Dramatic Play
We just simply had our housekeeping/kitchen set up. This was the kids' request. I had thought about another restaurant area, but when I asked them, they just wanted to play house. Simple, and a well-loved center!
Blocks
Large foam number puzzle. I love this one for the texture.
ABC train blocks
Wood train tracks, for 2 days due to popular demand
Art
Day 1, since we missed 1 apple day due to sickness last week, we finished some things today. So for art, we did apple stamping.
Jello collages. I LOVE the smell of this one! This one was popular all day, with a line waiting to fill an empty seat. They loved the smell, and watching the colors turn bright in the glue.
I decided to get rid of this spice rack this summer, then as I dumped out the few spices that weren't empty yet, I realized I should have kept them for a great sensory experience too, but too late! I recycled this for our art, and filled the jars with Jello powder. When we actually did it, I needed the space for the bins to collect extra powder, and it looked more like this.
Play dough with different textures for stamping. They liked showing off cool designs to each other, and they table ended up pretty full with other stuff they brought over to stamp and see its texture. And we used that word "texture" over and over and over.
Made gingerbread men for snack, then painted with dot markers.
Small Manipulatives
Links
Bristle Blocks
File Folder games about faces (my kids have cool church teachers that make these-and then I steal the ones I want for preschool)
Gingerbread Man floor puzzle
Letter magnets on the board. They loved these more than I expected. They liked connecting them to make trains, and spelling their names.
Farm Sounds Bingo was out after we'd used it in small group too.
Writing
Scented markers
Scented colored pencils
Texture Line markers
Snack
Apple Pie, from last week. They weren't huge fans, but they tried it.
Smoothie. This was a fun way to use all 5 senses, since the blender is so loud!
Gingerbread Men. They made them during art, then got to eat one for snack, and decorate another to take home during small group.
Outside
Sensory table: cornmeal, because it's a sensory experience we hadn't done yet! I added in test tubes (the kids call them potion bottles) just for something different, and they had a lot of fun.
Tents and Tunnels. I didn't get a pic without kids, but they had a lot of fun dragging them around and making new set ups and designs. They especially liked them upside down this time. I guess whatever works.
Large Group
We didn't learn a new song this week, but we did read and act out this poem each day.
Day 1, we read Your 5 Senses to introduce them. We went outside with a 5 senses paper on a clipboard, and they drew pictures of what they smelled, heard, saw, touched, and tasted. Most tasted the raspberries or grapes, but a few got more adventurous and tasted grass, which I strongly discouraged! They had a great and productive time exploring, often running up to me to tell me something else they heard or touched. So even though a paper comes home with scribbles, I know they were observing and finding real things.
Day 2, We read about our sense of touch and made texture hands. I had hands cut out already, and a tray full of items. They chose which ones to use and glued one to each finger. Then I had them describe its texture and I wrote down on each finger how it felt.
Day 3, We read Look Here, and talked about sight. Then we played a game about not having sight. We set up some obstacles in the room, then they each took turns walking through it blindfolded. They got to choose a seeing friend to help them, by using touch to hold their hand and guide them, or using sound by telling them where to go.
Day 4, we read The Gingerbread Man and acted it out. This was their favorite activity of the week! We then talked about what senses we used to make and eat our gingerbread men for snack (spoiler alert: all of them), and then again for the book, what senses did we read about? And we filled those out on a chart. They really loved the retelling part! The next week, I kept the book in the reading center, and found quite a few of them "reading" it as they flipped through and read the pictures.
Small Group
We finished the apple centers we hadn't from last week.
We explored taste by tasting salt and sugar, then journaling our favorite things to taste.
We explored texture and touch by making texture rubbings around the room.
We explored sounds by playing Farm Sounds Bingo.
We explored smell by smelling different bottles and sorting which ones smelled good or bad to them. Then they did a worksheet (Ugh, you know I hate those), but with a good purpose. While I'd always rather sort the real smells (like we did) than do a worksheet, they really need the cutting practice! So they cut along the straight lines and I helped them hold their scissors correctly. I didn't worry on the sorting and gluing side, since many were just being silly, and that's just fine in preschool! So if your child came home with garbage on the good smelling side, I know :)
