Five Senses Crafts and Activities

Take a variety of scented items and have your child try to identify them by scent.

Some items to try:

• Vanilla
• Cinnamon
• Flowers
• Onions
• Chives
• Basil
• Lemon
• Sage leaves

Some of the leaves can be crushed between the children’s fingers. Others can be scraped and smelled.

You can blindfold the child and see if he or she can identify the scents.

Memory Match Smell Game

• Take a variety of scented items and have your child try to identify them by scent.

Make a Smell Book

• Cut pictures out of magazines or print them offline. Items like flowers, skunks, foods, and garbage.

Five Senses Snacks

Eat with your fingers for one snack day.

Eat smelly foods blindfolded another snack day. Let the kids guess what they are eating by smell and taste only.

Or buy some baby food jars and let the kids guess what they are by taste.

Make a Smell Book

Cut pictures out of magazines or print them offline. Items like flowers, skunks, foods, and garbage.

Then, have your child cut the images out and glue them into a smell book by which items smell good and which items smell bad.

Winter Crafts and Activities

You look outside and see a beautiful blanket of white snow covering the ground. The kids are inside getting more and more restless as the morning progresses. Turn off the TV, bundle up the kids, and head outside for some old-fashioned fun in the snow.

Snowman
Who says lumps of coal are a bad thing at Christmastime? All you need to make a snowman is a few lumps of coal (or rocks) for eyes and a mouth, a carrot for a nose, sticks for arms, and a scarf and hat to keep him warm, and you’ll have a snowman to make Frosty the Snowman envious. If you have very ambitious children, send them out to make an entire snow family. Your kids will be entertained for hours.

Snow Angels
Have your kids lay down in the snow and move their arms up and down, and their legs in and out. Then, have them stand up. Your little angel will have made an angel in the snow. Add glitter or a garland halo to make your snow angel sparkle.

Build a Snow Fort or Igloo
There’s no cheaper way to build a playhouse than with snow. Invest in some warm mittens for your kids, and send them outside with some buckets. They may get inspired and create an entire home, with snow-furniture and decorations. You may even provide them with a spray-bottle with water and food-coloring so they can ‘paint’ their igloo. Serve them hot cocoa with yummy marshmallows in their new home.

Snowball Fight
Older kids love a good snowball fight. If you have a fluffy snowy day, jump into the fray with your kids and show them how a good snowball fight is done.

Winter Theme Snacks
Hot cocoa with marshmallows — yum!

Winter Wonderland

Let it Snow is often a huge wish for Christmas. Small children delight in watching the snow come down and cover the ground while waiting on Santa Claus to come and visit them. This game can give your preschoolers an opportunity to play in the “snow” while inside where it’s warm and cozy.

You will need a bag of packing popcorn, plastic buckets for each child, two shovels and two big containers that are the same size to pour the popcorn into when the game is completed. You will also need small prizes for the winning team and a Christmas CD to play.

Start by placing the packing popcorn out on the floor. Spread it out evenly so it will be easier for the children to scoop up in their buckets. Also try to find some that is small but not too tiny. You want it to be easy to scoop up but big enough that the children don’t slide on it while playing the game.

After you have placed the packing popcorn on the floor divide the children into two teams. Place one team on one side of the room facing the packing popcorn and the other team should be directly across from the first team.

Give each child a bucket and the first child of each team a shovel. Start playing the music. When the music starts the first child of each team will start scooping the popcorn up with the shovel and placing it in the bucket. When the music stops the child must stop filing his or her bucket. The shovel is passed to the next child and play continues until all the children have snow in their bucket.

Then have each child from each team empty their bucket into their container. The team with the most snow in their team container is the winner. It’s like a winter wonderland in their own classroom and they will laugh and laugh as the snow flies into their buckets and the warmth of fun fills their hearts.

Snow Globe

Children become very excited when they see a snow globe. They like to watch the snowfall and gleam in the wonder of it all. Preschoolers can make their own snow globes pretty easy. With your help and a few simple items they can have their own homemade snow globe to place in their room at home.

You will need to ask the children a few weeks ahead of time to bring in their own jar. They can use glass, but plastic is much safer for smaller children. If you know someone who has a baby and is eating baby food you might ask them to save the jars and lids for you. Then the children won’t need to bring anything in from home. Smaller jars are easier for young children to handle also. Once you have the jars be sure they are clean including the lids.

