Graduation People Decorations for Preschool Plus a Free Printable

We make these little "graduation people" every year for our grad celebration at preschool.

We attach them to the bulletin board at the front of the classroom along with the words, Class of 201_,  as part of our ceremony decorations.

To make the people, we provide basic paper cutouts (head, cap and gown) and googly eyes.

The preschoolers glue the pieces together and then add details to make it look more like themselves.

We provide yellow, black, orange and brown paper strips so students can choose a colour that matches their own hair.  

If someone has curly hair, we help them use a pair of scissors to curl the strips.

Kids are encouraged to use markers to draw on details like eyelashes, freckles, glasses (if they wear glasses!) and rosy cheeks to make each one unique!

We also provide bows to use as bow ties for the boys or hair bows for the girls. (Usually the bow tie is not on top of the writing, as below, though! :))

In previous years, our graduation people looked like this. Cute, but no writing element.  

This year we thought the display would be even more fun for parents and kids if it included something to read, as well.

So we scribed each child's ideas about either what they learned in preschool or what they enjoyed most about preschool on a printable page.

If you'd like a copy of this page for your own project, I'm happy to share it with you HERE.

There's one for preschool graduation.

And one for Kindergarten graduation.

Check out THESE POSTS for additional graduation ideas and decorations!

Preschool Activities to Accompany Mrs. Mc Nosh Hangs Up Her Wash

I love picture books that rhyme!
  
I find them particularly fun to read and the pace and length of them is generally a good fit for my more "wiggly" students.  

One of my favourite rhyming books for springtime is Mrs. Mc Nosh Hangs Up Her Wash by Sarah Weeks.  

It's silly and it's humorous and it's always a big hit with the kids.

I read the book to the class at circle time first.    

Then later in the same circle OR in my next circle, I present it using images on a magnet board.  

I give each child an image from the story.  Then I read the story from a typed page of the text that I keep on my lap. 

I could also read from the book on my lap, but I find it easier to use my typed out version.  Then I don't have to flip any pages.  

Each child places his image on the magnet board when it comes up in the story.  

There are 20 images required for the story and I have 20 kids in my class.  

If my class was larger, I would print multiple copies of certain images so that I would have one for everybody.  

As you can see in the photo, I just drew two clotheslines on my magnet board with a wipeable marker to set things up.  Quick and easy!  

I glued a button magnet to the back of each image and wrote the number corresponding to when the image appears in the story, as well.  

This time, I used a glue gun to attach the magnets. 

Even better glue for attaching magnets though is E6000. Especially if the kids are going to be able to play with them!

After reading the book, I put out the following activities to match the theme: 

*Ordering the Mrs. Mc Nosh Story Images from #1-20
Students can hang the images in order as I did when presenting the story.
They can do this on a magnet board or on a yarn "clothesline" tied between two chairs.

I provide a number line like the one below for those who need it for reference.  (Note - My new number line goes up to 20.)

* Sock Matching and Hanging on a Clothesline
I have a set of 9 different pairs of large striped sock images that students match and hang "to dry." 
Here's a sample of what one of the pairs looks like.

Count and Clip Cards
We use these cards for counting practise.  Students attach a clothespin to the number that corresponds with the images.

Sock Pattern Cards
Which sock comes next?  I added magnets to this activity to add to the fun! 

There's a variety of patterns including ABAB, AABB, and ABC to keep things interesting! 

*Cut and Paste 
I use these printables for students to colour and cut out pictures of things Mrs. Mc Nosh hung on the clothesline.  
They are also encouraged to use their imagination and draw their own items on the line!

If you'd like a set of these activities to go with the story Mrs. Mc Nosh Hangs Up Her Wash, take a peek at it in my shop HERE!  
It might become one of your favourite go-to Spring books, as well!

Tic Tac Toe Father's Day Gift Plus a Free Card Printable

It's always fun to give our preschool dads a present that will be appreciated.
  
Our goal is usually to create something that WON'T get stuffed in a drawer right after it's opened never to be seen or used again!  (Not always an easy task!)

So this year we decided to make a tic tac toe game for our Father's Day gift!

We thought it would be something useful and something that would encourage quality time between kids and dads!

The gift required a few different classes to complete, but I think the time was well spent!

For the tic tac toe markers, I collected a bunch of rocks and gave them a quick rinse to remove any dirt.  
Beach rocks or rocks from a stream are best as they tend to have a flat, smooth surface.

The kids came to the art table and they used acrylic craft paint to cover 5 rocks in red paint and 5 rocks in yellow.  

