Ringing in Spring

Back in early fall when I began this blog, I envisioned great things. The hope was to update each week or at least each month about the progress in my classroom. I started off on a good foot, but then winter happened...DUN, DUN, DUNNNN. Okay, really life hasn't been all that dramatic. The problem is my kiddos and I missed quite a bit of school this winter, so I really did not have too many new things to share. Some weeks my classes (I have 2 on alternating days) would only get one day of school a week. Therefore I reused many things until they got the concept being taught.
 Enough gloom and doom for now. Spring is here, and brand new things are in bloom! Here is a look at some spring time events going on in March. As of now they have a St. Patrick's Day focus. One fun tradition at our school is hunting for the leprechaun.  The week before the 17th, my director will play tricks on the kids while they are at recess. (i.e. steal our gold, mess the room up, leave foot prints, etc). The kids love it! They enjoyed hiding our gold and searching for it if it went missing. They walk through the hallways so quietly trying to find the sneaky little guy. What fun!

St. Paddy's Day also provides many learning opportunities. Lucky Charms has been a big deal of late. In fact we made Lucky Charm treats the other day to practice our measuring skills. They were a tasty treat! The kids also love playing with the cereal in the sand & water table. I always tell my kids that the food in our learning centers is full of yucky germs, so they do a great job of not eating the food set aside for play.

I used St. Patrick's Day as an opportunity to teach about the rainbow. As a literacy activity, I used Fruit Loops and a rainbow letter map to have the children match up the correct color on the correct spot. The print outs I used came from KidsSoup.

I left a felt board on the science table and did my best to cut out rainbow shapes of each color. Based on the material I had left, it didn't turn out great. However, the kids enjoyed using it, so it served its purpose. You can also see where that tricky leprechaun visited us.

While looking around for ideas on Pinterest one day, I came across a Pot'O Gold activity.I didn't have the materials on hand to put together the learning center, so I improvised. I also made mine a math center instead of the letter O idea it had been intended. Instead of giving each pot of gold (a black paper cup from the dollar store) it's own individual rainbow, I constructed a rainbow from party streamers and tape. I used pink in place of orange since that is what I had. I searched and searched and searched for candy or play gold coins, but I finally settled on gold Dove chocolates and Butterfinger chocolate egg candies as my gold. I took clothespins numbered 1-20 that the children could clip onto the cup and place that much gold under the rainbow. The rainbow really helped attract the kids to the table. This was also the pot of gold we would hide each day.

We reinforced our skills of rainbow colors with a craft for each class. Some projects did get out of order a little bit depending on how much space the children allowed as we worked, but they did know where it should go. ;-) Here is a leprechaun hat streamer rainbow and a paper plate collage.

Some other learning activities included graphing Lucky Charm marshmallows. You can find plenty of graphs online. I never did get a chance to let them color their findings, but the sorting and counting gave them plenty of practice. The classes also got a chance to practice writing their letters in leprechaun goo (hair gel and green food coloring in a plastic baggie). Be sure to tape your baggie on ALL 4 SIDES. I should have known better, but you live and learn. Thankfully it is fairly easy clean up if the worst should happen.

We also had some shamrock fun. I placed dots on the shamrocks and the children had to match a rainbow stick with the corresponding number to the correct shamrock. I also wrote the lowercase letters on one side and they matched it to the uppercase letter on our circle time carpet.

That's about it for now. Hopefully the snow is about gone, and I will have lots of new spring activities to share. We are also ready to get outdoors some more and have some fun!

Christmas Happenings

December flew by in a flurry of excitement. Between snow days and preparation for our Christmas program, I didn't accomplish as much in the classroom as I would have liked, but we did the best with the time we were given. Here are some highlights of Christmas fun!
   I revisited the popcorn activity we did earlier with numbered cupcake liners. Instead of using popcorn, I placed M&M's in a bowl, and the children were able to count out the correct number.

 After the children got bored of this counting activity, I used the M&M's for a fine motor activity. The candy remained in the bowl, and I placed different clippers and recycled water bottles on the table. The kids had a blast trying to get the M&M's into the bottle. This could prove to be an exciting sorting activity as well.
*As suggested by my director, I always tell the children that the candy contains nasty germs, and they will get sick if they eat the candy we are playing with. They all do a good job of following these rules. At times we have a chance to eat the good candy, but the learning center candy is used for learning!

I found some Christmas tin buckets in the dollar section at Target. I set four of them up and placed a bowl of various Hershey kisses and hugs for the kids to sort. After they were through with that activity I used the buckets and cookie sheets at my literacy table. I placed some hot cocoa mix on each sheet and placed a candy cane in each bucket. The children used the candy canes to practice writing their names and draw in the powder. This seemed to be the most favored activity during December. It was messy, but the joy in their faces was worth it!

Another math activity was patterning. I laminated white candy canes cut from paper and placed out some dry erase markers. I also laid out candy canes for ideas. The children would then replicate the candy cane patterns over and over again on the laminated canes.

