Plenty of fun with hearts...even after Valentine's Day!

   Ok so I am a little bummed that my plans for the classroom Valentine's Day party were ruined by yet ANOTHER Snow/Cold Day last Friday!
   I was all geared up for some fun...Check out how cute our bulletin board was!

   But my preschoolers did get a very small taste of some Valentine fun with heart themed activities, earlier in the week.
   I added hearts and gems into our rice sensory bin for the munchkins to work on their fine motor skills, as well as counting skills:

   They also worked on measurement & size in our Playdoh Center, with pretty pink playdoh and different sized heart cutters:

    I had quite a few Valentine activities prepped and ready to use but with the snow day, we never got a chance. So I tweaked one activity for my munchkin to have some learning fun at home too!
   She has been working hard on CVC words and she played a fun word building game:

 I found this great FREE resource on Vowel Sorting from Make, Take, Teach.

And I found these fun mailboxes from Target.

    We also hit up the after Valentine's Day sales for some candy to have some Math fun, which I will share next time!

Investigating Apples...and some Apple Pie Playdoh Fun!

   Happy First Day of Fall!

   One of my very favorite fall themes to do every year with munchkins is APPLES! I remember the first few years that I was teaching, I had a gazillion apple ideas and I wanted to do them all! That still holds true today, as I am trying to squeeze in lots of apple learning fun!

   After reading a few non-fiction books about apples, my munchkins dictated a few facts about apples. I added a little apple shape at the beginning of each sentence, to help them learn how to track print. I chose a few children each day to "read" the sentence and track the words with my pointer. Some kids have simply repeated after me and track the print as they say it, while others have already memorized parts of the sentences and can "read" and track the print.

    I created an Apple diagram to display and teach the parts of an apple. We dissected an apple, identified the parts and then the munchkins investigated the apple halves in our Science Center and drew their own diagram of the inside of an apple.

   We have  also been having TONS of fun playing with our Apple Pie Play Doh! 

   I LOVE to make my own playdoh and I follow this exact recipe, for playdoh that comes out perfect everytime! (And for this particular batch, I added red food coloring and apple pie spice.):

1 Cup Flour

1/2 Cup Salt

1 Tablespoon Cooking Oil

1 Tablespoon Cream of Tartar

1 Cup Water

(Add food coloring & scents, as desired)

*Mix all these ingredients together in a pan and put under medium heat, stirring every few minutes, Once its consistency changes from being liquidy to a semi-solid state, lower the heat and stir a few more times. Once it reaches a soft consistency, remove it from heat and place it on a cutting board to cool for a minute or two and then knead it.

Kids love it!!

    The munchkins have been working alot on fine motor skills lately, to strengthen those little muscles in their hands and fingers. Here, they rolled the playdoh into little "worms" and then used craft scissors to cut up the "worm" into tiny pieces.

I threw in some apple cookie cutters the next day.

 They did some more rolling work with these awesome (and free) Number Mats

 from Life Over C's.

    This batch of Apple Pie playdoh smells so delicious, I am not surprised at all that the munchkins pull it out every single chance they get! Any activity with this Apple Playdoh is a fun, sensory fine motor activity!

Letter Mm and other fun play -- in a Montessori-Inspired Way!

   So after spending time learning about the world of Montessori and learning more about her philosophy and methods, I have decided to incorporate a little bit of Montessori in my learning area for my little munchkin. I have been enjoying searching homeschool blogs and seeing how moms implement Montessori with their little ones everyday.
    I am still learning about different aspects of a Montessori curriculum, but after reading a few things here and there, I wanted to get started right away!
    Here is what I learned (or rather re-learned, because I did briefly study Montessori topics way back in my undergrad work) about the importance of the learning environment.

    So the first thing that I did was look to the environment where I was doing most of my learning activities. First thing I noticed when I really stopped to look: Clutter. Too many toys; some slightly organized in small baskets and bins (as they are in a typical classroom) and some just scattered. I usually like to try and keep the area organized, but some days, it just gets overlooked. In a Montessori classroom, things are simple and clutter free. So I put away some toys and cleared a few shelves, which fortunately are a child friendly size! I found (and bought) a few trays from the Dollar Tree and Walmart and began our new Montessori-Inspired set up.
       Because of my 9 years of teaching experience, embracing Montessori 100% seems too overwhelming of a task. Not to mention, too much of a change all at once for the munchkin. So I will try to find a nice balance of Montessori activities and activities that I know and love to use!
       Anyhow, this week we went right back to work, and our Letter of the Week is Mm.
       Here is how our learning area is now set up.

                   

     I chose to start off with 8-9 activity trays for her to begin with. I plan to switch up maybe 2-3 activitiy materials mid-week, depending on her interests. I plan to only change the materials, not the concept. For example, once she completes the art activity (cotton ball painting), then I can add another type painting activity.

     Here is what is on our shelves this week:

     On the top of the shelf, I have 3 trays:  Letter Mm Tray (using my awesome Alphabet Soup Cans that I was so excited to finally purchase- and some items that begin with the Mm sound), another Letter Mm tray with coloring and letter search activities and an Art Tray where she could use stencils, paint, clothespins and cotton balls to paint.

