Keeping The Munchkins Busy with Cute Fall Crafts!

    It has been a whirlwind 4 months since I moved to California and started a new teaching job within 3 weeks of relocating from NY. Because of this, I am SO excited that we have the entire week off for Thanksgiving! No big travel plans here... the cross country trek this summer was enough traveling for me! This is my week to relax and just do whatever... 

   Last week, as we prepared for our big Thanksgiving feast, we had the keep the munchkins busy and focused as best we could. We know they love art projects, so we went with that.

   We have been collecting leaves for quite some time and put them in our leaf press. We took the leaves out of the leaf press and added them to the art center, along with scissors, a gluestick, a marker, a turkey body, a circle to cut out, wiggly eyes and yellow and orange strips of paper. 

 Check out these adorable Leaf Turkeys that they created:

And in Spanish class, we have begun to learn about the names of the different shapes. I had out different activites for them to do to learn the shapes in Spanish throughout the week.

Turkey Shape Matching Game:

 Shape Owls:

(I used this FREE template from Crafty Bee Creations)

Lots of fine motor practice!

As you can see, they really do love crafts! And they all do such a great (and cute) job!

    Well, back to my vacation...even if I have a long To Do List to plan and prep for the next 3 weeks, which I know are going to go by really, really quick!

Fun with Shapes...and a FREEBIE for you!

   Looks like I am becoming a Friday night blogger! While most teachers step away from anything related to the classroom on a Friday night, I just keep on going, as if Friday is just another day during the work week! But that's me... PreK on my mind 24/7 !
   Anyhow, we are just getting into the swing of things now. The munchkins have the routine down for the most part. (I just hate that I might have to switch it up a little in October due to good ole' testing stuff.)  The crying is over and done with, they are learning each other's names, playing well together and overall, adjusting very well to the preschool environment.
    It did not take long for the munchkins to follow along when I introduced learning centers this week. I am always prepared to have some kids who will have trouble with the transition and I was well prepared for it. But to my surprise, there weren't too many issues with it. I did get a few, "When can I play outside?" and "I wanna sing another song"  the first day I introduced the routine of Learning Center Time.
    It usually takes awhile to get little ones used to this part of the classroom routine simply because they are just not made to sit still for very long at this age! So I make sure we get some Music & Movement activity in right before we switch to Learning Center Time, and then some other type of Gross Motor activity afterwards too. This group loves to sing and dance, so I have to keep up with them! My Learning Center time has usually ranged from 30-40 minutes, depending on the activity and interest. I always make sure that my learning center activities, which are usually 3-4 different activities, are short (no longer than 10-12 minutes), fun and engaging so that the munchkins really want to participate. And this group of munchkins is turning out to be very eager to learn and play...and that makes this teacher very happy!

   This week, we wrapped up our Shape unit and began our Apple unit. I grabbed these very cute Shape Poems from Miss Kindergarten. They are short and catchy little poems that help kids remember the characteristics of each shape.

And I created a set of Shape Friends to go along with the poems. There are some great shape craftivities out there, but I am not ready to let the kids take on a lengthy craft project just yet! 

The poems and friends were a fun way to learn about shapes! 

As a special treat, you can download the templates for these cute little shape friends.

 CLICK HERE to grab your free copy!

(Just simple copy onto colored paper or just use the templates to trace onto colored paper)

    Our Math Center had a few fun activities throughout the week to help the kids learn shapes.

These great shape tracing sheets came from Teaching with Nancy's Bushel of Shapes packet.

Our Big Button Number Fun Game from Melissa & Doug and our Shape Sorting Game from Lakeshore. (not pictured) have been huge hits in the Math Center as well.

And the munchkins used their imagination to create different pictures with shapes.

Such creative artists I have, huh?

I think they have a good grasp on basic shapes now, so next up: 3D Shapes.

We will be getting to that very soon!

Magnets & Velcro... My new BFFs!

   I bet you are wondering what happened to all the learning fun that I was doing with my little munchkin, huh? Well, obviously now that school has started and she is back in daycare/preschool during the week, our Learning Fun time is back to weekend learning fun! =)

   She is learning so much in her little daycare/preschool! 

    I use the two words interchangeably because I can see that it isn’t “just daycare”… she is learning a lot and having lots of fun!  Two thumbs up!!  =)

   Even though I am all over the place with the start of the new school year, I have TONS of learning fun in mind for my little one!

   We had done a few more shape activities before all the Back To School madness started.

To give her some On-The-Go Learning, I made this little Shape Match game/ busy book with shapes and Velcro dots!

    We also used craft buttons to sort by shape, BUT before we even did an activity, I changed gears and I used a glue gun to make them into magnetic buttons for play , by gluing on magnet dots that I found at Walmart awhile back. (These are just like the ones I made for my classroom science center.) 

    She then used the magnetic buttons to count and sort buttons by their shape!

    Last weekend, as I browsed through my teacher bins in the garage, I started to brainstorm new, fun activities for my little munchkin, and I couldn’t wait to get started this past weekend!

   In her preschool, she is learning about the first letter in her name and that just happens to be exactly the kinds of activities that I have in mind for her at this point in time!

   I took the same idea from the Shape Match game/book and made her a "Letters in my Name" Velcro activity.

   I took the name activity that I had done last week with my preschool munchkins and had her do the same kind of activity. And she surprised me at how fast she finished it! =)

    I had also found these foam letter squares at Dollar Tree. 

I slapped some magnetic strips on the back and made a quick magnet game for her that she used on a cookie sheet after pasting the letters of her name in order! 

    Can you sense my obsession with magnets & velcro yet??

**Do you have any fun magnet and/or velcro activities 

that you want to share??**

    

Shape Fun: Circle & Ovals !

       In a quick effort to review shapes with my little munchkin, I found a plethora of fun ideas all over Pinterest and the Blogging world! =)  But because of time constraints, I can't do it all!  =(

     So, I made her a little word wall with shapes/shape names cards from a Shape Pack by 3Dinosaurs. 

Get your own by clicking on the picture below.

     She is currently obsessed with the letter Oo… which she happens to call an Oval. 

     So that is where we started:

Circles and Ovals

     I found these adorable printables at Me & Marie Learning.

     She has LOTS  of cute printables, and the Shape Packs are FREEBIES!  Yay! Click on the picture above to grab your own! 

     I had my little one sort the pictures and glue them onto the correct Shape Poster.

     And I LOVED the mini readers included in the Shape Pack! 

We did the I Like Circles and I Like Ovals mini books together.

     I found this little workbook in the Dollar section at Target. 

      I had originally intended to laminate it and make it into a Dry Erase page, but it never had a chance b/c she was so eager to trace her shapes, especially her beloved Oval!   

  We even pulled out an old favorite: 

Big Button Number Fun game by Melissa & Doug.

      And we needed a fun art activity, so I grabbed some toothpicks and some mini marshmallows and she did some Circle/Oval (Marshmallow) stamp painting!

      As I juggle teaching her preschool concepts and  making things for my classroom, I have been quite busy!

     Tomorrow I will post all about the cutesy things (I finally decided on a Classroom Theme) I am making for my classroom…A few more days and then I will be able to get back into the classroom to start setting up and decorating!  Yay!!