Preschooler Activities for St. Patrick's Day

Today is my little boy's FIFTH birthday. I can't believe it. Especially since I revisited some of these older posts from when my two oldest were just three and one. It really does sail by.

Leprechaun Hats:

 We are studying the letter H right now so we made these hats which work well for St. Patty's day too! Step by step instructions found over at the East Coast Mommy Blog. They were quick and easy to make and then they spent a good half hour decorating them with stickers.

We made a mess. We are SO good at that.

Just as I was about to take this picture Edison whips around with these scissors, opening and closing them as fast as he can. Stinker.

(Our Family Systems poster is explained HERE)

Shamrock Search

 We did a hunt for the letter H on these shamrocks and they wanted to do it over and over again. I had them put buttons on different letters (after we did the H) and then we would clear the board and go again!

When we were bored with the letters we moved onto SHAPES and then NUMBERS.

The possibilities are endless. And now, I will be following the lead of my little five year old today. FIVE. Happy Pi Day!

Here is a blast from the past and some fun ideas for St. Patrick's Day this week:

Shamrock Memory Game & Crafty Rainbows

Rainbow Cupcakes

Fun St. Patrick's Day Facts

The Letter A

Here we go! Here are some Letter A activities that we've been working on. First, we did "A is for Ants." I went to our library and found some books on ants and ant colonies. Our librarians are incredible, people. Do you know your local librarians? I think they are such fantastic resources and so willing to help out. Mine even printed out information from the internet on how to make your own ant farm! I haven't attempted that yet, but I'd like to try something like this.

I found this idea to make ants with your fingerprints in black paint, crawling over a hill that is the letter A. And for some reason, I only took this one, very unhelpful picture. I had some extra kids over that day:

But they ended up looking something like this:

 Moments of Mommyhood

While they crafted, I read the books about ants and we talked about it a bit. I also played the video clip on YouTube for the Letter A from Sesame Street. We love these videos. 

And that was all we did that week.

Then we went to Kauai. Without our children.

A different kind of activity time.

 

 

It was incredible. Need I say more?

Then we came home. 

*Sigh.

And we started back in with A is for Alligators! My kids have LOVED talking about alligators. I don't know why. Edison might really believe there is one living under his bed. 

Thanks to this great book:

There's an Alligator Under My Bed

I cut out giant letter A's out of green paper and lots of teeth out of white paper.

 Then I cut out the shape of the eyes (bottom of above pic) where we glued googly eyes. Nice and simple people; do you see a theme here? (Source for this idea found here.)

 Ed glued the teeth all over the A and I was just happy he was participating!

And not eating the glue stick.

 The next day, it was raining so I decided to do some more activities with our alligators. I hid the two that they made in different spots and we played this game I threw together using things I had around the house.

 My kids love the song "Five Little Monkeys" where they tease Mr. Alligator. I had this tree my oldest daughter made for a family night activity, so I put five pom-pons in the tree, representing monkeys. This activity is not meant to impress anyone.

Had I prepared a little more, I could have printed out five pictures of actual monkeys and colored them, or laminated them.

I like the pom-poms.

 I colored a clothes-pin with a green marker and we sang our song and they got to SNATCH that monkey right out of that tree! They loved it.

Then I got really quiet and told them that there were two REAL alligators hiding in our house.

And they believed me.

'Cause I'm the mom and I hold that much power.

They searched around until they found their alligators from the day before. Then they made those alligators eat the pom-pom monkeys out of the tree and we sang the song a few more times.

(Do you like the mixed-matched half-gone pajamas we have on here??)

That afternoon, my Eloise was bored and STILL wanted more alligators in our house, so we made a very simple craft using a paper plate, green paint, white paper teeth, and googly eyes. She did most of it on her own ("More teeth please mom!).

Run with it! Email me your crafts. I'll share them and praise you for your hard work.

Know you're doing a good job, whatever you're doing with your kids.

These are just ideas if you need them.

Don't stress.

You're amazing.

Letter of the Week

Let's talk about ACTIVITY TIME. I think it's the best thing I've ever done, but I also know it can sound overwhelming. Here's some answers to common questions:

I almost never prepare the night before. I do keep an "art cabinet" filled with basic supplies (funny, it started out as a "Fancy Nancy bucket," but now its a cabinet). I always do activity time in the morning, with the kids that are at home. We do activity time every day, but it does NOT always include a crafty craft. We count library trips, our local museum, walks, etc. as activity time together. Sometimes the days I plan the most are the days that fall apart immediately and I've learned to LET GO and follow what my kids want to do, even if it's just jumping on the trampoline with me until I pee my pants. I go through the alphabet, focusing on one letter a week, but sometimes we go two or three weeks on the same letter, depending on how many fun things we want to do with that letter. I introduce the letter on Monday, we go to the library on Tuesday and find books that are about that letter, and go from there. It totally works for me, and hopefully you can find some helpful tips here that will work for you.

Starting a Letter of the Week schedule was one of the best things I ever did for activity time with my kids. It's simple, easy to track, and gives a nice backbone to the limitless things I want to teach my kids. We just finished our second time through the alphabet the week before Charlotte started Kindergarten and it felt so good to celebrate her big step into school with that much anticipated letter Z. The whole thing was bittersweet to me, but the best part was knowing that I had been the one to introduce all 26 letters in fun, interactive ways. And it really felt good when she would randomly say, "H-H-Horse! That starts with an H!" and I knew I taught her that.

Even if you have your child enrolled in a preschool, doing Letter of the Week activities is a great way to play with them and teach them all kinds of new things, all the while reinforcing those basic building blocks of our language.

With that said, we are starting over now with my three (almost four) year old, Eloise, and my two year old, Edison. I will be posting weekly about our Letter of the Week activities, so come check it out if you need ideas and want to follow along. My greatest resources for our activities are Alison McDonald's No Time for Flashcards, Pinterest, and my local library. I will post our activities on my Instagram as well.

Tomorrow I'll be posting what we've done this week for the Letter A. Has a little to do with ants and a LOT to do with alligators...

Meanwhile, here's a funny video of Edison today (best part is at the end):