"My Idea Box" ... AND Letter Gg is for Garden!

    Well, my organized planning seems to be off to a good start!! I find that I am very Theme oriented and like to plan activities around a theme. And since there are a TON of ideas out there for the more popular Pre-K themes, it can all get a bit overwhelming.

    So I already thought of a way to organize materials at home (which I shared in my last post and now I think I found a way to organize my activity ideas!! I created a document that I call "My Idea Box", where I scribble down all the different ideas that I have and activities that I come across that can fit in the theme we are (or will be) working with. I have 6 different columns for my "Idea Box": Letters, Letters/Sounds, Math, Science, Art, and Books & Literacy. These areas match the work baskets that I started. 

    Whenever I come across an idea, I scribble it in a box and then keep an eye out for materials that I may need. I think this will also help me to organize my ideas and I can immediately reference back to my "Idea Box" if I am looking for fun ideas! And if the activities don't get done, I call always use them another time! 

    For the next few weeks, my little one and I are going to be learning about the letters Gg, Ff, Ss and Rr. I chose these letters to revolve around a Gardening Theme.

   We started with the Letter Gg and I pulled out her ABC Basket and we read her little Gg book, from a set of Alphabet Readers, compliments of the bonus points I earned through Scholastic! And then we worked with the Letter Gg sounds in her Sound Train game from Lakeshore.

Sh also on a letter Gg Search using the Alphabet Identification Sheets by Pam over at Miss Pam's Room.

    Since my little munchkin loves art, I always have to make sure that I have plenty of art materials and ideas on hand! 

    We decided to create a Garden! 

She painted green cardstock paper with brown paint and then used a garden rake tool to make fun lines in the paint. 

Once it dried, she scrunched up colorful tissue paper to create flowers and glued them on to make a cute garden!

   She did some Number Order work with Numbered Flowers that she found in her Math Basket when she searched her baskets mid-week.

  

    Overall, it seems like we actually have some organization and independent work going on with our Learning Fun at Home!!  And she seems happily surprised when she finds new, fun activities that she can do on her own! 

    I wish I could say that much for all the end of the year madness that is about to be in FULL effect in about a week!! BUT I must say that now that one of my more difficult children has been moved to Home Based Services, things have run fairly smoothly this week and the stress level was definitely low in the classroom -- for myself and the rest of the children!

Steppin' on The Letter Bus!

   So I have been working hard to make my learning activities a little more organized for my  little one. Things have been busy and hectic and I have been very disorganized in getting things together for her. And I find myself scrambling for things when she says, "Mommy, I want to do work."
   We have done Alphabet work before, but I have been searching for a more organized way to do things, so that I could plan ahead and have things ready and available for her.
    So I put together a LETTER BUS!

   Every few weeks, I am going to focus on certain letters and make, create or find fun activity ideas that revolve around these letters. 

   Since we have been working outside trying to clean up the garden bed lately, I figured we might have some fun learning about the letter Gg. 

    In the next few weeks, we will be focusing on letters Gg, Ff, Ss, Rr.

    I have pulled it together (a little) and created baskets of learning activities for her. For now she has a Math Basket, a Writing Basket and an ABC Basket. (I am still collecting fun art materials for an Art Basket.) I have gathered activity ideas and materials to put in each basket.

Math Basket:

Dry Erase Books, Counters, Counting Mats  (Actually, I am still collecting things for this basket)

Writing and ABC Baskets:

Writing Basket: Name sheets, Letter Writing sheets, Notebooks, Different Writing Tools (pens, pencils, markersm crayons), sentence strips

ABC Basket: ABC Chart, Dry Erase books, ABC stickers, Alphabet Flashcards, Letter/Sound sheets, Writing Tools, Alphabet Games

   

   Here are some of the printables (both available at Teachers Pay Teachers) that I am using right now in her baskets:

    And here are some store bought things that I am also using in the baskets:

Beginning Sounds Phonics Train by Lakeshore

Wooden Alphabet Puzzles by Melissa & Doug

 Beginning Sound Puzzles by Scholastic

   I figure that by having things in baskets, she can pick and choose what she wants to work on at any given time. Of course, there will also be fun activities that we will do together, but the baskets will allow her to do some activities on her own, if mommy is busy cooking or whatnot.
   I am hoping that this will help keep activities organized a little. There is SO many fun ideas out there, sometimes I get a little overwhelmed... Hopefully this will help keep me a little focused so that I can plan ahead... just a little. Because I know there is always going to be a fun idea that comes from out of nowhere that we just HAVE to do....

