A is for Airplane

• Book: Fly by Nathan Clement
• Learn about the process of flying in an airplane!

• Visit an Airport
1. If you have an airport close by, go as close to the runway as you can and watch the planes.
2. Track the airplanes you see – Big, Medium, Small airplanes; White, Red, Black airplanes; etc.
3. Read more airplane books while you wait for them!

• Make paper airplanes!
• Usborne has a book “100 More Paper Planes to Fold and Fly”. Spend some time learning how to fold different types of airplanes, then fly them!

• Airplane Graphing
1. Do this graphing activity using different colored airplanes (like THESE that we used).
2. On a simple piece of graph paper, write an A next to each row (or column, however you are graphing) in the color of each different colored airplane.
3. Pick a specific spot you are aiming at (a chair, pillow, person, etc) and help your preschooler throw each airplane at that object.
4. The airplane that is the closest wins, put an A in their row.

Click HERE for a lot more A is for Airplane preschool ideas on our blog!

A is for Ants

Ant day is always a fun preschool day at our house! It’s one of the only days my girls are fascinated by ants, instead of scared of the bugs!!

• Fingerprint Ants
• Read Ants by Nessa Black and learn about ants.
• Make fingerprint ants (using black ink or paint) – 
• three fingerprints, for the three sections of their body
• draw 6 legs
• draw 2 antennas
• draw 2 eyes

• Weigh your preschooler to see how much they could carry if they were an ant! Using the ant they made above, draw something really big on the back of the ant to show how much ants can carry!

• Make an Ant Restaurant
• After reading Ants by Nessa Black, and a Zootles magazine about Ants, discuss what ants like to eat.

• Make an “Ant Restaurant”
• Use a paper plate or preferably a piece of paper (it’s easier for the ants to get to quicker)
• Have your preschooler choose food items they think ants would like to eat. Put them on their restaurant.
• Set the plate/paper outside where there might be ants nearby.
• Check back later!

• Ant Sensory Bin
1. Using rice, wheat, oatmeal, beans, etc in a container, add large plastic ants for the preschoolers to find using tweezers/tongs.
• you could also add black pom poms or black sticker felt pads and have your preschoolers pretend those can be made into ants.
2. After they have found all the ants (and are done playing in their bins), use the ants for math! (see below)

• Ant Math
1. Using large plastic ants (that they found in their sensory bin, above), work on math skills.
• Use a layout like our ant page (with + and =), or simply write + or - and = on a piece of paper.
• Put a number on plastic ants on the left side of the + or - and a number of plastic ants on the right side of the + or – and have your preschooler add/subtract the ants and write the number answer after the equals sign.
• Practice this a few times, saying the math equation with your preschooler. IE:  “3 ants plus 2 ants equals 5 ants”

• How to Walk an Ant by Cindy Derby
• Read How to Walk an Ant, looking for letter Aa’s throughtout the book and finding all the ants.

• Walk an Ant!!
• With the large plastic ants, as used before, tie a piece of yarn around the ant and take it on a walk.
• In the book she walks a lot of ants, so the more the merrier (we stuck with one ant each though!).
• While on your walk check your ant restaurant and observe the ants!

• ART: After your walk, see how tangled your ants got, like in the book!

• Paint a “tangled” art picture, like in the book!
• Use the remnants from the ant lease to dip in paint and pull it across the page to make of colorful line art.
• Add ant stickers.

Chicka Chicka Boom Boom ABC preschool

Chicka Chicka Boom Boom is a traditional way we start the preschool year in our house. It is a fun story to introduce the whole alphabet.

• Sensory Bin
1. Fill a small container (6 qt size is what we use) with rice, wheat, beans, oatmeal, sand, or etc.
2. Add ABC letters of some kind – scrabble letters, printed construction paper letters, magnetic letters, etc.
• Magnetic letters are needed for the last project, or you can use tape!
3. Use tweezers or tongs to pinch the letters out.
•  great for fine motor skills!
4. After they find all the letter, start the next project, or let them play in the sensory bin, putting letters back in and finding them again!

• Chicka Chicka Boom Boom by Bill Martin Jr. and John Archambault
1. Read this book (or watch it on youtube) to your preschooler.
• They can point out each letter as you say them in the book
2. After you’ve read it at least one time through, use the ABCs your preschooler found in the sensory bin for the next project

• DIY Coconut Tree
1. This is a fairly simple DIY project. What you need:
• 3 tin cans – glued together and painted brown (I used hot glue and spray paint)
• add three palm leaves to the top
• if you have clay, playdough, or wooden balls, set those on the top
2. As you read the book again, tell your preschooler the letters and have them find the magnet letter and put it on their coconut tree.
3. After all the letters are in the tree, let them tip the coconut tree over and let all the letters fall off, just like in the book!

