Preschool Playgroup

For last weeks playgroup I decided to try formalizing our letter of the week a little more. Let's just say this will be a trial and error thing if I continue with this.

First - we traced our names. I typed the names up and had them laminated on strips of paper and the kids traced their names with a dry erase marker.

Second - we played a game with our letter "A". We hid the letter and played hot and cold. Let's just say that two-year-olds are NOT interested in sharing. The three-year-old in our group did really well with this game. (Will have to note that for a later date when most of the group is 3.)

Next - We had our show and tell. Each child brought an item that began with the letter "A". We practiced some positional words. The alligator is "on" Meredith's head, etc.

Then - We had snack time. Here is a picture of what our placemats looked like. The numbers are on there so we can count out our snacks. We had ants (raisins), apricots, apples and dried apples. And I'm thinking, too many snacks is fairly overwhelming, so maybe just keep snacks to only 2 and not have everybody bring a snack. we'll have to take turns.

When the girls ask to color I pull this out. It has everything, minus the paper of course. It's fun to pull out our "craft box" or "coloring box". It was fun to pull it out for our playgroup. All of the stuff was right there. Markers, crayons (in the pink box), pencils, glue sticks, elmer's glue, water colors, scissors, and a ruler.

Here are two of our finished craft projects that we did after our snack. Meredith loved doing this. This was to help teach how to write an A. We put glue on the first line (the left line) of the A and had the kids start at the top of the letter. Then the right line and then the line between. It was a fun little project. Of course, then my girls dumped water and ruined the ones that got left at our house.

So, for next week I think we'll definitely have to shorten the formalized amount of time for our playdate. I think I'll stick to the names, show and tell, snack then craft. I'll just not add anything else and keep each of these short. (I'll let you know if that works better for 2-year-olds. :)

V for Volcano

It was time to try something new for playgroup. How about someone else hosting? Erin did a fabulous job! I'm so sad that they will only be here for the summer. But, we'll take them for as long as they'll stay. Erin and her two little boys made this awesome volcano for the letter V.

The kids, needless to say, LOVED it!

Here is a video. The kids asked for it again, and again, and again. Then I realized, "Hey, I need to get a video of this." So, for the fifth time around we got a recording of it. They also had the coloring pages for the letter V and a printable homemade book about Volcanoes found on Crayola's website. For our snack Erin made us lava smoothies. We also had vegetables, and letter v's out of rice crispy treats.


Thank you Erin so much for all of your hard work. For next week we're headed for Chuck E. Cheese for the letter "C". I'm so excited!

"F"

Last week (I know it, I've neglected the blogging.) we did the letter "F" for playgroup. We had it at the Brandi Fenton Park. They have the coolest little water park. It's FREE! I couldn't believe it when I saw it. Why didn't I come sooner! We had fruit, fruit snacks, fruit loop necklaces (which I brought fruit loops and string, but someone was smart enough to bring licorice to use as the string!) and fig newtons (ok, I never buy those things, so I don't even know how to spell it.) It was "F"un. :)

Letter "P"

We did the letter "P" for our playgroup on Tuesday. We played in our pool, which was fun and thankfully uneventful. We had pretzels, pop tarts, peaches, and pineapple and colored our letter "P". Next week we're doing the letter "E" for Easter and an Egg hunt.