Clean Mud

Clean mud is interesting. Some kids seem to ignore it, but a few like to use it. I've noticed that sometimes older kids get really into it. Last year one of the pre-K classes turned some clean mud into a volcano. Depending on how you make it, it can behave like clay or mush.

The recipe is very simple:

1. Grated soap (Ivory is typically the brand mentioned in recipes for clean mud)
2. Toilet paper, torn up into small bits (Charmin supposedly is best but I've done it with whatever's on hand)
3. Warm water (warm water helps the soap dissolve better than cold water)

You can add as much of these ingredients as you like. As it dries it will harden. If it gets too hard, add more water. Remember NOT to clean this up by putting it down the drain. The toilet paper will clog pipes.

Lesson Plan for Week of January 26, 2009: Toilet Paper!

Today was what we like to call a "too much" kind of day. We asked our parents to each bring in two rolls of toilet paper to supplement what we had on hand. Far and away the most favorite activity was the two rolls we rigged up from the ceiling. Luckily we made it relatively easy to reload those rolls because we went through a lot of them! It's hard to see in the picture at left because of the wind sock, but that roll of paper is hanging from the ceiling and the paper is dangling where the kids can reach it.

Here's a rundown of our plan:

Sensory Table: Clean Mud

Manipulatives: Rolls of toilet paper on a thing that had safe prongs so the kids could unroll the toilet paper

Easel: Two rolls of toilet paper rigged up on the easel with two colors of watercolors and small diameter brushes

Gooey: Play dough, colorless

Art: Toilet paper on a table with markers, scissors, and stickers; Also a ramp was set up against this table so toilet paper could be rolled down

Other: Two toilet paper rolls hanging from different areas of the room that could be pulled with force

Sadly the rest of the week was taken up by bad weather cancellations. We might keep the clean mud in a bowl for future use.

Lesson Plan for the Week of Dec. 10

Sensory Table: Ice shapes with cold weather animals inside, colored ice "bergs"
Gooey: Play dough
Easel: Markers
Art/Manipulatives: Blue and white paint with "snow" sprinkles left over from Getting Ready for the Holidays on Monday, ice cube painting on off white paper on Wednesday

Rice

Rice is very common in sensory tables, and for good reason. Rice can be scooped and put through funnels like sand, but it also has a feel and smell all its own. Regular white rice as well as rice that you color, brown rice, and wild rice (not really rice at all!) are all great alternatives.

Lesson Plan for the Week of Dec. 2

Sensory Table: Corn meal with corn kernals in it, sifters, scoops, cups

Gooey: Play foam

Easel: Dot painters

Art/Manipulatives: Stamps of various shapes and letters

Cranberry Bog

Float a bunch of cranberries in your water table and you have a cranberry bog! Add some funnels, scoops with holes, and nets, and the kids can catch the cranberries. Be sure to include some buckets to store the cranberries in. If you include shovels in the table with the younger kids be prepared for water to be pushed out of the table as they chase the cranberries with their shovels.

Lesson Plan for the Week of Nov. 26

Sensory Table: Cardboard tubes, long chenille stems (some are several feet long), clothespins. We may have something different on Wednesday if the other class doesn't care for this.

Gooey: Play foam, possibly Gak on Wednesday

Easel: Shimmer finger paint

Art/Manipulatives: Using toy cars to paint

NAEYC 2007 Session: Dealing with personal loss

She/he hit me first: Dealing with personal loss and healing the need to get even
Presenter: Becky Bailey, Loving Guidance, Inc.

State dictates behavior. We have been teaching children that getting even works and rids them of their pain. We teach them that the more out of control I feel the more I try to control others.

To help manage your inner states use active calming. Repeat to yourself, I’m Safe, I’m Calm, I Can Handle This. Then relax and solve the problem.

For children, the problem starts when they feel pain. Seeking attention is a defense against seeking connection, but connection wires the brain for willingness and impulse control.

Attunement is to focus on the inner world (state) of another person. Attunement creates the highest neural integration we can measure. Presence is the key. Use empathy: “Your body is going like this. “ Tell and retell from the child’s perspective.

There are three voices that say, “Am I safe?” “Am I loved?” and “What can I learn?” You can’t teach a child which words to use in a situation until that child feels safe and loved.

In a day care setting toddlers suffer loss 9 times an hour. Preschoolers suffer loss 5 times an hour.

NAEYC 2007 Session: Poetry

Poetry in preschool: Learn to support language and literacy in an imaginative way and meet goals and standards
Presenter: Marcie Berul, Boston University

First select a poem and then expose the children to some of the physical objects that might be in the poem. Poems with more than one word to describe the same thing are effective in helping children think about language (for example, “catkins” are the fuzzy parts on a pussy willow tree but are also kittens). It’s important to use poetry that includes concrete objects that can be handled when you start.

Put small poems, with title and author, on poem charts around the room. Read them to and with the preschoolers, discussing the things they’ve already been exposed to and asking them to think about the things they aren’t familiar with. Ask the children to act out a poem, even if you think it isn’t something that can be acted out. Just moving to the words of the poem helps children internalize the rhythm and meaning of the language used.

Read poetry as part of your circle time without announcing that they are listening to poetry. Children do not have the same negative association with poetry that adults do and many find it easier to understand because of the different rhythm from prose.

On your poetry charts keep decorations to a minimum and use your best “teacher handwriting.”