The best activities for learning Bb

 Welcome to part 2 of letter Bb preschool activities you can do at home or at school!  In the last installment I talked about baking bread, going on a bear hunt, enjoying a teddy bears' picnic, and lots of fun backyard activities you and your child will love.  Let's explore even more ideas today!

Activity 1: Songs  

You had to know there would be songs!  You probably already know Take Me Out to the Ball Game, and if you do, you might even have a baseball bat and ball you and your littles can enjoy.  Here are two more letter Bb songs:

Beetles in the Basin in the Bathroom

 

Here is the Bee Hive

 

If you'd like to check out the counting clip cards and other early math activities with a bee theme, click here to see them in my TeachersPayTeachers store. 

Want more songs for Bb?  I have a Letter Bb playlist on my YouTube channel - click here to check it out!

Activity #2: This week's hand (and foot!) print ideas are a bumble bee, bear, and butterfly. Bea-u-ti-ful!

Last week some of you shared your hand print creations with me on Instagram 💗💗💗💗💗!  I would LOVE to see how you and your littles use any or all of these learning activities!  Please tag me @paulabeckerman2399, or leave comments on this blog - it absolutely makes my day!

Activity #3: Make binoculars

You'll need 2 paper tubes, a sheet of paper, a hole punch, and about 18' of yarn.

Start by measuring the length of your paper tubes, and cutting your sheet of paper to that width - keep all the length.  You'll have a long rectangle.  Tape or glue it to one of the paper tubes, carefully lining it up the ends of the tube and the paper.  Wrap it around both tubes, then tape or glue it in place.  (Remember, your little one can do the taping and gluing, only help with the parts they can't do well, and always let them do as much as they can!)

Use the hole punch (this part is probably too difficult for your child) to punch one hole on the outside of each tube.  Thread the yarn through and tie the ends so your child can put the binoculars around their neck.  It's fun to look through the binoculars to look for things that start with the letter B!

 

Activity #4  Butterfly paintings

You probably remember doing something like this when you were little: fold a paper in half, apply paint to one side, fold the paper shut, smush it, then open it again to find a symmetrical painting.  I recommend having plenty of paper on hand, because most children LOVE the magic of this simple activity.  

This is a great time to introduce the word symmetrical - being the same on both sides.  It's a great word, and once they start looking they'll notice LOTS of things are symmetrical: their face, many doors, lamps, the fireplace, the tv, the couch and more!  If they ask - and someone's child will ask - things that are not symmetrical are asymmetrical.  

Activity #5 Sensory play with a basket of beads / buttons / dry beans.

A lot of children really enjoy sensory play.  Just running your hands through a bowl of beads feels marvelous, and this is something our children don't get to enjoy often enough.  Sensory play can include water play, mud and sand play, soft animals, finger painting, smelling jars and much more - all staples of early childhood learning.  You can connect sensory play to letter learning by choosing materials that start with your focus letter, such as beads, buttons, or dry beans.  

Sensory play can get very messy - children are scientists who explore the world with wild abandon, and don't always keep materials in a container as parents and teachers might wish.  There are some easy ways to make sensory play a happier experience for both you and your child:

1. Know it will get messy to some degree, and put this kind of material out when you have the time and patience to deal with it. Stay close enough to supervise and redirect if your child starts throwing small pieces all over.  Make sure they know your expectations (Do you them to keep the materials in or near the container?  Do you expect them to help pick it up afterwards? Is there a time limit on how long you can keep it available?)

2. Place your sensory bin on a large towel or sheet, so when they're done most of the materials can easily be scooped back into the bin.

3. Consider taking water, sand and dry food materials outside to play, where clean up is easier.  I used to buy feed corn for our outside sensory bin, and whatever we didn't clean up, the squirrels would take care of.

4. Consider the ages and stages of your child(ren) and make sure materials won't be a choking hazard.

5. If the materials don't offer a way to play, your children will invent something - so put in a couple of scoops or bowls for them to fill, add some toys to hide and dig up, or add a favorite bath toy - the kind you pour water through - so they can pour materials through it.  Bored children WILL find a way to be entertained.

