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.

Books n Play for Pre-K 9/28/16

I haven't written about a session of Books n Play for Pre-K in SO long, and since this week's class was my last one for a while, I decided that it was time for a post.

I've written about this program many times in the past, but I've never blogged about my dinosaurs theme before! Coincidentally, this week's theme was just that... dinosaurs! A real crowd-pleaser, I must say. My group was small--only six kids--but they were a really great, attentive, and rule-following six kids (unlike how they were the last time I blogged about Books n Play for Pre-K), so I was happy!

As usual, I opened the program with our Hello Song (still, as always, A New Way to Say Hello by Big Jeff), and then I moved on to books and songs. The first book I read was The Super Hungry Dinosaur by Martin Waddell (which I read with a raspy, throat-hurty dinosaur voice, obviously), and then Dini Dinosaur by Karen Beaumont. The kids liked both, definitely, but I'd actually go as far as to say that they loved The Super Hungry Dinosaur. The whole room was completely attentive as I read it, totally engaged!

Then we sang a song that I found online called All Around the Swamp. Basically it's a dinosaurs version of Wheels on the Bus. I modified it a tiny bit and this is what we wound up singing:

The Pteranodon's wings went FLAP, FLAP, FLAP… All around the swamp.
The Tyrannosaurus Rex said GRRR, GRRR, GRRR… All around the swamp.
The Triceratops’s horns went POKE, POKE, POKE… All around the swamp.
The Stegosaurus tail went SPIKE, SPIKE, SPIKE… All around the swamp.

The kids were very eager to move onto our crafts and play time. I had a lot of good stuff for them this week, if I do say so myself. As usual, this part of the program lasted for about 20-25-minutes. Here's what I had out:

The craft table:

1. "Fossil" making (aka play dough and a bunch of shells) *
2. Construction paper, crayons, and colorful, foam dinosaur stickers to make a prehistoric scene (see picture below)
3. Stuff to make the Stegosaurus Puppet from this set of free printable dinosaur puppets on PagingSuperMom.com.
4. Trace a Dino Footprint free printable, also from PagingSuperMom.com

And here's what was at the toy table:

1. Sand box and dinosaur fossils to dig up**
2. Dinosaur puzzles
3. Dinosaur "eggs" + matching sheets and crayons ***
4. Dinosaur bones kit + matching and measuring cards ****

* Fossil making with play dough and shells is one of my favorite prehistoric activities. It's a true process over product kind of craft and I like how it's just totally different from the usual coloring or drawing. For this, all I put out were shells, play dough, and paper plates (which you don't really even need if your tables are covered). It's pretty self-explanatory, I guess:

The kids liked this and I think the little siblings might have liked it even more. Plus, it's a good sensory activity!

** I've used the sandbox (and other sensory bins) a bunch of times before in Books n Play for Pre-K and usually, the whole program basically revolves completely around it. Like, the kids eye it before the play time starts and pretty much have to be peeled away from it after it ends. Thank goodness we have covers for these bins or I would have no control at all in the room. Here is some quality dino diggin':

Coupled with the sandbox, I used this Dino-Dig Excavation Kit from Lakeshore Learning. Because our sandbox isn't exactly huge (and neither was our group of kids), I only buried 8 dinosaur skeletons for the kids to dig up and, since they're so young, I didn't even bother with the paint brushes.

*** The dinosaur “eggs” I had are a total mystery to me. I seriously have no idea how they were made (or why they smell kind of funny), but I got them on loan from our county library system and they're really cool! Basically, they're colorful plastic dinosaurs living inside Easter egg-sized, clear plastic homes, with a texture similar to that of an un-started bar of soap. To go with them, I made some match-up sheets to encourage the kids to examine the eggs and play with them a little. I think it worked pretty well, although only one or two kids wound up doing it.

Some "egg-xamining" in action:

**** The dinosaur bones kit + matching and measuring cards were also a loan from our county library system. They're super-cool, but didn't get a ton of attention during the program (but, to be fair, they were competing with a sand box). Basically I received a canvas bag filled with pretty realistic-seeming (both in weight and in texture) dinosaur bones and some cool cards to match them up with to make different dino parts or measure the different bones. STEM central.

