Heart Match/Musical Chairs

These number matching hearts can be placed in your math center or used in a game of musical chairs to help your little ones with number recognition and counting.

 Materials:  Construction paper, Sharpie, heart stickers, scissors, Ziploc bags

 Draw a large heart onto a piece of construction paper.  Make one heart for each number you wish to represent.

 Cut out heart.

 Cut heart in half.

 Write numeral on one side of heart.

 Put corresponding hearts on the other half.

 Make a set of hearts with as many numbers as you would like to review.  The higher the number, the smaller the heart stickers you will use so that they fit on the heart half.

 You may place all the pieces into a Ziploc bag and place in your math center for your little ones to match.

 Children dump out contents of the bag and proceed to match the hearts.

Musical Chairs:
The hearts can also be used to play musical chairs.  Make sure to have enough numbered hearts as you have children.  Children hold one half of heart and the remaining halves are place on the chairs. Make sure to have one chair for each child...no children have to be "out" in this game.  When music stops, encourage children to find a match for their heart.  When they find their match they sit on the chair where they find their match.  To play again, each child places half of their heart on their chair and then trade their other half with a classmate.

Number Heart Match

Make this number match for you Math Center this Valentine's Day!  All you need is an old deck of playing cards!

 Materials:  Deck of cards, scissors, plastic bag

 If you will be making this number match game thematic for Valentine's Day, pull out all the heart suits.  If not, use the whole deck.  If you are using it for number matching, leave out the un-numbered suits.  If you are just doing basic matching, use the whole deck.

 Cut each card in a zig-zag pattern horizontally.

 Place all the cards in a plastic bag and place in your math center.

 Children visit the math center, dump the cards out and proceed to try to match the cards.

If you want to focus on the actual number of the suits, make sure to not cut through them.  That way, when the children match them you can help them count the suits as well.  Ex. "1,2,3,4,5 clovers plus 1,2,3 clovers equal 8 clovers all together.  Let's count all the clovers to check and see if we are correct.  1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8. It's a match!"

Ice Fishing

Looking for something different to fill your sensory tub with during a unit on Penguins or Winter Animals?  In this activity your little ones can pretend to be penguins and go "ice" fishing for thier food!  Just fill your sensory tub with packing peanuts (ice) and foam fish (penguin food) and encourage your little penguins to start fishing!

 Materials:  Sensory tub (or box), packing peanuts, foam sheets, tongs, scissors, sharpie

 Draw a fish shape on the upper left hand corner of a foam sheet. 

 Fold foam sheet in half.

 Fold in half one more time.

 Cut out fish shape.

 You should have four fish.  Cut out as many as you please.  Of course, the more children you have the more fish you should cut.

 You may also decorate them if you please.  If you want the search to be more difficult, cut fish out of white foam sheets.

 Hide the fish under the "ice".

 Make sure they are well hidden.

 Invite children to the center to go "ice fishing".  Provide each child with tongs. Using tongs is not only fun for them, it also strengthens their fine-motor skills.

 Children try finding fish using their tongs. You can give them a net or other container to set their fish in and then have them count how many fish they have found.

You can also program the fish with numbers, letters, or whatever you are practicing.

 If you have programmed fish with letters and numbers, children can categorize them accordingly and then put them in order.  Happy Fishing!!

Feed the Penguin

 Practice color recognition with this penguin-themed idea! Make a penguin out of a box and practice various concepts while playing this game with your youngsters.

                                 
 Materials:  Medium size box, glue, brush, scissors, box cutter, black construction paper, white construction paper, various colors of construction paper, glue stick, white crayon, pencil.

 We will be turning the box into a penguin.  I happened to have a box that has a large slit in it already.  If your box does not have a slit, use a box cutter to carve a slit into the box which will become the penguin's mouth.  If you are cutting out your own mouth, you can make it a bit smaller than the size of hole in my box.

 Next we will be covering that front side of the box with black construction paper.  You can also do the next few steps by painting a penguin onto the box, but I did not have paint so I used construction paper instead.

 Squeeze some glue onto the box and spread all around using a brush.

 Cover the front side of the box with black construction paper, leaving the slit uncovered.

 It should look something like this.  No, it is not perfect and that is okay.  Unless I am planning on using something I have made over and over again, I don't worry about spending extra time on making it look perfect.  The kids don't notice the imperfections and  frankly, I don't have the time to make it look perfect.  If it serves it's purpose and somewhat looks like what your trying to represent, then its fine.

 Next, draw a beak onto yellow construction paper.  I just freehand it...remember, it does not have to be perfect.

 Cut out the top and bottom beak.

 Glue them over the opening on the box using a glue stick.

 Cut out a half circle and glue centered on the bottom of the box.  The white half circle represents the penguins tummy.

 Cut out two small circles and glue them toward the top of the box to represent eyes.

Cut out pupils out of black construction paper. Now he is ready to eat.

 Draw a fish onto the colors of construction paper that you would like your children to review.

 I drew this fish freehand, but I'm sure you can find a stencil online if you feel uncomfortable drawing it on your own.

 A set of color fish.

 You may also label some with shapes, numbers, or letters that you want to review.  If you decide to label your fish, I would recommend using the same color fish so that the child can focus on the symbol.

 Encourage child/ren to verbalize the color/letter/number/shape before they feed it to the penguin.

If you plan on saving this game to use again and again, you can cover the front of the penguin with contact paper and glue the fish onto cardstock or something similar, cut out, and laminate.

Cheesy Alphabet, Number, and Shape Recognition!

I am super excited to finally write my first blog post!!  Hang in there with me, for blogging is a new venture for me and I am learning as well! My first preschool fun learning idea is super simple...it combines learning with food!!  If there is anything you will learn about me is that I love food.  I think it makes learning fun and, of course, you can tweak anything you see on here to try to make it healthier or to suit your needs.  However, I don't think there is anything wrong with eating a "naughty" snack every once in a while.  The Greek saying "Pan Metron Ariston" which means "Everything in Moderation" is a motto I live by.:):) Anyhow, you only need two items:  spray cheese such as Cheese Whiz and crackers.  I just used some crackers I had at home, but you can use anything from Triscuits to Saltines.  Anyhow, while you are having snack with your children all you do is write the letter, number, shape you want to review onto the cracker.  You can even put letters together to make names/words or do addition or subtraction problems!

 I bought the store brand because it was cheaper, but it is not as tasty as Cheese Whiz :/

 If your child has very good fine motor skills, they can even try spraying the cheese. However, you will probably need a bigger cracker!

 Ask questions such as: Can you tell me what this letter is?  Does it have straight lines or curvy lines? Or you can write out letters in their names and have them put them in order to spell their name. 

I gave these crackers to my fiance<3

Have fun and always remember to KEEP learning fun! Never be forceful about getting the right answer or doing something the RIGHT way.  We want to foster an excitement for learning, not a fear or disdain towards it:)