1. Art, Music, and Movement

Transcription

1 1. Art, Music, and Movement

2 Bookmarks Art, Music, and Movement Level: Preschool Cost: $5.00 Mess factor: Some Suggested location: Kitchen table Making a bookmark will help your children express their creativity, and at the same time, they will be making something useful! Children will experience: Creative art Writing Materials: Paper cut into wide strips Markers Crayons Any art supplies like construction paper, confetti, stickers Contact paper Beginning: Show children any examples you might have of bookmarks. If you don t have any, explain that people use something called a bookmark to hold their place in a book, rather than bending down a page or losing their spot. Show them the strips of paper and say this is what bookmarks usually look like. Put out the markers and art supplies and tell them they can decorate their bookmark any way they would like. Middle: As they decorate the bookmark, make encouraging comments like Oh, I see you are using a lot of colors or Tell me about your drawing. When they are finished decorating a bookmark, cover it in contact paper to preserve the art work and lengthen the life of the bookmark. End: Ask your children if they would like to read or look at one of their favorite books. When they are done, ask them if they would like to mark the page of their favorite picture or simply place the bookmark in the book to be ready for the next time! Cleanup: Let children tell you what they want you to clean up and then you get to tell them what to clean up! 14 COR Advantage Item X. Art The owner of this book has permission to reproduce this activity.

3 Bookmarks Younger children: Younger children will still like to draw and decorate on the paper! Have younger children decorate a simple cardboard box. Place the box in their room or wherever they sleep. Let them place their favorite books in the box! Older children: Let older children poke a hole at the top of the bookmark with a hole punch. Have them cut some yarn to make a long tassel. Have children make bookmarks for their school class for Valentine s Day or any special celebration! Have children make a bookmark and donate it to a local literacy charity. Hints: These make great holiday gifts for family members! More! Anything you can do to excite children about reading will pay off in the long run. Let them be creative and have fun during this project. Who knows? They might begin reading chapter books before you know it! Special Needs Accommodations: For children with limited vision, let them decorate awards that they can tape to the covers of books-on-tape, to indicate their favorites! For a child with limited fine-motor skills, increase the size of the paper. Help the child peel stickers instead of drawing, if necessary. 15

4 Bouncing Bed Sheet Art, Music, and Movement Level: Preschool Cost: Under five dollars Mess factor: Little Suggested location: Open space or outside Everybody loves this activity because it starts with food! Bouncing the bed sheet will help get your children s arms in shape as they shake their way to learning! This activity can be done over the course of two days if you want to stretch out the popcorn fun. Children will experience: Physical activity How one thing can affect another (cause and effect) Spatial relationships Moving to music Materials: Popcorn Popcorn popper Bed sheet CD player Fast-paced music (instrumental music music with no words is best) Soft balls (Nerf balls, Super Balls, foam balls, beanbag balls). See the following list for how to make homemade balls: Paper towel balls Wad up paper towels and then wrap masking tape a couple of times around the ball to secure. Pantyhose balls Bunch up one or several (depends how big you want the ball) plastic bags like those from the supermarket. Stuff into the end of a knee-high pantyhose. Twist the pantyhose around and fold over back onto the bags. Keep repeating this step until all of the pantyhose is wrapped around the bags. Socks Use a pair of socks in which the two socks are wrapped together for a simple ball substitute. Sponges Purchase a package of sponges at a supermarket or discout store for a simple ball substitute. Beginning: Part one Pop popcorn with children. An air or microwave popper works best because the children can see the kernels popping, but popcorn in a microwave bag is fine. Talk about the steps in making popcorn or why corn pops. As you talk with your child, you might say Wow. I hear a lot of noise! What do you think is happening? How do you think those hard, yellow kernels turn into fluffy popcorn? What does popcorn feel like in your mouth? Look at the pieces of popcorn and find your favorite shape. 16 COR Advantage Item Z. Movement The owner of this book has permission to reproduce this activity.

