~Amanda~ Posted July 11, 2011 Share Posted July 11, 2011 Do you have a favorite homemade preschool manipulative? Like, stuff to sort for colors. or shapes. or .... whatever. is there a preschool blog that you like to follow that may have some info like this? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cjgrubbs Posted July 11, 2011 Share Posted July 11, 2011 I have gotten some good ideas here: http://www.1plus1plus1equals1.com/ any kind of games. I've gotten lots of great ideas from books and online. If you have a teacher store go visit it - you don't have to buy anything but looking at the books will give you lots of good ideas. Things as simple as making shaped cards (like fish) some with the number and some with dots for the child to match and then as he/she gets olders change it to words from the dots. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stripe Posted July 11, 2011 Share Posted July 11, 2011 I found this website but never made anything from it, but it's too neat not to share! http://www.monthome.com/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Soror Posted July 11, 2011 Share Posted July 11, 2011 http://confessionsofahomeschooler.blogspot.com/ Has curriculum you can buy or you can just go through and print them all out yourself, lots of great stuff. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RoundAbout Posted July 11, 2011 Share Posted July 11, 2011 I love to check out the dollar store first. I've gotten different colored glass beads and stones, colored sand to practice tracing letters in, pony beads, large foam dice, seasonal items, craft materials, etc. Whenever I feel our workboxes are getting stale I go hit the dollar stores first - sometimes $5-$10 in fresh materials really livens things up. For preschool blogs I like: Counting Coconuts Chasing Cheerios The previously mentioned 1plus1plus1equals1 is also good but does a lot more printables lately. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
morosophe Posted July 11, 2011 Share Posted July 11, 2011 Over at Delicious Ambiguity, Jenn had a linking frenzy post for "busy bags" for toddlers. I've loved many of those ideas. (Note for the script-suspicious: I had to allow "linkytools.com" on my Noscript to get the page to load properly.) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
~Amanda~ Posted July 11, 2011 Author Share Posted July 11, 2011 There are truly some amazingly gifted people out there! Am I the only one who feels like I was shorted the "creative play with toddler" instinct? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
morosophe Posted July 12, 2011 Share Posted July 12, 2011 There are truly some amazingly gifted people out there! Am I the only one who feels like I was shorted the "creative play with toddler" instinct? Not at all. I'm very thankful for the internet at times, let me tell you! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cjgrubbs Posted July 12, 2011 Share Posted July 12, 2011 There are truly some amazingly gifted people out there! Am I the only one who feels like I was shorted the "creative play with toddler" instinct? Definetly me too! My creativity is all towards crafts and girly things and I have 3 boys so pushing cars around on the carpet, playing in mud and building forts....not my idea of fun. I have always had a very hard time "playing" with them in this way! Luckily one of my boys does love crafts and the other 2 tolerated it well when they were little - lots of playdough, painting, big coloring books, glitter, etc! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted July 12, 2011 Share Posted July 12, 2011 Ice cubes in glasses or cups and an empty cup to spoon them into. Works wonders while waiting at resturants. Block crayons from Paper, Scissors, Stone and either a sketch pad or I use sewn notebooks. Saves on art paper. Stencils. One pound of white Sculpy bake in oven clay. It never dries out or feels icky like PlayDoh. The little stiffness the child works out by warming it stregthens little fine motor muscles. Large Duplo LEGOs or, even better, a basic set of wood blocks like Melissa and Doug carry. small muffin tins and pom poms plus some tweezers to sort by color... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KarenNC Posted July 12, 2011 Share Posted July 12, 2011 Not exactly a manipulative, but we had a cheap photo album, the kind with the "magnetic' pages. You can cut out shapes, pictures from magazines, photos of family members/pets/etc to make an infinitely changeable picture/board book. The plastic pages make it easy to wipe off fingerprints (and other things;)) as well. You can use this to work on colors, shapes, words, whatever you like. If you use cardstock, it's likely thick enough to trace with a finger for tactile reinforcement. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WishboneDawn Posted July 12, 2011 Share Posted July 12, 2011 I love to check out the dollar store first. I've gotten different colored glass beads and stones, colored sand to practice tracing letters in, pony beads, large foam dice, seasonal items, craft materials, etc. Whenever I feel our workboxes are getting stale I go hit the dollar stores first - sometimes $5-$10 in fresh materials really livens things up. For preschool blogs I like: Counting Coconuts Chasing Cheerios The previously mentioned 1plus1plus1equals1 is also good but does a lot more printables lately. Yup. A thrift store muffin tin and some egg cartons are also indispensible. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
2_girls_mommy Posted July 12, 2011 Share Posted July 12, 2011 a string at their level and things to hang w/clothespins.. like when we were learning the letter C I made cards with Cs on them and cards with other letters on them. Then we took turns picking a card. If it had C then you could clip it. Good for fine motor skill work. an egg carton and beans. I numbered the bottom of the cups. She had to put 1 bean in the 1, 2 in the 2 and so on. sensory bins of rice or beans to scoop and pour and drive cars in. for that matter, tubs of water were a huge hit. My kids loved to play in a big tub of water w/floating and sinking things and cups and things to pour. I know there are more. Sorry I can't remember what blogs I used. I do remember making flashcards on index cards. I would write the name of a color in black marker, then color the card that color. Then we could make up little memory games with them. that sort of thing... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
