Keeping Warm with Sight Word Fun!

    My new laptop is finally all set with files intact and everything! It took a few days and the most frustrating part was transferring all of my music and pictures from my iTunes library! But it's done!

    We are finally defrosting a bit out here...but that darn Groundhog has predicted 6 more weeks of winter! UGH! But I guess out here in Buffalo, it really doesn't matter because winter has been known to linger all the way into early April.

  Last week, when it wasn't so cold out, but there was tons of snow, we ventured outside and made a snowman!

    Isn't he adorable?? He's been hanging out in our yard for a whole week! Unfortunately with the slight warm up (yes, 20 degrees is a warmup for us after sub zero temps), he's slowly melting. 

   With all the accumulating snow and bitter cold temps going back and forth for the past week, the little one and I have been keeping warm with some Hot Chocolate themed sight word activities. She came home from school with a new set of sight words and I went right to work in creating a few activities for her.
   There are so many Sight Word activities and ideas out there that I would love to try, but since we do activities based on the list that her teacher sends home, I sometimes have to create my own printables for her. But I don't mind, it's alot of fun!!
   I still use a slight Montessori approach when presenting her activities. She likes to work on trays and it makes clean up much cleaner and quicker!
Hot Chocolate Sight Word Stamping

Hot Chocolate Sight Word Match

(Click on the picture to get your own copy in my TPT store)

Hot Chocolate Sight Word Spelling and Writing

(Click on the pictures below for your copy of the spelling mats and writing cards in my TPT store)

    These tracing cards include all the sight words that she has been learning during January- a total of fourteen!

    So far, she has been really enjoying these types of activities. I have other ideas planned to bring in some gross motor and sensory play, as well...because we love to have fun while learning! And I have plenty of Sight Word stuff packed somewhere in the garage and I have made it my goal this week to get in there and pull some things out, to place on her trays throughout the next few months.

Dots! Dots! Dots!

    The little munchkin is learning about the letter Dd!

    Dd is for Dots, Donuts, and...Disney!! 

Yep, only 4 more days until we are in Disney World!

 

    Anyhow, our fun started with DOTS!! Lots and lots of dots!

    She worked on the Dd sound by using sparkly dot letter stickers (from Target's Dollar Spot) to spell words that begin with the letter Dd. She matched the letters, spelled it out aloud and then wrote each word.

        
               
                

    She worked on counting and number identification with these math mats I use in my classroom.

         

                  

    And dots are TONS of fun to paint, right?

    First she placed dot stickers all over cardstock paper and painted over it.

           

                       

     When it was all dry, we peeled off the dot stickers!

               

    And then I found these fun dot painter thingees for her to paint with.

         

                     

Lots of Dot fun!!

Letter Aa is for Apple, Alligator... and Arctic Animals!

This past week in our curriculu,m, we were to learn about the letter Aa.

   Here are the activities the little munchkins did for the letter Aa. They used apple pictures to make the letter A and also made an Alligator head by finding teeth that had the letter Aa on it.

What else starts with Aa?  ARCTIC ANIMALS!

    Like how I squeezed my own theme in this week?  =)  I do it all the time!

   Teaching little ones about animals is always so much fun. I love the look they get on their faces when they learn new facts about animals.

   This past week I saw those faces a lot as I taught them about the Arctic and the Antarctic and the animals that live there.

   Before we went into depth about the different animals that live in these cold regions, we explored the climate and what can be found in that type of environment.
   I extended the learning to our water table, that I turned into a Polar Ice Land! I froze water in ice cube trays and in a big bowl and added polar animal toys into the water table. Man, did I have some issues trying to get the kids to take turns for the first few days!  No one ever wanted to leave the water table. (Don't ask why the kiddos pictured don't have smocks on... I just noticed it too!!)

   It was too bad that I had to step in and regulate though when, even after reviewing the rules, I still had a few kids licking (YES- licking) the ice cubes and even throwing the ice cubes against the wall to watch them break!  I guess they were just experimenting, huh?

   I also used these Polar Animal Spelling mats that I found at 2Teaching Mommies blog, which is a blog I visit frequently because I love her units! 

   Click on the picture to download your own free copy of this Polar Lands unit! I will be using some of the material in this unit with my little one at home too!

   This week, they also continued to work on matching number to set. I created these simple Snowflake puzzles for the classroom, for the winter season.

   

          You can purchase your own set here, on SALE this week only, in my TPT store.

   There is so much to learn about the Arctic region and the life there. It's too bad that I do not have enough time to dive into it as much as I would like to.... But as always, I will do what I can!  =)

More Insect Fun- plus a FREEBIE!

     There was all this buzz in the classroom about insects and I knew the munchkins knew what insects were, but after reading several books and discussing different types of insects, I decided to try and trick them!

   

ANALYSIS/CLASSIFYING:

   I made an Insect web and drew insects and some non-insects. (My drawing skills are at the preschool level, so don't laugh!)

   We went through things that we knew about insects ( 6 legs being the most important characteristic) and determined which  animals could be classified as Insects.

BOOK ACTIVITY/EXTENSION: 

   Last  week was also Mental Health Awareness Week, and we  read a perfect book about a certain red insect who had an attitude problem: “The Grouchy Ladybug”.  We talked about what it meant to be grouchy and then each munchkin shared what things make them grouchy!

  I then took my camera and asked them to make their best Grouchy face… and they made a ladybug and I pasted a picture of their grouchy face onto the ladybug. (An idea I saw all over Pinterest and just HAD to do!)

LITERACY: 

   We also worked on our uppercase and lowercase alphabet recognition with my newly  created Ladybug Mats (get your free copy here). I had intended to use a cookie sheet and magnetic squares for individual use, but when I noticed that there were more than 3 munchkins who wanted to play, I decided to make it into a group game. Each munchkin had to search for the cards they needed. It turned out better that way because I was able to see them working together and got a better sense of who was knowledgeable in matching uppercase and lowercase letters and who still needs extra practice!

Now, here is a FREEBIE for you!

   In addition to having them try and spell the names of different insects, I put some spelling mats in our Writing Center.

Click here to grab your copy!

   It is obvious that my munchkins are obsessed with insects right now and my head is still FULL of ideas that I would like to try BUT I do need to move it along... There is LOTS to do to start getting ready for the end of the school year! 

   I think I am going to give it another few days-Especially since I just replaced the sand with dirt and digging tools in our sand table that has been full of insects! (plastic ones of course!)

Spring Literacy: Forming Words

Many of my munchkins are able to recognize many letters of the alphabet and some are showing a growing interest in writing or forming words.  
 

This week I created an activity for the Writing Center to provide those students who are showing an interest in forming words and/or creating a message.

I figured I would tie it into our latest interest: Spring.

I mixed up the words HAPPY SPRING and the students had to color each letter, cut each letter out and then arrange the letters to spell HAPPY SPRING by matching the letters to the sign in the classroom.

 

It ended up being a 2 day project but a good majority of my munchkins finished their sign, and they were very excited to take them home!