Mouse Shapes and Mouse Count

This week we ended our look at Ellen Stoll Walsh. The week flew by and the children were so engaged in play this week. One thing I love about the Creative Curriculum approach is the emphasis on social development. The facilitator (teacher) puts the materials in place but the play is directed by the children. This play develops problem solving, creativity, social development and involves small and large motor development as well. Now is a great time to be an early educator as the influence of some of the most creative minds is at our fingertips. Check out some of my "heroes" in early childhood like Lisa Murphy and Jeff A. Johnson.

Here is a version of Mouse Count:

I find my ideas on Pinterest, Teachers Pay Teachers and through preschool blogs. If you follow me on Pinterest you will see that my boards are overflowing with ideas. I will share the activities from the week, saving the video from our look at the life of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. for the end.

Here are the activities we completed as we ended our look at Mouse Shapes. The "soapy shapes" were inspired by the sensory sink idea found here:

We also searched for magnetic shapes in popcorn as inspired by this link and here.

Our shape activities included familiar games and manipulatives.

Our mouse project was found here:

We concluded our look at Mouse Shapes with a sensory table inspired by Teach Preschool. It moved from shapes to counting "mice" the next day:

We had a great time with our Mouse Count story props inspired by this link and here:

As you can see, we grouped the mice according to the story, which helps children see what a group of three or four looks like according to this link.

Some of our other activities for counting included a game from Scholastic, a number match found here and cube counting found here.

Our mouse game that we made was found here and here.

We also painted with q-tips with primary colors as a review. This activity was inspired by this link.

We had quite a few construction projects as toys we have available were turned into pet homes, a mouse "high rise" and other towers.

We also enjoyed a soapy sensory table and free choice at the light box:

We took time this week to look at the life and message of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. The project was inspired by and the video was found at this link. I cannot find the link to the poem we used to post the project, but the results were beautiful. The life and work of Dr. King still inspires today.

Next week we will begin our look at Dr. Seuss. Until then, have a great week!

Mouse Paint and Mouse Shapes

This week we began our look at Mouse Paint and Mouse Shapes by Ellen Stoll Walsh. Our main focus for the majority of the week was looking at primary and secondary colors through color recognition and mixing. I used an Animoto from a classmate that I cannot post here for copyright reasons. I will share a fun video from Sesame Street instead:

We began our week with a look at Mouse Paint with the help of magnetic characters from Ashley Stewart from Teachers Pay Teachers:

We also worked with folder games including color matching cards from Homeschool Creations and Cookie Colors from file folder farm. We also sorted colors with our bear counters. I used my resources from Funshine Express and Mother Goose Time along with the Mondo books to introduce the letters and numbers of the unit. I apologize for the sideways view of the picture as it would not load correctly.

We had a great time at the sensory table working with primary color rice, a mixture of rice colors and oats and shapes.

Our art experiences included squish art color mixing, marble art painting, coloring with melting crayons as inspired by Lisa Murphy and a fun color mixing worksheet from Jeananne Turner at TpT. We ended our week painting with household items as we looked at shapes.

For our light box activities, we focused on colors and color mixing with the paddles and transparent counters. The worksheet is from Making Learning Fun.

I also took time this week to rearrange the playroom and add a simple reading tent made out of clearance sheets as inspired by 2 Little Hooligans. My goal is to add a flannel board to this area as well to complement the books and puppets/ stage.

We will continue to spend time with Ellen Stoll Walsh books next week as we continue to look at shapes followed by numbers 1 - 10. We will "see" you next week!