At the end of play/craft time, I wrapped up with one more book: Dinosaur Vs. The Library by Bob Shea, which went over ALMOST as well as The Super Hungry Dinosaur, but nottttt quite.

What worked least: I don't know if there was really anything in this program that I'd say "didn't work", per-say. It was really a great group! However, I think for the amount of time and brain-power that I spent trying to find and learn All Around the Swamp, it wasn't super-appreciated. Mostly the kids were ready to move on to the toys and crafts at this point. But now that it's in my repertoire, I'm happy to have it. So no big deal!

What worked best: The Super Hungry Dinosaur by Martin Waddell was SUCH a hit! I highly recommend it for the ages 3-5 crowd! They seriously adored it.

Books n Play for Pre-K 1/27/16: A Mixed Bag

Yay, Books n Play for Pre-K! I've written about this program so many times before but it's different every time that I do it and sometimes, the mood strikes and I just straight up wanna write about it again. Wednesday's group was, quite literally, the young and the restless. I had a chatty collection of moms and a justtttt barely eligible collection of kids. It wasn't my smoothest of programs, but I'm really proud of the cool stuff I did and I wanted to show it off. And also, I write about successful programs a lot. And unfortunately, once in a while, one isn't as successful, and those programs deserve attention too (maybe even more attention, really). So, without further ado... Books n Play for Pre-K, 1/27/16, AKA Books n Play for Pre-K, A Mixed Bag:

Wednesday's theme was colors. I leaned on some book stand-bys this week, although I did try out a brand new song, thanks to TeachingMama.org. As usual, first up was our Hello Song (still A New Way to Say Hello by Big Jeff... always A New Way to Say Hello by Big Jeff), and then I read Dog's Colorful Day by Emma Dodd (coupled with corresponding "spots" that I made [contact paper covered card stock with tape for sticking] and our adorable Golden Retriever puppet from Folkmanis). Then I read Pete the Cat, I Love My White Shoes by James Dean. The kids were SO good during these books--super-smart and good at counting, singing, and color identification. A PLEASURE, despite being the young and the restless. For my song, I introduced the color song, an adorable find from TeachingMama.org. It's not only cute and easy-to-pick-up-on, it's interactive too! Here's how it goes:

I had the kids put their fingers on their heads, smile, frown, etc. I'm not sure if they all got the concept entirely, but either way, everyone had fun. Here they are stomping with all their might:

Then it was time to break off for 20-minutes or so of crafts and play. Here's where the chaos started. This is usually the highlight of the program for many of the kids, and maybe it's because of that that I have high expectations for myself regarding what kinds of stuff I put out...and maybe it's because of THAT, that I get annoyed when it's more chaotic than it should be. So when, for whatever the reason, the kids were super antsy, I found this part of the program to be just really frustrating.

Here's what was at the craft table:

1. Dog from Dog's Colorful Day coloring sheets and do-a-dot markers (see below) *
2. Pete the Cat, I Love My ____ Shoes coloring sheets (similar to the ones that can be downloaded here)
3. Blank rainbows printed on card stock + water colors, paint brushes, and water
4. Hand print color mixing (as seen here from De Mello Teaching) (see below) **

And here's what was at the toy table:

1. Early Math Activity Jars from Lakeshore, set up for sorting the balls by color (see below) ***
2. Colorful wood blocks
3. Color sneaker matching game from MessForLess.net
4. Chromatography Science Experiment! (see below) ****

* The Dog's Colorful Day print-outs are from MakeLearningFun.com. I put these out with dot markers (like these), so the kids could dot-up dog like in the book. Whenever I use these print-outs, I always think "eh, just an easy extra thing to put out," but then, they wind up being one of the kids' favorite activities! That knowledge alone should teach me to keep it simple (but it doesn't). Anyway, the kids love using the dot markers! And I think the story-tie-in makes this one especially exciting for them. Also, the dot markers are pretty un-messy so we all like that! Here's some pictures of dotting fun:

** The hand print color mixing has been hit or miss. I've had success with it in the past, but on Wednesday, it didn't really work. I am blaming this again on the younger age of the kids. Here are pictures of the this craft when it was done successfully over the summer:

Look how cute it was! But, unfortunately, on Wednesday...a totally different story. The littler ones b-lined straight for the paint and, before I was even able to explain what they were supposed to do, they just went at it. So we have: the young and the restless + paint + no direction = A MESS. Then, once the haphazard painting started, it was impossible to get make it go away. Everyone freely painted landscapes, scribbles, and sweepingly long versions of their names. I tried to right it, but they were in too deep. At least they enjoyed it.

