A Letter Study: M

This week I'm introducing my students to the letter M!

Since EAK is mostly an exposure-based curriculum, I enjoy finding fun projects for my kids to explore the letter of the week an it's sound. Today, we made these fun and easy to pull together moon pictures using coffee filters, a black marker, and a spray bottle of water! It didn't take much for my class to create these fun art pieces - just wait a few minutes for the paper filter to dry and it's ready to glue!

photo source: Create Art with Me

This craft idea came from the blog, Create Art with Me! I love how easy it was to prep and create for my littles. I learned that you just need a lite squirt of water otherwise the marker is too diluted and the crater effect won't be that distinct.  A craft like this is an easy intro because it takes a moment for it to dry. Students won't see the full effect until it dries and is glued onto black paper. So, I introduced it then dismissed them to their centers. During that time I glued and displayed them for them to see - they were so excited to see their work!

Moon Painting - experimental activity

I preface this with the fact that this is 100% an experimental activity that I introduced this week. I'm letting them dry over the weekend to see if they turn out the way I was hoping. I took the recipe for Moon Rocks and accidentally added too much water, so I added some flour to the baking soda mixture and it thickened. I didn't want to waste what I had created so I gave my kids some brushes and instructed them to paint the backside of a small paper plate. Ta da! Moon painting!

Stay tuned for how they dried! I'm hoping they turn out looking great!

A little review and writing practice with my kiddos on Friday about the main facts they learned about the moon. Instead of leaving it blank, I made dots for the kids to trace to make the word.

Now, let's take a peek at the different learning stations I had this week to help reinforce various concepts like colors, shapes, and Eric Carle!

Learning Stations

Fruit Loop Fine Motor

We reviewed colors with this super fun Fruit Loop fine motor activity! The kids really enjoyed working with cereal (after much review on how we don't eat them!) in this center and did such a great job identifying their colors. I picked up this idea for my classroom from the blog Play to Learn Preschool and it was super simple to set up. I used an old cardboard shipping box since I couldn't get my hands on styrofoam right away and skewers from our grocery butcher (for free!) to pull this center together. I placed one color loop on each skewer to model for the kids how they should sort them. By the second day they got it down! 

QR Code Story Station

I was most looking forward to sharing this center with my students this week. I've created a little booklet that incorporates QR codes for students to scan in order to listen to stories being read to them. They've done so well using the QR code reader app - I just wish I had more tablets!

My plan is to create more booklets for the different themes we're learning about this year. I found that the kids cycle through the stories fairly quickly, so I'm on the hunt for longer and more engaging videos for them to learn from!

Eric Carle Artist Study

Each week or so I plan to introduce my kids to a different style of art or process of creation for our Maker Station. This week it's all about Eric Carle! 

First, I have students simply paint onto construction paper, then use different materials like craft sticks and sponges to add texture to the paint. Once it dries, the next day they cut the paper to make their very own Eric Carle-style picture! I can't wait to see what students come up with!

Kinetic Sand

Kinetic sand is always a good time for my littles! They love exploring how to use it and this week I gave them shapes to make. I'm still on the lookout for fun sensory play items that engage them, but without having an official sensory table I'm somewhat limited in the sensory items I can have them play with.