We also took some time studying the true meaning of Christmas through the telling of Baby Jesus. One way to bring the story to life was these fun felt characters I cut out for the felt board.

 Through teaching Sunday School, I came across this sheep craft that I would have used in the classroom. I did it with the junior aged kids at church as well as my 2&3 year old Sunday School class. I found the ornaments on Pinterest. All you need is a cut out of the child's hand, cotton balls, glue, googly eyes, a hole puncher and yarn.

Another big hit in the classroom was my gift wrap station. I found Disney themed Christmas paper at the Dollar Tree along with bows. I also provided tape and ribbon along with small boxes I found around the house (old cell phone boxes, small packages, tissue boxes, cereal boxes, etc). I was really surprised with how well the children did. They also had a chance to trim our tree each day, and the Christmas countdown was a big hit too. At first I would carefully unwrap the gifts, so the supplies could be reused. Once they began to tire of the activity,  left them wrapped and under the tree for a festive look to our room.

The children enjoyed receiving Santa mail from the stocking hanging on our door. It served as motivation in preparing for our Christmas program in which they did a terrific job! The kids also used cookie cutters to make ornaments from clay. They loved painting the ornaments and taking them home. We had plenty of other fun, and it all went un-photographed in our busyness. Nevertheless, I enjoyed the holidays, and now it is time to learn about winter!

Thankful for Fun

Wow! November has flown by. The holiday season is truly upon us. Pre-Kindergarten proved to be a lot of fun as we studied more about fall and Thanksgiving. The month began with learning about leaves. The children began the week with a nature walk. Each child was given a bag to collect leaves. These leaves were used for sorting, patterns, art crafts and leaf rubbings.
One day I gave  each child half a sheet of construction paper with 2 pre-cut leaves from the die cut machine taped on the page. Each child painted over the whole paper, and the leaves were removed once the paint was dry. Here is a look at the final result:

Another way of practicing patterning was reusing the candy corn mix from Halloween. This time instead a sorting the candy in muffin tins, I place painted egg cartons on the table. The children came up with many creative patterns using these manipulatives.

We have begun talking about the 5 senses. This month for the sensory tabled, colored and scented rice was a big hit. All I did was place rice in different ziploc bags. In each bag I added a little water, different food coloring and a fall scent (cinnamon, cloves, ginger, pumpkin pie spice, nutmeg, etc). The colors did not stay separated for long, but the children love playing in it. Many parents inquired about how to make it, so it truly was a big hit all the way around.

I also made a tree trunk for the art work bulletin board. My students practiced tracing and cutting out leaves, as well as leaf rubbings. I also added turkeys and such to the board as we went through the month.

Next we moved into the study of the first Thanksgiving. The children learned that Squanto aided the Pilgrims in finding food. Since he taught them to make popcorn, we practiced our number recognition and counting skills. The children identified the number in the cupcake liner and placed the corresponding number of popcorn into the liner.

Many of the girls in my class love making necklaces. I knew I had to set out my noodle station. All you have to do is place your dry pasta in a plastic baggie and squish it together with a few drops of food coloring. Place some yarn out on the table, and let the fun begin!

The Pre-K also learned a lot about turkeys this month. Not only did we learn the difference between a tom turkey and a hen, we continued to learn the alphabet. I put this learning center together based off a Pinterest idea. The children really loved finding the feathers for the turkey. Since I laminated the turkeys, I only made four. Once the children found the feathers for the 4 letters I put in front of them, I would erase them and write 4 different letters with a dry erase marker.

Another literacy center idea that came from Pinterest was salt writing. I placed some salt on the cookie sheet and laid turkey feathers around it. The kids had a blast practicing writing their name. It was all fun and games until they started using the salt with the kitchen set and salt got everywhere. You can't take your eyes off them for a second!

The other Pinterest idea that inspired a learning center was for math. I loved the idea of clothespin feathers for building fine motor skills, but I wanted to make it more complicated for my Pre-K kiddos. 1-to-1 correspondence is something my students need to work on. With this in mind, I painted the clothespins different colors, and I colored corresponding colors on the turkeys. The children had to place the feathers in the correct spot.

Every year our school has a Feast of Favorites where the children bring in their favorite side dish. The parents are invited to the feast to share the food, and our school provides hot dogs as the main course. Each class makes a center piece for the tables. This year I put together a craft based off of several internet ideas I saw. First I set up a feather making station where the children had to trace 5 feathers and cut them out. They could choose any color they wanted.

Together as class, everyone painted a small Styrofoam cup brown (which thank goodness the Crayola paint did not fall off of), and they glued their eyes, beak and waddle (cut from red yarn) to their pre-cut face. I glued the finished feather tailed and face to the correct cup. Here is the finished product:

This was the test run I made to make sure it would work

The most exciting day we had this month was the Great Turkey Race. I was reading this book to the class when I thought, "We could do this!" In the story, the turkeys compete for the most medals to see who will be the special Thanksgiving turkey. Little do they realize this turkey will be eaten. The first thing I did to prepare for the event was make up some turkey medals. I used yellow, gray and brown paper, a turkey die cut and gold, silver & orange glitter. I also wrote events and places on the back before laminating them and tying them up with yarn.

