**All photos and text are property of Angela Pounders and can not be distributed without permission.
If you share one of my posts, please include a link to my page. Thanks!
**All photos and text are property of Angela Pounders and can not be distributed without permission. If you share one of my posts, please include a link to my page. Thanks!
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Who doesn't love a party?! I wasn't sure what we were going to do Saturday, but then thought I could have a Groundhog Day party at home. I mentioned it to my girls and they are very excited! The more I thought about it, I got excited, too! Here are enough ideas to keep the party going all day long! Groundhog Day Party Planning
Paper Plate Groundhog Supplies needed: two paper plates, groundhog template, craft stick, crayons or markers, scissors, tape What to do:
Sweet Girl colored the ground so nicely, but said it was for the "inside" of his burrow so her groundhog would be nice and cozy! You can't see it, but he's blocking the sun. Let your child act out the following song with his/her new friend. The girls just loved this song and we did it over and over! Good Morning Groundhog sung to "Are You Sleeping?" The Mailbox Magazine, submitted by Ann Schuft Little groundhog, little groundhog, Underground, underground. Now it's time to wake up. Now it's time to wake up. Yawn and stretch. Yawn and stretch. Little groundhog, little groundhog, Underground, underground. Climb out of your burrow. Climb out of your burrow. Look around. Look around. Little groundhog, little groundhog, Underground, underground. Do you see your shadow? Do you see your shadow? Down you run! Down you run! I'd love to know if you have some ideas for a Groundhog Day party! **All photos and text are property of Angela Pounders and can not be distributed without permission. If you share one of my posts, please include a link to my page. Thanks! Sweet Girl thinks the groundhog will see his shadow. When I asked her if she was sure since the forecast for Puxtawney, PA is cloudy and snowy she said something along the lines of: In my little world I can make anything happen. Yes, you can, Sweet Girl! Notice the blue rain boots. :) Love Bug thinks the groundhog will not see his shadow. When I asked her if she thought the groundhog would see his shadow, all I got was, "no!" She had fun pasting all of the clouds on her page. Here's a list of some of the things we learned about groundhogs. After dinner, we also learned that grizzly bears like to eat them. Check out this video to see a groundhog and other little creatures in their natural habitat. What's your prediction? Will "PHIL" see his shadow or not? **All photos and text are property of Angela Pounders and can not be distributed without permission.
If you share one of my posts, please include a link to my page. Thanks! Look ahead to Saturday's weather and discuss it with your child. Does he/she think that the groundhog will see his shadow? Tell your child that he/she is making a prediction, an educated guess, based on the facts he/she knows. Making a Prediction Have your child draw a groundhog coming out of its burrow on a fun piece of paper like this one from www.kidzsparks.com. Provide younger children with a groundhog template to color and paste on the paper. Make sure to encourage your child to draw if it is a sunny or cloudy day. Have your child draw or cut out a paper sun or use cotton balls for clouds. Will the groundhog see his shadow? Plan on watching TV coverage to see if your child's prediction was right or not. Talk about the results with your child and reassure him/her that predictions are not always right (or congratulate your child for being right!). Just look at the weather forecasts this winter! Once you find out if the groundhog saw his shadow or not, serve up a winter snack or a spring snack. See below for this fun idea from The Mailbox Magazine. **All photos and text are property of Angela Pounders and can not be distributed without permission. If you share one of my posts, please include a link to my page. Thanks! Given this is what the weather was like all day yesterday, it was evident that we were not going to be able to do our outdoor shadow activities. It was windy, but warm, so we still went out and played for a bit. The girls had fun running around and feeling the wind through their hair. Then, Sweet Girl had the great idea of getting our kite out. Fish shadows After lunch we did a shadow activity with Goldfish graham crackers. S'mores or Cookies & Cream Goldfish would work for this activity. I gave Sweet Girl some Goldfish and told her to match the fishes with their shadows. Then, we counted how many fish had shadows and how many didn't. Sweet Girl had one