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

When we were studying our senses I had wanted to spend 1 day on each sense.  I had a bit of a hard time coming up with fun nose activities aside from blindfolding and smelling. I wanted The Dragons to see how noses are different so we did profile art.  We taped a piece of paper to the wall where there was plenty of sun then The Dragons stood in the sun to cast a shadow on the paper.  I traced the shadow.  Doll Dragon Little Dragon After their profiles were traced and they saw their faces they were stoked!  It was really neat for them to see their own face on paper.  I left decorating completely up to The Dragons.  I gave a couple pointers such as only needing 1 eye but I didn't press it.  Although I did give them some Mary Kay sample lip liner to use for some outlining.  They turned out amazing!  The Dragons were both very proud of their masterpieces. :)

Bible The second half of the week we read of Jesus healing a blind man with mud and then the blind man washes his face in the pond. Bible Verse:   "I was blind and now I can see" -John 9:25 We did a craft that correlates to this story (below). 5 Senses We continued to work on 1 sense at a time.  Even though our focus was one 1 specific sense we would talk about the other senses used at the end of the activity. We had some Visitor Dragons this week so we sat around the table and drew each others senses.  I liked how these turned out so differently.  I thought they would all be portraits but some of the kids separated the senses, not making a face at all. Wednesday we focused on taste The best activity for taste is a buffet!  So many different tastes and textures.  We went to one of our favorite Chinese buffets to work on our sense of taste. Thursday we focused on touch I put together a touch sensory bin.  I put items inside that would i...

We have been learning about our 5 senses here at BigEnergyLittleLearners.  One of the senses we have focused on is smell.  To enhance the preschoolers understanding of smell we did some science using our noses. We tested our sense of smell. I filled cups with things that the kids had smelt before then covered them with napkins with small holes, so they were not able to see what was inside.  Then they had to smell each cup and guess what was inside. Inside the cups was a small amount of each of the below food items chocolate chips popcorn coconut cinnamon vinegar peanut butter coffee I numbered the cups so I could keep track of what each child guessed.  We let each child smell their own cups so there would be no copying what the previous person said.  So each child had something different at all times. We waited until all the cups were smelled before revealing what was inside.  Cup by cup I told the kids what they had guessed...

This week we read a couple stories about Jesus healing the blind.  This brought some new words to our preschool classroom and a new concept. What is blind?  I asked The Dragons this question.  Doll Dragon answered it means you can't see. Little Dragon did not understand what this meant.  What do you mean can't see?  Don't they have eyes? I explained it was like they were in the dark all the time.  They can't see light.  This helped him understand a little. What is vision?  Neither Dragon knew what vision was.  It is not a word we use regularly but is simple to define. Bible We read the story of Jesus healing the blind man in the streets.  Then talked about the above terms. The next day while reading the story I gave the kids each a pair of googly eyes and some play dough.  They used the play dough to cover the eyes.  When Jesus told the blind man that he could now see the kids removed the play dough from the eyes. ...