Program Ideas Exchange

Hello everyone, 

Here are the notes from our workshop together. Please add any links to helpful resources and your pinterest site if you wish in the comments section. If there are links, I can re-post so it's easy for everyone to find the shared, reliable resources. Thanks! Lise-Lotte

Ideas for Communicating with parents about their child's activities

1. End of day digital camera frame displaying photos of daily "moment" on a slide show- 
2. Or make a poster of pictures of all the children for children to see or in the hall for parents
3. "Star board" - star cut-outs with positive behaviours of individual children written on them
4. lots of photos of recent activities made into a collage to send home
5. Have a website or twitter pegalogical narration
6. capture moments throughout the day, jot them down and have parents read by signout
7. piece of paper and pencil in back pocket
8. Invite them in the room at any time they can!
9. Facebook page
10. Bring pictures of children and family
11. Notes on attendance book that parents use to sign in and out; back and forth book
12. Remind children at the end of the day that they have things to share about their day
13. website
14. Memory books; Each child goes home with a communication book about their day and activities; All about Me book for each child, put in art, things they said, great things they do, marking milestones, open to share any time; Monthly "report card" - share which activities, etc were the child's favourites each month. Every month list a few new things the child did, some progress , add a picture/artwork
15. having the children tell them what they did after..routines help to jog their memory
16. Meet and greet at end of day
17. plan a family bbq
18. Year end scrap book with pictures and crafts and sharing moments from that day

Science Ideas

1. Tad pole to frog
2. Gummy bear osmosis ( in water)- special foam animals
3. Pan of homogenized milk, 'dot'in different spots with food colouring,add dish detergent - colours will blend
4. Butterflies- order butterfly cocoons ( I think CCRR)
5. Release ladybugs
6. Plants / grow example, using clear cups, beans, wet paper towel, watch grow from root to tip
7. Easter- plant grass in pie tin. Kids colour eggs. Take home with eggs in grass. Makes a nice centre piece
8. Toys frozen in coloured water in H2o table-giant ice frozen big ice cream tubs. Add polar bears and sparkles
9. Dancing raisins: carbonated pop and raisins
10. Put one cup of popcorn ( popped) into 1 cup of milk and see what happens! Paint with corn on the cob. Examine corn in husks. What if we use juice? Or carbonated juice or pop?
11. Ping pong ball will suspend in the air over the blast of air from a hair dryer? Hair dryer / fans/ with boats or cars! Make your own paper fan.
12. Waterbeads
13. Create 'moving' part scales with a tire or (triangle) and a board. Put different objects on either side to 'weigh'
14. Water colours and snow
15. Red vinegar and baking soda = volcano explosion; build out of sand-zip lock bag with baking soda in one end, clip bag with clothes peg (shut in middle ) add vinegar to other end. Seal bag, unclip clothes peg and put in water. Bag will expand.
16. Cover little dinosaurs in plaster of Paris with some sand. When dry,kids can "excavate" like a palaeontologist! Use rocks, paintbrushes,toothbrushes. Talk about tools. Take Dino home.
17. Shaving cream and marbles in sensory table-add paint to shaving cream-add bugs-potting soil in sensory table- add small plastic or clay pots, silk flowers, garden picks, pebbles.
18. Change white flowers (carnations ) to different colours with water and food colouring
19. Make magic potions with red cabbage juice and vinegar, baking soda,lemon juice ( other 'acids and bases')
20. Rainbow play dough, red,yellow, white; layer and then let children mix-add sparkles-scented play dough: vanilla, orange, peppermint extract-play dough with feathers and glass beads, Popsicle sticks, and strips of paper - add herbs like rosemary, lavender and other scents
21. Float sink; visit to marina afterwards
22. Give them the hose
23. Worms, bugs, ant farm: extend to outdoors- give children a plastic spoon and old yoghurt or fruit container to observe
24. Fresh cut, it helps daffodils in coloured water - or celery
25. When it snows fill tubs with it. Food colouring and eye dropper/turkey baster - have done this often; always popular- make fake snow:toilet paper ( ripped into small pieces, the children love this part);ivory soap; water; small amount of borax
26. Relaxing playing in forests or fields for extended periods
27. Shadows outside with chalk

For younger children:
Sensory bottles: colors; sounds; oil/water; rice with hidden tokens
Oil water, glycerine ( maybe?) liquids will layer
- paper straw holders with water droplets. 'Accordion' the straw
sleeve and put droplets of water at one end of the paper cylinder.
Watch the rest of the paper grow into a worm shape.