shadow (not pictured) without a fish. We talked about how you can't have a shadow if you don't have an object to make one. "Catch" a Shadow - Silhouette Craft I figured the silhouette craft would be more appropriate for Sweet Girl, so we did it while Love Bug napped. It took a lot of patience to get Sweet Girl to stay still. She kept trying to look at what I was doing! After I "caught" her shadow, Sweet Girl wanted to do mine. Here are our results. Not bad for first-timers! Love Bug was interested in our set-up once she woke from her nap. So, I traced her hand and a pot. Then, Love Bug colored them in as the paper hung on the door. She thought that was a lot of fun. Then, the girls just played in front of the light making shadows on the door. I got some toys and held them in front of the light so they would make shadows. Sweet Girl had to try to guess what toy was making the shadow. We had a lot of fun with this activity and the girls played with the flashlight and made shadows after dinner, too. Sweet Girl even did Daddy's silhouette after he came home! Have you tried any of the groundhog activities I posted? I'd love to hear about it! **All photos and text are property of Angela Pounders and can not be distributed without permission. If you share one of my posts, please include a link to my page. Thanks! You can't talk about Groundhog Day and not talk about shadows! I'm sure your little ones are aware of their shadows and maybe even the spooky ones on their bedroom walls at night. Have they ever asked what makes a shadow? Here are several fun, educational activities to do to learn more about shadows. These activities work on science discovery, visual discrimination (deciding which shadows go with which object), and gross motor skills. Here's a little song to get things started. I'm a LIttle Groundhog sung to "I'm a Little Teapot" The Mailbox Magazine, submitted by Heather Graley I'm a little groundhog On Groundhog Day. I peek from my hole On a winter day. If I see my shadow, in I go! Winter's going to stay, I know. I'm a little groundhog On Groundhog Day I peek from my hole On a winter day. If I see no shadow Out I'll stay. spring will soon be on its way! Step Outside idea from The Mailbox Magazine, submitted by Julie Koczur Take your child outside to see if he/she can see his/her shadow. Guide your child to explore around the yard to see what other things are making shadows. Once you return inside, dim the lights and shine a light source, such as a flashlight, toward a light-colored surface. Lead your child to discover (by allowing him/her to block the light with his/her body or other objects) that a shadow is formed when something is placed in front of a source of light. When something (person, animal or object) blocks the light from the sun, it creates a shadow. So, that's how the groundhog gets a shadow. Take it further: Have your child bring out his/her toilet paper tube groundhog to see if it sees its shadow. Here's a fun poem to act out while your outside checking out your shadows. I See My Shadow http://www.preschool-plan-it.com I see my shadow, my shadow sees me. (Hands over eyes like glasses) I wave to my shadow, and my shadow waves to me. (Wave to each other) I run with my shadow, and my shadow runs with me. (Run in place) I love my shadow, and my shadow loves me. (Hug self) Take it further: Take some sidewalk chalk out with you and trace each other's shadows. Can you make your shadow "fit" the tracings again? Take pictures of your child's shadow and tracings to look at later. Your child has already seen his/her shadow outside, but now it's time to "catch" it and make a special keepsake shadow--a construction paper silhouette. The more still your child sits, the better the results. Even if the results are not perfect, your child will still love hanging his/her "caught" shadow up for all to see! "Catch" a Shadow - Silhouette Craft Supplies needed: large sheet of black construction paper, a light-colored piece of construction paper, Scotch tape, white chalk or crayon, scissors, glue stick, light source and a chair or stool for child to sit on What to do:
Take it further: Trace the shadows of some other objects and line them up to see if your child can identify what they are. Have the objects available for matching the shadow with the object. Let your child use a flashlight to create shadows of his/her toys. Can your child figure out how to make the shadows bigger (move object toward the light) or smaller (move object away from the light)? Get the batteries ready for your flashlight because your child is going to want to make all kinds of shadows--just like the groundhog! **All photos and text are property of Angela Pounders and can not be distributed without permission.
