Frog Jump: Measurement and Gross Motor Activity

We have have been having fun learning about frogs and the frog life cycle.  On a recent day I decided to extend the frog learning with a measurement and gross motor activity…Frog Jump!

Frog Jump! A math measurement and gross motor and activity for preschool.

To play I marked a starting line with painter’s tape on the floor and gathered a frog cut out and a measuring tape.

The kids took turns standing at the line and jumping forward as far as they could.  I had my oldest demonstrate how to bend her legs and jump and then we marked the spot where she landed with another piece of tape.

Frog Jump Non Standard Measurement Activity

Then they measured how far she jumped with the frog. 

Using something other than a ruler to measure an object or distance is called non standard measurement.  It’s a great way for young kids to begin to understand the concepts of length, width, and height

Frog Jump Math Measurement Activity

After we determined how many “frogs” she jumped we then measured the distance in inches with the tape measure. 

They took many turns jumping and measuring and got in lots of gross motor and math practice!

Frog Jump Preschool Math Activity

When the floor was covered in tape pieces the kids pretended the pieces were lily pads.  They were quite engaged in their pretend play adventure and had lots of fun!

Looking for simple ways to add movement and learning into your day makes it much easier to accomplish!  Kids can practice non standard measurement almost anywhere with whatever you have on hand, like sugar packets at a restaurant or crayons in a doctor’s office.

More Frog Themed Activities for Preschoolers:

Frog Life Cycle Sensory Bin

Frog Life Cycle Books for Kids

Art Activity for Children: Frog Foot Prints

Caterpillar and Butterfly Finger Play Songs

It’s spring in the northern hemisphere and that means it’s time for caterpillars and butterflies!   My former students and own kids love to sing and act out caterpillar and butterfly themed preschool songs, they are perfect for circle time at school or play time at home.

Caterpillar and Butterfly Songs for Preschool

 

Where Did My Caterpillar Go? Finger Play Song

by Megan Sheakoski

(Sung to the tune of Mary Had a Little Lamb)

Where, oh where, did my caterpillar go?

Caterpillar go, caterpillar go?

Where, of where, did my caterpillar go?

Oh look! It’s a butterfly!

As the students sing the beginning lines of the song they cup their hands around their eyes as if they were looking for something. When they sing the last line of the song they point their fingers up to the sky at the pretend butterfly.

Caterpillar and Butterfly Hand Motion Song

by Megan Sheakoski

(Sung to the tune of Are You Sleeping?)

Caterpillar, caterpillar,

In my hand, in my hand,

Soon you’ll be a butterfly.

Soon you’ll be a butterfly.

And fly away. Fly away.

The kids cup their hands and swing them gently back and forth in front of their bodies while singing about the caterpillar. They hook their thumbs and flutter their fingers like wings during the third and fourth line and then move their butterfly fingers up into the air for the last line.

Caterpillar Life Cycle Song

by Megan Sheakoski

(Sung to the tune of Mary Had a Little Lamb)

A caterpillar has 12 eyes

Has 12 eyes, has 12 eyes,

A caterpillar has 12 eyes

So that he can see!

A caterpillar chews on leaves

Chews on leaves, chews on leaves,

A caterpillar chews on leaves

To get some energy!

Now he rests in a chrysalis

A chrysalis, a chrysalis,

Now he rests in a chrysalis

And becomes a butterfly!

Singing and acting out finger play songs is a great learning activity for kids. Preschoolers and toddlers can practice following directions, using memory skills, and learn about the life cycle of a caterpillar while singing and having fun.

If you are studying about the caterpillars and butterflies you may want to make our 12 eyed caterpillar puppet to go with the life cycle song!

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Edventures with Kids

How to Make Slime and Valentines

My son really wanted to make his own valentines this year and after a couple different ideas settled on passing out slime!  Making slime is really fun, super easy, and (surprisingly) not messy.
How to Make Slime with glue and Borax

How to Make Slime:

  1. Pour 8oz of Elmer’s glue into a glass bowl.
  2. Add in 8oz of warm water. (You can just fill up the empty glue bottle to save on dishes!)
  3. Add whatever color food coloring you choose.
  4. Stir the mixture.
  5. Put 1 teaspoon of Borax (a laundry product) into a small cup.
  6. Fill the cup up most of the way with water.  I just eyeball it.  I’m guessing 2/3 of a cup of water.
  7. Slowly add the Borax water to the glue bowl.  Keep stirring.
  8. Knead the slime until it’s absorbed the water.

As you begin to add the Borax solution the glue starts to become rubbery and super cool.  The two products actually react together and become polymers so making slime also doubles as a science demonstration!

Slime Valentines for Kids

Once we were done making (and playing with) the slime we divided it up into snack sized bags.  One batch of the recipe above made enough for 12 bags.  I typed up Happy Valen-slime’s Day! bag toppers and stapled them to the top of the bags.  You can print out the free printable Valenslime bag toppers by clicking on the link below.

