Winnie the Pooh Day is an opportunity to enjoy your favorite bear and all of his friends. This day was created to celebrate the birth of A.A .Milne. Born in Kilburn, London on January 18, 1882, Milne is best remembered for his Pooh books, about a boy named Christopher Robin (which is also the name of his son), and characters inspired by his son’s stuffed animals. Of these the most important is Winnie-the-Pooh. The others include Piglet, Tigger, Eeyore and others. The actual setting of the Pooh stories is Ashdown forest.

A. A. Milne, who wrote Winnie the Pooh, set his stories in and around a village, named Hartfield, which is in East Sussex, southern England. A.A. Milne grew up at Henley House School (now Crescent) in Kilburn, London. It was a small independent school run by his father. One of his teachers was H. G. Wells 
who taught there between 1889–1890.

Winnie the Pooh was first conceived when a soldier, Harry Colebourn, adopted and brought a black bear cub to England from Winnipeg, Canada, after its mother had been killed by hunters He bought the bear from the hunter which killed its mother, and took it to London Zoo for a long loan. Christopher Robin favoured this bear and spent many an hour in the cage, playing with it. The bear was named Winnie, as a shortened version of the place whence he came. So, the bear became Christopher Robin’s inspiration for calling his own teddy bear Winnie.

For the first time in over 80 years, a sequel book to A.A. Milne’s “The House At Pooh Corner”
will be released this October 2009. 

some Winnie the Pooh books
by A.A. Milne include:
“Winnie the Pooh”
“When we were very young”
“Piglet”
“The House at Pooh Corner”
“Now we are Six”
“Eeyore”

 

Color some teddy bear pages

Ideas for a bear theme can be found at
Pratt’s Educational Resources
Everything Preschool
Teaching Heart

 

Here is some of what we did when we covered a bear theme.
 

 

 

 

 

Bear File Folder Game
The game below is the “Roll over” game. I precut teddy bear shapes out of grocery bag paper, used a blue pocket folder to make the bed and cut some light blue colored paper for the pillows. Then I printed the saying “There were ___ in the bed and the little one said, “Roll over, Roll over.”
So they all rolled over and one fell out!
It is a counting/subtraction game that my youngest
enjoyed playing.

 

 

Teddy Graham Math. (see picture below)
I pre-made cards by drawing small teddy bears that displayed the amount of each number 1 – 6. My son used Teddy graham cookies to match with each card and counted outloud the number of bears he placed on the card.

Flannel Board Story
We did a flannel board story after reading the book, “Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What do you see? by Bill Martin Jr. and Ecic Carle 
This book is a favorite of both my sons.

Here’s hoping you enjoy your Winnie the Pooh day!
 

Other bear books to read:
“Curduroy” by Don Freeman
“Brown Bear Brown Bear What do you see? by Bill Martin

In honor of Winnie the Pooh day and
the author A.A. Milnes birthday, here are some
activities you can do with your child.

Play a teddy bear color matching game.
Click here to print out your cards!

 

Gather all the stuffed teddy bears you have at home
and sort them by size or color. We have plenty of bears
here at home including my oldest stuffed pooh bear
that is over 25 years old.

 

 

This week is the first week we are introducing at our Preschool to Pre-K blog ”the book of the week.” 

The current theme is Martin Luther King and our book of the week is “The Crayon box that Talked” by Shane DeRolf and illustrated by Michael Letzig.

In Shane DeRolf’s deceptively simple poem, a child’s box of crayons conveys the sublimely simple message that when we all work together, the results are much more interesting and colorful.

Mommy and Me Toddler Discussion:
We talked about what is our favorite color and why? Mine is purple and son’s is green. We also talked about imagining if everyone was the same color and what we thought about that.

Art/Craft Activity
Make you multicolored crayons!
Ingredients:
Broken pieces of crayon
aluminum pan

Directions:
Peel broken crayons and melt in a small aluminum pan at 350 degrees for 15 -20 minutes. Cool and break into new multi-colored pieces.

Science/Art Actvity
Mixing colors and finding out what they make.
Materials: watercolors, brushes, water and paper
Here’s a Color Mixing Poster to learn what colors you can make! Use the color mixing activity page to mix your colors on.

