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!

Snow Much Fun!

I was determined to post much more over the month of January, but it is winter after all. I still feel like I am on Christmas break with the on and off snow days. I must say that despite the interruption to daily schedule, the snow has provided much fun. I began the month by introducing Arctic animals to the children such as penguins and polar bears. We practiced tracing, cutting, gluing and painting skills with some fun crafts found at KidsSoup.com. I love that site!

Potato Print Craft

The kids absorbed the information, but the most fun has come from our hands on snow experiences. Here is a look at the winter fun we experienced through out the past month!
        Back in December I discovered these adorable snowman cardboard buckets from the Dollar Bin at Target. I placed one at each seat at my math table along with different clippers and tweezers. I took my dice (available at the dollar store) and placed it in the middle with a bowl full of cotton balls. The children practiced one-to-one correspondence by feeding the corresponding amount of "snowballs" to the snowmen depending on what number they rolled on the dice. I will also add that I adapted the activity for my mom's kindergarten class. Instead of using the dice, I wrote the number words on homemade flashcards. Her kids were learning how the spell the numbers, so this fun activity provided fun practice for them.

 Another fun motor skills activity involving snowballs included some vocab practice. I came across this idea during a Pinterest search. I did not have white poms poms, but I did have different sizes in color. All you do is take 3 different sized containers with large, medium and small written on them. The kids use the tweezers to sort the correct sizes. My class loves these types of activities, and it aided in their vocab and sequencing abilities!

I also have begun working on the 10s family with kids. To introduce 11-20, I found this fun activity involving hot chocolate, and let me tell you that hot chocolate is being consumed in high quantities around here! Brrr, it's been chilly! Anyway, I cut out some mug cutout and glued them to white paper. I slipped them into page protectors and used dry erase markers to change the numbers. The kids found in challenging to pick up the marshmallows with the tweezers, but it was great pre-writing practice! We also practiced our graphing skills with a fun taste test you can find here.

I also updated our SWAT game to fit the season as well as our new alphabet letters we learned this month. My artistic ability is not the greatest, but hopefully you can tell what everything is. The teams for the month were the polar bears vs the penguins.

I also had a class practice tracing and cutting with mittens. My mother had given me a mitten for my bulletin board with this fun poem. Each child colored one mitten with the colors they chose, and the other we lined with cotton to keep our hands warm. It is a longer poem, but by the end of the month the kids knew it. All of them could do the hand motions we came up with as well.

Stripes or dots or sparkling white (jazz hands)

Mittens in winter fit just right (mime putting mittens on)

Wool or cotton, may leather (shrug shoulders)

Mittens warm us in cold weather (hug yourself)

In rainbow colors or darkest black (shield eyes)

Mittens fit in your pocket on in your pack (mime placing mittens in pocket & pack)

Thumbs alone, fingers together (shake each)

Mittens warm us in cold, cold weather (hug and warm yourself up!)

The rest of our snow fun included actually playing with snow from the comfort of our classroom. The first day I placed some snow in a bin on our new science table. The children built a snowman and snow castles. They had a lot of fun exploring with their hands. They liked using the spoons and other tools to keep their hands from freezing.

Even with a mat under the table, the activity was still a bit messy. The next day I put the snow right in our sand and water table. Originally I was using white rice and thinking about switching to Epsom salts, but the kids had so much fun with the real thing (and we have plenty of it!) that I decided to keep it there. They made lots of cool things with our buckets, measuring tools, water wheel and cups.

I've been finding that my class gets bored quickly with the same old same old. I ended up finding neat ideas to keep the snow exciting for the kids. We began with spray bottles full of water and food coloring, and I added water colors and paint brushes to color the snow. My director also found bottled water colors that I watered down and put in cups and watering cans. The kids used paint brushes in the cups and poured the watering cans into the snow. They loved seeing the rainbow colors in the snow. It also provided a nice introduction to mixing primary colors to make secondary colors.

We also had fun experimenting with melting snow. I placed some snow in a muffin tin and sprinkled hot water, cold water, sugar, salt, Creole spice and left one plain to see what melted the quickest. The kids also helped make snowballs that we placed on a magazine, plastic bag, plastic lid, metal pan, felt and a cardboard lid to see what melted the quickest. We also peeked outside to check out the foot prints in the yard. It looks as if the Easter Bunny has been scoping things out to get ready for our Easter Egg Hunt in the spring! Snow may keep us from school some days, but it sure does provide several fun teachable moments!