 In the book the order of events go as follows:

• Turkey Trot - My kids were instructed to run like a turkey from the start to finish line. I did it in 3 heats, and took the winner of 3 in a final race to determine the medal winners.
• Dance Competition - My kids love Freeze Dancing, so I did a Freeze Dance for this event. Normally they just freeze and start dancing again when the music begins, but for this event I called them to sit out if they were still moving when the music stopped.
• Bucket Throw - I place a sand bucket in the middle of the carpet, and the children had to throw the turkey feathers we used for the salt writing. 
• Obstacle Course - This was a big hit with the kids. I had to laugh when one of them told me the "popsicle" was their favorite part of the day. It took me a minute to figure out what she was talking about. Anyway, instead of running through the pig's mud, they ran through hula hoops. Next, they ran up and down 2 balancing see saw type things instead of jumping over a hay stack. Since I didn't have a clothesline for them to run through, they ran through a play hut, crossed over a balance beam and crawled through a play tunnel. The children finished the race by riding a play tractor to the finish line just like the turkeys drove the tractor to their finish line. I timed them to determine the winners.

Another event this month was picture day. Since I had children coming and going, I decided to play a game. Each child was given a turkey I made out of hand prints with a letter on it. I told them they were going on a turkey hunt. Each child had a chance to hide their turkey. They were instructed to sit back on the carpet. I would then send 1 or 2 children to go find the turkey that said (sound of the letter I wanted them to find). They did a great job with looking until they found the correct turkey.

Lots of fun this month! Now to enjoy the break and prepare for Christmas fun!

Apple Theme Fun

Fall is a wonderful time of year! I love the weather this time of year and the beautiful colors. As a teacher, I love it even more for the many, many themes fall offers. This year to kick off the start of a new school year, we chose an apple theme for September. Here are just a few ideas I came across over the past couple weeks:

My personal favorite was teaching the children the parts of the apple. I wanted to do more than just a poster printed off the computer. When researching teaching ideas, I saw an adorable "Parts of the Apple" display on a Google images search using a pocket chart. It was then I remembered my brother had fixed my flannel graph board. This inspired me to use felt to teach the parts of the apple. As suggested by my director, I printed off labels and used Velcro so they would stick. The children had so much fun helping me stick up the pieces and labels each day. They picked up the scientific names very quickly!

I used a worksheet from KidSoup to reinforce the apple parts. I could not find one with the names already on the paper, so I just made my own dotted words for the children to trace. Not only were they practicing the parts of the apple, but we were honing in on those writing skills.

We went right from parts of the apple to the life cycle of an apple tree. Many may be familiar with the finger play "Eat an apple, save the core, plant the seeds and grow some more." Thanks to Pinterest, one of my classes made these. I had extra black beans left over that the children glued, and I reinforced with packing tape.

The reason I had so many black beans on hand was thanks to an idea I was led to on No Time for Flashcards' facebook page. The idea led to some great one-to-one correspondence as well as pre-writing skills with that pincer grasp. The cookie sheets came from Wal-Mart, a 97 cent find!

Another Pinterest inspired idea was an apple taste test. The first letter I introduced my students to was the letter M, so I called it the Apple Mmm Test. I provided each child a plate with an applesauce MUFFIN(that they helped me MIX & MEASURE the class day before), apple jelly & apple cinnamon cheerios with a cup of apple juice. I provided each child with a stack of pre-cut colored apples. They followed my instructions about what to eat. As they tasted the food they brought the proper color to put on the graph if they liked the treat. After everything was finished, we compared the results.

I decided to celebrate Johnny Appleseed Day with the class as a bit of a special event. I wanted to go outside and play a group game for something different. When I looked up ideas online, I was not finding anything fitted with what I wanted to accomplish. Finally I settled on planning my own relay. I took 2 pans from the children's play kitchen set and got 2 fake apples. The children were instructed to place a hand behind their back, and hold the pan with the apple in it in the other. We reviewed how Johnny Appleseed wore a pot on his head and planted apple trees. It took a while for them to figure out how a relay race works, but they had a lot of fun trying.

Another idea I found one a random web search was using paper bags as your basket which turned into a fun letter sorting activity for the children:

I also enjoyed this idea from Teach Preschool. The kids really loved scrunching up their paper for their paint brush. I wanted to see how their imaginations worked, so some of these trees looked quite interesting. Some of the children really did a good idea of dabbing their ball into the paint and stamping it onto the paper, and some of the children rubbed their paint ball all over the place. I enjoyed seeing all of their trees.

To leave off, I haven't needed my whiteboard for anything yet, so here's what I came up with to keep the room looking exciting:

Another big hit was making these little guys. The sad thing was when it came time to eat the pie, many of the kids said they did not like pie. However, they had so much fun mixing the ingredients together and helping with the measurements. I also now have an awesome recipe for Thanksgiving!

That's what I have to share about my first Apple Theme. Looking forward to many fall fun themes in the weeks to come!