Preschool Songs for Learning Colors

Young children begin to learn the names of colors as early as two, and should know their basic colors by preschool age. Sometimes, without the repetition of labeling colors, the learning process will take a little longer. Music is a great way to incorporate repetition and teaching with young children.

Young kids are not only drawn to music naturally, but when combined with visual presentation and actions, the songs can be an effective teaching tool. The following article provides a variety of songs to sing, and listen to, with young children to guide them with color recognition.

Rainbow Songs for Young Children

The rainbow is a wonderful way to teach colors to young children, and in addition, introduce some lessons about weather and science concepts. Song lyrics can teach children that rainbows come out with the combination of sun rays and rain. In addition, try finding some color scarves at second hand stores and dancing with them to the lyrics. If you can find enough to make a rainbow, then have the child or children find the color scarf that matches the lyrics to the song.

Moreover, there are great you tube videos with rainbow graphics providing more visual aides.

The following song was written by Arthur Hamilton and was sung by Peggy Lee in a 1955 movie, titled Pete Kelly's Blues. Recently, the song was recorded for Tourism Australia in 2004 by Delta Goodrem. There is critique of this song because it does not provide all the right colors of the rainbow, but the song still provides teachable moments for color labeling.

I Can Sing a Rainbow

(Chorus)

Red and yellow and pink and green

Purple and orange and blue

I can sing a rainbow, sing a rainbow

Sing a rainbow too

Listen with your eyes, listen with your ears

And sing everything you see

You can sing a rainbow, sing a rainbow

Sing along with me.

Found on KidsTV123 and you tube, The Rainbow Colors Song by AJ Jenkins has vibrant graphics for viewing and the easy listening lyrics correlate more effectively to the actual colors of the rainbow.

This song about rainbows can be sung to the tune of Twinkle Twinkle Little Star:

I see a rainbow in the sky

All the colors streaming by

When there's sunshine and rain too

A rainbow forms for me and you

I see a rainbow in the sky

All the colors streaming by.

 

Children's Action Songs about Colors

This song is a song that works well for a group circle in an early childhood setting, but can also be sung for a small group of children or just one. If only one child is doing the actions to the song, he/she should wear clothes with a lot of different colors. The lyrics explain the actions in this song:

Red, red is the color I see

If you're wearing red, then show it to me.

Stand up, turn around

Show me your red, then sit back down.

Blue, blue is the color I see....

Try singing the classic song, the Hokey Pokey but call it the Color Pokey. A child will put different color stickers on his/her shoe, hand, elbow, knee and so on. Then the song will be sung with the following lyrics and actions:

The Color Pokey

You put your red shoe in, you put your red shoe out,

You put your red shoe in, and you shake it all about.

You do the color pokey and you turn yourself around

And that's what it's all about.

The song will continue with the color which is sticking to whatever body part that was chosen.

Children's Game with Music

A fun color game that goes along with music is called Do You See?

(To the Tune of Do You Know the Muffin Man?)

Do you see a red color, a red color, a red color

Do you see a red color, sitting in this room?

The child or children can go and find something red by bringing it to you or simply pointing to something red. The song can continue with many different colors and in various scenarios and locations, such as replacing room with car or playground, and so on.

FURTHER SUGGESTIONS

Visit Felt Board Ideas for felt stories and activities to correlate with learning colors!

 

Circle of Ideas offering Online Workshops

            

What Exactly is Sensory Processing Disorder?

Sensory Processing Disorder is a term that is becoming more common among parents, teachers and childcare providers. A diagnosis that occurs with an Occupational Therapist, this disorder was once called Sensory Integration Dysfunction. Although common among children under the Autistic Spectrum, some children can be diagnosed solely with Sensory Processing Disorder. Regardless of any diagnosis, learning of the term and its symptoms can help parents and educators understand the way individual brains are wired to deal with the sensory inputs we receive each day.  

