. I ended up doing most of the work since the construction paper was "too flimsy". Adrian could not even get the stapler to staple completely without help. I'll have to look into a smaller one or maybe one that just "folds". Those might be easier to handle...

Supplies for the Basket : pre-cut construction paper and stapler

In the making of a big Easter Egg with Wet Chalk

Easter Egg Tape Resist with Wet Chalk

Adrian loves chalk but the cold weather has prevented us from using our jumbo sidewalk chalk for a very long time now. After seeing a post on Mom to 2 Posh Lil Divas, I was completely sold on the idea of using it inside to make an Easter Egg Wet Chalk Tape Resist. Adrian was too as soon as he saw the big egg and chalk. Masking Tape? Even better! Unfortunately, the tape made him so happy he pressed real hard with the first few strips and it made it quite difficult to remove after the chalk dried ()van you tell which ones?) and so strips of cardboard came off with the tape. Next time, I'll be trying painter's tape to see if it makes a difference and will remind him to press ever so gently before we start...

* * *

Enjoying What You're Reading?

Follow Sorting Sprinkles on Facebook or Sign Up to be Notified When New Posts Are Out!

* * *

This week, I'm happily linking up to

Montessori Monday, The Kids Co-Op, Show-and-Share Saturday, Link & Learn, TGIF, Share it Saturday, Mom's Library, The Sunday Showcase,  Tuesday Tots, Preschool Corner &5K, We Made That.

Easter for Preschoolers - Part 2

Yep...Definitely NOT meant to be homeschooling lately. As soon as Adrian finished his anti-viral medication, little Zahavah caught a bug of her own! NO!!! So please bear with me. Posting will be slow and sparse this week and next week as I nurse everyone back to health (and pray no one passes it around) but also because well, no one was feeling up to doing much school-wise. 

 

Cups & Counters - Easter chocolate eggs & Easter "baskets

Using 36 "Dove Dark Chocolate Easter Eggs", Adrian had to distribute the right amount of eggs in the right "basket" (Williams-Sonoma ceramic bunny dish filled with Easter grass). The number cards were made by Jolanthe at Homeschool Creations. Jolanthe makes some of the prettiest printables out there and I often find myself using her number cards! :)

 

Practical life - Pestle & Mortar Eggshell

We honestly haven't used the pestle and mortar in school since Adrian was a tot but knowing I was planning on using broken eggshell for a craft later, I thought I'd let Adrian smash some eggshell with the pestle just for fun. And how fun it was for him. He loved hearing the crushing sound it made and went at it very slowly per my instructions since we wanted the pieces to stay relatively big for the craft. Prior to the pestling, you'll need washed and then dried eggshells. Don't forget to remove the lining attached to the shell while washing.

 

Art & Dexterity : Easter chick

Here's the craft using the eggshells but also corn. I'm kind of liking the 3D art right now if you can't tell! :) For the template, I went with one made by Make and Takes. It's a beautiful, simple, yet realistic chick illustration. I told Adrian we'd fill the eggshell with eggshell and the chick with corn using liquid glue. We used brown eggshells so we would see more contrast on our paper but also because it's pretty much all there is to eat around here when you want fresh farm eggs. Looking back on it, I wish we would have done this chick in stretched cotton balls like the one we did earlier because I thought it looked so beautiful but I really wanted to work with small beans or something similar this week to get some small motor exercises in. 

 

Sensorial: Easter Sound Cylinders

Last time I did sound cylinders with Adrian, he was only 3 and we used glass baby food jars I had painted black. I recall him loving the activity and doing it three times in a row for an entire week. For Easter, I thought I'd present a "special edition" of the Montessori sound cylinders after seeing similar ones on Living Montessori Now. I wish my eggs would have been a bit more color coordinated  (2 colors only) but that'll have to wait until next year I guess. :) For now, Adrian loved shaking the eggs and matching them by sound. I opened the back row to show you what I put inside. Next time, I'll try to put in Easter-themed objects too! ;)

 

Language: Matching Picture and Word of Broken Easter Eggs

Adrian is trying to read so I like encouraging it by doing literacy activities. We're kind of stuck at this time. He can sound the letters very well and has been able to do so for a year and a half now but for some reason, he does not want to "link" them up. We've been working on sounding letters one after the other slowly and then faster and faster so he would hear a word out of it but it doesn't seem to work. Instead, it seems to me as if he were memorizing words...lots of words. I'll be doing research on this soon. Anyhow, I prepared construction paper eggs for this activity (pastel colors for Easter), glued Easter-themed pictures on the bottom half and wrote the three letter words on the top. I then cut the eggs in half and presented the activity the next day (how last minute are we, huh?). Adrian knew some of the words so he matched those right away. His method was very disorganized.  He didn't try to read the words completely...a "p" immediately meant a "pen" to him and not a "paw" as it should have and so on so I had to intervene and slow him down and remind him how to proceed.

Easter Egg Pictures

Words / Pictures used for our Literacy activity were as follow:

Hat

Paw

Pin

Cat

Hen

Mug

Pig

Pen

Rat

Hay

Mat

Prior to starting the matching of the broken eggs, I made sure Adrian knew what the pictures represented so he wouldn't be frustrated. After all, this was an "Easter edition"; the rat did have bunny ears and could have caused confusion! :)

Enjoy and Happy Easter to those of you you celebrate it!

* * *

Enjoying What You're Reading?

Follow Sorting Sprinkles on Facebook or Sign Up to be Notified When New Posts Are Out!