 

Activity #6: Letter Bb crafts

When I taught preschool one of our weekly activities was to cut out both the upper and lower case letter of the week, and to decorate them with things that represented the letter.  I had a copy of our alphabet letters posted along the top of the wall, and many of my students put their letters up on their bedroom walls and created their own alphabet wall at home.  These activities evolved over time, and your letters don't have to look like mine - there are many right ways of doing things in this world!  I'll share my ideas with you, but if there is something that is more meaningful to you and your child, do that instead.  I've taught a lot of children, and know a fair amount about early childhood education - but YOU know YOUR child best.

B is for butterfly.  You (or your child) can draw or cut out an upper case letter B from a piece of construction or printer paper.  Notice how the top and bottom half of the B are symmetrical?  Remember our symmetrical butterfly painting?  How could your child turn their B into a symmetrical butterfly?  We glued on shapes, and I guided children to find 2 of each shape, and to place one on the top and one on the bottom of the B.  A pipe cleaner bent in half, with the ends curled around my fingers make simple antennas, which we stapled on.  If your child wants to add a couple of wiggly eyes, or long thin oval to represent the butterfly's body, go for it!

b is for bat and ball.  When I was in kindergarten Mrs. Potts taught us "first the bat and then the ball for b" - and it stuck with me.  I could tell the difference between b and d because d was "first the dog and then its tail". Thank you to Mrs. Potts, my students made their letter b crafts with a paper baseball bat and paper baseball, and I printed the words on it so they and their parents would remember.  

If your child is starting to pay attention to letters, and enjoys coloring, you may like this FREE activity to practice Bb, Cc and Dd.  Please follow their lead on what is enjoyable - the most important thing they're learning in preschool and kindergarten is that learning is FUN!  We're setting the stage for their attitude towards school for the rest of their life - that's a big responsibility!  If they don't want to color or do worksheets, please don't make them.

Most of the resources I make for preschool and early kindergarten are games.  If you want more play based learning activities, I'd love for you to check out my resources on TeachersPayTeachers - and no, you don't have to be a school teacher to use the site, parents are teachers too!  

Thank you for reading all the way through.  I really would love to know how you're using these ideas!  Let me know in the comments, or tag me on Instagram: @PaulaBeckerman2399 .  See you next week for the letter Cc!

Get busy with the letter b

I hope you enjoyed lots of letter Aa activities last week - if you missed that post, see it here.  Now let's get busy with the letter Bb!  There are SO MANY great things you can do to reinforce the connection between the letter B and the sound |b|: ride bikes, blow bubbles, bathe baby dolls, bake bread and more!  There are so many in fact, that I'm going to break this week up into 2 blog posts - are you ready to get started?

Activity #1  Bake bread.  

Yum!  If you have access to a bread machine it is super easy to make bread, but even if you don't, it's worth the time!  After you get online and find a recipe that appeals to you, you and your little one will do a lot of math as you prepare your dough: measuring teaspoons and tablespoons of ingredients, counting in cups of flour, and don't forget the real life skills of scooping and pouring. I've baked bread literally hundreds of times with children as young as 2.5, and the trick is to let them help however they can.  You probably don't want to have them measure and pour cups of water - how much would make it into the dough, and how much would spill?  Some things are too heavy for little hands, and some measurements need to be relatively precise.  

What to do?  Hold their hands in yours and help them scoop teaspoons of ingredients, then let them dump it in. 

Have them rest a measuring tool on the edge of the mixing bowl, and you pour liquid ingredients into that, then they dump it in.

Count scoops out loud together.  

If you're using a bread machine, show them which button to push to start it, and hold the lid open and watch it go for a minute.

 If you're kneading by hand, share the dough with them and let them knead for as long as they can - if you're talking about the bread, the sticky feeling of the dough, how you want to eat it when it's done, they'll hold out longer - and strengthen their hands as they do!

