Big Energy-Little Learners...Can I do it all?

Each letter has its own craft each week to add to the alphabet wall. For this letter we made a letter S snake.  Materials  Construction paper  Scissors Glue  Plastic snake Googly eyes Before we started we took some time to discover our plastic snakes. Some had stripes, multiple colors, or shapes. This gave some inspiration for the paper snakes.  Each boy chose his colors and we started creating snakes.  They cut out shapes and glued them on as they liked.  They of course glued on googly eyes  as the finishing touch. 

Jello sensory bin  Little Dragon was so excited for this sensory bin when we made it.  He helped every step.  Materials Bowl Jello- we made green Small toy snakes We mixed up the jello according to the package instructions. Added the snakes to the jello while it was still liquid.  Put it in the fridge to set.  A few hours later we took out the jello and we're ready to play.  And very excited. Of course typical Little Dragon doesn't dive right it. He touched it softly with on finger and then his hand and found that it was a solid but had some give...jello.  We don't eat jello so it wasn't something he was familiar with.  He kept pressing on it but not breaking the surface so I gave him a spoon and showed him it could go through.  Using the spoon he got a bit more exploratory and finally put his hand in it enough to "save a snake". He then was determined to save all of the snakes. 

Learning about another country is fun especially when you get to make a costume!  Ancient Egyptians dressed differently then we do here in America and recognizing the difference for was part of our lesson.  The first piece of the costume was the headdress.   Materials paper print outs of the top and sides of the headdress markers stapler scissors Color the headdress in common Egyptian color schemes. Cut out the 3 different pieces Staple them together Put it on!  Egyptian necklace Egyptians like things big and gold.  So of course we had to make something to adorn ourselves with that was big and golden.  Materials cardboard tri color noodles yellow paint glitter paint paint brush glue twine pencil I cut a frozen pizza piece of cardboard in half for the perfect semi circle shape.  Little Dragon and Toothless then mixed the yellow and glitter paint to  make a wonderful gold color. When the paint dried we glued on the

Forgiveness This week we focused on forgiveness so this art journal topic I tried to incorporate that into our journaling.  The art part was layering. Layering different paper on top of each other to make a picture or art. This was open, you could layer colors, 1 color in the same pile, tear it any size you want.  We talked about forgiveness and the meaning of different layers.  You could layer people you need to forgive.  Things that you need to forgive Things that you have done that you need to ask for forgiveness for.  One of the older dragons asked if she could layer people she would like to pray for because she couldn't think of anything regarding forgiveness. It was still journaling.  Again I have found this therapeutic. As a parent there are things I hold onto that I could let go off. Putting them on paper helped. Have me place to put things that I was holding onto or that were bothering me.  For the kids I asked them to talk about forgiven

I had a little difficulty coming up with a letter E Egyptian activity but once I found the Egyptian pack this was a bit easier.  With all the great graphics in the pack we used them to make an Egyptian scene on the letter E.  Before we started making the scene we reviewed the different pictures.  Then I asked Little Dragon to create a picture. Little Dragon wasn't quiet getting it at first so I gave him an example. Then he got the idea and was very excited about creating a scene.  We talked and did a little role play as we created the scene.  Wa-la Egyptian scene on the letter E, another letter done . 

This is a pretty popular game for preschoolers.  We have played it a couple times ourselves and I see it in preschool packs often.  I was pleased to see it in the Egyptian pack for use this week.  This game is a game of chance, but is also mathematics because you graph your results. It can also be considered basic science because we are testing the results of the di roll and documenting our results.  To  make this game more interesting then just rolling and graphing we start our game by picking a character we want to "win" or reach 10 first.  Next we give a color to each character, again just to make it a bit more interesting.   Then the rolling starts.  We rolled and marked until on column reached 10 and we had a winner!    Neither of our characters ended up winning the camel pulled through and beat us to the finish line, but we enjoyed playing and graphing. :) 

This activity went with the story of Joseph.  We have been focusing on forgiveness and sometimes it is hard to teach a concept, there are no pictures or play things of/for forgiveness.  To help this concept we used the alphabet rocks.  For each rock I gave a small scenario.  (I did end up repeating scenarios because I ran out after ten.)  Then the rocks went in their pockets They filled their pockets until no more rocks would fit.   And Spencer's pants were falling down.  When they were weighted down by holding onto so much anger we tried a couple different movements; s itting, standing, kneeling, jumping.  Then we started to forgive by taking out the rocks.  We compared the difference. We talked about how our hearts can get heavy just like the pockets.  To keep ourselves light and happy we need to forgive others. 

I don't think I could have enjoyed this activity more! Cute and catchy made it perfect.  I printed out the poem/song on paper from a website.  One, two, three, four, five I'm waiting 'til y anger dies Six, seven, eight, nine, ten If I'm still mad I'll count again Little Dragon traced his hands on the paper and colored them in.  He wanted to make them pretty for me.  Then we counted and wrote the numbers 1-10 above the fingers.  We practiced the song every day this week.  Little Dragon got quiet good at it.  We haven't had chance to use the forgiving fingers in a real life situation but I am looking forward to the first opportunity. 

This activity went with our Egyptian theme.  This was a paper mâché project and a sensory bin. Because to make paper mâché you need to get messy! I told the boys we would be making mummies at the beginning of the day and they were so excited to get to this activity.  Materials 1/2 cup of water 3/4 cup flour Strips of paper Action figure or Barbie  While I made the paper mâché I asked the dragons to cut the strips of paper out.  For the paper mâché we used two barbies that were on their way to Good Will.  I demonstrated 1 strip for the boys and they went to work.  They coated Wrapped Finished nicely They were very proud of their finished mummies and showed them off to all of our visitors for the next two days.  This activity could also be done with an action figure.  I didn't not have an extra action figure on hand nor the time/money to grab one before the activity.  The boys didn't

Week 6 Letter: E Theme: Egypt Number: 6 Bible Story: Joseph the Dreamer Bible Verse: Each and every perfect gift is from above.  I hid the letter magnet only once this week. I was running out of hiding places moving it and Little Dragon lost a few letters during his hiding turn. ☺️ Start We did a lot of dancing like an Egyptian at the beginning of our days. This was a lot of fun! Of course I do owe a bit to The Bengals for such a great song.  Bible    Day 1- We read Joseph the Dreamer Activity- Jealous     Day 2- We read Sold! Activity- coat of many colors Day 3-  Joseph and His Brothers Activity- Forgiving Fingers Day 4-    Joseph and His Brothers Activity- Weight of  a Grudge Day 5- All three stories Activity-Little Dragon retold the story using the magnetic board.  Motion Put hands together over the head and move head around like an Egyptian.  Circle Time  Circle time is usual