Sensory Integration Dysfunction was first developed in the 1970s by A. Jean Ayres, an occupational therapist and neuroscientist. As stated on the SPD Foundation website, she describes it as a "neurological traffic jam that prevents certain parts of the brain from receiving the information needed to interpret sensory information correctly." All of our information about the world arrives to us through our senses. We experience life through sensory input, and everyone is on a sensory spectrum. We adjust and regulate ourselves to maintain balance, otherwise known as an optimal level of arousal. We can all think of circumstances in our daily living where we adjust our behavior due to sensory input sensitivities. For example, if someone has a migraine, she might find that she has an increased sensitivity to light and noise, and manage that by going into a dark room alone. Those who are diagnosed with Sensory Processing Disorder have a brain that is wired differently, affecting their sensory input process and creating a disorganization.These individuals will experience over-sensitivity or under-sensitivity throughout their day. So, for example, a child might be extremely reluctant to put on a particular type of sock due to the tactile feeling of it. To the child, the sock fabric might feel like pins and needles, whereas to the rest of us, it is simply a sock.


Our Five Senses and More

We are all familiar with the five senses of touch, smell, sight, sound and taste, but in addition, there are two other senses we do not hear about, which are very crucial when discussing Sensory Processing Disorder. The first one is our vestibular sense. Lenora Delaney, an Occupational Therapist describes it as a sense which, "provides information about where the head and body are in space in relation to the earth's surface." In addition, this sense tells our body about the direction and speed of our body's movement. So, if we were on something like a roller coaster or speedboat with our eyes closed, we would feel our bodies moving fast.

The second sense is called our proprioceptive sense, which is when our muscles and joints tell our brain about our body's position and what our body parts are doing. This sense allows us to skillfully comb our hair and eat with a spoon. So, if there is a disorganization in how the brain receives information with motor planning, it will affect many areas of a child's life, turning simple tasks into extreme challenges, such as doing up a button, riding a bike, or using a pencil to name just a few.

Each Child is Different

For every one of us, how we regulate and manoeuvre through our day of sensory input will differ, each day and throughout the day, depending on the experiences we are participating in, how we feel inside and our individuality. How one person might handle the sensation of focusing on a task in a noisy room might be different than another person. Similarly, if one person is very hungry he or she　might not be able to focus at all. Those children who are diagnosed with Sensory Processing Disorder not only have disorganization with sensory input, but they will also differ in how it affects them daily and throughout their day. In addition, the diagnosis might only affect one or two senses in one person, whereas another might have challenges with all their senses. Regardless, a young child will find a way to deal with, or communicate through behavior, and if we are not aware of the sensory challenges going on inside, we may not understand why a child is having such difficulty or challenging behavior over something the rest of us would have no reaction to. A child might scream when you comb her hair, if she hears a vacuum or if she is on a swing. These behaviors are the child's way of avoiding the uncomfortable situation for which she is overly sensitive. On the other side, a child might seek sensory stimulation, and twirl around in circles or crash himself into objects due to being under responsive. Over time, a child will develop strategies to self regulate.


Sensory Processing Disorder: the Emotional Impact

When children are struggling with motor coordination, learning and other abilities necessary for childhood accomplishments and milestones, it can begin to affect their self esteem. Unfortunately, these children may develop emotional and social challenges on top of everything else. But, when a child is diagnosed with Sensory Processing Disorder　through an Occupational Therapist, a treatment program occurs. More importantly, when there is an understanding from the support network in a child's life about his or her daily challenges, it helps the child profusely. We all vary in our life experiences due to our senses. With careful observation and understanding, we can determine whether a child's behavior might be due to a sensory sensitivity. With that knowledge, a parent, teacher or caregiver can help a child through the challenge.

Resources:

Delaney, Lenora.　Sensory Processing Disorder. Early Childhood Newsletter. (2012). Vancouver Coastal Health.

SPD Foundation.  About SPD. Revised May, 2013.
Sensory Processing Disorder. SPD Resource Center.　Accessed　2012



　

Valentine's Day Songs about Love

Love is Something If You Give It Away

This following song about love could occur at circle time in an early childhood setting, or with a group of loved ones: family and/or friends. With a penny in his/her hand, the leader will explain to the children that as the song is sung the penny must be passed around the circle. Once a child receives the penny, he/she immediately passes it along. This activity will correlate with the following song, "Love is Something If You Give it Away" by Malvina Reynolds. This version has been changed from love to happiness.