Early Math
Make your own color book to help learn and remember colors!
Materials: Scissors, glue, magazines, construction paper, paper

Directions: Gather pictures of different colored items and place them in a photo album or glue onto paper. Your child may choose to draw pictures instead of cutting them out.

Color Mixing Snacks
Get blue Jell-O and yellow Jell-O. After jello sets, take a small zip lock bag and put a tablespoons of yellow on one side and a tablespoons of blue on the other. Then give child a bag and ask them what they think will happen when they squish it together.

After they guess, have them squish it and once it’s mixed to green, cut the corner off the bag and let them squeeze it into their mouth.

I will be moving this blog to blogspot, I will be adding themes there.
In the meantime this blog will remain open until I finished transferring information to the new one (probably til the end of the month).    
 
Thanks,
Mrs. K

Click on image for Activity

This morning I came across a group activity from   Education World that I think could be adapted for the pre-kindergarten level.  

Activity:
Those Tear-Me-Apart, Put-Me-Back-Together, Never-Be-the-Same-Again Blues

This powerful activity illustrates how words can hurt — or heal.

Video that I found online:
Shahada/Peace song in Honor of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. (below)
It includes sayings from world leaders and philosophers through the ages.

Plan: Following a discussion with the children about how people are alike (we all have two eyes, we all have hair) and how we differ (blue eyes vs. brown eyes-long hair vs. short) show them a brown egg and a white egg.

Discuss the similarities and differences in the eggs. (They are oval, they are different colors.)

Break each egg into the bowl and dispose of shell. (Hint: this is best done above their eye level because if they see which yolk came from which egg, they will be able to make a distinction). Can they tell which is which? No–because just like people,even though we may LOOK different on the outside, we’re all the same on the inside!

Source: http://www.atozteacherstuff.com/pages/404.shtml

Directions:
Beat together all of the ingredients with a mixer.
Makes about 5 gallons 

Slime #2
Ingredients
1 c. glue
Liquid starch
Food coloring (if desired)

Directions:
Add starch slowly until mixture becomes the right texture… slimey.

Flubber
Ingredients:
2 c. Elmers Glue
Food Coloring
4 tsp. Borax
Warm water

Directions:
In one bowl mix in 1 1/2 cups of warm water, 2 cups of Elmers Glue, and food colouring. In another bowl mix in 4 tsp. of Borax and 1 1/3 cup of warm water. Pour the glue mixture into the borax mixture. Do not mix or stir, just wait. Then just lift out the flubber. Store in baggies.
 
Gunk
Ingredients:
1 Part Cornstarch
1 Part Water

Directions:
Mix and color with food color or Tempera paint.
 
Goop #1
Ingredients:
1 part Liquid starch
2 parts white glue
food colouring (opt.)

Directions:
Add starch to glue until mixture becomes a workable ball. Store in refrigerator in a covered container.
 
Goop #2
Ingredients:
2 c salt
1 c. water
1 c. cornstarch

Directions:
Cook salt and 1/2 of water for 4-5 minutes. Remove from heat. Add cornstarch and remaining 1/2 of water, then return to heat. Stir until mixture thickens. You can also add food coloring to this.

Fruity Putty
Ingredients:
0.3 ounce package of sugar free fruit flavored gelatin
2 cups flour
1 cup salt
4 tablespoons cream of tartar
2 cups boiling water
2 tablespoons cooking oil

Directions:
Mix the dry ingredients in a pan. Add the boiling water and cooking oil. Stir over medium-high heat until the mixture forms a ball. Place the ball on waxed paper and cool. Store in an airtight container. Use different flavors to make all different colors and smells.
 

Sticky Putty
Ingredients:
¾ c. and 2 Tbs. water
1 tsp. Mule Team Borax
8 ounces white glue
Food coloring

Directions:
Heat water over medium heat and add borax, stir with wooden spoon until dissolved. Add glue and a few drops of food coloring, stirring constantly until glue and water mix. Pour into a plastic bowl and cool.

Crazy Putty (will even bounce)
Ingredients:
3/4 cup of white glue
Liquid Corn starch
Food coloring

Directions:
Add enough liquid starch until a ball of dough is formed, then add food coloring and knead dough until it’s completely worked in.