More Chicka Chicka Boom Boom preschool activities can be found HERE.

DIY Giant Pencil

These giant pencils make great decoration, gift holders, or simply a dressed up can of chips! No matter what they are for, my kids think they are pretty amazing, and loved to help make them too.

What you need:

• Pringles can (or the like), lid included
• 7” x 10” yellow construction paper
• 1.5” x 10” pink construction paper
• 1” x 10” black/grey construction paper
• 1 circle of cream construction paper, with 1 cut to the middle
• Hot glue gun + extra glue sticks
• 1 Black marker
• something fun to put inside!

HERE is a quick video of how I made these. 

Things to remember:

• Put the yellow paper at the top of the can, and the pink at the bottom of the can.
• The bigger the circle of cream paper, the taller the pencil point will be.
• Kids can help with coloring the “lead” at the point. More advanced kids can use the glue gun with your help.
• You can give these to your kids as a back-to-school treat OR make them for as Teacher Gifts, filled with goodies like gift cards, pencils, markers, etc!

ENJOY!!

Preschool storage and organization

I have been adding to my preschool stash since I started in about 2012. To get me started, Lindsy, the creator of Preschool Alphabet blog and my sister, sent me a photo box and a 2” binder, both full of preschool things I could do with my oldest son, then 2 years old.

She got me hooked and started in the right direction. Now I have drawers and tubs and binders and bookshelves FULL of preschool things, as I now have four kids, two of which are still at home doing preschool with me!

So what do I do with all this stuff?

• BINDERS

I have since expanded from the one 2” binder I started with into six 2" binders, and can see myself adding more!

SET UP:

• Dividers for each binder, labeled with a letter of the alphabet
• After each divider, add sheet protectors for each specific theme for that letter.
      *In the sheet protectors I put:
• laminated or reusable papers
• Extra copies of printed papers
• Magazine articles or pictures
• Extra materials for activities
• Stickers
• essentially anything flat that will fit!
• Label the outside of each binder with the letters/holidays it includes!

• DRAWERS

I upgraded from the one photo box my sister gave me in the beginning to a few sets of plastic drawers (the kind you find on sale during back-to-school). I use these to store small but still bulkier items that wont fit in a binder.

SET UP:

• Dividers for each drawer. Nothing fancy here, I use pieces of cardboard with the letters written on them.
• After each divider, put items like small toys, craft items, or dollar store finds that you use for each theme of that letter.

 I have a separate set of drawers just for Holiday and party themes as well.

• PLASTIC TUBS/BINS

Lots of sizes of plastic tubs!

• Small Tubs: 
• I use their smaller tubs, about 6 quart, to store crayons, glue, markers, scissors, dot stampers, etc. We pull these out almost daily and it’s easy for set up and clean up.
• I also use these small bins for sensory play. Fill it 1/4 way with rice, beans, wheat, oatmeal, or sand. Then add themed items, spoons, cars, etc to play with in the bins.

• Large Tubs:
• I use larger tubs for the general play items that we use for a variety of days or for play time.
          *Examples of items:
• Stamps: ABC and animals
• Tanagrams
• Beads of all kinds and sizes: perler, pony, jumbo beads, etc
• Clay, Playdoh, Kinetic Sand
• Magformers
• etc!!
• I also use Large tubs for really big ABC themed items that don't fit in the drawers (kites, big airplanes, fly swatters, clipboards, etc.)

• BOOKSHELF

I feel like this one is pretty self explanatory.

• You need a bookshelf for your binders and for all the fun preschool books you have or borrow from the library!
• It also helps to put the smaller tubs in one spot on a shelf so the kids can help set up and clean up preschool too!
• Store other items you use to aid with preschool:

• Silhouette
• Laminator and laminating sheets
• Paper: printer paper, construction paper, writing paper, sticker paper

**I have a video of my set up on Instagram (under my story highlights, titled "Get Organized")

What do you do for your preschool storage and organization at home? 

-Kiley

Back-to-School preschool

• Back-to-School Treasure Hunt
        We love doing “treasure hunts” at our house. So for this back to preschool activity, I set up a treasure hunt, with sticky note clues and lots of back-to-school related books and items that she found along the way.