Love is something if you give it away...(repeat, until the penny is back in you hand)

Give it away, give it away

Love is something if you give it away

You end up having more.

It's just like having a magic penny

Hold it tight and you won't have any

Lend it, spend it, you'll have so many

They'll roll all over the floor, cause...

Valentine's Day Friendship Song

Sung to "Row, Row, Row, your boat" 

:

Love, Love, Love your Friends,

Love them all year long.

Especially on Valentine's Day,

As we sing this song!

Family Song

Another song about love which is great for young children to sing is about their family members. This song can be used for Mother's Day and Father's Day as well. Find a tune that you prefer for the following lyrics:

I love my mommy, yes I do.

I love my mommy, yes I do

I love my mommy, yes I DO!

I love my mommy, and she loves me too

Circle of Ideas offering Online ECE Workshops

Preschool Songs for Friendship Theme

The More We Get Together

In a circle, the children can stand up or be sitting holding hands to sing this song. The children's name can be included throughout the song. Raffi's version is the most well known.



The more we get together, together, together

The more we get together, the happier we'll be

With Bobby and Jenny, and Sarah and James (optional)

The more we get together, the happier we'll be.

Valentine's Day Friendship Song

Sung to:  "Row, Row, Row, your boat" :

Love, Love, Love your Friends,

Love them all year long.

Especially on Valentine's Day,

As we sing this song!


Although the lyrics are not about friendship, the activity during this song is great for a friendship theme. The teacher needs to find different color scarves and tie into a big train. Then in a circle, the scarf train will come out of the box. The children must work together to gently pass the tied up scarves through their hands, until it makes a full circle and everyone is holding onto the rainbow chain. While this activity is occurring, the teacher and children can sing or listen to the "Rainbow Song:" The following youtube version is a little slow. I suggest speeding up the tempo with young children and the scarf activity.

Lyrics:

Red and yellow and pink and green

Purple and orange and blue

I can sing a rainbow

Sing a rainbow

Sing a rainbow too.

                        Circle of Ideas offering ECE Online Workshops

Airplane Preschool Songs

 

The Wheels on the Plane

Suggested tune: “Wheels on the Bus”

The wheels on the plane go up and down, up and down, up and down
The wheels on the plane go up and down, all around the sky.
The workers on the plane say coffee or tea, coffee or tea, coffee or tea?
The workers on the plane say coffee or tea all around the sky.
The babies on the plane go wah wah wah, wah wah wah, wah wah wah
The babies on the plane go wah wah wah, all around the sky.
The mothers on the plane go sshh, sshh, sshh, sshh, sshh, sshh,
The mothers on the plane go sshh, sssh, sshh, all around the sky.
The pilot on the plane says seatbelts on, seatbelts on, seatbelts on
The pilot on the plane says seatbelts on, all around the sky.

I’m a Little Airplane

Sung to the tune of "I'm a Little Teapot"

I'm a little airplane
In the sky
Here are my wings
Watch me fly!
When the time is ready
I'll come down
Gently landing
On the ground

 

Did You Ever See an Airplane?

 

Sung to the tune of "Did You Ever See a Lassie?"
Did you ever see an airplane,
An airplane, an airplane?
Did you ever see an airplane
Way up in the sky?
There are big ones and small ones
Fast ones and slow ones
Did you ever see an airplane
Way up in the sky?

10 Little Airplanes

 

Sung to the tune of "Ten Little Indians"
One big, two big, three big airplanes
Four big, five big, six big airplanes
Seven big, eight big, nine big airplanes
Flying in the sky.
Zoom, zoom, zoom, go the airplanes
Zoom, zoom, zoom, go the airplanes
Zoom, zoom, zoom, go the airplanes
Flying in the sky.

Garden Theme: Preschool Songs

Flower Fingerplay Song

This finger play song about tulips and bulbs works well with a glove puppet and is found on a wonderful website called Make Learning Fun.