      On the lower shelf, I put out a Puzzle Tray (20 wooden pieces), a Lego Tray and a Writing Tray (which you can't see from this pic)

             

             Letter Mm Trays

             

            Letter Mm Tray and Art Tray

             

          Writing Tray

(with my DIY Sandpaper Letters)

             

     On another lower shelf (an old tv stand) I put out a  Play Doh Tray, a tray for Water Pouring, a tray to Measure & Pour Rice and a Math tray with M&M patterns and graphing activities that I have from the Letter of the Week Curriculum by Confesssions of a Homeschooler.

              

     The first things we did was read our Letter Mm books and she selected one of the Letter Mm Trays. (The Alphabet Soup Cans just arrived this weekend and she was eager to get her hands on them!)

     After reviewing the sound of Mm and talking about the pictures, she wanted to draw each one.                                                                        

                   

     The other popular activity was Water Pouring. (I found some super cute, measuring pitchers at Walmart). I placed 2 cups, a funnel and a towel on the tray as well. I demonstrated how to use the materials and how to clean it all up when it was done. In this manner, she will learn to use the materials correctly for her exploration and respect them as learning materials. And she does need work in the respect area because she tends to make a mess and walk away!!

     Anyhow, this Water Pouring Fun occupied 55 minutes of her time!! I kept track because as she worked, I sat back and played the observer. I was so happy when I caught glimpes of her little smirks as she worked hard and focused. Pouring can be hard work!!

                                   

     And the pouring fun continued with the Rice. She learned how to measure and pour rice!

               

               

     And with her newfound pride and confidence, she begged to make her own lunch! Peanut Butter & Jelly Sandwich with Strawberries (that she cut herself) and a glass of milk, that she poured herself, of course!

                                                                                                                                                                                                                           

It was a fun, Montessori-Inspired day!

Happy Early Spring!! (So Phil says!)

Happy Groundhog Day!

   So I am usually not very excited about Groundhog Day, especially since there is a ton of snow on the ground this morning and more headed our way… BUT I was up at 7am. to watch Punxsutawney Phil determine the weather for the next 6 weeks!

   And YAY!! He did not see his shadow, so if he is right then Spring will arrive early!!  J

   I touched on Groundhog Day briefly with my preschoolers yesterday and I loved how they were all eyes and ears as I introduced them to my friend Mr. Groundhog.

   I read the book “Go To Sleep, Groundhog!” by Judy Cox and told them all about the tradition/folklore of Groundhog Day. 

   And then I used this little graphing set from Over The Moon Bow

 (Click the link or picture for your own copy) 

   I asked “Do You Think The Groundhog Will See His Shadow?” and had each one of them make a prediction and contribute to our class graph by placing their prediction (YES or NO) in the right column!

   And this morning, my own little munchkin crawled out of bed just before 7:15am, just in time to sit with me and watch it all on tv.

   After breakfast, we went right to work on learning more about Groundhogs. Scholastic has a Groundhog Weekly Reader and we took a look at the hard copy and read it online too. Then we watched a cool video about Groundhogs.

Check it out here.

(I am a subscriber, but I think you can still have access to the reader as well!)

   She worked on some printables offered by Scholastic as well.

(Here she is again in her Spiderman pjs! Those are her pjs of choice on the weekends! Which is good b/c if she wore them during the week, I am sure I would be in big trouble b/c she wouldn’t want to take them off!)

   Anyhow, we worked on comprehension, with Mr. Groundhog by her side! I read a sentence strip, she chose the picture that it belonged to.

   She practiced cutting as she matched objects and their shadows-- an activity sheet that I found in my collection of Mailbox magazines.

    And of course we had to make a cute little Groundhog Craft!

   Here is her Groundhog peeking out of his burrow!

   AND we are going to have THIS Groundhog Snack later today! YUM!

   

Fallin' in Love with Letters!

Fall is here! Yay!! J

The chill is in the air and the leaves are changing colors! 

    The Fall season is probably my favorite season when it comes to fun crafts and activities. I have many  ideas in mind…let’s see how much I can actually accomplish in the classroom or at home.

    In my classroom, we are Falling in Love with Letters! We have been doing lots of work with letter identification, but more specifically, our focus is on the letters in our names.

    I made these fall tree mats into an alphabet matching game.

    The munchkins used our new alphabet stampers to stamp out the letters of their names.

    And my aide had her heart set out on this Fall Tree art.  Isn’t it the cutest thing?

  And my munchkins even got some fine motor work when I put out some faux leaves, a Fall Scene Mat and some tweezers!

I had some little cheaters...but that only showed me that they need some more fine motor practice to strengthen those little muscles in their fingers! 

And then I had some kiddos that really were focused on the task!

     I even got my own little one excited about Fall!

     I recently subscribed to Scholastic Weekly, for my own personal use at home. We read through “Busy, Busy Squirrel”, and had fun with the “I Spy” type activity on the back. 

And then, I decided to start our own Fall unit at home!

     Here, I took some foam leaves and wrote the letters of her name on each one and had her stick them onto a Fall Tree Template I created.

     Click here to get your own copy of this tree and I am sure you can come up with several fun ideas on how to use this!!

Happy