Preschoolers Pumpkin Soap Balls

 I have the tried and true staple activities I try to do every year. We don't always get to it but this year we have it planned! Pumpkin soap balls are really easy to make and a great messy activity for the little ones. Don't worry, the mess consists of soap so we all wind up smelling nice and clean when it's all over!

How to Make Pumpkin Soap Balls:

Materials: Dreft soap flakes or any brand of boxed soap flakes (1 Box equals six to nine children), Green chenille, green construction paper, marker, saran wrap, yarn, tooth picks, large bowl, play dough mats for each child, warm water, orange food coloring, large spoon, hole punch
Procedure: Mix soap, food coloring and slowly add warm water to the large bowl and mix. The consistency should be thick and stick to the spoon. Distribute soap to children on their mats and have them form a ball and a face (using the toothpicks). Have pre-cut pumpkin leaves cut (green construction paper) of each child's name and stick a small length of green chenille through a pre-punched hole. This is the stem and leaves of the pumpkin soap. After it dries you can gift wrap it in saran wrap and tie it off with a length of yarn.

These pumpkin soap balls make excellent gifts!

The Easiest Kids Play Dough Recipe-Ever!

No time? Whip together something quick for or with the kids as a quick project! We love to accessorize this one with our dramatic play pots, pans and cooking utensils at a table. The kids love to pretend to cook!

How to Make The Easiest Kids Play Dough:
2 Cups Flour
1 Cup hot water (From tap is fine)

Mix it well in a bowl with your hands and, Voila! Adding a sugarless Kool-Aid packet or Jell-O mix can add color and a lovely smell.

Working With Natural Clay in Early Childhood Education

When my daughter was about seven years old, she asked me one day what I did at work. I told her I worked at the college - that my job was to teach people how to draw. She stared at me, incredulous, and said, "You mean they forget?" 
~Howard Ikemoto

One of my favorite things to do with preschoolers in the classroom is clay. I know, I always say everything is “one of my favorite things”…but it is. Next to art, and everything else…that is. I mean the fresh stuff too, people. Not a bunch of hard crumbly dried up rocks because someone forgot to store it properly, lol.
Proper storage for clay is;
*Air tight container
*Plastic bag covering the clay

*Damp cloth over the top of the clay

I use interlocked pipe cleaners I have twisted together to “cut” it if it is purchased in bulk. I put the wire around the trunk of it as if I was going to tie a bow around it- but instead I simply keep pulling the pipe cleaner toward me and it makes a clean cut through the clay.

Materials:
Clay, trays, small cups of water for each child, covered tables with news print,small bin of water, towels, and smocks (optional)

The Process:
I give the little ones a tray, a damp sponge, a hunk of clay, damp sponges, small cups of water, and put bins of water under the table with towels to dry off (This way they are not dripping back and forth to the sink)
The first few experiences the clay I don’t give them any tools to work with, just their hands. Sometimes they make a product but that is not the main focus, it is mainly sensorial now, later on I add extensions as they become interested in making something.

Extension ideas:
*Pressing dinosaur feet or skeletons in the clay to make fossil impressions
*Pressing insects in the clay and painting them of fossil impressions
*Hand and footprint impressions
*Pressing sea glass and small beads for art projects

What do you enjoy doing with clay?

The Honorable Mention: The Preschool Teachers Journal

"Education is what remains after one has forgotten what one has learned in school." 

~Albert Einstein

One of my earliest memories of school was in Kindergarten. I loved kindergarten. I made an Easter basket out of clay and made little clay eggs inside it. I left it on the table to go wash my hands and when I came back the little eggs inside it were gone…gone! I looked high and low until I heard a little girl moaning under the table. When I asked her what was wrong she told me she ate some candy eggs and felt sick.

Well….Then I felt sick. I didn’t want to get in trouble…so I squished my evidence and told the teacher. The following week I make another similar basket with eggs and it happened again! Another kid ate the eggs out of it and got sick. This time I was caught! I wasn’t allowed to make baskets anymore because they looked ‘too real’.
But with such a high demand for my trinkets-I became a closet clay “Easter Basket Maker”. That wasn’t all, either. Kids would trade me cookies for mini snowmen, dinosaurs, cars, and animals. They were a hot ticket.
I had seven cavities by the time I was 7. But I learned I was definitely on to something….
I love to see kids work, and what areas of the classroom environment they gravitate to. Encouragement and praise are to a child like water to a plant….just the right amount causes them to flourish.