Pinterest Preschool Party

Every now and again its great to actually get around to doing those awesome things I pin on Pinterest.  There is just something satisfying about checking them off the ol' to do list, and even more so when they're preschool activities that the kids get to enjoy and learn from!

Lately, we've been on a mission to complete quite a few of those activities, since my son will be starting pre-k in just a couple weeks.  So I'm going to take this opportunity to share our favorites with you.

First up is this great post about Children's Book Week over at Mom to 2 Posh Lil Divas.  She has links to a bunch of different activities to do with all sorts of great children's books.

I've always been a fan of the Laura Numeroff series.  I doubt there is a person who has never at least heard of the book "If You Give a Mouse a Cookie".  But many people may not know just how many books are in that series.  "If You Give a Moose A Muffin" and "If you Give a Pig a Party" are two of the favorites at our house.  And since making muffins is definitely easier than throwing a party, I opted for some nice homemade banana nut muffins to go with this story.  

Also from Mom to 2 Posh Lil Diva's post was this classic children's activity to go with the book "It Looked Like Spilt Milk."  I remember doing this at some point way back when I was in elementary school!  

The kids get excited any time paint gets pulled out.  I love to paint with them, but I hate the mess it usually makes!  Luckily this activity is just using one color, and it goes really quick.  The washable Crayola paint we used also cleans up easily!!  And then you get all the fun of guessing just what you think the paint blob looks like.

Recently, I've been really trying to focus on teaching my son some basic sight words.  He's always loved books, even if he just memorizes them and pretends to read them back.  Now, he seems more interested in the actual words, and I'm taking full advantage of that interest.  

We picked up a couple packages of sight word flash cards and go over a few several times a day.  He loves to put them together to make his own sentences (even if they don't always make sense).  When I saw this activity on Pinterest, for a Sight Word Parking Lot from Juggling With Kids, we had to make it!

I used a few of the words, I was certain he could already recognize and read, and then the rest I filled in with other common sight words from the flash cards.  I plan on making another parking lot on the back side with a different set of words to keep it challenging.  

He loves this game!  It was definitely the perfect way to approach sight words with a boy.  I picked up a few more Hot Wheels for him, and we keep a bucket of cars ready at a moment's notice to pull out the parking lot and play.  When he's "parked" all of his cars, he has them back out one by one and drive out of the parking lot, and we start over.  Sometimes, he picks a word and drives to it.  Sometimes I pick the word.  Sometimes I tell him to "park to the right of the word at" or something like that.  He always has to repeat the word when he parks there.  

No matter how we play, it's always fun!!

This next activity is a combination of two pins I had saved on my preschool board on Pinterest.  First off, here's a link to an awesome handwriting worksheet generator.  You can pick between print, D'Nealian, or cursive and you type in what you want the worksheet to show.  You can also have it print several lines to trace, or just the top line with the rest of the lines blank for a more difficult writing challenge.   

The second part of this activity I got from Or So She Says.  I put the handwriting worksheet in a plastic sheet protector, and my son uses a dry erase marker to trace the sentence over and over again.  It simply erases write off the page.  No need to print off several pages and no wasted paper!

This last one is also along the same lines.  The pin on Pinterest recommended using Dollar Store photo albums for flash cards.  Kids can simply write on the answers and wipe off for practice over and over again.  I used a photo album I already had on hand, but I'm going to look for a clear one so both sides of the flash cards can be seen.  I also attached a small piece of velcro to the front of the album and dry erase marker so it's always attached and ready to use.  This particular pin was an image uploaded by the user, so I don't have a blog post to link it back to.   

So there you have it.  Our Pinterest preschool party fun!  Now to go check off a few more activities...