1. Sticky notes (are the easiest) or paper with clues – as simple as “look under your pillow” and/or draw a picture of a bed with a pillow.
2. Stick the clue to a book or back-to-school item and have them collect them along the way
   
• Tip: the first item my preschooler found was her backpack, so she could then fill it up with all the books and items as she went along.
3. After the hunt, get a snack and sit down to read all the books they found! (see the next few ideas for more activities to go along with some of the books)

• Practice writing their name
1. Read David Goes to School by David Shannon
   
• All throughout the book it uses the writing paper. Point out to your preschooler how the book uses the writing paper with the words. Have your preschool look for letters in their name on the pages.
• Practice using writing paper, write their name (draw solid or dotted letters for them to trace if they need help with their names).
  
  
  
2. Explore different ways to write their name
   We used:
• Pencil/Crayons/Markers/Colored Pencils
• Sidewalk Chalk
• Lettered Beads
• Stamp Letters
• ABC Stickers, Magnents, Stencils
• etc…

• Crayons in Rice sensory bin

1. With the crayons they used to write their name (or from their treasure hunt), bury them in a rice/bean/wheat bin for sensory fun.
• use Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Purple, Pink, Black, and Brown for a coloring project below.
2. As they dig up each crayon, have your preschooler use it to color the correct items and words on this page.

• Read If You Take a Mouse to School by Laura Numeroff

1. Collect a few items from around the house that are talked about in the book.
   Ideas are:
• Lunchbox
• Notebook and pencils
• Backpack
• Science Experiment (pictured below is THIS one)
• Soap/paper towels
• Building blocks/legos
• Clay/playdoh
• Notebook paper
• Soccer ball/Basketball/Skateboard
• Snack
2. Read the book again, and as you read, have your preschooler find the item you are reading about in the book. Put in order of sequence.
3. Play “What’s Missing”
• Lay all the items you are using for this book out on the floor or table.
• Have your preschooler close their eyes and remove an object (hide it so they dont know what you took)
• Have them open their eyes and figure out what’s missing.
• Then give them a turn to pick and item and you guess what’s missing.

• Read Albert Starts School by Eleanor May

1. Talk about the days of the week, show them on a calendar
• The Dollar store sometimes has days of the week items, or something like these, or make your own, or just write it out!
2. With your preschooler, decide (or tell them) what specific things are planned for each day of the week, just like in the book with Albert and school.
• ie: Mondays is Library day, Tuesdays is Art, etc.
• Leave the schedule up where they will look every day so your preschooler can plan and anticipate what is happening each day of the week.

Back-to-School Preschool Activities - School Bus

It’s Back-to-School time! Before we start our Alphabet Preschool program, we started this year with a some back-to-school activities. Here are our School Bus projects.

• School Bus counting

1. I was inspired by a similar activity at Kidssoup.com. I upgraded to a homemade wooden puzzle version of their activity (see my School Bus DIY on Preschool Alphabet’s Instagram story highlight).
2. Go to Kidssoup.com to get their project, or find a clipart of a school bus and children. Add a spot where you can change the number.
3. For your preschooler, change the number on the bus and have them count out that many kids that go on the school bus. *My bus only goes up to 5, you can make yours to have more or less, depending.
   **My 2 year old loved putting together my wooden puzzle as well!

• If you want to make the DIY School Bus I made, you need:
• High Density MDF 1/4” (at Home Depot or  Lowes)
• A School Bus design (or draw your own like I did)
• A scroll saw and drill press (to make the holes to cut out the windows)
• paint – yellow, grey, black and white and paint brushes
• A little square of sticker vinyl
• Perler beads - for the puzzle piece handles

• School Bus Shapes
• Cut out the following shapes out of construction paper:
• 1 Big yellow rectangle
• 1 Small yellow rectangle
• White squares
• 1 Medium White rectangle
• 2 Black circles
• 1 Long skinny black rectangle

1. Tell your preschooler to find a certain shape and glue it on their paper. [ie: find the big yellow rectangle]
2. OR – they can put together the bus however they want, but have them tell you what shape and color they are gluing down.

• Sing “Wheels on the Bus” with the actions!
1. The wheels on the bus go Round and round
2. The babies on the bus say Waaah waah waah
3. The doors on the bus go Open and close
4. The wipers on the bus go swish swish swish
5. The driver on the bus says Move on back
6. The people on the bus go Up and down
7. The mommies on the bus say Shhh shhh shhh
8. The horn on the bus goes Beep beep beep
9. ETC!

• Draw a School Bus with Art For Kids Hub! (My kids love Art For Kids!)

-Kiley