Valenslime Free Printable Valentines

Slime is such a great sensory experience for kids–definitely something worth trying!  Especially since there are so many learning activities involved.  While preschoolers may not remember the term polymer they are exploring their world and building the vital background knowledge that will help them succeed in school.  Plus, it really is just plain cool to play with!

Pumpkin Themed Play Date and a Blog Hop

We invited some friends over on Saturday for a pumpkin play date!  It was a great way to celebrate the first day of fall and definitely got us in the mood for fall.  The best part? It was fun for the kids and super easy to put together!

Pumpkin Books:

We started the play date with a pumpkin story, the book Apples and Pumpkins by Anne Rockwell.  The story follows a little girl and her family as they enjoy many fun fall activities.  This is one of my favorite pumpkin stories for both the simplicity of the plot and the charming illustrations.  It’s a great way to introduce fall activities.

Other great pumpkin books include:

  • Ready for Pumpkins by Kate Duke
  • Patty’s Pumpkin Patch by Teri Sloat
  • How Many Seeds in a Pumpkin? by Margaret McNamara
  • From Seed to Pumpkin by Wendy Pfeffer
  • The Legend of Spookley the Square Pumpkin by Joe Troiana

Pumpkin Cooking:

After a story we went into the kitchen to make pumpkin butter!  We modified a recipe from Very Best Baking, in place of the cloves we used 1/4 teaspoon of nutmeg and were upped the cinnamon to 1/2 teaspoon.  Each of the kids picked a measuring cup and added the ingredient that corresponded with that amount.  This was a good opportunity to talk about fractions and baking measurements.  Then the other mom cooked the delicious-smelling pumpkin butter while we continued to play.

Pumpkin Science:

Next we were pumpkin scientists.  I gave each kid a mini pumpkin and asked them to make some observations.  Once we were familiar with our pumpkins we moved on to pumpkin hypotheses.  The kids took turns prediciting whether or not their pumpkins would sink or float and if it was going to be heavier or lighter than another object.  They did a great job and we were interested to see that while all of our little pumpkins floated some were more submerged than others.  We observed that the rounder pumpkins sank a little more into the water than the flatter ones.

Pumpkin Craft:

After experimenting we dried off our pumpkins and made pumpkin people!  They used markers, yarn, and googly eyes to create their own little pumpkin person to take home with them.  The younger two really liked to use the googly eyes and ended up with many eyed pumpkin people.

Pumpkin Vocabulary:

While our glue was drying we sat back down to talk a little more about pumpkins and fall.  The kids brainstormed autumn themed words and I wrote them on pumpkin cut-outs and discussed why they were fall words.  Then my husband hid them around our yard and the kids found and read/were read the words.  They had lots of fun and keep wanting to play over and over again.

Before everyone went home we tried our pumpkin butter on some graham crackers and it was a success! Yummy pumpkin butter and fun pumpkin activities–we are ready for fall!

This is a Play Date blog hop! 

With these fun hosts:

Go Kid Yourself

All Done Monkey

Learn With Play and Home

Coffee Cups and Crayons (me)

Caution! Twins at Play

Critters and Crayons

Link up your fun play date themed blog posts and hop around from post to post for lots of play date inspiration!

Sand and Cornstarch Dinosaur Fossils

 I hosted an at-home summer camp day full of dino fun last month!  We started the day by being palenotologists at a fossil dig and it was a super cool experience.

Two nights before dino camp I made a batch of sand and cornstarch fossils.  I hadn’t made these in years so I kinda winged it and luckily it turned out fine.

How to Make Sand and Cornstarch Fossils:

  1. Mix 1 cup of sand, 1/2 cup of cornstarch, and 1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar in a small pot.
  2. Then add 1/2 cup of water and place on the stove over med-low heat.
  3. Stir as you would play dough.  (My husband was very worried about the sand in our non-stick saucepan, but we didn’t have an issue at all.  Proceed at your own risk and if you have really fancy pots and pans buy one at the Dollar Store or Goodwill.)
  4. Once a dough has formed place it on a wooden cutting board and let it cool a bit.

Once the fossil dough is cool break it into small chunks and hide your bones inside.  We used plastic dinosaur skulls I got at Michael’s craft store.

Then let dry at least 36 hours until the fossil is no longer moist.

Then place in a large container and cover with sand and voila–you’re ready for a dino dig!

 I was lucky enough to get to participate in an actual archeological dig when I was younger and explained how slow and carefully the scientists work so that they do not harm any of the bones or artifacts.  The kids did an awesome job using the toothbrush to gently brush away the sand to find their fossils.

They gently cracked open the fossils and then used the other paleontology tools–paintbrush, toothbrush, etc.–to uncover the skulls.

 And then repeat the process with another fossil!

When they were done they used the guide that came with the dinosaur skulls to identify which dinosaur they had discovered.  Can you say tons of fun? I certainly had a great time and know the kids did too.

For more dinosaur fun check out:

 

 

 

 

Linking up to these fabulous blogs!

