Tag Archives: STREAM

“Preschool Self-portraits” little ones event

This month we played with self-portraits! Being able to recognize faces and emotions is an integral part of self-regulation and socio-emotional awareness. We held this event on a Tuesday, on Thursday at an outreach location, and again on Saturday in the library.

We drew on mirrors with dry erase markers like this post from Preschool STEAM.

I set out a bunch of craft supplies (buttons, pipe cleaners, glitter glue, yarn, washi tape, pom poms, paint and brushes, googly eyes, beads, modeling clay, markers, crayons, glue, scissors) and let the kids go to town.

And sometimes just making bracelets is fun too.

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“Billions of Bricks” Story Explorers preschool book club

We read Billions of Bricks by Kurt Cyrus.

We built with uncooked spaghetti and marshmallows.

This girl made a bunch of sticks for roasting marshmallows.

We played with blocks.

We built with Tubelox.

And everyone’s favorite: Makedo toys.

Some kiddos thought that shaving the styrofoam with the Makedo knife was more fun than building so they created “snow.”

Our janitor loves me.

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“Love” Story Explorers Preschool Book Club

We read Love by Matt de la Peña. This one is tough for me to read in public without crying. I think it’s a perfect read for the kids to grow with. There is so much to dissect here.

We estimated and graphed with candy hearts like this post from Buggy and Buddy to learn about nonstandard units of measurement.

I set out a table of pipe cleaners to make various heart crafts like love goggles, heart rings, and heart chains.

We made Shrinky Dinks valentines like this post from TinkerLab.

Happy Valentine’s Day!

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“Under the Sea” little ones event

In June and July, I have storytimes and/or events literally every day for our Summer Adventure Program. Mostly I hire performers so that I don’t go insane, but we still run many of our own events. This week we went Under the Sea.

We made paper plate jellyfish like this post from Nontoy Gifts.

We hopped around sharks.

We performed an octopus ink experiment like this post from Learn Play Imagine. Some kids LOVED this and stayed at this station, repeating it over and over.

We counted and added fish like this post from the STEM Laboratory.

We ate a gone fishing snack like this post from Blue Skies Ahead. We used sunflower butter to be safe.

By far, however, the most popular station was the sensory table with beach sand slime and water beads with ocean animals. Fair warning , the beach sand slime was a beach to clean so be prepared for that. It was worth it. The water beads went EVERYWHERE and created a very slippery floor. Next time I will put a tarp under the table. Still worth it.

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“Space!” little ones event

This month we held an outer space event at the library twice (Tues and Sat mornings) and at an outreach event (Thursday morning). May is sadly a notoriously slow month attendance-wise, but those who came had a BLAST.

We charted our own constellations like this post.

We tied sponges to our feet and walked on the moon in our space shoes.

We made rockets that blasted off into space. I modified this post because I didn’t have plastic pipettes. We simply colored 2 rockets and then taped them together leaving a hole at the bottom for the straw. Make sure to tape the rockets together, leaving no holes for air to escape through.

We learned how craters in the moon are formed and how planets orbit the sun.

We studied moon rocks in our outer space exploration suit.

We guided our rocket ships into and out of space safely with our NASA control center from this post.

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“Gaga for Green” Little Ones event

This month I held a “Gaga for Green” event for ages 2-5. We held this at the library twice (Tues and Sat) and at an outreach event in Severance once (Thurs). In honor of spring and St. Patrick’s Day, we explored activities on the subject of the color green.

We mixed yellow and blue food coloring in baggies of corn syrup.

We made 4 leaf clover stamps out of green peppers, like this post from Learn Play Imagine. Make sure your peppers have 4 bumps on the bottom. These work great!

We practiced our fine motor skills with glitter and glue. (My janitor loves me.)

One kiddo drew G’s in his G.

We practiced more fine motor skills by planting a garden like this post from No Time for Flash Cards.

We made “edible” slime, like this post from Play Learn Grow for a free play table. I was looking for our playdoh tools but couldn’t find any so last minute I grabbed our animals. It seemed to work out well.

One little boy said he made a new mane for the lion.

One little girl said she had to apply sunscreen to her elephant.
I told her as a redhead, I approved.

This was messy fun. Erin Go Bragh!

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“Worms!”

For our little ones event this month, we celebrated worms! We held this event in the library twice and at an outreach event housed by Windsor-Severance Fire Rescue once.

Special thanks to the Colorado Worm Man for his red wigglers!

Even firefighters like worms!

One little girl collected a handful of worms and passed them out to her friends.

This cool dude put a worm on mom’s knee.

We threaded worms through the dirt for some fine motor development, like this snake in the grass post from Fun with Friends at Storytime!

We fed “worms” to birds, like this post from Learning 4 Kids.

We ate gummy worms (of course).

We painted with colored spaghetti.

Joke for the day: What do you call the worm that ate Mozart? A decomposer.

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“Blackout” preschool book club

We talked about what happens when the power goes out. Some kids have never had that happen! Then we read Blackout by John Rocco.

We turned out the lights in 1/2 the room so the kids could play with flashlights and shadow puppets.

We also made star jars using foil, ball jars, and golf tees to poke holes, kind of like this post from Design Mom.

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Fairy Tale Ball

February’s event for little ones was the Fairy Tale Ball! Costumes welcome but not required. My fabulous coworker made the forest/castle backdrop for picture taking.

We cleaned like Cinderella. We also tried to balance plates on our heads and hands, like this Montessori-inspired activity.

We made swords out of cardboard and tin foil and magic wands out of whatever materials I could find.

We experimented to see which if straw, stick, or brick houses were the strongest.

We planted magic beans so they could grow towards the castle, like this activity.

We mined for jewels like the Seven Dwarfs, based off this birthday party game. Of course, the paper bag rocks were fun to tear apart so that happened too.