Kindermark Kids Blog — preschool activities

Easter Activities for Preschoolers

With the Easter holiday just around the corner, you can start incorporating Easter eggs hunts and bunny rabbit activities into your classroom lesson plans. From craft projects to snack time and everything in between, you can easily incorporate some of the Easter traditions into your daily classroom activities. Kindermark Kids has gathered some fun activities for you to try in your classroom this year.

Peeps Edible Play Dough

What child doesn’t like play dough? Not only is it fun, but it’s great for working little fingers to start to practice fine motor skills that will be used later when writing. However, little learners tend to put thing in their mouth, so you might be concerned with the play dough recipes you use with them. With Easter less than two weeks away, there’s no shortage on peeps! For an easy, edible play dough recipe, all you need is peeps, corn starch, vegetable oil and water. Check it out here: http://www.stillplayingschool.com/2014/03/peeps-play-dough-recipe.html.

Bunny Hopping

During this activity, children will get to learn about bunny rabbits while also getting some exercise. Rabbits hop in a zig zag when they are trying to get away from their prey. Have children practice jumping like a bunny rabbit by using masking tape to create a zig zag on the floor for them to hop along.

Homemade Easter Baskets

Turn your classroom Easter egg hunt into a craft project and math lesson! All you need for this activity is some empty egg cartons, acrylic paints, ribbon and a hot glue gun. Start by cutting the tops and tabs off. Then let the children decorate the cartons with the paint. Once they’ve had a chance to dry. Glue a piece of ribbon to the carton to create a handle. Voila! Now the children have Easter baskets with individual spaces, so they can practice counting to 12.

Contact Paper Chick

Sensory activity meets craft project with this contact paper chick activity. For the project, you will need a piece of contact paper large enough to fit two eggs, a bag of yellow feathers, two pieces of white cardstock, a pair of scissors, masking tape, two large googly eyes, a piece of orange construction paper and an orange marker. Find the instructions and pictures here: http://www.houseofburkeblog.com/2013/03/contact-paper-chick.html. Make sure the children have plenty of table space for these Easter crafts and other activities throughout the year by investing in some of our child-height table and chair sets!

Bunny Snacks

Bunny’s love vegetables, and they make the perfect healthy snack for children! Add to the Easter fun by providing carrots, celery and lettuce with ranch dressing for the children to enjoy during snack time. Let the children help you prepare the snack by allowing them to help wash the veggies. Our child-height portable sinks work perfectly in the classroom for activities such as this!

Beginning Letter Sounds Easter Egg Hunt

To help with reading and sounds, consider an Easter egg hunt that allows children to match the objects they find with the letters of the alphabet. Find the free downloadable Easter basket mat here. Once you’ve printed that, you can fill it in with whatever letters you want your students to work on. You can even customize it for each child if there are certain letters or sounds that they have been struggling with. Find small items that go with each letter that you can place in Easter eggs. For example, you might use a button for the letter “B” or a toy snake for the letter “S”. Then hide the eggs and once the children have found them, they can work together to match the items with the letters on their mats.

Kindermark Kids is here for all your classroom needs, from furniture to storage options and portable sinks for easy clean up. Visit our website to browse our wide selection of products to help make your classroom more organized and efficient. Happy Easter from Kindermark Kids!

Kindermark Kids - Creating Child-Friendly Spaces!

5 Valentine's Day Activities for Preschoolers

Valentine’s Day is almost here, which means you can incorporate some fun love themed activities into your lesson plans. In today’s blog, Kindermark Kids offers details on a variety of Valentine’s Day activities that your students are sure to enjoy! Keep reading to check them out.

 1. Candy Heart Math & Science Activities

Conversation hearts are more than just a fun snack; they can be used in a variety of learning activities and experiments. These candies can be used for counting, sorting and creating patterns. The hearts can also be used for science experiments. Gather a variety of liquids such as water, vinegar, soda, rubbing alcohol, etc. Then have the students drop the conversation hearts into each liquid to see which one dissolves the candy the fastest. This is a fun way for preschoolers to explore the scientific method.

 2. Create an “I Love” Book

In preparation for this craft, teachers will need to cut out paper hearts to use as pages for the book. Use a red or pink heart for the front and back covers, and use regular white paper for the interior pages. On the front, write “I Love by [student’s name]”. Ask each student what they love and write that on the white pages. Then let them draw pictures and color on the hearts to make it their own. Once the children are finished “writing” and decorating their books. You can staple the pages together and they have something to take home and show their families.

