A new month means a new theme! This post contains affiliate links.
December is well underway and we are off to a fun start! Our new theme from Experience Early Learning is called Cozy Winter Senses. This month is packed with fun learning opportunities. We are taking a look at instrument families, outdoor sights and sounds, indoor sights and sounds, and light and dark. We are taking time to focus on our five senses and all things winter.
Our Christmas tree is up this month and we have had fun creating ornaments for it. We love this time of year in preschool! Here are a few things we have been up to the past few days.
Blow Art
We learned that musicians are people that play instruments and that they have to control their breath for long periods of time to play music. We learned about different instrument families. My preschoolers had fun experimenting with their breath through a straw to move paint across their paper. What happens when you blow hard through the straw? What happens when you blow softly?
Drum Design
While learning about drums we made a drum design. Paper plates, yarn, straws and beads were included in our Experience Preschool curriculum box for this activity. They designed their paper plates, we attached the yarn and straw and then stapled the plates together and they strung the beads onto the yarn. The beads make a cool rhythm as they spin the drum back and forth.
Snowstorm in a Jar
This is one of my favorite science experiments to do with my preschoolers this time of year. You need a jar, water, iridescent glitter, baby oil, Alka Seltzer, and white acrylic paint. We mixed the water and white paint together. We filled the jar 2/3 of the way full with baby oil. They made a prediction: Can oil and water mix? As one of the students poured the water and paint mixture into the jar everyone watched closely to what happened. We learned that water and oil can't mix therefore they create separate layers in the jar. This was a great lesson in density and because water is more dense than oil it went straight to the bottom. They took turns adding glitter and then we dropped in part of an Alka Seltzer tablet and watched what happened. We created a snowstorm! We learned why the Alka Seltzer tablet caused the bubbles (it has baking soda in it) and watched the magical snowstorm appear!
Snow Tracks
This was a fun art project where they created animal tracks in the snow. During circle time we talked about different animals that live in the woods. They had an animal track guide to look at and used a Q-tip or their fingers to create different animals tracks on their paper. I love that the animal track guides were included in our curriculum box this month because it was fun for everyone to compare the similarities and differences between the different animal tracks!
Tracks in the Snow
Snow Tracks was a great literacy activity. I put masking tape on the floor and the children walked around the tape as I read the story, following the prompts throughout. This story included animals tracks from three animals as they pretended to walk through the woods. The discussion questions at the end were a great way to check in with them on their understanding of the story.
Christmas Ornaments
We have also spent time making Christmas ornaments this month. We worked with our neighbor, Jennifer Trost Pottery, to make special ornaments out of clay. We can't wait to see how these turn out!
Little Letter Book: Pp
Our first letter we are going over this month is the letter P. We sound out words and make a list during circle time that begin with the letter P. We added a word to our word wall and then worked on our books.
It's been a fun and busy past few days!
