Five for Friday

I'm joining the Five for Friday party and sharing some of the randomness of this week!  Be sure to click HERE and visit Doodle Bugs Teaching for more great ideas and inspiring blogs!

Last weekend I presented four sessions at the annual Georgia Preschool Association Conference.  This had been on my bucket list for a long, long time.  I shared how easily you can teach basic math concepts using favorite children's books.  The experience was rewarding, exhausting, hilarious, and eye-opening...I can't wait to do it again!  And yes, I'm already working on a blog series to highlight some of my favorite Books You Can Count On!

 

One of the activities I shared at the workshop based on Dr. Seuss' The Foot Book was measuring your foot in many different ways.  My class did their measuring this week and absolutely loved seeing how many links or how many dice long their foot was!

With all the excitement & prepping for my workshops, I didn't have a chance to show you these cute crafts from our Fairy Tales unit.  Here's one from The Princess and the Pea.  The students tore strips of patterned scrapbook paper to create colorful beds for their princess.  Notice the tiny pea they glued on the bottom of the bed!   

 

For Jack and the Beanstalk we gave everyone five sparkly gold beans and a long length of green yarn.  The kids assembled their beanstalks and then drew the giant and Jack.  I loved the expressions they gave that mean, grumpy, old giant! 

 

 

So proud of how my Young 5's are coming along with their journal writing! 

 

This little learner wrote My favorite center is science and drew a picture of our sensory tub.  The tub is currently filled with large colored pasta and several whimsical Dr. Seuss plates! 

 

 

Another young writer drew his little brother and himself and then wrote

Colton sleeps in my room.

 

 

Here's one of my favorite moments in the midst of a very busy day!

Two sweet friends working and Learning at the Teacher Table, helping each other, sounding out their words and writing their letters.  Truly a precious moment!

 

 Next week...I'll be blogging about the workshops!  See you soon!



 

100th Day of School

I'm ready for Friday even though we only had a 3 day school week!   



Let's join the Five for Friday fun at Doodlebugs Teaching and see how everyone's week went!

 

President's Day Holiday was followed by No School on Tuesday due to a major ice storm.  The roads were clear but so much damage to trees & power lines.  In our school district, there were 22 schools without power Monday evening and most of Tuesday.

Wouldn't you know that Tuesday was supposed to be our 100th Day of School!  The kids were pretty disappointed because they've looked forward to the big day ALL YEAR LONG!  But we celebrated in style when we returned from our Snow Ice Day!

The kids thoroughly enjoyed the floats we made for our 100th Day!  A couple of scoops of vanilla ice cream drenched with Ginger Ale...simple and yummy!

Here's a display of our 100 Collections we brought in from home!  We had everything from shiny pennies and delicious cereal to sparkly pom poms and colored pencils!  

As I was looking through my pictures, I remembered I wanted to share the display we recently made of a healthy MY PLATE!  The red checkered background is just a flimsy tablecloth I picked up at the Dollar Store.  I cut a really BIG plate from white bulletin board paper and had the kids color in each food section.  Next, we cut food pictures from magazines and grocery store ads and then sorted them into the various food groups.  BIG Display = BIG Impact on the kids! 

Have a great weekend everyone & stay warm! I'll be busy this weekend putting the final touches on a workshop I'm presenting next week at the annual GA Preschool Conference! 

 

Valentine Math Centers

Super excited it's Valentine's week so I'm sharing a few Valentine Math Centers with sweet Tara at her  Monday Made It !  Be sure to check out what everyone's been making!

 

 

In addition to our regular math centers...Unifix cubes, dice, linking chains, magnet numbers, ten frames, and more...I provided my class with several fun and easy to make Valentine centers!

 

My Young 5's are learning to read number words so I created a simple Valentine game to give  them more practice.  I took a stack of cheap, white paper dessert plates and wrote the number words on them...tossed some Dollar Store heart shaped erasers into a holiday bowl...and let the reading and matching begin!  So easy!

 

 

 

Here's another activity you can make in just a few minutes!  It's  easy peasy!  I bought a package of decorative Valentine plates and labeled half with the number words and the other half with the numeral.  Students make a set by stacking the matching plates together.  I wrote on the back of each plate to make it self checking, too!