* * *

This week, I'm happily linking up to

Montessori Monday, The Kids Co-Op, Show-and-Share Saturday, Link & Learn, TGIF, Share it Saturday, Mom's Library, The Sunday Showcase,  Tuesday Tots, Preschool Corner &5K, We Made That.

Easter for Preschoolers - Part 1

Ha! Funny how things work sometimes. I usually plan only one week per theme, even for special holidays and occasions such as Easter and Halloween, but this time, I thought I'd plan two since Easter is so special. Well, I guess Someone is trying to tell me I should have stuck to the plan! :) Adrian was sick for quite a few days last week and as such, missed quite a bit of school time. As such, I won't have as much to post this week sadly. On the other hand, the virus is now gone and my "baby boy" is now fully recovered. :)

Language - Easter Egg Phonograms

Word building. Adrian has been wanting to build words for a while now and thanks to a LeapFrog Fridge toy we own, he does get to build some but cannot think of all the possibilities and sometimes asks me for some new words he could build. I figured I'd introduce the moveable alphabet but it still hasn't arrived (our KidAdvance package has gotten lost apparently and a new one has been sent). As such, I thought I'd present this Easter basket filled with eggs presenting a dozen phonograms. I made these based on Jan Brett's beautiful Phonograms posters after seeing similar eggs presented on Kids Matter 1 who had linked up their posted to Living Montessori Now. Adrian was so delighted to to see the eggs. He quickly set to read all the word possibilities and then set to try them in the LeapFrog reader. The excitement in his eyes was worth the work on these little eggs. If he really cherishes them, I'll make them more permanent by writing the combinations with a permanent marker and thus remove the tape. 

Art & Fine Motor: Easter Chick with Pulled Cotton Balls

This craft was one of Adrian's favorite in a while. He is not really artsy at the moment but he really loved doing this craft which I first saw on a blog hosted by the Conseil d'education Montessori. I first printed the chick template, cut it and glued it on yellow construction paper, colored the beak, legs and eye. Then, I told Adrian he'd have to cover the chick in feathers everywhere, except where there was color. He found liquid glue with a cotton ball in a bowl and another bowl filled with cotton balls. I showed him how to stretch the cotton balls to make them look feathery and then he was off to do the stretching and gluing himself. Once that was finished, I brought some corn which he glued for the chick "to eat" and finally, using white washable tempera paint and his index, he made dots all over the paper illustrating snow. Hey, it is still snowing over here...What can I say?

Practical Life : Flipping Easter Eggs

Made out of felt, these pastel-colored eggs made their appearance this week, along with a kid-size spatula (made by Kidkraft, borrowed from Zahavah's kitchen) for a flipping activity. Unfortunately, Adrian did not flip for the activity. He flipped the eggs quickly but well and went on to the next tray...

Fine Motor - Pulling Carrots out of the Garden

Knowing your own finger strength is important. As such, I prepared here, a garden (egg carton) with twelve carrots (orange pipe cleaner pieces folded in half with a green pipe cleaner piece twisted around its top) to pull with fingers only. I guess they could be pulled by tweezers too but I was wanting Adrian to use his thumb and index today and feel how stronger or lightly he had to pull to get the carrots out. (Some holes had been poked bigger than others in the the egg carton). This activity was the biggest sensation this week. It was done, and red-done, and re-done. I mean, I thought it was cool too but I didn't think he'd like it THAT much! :)

Language: Pre-Writing Skills: Copying Lines and Shapes

I've been trying to evaluate Adrian's writing readiness lately. We've been working at strengthening his hands and thought I'd sneak in a fun way to see if he was making any progress. I don't want to rush him into writing letters as it would be counter-productive but I also know he should be able to draw some more shapes at his age. Here, I pre-cut some pastel-colored eggs, provided a pencil (equipped with a Grotto Grip for the first time) and showed him a progression of 10 eggs to copy. I asked him to look at what I had drawn on my eggs (one at a time) and to draw the same thing on his egg to decorate it. The first four were deemed acceptable and after that, it went nowhere. Technically, at his age, he should have been able to "write" pretty all of the eggs I presented him but his fine motor skills have always been rather below the norm. Back to our fine motor exercises and hand strengthening we go! If you wish to know the progression of our eggs to copy, here it is:

1. Horizontal lines

2. Vertical lines

3. Circles

4. Crosses

5. Right-to-left diagonal lines

6. Squares

7. Left-to-right diagonal lines

8. Letter "X"

9. Triangles

10. Diamonds

Decorating Bushes with Easter Eggs

Shortly after we arrived in Germany last year (yes, we have now been living here for just over a year), we noticed people decorated their bushes for Easter! We loved the idea and this year, Adrian and Zahavah came with me to purchase two dozens of plastic egg ornaments at our "euro shop". The very same afternoon, we decorated our bushes. I must admit some of our neighbors' bushes look much better because they have so many more eggs and they have perfectly round trees but I really wanted the kids to participate. Anyhow, isn't the grass always greener on the other side of the fence?

* * *

Enjoying What You're Reading?

Follow Sorting Sprinkles on Facebook or Sign Up to be Notified When New Posts Are Out!

* * *

This week, I'm happily linking up to

Montessori Monday, The Kids Co-Op, Show-and-Share Saturday, Link & Learn, TGIF, Share it Saturday, Mom's Library, The Sunday Showcase,  Tuesday Tots, Preschool Corner &5K, We Made That.