We gave them each a plastic plate to use while painting to help contain all the drips!  :)  

We didn't worry about keeping each child's rocks separate once they were painted.  We just created one communal pile on a plastic tray and then let them dry overnight.  

The next day, we turned the red rocks into ladybugs.   The teachers drew some lines on the lady bugs to give a sense of where the face and wings would be.
(Without the wing lines, the rocks were not looking much like ladybugs, so we decided to step in a teeny bit!)

The children added the eyes, mouth and spots to 5 rocks each using a black Sharpie pen.

Then they drew lines and faces on 5 yellow rocks to create the bees.

The next day the class decorated bags to hold the rocks.
The kids added details to simple paper bug shapes and then glued them onto their bag!

I always love it when the gift card ties in with the theme, so we decided to make a card that featured ladybugs on the front.

To make the card, the kids dipped a finger in some red paint and made fingerprints on the cover.  

We learned to recommend making no more than 10 fingerprints.  The child in this picture had to turn a lot of spots into ladybugs later!

We glued the words "I'm so lucky..." on the front of the card (ladybugs are supposed to be lucky, after all! :)) and the words below to the inside of the card.

Once their fingerprints on the cover were dry, everyone turned the red spots into ladybugs using a black marker.  

The teachers attached the cards to the front of the game bags with a paperclip.

The game boards were made from thick green paper plates. Our preschoolers wouldn't have been able to make the grid themselves, so the teachers added the grid for them using a black Sharpie.

If you have enough money in your budget and want something long-lasting, I'd recommend using a round corkboard.   (That's what I used when I created a class tic tac toe game.)  

We attached the game board to the back of the bag since it was too big to fit inside.

Adding flower and leaf stickers to the border of your game board would be a nice touch, too!  Especially if your group is older and has the time for an additional step!

(And if you want fewer steps when making this gift, you could, of course, skip making the game bags.)  

We gave the gifts to our preschool dads at our Father's Day picnic event and they seemed delighted. 
And the kids, of course, could hardly wait to play the game with them!

I have included a link to the text that I created for the cards that we gave with the gift.  You are welcome to download the printables below HERE!   :)

Free Student Award Printable and Graduation Decoration

We like to change up our graduation display a bit every year.  

We have lots of parents who attend our preschool graduation multiple times with each of their children so we like to keep things FRESH!  :)

This year one of our displays featured these STAR awards.

The awards were printed on yellow paper.  

Printing on cardstock is best, but if that's not an option they can be printed on regular coloured paper, too.  

Here is a sample printed on yellow paper.  
After we wrote the star qualities, the kids smeared gold sparkle glue around the edges to make it look nice and glittery and then we mounted it on royal blue paper!

Teachers can choose two star qualities to add to each star OR teachers can choose ONE quality and have students choose the other one to describe themselves.  

If you choose the latter option, you may want to brainstorm a list of positive qualities as a class to give your students lots of ideas from which to choose!

Here is what the stars looked like hanging from the ceiling for our display.

To hang them, we attached pieces of fishing line to the ceiling and then taped a number of stars to each line.  

I hope this idea helps add to your graduation celebration!

For more graduation ideas, take a peek at another graduation post HERE. 

 

To pick up your free Star Award/Decoration printable, visit my Teach Easy Resources shop on Teachers Pay Teachers!

 Happy Graduation!

How to Make an Old Puzzle Fun Again

Every day we have books and puzzle time at our preschool right after snack time.  

It's a great transition activity between eating (and waiting for friends to finish up) and heading outside for more active play.

At this time of year, though, the puzzles always start to feel a little stale.  

The kids have seen our selection a number of times and no amount of rotating the stock can make them seem as fun as they once were. 

This week, we decided to add a "fresh twist" to our puzzles to increase the fun factor.   I saw a similar idea on 
Play to Learn Preschool and knew I had to try it too! 

We buried the pieces from our wooden alphabet puzzle and our wooden number puzzle in a bin of small beads.  

We added paint brushes to the bin so students could act like "excavators" and brush off all the beads from a piece before removing it from the bin.  

(Note - I highly recommend adding the paintbrushes!  For once, we had virtually no beads land on the floor!!)

Once the pieces were bead free, the kids added them to the alphabet or number puzzle board.  

Deciding whether each piece was a number or letter was easy for some, but a good learning activity for others.  

Suddenly the old puzzles became new again and we had a bunch of kids excited to play.

  

Preschools can only buy (and store) a certain number of toys so finding a way to make something OLD seem NEW again

is always a good thing!