Letter K *FAIL* project

I did this project in the past and don't remember having any problems, however, this time was different.  I will admit they turned out looking pretty cool (we used Valentine's colors), but it was very difficult for the kids and myself to get these to work properly.  We were only able to finish 5 out of 8 of them and they were a huge pain!  I will have to research it to see if there's a better way if we are ever going to do these again.  

K is for Kangaroo Graph

We used kernals to graph how many times the different colored Kangaroos were rolled on the dice.  This is a wonderful math activity in so many ways including counting, comparing, and measurement. 

K is for Kangaroo Art

These kangaroos are aboriginal inspired with the idea stemming from their famous dot art. 

K is for Kangaroo

We had fun hopping around for looking for our Baby k's.  The kids used fine motor skills to "sew" their own kangaroo pouches and then we used our gross motor skills to hop around while using our discrimination skills to find the lowercase k's.  Lots of learning fun happening here! 

Real Life Learning

I LOVE when I overhear my preschoolers making discoveries on their own!  I heard this little guy making the observation that when the sponge was full of water it was darker than it was when he squeezed out most of the water.  The sensory tub is an amazing tool for sparking natural curiosity, learning, and discovery in a relaxed and very fun setting!  It's also one of my favorite places to casually listen to the kids conversations! You can just see his wheels turning in this picture!   This is our K is for Kitchen Gadgets themed sensory box. 

K is for Koolaid cube magic

This is a fun and tasty way to experiment with Koolaid ice cubes and color mixing.  To do this I froze some blue, red and yellow Koolaid into ice cube trays and then gave one cube of each color to each kid.  We poured in some sprite, said the magic words, and voila you get new colors (and flavors) which on a side note is a great & inexpensive way to have a flavored drink like the fancy drink shops that are so popular right now!  

K is for Kernels

For sensory this week I used lots of kernels for the base and added keys, k's some mini ice cube trays, and melon scoops (to practice transferring). 

K is for Kangaroo

The cutest kangaroo's around made their own kangaroo pouches by sewing yarn around them going up and down through holes punched out with a hole puncher.  Next they hopped around the room making the k sound trying to find their baby "k" kangaroos to put in their pouches.  I made them with baby kangaroo clip art with the letter "k" printed on it's belly.  I then printed several and "hid" them (put them in plain sight)  all around the room.   Great fun and great fine motor control practice! 

More Letter K Stuff

Kitchen Tools Sensory Water Play. My personal favorite is the vintage hand mixer.  My grandma had one of these when I was little and I still remember playing in the water with it.  I love passing on the fun by letting the kids create their own fun memories with it.

Koolaid Paint Tape resist K's.... I can't tell you how much I LOVE Koolaid paint.  The smell of the room afterwards is scrumptious!!! The colors are beautiful and vibrant, and it's fairly inexpensive, especially if you buy generic Koolaid. Plus it's SO easy to make.  Just 2 tablespoons of water to 1 package of Koolaid and stir it up.  I used painters tape to make the letter K.  I just stuck it on the paper in the shape of a K and instructed the kids to paint their whole paper with Koolaid Paint. When done we peeled it off to reveal a surprise letter K left on the paper. 

K is for Kangaroo Activities

Kat the Kangaroo came to class this week and taught us a little about Kangaroos and Australia.  All my animal friend visitors are always so captivating for the kids, so I can't help but keep inviting them to visit our class.  We also did a few kangaroo activities including placing the Kangaroos in order from smallest to largest, we did the Kangaroo hop where we got to pretend to be Kangaroo's and hop around finding sight words and alphabet letters.  We also listened to some didgeridoos online and then made some of our own homemade ones using paper towel rolls.  We painted them using Aboriginal inspired dot art.  We also used the same dot art to paint some Kangaroo pictures.  We used pencil erasers dipped in paint to make the dots.  I think they turned out pretty darn cute.  I got the idea HERE.

K is for Kangaroo Graph and Kernal Counting

The graph we used was from HERE. I made the Counting Mat and used Kernals as markers/counters for both games. 

K is for Keys

So I had a bunch of keys I wasn't sure what to do with and decided that 'K' Week would be a perfect time to bust them out.  We ended up using them in the sensory tub as well as in our art center to do key rubbings

K is for Kernals

And for Keys, & Kangaroo & Kittens, & Ketchup, etc. You get the idea. 

K is for Koolaid Paint

This is a yearly favorite for me! My terrible photography skills do not do this project justice. These really are so pretty.  The colors from Koolaid are super bright and vibrant and I just LOOOOOVE how the room smells when I bust out the Koolaid paint!  MMMM so good.  You can make this at home by mixing 2 Tablespoons of water with one package of Koolaid of choice. What a great sensory experience! 

K is for Kangaroo!

Kangaroo Kids that is....We had fun hopping around the room finding baby kangaroos to put in our pouches.  The baby kangaroos of course had lowercase k's on them to help emphasize our letter of the week. Found this idea HERE

K is for Koolaid Cubes

These Koolaid Cubes were far from disappointing.   Serious coolness factor here....another Pinterest success, thank you very much.  They are made by freezing different colors of Koolaid into ice-cube trays and then putting them in cups and pouring sprite/7-up over the top of them.  This ended up being more than just a great experiment to find out what happens (color change, flavor change, carbon dioxide reaction etc.)  We really had a fun time! 

K's in the Kettle

Today we found pictures of items that started with the letter 'K' and then the kids took turns putting them in the kettle.  

The Kissing Hand

For our first day this year we read "The Kissing Hand" This is a story about a Raccoon named Chester who is afraid to go to school.  His mom reassures him that school will be wonderful and shows him a special secret that helps him to feel safe at school.  To add to this activity I had the mom's send a letter to school for their child about how proud they are of them or how they hoped the first day of school would go great for them and then I had them kiss the paper with lipstick or use a lips stamp, sticker or clip art to the letter. After I read the letters to the children we played a color matching game using Chester Raccoon pictures with colors and color sight words which you can find HERE.