*** This is the Early Math Activity Jars from Lakeshore set up for sorting the balls by color:

The kit itself allows you to sort balls, cubes, and pyramids by color, shape, and number. But I decided to keep it simple and just put one kind of sorting activity out. This went over better than I'd expected! In particular, I had a little brother who couldn't pull himself away from the sorting jars.

**** I was really excited about this chromatography experiment! I got the idea for it from the Science Buddies kit that I borrowed from the Suffolk Cooperative Library System. Unfortunately, most of the science experiment stuff in the kit was too old for my crew, but, after a good amount of testing different things out, I was able to take their version of a chromatography experiment and modify it to work for the 3-5's.

Here's how you do the experiment: 

1. Take a piece of paper towel and dip it in water (not until it's totally saturated, but wet enough). 

2. Use a black marker to scribble a big splotch on the paper plate. Not all black markers work! I had two different ones that I used and I found that Mr. Sketch worked the better.

3. Use the wet paper towel to “wipe up” the black splotch. 

4. Wait a few seconds, then watch what happens on the paper towel. 

Spoiler: There are colors! Red and blue and black! It's cool! Here is a picture of some results:

I think the small number of kids that did the chromatography experiment were into it. And I think one or two of them even "got it," like, understood that the point of it was to see that the color black was actually made up of many other colors. Unfortunately, not a ton of kids were interested in trying the experiment, so it went largely ignored. So disappointing!

At the end of play/craft time, I wrapped up with one more stand-by story: Mouse Paint by Ellen Stoll Walsh. This is when the chatty moms were at their chattiest. I actually had to shush them, which is totally awkward for me. Any tips on shushing noisy moms would be greatly appreciated!

What worked least: Ugh! I'd say the hand print color mixing--or lack there of, was probably my biggest disappointment of the program. However, it worked great over the summer! Don't dismiss it! With the right group, it can be a great activity.

What worked second-least: The chatty moms. Please, folks, any tips for shushing them in a non-awkward way would be welcomed. Let me also say that I can't really use a "set up the ground rules at the start of the program" type method. These patrons were late, and, in general, lateness is something I'm pretty easy-going about. What I need is something to-the-point and maybe even funny that I can say quickly, mid-book, to the offending chatters.

What worked best: Time to be positive. Dog's Colorful Day by Emma Dodd and Pete the Cat, I Love My White Shoes by James Dean have always worked well for me. They probably always will work well for me. Can't go wrong with the stand-bys! Also, my new color song from TeachingMama.org was awesome! Highly recommended!

Books n Play For Pre-K 9/30/15

Today I had my first class of this fall's Books n Play for Pre-K program. I've written about the format of Books n Play for Pre-K in several past posts. Today, the theme was fall. After our Hello Song (still A New Way to Say Hello by Big Jeff), I started off with the book Stuck by Oliver Jeffers followed by Ten Apples Up on Top by Dr. Seuss. The kids LOVED both! They appropriately laughed all the way through Stuck and were quiet, in that memorized, listening to a good book way through Ten Apples Up on Top (minus a few interruptions to say "That's a lot!" when the animals successfully balanced eight apples on their heads). Success!

This was my first time reading Ten Apples Up on Top in a storytime and, as I've mentioned before, reading Dr. Seuss out loud makes me nervous. Wording is so important when you're reading Dr. Suess because it's so rhymey and sing-songy. If you miss or flub a word, you can't cover it up easily or tell parts of the story from memory. Each word plays a vital role in the rhythm. But after braving one of his books this summer (What Pet Should I Get?), I was feeling confident enough to attempt another today. And Ten Apples Up on Top is so cute and theme-appropriate! So I tried it. In fact, I did flub some words, but the kids didn't notice or care. I just re-read the phrase and all remained ok. Nothing was lost and the funniness of the story still came through perfectly. While I probably should have given this a practice out loud read ahead of time, I managed ok anyway! And I conquered a fear!

