Art is amazing for kids in countless ways.  It allows them to be creative, express themselves emotionally, and develop in many other ways.  One of the great benefits of many art projects is that they can also help children in many academic ways - but don't tell them!  

This is one of the BEST stories for fall time and apple picking!  It's great to include a quick lesson about how apples grow and the important role of bees along with this story as fun little unit.  Feel free to add how other fruits and vegetables grow, too!

You may want to add props, puppets, etc....you will DEFINITELY want to get a RED apple.  Be sure to cut it in half along the midline to see the "star" where the seeds are (it is opposite of the way you usually cut it!.  (Picture at the end of the story.)
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Most kids looooove to swing!  Ever wonder why?  It's because it feels so darn good!  Well, that is so very smart of the little ones to realize.  Because it doesn't just FEEL good, it IS good for them!  Swinging, and other similar movements, actually help the brain develop.  Kids just may be smarter than we think!

You know you want your kids to be smart, and you want your kids to like learning, but you are not sure how to achieve this?  Well, luckily for us, there are people out there studying just this sort of thing!  And they have good answers for us.

Preschoolers love songs!  Not only do they love songs, but songs help them remember what you are trying to teach them.  In our classroom, we teach a few preschool Spanish topics throughout the year.  For each topic, we have a little song we sing.

Want to learn our theme song?  You Are My Sunshine is a time-honored song that children and adults can all enjoy!  We have developed these special hand movements and are excited to share them with others.  This is a great song for all young children to learn.  Enjoy!

​Follow this link to watch it on YouTube:
​https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bc3wpNrtTCw

Continuing on with our theme of kind children, I wanted to share with everyone a copy of our "Thanks Before Meals" poem.  I really believe that teaching children to wait for everyone to eat, and to pause to be thankful, is so wonderful and important.

By having kids participate in saying thanks before they begin eating, you can easily teach them some wonderful manners.  They need to be aware of everyone else around them before they can even begin the poem - it's wonderful!

This poem will easily work with anyone with any sort of background as you can choose who or what you are thanking!

We also do hand motions with it in class to really keep the little ones engaged.  For food, we do a pretend getting food off a plate with a fork and eating it motion.  The friends so sweet part is done by giving yourself a big hug.  To make a bird, we cross over our thumbs and wiggle our fingers like bird wings.  Finally, to represent love, we make a heart by putting our thumbs together and then curving our fingers around.

You can even choose one child who gets to start the thank you poem.  We always give this job to our Student of the Week.  Then, everyone says it together once that particular child begins it.  If you are doing this at home, you can easily rotate nights or weeks also.!

Raising polite children may be work, but it will be so worth it in the end!  Enjoy the print-ables for your own home or classroom in the links below.  Feel free to pass our little poem along, too!  xoxo

Everyone likes a thankful child, right?  For some children, an attitude of gratitude comes naturally, but for others it must be taught and practiced.

In our classroom, we have a few parts of every day where we encourage the children to pause and be thankful.  These are things that you could easily do in any home or classroom.

Do you have a little one that can't get enough of learning about outer space?  I find that every year this is one of the very most loved science topics in our preschool.  

While there may only be about a month to learn about space in the classroom, you can help your child follow their curiosity anytime with a few of my favorite space toys, books, and educational items below!

For BIG learning fun at home or in the classroom, I highly recommend getting inflatable planets or solar system models to really get their attention and as a fun hands-on learning experience about the planets.  We use the inflatables in class, and the kids just LOVE them.  They would be great hung up on a ceiling, too.  
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