3. Mosaic Heart Craft

Creating mosaic hearts is both fun and educational. This craft helps students develop their fine motor skills. Learning to cut it tricky, and this craft allows them to practice with scissors. Hand each child a heart shaped piece of white paper (you want to use some thicker paper for the hearts). Then give them some scrap paper or tissue paper in red and pink colors. Let them cut the colored paper into pieces. (To make the cutting easier you might pre-cut the paper into strips so they only have to make one cut to create a small piece.) Then have them glue the pieces inside the heart.

 4. Valentine’s Slime

Creating homemade slime in Valentine’s Day colors is a fun and easy science activity to do with your students. You can make it with red glitter, confetti hearts or just a simple pink color. The possibilities are endless. While there are several different slime recipes you could use, a common one is just water, glue and liquid starch. In a bowl, mix half a cup of water with half a cup of clear or white Elmer’s glue. (Use white glue for pink slime, but clear works better for the glitter or confetti ones.) Stir together until completely combined. Now add your color, glitter or confetti. Once that’s mixed completely, add half a cup of liquid starch. You will see the slime start to form immediately. Mix with your hands until the majority of the liquid is incorporated into the slime.

5. Valentine’s Day Sensory Bin

Sensory bins are easy to put together and provide an awesome hands-on learning experience for preschoolers. Sensory play may calm a child, focus a child and/or engage a child. Sensory bins allow children to explore, discover and create through dumping, filing and scooping. This activity also helps them understand their senses better. Put a Valentine’s Day twist on your sensory bin by filling it with some of the following items: pink and red water beads, cellophane grass, colored craft sand, artificial rose petals, feathers, shredded paper, buttons, and/or pink and red pompoms.

Happy Valentine’s Day from Kindermark Kids! We hope you enjoy some of these fun and educational Valentine’s Day activities with your preschoolers. To help you keep all your craft supplies organized, we offer a variety of storage units and shelving. Our children’s furniture helps create a workspace for children to both play and learn, while our child-height sinks make clean-up after these activities a breeze. We’re here to help you setup an organized and functional classroom with great quality products!

Kindermark Kids - Creating Child-Friendly Spaces!

3 Fun Fall Activities for Preschoolers

The fall season offers opportunities for preschoolers to take part in a variety of different fun activities. From pumpkins to colorful leaves, the possible craft projects and learning experiences are endless. In today’s blog we discuss several of our favorite fall projects that preschool teachers can implement into their teaching plans this fall.

1. Creating a Fall Sensory Table. 

Sensory activities play an important role in development. They facilitate exploration and naturally encourage children to use scientific processes while they play, create, investigate and explore. Sensory tables provide children with a variety of sensory input experiences including tactile, vestibular, prospective and visual processing. In addition, scooping things is a fun way to strengthen fine motor skills. Kindermark Kids offers a variety of sensory tables to choose from. Then just fill them with your choice of items for the children to play with. During the fall season, you can use orange, yellow and red dyed pasta or rice, pine cones, sticks and leaves. You could even incorporate the sense of smell by adding some pumpkin spice seasoning in when dying the pasta or rice.   

2. Painting a Pumpkin.

Preschoolers love to paint! Not only is it a fun activity, but it’s also a way for children to communicate their emotions or feelings. During the fall season, get rid of your typical paper and paint on pumpkins instead! How fun is that? Now their painting will become 3-dimentional. You can also teach children how to mix colors of paint to create new colors. Painting aids children in developing mobility skills too. Their hand muscles are being used, which allows them a scope to develop both mentally and physically. Letting them finger paint allows them to feel the textures of the paint as well as the pumpkin. Then you can teach them how to clean up using a child height portable sink for your classroom!

3. Collecting Colorful Leaves.

The best part about fall is that the leaves start changing colors. Exploring the outdoors and collecting different types of leaves is a fun way to get preschools moving and learning at the same time. You could start the activity by reading a book about the seasons changing and leaves falling. Then head outside for a nature hike. Once you’ve collected leaves, you can use them to create a collage to frame and display on the wall for some seasonal decoration. Another option is to use the leaves as stencils. Place the leaves under paper and let the children color over it. Not only does this leave a leaf shape on the paper, but it creates texture.

Kindermark Kids is here to help you make your preschool classroom a place where children can both learn and have fun. From our unique educational toys to our convenient storage solutions, we have everything you need to create an environment where your preschool students can thrive! Happy Fall Ya’ll!

Kindermark Kids - Creating Child-Friendly Spaces!