Ten tulip bulbs planted in the ground

Waiting very quiet without a sound

The sun came up and the rain came down

And one little tulip popped out of the ground.


The song continues up to five or ten with each new tulip being displayed by the puppeteer.

Children Action Songs about Gardening

A great way for children to enjoy and participate with music is to add actions to the song's lyrics. The following song about gardening can easily include actions with each verse.

Song #1 To the tune of Farmer in the Dell:

The farmer plants the seeds.

The farmer plants the seeds.

High ho the derry oh,

The farmer plants the seeds.

Second Verse: The sun comes out to shine.

Third Verse: The rain begins to fall.

Fourth Verse: The seeds begin to grow.

Fifth Verse: The farmer digs them up.




Song #2 This song is a rendition of "I'm a Little Teapot"

I'm a little watering can, tall and thin

To fill me up, just pour the water in.

Tip me over, the drops sprinkle out.

"Thanks for the drink", the flowers do shout!

Green Theme: Preschool Songs

Singing is an integral component of creating a quality early childhood setting and meeting the needs of the whole child. There are so many benefits for children when they have music and singing in their lives. Themes are fun for children within any childhood setting. More importantly, through repetition and various material all surrounding one idea, children will learn. The color green is a great topic for spring or St. Patrick's Day, and the following article suggests some songs to include within this specific theme.

 

 

  

The Green Grass Grew All Around

The color green makes many people think of growth, and new beginnings. In spring, the snow melts and the grass arrives again. The following cumulative song has different versions. The verses are great for developing memory skills. Younger children can enjoy listening to the song while looking at felt pieces on a flannel board or other visual presentations. "The Green Grass Grew All Around" is a song that was first published in 1912 with words by William Jerome and melody by Harry Von Tilzer.

There was a hole in the middle of the ground

The prettiest hole that you ever did see

And the green grass grew all around, all around

And the green grass grew all around.

And in that hole, there was a root

The prettiest root that you ever did see

And the root in the hole,

And the hole in the ground

And the green grass grew all around, all around

And the green grass grew all around.

The song continues with the following additions:

• Tree on the root
• Branch on the tree
• Twig on the branch
• Nest on the twig
• Egg in the nest
• Bird in the egg
• Wing on the bird
• Feather on the wing

St. Patrick's Green Song

A well known aspect of St. Patrick's Day is to wear green. Here is a song to sing for this added fun:

To the tune of "He's a Jolly Good Fellow"

We are wearing green on St. Patrick's Day

We are wearing green on St. Patrick's Day

We are wearing green on St. Patrick's Day 

So let's smile and do a jig! 

The Color Green Song

This children's song will help young children learn that by mixing blue and yellow together, the color green is formed.

To the tune of Frere Jacques

Mixing colors, mixing colors
Is fun to do, is fun to do
We can make green
We can make green
With yellow and blue
With yellow and blue

Old CDs for Preschool Crafts

How many of us have unused cds sitting in our homes? Companies often would include cds with the manuals of how to use their product. Collecting those cds together for preschool crafts is a great idea.

Here are some ideas on how to use the old cds for crafts:

 

Visit my Pinterest Page for some more ideas!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Action Songs for Toddlers

The following song suggestions allow toddlers to move around or use their hands to join in...

1. Eensy Weensy Spider

2. Five Little Ducks (have the children swim away like the ducks and then return at the end)

3. Ants go Marching (march around the room)

4. Sleeping Bunny (switch the animal again and again)

5.  I am a Little Teapot

6. Zoom Zoom Zoom We are Going to the Moon (toddlers can launch themselves like rockets)

7. Open and Shut Them

8. Hokey Pokey (change the lyrics with different themes)

9. Head and Shoulders (sing slow and then fast)

10. Engine Engine Number Nine (be a train around the room)

11. Wheels on the Bus

12. Twinkle Twinkle Little Star (make up actions for children to twinkle stars)

13. If you are Happy and You Know It

14. Five Little Monkeys Swinging in the Tree

15. Farmer in the Dell

17. Teddy Bear Turn Around

18. Baby Bumblebee

19.  Ring Around the Rosie

20. Shake my Wiggles Out ( Raffi)

Picture Frame Preschool Crafts: 20 Ideas

In preschool, daycare and primary school settings, when it comes to planning gifts for the children to make for their families, picture frames with photos inside remains a great choice. Following are some ideas...

