Concepts For Kids

Throwback post! Now that I am totally back on a roll with blogging, I thought it would be a good time to write about a program I did back in November but never blogged about called Concepts For Kids-- admittedly not my most creatively named program, but fun and definitely worth the blog post.

Concepts for Kids is really just a very specific version of an ongoing program I did for a long time (but stopped about a year ago) called Books n Play for Pre-K. Each week, in Books n Play for Pre-K, I would do a different theme--anything from winter to colors to food to dinosaurs. Generally, the time was broken down like this:

~15-20 minutes: Hello song, two/three books, two/three songs
~15-20 minutes: Open play time with craft table and activity table (with music playing)
~5-10 minutes: One more book or song, Goodbye song

I modified my plan a little for Concepts for Kids, but at its heart, this was the same program, except with four very specific weekly themes: Colors, Numbers, Letters, Shapes. You know, concepts!

Here's a week-by-week breakdown of the books, songs, crafts, and toys that I used each week:

Week 1 – Theme: Colors

Books:
Mouse Paint by Ellen Stoll Walsh
Pete the Cat: I Love My White Shoes by Eric Litwin

Song:
Picked a Strawberry (not color-related but fun Pete the Cat tie-in!)*

Craft Table:
1. Color hand prints**
2. Rainbow print outs + dot markers
3. Thanksgiving turkey craft ***

Activity Table:
1. Farm sorting (similar to this)
2. Bee hive game (seen below)
3. Rainbow discs-- CDs with flashlights ****
4. Light table with colored blocks (seen below)

* Picked a Strawberry: This is a cute song that comes from--you guessed it--Jbrary! It's not a color song but it's just SO perfect for pairing with Pete the Cat: I Love My White Shoes that I broke the rules and sang it during the color-themed week anyway! Here it is:

** Colored Hand Prints: These are an ongoing craft favorite of mine, but (in my opinion) too simple to be a stand-alone activity. However every time I have a colored-themed-anything, for preschool aged kids, this one makes an appearance. It's totally simple. The picture below sums it up nicely, I think.

And this picture, seen below, is the one I found online years ago that originally inspired this activity:

*** Thanksgiving turkey craft: This one was a total last minute add-on when one of my other crafts fell through (due to my supply-checking negligence). I made the simple template seen below, and had the kids color it, cut it out, and glue on pre-cut feathers that I made from construction paper. It was nice and I think people enjoyed having something to do for Thanksgiving.

**** Rainbow discs: These were literally just some old CDs with flashlights to shine on them-- nothing fancy at all. I borrowed everything from our library system in a big Science Buddies kit (that came with other things too, including the light table seen above), but any CDs and flashlights would work just fine! Parents and kiddies enjoyed shining the flashlights on the CDs and exploring the rainbows that were made together. It's a cute, quick, age-appropriate little science experiment!

Week 2 – Theme: Numbers

Books:
Dog’s Colorful Day by Emma Dodd
10 Little Kittens by Megan Borgert-Spaniol

Song:
Five Little Monkeys

Craft Table:
1. Dogs Colorful Day sheets and dot markers *
2. Cotton ball cloud gluing collage **
3. Flower petal finger paint counting sheets ***

Activity Table:
1. Early Math Activity Center (this from Lakeshore Learning)
2. Peg boards (these from Lakeshore Learning)
3. Smart Snacks Number Pops (these from Oriental Trading)
4. Dough boards (seen below)

* Dogs colorful day sheets and dot markers: These were were simple and fun and have been a hit time and time again. They can be downloaded here and seen below:

** Cotton ball cloud gluing collage: Using the picture below (which I made quickly in Publisher), I had the kids glue cotton balls on the clouds and then count them. Also, of course, color the sheets. Basically, I left this totally open ended since the parents were doing it side-by-side with their kids. I figured they could make of it whatever they wanted!

*** Flower petal finger paint counting sheets: I made this craft myself (see below), again using Publisher, but totally stole the idea from this unattainable link on Pinterest.