Once you've got the bread started, consider taking a close look at a piece of bread together.  Does your child notice all the bubble holes in the bread?  That's what makes it light and fluffy to eat!  

Yeast is the ingredient that makes the bubbles, and it needs warm liquid to do it.  If you put a little yeast in some warm water in an empty bottle, add a pinch or two of sugar, then stretch a balloon over the bottle, you'll trap any gas the yeast makes. 

It will probably take about as long as baking the bread does - so it's great to do these things at the same time!

Of course the best part of baking bread is eating it (smelling it cook is a close 2nd)!  Still, make sure you save a little for the next activity.

Activity #2: Teddy bears picnic

Bread isn't the only food that starts with the letter B - there's bananas, berries, bologna, broccoli... enough to make an excellent teddy bears picnic!  I like to read the book, but you can also listen to the song on YouTube.com, and then pack your basket with food that starts with B, grab your favorite bear(s) and book(s) and head to the backyard to enjoy your picnic! 

Activity #3: Go on a Bear Hunt

I learned this song / game first from Dr Jean's song, then later found the book and story retelling by Michael Rosen, and later still the version from The Learning Station.  My favorite is the book - and seeing the author tell it is fantastic!  However you learn it, going outside and pretending to go on a bear hunt is FUN!

While you're outside for your bear hunt, take a little time for:

Activities 4, 5, 6, 7 & 8: Bounce balls, bathe baby dolls, ride bikes, blow bubbles, and observe bugs!

That's more than enough for one blog post - but come back on Wednesday for a second installment of letter Bb activities!

Are you ready to kick off an awesome year?

Welcome everybody to a new school year!  This one probably looks very different than your usual, and just about everyone I know is feeling the overwhelm.  It's a lot.  Whether your schools are open, have a blended or distance learning plan, or you're home schooling, parenting is a a huge job - and this year everything is just MORE.  

My own children are grown, and I'm not teaching in a classroom right now, but with almost 30 years in early childhood education I have a few resources to pull from.  That's why this year I'm offering a virtual preschool / kindergarten supplement right here on my blog.  If you're looking for some easy ways to add a little more learning to your days, you're in the right place!

Each week I'll focus on one letter.  You can expect to see songs, rhymes, crafts, science and math activities, sensory play, cooking ideas, handprints, directed art projects and more - although maybe not every thing every week.  There will be links to my YouTube page where you can find parenting and teaching tips as well as songs and rhymes.  Expect links to tried and true activities I've blogged about before, mixed in with new ideas for you to try.  Sometimes there will be links to my TeachersPayTeachers store where you can find both free and paid resources.  I'll post a lot of this to social media too - so if you know another parent who might like what I offer please share! 

                                                                                            Let's get started!

                                                                                            Ms. Paula

 

                                                 Click here to get started with the letter Aa!

A is Absolutely Amazing!

 Ants, apples, alligators and astronauts - it's time for fun while learning about the letter Aa!  When you talk, read, sing and play with your child you're helping them learn.  Preschool and kindergarten children really benefit from hands on activities like singing, finger plays, cooking, painting and more - so here are some of my favorites:

 Activity #1: Songs and rhymes for the letter A

Way Up High in an Apple Tree

Alligator, Alligator

What are they learning?  Rhyme, rhythm, vocabulary, musical pitch, and they're working finger muscles too!

Activity #2: Make applesauce

We all love food, so it's super engaging to make time to let your littles do some basic cooking activities with you!  Applesauce is a great early cooking activity because most children love it, it's a very forgiving recipe, and the steps to make it are easy enough for young children to help.

Children can learn how to cook!

 

 To make your applesauce you'll need some apples, a peeler, a butter knife (for your child) a good knife (for you), water, a potato masher, a pot and a stove... a little sugar or cinnamon is optional.  Your child can learn to peel apples by pushing the peeler away from them, to safely hold a butter knife and point the end down to cut the apples (see the picture above), and to put them into a pot.  Add a little water to cover, simmer until soft, then mash with a potato masher or immersible blender.  Add sugar and cinnamon if you want.

