I Caught A Rainbow Art Project

With St. Patrick's Day around the corner we've been having fun with some rainbow themed projects.

This one is not only super fun but also ties in art, open ended dictation, and serves as a great story extension activity.


We started by reading the story A Rainbow Of My Own by Don Freeman

Afterwards we talked about the story and I asked the girls if they wanted to catch a rainbow. Of course they both said yes and I told them I would show them how they could catch a rainbow of their very own.

Ahead of time I chose 5 different paint colors of the rainbow and squeezed each color onto paper. I used a small paint brush to paint a color on each girls hand and then they made a print.

They were delighted to see their handprint with colors of the rainbow on the paper. I said "You caught I rainbow, now that are you going to do with it?" This was the open ended question I chose to ask but you obviously can ask anything you want another idea is to say "How did you catch the rainbow?" Really any open ended question that will encourage creativity will do.

Once they answered the question I wrote their words down exactly as they said it and then I read it back to them. This is where the dictation part comes into play. It's so important for children to see their words being written down. It now only demonstrates that print has meaning but also is a great way to encourage self esteem- your words are important, what you say is important, I'm going to write them down.

For added fun I tied in sensory play with soap and water waiting in a bin when we were done to wash hands and play! 

The girls had a blast with this one!

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Everyday is Earth Day

This is a series I will be doing to feature ways you can celebrate our Earth with young children.

We started simple with a nature walk in our own backyard. I am lucky we have a fairly "naturey" (I know that's not a real word but humor me please!) yard but you can easily do this activity at a local park, gardens, forest preserve etc. Before the walk we talked about all the parts of our earth that we can find in our backyard.

We walked around the yard exploring and my 3 year old collected the nature items she discovered.





I explained we were going to make her very own nature book using the items she collected.



These little books are great for so many projects. I purchased them in a bundle at Discount School Supply

Using popsicle sticks she glued on each item to a page and then we labeled it. (A great way to include text with meaning.)





And Voila! We have our nature book!

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Get the most out of reading aloud!

I firmly believe that the single most important thing you can do to help your child became a reader is to read to them daily.

While teaching Pre-K for many years I learned a thing or two about getting the most out of reading aloud to children and I thought I would share those ideas and concepts that will no doubt set the foundation for important literacy skills.

Before Reading The Story:

• Introduce the book- read the title

• Read the author and illustrator- Explain that the author is the person who wrote the words and the illustrator is the person who drew the pictures.  This teaches them that books have different parts. Someone created those pictures and wrote those words therefore words and pictures have meaning. 

• Make predictions! Preschool age children LOVE this! What do you think the story is about? By doing this you are encouraging them to think about the content of the story and to predict by looking at the illustrations, tying back to pictures have meaning.

During The Story:

• Point out unfamiliar words. i.e frustrated- What do you think that means? You can even make a vocabulary journals of new words and add those words to the journal. 

• Allow time to look and talk about the pictures. An early pre-reading skill is telling the story through pictures, so encourage this!!  Pictures are just as important as text. 

• Talk about the characters and events in the story. Ask open-ended questions (questions that will provoke thought not just yes or no questions). i.e. How do you think that made him feel? 

• When possible connect story events to their lives. Remember when we went on a train? 

After The Story: 

• Recall- Go back to those predictions in the beginning and ask about the events.  i.e. What happened to the alligator? Why was there paint all over? 

• Occasionally have your child retell the story to you in their own words. This is an excellent way to improve comprehension!!  

Most of all Have fun together!!  Snuggle!  Get cozy!  Enjoy these intimate moments of sharing a good book!!    

Pudding Fingerpainting

This is one is super easy and super fun and delicious for the kids!

Materials-  any brand of pudding, wax paper, trays

After I made the pudding I placed it on trays (these trays were purchased at Michaels but you can use any tray or cookie sheet)  topped with wax paper.

This is a great way to have fun with making letters and shapes.

I demonstrated how to make letters with the M and A- Mallory made the O.

Jillian who is only 18 months was mimicking Mallory trying to make an O!

The best part was licking your fingers!