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Wednesday, July 20, 2011

Alligator

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  • Letter A Alligator … what a fun letter craft using the letter A!
    1. Cut a large letter A from green paper.
    2. Cut out 2 rounded green eye pieces from the same paper.
    3. Cut out several white triangle teeth. This is great cutting practice. Just draw the lines and have your preschooler cut the teeth out.
    4. Also need 2 googly eyes and a glue stick.
    5. Assemble as shown above.
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  • Teasing Mr. Alligator
    1. Paint a clothespin green and add 2 googly eyes for Mr. Alligator. My 3-year-old actually popped the eyes off of Mr. Alligator in about 5 seconds, so I just used a sharpie to draw 2 eyes on top and some zig-zag teeth along the sides instead SmileDSC04375
    2. Print 5 monkey clipart images and cut them out. Feel free to use the ones below if you like those!                      monkey 001
    3. Laminate your monkeys.
    4. Place a small ball of playdoh or sticky tack on the back of each monkey and “hang” them from a tree (a fireplace mantel, edge of a chair or table).  DSC04376
    5. Say the rhyme below and each time, have your preschooler snap or clip that monkey right out of that tree with the clothespin Mr. Alligator!
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Five little monkey swinging in a tree
Teasing Mr. Alligator, “Can’t catch me!”
Along comes Mr. Alligator, as quiet as can be
And SNAPS that monkey right out of that tree.
(Repeat with 4 monkeys, then 3 monkeys, and on and on)
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  • Read There's an Alligator under My Bed by Mercer Mayer.
  • Before you read
    1. In advance, hide an alligator cutout somewhere in the house.
    2. Help the kids find the alligator and ask what they would do if it was a real alligator.
  • After you read
    1. Write the following words on a piece of paper.
    2. Have the kids draw any animal they want on the paper.
    3. Glue the top edge of a rectangle of felt (bed's blanket) over their animal to create a flap.
    4. Write the name of their animal in the blank.
    There used to be a ______ under my bed.
    When it was time to go to sleep, I had to be very careful!
  • Alligator, Alligator Rhyme … say the rhyme and act it out! Repeat “Alligator, Alligator” between each line.
Alligator, Alligator
turn around
touch the ground
chomp your jaws
(arms out straight in front and chomp them)
show your claws
get down low
move real slow
reach up high
wave goodbye!

8 comments:

  1. LOVE ALL OF THIS!! You are so creative! I will definitely be doing this!

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  2. This is seriously the most awesome blog! I am so excited about starting to do some more preschool activities with Sadie and Zac. I am gathering up supplies! Thanks for the awesome ideas!

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  3. I have started trying to follow some of your ideas for "home schooling" my 4 year old, and I lay out a lesson plan for each day full of crafts and activities based on that theme but it is now 930 am and we have basically already finished the entire list that was supposed to last all day. What do you do to fill an entire day?

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    1. :) I only plan our preschool for about an hour (maybe 1½ hours spread out) each day. It definitely does not fill the whole day for us. For me, it's not intended to be a full-day home-schooling plan. The rest of the day is spent reading, playing (inside and out), having quiet time, running errands, playing some more, helping with chores...

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  4. LOVE this. So glad I stumbled on it. I'm starting the ABC's with my homeschool preschool this week and this was just what I needed! Thanks for all the great idea.

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  5. Just curious on the clothes pins did you paint with pins with paint or markers?? Thank you for the help and love all of the wonderful ideas. :)

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  6. I just wanted to let you know that I started homeschooling my 3 year old this week and your blog has been a HUGE inspiration! We played Teasing Mr. Alligator today and to say he loved it would be an understatement! Tonight before bed we talking about the day and I asked him his favorite part from the whole day and he said the Teasing Mr Alligator game :) Thanks so much!

    - Kammi

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  7. I love your blog! I used your lessons plans about 2-3 times a week last year and am shooting for 5 days a week this year. You are amazing! So creative and fun! Thank you!

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I love your comments! Feel free to leave a link if you've done any of these activities with your kids. I'd love to visit your blog!