Art

1. eyedropper painting (use food colouring and water) add an ice cube
2. snow globes: candle jars with lids; sparkles, plastic winter house, glycerine
3. big coffee filter with paint brush clipped with a clothes peg when dry (butterfly) 
4. puffy paint earth - balloon paper mache
5. messy art- finger/hand- paper plate, flour 2 Tbs, water 4 Tbs, salt 2 Tbs, blue and green food colouring; place in microwave  30-60 seconds - makes a puffy earth, what if it explodes?
6. painting splatter party-what if paint doesn't wash off? what if you used water-based paint and splatter painted each other outside?
7. masks NW coast (theme)
8. marble painting in a box - marble painting with glue and water and add glitter with golf balls - with dog backs with points - paint on a hockey puck with stick at wall
9. Make fish shapes or heart out of newspaper, staple together, stuff, paint with spray bottles, hang from ceiling,earth sun catcher, colour glue blue and green; children drop coloured glue onto plastic lids (round); can use toothpicks to spread or design; let dry- put hole punch and hang from windows 

Nature Ideas

1. Planting seed H2O
2. Plant a garden- herbs so that they can pick when they want to use in sandbox, kitchen unit, leave scissors buckets- cut wild flowers/weeds/leaves etc
3. Yarn. Cut up leave out for birds to use for nests
4. look at snails in a plastic berry container...add leaves, water and a pipette. Book on snails
5. Slug terrarium with plexi-glass top. You can observe the slug's foot muscles
6. Animal exploration (National Geographic website etc) 
7. Scavenger Hunt
8. Create a lake/ocean
9. Pressed flowers from nature walk
10. Planting (flowers, beans etc)- Mother's Day present
11. Exploring a rotten log with magnifying glasses Planting mushrooms on a log?Watering the log?
12. Compost 
13. Saving bugs What if the bugs die?
14. Lifting rocks to explore life
15. Take the entire program outside; ie. painting and drama
16. Worm farm; layer leaves, sand, dirt in large glass container cover with black paper check daily to see worm's burrow
17. Visit Swan lake Christmas Nature Sanctuary and shaw Ocean Discovery Centre in Sidney
18. naming cloud shapes
19. pretend campfire with sticks from the forest - cotton balls make great pretend marshmellows- tents and flashlights

Celebrations

1. Kids make cake for them to celebrate birthday
2. Kids birthday party; birthday wall with photo of birthday child
3. Christmas Graham cracker gingerbread houses. Decorate with treats using royal icing
4. Walking to mailbox to mail invites to special occasions in the classroom
5. Mother's Day Tea Party. Kids make cakes, cut strawberries whip cream serve their Moms; kids make chocolate covered pretzels; with leftovers children dip their fruit
6. Send home a special stuffy each night with a different child. Add a book for them to write ( or Mom) about the visit.
7. Country themes: make special foods and wear special clothes
8. Have a Dad's night. Bring Dad to preschool one evening to play
9. "Spa day": nails, hair ties, tea and cookies- travelling massage divided between staff
10. Celebrate families with tea and toast at drop off- take family pictures
11. When children move away, leave the centre. We make a card with photos of them playing with their friends, get all the friends to decorate it and sing them a good bye song and give hugs
12. Duvali Festival of Lights ( as big as Christmas in India) ; make Indian treats and coloured sand art
13. Travelling kids or parents or teachers: take daycare stuffy, photograph it in different places. Email back.
14. Pot-luck BBQ with all the Mommys and Daddys ; pot-luck/ bring your 'national' dish
15. Mild version of 'anti-bullying' day. Dress as crazy as you want
16. Earth week : recycle lights out, party for the earth
17. Wear pyjamas to preschool ( even teachers) make pancakes to eat
18. Teddy bear picnic; bring favourite stuffy from home for party; do baking; go outside; tea party
19. Make cranberry sauce; BBQ sauce; stir-fry or egg rolls: CNY
20. Christmas pot-luck with Santa; have Santa visit centre; preschool Christmas concert. Learn a song. Put on a play. Graham cracker gingerbread house.
21. Make decorations with kids: hats; cards; music instruments; flowers; streamers

Making Tomorrow conference

It was another wonderfully organized conference at UVic. My two workshops were full with enthusiastic participants who really know how to have fun and their commitment to the children in their care is inspiring. I have a feeling that in the coming weeks there will be a lot of children who get to experiment with "rainbow volcanoes!"

I will have the workshop notes up from our Ideas Exchange by next Monday. 

In the meantime, here is a wonderful link from Science World with a whole host of fabulous ideas 

http://www.scienceworld.ca/preschool

Thanks for all the laughs,
Lise-Lotte

Ideas Exchange

Hello everyone!


http://www.makingtomorrowconference.com/



It’s like a cookie swap... you bring some ideas from your tool kit, you share those, you leave with way more! Unlike cookies though, it's not finite… through the exercises that 
Lise-Lotte leads… you will leave with a wealth of practical ideas on the following topics: science, drama, art, nature, celebrations and communicating with parents about their child's activities. You will also find that you will build in the ideas that you brought.


Here are just some of the ideas from the workshop--please feel free to comment and add more!

Lise-Lotte