annlaura Posted July 12, 2011 Share Posted July 12, 2011 Not a preschool blog, but I have found so many great ideas and other blogs through this one: http://www.thecraftycrow.net/ A current favorite manipulative here is shapes cut from foam sheets to be played with in the bath. They stick to the walls and tub, and the boys. I bought the foam at the dollar store. They have so much fun with these! Cottonballs and q-tips seem to have endless uses. Random bits of fabric and yarn are fun. For some reason, my boys are fascinated by dry spaghetti - they like to use it with playdough and pretend it is hay to feed toy animals. Potato stamping is a big hit. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FloAla1975 Posted July 12, 2011 Share Posted July 12, 2011 I have found lots of printables from here: http://www.wikisori.org/index.php/Worksheets/Printouts Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
La Condessa Posted July 12, 2011 Share Posted July 12, 2011 assorted knuts, bolts, and washers--she can match the sizes, sort the different kinds, sequence them by size, screw them off and on, and shake them like a musical instrument also, a magnetic cookie sheet is great--that idea was from 1plus1plus1equals1 I got the cookie sheet from the dollar store, and I glued unused buttons from the button box onto magnets to make them more interesting. She can just play with the magnets, sorting by color or size, or I can put a sheet of paper there for coloring or something printed off the internet for her. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
~Amanda~ Posted July 12, 2011 Author Share Posted July 12, 2011 I wish this was like facebook and I could "like" each and every one of y'alls posts. I love the ideas! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RoundAbout Posted July 12, 2011 Share Posted July 12, 2011 assorted knuts, bolts, and washers--she can match the sizes, sort the different kinds, sequence them by size, screw them off and on, and shake them like a musical instrument We also love to use nuts, bolts, and other junk from the toolbox with homemade playdoh. I throw in some of those googly eyes from my craft box and he gets really creative making robots. So much better than those playdoh kits. Golf tees are also fun. You can buy a multicolored pack and then push or tap them into foam blocks with a wooden hammer. Chopsticks, tongs, and tweezers are also great for developing fine motor skills. Fill a dishpan with pom-poms or beans and then make them use tongs to pull out all of the ones of a particular color,etc. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stripe Posted July 12, 2011 Share Posted July 12, 2011 I'm saving milk jug lids but I don't know why! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
~Amanda~ Posted July 12, 2011 Author Share Posted July 12, 2011 Look what I found this morning? http://unsolicitedadvice-n-such.blogspot.com/2011/07/how-busy-bag-swaps-will-work.html Its a sign up swap for preschoolers. But, if you click on each of the age groups, it gives list of IDEAS of stuff to send. (You could so do this without the swap) I love it! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mallory Posted July 12, 2011 Share Posted July 12, 2011 Lots of good ideas. One we like that hasn't been mentioned is paint sample cards. We used them at first just to match up colors (I would pick out two of the basic colors ROYGBI and just cut off the representative color), then in a very montessori way by ordering all the colors of one strip from lightest to darkest. Paint brushes and water can also keep a little one occupied for a long time painting the porch (or even the hallway) with no mess ;) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mallory Posted July 13, 2011 Share Posted July 13, 2011 10 Uses for those Multi Colored Glass Pebbles you put in Vases We've always just used dried beans- they're a lot cheaper and we always have some. But those colored glass pebbles would be fun! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bpskowski Posted July 13, 2011 Share Posted July 13, 2011 I'm saving milk jug lids but I don't know why! Didn't read all the posts, so maybe I missing something but... I use milk and water bottle jug lids for letter manipulatives. My preschoolers know their letters and letter sounds. I print pictures of simple words, like cat and then spell cat in big letters right next to the picture. Then all my lids have letters, in permanent markers, marked on them and they try to find the matching lid and fit on top of printed letters. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stripe Posted July 13, 2011 Share Posted July 13, 2011 See, I knew there were things to do with them! I am also hoping to build vehicles and use them as wheels. Apparently we'll have a large fleet. Cough. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
smillard00 Posted July 13, 2011 Share Posted July 13, 2011 Sorting silverware into a silverware tray, make construction paper placemats with places for the dishes and silverware traced off and use as a template to set the table. Put a sticker on each day you've finished on the calendar. Start out with two colors and alternate them to make a pattern. The next month, do it with three colors or change up the two color pattern. You can count with Popsicle sticks or half straws and start to talk about place value. When you get ten, you bundle them with a rubber band and move them to the 10s place, etc. Get those big plastic tweezers like the ones that come in the bug kits. They can use them to pick up cotton balls or buttons or marshmallows or beans or whatever you like. It works on their pencil holding grasp while playing with manipulatives. We also like the little colored bears that come with the colored cups. I think we found them at Wal-Mart with the teacher stuff. Your library may have a copy of Teaching Montessori in the Home which has great ideas. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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