Frame options:
Popsicle sticks stuck together with a glue gun
Paperplate with circle cut out (turns into a flower nicely)
Bought craft frames: wooden or foam (Michael's is great choice)
Pieces of cardboard-with or without the center removed
Styrofoam trays

Decoration Ideas:

Lots of glue is often needed!

1. buttons (take photos of child holding a sign saying "Cute as a Button")
2. googly eyes
3. old puzzle pieces (take photo of a child with the sign, "Love You to Pieces"
4. pasta (could spray paint gold or silver after completed)
5. letters (spelling love, dad, mom, etc.)
6. shells and/or pebbles
7. candy wrappers ( "you are sweet")
8. pom poms
9. bolts (great for Father's Day)
10. star shapes ("you are a star")
11. tissue paper
12. craft jewels and/or old jewelery pieces
13. heart shapes ("I love you")
14. flowers pictures from old greeting cards
15. old maps cut into pieces
16. straws cut in different sizes
17. colored sand

No glue needed

18. stickers
19. bingo markers
20. fingerprints or handprints

Fine Motor Pumpkin Activity: Hammering Nails

Mastering fine motor skills as well as hand eye coordination is an integral component of every child's development. Therefore, when creating an environment that meets the needs of the whole child, providing opportunities for young children to use their fingers in fine motor movement is essential. Most early childhood curriculums will include many fine motor activities such as beading, lego, and coloring. The following article provides some different ideas for providing opportunities for children to master their skills with the use of some pumpkins.

Pumpkin Activity: Hammering Nails

Hammering nails into a pumpkin is an attractive activity for children of all ages. For preschool ages, the skin of the pumpkin provides enough strength to hold the nail, yet soft enough for the hammering to be easy for the little hands holding the hammer. This activity works well at a table set for two with one child on either side of the table. But, it can also be enjoyed in any household environment as the photo displayed illustrates.

The material required :
large pumpkin
large amount of small nails
two small hammers: metal OR plastic hammers
spoon or butter knife (to remove the nails)
plastic safety goggles(optional)

Once the items have been collected, a beneficial way of starting this fun activity is to demonstrate to the young children how the hammering will occur and discuss ways of being safe. For instance, the adult should show the child how to gently nail towards the pumpkin without flinging the hammer way into the air. One tactic would be to ask the children how to be safe with hammering. Many children will be eager to tell others what they may have already learnt about using a hammer. In a preschool or daycare setting, this activity may be providing young children their first opportunity to use a real hammer and real nails. In an early childhood environment, guidelines or "rules" should be thought through and established before the event.

Alternative Ideas for Pumpkin Hammering with Preschoolers

There are different ways to set up this activity for young children:

Draw a face on the pumpkin before hand for children to follow

Leave the nails in the pumpkin, and then take out the insides of the pumpkin and put in a candle

Use string tied to selected hammer to create a fun design on pumpkin

Use golf tees instead of nails

Pumpkins provide fun activities for preschoolers beyond the traditional carving into a Jack o Lantern for Halloween. Hammering nails into pumpkins will definitely be enjoyed by children of all ages!

Science Experiments for Preschool

Even if you are not science savvy, these ideas are simple hands-on experiments to set up for preschool children (and even toddlers). To expand on each activity, the children can provide a prediction or hypothesis of what will happen, and then after the procedure is completed, the results can be noted.

The Volcano:

This is an experiment which can be done individually or as a group.

Material needed:

Trays
Vinegar
Baking Soda
Food Coloring
Popcorn kernels (optional)
Container with spout
Short glass container

The child will scoop a heaping tablespoon of baking soda into a glass container. A short glass or jar, such as a baby food jar, will be conducive to effective overflow. Once the baking soda is in, then in another container with a spout, will hold vinegar and a few drops of food coloring. This a great time to ask the children what they predict will happen. The final step is to allow the child to pour the vinegar mixture into the baking soda. The ingredients will mix together and cause an explosion that will bubble up and out of the container. When the bubbles are gone, the mixture must be emptied before beginning again. Try different shaped vessels for this experiment and adding some popcorn kernels. The kernels will dance inside the mixture, up and down for quite some time.