After the two books we sang The Leaves on the Tree as seen below, thanks to good ol' Jbrary:

And I added a verse: The people in the yards go rake rake rake.

The kids enjoyed this song because they already knew The Wheels on the Bus. So changing it up was fun for them.

Then it was time to break off for the craft and play time.

Here's what was at the craft table: 

1. Dot-leaf painted trees. (See below)

2. Apple I-Spy sheets from Life Over C's. 

3. Leaf rubbing with crayons. (See below)

 And here's what was at the toy table: 

1. Fall matching game, printed out from Free Homeschool Deals.

2. Big colorful blocks (like Duplos x3). 

3. Florist puzzles (similar to this).

4. Homemade cinnamon slime! I combined several Pinterest recipes for this. (See below for recipe)

The dot-leaf tree craft was super easy! The template was a really simple document made in Microsoft Word. Using the shapes tool, I just drew a circle shape toward the top and then overlapped it with an elongated trapezoid shooting out the bottom. Like the simplest possible tree-shape ever. You can download the PDF here!

The trees might look kind of unimpressive before they're painted but once you use a q-tip to dot the leaf part of the tree with fall colors, and a sponge brush to fill in the bark, the results are pretty cool:

Again, you can download the PDF here! 

I expected more excitement for leaf rubbing, to be honest. I walked around outside IN THE RAIN this morning, gathering the perfect variety of different shaped and textured leaves. I peeled perfectly good crayons so they'd have good rubbing sides. But despite this, sadly, leaf rubbing was not a hit. In fact the boy below, a good sport, was the only kid to even attempt it and frankly, he wasn't super thrilled to be doing it. So, oh well.

The homemade cinnamon slime was the other big hit of the afternoon. I don't mean to take credit for this slime in any way. All I did was combine a bunch of different slime recipes I found on Pinterest. But here is how I made my particular batch of slime:

In one bowl: 1 teaspoon Borax with 1/2 cup of warm water.

In another bowl: 2 bottles of Elmers white glue, two empty Elmers white glue bottles refilled with warm water (which also gets some of the extra glue out), food coloring (one batch with green, one batch with yellow [which I thought was red-- woops.]), and cinnamon essential oil.

Then toss the Borax mix into the other glue mix and it will immediately get super icky super fast. If you're as lucky as me, you'll have a willing page to do the yucky hand mixing for you. If not, you'll have to get in with your hands and sort of kneed it around. If you let it sit for a minute or two after that, you should find yourself with slime! We made two batches:

Like I said earlier, the slime was a big hit and the kids were awesome at not eating it, even though it smelled delicious. I also decided to let them all take home some slime (because really, what was I going to do with it?) and they were really great about taking only a small amount each. Smart and good sharers-- it's official: I already like this group! 

At the end, of play/craft time, I wrapped up with one more story: Little Yellow Leaf by Carin Berger. The kids weren't super into it (to be fair, they'd just been given slime) but several of the grandparents and older caregivers called it "a nice story." I guess I should be happy the kids were quiet at all after just playing with the cinnamon slime, really.

Then we did my new favorite goodbye song, Bread & Butter (I still love and use Blow a Kiss by Laurie Berkner in all my other programs, I just needed some variety!):

What worked least: Probably Little Yellow Leaf. It was just too calm and naturey for a post-play session story. I actually had a feeling this might happen. Shoulda listened to my gut.

What worked best: The homemeade cinnamon slime! The kids totally loved just mushing it up and making lines and snakes and balls with it. I need to remember to incorporate more simple, sensory activities with this group. They like it more than I'd realized.

Books n Play For Pre-K 7/15/15

This morning I had my second session of a four-week-long Book n Play for Pre-K program. My theme was Things That Go. Last week's class (summer-themed and including both an Elephant and Piggie book and a sandbox) went so well that I was afraid I couldn't top it today. I was actually nervous--thinking that the only direction I could go this week was down. But it went well! I wouldn't say it topped last week, but I would say that maybe it tied. And everyone had a great time!

