A Week on Superheroes!

The week has finally arrived!  It's Superhero week!  Da da da!  

We chatted today about what makes someone a superhero and decided that superheroes help people.  So we can be superheroes too!  They were super excited about that.   We also talked about the superheroes in our community:  firefighters, police officers, doctors and nurses, crossing guards, and even our moms and dads!

Here is silly Ms. Sara sporting her Super Sara shirt!  Da da da! 

Controller Boxes - The kiddos had a blast creating their boxes.  I wish I could have recorded their conversations.  Each item they added did a specific thing.  I loved all the creativity, excitement and collaboration. 

We figured superheroes (us) could use these controller boxes to fight bad guys.

These are simply jello/pudding boxes covered with duct tape with a straw attached.  I set out oodles of things for the kiddos to glue on.  I also have my hot glue gun out so I can glue on heavier stuff for them, like the buttons.

 We've done these each year we've done superheroes and they are a class favorite.

 This cutie pie and his friend were using their controllers as walkies-talkies.

Here are some of the kiddos ideas as they worked:

"Spaghetti mode!"
"This eyeball shoots eyeballs at the bad guys!"
"When I push both of these buttons at the same time it controls all the good wolves and they get the bad guys!"

"These red arrows shoot pasta and these brown arrows shoot robots."

"This button turns me invisible!"

"This button makes ice cream come out!"

"This shoots snowflakes at the bad guys."

Journal Time - Superhero Band-Aids - Ms. Sara found these band-aids at Michael's and had to get them for our class!  The kiddos stuck them on their journals, on themselves or took them home.

Super Hero Masks - These turned out great.  I free hand cut them, hot glued elastic and cut hearts and lightning bolts.  The kiddos got to choose how to decorate them.

Shields - The kiddos created a superhero shield, they decorated the front.  I glued to heavy weight paper plates together.  Once they finished decorating I duct taped a strip of cardstock on the back for an arm band.  They held up really well.  I found the craft foam stars in the dollar section at Target.

Dart Destroy - The kiddos used superhero darts (Q-tips) to destroy the bad guy's castles (tp rolls).  I found large, sturdy straws for the kiddos to blow the Q-tips at the castles.

Circle Time - Magnets - Today the kiddos did a bit of experimenting with magnets.  I gave them each a magnetic wand and had them search around the preschool to see what things were attracted to it...

 

Rescue Mr. Frog! - An evil genius captured Mr. Frog!  The kiddo super heroes had to rescue him.  They had to climb through the tunnel, go across the narrow bridge over lava, untie Mr. Frog and then return safely with him.

 

Super Stick Heroes! - These were really fun to create.  Below are the heroes for the toddlers, I drew faces for them, they colored with markers the uniforms.  I used mini jumbo craft sticks. (They were shorter.  I found them at Michael's.)

 These heroes have button shields and only one eyeball.

For the older kiddos, we pulled out the washi tape and all the bits we've been using all week to create cool stuff.

Learning Station - Hero Adding Books - Preschoolers

The kiddos picked two numbers they would like to add together, we wrote them, then they figured out the sum.  We wrote that, then they put that many superhero stickers on.

I used lunch sacks, cut the bottoms off, folded, stapled.  Then cut cardstock squares to fit inside.  I saw this idea at:  this source.

A kiddo adding.  Her first two numbers she chose added up to 14:
"That's a lot!  Next I'm gonna do 1 + 1.  That's only 2!"

"1 + 2 is 3!"

"Yeah, but 8 is bigger than 3." 

"Yep."

Learning Station - Hero Counting Books - Youngsters

The kiddos used hero stickers to create a little counting book.  We practiced counting and numeral recognition.  I used small envelopes and created a book by sticking (with glue) the tab of each envelope into an initial one. 

Learning Station - Hidden Superhero Messages

Ms. Sara wrote a special message on each of the kiddo's paper.  They had to use the "special hero" paint to discover the message.

Message:  "Super David helps others!"

Learning Station - War! - Preschoolers

Today I taught the kiddos how to play war.  We used these fabulous Avenger cards I found at Target.   As we played we talked about which number was biggest and of course we identified numbers.  They did great and we played for quite a while.

I love playing games with preschoolers because it's such a great time to teach kindness for others and turn taking.  It's also great to practice how to respond when we don't win.  "Oh drat!"

"An 8!"

"You were so close but I beat you with a 9!"

A week on Snowmen!

This week we are learning about snow, cold and winter with snowmen!  Too bad we don't have more snow!

Circle Time - Melted Snowmen - They make pretty convincing melted snowmen, don't they.  Oh, and some snowladies!

Egg Carton Snowmen - These turned out cute.  The kiddos enjoyed stuffing their snowman with cotton and picking out their scarf.

Science - Melting Snowmen - We hopped in the backyard to grab some snow for our experiment, but were surprised to find it all frozen!  Yikes!  We tried using a stick to loosen up some chunks, but that didn't work so well.

Then Ms. Sara grabbed a spoon, that worked much better (like dishing ice cream).
Once each kiddo got a chunk of snow in their science bag, complete with their snowman face, we headed back inside to warm up and discuss.

We chatted about ways to melt our snowman or to keep it cold.  Then the kiddos got to decided which they wanted to do.  We figured the window sill was cold-ish place and the heater was a warm place.  Now wait....

 

Melty Snowman - We decided to make an artistic version of our melting snowmen.

 Gee, I just realized we forgot our eyes in the Youngster class, oops!

Snowman Snack - Bagel and Cream Cheese - The kiddos decorated their snowman with craisins and carrot sticks.  Yummy and cute!

Science - Melting? -  Checking in on our melting snowmen...

 

"I think they're too low from the heater.  They're not melting."

"Let's try smooshing them! ...  Woah!  I have some water!"

"Me too!  I bet my nose is getting wet."

Snowman Bingo - The kiddos enjoyed a few rounds of Abc bingo.  I pulled out a letter, the kiddos identified it, name and sound if we weren't too excited, then they covered the spot with a cotton ball.  

I laminated my snowmen so I could just write the letters on with a dry erase marker.  That way we can play other types of bingo (sight word, name, colors etc.).  I found this idea at: this source.

Indoor Snowball Fight! - The kiddos helped me scrunch up paper into balls, then we had an epic snowball fight!  The kiddos took snowballs home in their bag so they could have a snowball fight at home too!

Bucket Snowman - This snowman loves to be filled with lids!  The kiddos enjoyed tossing them in and dumping them back out again.

The bucket is just a milk carton and I have been saving lids for a project we'll do when we do our theme on monsters.  I saw this idea at:  this source.

Snowman Puppets - These were fun!  The kiddos picked out the ribbon for their scarf.

 Snowman puppet on the go!  The kiddos loved playing with these.  I saw the idea at this:  this source.

Science - Baking Soda and Vinegar - We had all our left over baking soda from our snow dough last week.  We couldn't just dump it out!  So we did science with it!  The kiddos enjoyed scooping their baking soda into mountains and thus volcanoes!

 

Learning Station - Snowman Color Match

Easy peasy, the kiddos matched the three sections of the snowmen.  I think I should add a colored hat next time.  Also, the kiddos enjoyed "reading" the color word.