Directions:
Peel broken crayons and melt in a small aluminum pan at 350 degrees for 15 -20 minutes.
Cool and break into new multi-colored pieces.

Soap Crayons #1 
Ingredients:
1 3/4 cup Ivory Snow
50 drops food coloring
1/4 cup water

Directions:
Mix water and soap flakes together. Add food coloring and thoroughly mix. Put mixture into an ice cube tray and set aside to harden. Break or cut into pieces.
 
Soap Crayons #2 
Ingredients:
liquid food coloring for each color crayon
2 tablespoons hot water
1 cup soap flakes

Directions:
For each color you would like, put two tablespoons of hot water and one cup of soap flakes into a bowl. Add as many drops of food coloring to the mix as you think necessary. Stir the soap mixture until it thickens. Press spoonfuls of the first color of soap into sections of the ice tray. Mix enough soap in other colors to fill the entire tray, repeating the first two steps. Let the soap crayons dry for one or two days. Gently bang the ice tray to loosen the crayons.
 
Colourful Scrap Crayons 
Ingredients:
a variety of crayons broken up into small pieces
cupcake baking cups

Directions:
Place cupcake cups in a cupcake pan. Place broken up crayons in each cupcake cup. Bake in a 350 degree oven until the crayon pieces have melted. Remove pan from oven and peel paper off circles when the wax has cooled. You can also melt the crayon pieces in chocolate molds to make cute little shaped crayons.
 
Sidewalk Chalk 
Ingredients:
2 cups water
2 cups plaster of Paris
2 tablespoons wet or dry tempera paint
toilet paper tubes
duct tape

Directions:
Use duct tape to cover one end of each toilet paper tube. Mix all ingredients and set aside for 5 minutes. Line a cookie sheet with wax paper or foil. Place tubes upright on paper with open end facing up. You might want to tabe the tubes upright onto the wax paper or foil to make it more steady. Pour mixture into holders. Leave standing until chalk mixture is almost firm. Rip off the toilet paper tubes and let the sidewalk chalk dry for about 2 more hours.
 
Eggshell Sidewalk Chalk
Ingredients:
4-5 eggshells
1 teaspoon flour
1 teaspoon very hot tap water
food coloring (optional)

Directions:
Wash and dry eggshells, put in a bowl and grind into powder. Throw out any large pieces. Pour flour and hot waterand 1 tablespooin of eggshell powder in another bowl. Mix until mixture looks like paste. Add food colouring now if you’d like. Shape and press the paste into the shape of chalk sticks. Roll up tightly in a strip of paper towel and allow to dry for about three days.
*This chalk is only good for sidewalks.

Directions:
Mix water, syrup and vinegar in saucepan. Bring to a rolling boil. In small bowl, mix cornstarch and cold water. Add this mixture slowly to first mixture. Stir constantly. Let stand overnight before using.
 
Waterproof Glue 
Ingredients:
2 packets (1/2 ounce) unflavored gelatin
2 tablespoons cold water
3 tablespoons skimmed milk
few drops of wintergreen oil (optional)

Directions:
In a small bow. sprinkle gelatin over cold water and wait until softened. Pour milk into a pot and bring to a boil. Pour into softened gelatin and stir until dissolved. Add wintergreen oil (acts as a preservative) if you would like to keep it for longer than a day.
This is a good glue when you need to glue for objects other than paper.
 
Homemade Paste 
Ingredients:
1/2 cup flour
cold water

Directions:
Add flour to a sauce pan. Add cold water until a thick cream forms. Simmer on stove for 5 minutes.
Warning:This paste takes a long time to dry.
 
Library Paste 
Ingredients:
1 cup flour
1 cup sugar
1 tsp. alum
4 cups water
30 drops of oil of cloves

Directions:
Mix all ingredients in saucepan and cook until clear and thick. Remove from heat and add drops of oil of cloves.
 
Clear Library Paste
Ingredients:
3/4 cup rice flour
2 tablespoons sugar
3/4 cup cold water
2 1/2 cups boiling water
1/2 teaspoon oil of wintergreen

Directions:
Mix rice flour, sugar, and cold water in a pan until smooth. Add boiling water and bring to a boil over low heat, stirring constantly, until mixture thickens. Remove from heat and add oil of wintergreen.