What are they learning?  Safe use of kitchen tools, life skills, the satisfaction of preparing their own food, and spending special time with a loved adult.  As you cut the apple you can talk about cutting it in half and into quarters - great math skills!  Did you talk about the peel, flesh, core and stem?  That's science - and so is the changing state of matter that happens when heat causes the apples to soften and change into applesauce.  As  you serve it count how many scoops you put in a bowl - and if they want more, that's coming back for seconds - ordinal numbers.

 Extend the learning fun by having your child write the letter Aa in the applesauce.  Simply put a small amount of applesauce on a plate, gently shake the plate to spread it evenly, and then let your child write in it.  If they do a great job, they get to lick their finger.  Gently shake the plate to reset, and write again!

 

Activity #3:  Hand prints

Hand prints from our little ones are something that we'll treasure forever - trust me on this one!  I had my children make their own alphabet books with hand and foot prints, by doing one each week.  I'm going to carry that over here for you, and if you can do one a week, you'll have a new favorite alphabet book!

I have the children hold out a hand for me to paint - and we talk about how the paint feels (cool, slippery, slimy, funny?) as I apply the paint.  Next we turn their hand over and place it on a paper, and I place my hand over theirs and push down firmly.  Finally, we lift their hand straight upwards so it doesn't smear everywhere.  The first few tries might be... interesting... but after a little while almost every child gets into it and masters the art of a good hand print.

For the alligator print we painted both hands, and overlapped the palms.  We used fancy scissors to cut the zig zag teeth, used a wiggle eye (wiggle eyes make everything cooler!), and added triangles for the back and tail. You are probably already really good with scissors and glue, so try to resist the urge to "help".  Children learn to use scissors by using them, and to use the right amount of glue through practice.  If they're trying, they're learning!

For the angel hand prints we paint the wings first, then make the robe when the paint for the wings is dry.  I take a photo of each child and print it out so I can trim around their face and have them add it to their angels.  

Does your little prefer an alien?  Paint just part of their hand for the print, and let them add  unusual numbers of wiggle eyes and draw on details when the paint is dry. 

What are they learning?  Scissor and glue skills, vocabulary, correlating the initial letter of words to the sound and shape of letter Aa.

 Extend the learning by adding a photo page to their alphabet book.  I like to insert the completed hand prints in a page protector and keep it in a binder.  On the facing page I add a photo of the children doing one of our activities for the letter, with a caption that includes the focus letter.  They love to "read" their books and talk about the letter and the activities, making that letter to sound connection!

Activity #4: Measuring with apples

This is a free download from my TeachersPayTeachers store. It comes with instructions, but basically you print out the pages and join the apples into a long strip.  Tape it to the wall to measure how many apples tall people and things in your house are, or let your child hold it like a ruler to measure.  Young children learn measurement with non-standard units - teacher talk for using various items to measure.

 

What are they learning?  An important concept to introduce is lining up the bottom of apple #1 with the end of the thing you're measuring.  They're practicing counting andnumber recognition -you can also use this as a number line for counting, and your children might also notice the color pattern of the apples.  Which brings us to ...

 

Activity #5 Making patterns

What are they learning?  Patterns, a very basic and essential math skill.  Picking up pompons works their finger muscles, helping their hands grow stronger - an important pre-writing skill.  Younger children may still be learning the color words, or may start counting the circles on the page.  They may ask about the question marks on the page - what question do they need to answer?  This page is included in my Apple Math Centers which is available to purchase and download.

Activity #6: Anansi the Spider! craft to follow up the book by Gerald McDermott

According to McMillan books, "Anansi the Spider is one of the great folk heroes of the world. He is a rogue, a mischief maker, and a wise, lovable creature who triumphs over larger foes."  

 

What are they learning? Folk lore from West Africa, vocabulary and story structure, and as they make their own Anansi or his sons they're cutting, pasting, creating art, and counting 8 legs.

I hope you and your little have enjoyed these activities!  For more apple activities click here, here, and here.  Find some of my favorite apple books here and see how to do a blind taste test with apples here! Join me next week for the letter Bb!