 

 

 

These little sweethearts are practicing their number words while counting Valentine cats!  I found a bag of pink kitty erasers during Halloween at the Target Dollar Spot and forgot to use them saved them for my Valentine centers!  For the numeral cards, I made a basic table and inserted cat clip-art along with the number words.  I printed a copy on pink paper and another on yellow paper giving me two centers!  When students finish one color they "get" to do the other one, too!  

 

 

Print, laminate, ready to go!  Does it get any easier than that?  We're working on missing numbers and what comes next so these  Heart Write-and-Wipe Cards are perfect practice! 

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Quick, easy, fun Valentine Math Centers! 



 

Five for Friday Penguin Style

I'm sure your class loves PENGUINS as much as mine does!  What a wonderful time we had learning all about Penguins so  I'm sharing a fantastic Five for Friday Penguin Style with Doodle Bugs Teaching!

 

 

We measured ourselves beside a life-size Emperor Penguin!  I sketched the penguin shape on white bulletin board paper, used a thick Sharpie marker to outline and add a few details, and then colored it with crayons. I then mounted the penguin on black paper to make it a little sturdier.  The kids LOVED standing by the Emperor! 

 

 

 

Cute little Penguins made from rectangles & squares!  This one was adapted from the TLC Art Lessons which really helps children develop their fine motor skills.  These lessons also aid with improving listening skills and following directions.  It's a Win Win!

 

Plenty of playful PENGUINS + blocks of ice = Sensory Table FUN!

 

 

 

 How does a PENGUIN keep warm? 

The class got a kick out of our "blubber" experiment.  So easy but yet so meaningful!  I simply put ice cubes in a big plastic bag and let the kids experience the C-O-L-D.  Then we talked about the "blubber" layer a penguin has and how it keeps them warm.  To recreate the "blubber", I filled a sandwich size baggie with Crisco shortening and placed it on the ice.  Students then took turns putting their hands on the bag of "blubber".  They quickly realized it was much warmer to have the layer of "blubber" than to touch the ice directly.

 

 

The highlight of PENGUIN week for me was seeing King Penguins! Over the long MLK weekend, I travelled to Cincinnati for my son's hockey tournament and visited the wonderful Cincinnati Zoo! I videoed the morning Penguin Parade and took a ton of pictures to share with my class.  As they oohed and aahed over the cute penguins, students shared fact after fact demonstrating how much they'd learned! 

 

Are you obsessed with Penguins, too?    

 

A Week of Winter

I've missed blogging but ready to jump back in with Doodle Bugs Teaching for a quick

 

This week has been all about winter, hibernation, and our COLD, COLD weather!

We made these cute little snowmen with a plastic bottle (these are CoffeeMate creamer bottles but you  could certainly use other kinds of bottles), lots of cotton balls or batting, wiggly eyes, buttons, and a strip of flannel fabric for a warm scarf.  Jamming the cotton balls down in the bottle proved to be an excellent fine motor activity for my preschoolers.

 

 

 

Our classroom door is the sweetest snowman on our hall!  He was very simple to make, too.  Just cover your door with white bulletin board paper, add construction paper eyes/nose/mouth, and a fabric scarf.  His black paper hat is hung above the door in the hallway.  This picture was snapped on our Hibernation Day when students & teachers enjoyed a day wearing their favorite warm pajamas!

 

 

A few students are working on recognizing the differences between a letter-word-sentence. We had a quick review lesson and then sorted out the cards by gluing them in the proper column. 

 

 

Next week is one of my favorite units to teach...Penguins!

I brought home big rolls of black and white bulletin board paper to make a life-size Emperor Penguin for our classroom!  One activity will be standing by the penguin to see if you're as tall as he is!

 

 



Unfortunately, my bigger plans for the weekend include getting rid of this bad cold.  Had it all week and I'm ready for it to go away.  It's interesting that even with the advanced medicines and cough syrups on the pharmacy shelves, I still think the best relief comes from that little jar of mentholatum!