There Was An Old Lady Who Swallowed A Chick Week: Monday!

There Was An Old Lady Who Swallowed A Chick Week:

Monday

Crafts:

• Spring Basket: Cardboard, large paper grocery bag, five 6" x 9" sheets of white construction paper, assorted construction paper, scissors, stapler, glue

1. To make the basket, cut off the top half of the bag set that part aside to use later for the handle.
2. Fold down the top edge of the bag about 1 1/2 inches; then fold it down again.
3. To make a handle, cut the top portion of the bag open and cut a long three-inch-wide strip from it. Fold and glue the strip in thirds(lengthwise) and then in half.
4. When the glue is dry, staple the handle to the bag.
5. To make a fence, make an outline of how you want your picket fence on a piece of cardboard, use this as a tracer.  Fold each sheet of white paper in half twice and outline the tracer; then cut it out.  Do not cut the folded edges.
6. Unfold the fence cutouts; then glue them around the basket. Trim off any excess paper.
7. Cut out stems, leaves, and flowers from construction paper.  Then glue the cutouts to the basket, gluing some stems behind the fence and some in front of it.  
8. If desired, line the basket with shredded paper or Easter grass.

• Marbleized Paper Egg: Large cake pan, water, table knife, colored chalk, pastel construction paper

1. Pour several inches of water into a large cake pan.
2. Using a table knife, scrape some colored chalk over the pan, letting the powder fall into the water.
3. Next, lay a piece of pastel construction paper on the water so it floats.  
4. Quickly pull it out of the water by lifting a corner.  Notice how the chalk has stuck to the paper in colorful patterns!
5. Cut a large egg shape from the paper.  
6. Rinse out pan so it can be used again.

• Bunny Ears Headband: Construction paper, glue

1. Draw and cut out a pair of bunny ears from construction paper.
2. Paste them to a headband made from a strip of paper cut to fit around your child's head.

Activities:

• Edible Bird Nests: Pictures of birds and their nests, stove, mixing spoon, 6-ounce package of chocolate chips, 3-ounce can of chow mein noodles, paper plates, double boiler, oven mitt, 6-ounce package of butterscotch pieces, 1 bag of miniature marshmallows

1. Show your child pictures of birds and their nests.
2. In a double boiler over low heat, melt the chocolate and butterscotch pieces.  Stir in noodles and mix well.  
3. When warm, but not hot, drop three tablespoon portions onto each child's plate.
4. Show your child how to mold the mixture into nest shapes, making a hollow in the center of each nest.
5. When cool the children can then drop three or four miniature marshmallows into the hollow to represent eggs.
6. Allow the nests to become firm before eating the nest for the snack.

• Detecting the Hard-Boiled Egg: 2 raw eggs, 1 hardboiled egg

1. Spin each egg.  Note what happens.  Then touch each egg lightly while it is spinning.
2. Two of the eggs wobble, but one spins.  The spinner is the hard-boiled egg.  When you touch the spinning hard-boiled egg lightly, it stops spinning completely.  The raw eggs move again after you have tried to stop them.
3. The loose yolks and whites in the raw eggs revolve slowly because of inertia, the tendency of an object to continue at rest or in motion.  This causes the raw eggs to wobble and to continue to move even after you tried to stop them.  The solid white and yolk cause the hard-boiled egg to respond more quickly.  

• Great site for learning about chickens, music, worksheets, activities  at Kiddy House

Music/Rhyme:

• Cardboard Tube Blow Horn: Empty cardboard paper towel tube, waxed paper, rubber band, hole puncher

1. Cover one end of an empty cardboard paper towel tube with a piece of waxed paper, holding the paper in place with a rubber band.
2. Poke five small holes in a row along the side of the tube.
3. Hum or blow into the open end of the tube while putting your fingers over the holes.

• Do the Chicken Dance with your child
• Little Hen Rhyme at http://www.rhymes.org.uk/little_hen.htm
• Egg Songs and More at Child Fun Website

Education:

Letters/Words

• Word Of The Day: Index card, pen

1. Had
2. Make sentences with the new word.  For example:  I had a bowl of soup.   I had lots of fun today.

• Shopping For Words: Index cards, black marker, tape, white paper

1. Take all the words your child knows and write each one of them on an index cards.
2. Tape the index cards up around the house.
3. Write each of the words on a piece of white paper, this will be their shopping word list.
4. Hand your child their list and have them shop around the house for their words.  

Numbers

• Great website for printable number activities and crafts at First School  

Books:

• Their Was An Old Lady Who Swallowed A Chick! by Lucille Colandro
• Horton Hatches The Egg by Dr. Seuss

There Was An Old Lady Who Swallowed A Chick Week: Monday!

