Animal Cracker Math, Handprint Zoo Animal Art & Counting Books, Oh My!

Our Zoo Theme was full of hands-on learning fun.

There are so many things I wanted to share with you.

Unfortunately, I did not capture all of our fun on film :(

Today, I will share a few fun activities that I managed to capture!

 Handprint Zoo Animal Fun:

I just can't resist a cute handprint craft opportunity!

What You Need:
yellow, brown, black & white paint
thin paint brushes
construction paper
permanent markers

What We Did:

To Make a Handprint Giraffe:

1. Paint entire hand with yellow paint & press firmly to paper

2. Using pinky dipped in brown paint add spots & hooves

3. Add tail, hair & face (we used permanent marker for face)

The Lil Divas Handprint Giraffes:

5 yr. old                           4 yr. old



To Make a Handprint Zebra:

1. paint hand white

2. press firmly onto paper

 

3. using pinky draw tail & add dot of block (hair)

4. using thin paintbrush use black paint to add stripes as desired

4. add some hair and facial features (we used black permanent marker for face)

& behold your adorable handprint zebra!

The Lil Divas Handprint Zebras

5 yr. old                               4 yr. old

A fun activity, cute craft & fabulous keepsake!

At the Zoo - An Easy Reader Conuting Book:

This was a homemade easy reader activity for my soon to be Kindergartener.
The Littlest Diva did it too & she did really well.

I kept it simple going from #1-5 and used a repetitive phrase with sight words and words that she should know. It was fun for her to make her own book and then read it to all of us!

What You Need:

3 sheets of white paper

zoo animal stickers

pencil

What We Did:

I typed out a general template for the book with a title page and then a page for 1-5 zoo animals that said "I can see (fill in number) (fill in animal) at the zoo. I had the numbers pre-done. The Lil Divas choose 5 animals to use in their book and put on the correct number of stickers for each page. I then helped them spell the animal word and they added it to each page accordingly.

Once we were all done with our books -

the Oldest Diva got to read hers to us!

The Littlest Diva needed help but she read quite a bit of it on her own too!

I am so proud of their developing reading!

Here is a full peek at what our books look like:

 Simple, straight forward and a wonderful math, writing & reading activity!

Animal Cracker Math:

We LOVE working with food! The Lil Divas get such a kick out of it.

Animal crackers are a fun manipulative so I decided to do let the Lil Divas do some basic addition with them.

What You Need:

Animal Crackers

dice

dry erase board

dry erase markers

What We Did:

1. I gave each Lil Diva a large foam dice.

2. They rolled the dice and wrote the number on their dry erase board. 

Then they put down the corresponding number of animal crackers.

3. They rolled a 2nd time and added the new number to their dry erase board forming an addition problem by putting the + sign between the numbers. Then they added the corresponding amount of crackers for the 2nd roll and added/counted them all up to determine their total!

4. They wrote down their answer (making sure to include a = sign)

and I checked it before they moved on to a new problem!

They really enjoyed practicing addition with animal crackers &

after we were all done - they got to have a yummy snack! :)

Handwriting Practice - Letter Z

In a previous post I shared that we formed the letter Z with foam and drew it on a ziploc baggie full of paint.

I noticed that the Littlest Diva was having trouble with slant/diagonal lines which you need to be able to do to properly form a letter Z. I found a great printable that her practice slant lines here.

Once she was able to make the slant lines on her own -

we worked on writing the Letter Z.

She is now able to write the Letter Z wonderfully & she makes great slant lines! Can I get a YAY!, for the Littlest Diva! She takes her handwriting so seriously - always competing with Big Sis.

Practicing Measurement & Basic Ruler Skills

Finally, I wanted to share this fun little book I found with you:

This is a thick board book that comes with a ruler attached (stores in a clear plastic pocket attached to the cover.
Each page of the book has something to measure (it tells you what to do in the text).

The Lil Divas LOVED measuring the animals & items in the book!


This was a really cute book that went great with our zoo theme
& provided some extra ruler practice.