Happy Mother's Day!

    Just popping in to say HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY to all the wonderful teachers and mommies out there!

     I have been busy making learning fun (and more organized) for my little one... so I will be back tomorrow to share some fun activities!
     Here is what I made (for myself) this morning:

   I LOVE it... and I am going to go out and buy a frame for it... IF I can get myself out of my pjs today!! ----- Hey, it's Mother's Day, so I get to do what I want, right?  :)

Winding down as the kiddos are winding up...!

   You know how teachers have that one really rough year, every so often? Well this is ABSOLUTELY that year for me. I hadn't had a really bad year for about 4 years.... I was well overdue!
   As the year winds down, it seems like my kiddos are winding up! Spring has finally arrived and wow-- seems we went all the way back to September. And so I have been MIA for awhile... and I can't say that I will be able to muster up enough energy to keep up...
   With the news that my director is moving to another center and with the year I have had, I am actually rethinking where the next school year will take me!! That along with my husband being in between job offers and all of the end of the year craziness, is really taking its toll on me.

I need a glass of wine AND a cupcake!! 

Yes, that will make me feel better!!

Anyhow, I am feeling beat up and worn down and summer can't come fast enough. 

   In the meantime, I am going to try and hold it together because I just know that the kiddos can sense the anxiety and fatigue that only the end of the year can bring!

    How is everyone else handling the upcoming end of the year madness? Any fun activity ideas to share that I can use to keep the kiddos on task? Any end of the year advice to share?

Do You Have A Green Thumb?? Plus an Earth Day Freebie!!

   Before I start talking about how I began some Earth Day fun with my little one, here is a little FREEBIE (Earth Day Numbers Book) in celebration of Earth Day!

Click the picture below to get yours now!

   This weekend, I spent some time in my backyard. The house that we are renting has a garden bed that wraps around maybe half of the house, and it needs  A LOT of work!!  But because I have no clue on how to garden or how to even begin a garden, I can’t do a thing about it!

   So all morning, I got to thinking that MAYBE I can attempt to try it out and see if I might have a Green Thumb! Ever since we moved out of Chicago and inner city life and into suburbia here in Western New York, I have taken an interest in lots of new things- such as scrapbooking, crafting, blogging… and now maybe I can take a stab at gardening!  It can’t hurt, right?

   I have nowhere to start, so I decided since Earth Day is tomorrow, I can start really small and simple!  Since we are beginning to see flowers sprout up, I thought my daughter might enjoy planting a flower in a small flower pot. So this weekend, I took a trip to my favorite place – Michaels- and picked up a few things for my munchkin and I.

   Her favorite colors are purple and pink, so she HAD to have those colors. And when we found pink and purple acrylic paint with glitter, she was over the moon! She wanted to get started right away!

   But we had to stop at Lowes to pick up some flowers to plant in our pots, because again, we are starting small and simple! (We are also going to plant some seeds in a bigger flower pot next weekend)

   And here is my eager artist and learner, excited to start painting!

     Here is her finished pot (I actually needed to add like 2 more coats of paint after she was done) and her chosen flower: Geranium.

    Planting (or repotting?) was a lot of fun for her, especially when she had to use her new princess gardening gloves!!

        She meant serious business when she was patting down the dirt/plant inside the pot and daddy made sure he helped to give it some water.

She was so proud of her work! 

Now let’s just hope that some more geraniums blossom! 

