Preschool painting color mixing giant rainbow
     Color, color, color!  The two weeks leading up to St. Patrick's Day were filled with all the colors of the rainbow around here.  We did lots of painting and color mixing (I provided only the primary colors and we discovered what happens when they mix together!) to make a giant rainbow, in hopes that it might bring a leprechaun to hide his gold here!

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And it worked!  :)  We had a mischievous leprechaun stop by and turn our milk green, and he even turned the toilet water green!  He also left us some fun surprises: a "pot of rainbow" and some green glow bracelets!  He left a note, so we learned that his name is Sneaky O'Malley!

Baking Soda and Vinegar with Jello and painting
We had lots of other color fun too, like our baking soda and vinegar play, with red jell-o powder added in.  An idea that came from Footsteps In Growing Daycare that we had a lot of fun with.  When the kids were all done playing with the bubbling reaction, we used the resulting mush to paint with.  It left an interesting textured product that smelled wonderful! :)

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     We also had fun with flubber, and a new-to-us sensory material: Rainbow dough.  We have made cloud dough before -- it consists of flour and baby oil.  Since the only moisture comes from the oil, when we added colors one at a time, they didn't mix together but stayed separate as we played to become rainbow dough!  It is shown here after we had only added green, but Play Counts has some fun pictures of the dough with all colors added.

Preschool rainbows




     We had fun with rainbow strips of paper available in the art area all week,

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...and our new rainbow sensory bottles!   We also learned a couple of new songs that you may have been hearing at home!  If not, ask the kids to sing you the Rainbow song, or the Leprechaun song that they learned!

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We even got to EAT a rainbow with these colorful rainbow fruit kabobs and explore new and fun green foods, like avocado. 

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We worked together to build a tape rainbow and then used it as the base for our rainbow color scavenger hunt!  Some of the kids are really getting good at ripping tape off the rolls....such HARD work for little fingers!  But they are very motivated to learn how, so they work, work, work at it!

     We had so much fun learning and playing with colors!
 
 
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    I saw this fun idea on Pinterest last week (By the way, if any of you would like an invite, just let me know!)  and it worked perfectly into our letter L week this week!  I just thought I'd show it to all of you in case any little ones come home talking about Legos in their soap today...now you'll know what they're talking about!  Watch for more fun letter L activities later this week!
    We also read the "Pete the Cat" book today, that I mentioned last week, so if you'd like to have a copy of the song that I'm sure the kids will all be singing tonight, you can get a free audio download of both of the "Pete the Cat" books from HarperCollins here.  Have a great week!

 
 
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Thanksgiving is so close, and the kids have all been counting down the days!  I thought I would share a couple of the songs we have been singing together:

Turkeys All Around
(Tune: "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star)
Turkeys, turkeys, all around
On the fence, on the ground.
On the haystack, on the chair,
All around, everywhere.
Turkeys, turkeys all around.
Gobble, gobble, what a sound!

Great Big Turkey
(Tune: "I'm a Little Teapot")
I'm a great big turkey
'Cause I'm well fed.
Watch me spread my feathers,
watch me bob my head.

When I strut around
I waddle, waddle, waddle.
And when I talk
I "gobble, gobble, gobble."

I'm a great big turkey
And I'd love to stay.
But Thanksgiving's coming,
So, it's time to run away!


  We all have these wonderful kids to be SO thankful for! :)  I hope you all have a great Thanksgiving holiday!

 
 
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    Here is our first Halloween craft for the year - TP roll mummies!  I absolutely loved this craft because it didn't matter if they were an add one-and-done kind of kid, or a more and more and more kind of kid; a neat and careful, or a scruncher; a quick crafter, or a slow one, they all turned out great!  The differences make them look even cuter all side by side.  We just used tp rolls, strips of white tissue paper, some white yarn if they wanted, and some wiggle eyes.  A fun way to get in the mood for Halloween! 
    We also added a couple more songs into our rotation today.  Here is one of their favorites:
    THE WITCH HAS AN ITCH  (to the tune of Farmer in the Dell)
    The witch has an itch, the witch has an itch.
    Oh where, oh where, oh where does the witch have an itch?
    On her tiny little _________ (fill in with things like toe, nose, knee, etc.), her tiny little _________, 
    The witch has an itch on her tiny little _________.

They also really liked:
    THE GHOST
    I saw a ghost             (circle your fingers around eyes)
    He saw me too          (point to yourself)
    I waved at him           (wave your hand)
    But he said, "Boo!"      (try to scare the person next to you!)