Birthday Traditions in Preschool

We celebrated 3 birthdays during our first weeks of preschool this year, 

so it was perfect to jump right into a birthday theme during our second week of school. 

Over the years, I've tried to develop ways to involve my students in little birthday traditions that can help to make celebrating birthdays in class extra special. 

We painted birthday stars that hang in our classroom. Whenever a student has a birthday, we take their star down and turn it into a necklace that they can wear and take home. 

 This leads to some fun conversations through the year about whose birthday is coming up next, how many stars are left, etc.

Each class also painted a birthday cake that we will pull out on birthdays as part of our celebration. 

In the past I've used different birthday cakes that we also use in dramatic play for birthday celebrations, but I thought it would be fun this year to have the students help make the cakes. I LOVE how bright and colorful they turned are, and I poked holes in the top so we can put in pipe cleaner candles.

Book Love: Explorers of the Wild

I'm a lover of all things mountains, and so this book spoke right to my nature-loving heart. It was also a great book to introduce a word that is so meaningful in my preschool classroom: EXPLORE.

Children are natural explorers, paying attention to the smallest details and learning through their senses as they discover the world. I used this book during the first week of school since we are spending a lot of time exploring the materials in the classroom and figuring out what we can do with them.

Read-Aloud Tip: I included some preschool exploring tools with this read-aloud, such as tweezers and magnifying glasses for the students to hold while we read the story. This was a fun way to introduce these tools, and give them a connection between the story and being explorers in our classroom.

Connecting Activity: I set up a table with some loose parts from nature for the students to explore (in addition to using the word explore all around the classroom as they discover other materials and activities :) )

Using open-ended activities like this one is the norm in my classroom, but I especially love the opportunity it gives me to observe them and their play at the beginning of the year. As a teacher, I'm exploring and making discoveries as well!

First Week of Preschool

We had a great first week of preschool! This first month of school is all about getting to know our classroom, our routines, and each other.

Dinosaurs at School

The first book we read was How Do Dinosaurs Go to School? I always change the words a little bit to make the story more meaningful for my students, and it is a fun read for getting us thinking about what it's like to be at school. We passed around these dinosaurs as we read the book together.

During these first few weeks of school, I try to find ways to introduce and spark interest in the materials we will be using around the classroom throughout the year. 

Here are some of the things we explored this week:

Kinetic Sand

Dot Marker Art

Sand and Water Play

One class created a car wash on the first day of school. 

Blocks

Playdough

Loose Parts

We also explored the letters in our name, and what it means to share and take turns at preschool- something we'll be practicing all year long!

Book Love: I'm a Dirty Dinosaur

I found this book at an Usborne Books & More party, and just loved that the illustrations use real mud. What fun inspiration for early childhood play and creativity! (There's another one called I'm a Hungry Dinosaur that uses frosting- also really fun)

I was excited to use it during our STEAM play session this summer. The rhyming text is engaging, and can inspire some movement to go along with the story as well.

Connecting Activity: It would be so fun to create your own muddy dinosaur art along with this book, but for this class we opted to explore mud and dinosaurs through sensory play. First we thought about how to make mud and filled up one side of our table with dirt and water.

Then we added the dinosaurs and started playing. I had a separate table set up with soapy water so the dinosaurs could get washed after.

Many dinosaurs went back and forth several times between the mud and the water table, and eventually the mud table turned into a muddy bath table as well. :)

Creative Kids Summer Class: Fairy Tales STEAM Play

Our last day of the STEAM play session was based around Fairy Tales. This was another fun theme that could easily be extended to multiple days of learning.

We focused mainly on two fairy tales, although we discussed other fairy tales, pretend stories and magic in general as well.

The Three Little Pigs

While I read the story of the three little pigs, I modeled creating different structures out of straws (I used drinking straws instead of actual straw, haha...), sticks, and Jenga bricks. We also tried blowing them down like the wolf in the story. :) 

Then during centers, the kids were invited to create their own. 

Rapunzel's Tower

Although we didn't read the story, I set out some cube blocks with the invitation to build the highest tower you could before it fell down. 

Paper Crowns

We used Kwix Sticks to decorate some playful crowns.

Fairy Dust Slime

We also added some fairy dust (...glitter) to create some magic slime.

Jack and the Beanstalk

The second story we focused on was Jack and the Beanstalk. We listened to the story outside, and then found some dirt to plant our own magic beans. Then we created a little castle in the clouds in the hope that our beanstalk will grow all the way up to the castle!