Wednesday, September 25, 2013

Story Spinners Writing Contest

The Ontario Community Library is hosting it's 5th annual writing contest.  Both my school aged girls are excited to enter the contest, because, the grand prize..... is a Kindle.  I figure if they are encouraged to write a story through bribery, it is o.k. with me. 
The theme this year is: A Library Memory, and can be fictional or not.  Both my girls are opting for the fictional aspect.  Ask your kids what their favorite library moment is.  Share it with us in the comments below.  We would love to hear what kinds of things you do at your public library. 

Wednesday, September 18, 2013

Dinasour Preschool Activities

Since we are focusing on the letter "D" this week, we had to discuss dinosaurs.  Almost every preschool child I know loves dinosaurs.
  1. We put together a giant floor puzzle.
 
  2.  We read a couple books, My first Dinosaur touch and Feel and Dinosaurs and other prehistoric reptiles. The book on the right belonged to my husband when he was a little boy and we enjoy looking at all the pictures he drew inside.

 
3. We even wrote our own story fashioned after the stories written by Laura NumeroffShe has written several books, one we recently checked out at the library was, If you give a Pig a Party.  This is a great activity for teaching sequencing.   
Our Story:


If you give a dinosaur a Danish
If you give a dinasour a danish...

he will want a glass of milk to go with it.  When you bring him into the kitchen and get him the milk,

he will dip the danish in the milk and gobble it up.


 
But, he will accidentally spill the milk because his arms are so tiny. 

Then he will ask you for a napkin.  When he see's the napkin he will remember that he also needs to clean up in dinosaur-ville.  He will go back to dinosaur-ville and help all the dinosaurs clean up.
 
Try making your own stories up.  It can be a lot of fun.
    4.  We also made patterns using the Melissa and Doug dinosaur stamps. For example, blue triceratops, red spike tail, blue triceratops, red spike tail.  What comes next?

    Monday, September 16, 2013

    Fall

    It's preschool time for my little one.  We looked into a local one, but it cost way too much money, and this is my last year at home with her before she heads off to kindergarten.  They grow up too fast, so I decided to do my own preschool.  I have a degree and access to the local library where we go for craft and story time and some interaction with other kids. 

    This week is Letter D.  We are going to have "dog" day.  Read stories like Dogerella, Go Dog Go, What is love Bisquit?, and Dr. Suess ABC.
    Practice writing the letter D with washable markers and a clear plastic protective sheet over tracing pages. 
    Sing silly songs.  And of course cooking day.  Where we will try to make donuts.