 

 

Fizzy Dinosaur Egg Fossils

This summer we had lots of fun doing summer camp at home with a neighbor family.  The other mom and I took turns hosting all of the kids for a day of activity themed fun and we all had a blast!  I planned camping themed activities for the first camp day at my house and decided dinosaurs would be perfect for the second.

One of the coolest things we did was dissolve dinosaur egg fossils.  We started by reading the book Dinosaur Eggs by Susan H. Gray.  The book explains how dinosaur egg fossils were formed and how scientists get to what is inside the eggs.  We learned that scientists can use acid to dissolve the fossilized egg to uncover the baby dinosaur bones inside.

(If you click on the cover it will take you to an Amazon link, but the book is not for sale.  Check your library for a copy, that’s were we found the one we used!)

The night before camp I made dinosaur egg fossils using a method I found at BellaOnline.  I followed her general directions, tweaking it a little bit to make 6 dino eggs.

Here’s what I used:

2 cups of powdered lemonade mix

4 cups of baking soda

bottle of face astringent

spray bottle

miniature dinosaurs

Mix together 1 cup of lemonade mix and 2 cups of baking soda.  Then lightly spray the mixture with the astringent.  Don’t get it too wet or it will start to dissolve now, just wet it enough so that you can pack it together.

Then grab a handful and place it in the bottom of a small bowl and place a dino on top.  Add more mixture on top and shape into an egg.  This amount will make about 3 eggs.  Once it’s done start over with the remaining ingredients.

During camp we read Dinosaur Eggs and then went into the kitchen to reenact the process.  Everyone added a small cup of “acid” (warm water) to their egg and observed what happened.

The egg fossils slowly dissolved until the baby dinosaur was revealed!

This activity was a fantastic way for the kids to learn about fossils.  I’ll share more of the activities we did next week so stay tuned for more dino fun!

For more dino fun be sure to check out:

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No Time For Flash Cards

Caterpillar Puppet and Song

We have been caterpillar and butterfly obsessed around here!  We ordered caterpillars from Insect Lore and have loved watching the the caterpillar life cycle in action.  We have lots of caterpillar books, but the favorite this year is A Caterpillar Grows Up by Melvin and Gilda Berger.

They love the photos and one of their favorite facts is that caterpillars have 12 eyes.  So when we were making our caterpillar puppet the first thing we added were the eyes.  We couldn’t find any googly eyes so decided to use 12 buttons instead.

Then the kids practiced their cutting skills and made some leaves for the caterpillar to eat and we used our props to act out the A Caterpillar Life Cycle song I wrote for a science lesson a couple years ago.

Instead of using our hands for the finger play we used the puppet to show how a caterpillar has 12 eyes, chomps on leaves, makes a chrysalis (turn the sock puppet inside out), and then turns into a butterfly.  A cute and simple way to have fun over and over again!

For the words and hand motions to this and other caterpillar and butterfly songs check out:

Caterpillar and Butterfly Themed Finger Play Songs

Upcycled Soda Bottle Planter

Earth Day is coming up and everyone is looking for cute planet-friendly crafts to do, so I just had to share this super cute planter my 6 year old made for school!

It’s Earth Week at her school and each grade had a different upcycled project to make.  The kindergarteners had to make planters and she decided to make a “girl planter”  — of course.  She liked the idea of a see-though planter so I cut the top off of a soda bottle for her to work with.  She added bottle top eyes, toilet paper roll strip ears, and even pipe cleaner earrings!  She really wanted to be able to put a bow in the plant hair so we planted a wheat grass plant.  After it was in she gave it a “hair cut” and then we tied a bow around it.

I see a little family of people planters in our future!

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kids crafts
Lasso the Moon

Lots of fun with Peeps!

We had lots of fun last weekend doing the Mom to 2 Posh Lil Divas Peep Experiments!  We tortured experimented with our peeps by microwaving them, freezing them, and dissolving them in water, club soda, and vinegar.  And, in case you were wondering, after a couple days in vinegar all that was left of our Peep was its eyes!

If you want to have a little Peep fun this weekend check out all of her Peep posts:

The Dissolving Peeps Experiment

The Baking Soda and Vinegar Peep Experiment

The Microwaved Peep Experiment

Toy Chick Hatching Observation Journals

We saw toy eggs that hatch into chicks (in water) at the store and could not resist buying a couple.  We placed them in their own jar of water and then waited to see what would happen.  At first they just floated, but by the next morning both shells had cracks in them.  The kids were super excited and we decided to record all the action in observation journals.

The eggs cracked all the way open and we were excited to see a chick and a duck emerge from inside!  Once out of the shell the toys continued to expand until they reached full size.  The kids recorded everything that happened in their journals.  The 3 year old drew his observations and the 6 year old wrote and drew what she saw.

For $2 we ended up with a fun little science activity, two homemade egg hatching books, and two new toy friends!  They have had lots of fun rereading and acting out their observations.  We will definitely be checking the dollar section again for more “science projects”!

What fun items have you found for a dollar?