Preschool

Super Soft Pumpkin Play Dough

August 9, 2018 by Stacy Leave a Comment

Fall is just around the corner so you may be planning your fall fun centers. Add super soft pumpkin play dough to your list! It’s going to be a hit. Have the kids help make this recipe, it’s just a few ingredients and quite simple. Add pumpkin cookie dough cutters to emphasize the fall and pumpkin themes. Looking for some simple fall science centers? Check them out there.

Thanks for reading! Subscribe to Share & Remember or follow me via Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest. This post may contain affiliate links which means I may earn a small amount of money when you purchase through the link. Full disclosure policy here. Your privacy is respected. Read our privacy policy here.

Super Soft Pumpkin Play Dough

Supplies Needed:

2 Cups Flour
½ Cup Vegetable Oil
½ Cup Canned Pumpkin

Directions

Place all ingredients in a bowl and mix well.
Take out of the bowl and knead for about a minute until flour is incorporated. If playdough sticks to your hands, then add a little bit more flour and mix.
Play on a wipeable surface, as it will leave a little oily residue. Store in an airtight container for continuous play.

how to make process photos of Super Soft Pumpkin Play Dough Recipe for Fall Sensory Centers in Preschool

What’s in the Box? Friends & Feelings

August 7, 2018 by Stacy Leave a Comment

September’s Mother Goose Time‘s box is here! The theme is Friends and Feelings, a great way to start out the school year. We’re going to learn about Making Friends, Feelings, Caring and Communication. Along with those topics we’ll learn about the character trait: kindness, the color blue, circle shape, letters F, H & T and numbers 1 & 2. See what’s all new in the post below and the flipbook from Mother Goose Time.

Friends & Feelings

Teacher Tool Bag

Teacher Guides

Loose Parts Literacy

Saying Hello

Places Friends Meet

You Are Special

Forest Friends Storybook

Getting to Know You & Letter Ff Little Letter Books

Happy

Sad

Mad & I Can Read Book

Surprised Little Letter Book Hh

Include Everyone

Share

Care

Say Sorry

Work Together

Body Language

Phones

Mail

Technology

Good Listening

Next Month: Orchard Harvest

I received curriculum from Mother Goose Time for honest and authentic stories resulting from my daily experiences using the curriculum. After using Mother Goose Time for about 10 years, I am pleased to promote quality educational learning experiences through play with Mother Goose Time! #sponsored #MGTblogger

Mother Goose Time | Facebook | Twitter | Pinterest | Instagram

Animal Toast Snacks for Kids with Printable Directions

August 2, 2018 by Stacy Leave a Comment

How cute are these animal toast snacks?? Kids will love these fun and fairly healthy snacks any time of the day. Let the kids help make them too, that’s part of the fun! Print the recipe pages for the kids to follow the directions and make their own snack. See the directions and photos below for animal toast snacks for kids with printable directions. Try a fish, a dog, a monkey or a bear snack to go along with a favorite book. These animal toast snacks coordinate well with preschool themes too. Make a bear snack to go along with Goldilocks and the Three Bears, Going on a Bear Hunt, Teddy Bears’ Picnic and Bear Snores On. So many ideas!

Thanks for reading! Subscribe to Share & Remember or follow me via Instagram, Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest. This post may contain affiliate links which means I may earn a small amount of money when you purchase through the link. Full disclosure policy here. Your privacy is respected. Read our privacy policy here.

Animal Toast

Ingredients:

Bread
Cream Cheese
Nutella
Strawberries
Blueberries
Bananas
Raspberries
Black decorating gel

Fish Toast

Toast your piece of bread.
Spread cream cheese on the toast.
Turn the toast on the side.
Slice strawberries and lay over ¾ of the toast creating the fish scales.
Pick a blueberry to add to the cream cheese for an eye.
For a smile, slice a strawberry sliver to form.

Puppy Toast

Toast a piece of bread.
Cut the toast into 3 pieces with the middle being the biggest.
Spread cream cheese over the middle piece.
Using Nutella, make a circle on the cream cheese.
Add two blueberry eyes – one in the middle of the Nutella and the other next to it.
Add a raspberry nose.
Using decorating gel, draw a smile.
Spread Nutella over the other two pieces. These will be the ears.

Monkey Toast

Toast a piece of bread.
Spoon Nutella over the toast.
Slice a banana into round pieces.
Cut one of the pieces in half and use it to create a mouth.
Cut another piece of banana in half to make the monkey’s ears.
Add two blueberry eyes.

Bear Toast

Toast a piece of bread.
Spread Nutella over the toast.
Slice a banana into round pieces. Add one to the toast.
Add two blueberry eyes.
Spoon a dot of Nutella on a third blueberry and add on top of the banana slice for a nose.

Free Printable Recipe PDFs

Download PDF Printable Recipes here >>> Printable Animal Toast Recipes from Share & Remember

Fun Lion & The Mouse Fable Activities

August 2, 2018 by Stacy Leave a Comment

It’s August! Time to start our Folktales & Fables lessons with Mother Goose Time. We started with Aesop’s Fables, the Lion and the Mouse. The characters in this fable are a lion and a mouse. The moral teaches us how to be helpful and kind no matter your size. Check out these fun lion & the mouse fable activities we did for day one. If you’re interested in what’s in the Mother Goose Time box each month, see this post: WHAT’S IN THE BOX: FABLES AND FOLKTALES. Read about my favorite fable, The Crow & the Pitcher. Here’s a little overview of Fables and Folktales for Preschoolers.