You will also need small Christmas figurines, small sequins, shower and tub sealing silicone and mineral oil. These items are easy to find in craft stores. They are also pretty inexpensive to purchase.

This craft will take a couple of days for the children to complete. All the silicone must dry completely before you have a finished product to enjoy. Start by gluing the figurine the child has picked to the underneath side of the lid. You will need the silicone for this and it must be left overnight to dry completely.

Once the silicone has dried the children can place the sequins in the bottom of the jar. This will be their snow. Sequins come in many different sizes and colors. Try to find small sequins that are Mother of Pearl in color. This creates the best snow and they fall well in mineral oil. If you can’t find Mother of Pearl, plain white or silver also works well.

Place the mineral oil in a large bowl. Each globe will need to be placed in the bowl one at a time to fill. Submerge the jar completely in the mineral oil. Be careful that the sequins don’t come out into the larger bowl. Once the jar is completely submerged place the lid on the jar as tightly as possible. This also needs to be submerged to be sure that the jar is completely filled. Twist the lid on the jar a bit more and remove from the mineral oil.

When you remove the jar, place it upside down (lid down) on a towel and then dry the outside of jar and lid completely. Using the silicone sealant, secure the lid to the jar completely around the lid. This will secure the lid, but also keeps any air pockets from forming where the mineral oil can leak out. Let it dry overnight.

Once dry let the kids decorate the outside of their snow globe. They can use stickers, glitter pens and even finger paint. Just remind them that they do want to see the snow falling so be sure to leave some area’s where they can see the inside of the globe.

Once the decorations are dry and set they will have their completed snow globe. What fun they will have watching the snow float down around their figurine. They will be proud of the snow globe they created themselves and you and their parents will have fun watching them play with their newest creation over and over again.

Dressing Frosty

All children get a tickle out of building a snowman. Unfortunately some places never get much snow around Christmas time if they get any at all. This game will give the children a chance to dress Frosty in their own classroom.

You will need to supply the children with clothing for Frosty. Hats, scarves, gloves, coats and even a red clown or carrot nose will work. Place these items in two different boxes, one for each team.

You will need two adults to help play this game. You and an aid or even a couple of parents who have come for the party will be great. Just be sure they are willing to have little children crawling all over them, dressing them and laughing all the while. They will also need to be able to be on their knees for a period time. By standing on their knees the children will be able to reach them better to place a hat on their head and so on.

Divide the children into two teams. Place your snowman and their clothes on one side of the room and the children on the other. Have the first child in line from each team walk to the snowman and place one item of clothing on their snowman. When they have finished have them walk back to the end of their team line. The next child will then go down and do the same. Play continues until one team has used all their clothing items in the box to dress their Frosty. The first team with a fully dressed snowman wins.

This can be a lot of fun for everyone who is playing. Dressing their own Frosty gives the children a little bit of wintertime fun and a lot of Christmas glee.

Spring Crafts and Activities

Spring has sprung and now it’s time to take in all the newness in the air. Here are some fun spring themed crafts you can do with your preschooler.

Bouquet of Handprint Flowers

Here’s yet another idea for using those precious little hands for something other than making a mess! Parents will love this because anything with handprints of their children show how they’ve great and are great keepsakes. This is an adorable craft that’s not too messy. You’ll need to help the children with the tracing and cutting.

Supplies You’ll Need:

• paper plate
• Colored construction paper (the more colors the better)
• Glue stick
• Pencil
• Scissors

How to create your bouquet:

1. Trace the children’s hands at least 10 times on different colored construction paper.

2. Cut the handprints out.

3. Use the glue stick to glue the handprint outlines, with fingers pointing out, around the edges of the paper plate.

4. Glue the next set of hand outlines (again, fingers pointed OUT) a few inches inside of the first circle of hands.

5. Continue this pattern until all the handprints have been glued to the paper plate.

6. Cut a small circle out of a piece of construction paper and place it in the middle of the “flower” and fluff your petals.

7. Once everyone in the class has completed their flower, stick them all on the wall and make a classroom flower garden or bouquet for everyone to see. When it’s time to take them down send them home for parents to save.

Holidays Crafts and Activities

Holidays from New Years to Christmas are a great excuse to teach your preschool child with crafts and activities.

• Valentine’s Day
• President’s Day
• Easter
• Earth Day
• Cinco de Mayo
• Mother’s Day & Father’s Day
• Halloween
• Thanksgiving
• Christmas
• Hanukkah

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