Making Goop:

This sensory, hands-on experiment involves only three ingredients.

Material needed:

Cornstarch
Food coloring
Bowls/Spoon

With this experiment, use a big bowl, or pot for the goop and have another pot of soapy water and a towel nearby for clean up. Alternatively, a sensory table is a great place for goop. Put the cornstarch into a big bowl. First, choose the color by adding a few drops of food coloring to a measuring cup full of water. The key for this mixture is to add the water slowly. If too much water is poured in, there is no turning back until the mixture evaporates over time. When the right amount of water is mixed with cornstarch, the texture will be hard on the bottom, with just a bit of moisture resting on top. When the mixture gets picked up, it will start to run down the fingers: a great goop mess. The goop is easily cleaned. The mixture dries and the corn starch is left and washes off clothes without any hassles. This goop mixture can be left on a shelf and brought back out at a later time. If it hardens, the children can have fun breaking it into little pieces, and then add more water to start enjoying all over again.

Sink or Float

A classic game that does not lose its appeal. Fill the sink or water table with water and allow the children to find safe things that can get wet, or have a number of items chosen. Have a guessing game on whether the item will sink or float ( an apple is always a great choice). To extend this science experiment, find out why things sink or float as well as charting the results into a graph.

 

Magnet Fun

Placing out magnets with material to attract, or not, is a fun and safe preschool science set up. Children can explore which items are attracted to magnets and which material are not. They can experiment with placing opposing poles of magnets towards each other and feel the resistence. A great deal of questions, predictions and recordings can be made with magnets. In addition, there are many extended activities with magnets, such as fishing wands and fish, magnet puzzles

All About Me Preschool Book

A great way to learn about the children at the beginning of a preschool year, as well as making each child feel comfortable and welcomed is to make a book titled: All About Me. Some teachers prefer to work on this memory type book throughout the preschool year. This article suggests pages to work on for a week or two at the beginning of the preschool year, to then present to the parents as the first art project. The parents will be happy to receive such a gift from their children and in so doing; it starts the preschool year off with a good start.

Creating the Pages for Preschool

Many of the pages for an All About Me book can be found online and then printed off, or the pages can be created by the preschool teacher first with the original pages being saved in a curriculum folder for future use. If the pages have all the printing down ahead of time, then it will reduce the work for the teacher as he/she will simply photo copy the required amount of pages needed. A good idea is to finish one page per class as the teacher will be required to fill in the answers of the children or other details with each page, which requires allocated time. The parents love reading the answers that come out of their child's mouth which is an important feature of the entire project.

"Look How Big I Am!": A Page Recording Preschool Children's Height and Weight

To begin the book, record the weight and height of each child on a page title, "Look How Big I Am!" This page can have a picture of a girl or boy which can be coloured in. Alternatively, older preschool children can be left a space to draw a picture. Perhaps, the teacher might chose to place in a photograph of the child instead which could be taken at school or provided by the families. Another page under this category can be titled, "When I Get Older, I Want to Be....". On this page, a preschooler will have his/her foot or hand traced (or both) and then the answer to the title can be filled in by the teacher. Similarly, a child's handprint can be made by being dipped into paint.

All About Me: The Question and Answer Page

This page can be altered to meet the requirements of the teacher's curriculum and philosophy. Sometimes this page is titled, "My Favourite Things". There will be a number of questions to ask the children and the answers will be written out. Some classic questions to ask are:

• My favourite color is...
• One of my favourite TV shows is...
• I like to eat...
• I don't like to eat...
• One of my favourite toys is...
• I am special because...

Me and My Family

One suggestion for this page is to provide each child with the basic tracing of a house made out of popsicle sticks, which the children can then glue on themselves. They can color or decorate the sticks before hand. The page can be titled, "In My Home You Will Find..."