Fun Lion & The Mouse Fable Activities

We’ve been taking it pretty slow this summer and enjoying the outdoors more than we’ve been doing lessons but it’s time to get a little structure back. I need it and so do the kids! I’ve been buried working on summer classes for my bachelor’s degree, finishing 9 credits in 11 weeks. I’m looking forward to the Folktales and Fables lessons this month before school officially starts.

Week one, lesson 1: The Lion & the Mouse. So cute! I like this story. It’s a great way to talk about kindness.

The Lion & the Mouse lesson plans in the week one teacher guide. We didn’t get to all the activities, unfortunately. The days are full! I really, really like the Mother Goose Time teacher guides. They are comprehensive and inspiring.

Circle Time

We always start by putting up our new calendar for the month and writing in the numbers. The kids count along while I write them down. We marked a special day when we celebrate not one but two birthdays on the same day! The twins will turn 4.

Story Time

The Lion & The Mouse: the moral of the story is kindness is never wasted. As I read the story, I paused and explained some of the vocabulary words so I didn’t lose anyone. I love how my group was anxious to hear the next part of the story. So engaged!

Table Top Literacy

We also practiced writing our names. It’s great to see the writing development over the months and years.

Creative Art

Next, we made our creative art story puppets. So cute! We used Kwik Stix to paint our puppets. Love using those quick drying paint sticks for little projects like this!

This set is especially cute.

STEAM Stations

This science and nature STEAM station goes along very well with the Lion and the Mouse fable. Using a basket, weave and wrap a basket with yarn to make a web.

Add a variety of small toys. and then take turns trying to get the toys out of the basket through the yarn web.

I put in a variety of sizes and shapes to make it challenging.

We used our hands and jumbo tweezers as tools to help get the items out of the basket.

I actually wasn’t sure if this would be one of those hit or miss activities. It was definitely a hit!

Community Challenge

The point of this community challenge activity is to help build social awareness by understanding how to help others in need. I wrapped our animals in ribbons and strings. Look at our poor animals! They are stuck! How can we help our animals? The kids were sure they could help!

Everyone got one animal and a pair of scissors. It wasn’t long and everyone was freed!

A couple friends needed assistance from the older kids.

Sadly, sometimes animals do need our help for real. When mighta n animal need your help?

Poor polar bear! He doesn’t look very happy about his predicament.

Seal looks kind of cute all wrapped up!

The kids loved this activity and it is a fun way to use scissors. It can be a little challenging to cut apart the different kinds of ribbons and yarns with child scissors but they all did it.

Hard at work, cutting off the strings.

Trying to save the turtle!

Walrus is in sad shape.

Moose needs help too.

Cutting the strings off of the polar bear.

This was a great way to use some of that ribbon and yarn I’ve collected over the years.

Using all different kinds of ribbons, cord, lace and yarn makes it colorful and interesting.

Continuing the storytelling with the awesome Mother Goose Time magnets.

Another great day with Mother Goose Time! These were such fun Fun Lion & The Mouse Fable Activities.

Mother Goose Time | Facebook | Twitter | Pinterest | Instagram

Handprint Spiders & Paper Plate Webs

July 24, 2018 by Stacy Leave a Comment

We’ve been learning about animal homes including holes where rabbits live, beaver dens and lodges, and spider homes which are webs. These lessons are part of the Mother Goose Time Nature Detectives theme. These Handprint Spiders & Paper Plate Webs are super cute for spiders!

Handprint Spiders & Paper Plate Webs

Making Handprint Spiders & Paper Plate Webs is quite self-explanatory but here’s a list of supplies you will need if you’re thinking of making them with your little ones. Mother Goose Time includes all the starred ** materials in the kit, which is super helpful.

Needed Supplies:

paper plates **
black tempera paint
thread or yarn **
paper punch
googly eyes **

Making Handprints with Children

I help each child make their handprints. If you’re a little easier going with black paint, they can probably paint their own hands and make the prints. I’ve found it works best to paint the hand with the brush and then press the hand onto the plate. Keep a paper towel handy to wipe up the extra paint.

For the spider handprint, just paint the four fingers, not the thumb. Press the handprints in opposite directions.

It can probably be done with one hand but we used both hands to make the prints.

Brushing the paint on the hand reduces the amount of paint used so the paint dries faster.

Glue the googly eyes on. Hot glue or a thicker craft glue works best for googly eyes otherwise they pop off easily.

Use the paper punch to make several holes around the plate. No exact number is necessary.

We used embroidery thread to lace through the holes and make the spider web. We used all the strands, so the thread is thicker. You could use yarn as well. I like the bright colors over top of the black spider! You could make colorful spiders too for that matter.

My group needed some help with the web weaving with the thread. It’s a little more challenging using the embroidery thread but the large holes on the sturdy paper place helps. Young children can still help with the lacing part if you sit with them and guide them.

I hold the plate and give the child the thread. I say, “put it in this hole” and then turn it over and say, “pull it out!” This is how they learn and feel successful when something is hard.