The idea was to finger paint the correct number of flower petals one each stem. This craft was a little less obviously open-ended than the cotton ball cloud gluing collage, but the kids and parents made of it what they wanted anyway... which is always ok! Here are some hand-printing twins:

Week 3 – Theme: Letters

Books:

Chicka Chicka Boom Boom by Bill Martin Jr.
ABC T-Rex by Bernard Most

Song:
ABCs with parachute and balls *

Craft Table:
1. Letter Stampers + paper (these from Learn365) **
2. Letter foam stickers + foam sheets (similar to these from Oriental Trading) **
3. Letter stencils with pictures that match + paper (these from Oriental Trading) **

Activity Table:
1. Dough boards (like the number ones used above, but letters!)
2. Play dough and letter-shaped cookie cutters
3. Melissa & Doug ABC Letter puzzles (these from Amazon)

* ABCs with parachute and balls: This is pretty self-explanatory, but a little funny. I had a hard time coming up with a song this week at first. I kept thinking, "why aren't there any good songs about the alphabet?" And then I remembered there's a VERY FAMOUS song about the alphabet that kids this age all know and are happy to sing. So, to make things a little extra exiting, we bounced balls around in the parachute as we sang the ABCs together. Everyone liked it!

** This picture shows all 3 crafts for this week at once! So all-encompassing!

Week 4 – Theme: Shapes

Book:
Perfect Square by Michael Hall *

Song: 

A Circle is a Shape **

Craft Table:
1. Gluing collage craft with pre-cut shapes
2. Shape stencils + colored pencils and paper (these from Oriental Trading)
3. Shape worksheet ***

Activity Table:
1. Flower magnets ****
2. Shape sorting bins (similar to these)
3. Blocks

* Perfect Square by Michael Hall: This wound up being the only book that we read for our last week of Concepts For Kids. I wound up with a younger, more restless group this week and decided to call it quits after only one story because there was just no way they were sitting through another. To be honest, I had a hard time choosing my second book for the week anyway and wasn't 100% happy with my choice in the end, so it was just as well!

** A Circle is a Shape: This is to the tune of The Wheels on the Bus and, yet again, comes from our friends at Jbrary. Here it is:

*** Shape worksheet: While, I guess, this was a bit half-hearted, I wanted a simple, age-appropriate activity to partner with college and stencils and this fit the bill. This is the sheet that I used:

**** Flower magnets: The kit we have can be found here (although I have no idea where we originally found it!) and the kids always seem to really like making their own little flower garden. Check out how the flowers in the second picture match the chart in the first picture! 👏👏

What worked least: This program just didn't wind up getting the kind of attendance I'd hoped for. Ranging from 2-6 kids per week, it required lots and lots of planning and set up, for a minimal reward. I'm not sure that there's anything I would change about the program itself, just maybe try it at a different (morning) time in the future.

What worked best: The craft/activity time was certainly the highlight of each week. In fact, I sort of felt like the kids were just politely sitting through my (relatively short!) story time so we could get to the good stuff. I think the open play format really works for toddlers.

Pre-School Art

Back in October I did a program called Easy Art, which was the inspiration for this similar version of the program. This program was all about process, not product. Like Easy Art, it was meant to be a chance for kids (ages 2-5) to get messy, be creative, and have fun! (In the newsletter, I wrote "dress for a mess.")

I had four "creative stations" set up. Then, when the kids came in, I put on some music and let them move freely around the room, from station to station, making crafts and exploring. Same format as Easy Art and tons of fun for everyone!

Here are the stations I had set up:

Watercolors

To accommodate different ages and abilities, along with the watercolor palettes, I put out sponge brushes, skinny paint brushes, and white crayons for a little wax resist fun. The white crayons went largely unused but a few parents wrote little messages for their kids to uncover and it was cute. This was probably the most "challenging" station of the bunch, but the kids really had fun and did great!

Stamping

This station was the easiest for me to set up. Kids ages 2-5 don't need anything too fancy here. I put out some big white paper, 4 stamp pads, and an assortment of rubber stamps and let the kids go wild. It was enough! Everyone had fun!

Collage

I think the collage table was consistently one of the most crowded stations of the afternoon. I put out colored construction paper (yellow and baby blue), scissors, pre-cut shapes, glue sticks, Elmers glue, a TON of assorted pom poms, and colorful pre-sticky-backed buttons. The kids really got creative here (see below). I wound up seeing a really big variety of completed projects. Some kids did lots of cutting; some kids built pom-poms up to make really neat 3D art; and some kids wound up making a lot of things that looked like happy faces. The kids spent a lot of time here. This station, again, was a total success!

Play Dough

What can I say? It's play dough. Easy to set up, fun to work with, and the only station that required a tarp on the floor below it. This was the only station where the kids didn't get to take their product home, but nobody seemed to mind-- play dough is worth it! Plus this wasn't a program meant for taking home an awesome craft, but a program meant for playing and being creative!

 

What worked least: A few years ago I let myself put "nothing" for what worked least and today, I am doing it again. This was an easy program that, despite taking a decent amount of set-up, didn't take a lot of planning, money, supplies we didn't already have on hand, or exhaustion on my part. The kids liked it and the parents liked and--what can I say besides it just worked?!