Easter Week: Monday

Easter Week

Monday

Crafts:

• Easter Egg: Foam crafts, ribbon, glue, acrylic rhinestones, sequins, scissors,  thin cardboard, pencil

1. Make two egg shapes on a piece of thin cardboard(one big and one just a bit smaller than the big one).  Cut out shapes. Use these as tracers.
2. Trace a big one and smaller one for each egg.  Make sure they are two different colors.  Cut out shapes. 
3. Glue smaller on top of bigger one.  
4. Cut out 3 waves to decorate the egg.  Glue on top of egg.
5. Glue sequins and rhinestones onto egg.
6. Glue ribbon on back for hanging.

• Handprint Bunny Keepsake:  Foam craft, white washable finger paint, scissors, gogglie, pink pom pom

1. Cut out a bunny face out of white foam.  Make a face on the face foam.  Use gogglie eyes for the eyes.  Pink pom pom for the nose.
2. Glue face onto the bottom part of a piece of foam. 
3. Make different colored squares out of pieces of craft foam. Glue the onto the sides of the foam piece with the bunny face.  
4. At the bottom cut out a rectangular shape(the same size as the squares).  Then right your child's name and the year 2010.
5. Then have your child dip both their hands into the white paint and press it above the bunny face to make the ears of the bunny. 
6. You can also put carrot and egg shapes made of craft foam on top of the squares.

• Holiday Easter Wreath: Paper plate, cool-temperature glue gun, embelishments and treasures, green construction paper or green tissue paper, scissors, yellow and white pompoms, gogglie eyes, orange and white pipe cleaners, jelly beans, tiny pink pom poms, black string

1. Cut hole in center of paper plate to resemble a wreath.
2. Cut paper into strips to look like grass.  Glue onto plate.  
3. Glue yellow pom pom onto the wreath.  Cut a small piece of orange pipe cleaner, bend it in half to make the beak.  Glue on the eyes.  You can make more chicks if you want.
4. Glue white pom pom onto the wreath.  Cut small pipe cleaners and fold them around to make the ears of the rabbit.  Cut pieces of black string to make whiskers.  Glue on pom pom. Glue on tiny pink pom for nose, on top of string.  Glue on eyes.  If you do not want to make the bunny and chick then just glue on the bunny and chick toys. 
5. Glue jelly beans on.
6. Take a piece of ribbon and put it into the center hole and tie the pieces together to form the hanging device. 

Activities:

• Chalk Easter Picture: Sugar, water, pastel chalk, construction paper

1. Mix one part sugar with three parts water.  Pour the mixture into a shallow container.
2. Next, pick out some pastel chalks for your picture.  Soak the chalks in the mixture for about five minutes.  
3. Then, draw an Easter scene on construction paper using the wet chalks. Dip the chalks into the mixture as you go to keep them wet.  

• Investing Eggs: Chicken egg, magnifying lens, bowl, toothpick

What's Is Inside An Egg?

1. If the egg was in the refrigerator, let it sit out for a while to warm.  
2. Examine the outside of the egg under the magnifying lens.
3. Slowly crack the egg open over a bowl and examine the inside of the shell under the magnifying lens.
4. Study the inside of the egg.  Notice the membrane inside the shell.
5. Examine the other parts of the membrane.  Feel the white jelly material.
6. Examine the yolk.  What is the thin membrane around the yolk holding it in a round shape?

Explanation: 

A chicken egg is a single cell that contains its own food.  The white or brown hard surface, the shell, is part of the protective membrane that surrounds the inside of the egg.  When you cracked the egg open, you saw the membrane clinging to the inside of the shell.  The membrane acts as a layer of insulation between the shell and the inside of the egg.  The yellow center of the egg is the yolk, which is the food source for the developing chick.  The yolk is held in place by two spiral bands of protein.  These bands, called chalazae, hold the yolk in place on top of the growing chick.  The white part of the egg is called the albumen.  The albumen contains water reserved for the chick and holds the yolk.

• Flashlight Egg Hunt: Flashlight, plastic eggs, reflective strips

1. Put a piece of reflective strip around each plastic egg.
2. Hide the eggs around the house or yard.
3. Play game at night with the lights out.
4. Then with the flash lights search for the eggs.  The flashlight should reflect when the light hits it.  

• Easter: Printables

1. Family Fun Website

Snacks:

• Easter Cakes(from little debbie)
• Pretzels sticks and small round crackers (game)

Take the pretzel sticks and make a tic tac toe pattern.  Make 9 squares.  6 pretzels across and 6 down.  

Use two pretzel sticks for the X's and the crackers for the O's. 

Education:

Letters/Words

• Word Of The Day: Index cards, pen

1. Have
2. How is your child doing with the rest of their words?

• Alphabet Chalk Fun:  Chalk(different colors), Driveway

1. Write the alphabet all over the driveway.  Upper and lower case. 
2. Then take turns calling out a letter.  The caller has to run to the Capital version while the other person darts to the lowercase letter.  