5 Bouncing Bed Sheet Let children help you finish making the popcorn by dumping it into a bowl and pouring on butter and shaking on salt. Once you and the children have enjoyed some popcorn, move on to the second part of the activity. Part two Spread out the bed sheet and ask children to hold on to an edge. Ask children to pretend that the bed sheet is a giant popcorn popper, and that you would like them to help you make popcorn. Place the balls in the middle of the bed sheet. Depending on the type of popcorn popper children are familiar with, pretend to add oil, and/or turn on the heat. Middle: Play the music quietly and help children shake the bed sheet. Shake slowly at first to pretend it is like the popcorn getting hotter and hotter. As you are shaking with children, talk about how the balls are moving. Use words such as rolling, bouncing, and jumping. Use other words that show direction like over, under, in and out. Play the music louder now and have children shake faster so the balls pop up in the air. When the balls fly off the bed sheet, encourage children to put them back on. End: When you and the children start to get tired, have the children slow the shaking; turn the music down. Slow the popping and, finally, stop. Cleanup: Help children gather up all the balls and jump around like popcorn as you put them away together. Younger children: Note that homemade plastic bag balls are great for young children because toddlers can grip them and they make a neat crunchy sound. They are also easy to wash and reuse! Use a fitted sheet with young children since it gives a nice edge for younger children to hold while shaking. For children too young to hold the sheet, let them jump like popcorn as the music plays. As children shake the sheet, say things like I see you are shaking fast or I see you are shaking with your arms up high. continued on next page 17

6 Bouncing Bed Sheet Older children: While the popcorn is popping, see if the older children can count how many pops they hear! If children are shaking the bed sheet, see if they can control the shaking and not let any fall off. Ask children to count how many shakes of the arm they can do before getting tired. Count with them. A more challenging way to do this activity is to give older children one paper plate and a paper towel ball. See how many times they can pop the popcorn and keep it in the air by hitting the ball with the plate. Hints: If you are short on hands, tie one corner of the bed sheet to a chair or doorknob. Make sure all the children are able to chew the popcorn, because it could be a choking hazard otherwise. More! Sprinkle the popcorn outside on the ground for the squirrels to eat. Hide under the bed sheet and read a bedtime story by flashlight. Start a recipe box of child-friendly cooking activities. Have an older child help to write and draw a step-by-step recipe for making popcorn. If the bed sheet is not needed, let children use markers or fabric paint to decorate it. Bring the sheet to the park and ask other children to come to play with it. Here are some ideas: Shake high and low Shake fast and slow Shake if you are a boy/girl Sing the A-B-C song as you shake Special Needs Accommodations: If children are not able to shake a bed sheet, give them scarves to shake. For children with limited vision, throw small jingle bells on the parachute so children can hear the movement. 18

7 Family Song Book Art, Music, and Movement Level: Preschool Cost: Under $5.00 (No cost if you have a binder or other similar book or folder in the house) Mess factor: None Suggested location: Anywhere Music is an important part of any culture. Share your connection to music with your children and encourage them to share their love of music with you and others. Record all your favorite tunes in a family song book and add to it as the years go on. Children will experience: Drawing Singing Writing Materials: 3-ring binder Blank paper Crayons, markers, or colored pencils Beginning: Share with your children about a time when someone in your family sang a song to you. Talk about lullabies you sang to your children when they were babies. Ask them to sing their favorite song to you. Middle: Tell children that you want to create a book that includes all of their favorite songs, plus all of your favorite songs from when you were a child. Have children write each of their favorite songs down on a separate piece of paper as you do the same. If they can t write all the words, you can help them or just let them write one word to stand for the song. Then, let them decorate each song page to make the pages colorful. If they aren t able to write the complete title of the song, encourage them to draw pictures or designs that help them remember what the song is. Once all the pages have been decorated, punch holes in them and put them in the binder or simply put them in a folder. End: This can be an ongoing project that you add to over the years, so end the activity when your children show they are no longer interested. Cleanup: Have your children pick their three favorite colors and put those crayons away. You can help clean up the other colors. Decide together where the family song book should be kept. continued on next page The owner of this book has permission to reproduce this activity. COR Advantage Item X. Art 19