What worked best: I'd say, while again, all of this program felt like a success to me, the two "best" stations of the hour were the play dough and the collage.

Overall, this was really fun! I definitely need to do more programs like this one and Easy Art in the future.

Noon Year's Eve 2017-2018

Happy New Year! This is my first post of 2018! Like in years past, I kicked off the new year (or, more accuately, ended the old year) with a Noon Year's Eve Party, where we counted down to 12:00 noon! Only slightly modified from last year's version, the program included homemade crowns, time capsules, a balloon drop, sparkling apple cider, a photo back drop, and a few rounds of Noon Year's Eve Bingo, complete with prizes!

Before the program, I set the room up with a few key elements:

1. The balloon drop (After trying a couple, this one, $10-ish on Amazon, is my favorite). 

2. The countdown to noon projected on the wall to build anticipation (made with timeanddate.com, and seen above). 

3. The photo backdrop (this one from Oriental Trading) so I could photograph the kids against it.

4. Plastic champagne flutes and sparkling cider.

5. Craft stuff (which I'll discuss below).

6. Music.

Like I said, this year's program was really similar to past Noon Year's Eve programs. I started the kids off by having them decorate 2018 crowns (which I made and pre-cut for them) so they could be festive when the balloons dropped at 12:00.

I had also created a two-sided worksheet which I called a "time capsule." On one side of the sheet it asked kids to list their favorite things (favorite color, favorite book, favorite movie, etc.) and on the other side it asked them to draw a self-portrait. When the kids were finished with their sheets, I had them fold them up and put them in boxes (these from Oriental Trading), which they could also color and decorate. I had out crayons and an assortment of foam stickerts that were leftover from other crafts (mostly these from Oriental Trading with a few others tossed in the mix) for all of their various crafting needs. Then, as each kid finished up, I came around and sealed each of their boxes up with sticker that said "Do Not Open Until January 1st 2019" (which I just made myself on on blank labels).

Then it was time to countdown! The kids gathered at the balloon drop and, at exactly noon, the balloon bag was yanked open by its string, allowing the balloons to slowly tumble onto the kids. They were so excited about it, grabbing for balloons, like they were pieces of candy falling from a piñata. This was the highlight of the program for sure! It's all about the balloon drop!

After all the balloons were successfully out of the balloon bag, I scrambled to play Auld Lang Syne on the iPod as quickly as possible, although I think the significance of the song was lost on the kids. Then I distributed the plastic champagne flutes of sparkling apple cider out to the kids (after explaing, at least 3-4 times, that it was just juice with bubbles and that we aren't allowed to serve alcohol to children). In past years I'd served other snacks too but I kept it easy this year and just did the "champagne." I don't regret it ONE BIT. It was totally enough!

Then, there was about 10 minutes of "free time" for the more meticulous kids to finish up their time capsules and the more antsy kids to toss their balloons around, sip cider, and take pictures. Then, I ended the program with our game of Noon Year's Eve Bingo. For reference, the 2015-2016 Noon Year's Eve Bingo cards can be downloaded here.  I've said it before and I'll say it again: Kids always like Bingo. As we played the game, I had the kids build onto their existing game boards until everyone eventually won. And, as they did, they got to come up and grab a prize from the basket (which was filled with leftover summer reading club stuff from years past). They LOVED it-- of course. They always do. When in doubt, Bingo!

There were just a few minutes left when the Bingo game ended. The kids quickly finished what they had left of their time capsules, grabbed a few balloons to go, and endured my cheesy "See you next year!" comment as they made their way out.

What worked least: I bought a different balloon drop this year (by accident) and it gave me anxiety. The string and hole were on the side instead of the bottom corner that I was used to and I was worried that I'd have to pull too hard to get it to open... and then, I worried that this hard pull would rip the pannels of the library's drop ceiling down and hit the kids on the head. At the last minute, I asked our clerk, Ryan, to yank the string for me at 12:00 because I was just too scared and, of course, it was totally fine. But it was my biggest source of stress! As I said, this one, $10-ish on Amazon, is my favorite balloon drop! This is the one I would recommend.

What worked best: Despite my above answer, the balloon drop, without question, worked best! As long as it's hung tightly enough so that you don't yank the whole bag (or the ceiling) down when you go to open it, it's the best $10 thing you can do for a Noon Year's Eve Party. It's all in the hanging (which, thankfully, I had no part of).

Happy 2018, everyone! Let's stay warm and make it good!