• Printable Word Games

1. Family Fun Website

Numbers

• Dominos: Dominos

1. Play a game of dominos with your child.
2. After playing dominos,  then line them all up so your child can knock them all down. 
3. How many did your child get to line up before knocking down. Have them count them while they are setting them up.  
4. You can even line up VHS tapes and knock them down too.

Music:

• Tambourine: Cardboard, stapler, paint, jingle bells, yarn, hole puncher

1. Cut a strip of corrugated cardboard, bend it in a circle shape, and staple the ends together.
2. Paint it. Let dry.
3. For each jingle bell that you want to attach, punch two holes in the cardboard. 
4. Tie on each jingle bell with yarn.

• Easter Songs and Rhymes: Preschool Education Website

Books:

• Silly Nilly and the Easter Bunny by Lillian Hoban
• Allie Gator and the Easter Egg Hunt (John Deere) by Elana Roth
• Somebunny Loves You by Jane Gerver
• Max's Easter Surprise by (Max and Ruby) by Rosemary Wells

Some ideas were found in the following books:

• Look What You Can Make With Dozens of Household Items! by Boyds Mills Press
• Family Fun Magazine: March 2010
• Nature in a Nutshell For Kids by Jean Potter
• The Kids' Encyclopedia of Things to Make and do by Richard Michael Rasmussen 

Easter Week: Monday

There Was An Old Lady Who Swallowed A Shell Week: Monday

There Was An Old Lady Who Swallowed A Shell Week

Monday

Crafts:

• Super Star Shells: Bucket of soapy water, bleach, seashells and dried seashells, plate, Mod Podge glue, paintbrush, glitter in assorted colors, spoons

1. Clean seashells and starfish in a bucket of warm, soapy water and a couple capfuls of bleach if you found them on the beach.  Just let them soak, then rinse them off.  You can also bleach shells to pure white by soaking them overnight in a mixture of equal parts bleach and water.  Make sure there is enough water to cover the whole shell. Let dry for 24 hours.
2. Use the paintbrush to spread a thin layer of glue on the shells in the spots where you want to add glitter.  Sprinkle a spoonful or two of glitter onto the glue area.  Shake off excess glitter and let dry.
3. If you want to use more than one color, spread glue on another spot.  Spoon on glitter in a different color.  Shake off excess glitter and let dry.  Repeat this step until you've made the design you want. 

• Starring You Frame: Wooden frame, Mod Podge glue, foam paintbrush, extra-fine glitter, craft glue, hot-glue gun, 25 mini dried starfish or small shells

1. First remove backing and glass from frame, you'll work with the wooden part only.
2. Using the foam paintbrush, cover the frame with a thin layer of glue.  Sprinkle on glitter.  Let dry.
3. Following the instructions for Super Star Shells decorate the starfish or shells.
4. Help kids with this step.  Using a hot-glue gun, glue starfish and shells to frame.  Let dry.

• Birds of a Feather: 1 small craft stick, 1 polystyrene foam ball with flat side, cool-temperature glue gun, feathers, felt shapes for eyes and nose, foam paper, paint, paintbrushes, marker

1. Paint craft stick and ball.  Let dry.
2. Make a flower shape for the face.  Make face on flower with foam shapes, gogglie eyes and/or black marker.
3. Glue to craft stick.
4. Insert stick in front of ball and feathers in back of ball.  

Activities:

• Inside  Shells: Empty spiral shell, coarse sandpaper

1. Examine the outside of the shell and observe the spirals.
2. Grip the shell tightly and rub it very hard against the sandpaper.
3. Continue to rub the shell to wear away one side.  What do you see when you rub away most the shell?
4. Some animals live inside the shells that protect their soft bodies.  The shells are usually hard and can be found in all sizes and colors.  Shells found near the sea are generally made of a mineral called calcium.  They no longer have an animal inside.  When you wore away the side of the shell with the sandpaper, you revealed the inside of the shell.  It has a spiral shape.  As the organism grew, it add layers to the shell, which appear as rings on the outside of the shell.  

• Sand Impressions: Sand, cake pan, tap water, seashells, package of plaster of paris, plastic bowl, plastic spoon

1. Pour the sand into the cake pan.
2. Moisten the sand with tap water until it is wet enough to hold an impression.
3. Make the several impressions in the sand with the seashells.
4. Mix the plaster of paris in the plastic bowl according to the directions on the package.
5. Quickly pour the plaster into the sand impressions you have made.  (Note: Throw the remaining plaster in the trash.  Do not throw it in the sink because it will clog the drain.)
6. Let the plaster dry for a few minutes.
7. Remove the shells from the plaster.  What do you see?