If you share one of my posts, please include a link to my page. Thanks! I am not a big worksheet type of teacher, especially for younger children, but I came across these and thought they would go well with our ground hog theme this week. These would be great to fill some time while you fix dinner or while you are getting ready for a project. Sweet Girl saw them and got excited about doing the different activities. I like that they aren't all just coloring pages. All of these printables are from www.kidsparkz.com. Click on each image to go to the website for a printable version. **All photos and text are property of Angela Pounders and can not be distributed without permission. If you share one of my posts, please include a link to my page. Thanks! The girls were excited to do a craft using toilet paper rolls. We save them all the time just in case we need them for a project. When Sweet Girl found out what we were making, she said, "A craft we can play with! Not just a craft that is for decoration, but a craft we can play with!" I love when the girls get excited about a craft. Sweet Girl drew a hat and a blue beard and mustache on her ground hog because it is a boy. I just love her imagination! I ended up laminating Love Bug's ground hog with packing tape to make it more sturdy. The girls played with their ground hogs up until dinner time and then again after dinner....until I got the tunnel out. We had been talking about ground hogs through out the day primarily using Gibbons' Groundhog Day! book. There are a lot of great illustrations in this book. The book is geared towards older children, but I just paraphrase it for my girls. After dinner, we looked at the pages that showed the inside of a ground hog burrow. Sweet Girl was excited to create her own burrow for her and Love Bug to play in. I love how Sweet Girl kept singing the song we learned today. She was excited to share it with Daddy. The tunnel was especially fun because we had not gotten it out in a long time. The girls really enjoyed climbing through and hanging out in the tunnel. We even covered the ends with blankets to make it more cozy. At one end, Sweet Girl had a bunch of blankets set up to resemble the sleeping chamber. At the other end, she had brought play food out to put in the food storage chamber. There were several times that both girls would be in the tunnel together just laughing. I love just watching them play! What a blessing it is. **All photos and text are property of Angela Pounders and can not be distributed without permission. If you share one of my posts, please include a link to my page. Thanks! I decided to make the entire day "Polar Bear Day" and continued the theme at home. We talked about polar bears, looked at pictures of polar bears from pictures I have saved over the years and even watched a short polar bear video. I like the girls to see how an animal lives in the wild; how it moves, sounds and communicates. The video we watched really interested the girls and they actually watched it a couple of times through the day. Side note: Make sure you preview any type of animal video before showing it to your child. I came across several that were not appropriate for my girls. This is actually a good idea for any video/movie. :) Here are the activities we talked about/did at home. Look at My Fur Did you know that a polar bear's fur not only camouflages it for hunting, but it also serves as a sun collector to keep it warm? Its hairs are actually tiny see-through "tubes" that trap ultraviolet light and lead it to the polar bear's black skin. Since the color black absorbs energy from the sun, the polar bear's fur soaks up sun, thus keeping the polar bear warm in the cold artic weather. We see this when we wear a black shirt when it's sunny outside because just like a polar bear's skin, a black shirt absorbs the heat while a white shirt reflects it. Try this exercise out to test this fact out at home. Feel the Heat idea from "Animals from Near and Far" Supplies Needed: Two jars with lids, black construction paper, white construction paper, tape, scissors, water What to do:
Five Little Polar Bears Five little polar bears (Hold up one hand.) Playing on the shore. One fell in the water, And then there were four. (Put down one finger.) Four little polar bears (Hold up four fingers.) Swimming out to see. One got lost. And then there were three. (Put down another finger.) Three little polar bears said, (Hold up three fingers.) "What shall we do?" One climbed an iceberg. Then there were two. (Put down another finger.) Two little polar bears (Hold up two fingers.) Playing in the sun. One went for food Then there was one. (Put down another finger.) One little polar bear (Hold up one finger.) Didn't want to stay. He said, "I'm lonesome," And swam far away. (Put last finger down.) Polar Bears Painted "Elmer-style" Elmer is an elephant, a patchwork elephant to be exact. David McKee has written a whole series about Elmer and his antics. Sweet Girl, who LOVES elephants fell in love with Elmer a while back at story time. This week, we actually found an Elmer book for sale at the library for only $0.25! This was all the inspiration Sweet Girl needed to suggest that we paint our polar bears like Elmer. Supplies Needed: polar bear pattern, white paper, permanent marker, scissors, glue stick, water color paints, blue construction paper, snowflake stickers and crayons *Depending on your child's age, an adult may have to do a little prep for this craft. What to do:
We had a lot of fun learning about polar bears and even read some more books today about polar bears. I think I might do a post with all the books we've read for our winter unit, but I just had to share the one we read for bedtime story tonight. The Lonesome Polar Bear is written by Jane Cabrera, an author/illustrator we learned about at story time last year. The story is cute and the illustrations keep the children engaged. I hope you have learned something new about polar bears and enjoy doing these activities with your child. **All photos and text are property of Angela Pounders and can not be distributed without permission. If you share one of my posts, please include a link to my page. Thanks! On Monday, January 21, our nation will be celebrating the birthday of Martin Luther King, Jr. While his actual birth date is January 15, the holiday is always celebrated on the third Monday of January each year. Regardless of your views on MLK Jr, there is no denying the role he played in the fight for equality for everyone. This is an easy concept to demonstrate to young children as they are becoming more aware that God did not make everyone the same. MLK Jr also believed in doing for others. As a parent, I stress that even though we don't all look the same, act the same or live the same, we are all special to God and if someone is special to God, they should be special to us. Also, we should be looking to serve others whenever we can. Side note: I don't think that it is necessarily fair to treat everyone exactly the same because God didn't make us all truly the same. For example, I agree that handicap people should have reserved parking closer to a building. While this may not seem "fair" to other people, I see it as allowing handicapped people equal access to a place they may not otherwise be able to go. I love these first two activities as they demonstrate that it's not what's on the outside that matters, but that we are all the "same" on the inside. I found both of these ideas at www.everythingpreschool.com. Different Eggs: Buy some brown eggs and white eggs. Let your child observe the eggs. Ask "How are the eggs the same? different?" Let your child open up one of each color egg. The message is very clear. While the eggs are different on the outside, they are the same on the inside. Explain to your child that this is just like people. God did not make us to look all the same, but basically, we are the same on the inside. Then, use the eggs to make something with your child. Different Presents: Buy a pack of stickers (or three of some other small item) and wrap them as three different presents. Wrap one very pretty, one simple and put the last one in just a plain box. Have your child look at the boxes. Talk about how they are the same and different. Let your child pick a present to open. Ask him/her why she chose the gift she did. (How many of us have been at a White Elephant party and pick the package that "looks" nice?) Then, open the other two presents. While the presents are all wrapped different, the inside is the same; again just like people. Take it further: Introduce the word "discrimination" and talk about what it means. Ask your child how he/she would feel if he/she were not allowed to do something because of the color of his/her eyes, hair, skin, whether or not he/she was wearing pants, the color of his/her shoes, etc. How does God want us to treat people? This song is a nice follow-up. EQUALITY FOR ALL sung to: “Yankee Doodle” by: Jean Warren; www.preschoolexpress.com Once there was a man named King Who dreamed that everyone Would not be judged by their looks, But by the work they’d done. Martin Luther was his name. Let’s help his dream come true. Equality for everyone. It’s up to me and you! Different Friends: By this time in the lesson, your child should have a good understanding of what the words equality and discrimination mean. You can demonstrate this further with your child's stuffed animals or toys. Maybe the elephants won't play with the hippo because he doesn't have a trunk or the cows won't play with the zebra because she isn't a farm animal. Watch and see how your child handles the situation. Ultimately, the goal is to have all of the animals play together because God made all of them and they are all special regardless of what they look like, act like or live. Matthew 7:12 is very relevant in this lesson--treat others like you want to be treated. Take it further: Read Sesame Street's We're Different, We're the Same. I used to read this book when I did my "All About Me" theme, but it would also be a good extender for this activity. I Have a Dream: Now, ask your child what his/her dream would be for the world (or make it more simple by saying neighborhood or family). Depending on your child's age, he/she may not totally "get" this concept, but just go with whatever he/she says. Use this template from The Education Center to get started. Have your child color in a picture of MLK Jr and cut it out. Glue the cutout onto the center of a paper plate. Let your child use red and blue (or any other color) to decorate the plate. Next, cut out a cloud shape and help your child write down his/her dream. Hole-punch two holes in the top and bottom of the paper-plate project and in the top of the cloud shape. Thread a 12-inch length of yarn through the holes at the top of the plate and tie the yarn ends. To connect the cloud cutout to the paper plate, thread a 12-inch length of yarn through the remaining holes; then tie the yarn ends. Hang for everyone to see! Change the World: This is another idea from Everything Preschool. Talk to your child about how MLK Jr worked to change the world. Then, talk to him/her about little things he/she can do to change the world. Here are a few ideas to get the conversation going: *Say "Thank You" *Smile at someone you see *Hold the door for someone *Let someone go ahead of you in line *Give a hug (make sure you ask first!) My Own Two Hands: I have not read the book this quote comes from, but will be looking for it the next time we're at the library. Print out this template from Preschool Daze and let your child use watercolors to paint the hand different colors. Put on display. For more books relevant to this topic, check out this link. And just like Horton the Elephant says, "A person's a person, no matter how small." So remember, EVERYONE can make a difference in this world. We all should be thankful for the sacrifices and advancements made by Martin Luther King, Jr to work towards equality for all. I hope that these activities will help your child learn more about who he was and what he stood for. **All photos and text are property of Angela Pounders and can not be distributed without permission. If you share one of my posts, please include a link to my page. Thanks! |
AuthorThe Master's Daughter, Angela Pounders, loves teaching and sharing her ideas with others. After working various teaching-type jobs, she now uses her God-given gifts with her children at home. Categories
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