I've written about the format of my Books n Play for Pre-K program in several past posts. This morning I started off with Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus by Mo Willems. This And then I read In The Driver's Seat by Max Haynes, which I accompanied with paper steering wheels I made, shown below:

This particular group loves books. Both last week and this week I started the program off with two books in a row and they were literally captivated the whole time. It's not something I did or didn't do--it's just this particular group. But they were basically every children's librarian's dream. (FYI: Last week I began with How Will We Get To the Beach by Brigette Luciani and Elephant and Piggie: Should I Share my Ice Cream? by Mo Willems.)

After the books, I considered singing Wheels on the Bus, but in Musical Kids, Laurie Berkner's Rocketship Run + rocket handouts is always the star of the show, so, really, why not do more that? Not only that, but doing Rocketship Run instead of Wheels on the Bus gave me the opportunity to read Lenny Hort's Seals on the Bus after play/craft time without it all being too much of the same thing. So this was perfect. Rocketship Run, like I have said before, is always everyone's favorite.

Then it was time for play and craft time.

Here's what was at the craft table:

1. Toilet Paper Roll Cars: Made with toilet paper rolls (obviously), this template, crayons, scissors and tape. (See below)
2. These "Fabulous Foam Self-Adhesive Transportation Shapes" from Oriental Trading with white paper and crayons.
3. Bottle Top Boat making supplies. (See below)

And here's what was at the toy table:

1. An array of wood blocks and matchbox cars so kids could set up different types of tracks and race cars around them.
2. Our neighborhood/streets rug (similar to one of these) and a bunch of wood cars (similar to these).
3. A large bin of water for floating the Bottle Top Boats mentioned above. (See blow)

Here's my sample Toilet Paper Roll Car (And again here is the template.):

And here's the scoop on the Bottle Top Boat making and Bottle Top Boat floating:

This was fun in that cool, science experiment way, but also kind of frustrating in that it was probably too hard for the kids. Every single Bottle Top Boat that was made sunk on the first try. The craft I had in mind went like this:

* 1 bottle top

* 1 small ball of play-dough, glued down for security

* 1 toothpick stuck into that blob

* 1 masking tape flag/sail near the top of the toothpick

In actuality, it played out like this: The kids packed the bottle top full of play-dough, stuck in the toothpick, carefully cut a masking tape flag with their parent or guardian, excitedly carried it over to the bin of water, and then watched as the whole contraption sunk to the bottom like a stone.

For many of the kids, it took two tries to get it right, but once they realized it was a matter of using less play-dough, it worked! And it was exciting! We all cheered! So really, the trial and error thing was cool. Dare I say, it was educational. I think I subtly (and accidentally) gave the kids a bit of an early hands-on science lesson. So in that regard, the Bottle Top Boats did work. However, for one or two kids, the thing just never floated. The concept of the tiny play-dough ball was just too hard for their little fingers. And that was probably frustrating for them.

Additionally, this was M-E-S-S-Y. Like wayyyy grosser than I'd realized. I didn't anticipate it. The mess happened when you pulled the sunken boat out of the water bin. The combination of wet play-dough + wet glue + wet masking tape turned into a paste that got under your finger nails and was both sticky and crumply at the same time. Yuck. I had to pull out the emergency baby wipes.

Anyway, here are the first two boats to successfully float and their makers:

And here's a picture of the craft table in action:

After play/craft time I wrapped up with Seals on the Bus by Lenny Hort, the Hokey Pokey, and my go-to goodbye song (Blow A Kiss by Laurie Berkner). The kids and parents both got a kick out of Seals on the Bus. I think you're never too old to make animal noises.

What worked best: It's no surprise that Rocketship Run stole the spotlight, as usual. I explained this in an older post also, but the kids are so funny when we do this song. When I hold up a given sign (the sun sign, moon sign, stars sign, and Earth sign), they all run up and touch their rockets to it, like they're really "going" to the sun/moon/etc. I've never told them to do this yet in every class--and in many different sets of children--it happens. It's so cute and funny!

What worked least: The Bottle Top Boat making and Bottle Top Boat floating-- for reasons explained above. The science experiment element of it was fun, but I'd imagine it was frustrating for the kids to make "duds," especially those whose "duds" never turned into "non-duds."

Two more Books n Play for Pre-K classes in this session, then I'll be taking a break from it until the fall! Next week's theme is animals so I'll present this question: What's your favorite animal song or simple animal craft?