Preschool: M for Moon

I really wanted to do something with a Moon for M because I thought it would be cool and different but had a hard time finding activities to do.

So, after the kids arrived and we sang some songs, I read "The Moon might be Milk" by Lisa Shulman. I really like this book. It's about a little girl who asks different animals what they think the milk is made of and then they all go to her grandma to find out the real answer. Well, her smart grandma pulled from every one's guesses and made sugar cookies and cut them into a crescent moon shape. The really cool thing about the grandma is that she didn't tell anyone that they were right or wrong but just helped the little girl make up her own mind on what she thinks it is.

Then I found puffy paint at notimeforflashcards. The "paint" is made up of 1/2c of glue and 1 1/2 c. of shaving cream which makes a lot. I thought the kids would really get into it and use their hands to paint, which Hailey, Hannah and Robert did. Audrey does not like getting messy so she asked for a paint brush (which I had handy, I just wanted to see what she would do). And we had Briella over who did not touch hers at all.

So here is a picture of the two extremes; Briella's-not touched and Hailey's -thoroughly enjoyed.
After they dry I'll cut circles out for the moon.
Then I was afraid of not having enough time, which was the case. They immediately wanted down and to play with the toys after the moon painting. So, after quickly cleaning up hands and the table, I bribed them back to the table with marshmallows (which starts with M).

Then I had enough time to get the paint ready for them to color their moon rocks. I got this idea from DLTK which basically said since no one knows what a moon rock looks like, just give them different material and let the kids at it. Then sprinkle sand or glitter for moon dust.

So I gave them blue and white paint.

I didn't give Briella or Robert any brushes or paint to help a little bit with the craziness of kids painting.

I didn't have any glitter, so for the moon dust I gave them sugar and sprinkles.

So here are their moon rocks.

And this picture has their moons drying so we can use them for the night sky next time.

M is for Monkey Mail!!!

I've been very excited about doing Monkey Mail for the letter M since I found the idea on http://www.dltk-teach.com/


We started with the Itsy Bitsy Book for the letter M. We reviewed the M-words by looking at my book while I cut hers out. She even helped me color by added more blue to the milk.Hailey was allowed to use Markers to color the monkey. When we finished one page, I cut it out while she did the next one.

We also talked about facial features while I glued all the pieces together.

YEAH!!!! Here is the completed Monkey Mailbox. To keep the monkey up straight I glued him to a Popsicle stick.

While we waited for the glue to dry, we read monkey books. We read "Five Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed" and "Five Little Monkeys with Nothing to Do" by Eileen Christelow. Hailey loves the books and shakes her little finger at the jumping monkeys. I wanted to read "Meerkat Mail" by Emily Gravett but we run out of time. (Robert is teething so when he's awake he is generally fussy.)

After her nap time, the mail carrier came. Hailey was excited to get the letters in her own mailbox. This letter up above is from her Grampa. He wrote the letter to her in the shape of a M.

I love her cute little face as she looks at the letters.

It was fun to read the letters with her. These will be a great thing to keep and look back at when she can read. I think she will really treasure them.

I was reading Hailey the letter from her Aunt Kerstin. It was so cute hearing her say "Monkey" and "Kerstin", I tried to record.

Here's a picture of Hailey's Monkey Mail and mailbox. Thank you so much to those who wrote letters. It made it more enjoyable to have letters from other people besides her parents.