Super Easy Puppet Theater

I decided we needed a puppet theater for the classroom this year since we have so many puppets. I made a whole space for it!  Found this easy design on Pinterest (https://pin.it/q4amyzj2dt5275) using a tri-fold board and here are the results. I'm pretty happy with it. Now, let's see if it lasts!

Doctor Study in Preschool

Here are some photos of the unit we are currently working on in Head Start, "What do doctors do?" We changed our block area into a doctor's office. We added doctor's dress-up coats, doctor's kits, tongue depressors, clipboards with paper and pencil, bandages made out of cut up fabric, real bandaids (I found a box of brightly colored ones at Family Dollar for a dollar), a doctor's table (our play couch turned upside down), and chiars for the waiting patients.

Oh, and don't forget our Doc McStuffins sign!

Then, we made out sensory table into the pharmacy. Here is an empty box we happened to have that was the perfect size to put medicine bottles in for pickup.

In the sensory table, I added some old medicine bottles (thoroughly washed out of course) and some other bottles of similar size, with labels covered with tape that simply say "Name," so that they can be written on with dry erase markers.

Also, I added small paper cups, medicine spoons, funnels, test tubes, magnifiers, wooden sticks, and paper bags to the "pharmacy." I put in some flour and salt for the children to mix up their own "medicine."

Here are the books and DVDs we used:

Please feel free to comment with your ideas about a doctor study.

Playdough Cupcakes with Sprinkles

This week, we are beginning our study on pets. We are reading this great book, If you Give a Cat a Cupcake by Laura Numeroff. I love this series of books. They are so great for sequencing and retelling. Then, since my class has been so into playdough recently, I decided to put a little twist on that. 

We made cupcakes with playdough and then added "sprinkles" on the top using glitter. The children had so much fun with this activity. To add a little more literacy to this, I had them choose a friend to make their cupcake for and write the friend's name on a card. If they couldn't write the letters on their own, I made the letters with dotted lines for them to trace.

What have you done with this book or any of the "If you Give a..." books?

Chronicles of Summertime: Day 12

Day 12:
Today, we did a lot of indoor play. Snugglepuppy helped me put together an Elmo floor puzzle that was almost as big as him!

Snugglepuppy and I engaged in some dramatic play with food. We cooked some burgers and hot dogs and even baked a cake. All pretend of course. Being the cashier, he rang me up and gave me a total which, of course, I paid for with coins (or sometimes pickles, they look almost the same in our set, lol.)

Then I suggested we get out his little animals and some blocks to make a zoo as we haven't had the animals out in a while. We sorted the animals by water, insects, animals that fly, and all the rest we classified as animals with 4 legs. We also made a tree for the monkeys and gorillas with Megabloks. The snake didn't really have a home, so he kinda roamed free.

(Yes, he is sitting on a potty chair, lol)

After a while, the lion got a little naughty and started attacking other animals and biting them. They had to go to the doctor and rest for a while. Some of them needed bandages or surgery. But in the end, we just had to separate the lion into his own enclosure. 

We checked our seeds that we planted a few days ago, but they haven't started growing yet.

Tutorial Tuesday: Pretend Play

Pretend play is such an essential part of childhood. My 2.5 year old has a grand imagination and loves pretending. Aiden enjoys making caves from blankets. Any time things go over his head (power lines, trees, bridges, etc), he sees them as tunnels waiting to be explored. Lately, he has been playing under the dining room table saying it is a tunnel. I decided to set up a little invitation for pretend play.  

 Our table has drop sides that make for a natural tunnel. I hung a blanket to the front and back creating a cave. 

 

Inside the cave, I placed several of his stuffed animals.  

 The animals were going to have a party in the cave, and they needed some supplies. I added some foam letters to a toy pan for some alphabet soup. I placed the soup on some torn pieces of orange paper that represented fire.  

 To a bowl of cheerios, I added some magnet letters and a spoon. The letters on top spell Aiden's name.  

 A stack of plates and a few plastic discs completed the setup.  

 When Aiden awoke from his nap, he saw the blankets covering the table. Curious, he looked at me. I told him he could go in the cave and see what was there. He crawled in and saw the party that awaited. He made some noises of excitement and began to play. "I'm going to eat some cheerios," he said. "My animals want some, too." He passed out the plates and gave them each some cheerios. He pulled the letters out of the cheerios and named them each. "A - I - D - E - N that spells Aiden!" He gave the animals magnet letters and foam letters to eat along with their cheerios. Not only was he practicing letter recognition, he was also working on fine motor skills by serving the animals. As he talked to the animals during his pretend play, he was working on language skills. Pretend play is a wonderful venue for practicing a number of different skills. It's all up to your imagination. Thanks for letting me share our fun with you! Would you like to see more ideas for toddlers/preschoolers from me? Here are a few of my favorites. What Can you Learn from a Cardboard Tube? 20 Ideas for Practicing Measuring Outdoor Sound Hunt Inspired by Mr. Brown Can Moo. Can You?

 

Trisha is a stay at home mom to her 2-year old son, Aiden. She writes about their adventures at Inspiration Laboratories, a blog dedicated to encouraging learning through creativity and play. Trisha is an educator with a passion for science literacy. It is never too early to start encouraging science learning (or any kind of learning for that matter). Follow along on Facebook, Twitter, Google+, and Pinterest.