Preschool at Home: Dr.Martin Luther King Jr.

We are half way thru with January. Can't believe it. Savannah and I have been working really hard on sight words and reading. We live in walking distance to the library and we go there often to check out books or rent Wii games.

For this particular trip I wanted to focus on finding books that talked about Dr.Martin Luther King, Jr. Our library had a few books to choose from and we chose the three below. I have enjoyed reading these to her and introducing to her some of the facts about our nation's history.


Since we had been reading so much about MLK's vision I thought it would be fun to help Savannah make a vision board, but on a smaller Pre-K level. I started by getting some of her painting paper and my letter stencils.


Then I just asked her what her dreams were. I wrote them down in the color of her choice. As you can see, this activity had very little to do with her learning to write or cut. This activity was all about teaching her to recognize her dreams.


I thought she came up with some pretty good dreams for a three year old. I asked her simple questions like, "If you could learn anything what would it be? and " What do you want to be when you grow up?". I think it will be fun to do this with her every year at this same time and save them. When BabyM is old enough he'll do it too.

I plan to stencil her name at the bottom between the stars. I wanted to get this post up before it got too late. So. What do you think? How will you observe MLK Day with your little one? I know someone is out there thinking that this maybe too much for a three year old. So. I'll share something with you that I told a friend earlier today…

Preschool at Home: Paper Plate Snowman

Here we are with a new craft idea. Today I thought it would be fun to make a snowman. We never have paper plates in our house. Since we have a few leftover from Thanksgiving I decided to use them for a craft with Savannah.

For this snowman you will need three paper plates, tape and whatever you'd like to use to decorate your snowman. We used eyes, puff balls, pipe cleaners and construction paper (for the hat). This was super easy and fun.

To start cut out your two smaller circles. I used a cup to trace the smallest circle. Then use the tape to build your snowman. We used tape because it was less messy and there's no drying time.


Remember to keep your left over paper plate pieces. You'll need them if you decide to do a scarf or use them for arms like we did.


At first we were going to use pipe cleaners for the arms but I'm really glad we went with the paper plate pieces.


And here is our finished project. I used a sharpie to dot on his mouth and we added the pipe cleaner (that was originally for the arms) to his scarf for a little extra flair.

What do you think about Savannah's snowman? Will you be trying this? If you like the crafts you see here please feel free to pin and share them!

Preschool at Home: Christmas Crafts

It has been really hard staying on our learning schedule with family in town. We have always used workbooks but I have a new appreciation for them now. When I don't have time or the opportunity to do full blown lessons with her it's great to whip out one of these workbooks. We can do a couple pages in a few minutes. I like that because it keeps us from totally abandoning our learning efforts while we have so much going on at home.

We normally always do some type of learning lesson before we start our craft. Today we did the workbook before moving on to some fun Christmas crafts.

I found a pin on Pinterest that used popsicle sticks to make ornaments. I found these colorful sticks at the Dollar Tree and we used super glue to make them hold their shape. She decorated them with glitter after they dried.

I also thought it would be fun to make a Rudolph face. For this quick and easy craft we used a paper plate, eyes, puffy ball (for nose) and pipe cleaners. I also used a hole punch to make the holes for the "antlers" but you don't have to. The pipe cleaners should poke right thru the plate. Savannah curved the cleaner in a U shape before I poked it thru the plate. Rudolph's smile came out pretty nice. 

Once we were done I felt like our face didn't look like a reindeer. I grabbed a brown marker and filled his face in. It made him look so much better. I would recommend wrapping your plate with a paper bag or painting your entire plate brown if you decide to do this. Hindsight being 20/20 I guess I could have cut off the white edge. Maybe next time (LOL)...

What kind of crafts have you been doing with your little ones to get into the holiday spirit?

Preschool at Home: A Blooper (Kind Of)

This isn't a real Preschool at Home post. It's more of a blooper. I'm sharing what happens when a craft goes all the way left. I had good intentions for today's turkey craft. It was going to be a cute handprint turkey with pipe cleaner feathers and goggly eyes. 

But like I've said here many times crafts are not where I excel. So today's turkey turned into what I will call a Fall Face. 

I'm still not sure how all of that turned into this but I do know that Savannah had a great time making her Fall Face turkey, LOL!

When I noticed that the pipe cleaners weren't going to stay I switched it up and went for the adhesive foam leaves that we had. She was able to stick those on herself. When I noticed that this craft no longer looked like a turkey (Did it ever though?) I told Sav to just make a face with the eyes. 

I shared this blooper because I feel like it's unfair for me to only post the super cute stuff that turns out perfect. Not to mention anytime I can make fun of myself I go for it! Hopefully this inspires some of the not so crafty Moms like me. Sometimes you'll get the perfect turkey and sometimes you'll get whatever this is but you'll always get the memory of doing something fun.

What do y'all think of this Fall Face turkey? Will you be making it? (LOL!!!)