Share & Remember | Celebrating Child & Home

Celebrating Child & Home

You are here: Home / Archives for Preschool / Experience Early Learning

Experience Early Learning

Santa’s Reindeer Snack

This post may contain affiliate links.

by Leave a Comment

This time of year, everyone wants to make fun memories and enjoy special moments but there’s so much to do. That’s why I like this Santa’s Reindeer Snack. It’s a fun but not completely sugar-laden snack for little ones. Plus it’s super quick to make at the last minute with ingredients you probably already have on hand. This idea is from the Experience Early Learning Preschool Curriculum.

Santa's Reindeer Snack - Experience Early Learning Preschool Curriculum

A Snack from Santa’s Workshop

Santa’s Workshop is a printable Celebration Kit from Experience Preschool Curriculum. It’s a booklet full of ideas to celebrate Christmas.

As you can see there are some fun ideas in here to supplement your holiday activities. I enjoyed making the Santa’s Reindeer Snack for the kids one day for morning snack. You can certainly have the kids make their own.

Maybe I should have thought to have the kids assemble their own, but I was thinking of surprising them with this cute snack instead.

Santa's Reindeer Snack

They were very pleased! It does look like a reindeer! We used a red M & M for the nose to make it Rudolph, the red-nosed reindeer.

I tried a couple different versions, using a half of a cracker or a whole crackers. Both turned out cute!

Santa's Reindeer Snack

Have you read about the real story behind Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer? It’s interesting!

Enjoy a tasty reindeer snack with a glass of milk and an applesauce pouch or strawberries. Read a Christmas story or try a fun Invitation to Create snowflake project from Experience Curriculum!

How To Make Santa’s Reindeer Snack

Santa's Reindeer Snack
Yield: 1

Santa's Reindeer Snack

Adorable Christmas snack kids can make themselves!

Ingredients

  • Graham Crackers
  • Creamy Peanut Butter
  • Mini Pretzels
  • Raisins
  • Red M & Ms

Instructions

  1. Spread peanut butter on graham cracker.
  2. Add raisins for eyes.
  3. Put M & M on for the nose.
  4. Place two mini pretzels for the antlers.
© Stacy
Category: snacks

More Christmas Treats

Facebook | Instagram | Pinterest

I received curriculum from Experience Early Learning for honest and authentic stories resulting from my daily experiences using the curriculum. As a user of Experience Preschool for many years, I am pleased to share quality educational experiences. #sponsored #ExperienceEarlyLearning

Growing Mold Science

This post may contain affiliate links.

by Leave a Comment

We love science and learning about our world with Experience Early Learning! If you’re looking for an easy science experiment to try with young children, growing mold science is a good one. It can be left up for a couple of weeks to observe. You could also add a drawing or writing component for older children to show and describe how the bread changes and what the mold looks like. For my mixed aged group, observing and talking about the mold was a good beginning.

Growing Mold Science for Preschoolers | Explore the Rainforest | Experience Early Learning Preschool Curriculum

Supplies for Growing Mold Science

You will need just a few supplies for this simple science experiment:

supplies and tips for growing mold science

Growing Mold STEAM Station for Preschoolers

STEAM Stations incorporate Science, Technology, Engineering, Art and Math. It’s hands on learning that relate to our themes each month. It’s a way for children to investigate, problem-solve, and create.

We used the Big Question and Inspiration Photos from Experience Preschool Curriculum to understand what mold is. I asked everyone if they would want to eat bread that looked like this?

More STEAM Stations

Tips for Growing Mold Experiment

So what does mold need to grow? First, it needs something to grow on, which is our bread.

Be sure to use a bakery-style bread that doesn’t have too many preservatives. The bread pictured is a loaf of Italian bread from Walmart.

smelling the bread

Mold needs germs to grow. While the children were touching the bread, I explained that bacteria and germs are all around us and we have it on our hands from playing. Sometimes we can see it in the form of dirt but sometimes we can not. How to Teach Young Children About Covid & Germs.

touching bread to transfer bacteria

After playing outside, I had the kids touch their piece of bread (not squeeze or smoosh). I explained they had dirt and germs on their hands from playing in the sand kitchen. The germs are so small but they will get on the bread and grow. They were very intrigued and listened so well, touching their bread very gently.

spraying water on bread

We know that plants need water to grow and the children got a clue since I had a water spray bottle out. They were anxious to spray!

child using spray bottle to spray bread

Next we put the bread into baggies to keep the bread wet and give mold a place to grow.

How mold grows on bread

I explained that mold, like plants, need light and heat to grow. So that’s why we taped the baggies to the window above our science shelf.

What does mold need to grow activity

Everyone enjoyed checking out the mold each day to see how it changed the bread. We learned that mold can be different colors and look furry.

preschool science cneter

We started our experiment on Friday and by the following Monday, there was mold starting on the bread.