Some Other Zoo Books We Read:

I hope you enjoyed what we shared of our Zoo Themed Fun!
Bern

ABC Fun Z is for Zebra: Marble Painting w/the Letter Z

We have had lots of fun with our Zoo Theme this past week. 

We read many fabulous stories, enjoyed lots of great crafts & activities that we will be sharing with you and even took a trip to the zoo! so much FUN!

Today we are sharing our ABC Letter Z craft with you.

This is going to be part of the ABC Book that I am creating with my 4yr. old.

It turned out so cute that even my soon-to-be Kindergartener wanted in on the fun.

Z is for Zebra

Isn't our Zebra Z cute?

Ready to make your own?

Here's What You Need:

white cardstock

blue construction paper

black foam

wiggly eye

black & red permanent marker

glue

Here's What We Did:

1. Using the white card stock I made a large Z template

2. I taped it onto a large tray and added a few drops of black paint and marbles (the Lil Diva used 4 to match her age!)

3. Then the Lil Diva had fun rolling the marbles to create stripes on the Z. After they were satisfied with their stripes we let the Z's dry.

Here's what they looked like after rolling. 

 

 To Turn the Z into a Zebra:

sorry about the lack of photos for this part - dead camera battery :(

4. I cut a mane out of black foam. The Lil Diva glued it under the Z and then cut strips to make it look like hair.

5. I cut out a tail & she cut it into strips to look like hair as well and we attached it to the lower part of the Z.

6. Add wiggly eye and draw smile & nostril (make side profile of face)

7. I had the Lil Diva copy Z is for Zebra onto the paper.

 

Didn't she do a great job? :)

We also practiced making the letter Z using our foam puzzles

and writing in a plastic baggie filled with black paint -

the Lil Divas LOVED writing this way.

Books:

Bern

Frozen Paint Art - COOL Fun on a HOT Day!

I can hardly believe that our summer is coming to an end! :(

My big girl starts Kindergarten in 2 WEEKS! Yikes!

Although school may be starting - summer is as HOT as ever!

We had so much fun exploring our water & ice themed week -

the Lil Divas were sad to see it end!

I had promised them we would try our Frozen Paint Art again

since the last time we ended up with melted paint trying to transport it in this heat!

This time the paint went straight from the freezer to paper &

it was a HUGE SUCCESS!

I just had to share because the Lil Divas had so much fun &

created so many masterpieces!!!

Aren't they great? :)

It was so easy too -

Here's What We Did:

I poured tempra paint into an ice cube tray. The Lil Divas opted for rainbow colors. I did not dilute with water as we wanted bright and bold colors for our paintings. I put the paint in the freezer for about 20 mins and let it begin to harden. Then I added the popsicele sticks (so they would remin firmly upright) and let the paint freeze overnight. The next day we had our frozen paint & were ready for some fun!

The Lil Divas painted on white contact paper (it's nice and sturdy!)

The frozen paint lasted a nice long time since we were working indorrs.

They had the opportunity to create many, many works of art :)

While my Oldest Diva was busy creating

picture after picture of hearts, flowers, trees, etc....

My Littlest Diva could not resist getting in some fingerpainting.

She loved the cold paint on her hands best. :)

This really is a fun & easy project that is suited to many age levels.

I know we will be visiting this again sometime soon.

Just look at all the great Frozen Paint Masterpieces the Lil Divas created!



As a special treat after all their hard work we decided to make some
Frozen Fruit Pops. I blended some mixed berries & yogurt and froze it in small dixie cups w/popsicle sticks. YUM! These were a hit & we have made several batches since.





Happy Frozen Painting!

Bern

Preschool Learning: Tactile Alphabet Ideas - Touch & Feel the ABC's

I have been working on some preschool related posts that I am excited to share with you. Learning ABC's is a huge part of the preschool experience. It is also a fundamental foundation of later learning experiences (i.e. reading & writing).

Gone are the days of just drilling a child with flashcards and having them memorize letters. That was how my parents taught me.  It was boring & for me traumatic because it led to such frustration for both them and me when I didn't respond (memorize) as quickly as they would have liked. Thankfully, today we know there is a better way to learn! Children learn best when they are fully  immersed in the process.