• Sand Painting: A jar of sand, paper cups, dry tempera paint(colors of your choice), stiff cardboard or poster board, a pencil, a brush, clear glue, newspaper

1. Put about 1/4 cup of sand in a paper cup.  Add one color of tempera powder, and stir well.  The more tempera, the brighter the final color.  Make a mixture in a cup for each color you want.
2. Sketch the basics of your painting on the cardboard.  Flowers are a good subject.  You don't need a lot of detail, just make sure to outline the area that will be different colors, such as petals, leaves, and the design of the vase.
3. Paint glue thickly onto all the areas that will take one color--the green leaves, for instance.  Pour the sand and green tempera mixture onto these areas.  Then stand the board on its side and gently shake off the excess mixture onto a sheet of newspaper.  Return the excess mixture to the green cup.
4. Repeat with each section of the painting until the entire surface is colored, then set it aside to dry.

• Tissue Box Old Lady Shell Toss Game: Empty tissue upright box, scissors, tape, paint, colored paper, cardboard, pencil, sea shells, tape, construction paper, bucket, pom pom

1. Take the side of the tissue box where it comes together and pull it apart(the top half only)
2. Then cut the inside cardboard down to the lower section only.
3. Then from the lower section on the sides, cut box at an angle to the back of the box with inch to back.  Do this to both sides.
4. Next, push down the sides you just cut so it forms an angle on the open mouth.  Tape down the sides.  You should now have a slanted down box.
5. Next, paint the box or add construction paper around the box. Don't block the hole.
6. Trace a half a head(the opening is mouth of the lady), arms, and legs on the cardboard.  Cut out and decorate with paint or construction paper.  Add eyes and a nose(pom pom) to head.  Glue to box.
7. If you want you can have a tongue sticking out of mouth using red construction paper.  
8. Place old lady a little ways in front of your child.  Give your child a bucket of shells and have them try to throw the shells into the old lady's mouth.  

Snacks:

• Shell Cookies, Sea creature gummies

Education:

Letters/Words

• Word Of The Day: Index card, pen

1. At
2. Make up sentences using this word.  For example: I was at the movies; You were at the grocery store
3. Show your child that adding one letter in front of the word At makes all sorts of other words like: Bat, Cat, Fat, Hat, Mat, Pat, Rat, Sat

Numbers

• Which was is higher or lower?  Deck of cards(take out the face cards)

1. Pick which game you will play first higher or lower before game starts.
2. Place a deck of card in between your child and yourself.  Face down.
3. Then, each one of you pick one card and make sure not to show each other your cards.
4. Next, have your child count to three and then show each other your cards.  If you said you were going to play higher, then whoever has the highest card wins. Ask your child which one has the highest number.   If you have a 5 and your child has a 4, then you take both cards and set in a pile for you, face up.  
5. At the end of the game whoever has the most cards wins.  
6. Win you play lower, then whoever has the lowest card wins.  So if you have a 8 and your child has a 3 then your child wins that hand.
7. Have your child count their own cards they won.

Music:

• Drum: Oatmeal box, construction paper, glue, scissors, string or heavy yarn, hammer and nail, wooden spoons(dollar tree), paint

1. Paint two wooden spoons any color, let dry.
2. Cover oatmeal box with torn up construction paper. Glue on paper, let dry. Punch holes near the top of the box.
3. To make a strap for carrying the drum, cut a three-foot length of yarn or string and thread it through the holes.  Tie the ends together inside the drum.  Place the lid on the drum and your child is ready to play.  Use the two wooden spoons for the drumsticks.

• Sung to: "Ten Little Indians"
  
  Scoop up sand and put it in your bucket.
  Scoop up sand and put it in your bucket.
  Scoop up sand and put it in your bucket.
  How much do you have?

Rhyme: 

A Seashell 

One day a little shell washed up (hold shell)
Out of the waves at sea.
I held the shell up to my ear, (hold shell to ear)
And I heard it sing to me.
Sh...sh...sh...sh. (children repeat)

A little shell washed up one day,
And lay upon the sand. (hold shell in hand)
It sang a song about the sea,
As I held it in my hand. (children repeat)

Song and Rhyme were found on the www.preschooleducation.com website.

Book:

• There Was An Old Lady Who Swallowed A Shell by Lucille Colandro

Some ideas were found in the following books:

• Arts, Crafts and More by Teacher Created Materials, Inc.
• Rosie O' Donnell's Crafty U (which can be found at Barnes and Noble on sale for around $6.)
• Easy Fun Projects with Everyday Items by Ruby Shumaker
• Nature In A Nutshell For Kids by Jean Potter

There Was An Old Lady Who Swallowed A Shell Week: Monday