Growing Mold Science experiment - bread in a baggie in the window

What an awesome way to Explore the Rainforest and learn what grows on the Rainforest floor!

More Rainforest Activities

Facebook | Instagram | Pinterest

I received curriculum from Experience Early Learning for honest and authentic stories resulting from my daily experiences using the curriculum. As a user of Experience Preschool for many years, I am pleased to share quality educational experiences. #sponsored #ExperienceEarlyLearning

Amazon Orchids

This post may contain affiliate links.

by Leave a Comment

The Amazon Orchids Invitation to Create from Experience Preschool‘s Explore the Rainforest is one of my all time favorites! We learned that orchids are beautiful flowers that grow in the rainforest’s understory.

Orchids grow on tree trunks in the understory. They grow in a variety of patterns, colors, and sizes. Orchids grow well in the Amazon rainforest
because of the warm, humid climate.

Experience Preschool Curriculum
orchid plants made in preschool

Amazon Rainforest Orchids

We learned that orchids and chocolate plants grow in the understory of the rainforest. It’s also where monkeys and geckos live.

We’ve made these orchids four years ago, and they turned out amazing then too. At that time, I cut flower shapes by hand and the children colored them before assembling the flowers.

Amazon Orchids | Explore the Rainforest Experience Preschool theme

This time I decided to cut orchid templates on my Cricut Maker so it was quicker and more accurately an orchid shape. If you’re interested in the Cricut orchid template, it’s linked in the box below.

Paper orchid template for Cricut Maker

Paper orchids are beautiful all year around and would make lovely Mother’s Day gift, Valentine or Easter craft.

Amazon Orchids | Explore the Rainforest Experience Preschool theme

After cutting the orchid shapes, the children used watercolors to paint the flowers. We used old fashioned watercolors, but liquid watercolors would be more vibrant and amazing too.

My kids can be more enthralled with creating new colors of water than actually painting, so that was a distraction, but eventually, they painted all 6 of their flower petals.

See all of my free printables here >> Free Printables from Share & Remember

After the flowers dried, we glued the flowers together, layering the smaller petals in front of the larger ones.

Amazon Orchids | Explore the Rainforest Experience Preschool theme

We glued tissue paper into the center of each flower. Then I used the hot glue gun to attach the flowers to a green pipecleaner for the flower stem.

Amazon Orchids | Explore the Rainforest Experience Preschool theme

The children also painted their paper pots. I used to hot glue to glue rocks into the bottom of the cups. The flower stems were also glued to the bottom.

Amazon Orchids | Explore the Rainforest Experience Preschool theme

Then we added two large orchid plant leaves and brown crinkled paper over top to fill the small pot.

Amazon Orchids | Explore the Rainforest Experience Preschool theme

Orchid stems tend to be quite heavy with the flowers and buds so we used a dollar store wood dowel (craft stick would work too) to support the stem. Glue the dowel or craft stick to the bottom of the pot or to the side. Then glue the stem to the stick.

Amazon Orchids | Explore the Rainforest Experience Preschool theme

Certainly, the preschoolers could make orchids completely on their own without my assistance, but sometimes I help more than other times.

See The Sophisticated Teacher’s child made Amazon Orchids.

That’s one thing I love about using Experience Early Learning – the curriculum is so flexible depending on how you want to use it, how much time you have on any given day, and what ideas you personally bring to it. There’s room for many different interpretations!

Amazon Orchids | Explore the Rainforest Experience Preschool theme

Another variation would be to make a flat orchid on a piece of cardstock instead of a 3D plant.

Amazon Orchids | Explore the Rainforest Experience Preschool theme

Everyone was so pleased to carry their pretty little paper orchid craft home to their families!

Rainforest Activities from Experience Early Learning Bloggers

More Rainforest Activities

Facebook | Instagram | Pinterest

I received curriculum from Experience Early Learning for honest and authentic stories resulting from my daily experiences using the curriculum. As a user of Experience Preschool for many years, I am pleased to share quality educational experiences. #sponsored #ExperienceEarlyLearning

Where do seeds come from?

This post may contain affiliate links.

by Leave a Comment

When the weather changes, we see changes in plants. Fruits and vegetables are fully grown and harvested. Flowers have matured and are fading. Autumn is a wonderful time to discover where do seeds come from?

Where do seeds come from? Weather & Seasons Preschool Theme from Experience Preschool

Where do seeds come from? STEAM

For this Counting Seeds STEAM Station from Experience Preschool, we were to cut open different types of gourds, set out tweezers, craft sticks, and bowls. Using the tweezers, pick out and remove the seeds. Then count the seeds and place them on the Counting Seeds chart.

where do seeds come from
Where do seeds come from?

