If you've been keeping up with my social media, you know that the past few months of my life have been a little... rocky. Everything that I knew has changed. First of all, at the beginning of March, I had a major flare-up with my chronic illness, Intracranial Hypertension/Pseudotumor Cerebri. For much of the month of March, I was almost completely blind. I had to have brain surgery to put in a shunt to save my vision. I was out of work for two months because of all of this. During that time, the church decided to shut the preschool down. It just wasn't profitable for them--and … [Read more...]
Fall Art Activity: Lego-Painted Pumpkins
Happy October! This is one of my favorite months of the year. Just gimme all the hot apple cider and teacher-y cardigans. You know I love process art, and I'm always looking for unique tools to paint with or use as stamps! (Read about why my preschoolers don't do "crafts" here.) We recently painted some pumpkins with LEGOS! Supplies Needed: Pumpkin Template on Cardstock (easy to find on Google) Lego Duplo blocks (you can use smaller Legos, but these were perfect!) Orange & brown paint I gave the students two shades of orange to choose from by adding white paint to … [Read more...]
Why My Preschoolers Don’t Do Crafts
My preschoolers don’t do crafts. You know those cutesy little crafts you see on Pinterest with the popsicle sticks and the googly eyes where everyone’s art is just perfect and looks exactly the same? The ones where the parents are just delighted at how “adorable” it is? Yeah, we don’t do those. Instead, when you look around my classroom, you'll find meaningful process art activities in which the children were given the freedom to make decisions about their own artwork. Process art is any kind of art activity in which the focus is on what the child learns during the art experience, … [Read more...]
Dry Erase Caddy for the Preschool Literacy Center
This post contains a couple affiliate links, meaning I could get a small kickback if you click them. I used to really struggle with figuring out what to put in my literacy center. Paper, writing utensils... okay, then what? Over the years, I've figured out which literacy materials will draw my students there, and I've learned which tools are there favorites. For my preschoolers, both the Pre-K group and the younger threes, the dry erase tools are a classroom favorite. This year, I decide to organize my dry erase materials by corralling them in a caddy. Children can grab it from the … [Read more...]