Field Trips for Preschoolers

(36 Months)

Field trips are AWESOME!  They expose us to new experiences and environments.  They can be something fairly simple, such as a walk along a new path in a nature park or a more involved trip to a far away amusement park or museum.  Our four most recent field trips were to a renaissance festival, a children's museum,  a tour of our local fire station and a walk back in time through the jurassic period.

At the renaissance festival we met lords and ladies, pirates and fairies, knights and merchants.  They brought stories to life seeing real people portray characters in fairy tales.  The festival even offered camel and horse rides, sand castle building (and storming), magical shows, fairy tale readings, pirate performances and mermaids singing.  It was a wonderful way to spend the morning.  

The children's museum had a play grocery store stocked with pretend food, baskets and a check out line.  Wild One had so much fun with our grocery game (see our past post).  We took turns asking for items from an imaginary grocery list - please find three tomatoes.  He really liked sorting vegetables by color, gathering and counting specific ingredients and pretending he was both a customer and an employee.  I LOVED the fact that we incorporated math into our impromptu pretend play.  While Wild One was having fun in the grocery store, Little Miss had a wonderful time with Grandpa building with dominos, giant wooden blocks and magnets.  She always seems to gravitate towards the building areas- hmmm, maybe she'll be an engineer or an architect when she grows up?  Little Miss likes constructing.  I'm not sure if she likes it for the art or the challenge- either way, she's learning and enjoying herself.  

Last week, we were lucky enough to be invited to a tour of our local fire station (we belong to an incredible Mommy group that plans wonderful outings for the kids).  The fire fighters showed the kids the life-saving tools and special equipment they use to extinguish fires.  They even took the time to get dressed in their bunker gear so that kids could see first hand what a fire fighter going into a fire wears.  They discussed fire safety.  The fire fighters even did a demonstration with an EKG machine so that children would see that there is nothing to be afraid of.  It was remarkable.

Our last field trip may have been a bit premature, we went on a dinosaur walk.  We tried discussing why some dinosaurs have really long necks and others have horns and sharp claws.  They didn't seem interested in hearing the "why", they did begin noticing one dinosaur has huge teeth and another has tiny arms.  As we were leaving, I told them that we can go to the library and check out books on dinosaurs.  Little Miss's reply, "I love dinosaurs."  Aaaahhhh- I see a new theme approaching.  This March may not have a lot of leprechauns and Easter themed activities, we may go straight into dinosaurs.  

Now that we're home, it's time to start looking for someplace new to go.  

Bath Math

(36 Months)

I found this activity on Pinterest, it's from In Lieu of Preschool.   I love her idea.  We made it our own by using the third board for word form instead of tally marks.  This learning activity met all of my qualifications for a homemade activity: it's cheap (one dollar), it takes less than five minutes to create, it's no mess, it's a fun learning activity, it's a hit with the kids!

At the dollar store, pick up a pack of rectangular foam sheets in a variety of colors, we chose one color for the number form, a second color for the count or domino, and a third color for the word form.  Number the sheets 1-5, next create dominos for numbers 1-5, then write the number in word form.

I was so happy when the kids got excited about playing with the number cards in the bath.  I let them first explore sticking the foam sheets to the bath wall, then I watched as they began ordering the numbers on the wall.  I let them work together, while I clutched my hands together to prevent myself from interrupting and correcting them that the numbers go from left to right (not right to left, the way the kids had ordered the numbers).  Once they had all five numbers ordered (in descending order), I asked them to use their favorite pointer finger to show me in the air which direction we read.  They did it.  Then I reminded them that that is the same order we place numbers on the number line.  Wild One and Little Miss worked at ordering the numbers again.  They worked together to place the domino foam sheets on top of the corresponding number.  Lastly, we worked together to identify the word form of each number, we started with five -since that was phonetically correct.  They easily placed the five on 5 (thanks to being phonetically correct).  Next we worked on four, three, two and one.  I was surprised that they just accepted that o-n-e spells the word one, even though there is no "w".  It saved me a conversation about learning how to read though.

They really like this one.  I definitely recommend it.  Easy, cheap and the kiddos love it!

Building 101

(36 Months)

Both Little Miss and Wild One love building with blocks.  I knew they would love this set.  It shows the child how to build small animal figures piece by piece (that's right folks, following pictorial directions).  We worked on the first one together and then a few days later they asked to do one on their own.  It was incredible watching them study the picture and then find the right piece, then look back at the book to see how the pieces fit together.  

 

Prewriting Fun

Prewriting Fun

(36 Months)

How cute is this?  They are busy working in their "school" books.  We love playing school.  They are at the age, where they even ask to play school.  Love it!  First, they trace the path with their pointer finger and then they use a thin marker to trace the line.  They love working in these types of books.  I'm not sure if they like them so much, because we only bring them out three times a week or is it because we only do a few pages at a time, or maybe (just maybe, if I allow myself to be self-indulgent) that it's because I make it such a big production about playing school.  I love how excited they get about working in these books.  This past time Wild One asked to continue working, with a "please, Mommy, please can I do just one more?"  How can anyone say no?  He got me to say yes six times!  I'm in so much trouble, if I can't say no to him at three years old, how will I be able to say no at 13?

Uh oh, is this a peek into the future?  Wild One peeking at Little Miss's paper.

After they finished working, Little Miss asked to "draw"(write) her name.  She likes writing her name- she LIKES writing her name (I love that little girl).  We use the magnetic letters as a guide to remind her which way the lines go for the letters E and Y.  I'm not sure if it's because she's three, or if it's because she writes with he left hand, that sometimes she puts the vertical line on the right of the E instead of the left.

Our current "school" books are:

Big Preschool Workbook

Kumon Mazes

Kumon Uppercase Letters

Kumon Numbers