We appreciate teachers!

 Thank you teachers!

You're caring, you're kind, and you work your tail off for your students.  You put in untold hours before and after school doing planning, grading, staff and personal development, coaching and more. You are heroes. Every. Single. Day.  

This week I'm getting together with an awesome group of teacher authors to thank one lucky teacher with this fun give away!

GIVEAWAY DETAILS:  

Prize: 10 Teacher "Must Haves" prize pack including: Mr. Sketch Markers, Flair Markers, Personal Laminator, Dry Erase Pockets, Dry Erase Markers, Astrobrights Paper, Sharpies, Ticonderoga Pencils, a Wall Calendar, and a $50 Teachers pay Teachers gift card.

Giveaway Organized by: Kelly Malloy (An Apple for the Teacher)

Co-hosts:   An Apple for the Teacher, Star Kids, Pint Size Learners, Raven R Cruz, Paula's Primary Classroom, The Best Days with Julie Santello, The Fun Factory, Ms. K, Smart 2 Heart Creations, Teach Me T, A Library and Garden, A Plus Kids, Simone, Right Down the Middle with Andrea, Samson's Shoppe, Mrs Hansens Helpfuls, Jackie Crews, Peas in a Pod, 180 Days of Reading, Sparking Children's Thinkibility, TheBeezyTeacher, and Kamp Kindergarten.

Rules: Use the Rafflecopter to enter. Giveaway ends 5/11/20 and is open worldwide.

Are you a Teacher Blogger or Teachers pay Teachers seller who wants to participate in giveaways like these to grow your store and social media?  Click here to find out how you can join our totally awesome group of bloggers!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Spider songs and activities

With so many schools closing due to COVID-19, I've been thinking of parents and children who may be stuck at home trying to figure out how to teach and learn together.  Here's my way to help: Story Time Online with Paula.  I hope you find these videos and ideas helpful, and that you'll share them with others who might like them too!  Today let's learn about spiders!

You know about the Itsy Bitsy Spider, but do you know about the Great Big Hairy Spider?  My kiddos LOVE this silly variation!



How else could you rework it with the things you have on hand.... how about the big brown horse climbed up on the barn, or the knight in shining armor climbed up a castle wall?  Get silly and have fun making up your own versions with your children - they'll be using their imaginations and working on rhyming words!

For the preschool crowd, consider making an Itsy Bitsy Spider sensory bin like this one:


Of course, There's A Spider On the Floor is always fun:



Don't have any toy spiders to use as you sing the song?  I searched my toy box and couldn't find a single one this morning, so I made my own.  Here are simple instructions in case your child would like to make their own spider too!



How else could you follow up these spider songs? Here are a couple of my thoughts:



You may also like our Anansi the Spider activity,  these fun spider snacks and our Very Busy Spider retelling activity.

Thanks for stopping by!  If you have requests for songs or stories you'd like me to record, let me know, I'd love to hear from you!

St. Patrick's Day story, song and activities

With so many schools closing due to COVID-19, I've been thinking of parents and children who may be stuck at home trying to figure out how to teach and learn together.  Here's my way to help: Story Time Online with Paula.  I hope you find these videos and ideas helpful, and that you'll share them with others who might like them too!

First, here's the story of the Farmer and the Giant Potato.



Since the story is about a giant potato, here's a potato song I made up.



Did you or your little one notice that I made a pattern with my potatoes?  Did your little one count along?  What else can you count at home to extend the learning?

Finally, some follow up ideas:



Here's the FREE download I showed you in the video.  Use it with the included letter tiles for your little one to match the letters and build the words, or put them up to help your child see how to write these fun vocabulary words as they write a St. Patrick's Day story of their own.  

For even more hands on learning at home consider cooking potatoes together!  Not only will your child learn how to cook, and develop those fine motor skills and kitchen safety as you do, you'll all have something delicious to enjoy afterwards!

If you enjoyed this post and would like to see more like it, please like, follow, share and comment!