Magazine Collage Page

This page can be a glueing activity for the preschool children to find things they like in an array of pictures cut out of magazines, and/ or pictures found off the computer. The latter choice works well for there are no pictures found on the other side as with magazines. The collage page can be fun to make and many parents will smile when they see what their child chose to glue onto the page.

The Completed Project

There are many more pages that can be placed into the book, and as stated before, this might be a book that a teacher chooses to work on throughout the preschool year. Finish the book off with a cover providing the title of the book, preschool it was made in, child's name, and the year it was completed. The parents will be happy to have this memento to keep in their collection of memories.


TO DOWNLOAD PAGES, VISIT: My Pinterest Page
                                                           
                                                             



Further reading suggestion: All About Me Songs

Online Early Childhood Workshops with Circle of Ideas 

Flower Crafts

Making flowers in preschool, daycare or any early childhood environment is a fun spring activity. The following blog entry provides some ideas for flower crafts.

Daffodils: mini cupcake liners turn flower designs into cute daffodils. Prep the craft activity by cutting out a flower shape or fold a piece of yellow construction paper in half and draw half a flower for the children to cut out. A stem and leaf can be glued onto the flower with the cupcake liner placed in the middle to finish the craft.


From Musings of Me


Flower Stamps: many craft stores have flower foam stamps for prints, but did you know that old thread spools make cute flower designs as well?                     



From Growing a Jeweled Rose

Handprint flowers: the children's hands become the main flower either with fingerpaint or construction paper. By having the children trace and cut their hands out by themselves, it becomes a great fine motor activity, building up the skills for cutting. The flower can be their individual hand, or many hands can be glued for the petals by gluing the palm part of the hand in the center of a paperplate and fingers outwards. The latter choice is a long project if the child is cutting each hand, and might work best with an adult's assistance.

From DLTK

                                                                              

Coffee filters: when food coloring and water is dropped onto coffee filters with eye droppers, the filter absorbs the liquid and it turns into a tie-dye look. When the filter is all dry, then it can become a cute flower which can be glued onto paper or attached to a pipecleaner.



From Crafts for Preschool Kids


Paperplate Daisy: a small paperplate with white large petals for the edge, make a cute daisy. The children can finish the flower with a big happy face in the middle.

 

Flower Collage: place flower pictures from used birthday cards, calendars, wrapping paper and so on, onto the table with a large piece of construction paper. Add some drawing tools, such as felt pens, and lots of glue and scissors. Provide strips of paper and other small pieces of paper with different textures and let the children create their own spring flower creations.


Still Life Painting: place real or fake flowers in a vase on a table. Provide children with pencils for tracing, and then paint or felts for filling in the color. You will be amazed at how many young children are able to create art in this manner. Each masterpiece is unique.It helps to present this art activity with a quick introduction beforehand, showing the children some paintings and discussing what still life means.


Open Ended Craft Table: encourage flower making by providing material conducive to making flowers and allow children the space and time to create their own flowers. Material to consider:

• circle shapes
• popsicle sticks
• coffee filters
• sticks
• cupcake liners
• paper doilies/liners
• pom poms
• single egg cartons
• pipe cleaners

From Buggy and Buddy

  

Egg carton flowers: individual foam eggs turn this craft project into a one day, simple activity. If using cardboard eggs, they can be painted beforehand. Both choices the egg cartons can be decorated, for instance, with jewels or sparkles and trimmed at the top in a zigzag manner. A pipecleaner becomes the stem by glueing it to the bottom of the egg carton, or by poking a small hole at the bottom and placing the pipecleaner through slightly and bending for attachment.

Flower Pots: sometimes it is the flower pot that is needed for an art craft. Perhaps, the children are making Mother Day Presents. Individual clay pots work well for children can paint them. Paper plates stapled together also work: one plate is cut in half and then stapled to a full plate. The children can decorate afterwards. Used glass bottles can be used for vases, and children can be provided with fun stickers or glass paint to decorate.


Good Luck and happy flower making!                           

More Resources

Flower Pinterest Board

Online Early Childhood Workshops with Circle of Ideas