DIY Kinetic Sand

Hi! I'm Ayn and I am a Ga. Pre-K teacher, serving 4 and 5 year olds in an inclusive setting. I share my classroom adventures on my blog, little illuminations.

I've recently found a really easy way to make a form of kinetic sand and I thought I would share it with you here. It is a lot of fun to play with and a great sensory experience! Plus, it smells pretty great, too!

This two ingredient sand is so easy to make. Get some clean play sand and add some shaving cream until you find the consistency that works best for you. It keeps for days and when it does start to dry out, just add a little more shaving cream!

The best part is that the kids can experiment to make their own. My kids have really loved having this in the classroom.  Enjoy!

Stop by and visit me anytime at littleilluminations.blogspot.com or visit the little illuminations fanpage on facebook! And be sure to check out PreK+K Sharing EEE!

Hip! Hip! Hooray! Election Day in Pre-K!

Hi! I'm Ayn and I am a Ga. Pre-K teacher, serving 4 and 5 year olds in an inclusive setting. I share my classroom adventures on my blog, little illuminations.

^^^Parts of this post are reprinted from an earlier post on little illuminations.

Tomorrow is ELECTION DAY here in the U.S.! Politicians will be campaigning, citizens will be voting. The children will have the day off, as most of the schools in our area are voting precincts. By Wednesday, we will know who will lead our country for the next four years. I've already voted, and was proud to take my youngest daughter with me to the polls for her very first time! I want my vote to be counted. I won't tell you who I voted for---that's personal, and quirky as it may be, I don't even share that with my husband or children. It's serious business, much too serious for kids. Or is it? While many of the political issues may be WAY over their heads, many will stand at their parents' side as ballots are cast. Children are curious about what is going on. I think voting (and making our individual voices heard and counted) is one of the MOST important things we can do as American citizens, and it is never too early to help the children understand how important voting is.

Lately, we've had a couple of discussions about politics. We talked about the reason we vote, and how that is our chance as a citizen to let our voice be heard. I relate it to the children's jobs at school, and how different people might do a job differently, using simple terms in a way they might understand. We vote on a variety of things in preschool, so they got the basic idea. 

We've set up a voting booth so the children can vote on who they think will win the election. These are pictures from one of our previous election booths in Pre-K.

We converted our puppet theater, using shoe boxes, pictures of the candidates, and index cards with a big sticker for the ballot. 

The children will go into the booth, away from where the other waiting children can see, and "cast their ballot". 

After voting, they'll even receive a sticker to show they have voted!

When all the ballots are cast, we will count and re-count the votes together, which makes for a fantastic little math lesson. 

I can't wait to tally up the children's votes later today and compare them to the actual winner of our Presidential Election. We'll see how accurate their predictions are when the final count is in tomorrow!

There are some great books about the democratic voting process for children. Here are a few of my favorites:

      

                                  

Please get out and VOTE!!!! Your vote counts! 

 Stop by and visit me anytime at littleilluminations.blogspot.com or visit the little illuminations fanpage on facebook! And be sure to check out PreK+K Sharing EEE!

Farm Fun in Pre-K

Hi! I'm Ayn and I am a Ga. Pre-K teacher, serving 4 and 5 year olds in an inclusive setting. I share my classroom adventures on my blog, little illuminations.

We recently learned about farms and farm life in Pre-K. We had a lot of hands on fun and even had some special visitors from the farm!

One of the kids in my class has pet chickens, so his family brought a couple for us to meet. We learned about how they eat, and all about their eggs. 

We talked about cows and made some fresh butter. It is so easy and incredibly delicious! Usually most of the kids hesitate to try it at first, but after they do, they can't get enough!

I added this little sensory bin filled with timothy hay, toy farm animals and a barn made from a tissue box and silo from a paper towel roll. 

I found this rhyme a couple of years ago online and made an anchor chart to practice rhyming and onsets of farm vocabulary.

We also made lists of animals, plants, people, vehicles/equipment and other things found on the farm. As we read about farm life the children offered suggestions of items to add to the lists. I don't have a picture of the final chart, but after we finished most of the lists, we made a cute chart to hang in writing with all of the suggestions. 

In our art center, I made a couple of paper plate farm animals and left some plates and paper bags, feathers and paper shapes as an invitation to create some animals.

We used puppets to retell some of our favorite farm books and songs. Mrs. Wishy Washy by Joy Cowley and Old McDonald were definite favorites!

Here is a few pictures of some changes to our dramatic play area I have done in the past, featured in my post here called "Setting The Scene For Dramatic Play".

I also added these pool noodle horses to our centers for play. I posted them here in the post "Pool Noodle Ponies: DIY Hobby Horses".

My friend Laura Balma Eldredge has a great post called "Down On The Farm In Preschool" with more great ideas for farm fun! Be sure to check it out!

We usually go to the farm when studying this unit but due to some other things going on, we had to postpone our visit until the spring. If you'd like to read more about some of our farm visits, check out these posts:

                "Summer Days At Valley Hill Farm"
               "10 (More) Summer Stay-cations on a Budget"

and more of our classroom farm activities:

                 "Mrs. Ayn's Pre-K Had A Farm! E-I-E-I-O!"



 Stop by and visit me anytime at littleilluminations.blogspot.com or visit the little illuminations fanpage on facebook! And be sure to check out PreK+K Sharing EEE!