We LOVE the STEAM Station ideas that come with our curriculum each month. They add so much fun and learning to our topics with exciting hands on activities. They also include printable Big Question and Inspiration Photos. Often they include charts like the seed chart included with this one.

Where do seeds come from? Weather & Seasons Preschool Theme from Experience Preschool
Where do seeds come from?

We didn’t end up using the seeds chart because everyone was very engaged with using the tweezers part and trying to pull seeds from the sunflowers, apple and squash.

Where do seeds come from? sunflower

The cucumber was a bit of a trick. This cucumber was actually seedless, which I realized after I cut it. So no seeds in this cucumber but it looks like there were seeds inside. That was interesting!

Where do seeds come from? Weather & Seasons Preschool Theme from Experience Preschool

We collected seeds from acorn and butternut squash. The kids expected to find MORE seeds in the butternut squash because it was bigger, but we found out there were nearly the same in each!

Butternut and Acorn squash - where do seeds come from STEAM Station

We had two different varieties of sunflowers and the seeds were different shapes and colors.

tweezing sunflower seeds from a sunflower head in preschool

The kids concentrated very hard to using the tweezers. It was a little cold outside so it wasn’t very comfortable to touch the wet seeds but some used their fingers too.

butternut squash seeds

I don’t like to waste the food we cut open for activities like this so we put them in the garden for the squirrels and other creatures that visit our garden.

This is why we love growing sunflower seeds! There’s so much value in these big bright flowers. From planting seeds in the spring, watering and watching them grow all summer, watching the birds, bees and butterflies visit and then we get to explore the seeds in the fall. The squirrels and birds enjoy the seeds too so get to see them often. I’d highly recommend planting sunflowers for your child care every year!

Where do seeds come from? Weather & Seasons Preschool Theme from Experience Preschool

I’ll be adding more weather and seasons activities soon.

More Weather & Seasons Activities

Facebook | Instagram | Pinterest

I received curriculum from Experience Early Learning for honest and authentic stories resulting from my daily experiences using the curriculum. As a user of Experience Preschool for many years, I am pleased to share quality educational experiences. #sponsored #ExperienceEarlyLearning

Chocolate Grows in the Rainforest

This post may contain affiliate links.

by Leave a Comment

One of the most interesting things we learned about the rainforest is that is where chocolate grows! It’s also been our tastiest lesson from Explore the Rainforest from Experience Curriculum. Chocolate grows in the rainforest but it doesn’t look like chocolate that we’re familiar with. We learned that chocolate beans grow in pods.

chocolate grows in the rainforest preschool lesson from Experience Preschool

Counting Cocoa Beans

Chocolate is made from cocoa trees that grow in the shade of taller trees. Cocoa trees grow cocoa pods that have beans inside them. The cocoa beans are dried and made into delicious treats.

Experience Early Learning Preschool Curriculum
counting cocoa beans math game

The cards feature numbers on one side and divided spaces on the other side for counting the beans so the cards work well for children who are identifying numbers as well as those who are counting.

From Bean to Bar Booklet

We made a little book about chocolate – From Bean to Bar. It involved putting the pages in order with the cover on top.

from bean to bar booklet Make & Play

Then the children cut apart the three images to glue inside the booklet.

chocolate grows in the rainforest cutting booklet pictures

I read the pages and they determined which picture came first, second and third.

gluing together the bean booklet
bean to bar booklet about chocolate

Tasting Chocolate

Tasting chocolate was the best part! I pulled together a sample of chocolate we already had in the house. Our son went to the Galapagos Islands a couple of summers ago and brought home a large selection of flavored chocolate, so we tasted some.

Types of chocolate on our plate:

The cocoa looked promising, but after they tried it, they decided it wasn’t their favorite.

Cocoa Bean Sensory Play

We didn’t really have cocoa beans, of course, so we played with rice and black beans. Since we haven’t had a sensory play bin for a while, this was a big hit! It was fun to pretend the beans were chocolate and fill the scale buckets so they equaled out.

Check out the Themeschoolers awesome chocolate activities.

More Rainforest Activities

I’ll be adding more Explore the Rainforest activities soon!

Facebook | Instagram | Pinterest

I received curriculum from Experience Early Learning for honest and authentic stories resulting from my daily experiences using the curriculum. As a user of Experience Preschool for many years, I am pleased to share quality educational experiences. #sponsored #ExperienceEarlyLearning

Privacy | Disclosure | Terms

More to Share & Remember!

Join Our Newsletter

Be the first to get notified of new posts, printables, and tips. Sign up today & receive this ABC Animal Alphabet Poster set.

You have Successfully Subscribed!

We do not sell email addresses.