we make pretend camp fires on the playground nearly daily (this also cares for the direction from the state surveyors to keep the playground “free of sticks”). during parts of the year we bring the camp fires inside and offer our red, yellow and orange scarves. then there are always a couple who ask for blue scarves (for the “really hot part”).
here is how we did it at home once…no photos from preschool:
i even splurged once and bought a wooden s’more/kabob food kit. sweet.
we were reading lots of mouse books during m week and brought in a woodworking element.
with my power drill, the preschoolers helped drill several holes through a block of wood (the cheese), then used a piece of yarn with tape on the end (the mouse), then had the mouse eat through the cheese!
we finger-painted huge pieces of butcher paper (red, orange, brown and yellow) and once dry, cut it into leaf shapes. these hung from our ceiling and in the hallway for over a month…then it was thanksgiving time.
we took the leaves down and added a paper body to turn our leaves into turkeys! we even had another piece of butcher paper on the wall for preschoolers to scribble on when yellow crayons…a straw stack. then, of course, we sang “Turkey in the Straw”…ha ha ha
i love projects that extend for weeks and months!
because i found this fake hair at the thrift shop, we made hairy heads during h week. i must admit i glued the hair on ahead of time as soon as i handled it myself and realized how the hair would stick to fingers and needed a long time to dry.
each preschooler chose a bag with hair attached and added paper shapes for facial features. we had a variety of paper shapes already cut with scissors available to change those shapes or make new ones. then the bags were stuffed, a piece of a dowel rod stuck in and taped…then a hairy head puppet was born.
around christmas time and then again at valentine’s day time, we invited the children to draw or write on pre-cut shapes (stars at christmas and hearts at valentine’s day). then a teacher would use a hot glue gun to trace their shapes and press in glitter on a tray.
the kids liked helping press the warm paper on to the glitter.
newcreationpreschool.com 