For a full letter learning experience it would be ideal to let the child:

1. Hear the letter - share the sound, use easy repeateable songs as much as possible

2. Feel the letter - that's what I am going to share with you here (see below for ideas/details)

3. Taste the letter - try to incorporate a fun letter related snack (more on this coming up in another post!)

4. See the letter - expose the child to the letters in books, make a poster board, make an ABC book, etc

5. Write the letter - this is another fun post I have in the works! So many great ideas to make letter writing a fun and memorable hands-on experience (more on this later!)

I thought it would be fun to share with you an easy & handy list for tactile ABC ideas that you could use with your tots and preschoolers to give letter recognition a more hands-on and tactile experience.

**Activity - Touch & Feel ABC Book **
Get a large binder and create your own Touch & Feel ABC Book that your child can read, feel & touch over & over again!

It is my hope to add-in links as we continue to cover the letters throughout the coming year but for now I wanted to share with you my master "idea" list and a few links/photos of some of the things we used to form letters this past year!



Mom to 2 Posh Lil Diva's Tactile ABC Ideas
A - apple prints, aluminum foil, alphabet pasta, apple stickers or stamps, animal stickers or foam shapes
B - beans, beads, bubble wrap, buttons, foam bear stickers
C - cotton balls, corn kernels, cinnamon (ground), coffee (ground), car stickers, construction paper (torn)
D - dirt, dots (stickers or do-a-dot markers), daisy petals, foam dinosaur shapes
E - egg shells, foam egg shapes, envelope strips, eyes (wiggly), earth stickers
F - feathers, foam, puffy fingerpaint, flower petals, froot loops, flower stickers or stamps
G - glitter, grass, glue (dried out glue is raised), gems, ginger (ground)
H - hay, hair (doll hair available in craft stores), heart shaped stickers or stamps
I - ice cube prints, ivy, ice cream stickers
J - jelly beans, jewels
K - kool-aid, kleenex, old or plastic keys, kite stickers
L - leaves, lasagna noodles, lace
M - macaroni, m&m's, mini marshmallows, play money
N - noodles, netting fabric, number stickers/stamps, nickles (play money, stickers or stamps)
O - oatmeal, owl feathers (brown feathers will do) cheerios (o shape)
P - pasta, pom-pom balls, play-doh, popcorn, pipe cleaners, penguin stickers, paper (torn), pumpkin seeds, pennies (play money, stickers or stamps), paper clips, packing peanuts
Q - q-tips, quarters stamped in paint, quilted fabric
R - rainbow colored rice, ribbon
S - seeds, sand, sequins, sprinkles, stickers, stamps, shapes, snowballs (cotton), spaghetti (cooked), string, shells, sponge paint
T - tape, twigs, tissue paper
U - uniform (fabric pieces in a plaid design), umbrella stickers, unicorn stickers
V - vegetable prints, vegetable stickers, velcro, velvet, vehicle stickers
W - wagon wheel pasta, wooden sticks, watermelon seeds
X - x's from alphabet pasta, bones stamped in white paint (x-ray) dirt or tape (for x marks the spot)
Y - yellow yarn
Z - zeros (cheerios), zippers (fabric), zig zags (cut from paper) zebra stripes (paint, black construction paper or tape)

Other great tactile ABC ideas:
1. Have block letters for children to manipulate


2. Have magnetic letters readily available for play
  

3. Sand Paper Letters - these would be easy to cut out (use block letter templates) and attach to cardstock

4. ABC puzzles - I have made these with foam pieces and using block style letter templates that I colored, laminated and cut into puzzle peices. Plus, of course there are the actual wooden puzzles kids love playing with that you can purchase.


5. ABC floor mat (see our in photo above)


6. Alphabet lacing cards - you can easily make these using a laminated block letter template, a hole puncher & some shoe laces or string!


Do you have any other tactile items or learning ideas that I missed? Please share your ideas by commenting below.

Hope you enjoy our list! Be sure to let me know if you use any of these ideas - I'd love to hear how it went for you.

Bern