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!

Halloween Happenings

I realize Halloween can be a bit of a controversial holiday, but I must say it does provide many excellent learning themes for the month. Over the past couple weeks, my pre-kindergarten class has learned about nocturnal animals (specifically bats and owls) and human bones. Here is a peek at some of the things that have happened at the end of October:

Spooky Loo Brew

I will have to say that most things on the blog this week are Pinterest inspired. I found this fun sensory table item while researching sensory table ideas. All you do is boil some spaghetti and mix it with a little olive oil and food coloring in a plastic bag. I actually used a bowl and plastic wrap since I did not have a bag avaiable at the time. It's been called witch's brew, but I changed the name to Spooky Loo Brew inspired by a fun song from the Wee Sing Halloween cd. This cd has some awesome dances and finger plays the children love to do. The Spooky Loo, 5 Little Pumpkins and Dem Bones are my favorite. The children also enjoyed doing freeze dance and listening to the cd during play and snack times. Anyway, the Spooky Loo Brew seemed to be a big hit. I dumped a lot of creepy crawly critters in the mix for the kids to count and sort. I found some fun Halloween themed cups at Wal Mart for less than a dollar which was fun too. Just a word to the wise - refrigerate between uses or throw away from the start. Don't ask me how I know.

Fun in the brew

The children really seemed to enjoy learning about nocturnal animals. We started out learning about bats. I worked quite a bit on rhyming words with the kids using bat themed activities from Kids Soup. Our classroom resembles a bat cave with their flying bats from KidsSoup hanging in the classroom.

Finally feeling like fall in here

We continued our study with owls. For a math themed learning center, I put together an owl with a next made from a paper bowl and tissue paper. I got together some Easter eggs with the letters we have learned. The children first had to match the upper and lower case letters on the egg. They rolled the dice then placed that many eggs in the nest. They loved it! We also enjoyed some cutting practice with a craft from KidsSoup.

Learning is a hoot!

I took advantage of our nocturnal animals to put a fun twist on the game SWAT.  I set up 2 teams - the bats vs the owls. I drew things that these creatures ate which matched up with the letters we learned so far - A for ant, N for nut, P for pumpkin, S for snake, F for fruit and M for mouse (B for bug was later added). When I would say the letter, they would race to be the first to swat it with the fly swatter.

We also learned about bones in the human body by taking a look at skeletons. I was really happy with the way our Q-tip skeletons turned out!

Dem Bones, Dem Bones,Dem Dry Bones

The split cracks me up

Adorable!

While learning about owls, I followed these instructions to make my own owl pellets out of newspaper. Because of this project, I had a lot of pieces of cut up skeleton. Using these pieces, the kids were able to play a fun math game. They rolled the dice and based on the number they rolled, they searched for the bone. Whoever completed their skeleton first was the winner.

The children have become great sorters this week with candy corn mix. I placed a 6 cup muffin tin out next to an assortment of candy corn treats. The children worked on separating them out. It took them a little bit to catch on, but they have been doing awesome. I plan on using the candy for patterning next.

An easy craft for them to do at the art table is ghost prints. The used their hand and some wiggly eyes to make their own ghost.

We used their thumb prints for these fun haunted houses. The idea and template for the house came from the Arts & Craft Mailbox magazine. The kids cut out the house, used their thumb prints for the ghost and practiced writing their name on the pumpkin which was glued on the house.

We ended Halloween with our Fall Fun Festival at school.  I was proud of my D-I-Y bee costume I found online. Just add yellow duct tape to a black shirt, pipe cleaner and pom pom to a head band, and tights to wing shaped wire hangers. This is what you have:

Not bad for a 4 yr old photographer

I was also in charge of the craft station this year. It ran smoothly for my first time. I was going to have the children cut out their own eyes and mouth for our paper plate ghosts, but I ended up cutting them out to save time and space. I just placed index cards with the directions at each step. The parents were able to see them and help their kids out. Having everything in it's own place made for easy set up and clean up. Not to mention it was a cute craft - thanks Pinterest, you're a lifesaver! 

Whew - Busy times and that felt like a lot, but there you have it. Some fun ideas for late October!