   And here is my chosen flower, African Daisy, repotted in a pink planter.

   I also painted my own flower pot, but the African Daisy plant was much too big for it. 

   So I will have to find another plant or use this flower pot to plant some seeds!

 

  So that is how I chose to begin some Earth Day fun with my little munchkin!

   The funny thing is that she thinks that the flower is going to grow really big like a Lorax tree!!

   Maybe one day I can plant a tree….maybe one day!!

   Do you have a green thumb??

   Can you share some tips and helpful advice on gardening for this clueless city girl???

"I Spy" lots of fun ways to learn Letters!

   Wow, I can't believe I haven't blogged all week! I have just been lazy, I guess!!
   Actually I have been in "Bookworm" status and have had my nose in my nook! I set a goal to read 52 books this year and so far, I am on book # 14... that is averaging about a book a week! I'm doing good!! =)  I knew it wouldn't be so hard... I LOVE to read!! It is just about finding the time to read and finding good books to read!

   Anyhow, I have been working on letter identification with my own little munchkin as well as my munchkins in my classroom. I am amazed at how quickly my little one is picking up on things!

 So check out some fun ways that I have been teaching letters!

   She loves the "I Spy" books and I have been debating to get the game as well. BUT in the meantime, I made my own "I Spy" game for her, to reinforce letters! I think the best part for her was using the fun flower magnifying glass!
   Every few days, I ask  her to look for certain letters or I will have her just name a few that she may know. I will probably be changing out the sheets this weekend to give her new letters (and maybe numbers) to find.

   In the classroom, we have played a game that I have named "Letter Soup Scoop". This was one of the games that came out of improvisation!! When it first came to my mind, I realized I had a similar game-- at home!! So I had to improvise with that I had in the classroom that day. I wanted to use letter magnets or letter tiles, but I didn't have enough magnets and well, I didn't like the way letter tiles sat inside the bowl. So I used foam letters instead. The kids had a fun time scooping out letters onto their plates and then identified which ones they knew.
   To make it a little more challenging, I also asked what sound the letter made and asked them to name one object that began with that letter.

   We also used connecting cars to form letters. This was another unplanned activity. Don't you just love when you can instantly think of learning activities that come from whatever the kids are interested in? It all started when one child made a circle from the cars and I commented, "Or it could also be the letter O." And I ran with it and asked kids to see what other letters they could make with the connecting cars!

   I believe that the best learning activites are the ones that are spontaneous and simple! Each one of these activities has been a huge hit!

Rainy Day Art...

   Well, I managed to make it through the rest of the week. It was quite an emotional week for every teacher in the center.

   I took the advice from a fellow blogger over at First Grade Fireworks and was reminded that I can make a difference in the life of a child, even if that just means that I give them a hug every day, talk and laugh with them while they are in my care. Sometimes, that is more than enough and may be everything to a child.

   So, although my week started off rough, it ended pretty good.

   This week was a VERY Rainy week… and good thing I planned some fun Rain activities.

   A question that I was prepared for was, “Where does rain come from?” And of course, there was a child who answered, “From the sky”, before I was able to explain. And they were all surprised when I began to explain, ‘”No. Rain does not come from the sky. It comes from the clouds.” And they were all in awe! 

   Their brains were tuned into what I was saying. It was a wonderful “teaching moment.” I had their undivided attention as I briefly described the Water Cycle. When I saw that they looked a little confused, I pulled out some simpler picture cards from The Mailbox to explain.

They had fun making rain with droppers and blue watercolor.

   Throughout the week, I encouraged the munchkins to paint rain or storms. I moved the easel closer to the window to allow them to view the rain outside. I also put a spray bottle on the easel for added creativity.

   Here are 2 different rain day paintings.

     We are hoping that now the warm spring weather will follow all of this rain!! 
   According to the news, we are supposed to get up to 70 degrees tomorrow!!  Now that’s what I am waiting for!! J
  Now back to finishing my lesson plans for the week…