Learning About Día De Los Muertos!

    Wow, did October fly by or what? And I have already fallen behind in posting and keeping up with my blog...yet again! What else is new? Things just happened so fast and then BAM- Hello November!
   Anyhow, I was very excited to teach the munchkins a little bit about Día de los Muertos this year. I have celebrated it in past when I worked in a bilingual preschool and the holiday was one that all the children were already familiar with. So, this was my first time actually teaching children about this holiday that they really did not have any experience with.
    The book that I read to introduce the children to this holiday was called Día de los Muertos, written by Roseanne Greenfield Thing and Carlos Ballesteros. It was a great book for the children to learn about the holiday!

    The book focuses on different aspects, symbols and traditions that families partake in during this celebration. And it portrays the celebratory aspect of the holiday, stating that it is not a scary holiday, like Halloween. The holiday is not one of sadness either, but rather one of joy and celebration.

     I will admit, this particular holiday is not one that I celebrated regularly as I was growing up with the traditions and so forth...until my father passed away 6 years ago. Now I use this holiday (and every day, really) as a way to remember him and talk about him with my children, especially my daughter who never got the chance to know him, as he passed away when she was only 3 months old.

   So, in explaining about the holiday and the altars that are built in memory of deceased loved ones, I created a small altar, in my classroom, for my father. I brought in some of his items and explained why I brought each one and how each item reminded me of him. I did get a zillion questions about him (and of death and dying in general); which I was prepared to address in simple terms. 

     Each child had to opportunity to create their own calavera art to take home...and wow! I was impressed by some of the coloring skills! 

     We made tissue paper flowers in memory of someone who has past away. (I was touched when some kids left their flower at my father's altar.) These were the easiest tissue paper/napkin flowers to make. All we needed was small paper napkins in different colors, green pipe cleaners and scissors. 

They cut long slits into the edges of a napkin, then opened it up, gathered it up, twisted the bottom and attached a pipe cleaner!  Easy and quick!

(Take a closer look at the ones on the table for the end result)

 For the most part, teaching about this holiday was either hit or miss with the children, which is what I expected. Some understood it, while others really had no clue and were fixated on the fact that skeletons and skulls are scary. But I expected that, too... 

I had fun teaching them a little about this holiday that is celebrated in most Latin American countries, in honor of those loved ones who have passed on. 

It was a great way, too, for me to share and honor my father's memory...he was a great man!

Monster-iffic Fun!

   It has been a little quiet here because Fall assessments are underway, and thankfully almost done!! It really is tedious and time consuming, even though it does provide me with a general snap shot of where my munchkins are. However, by my own observations and working with them in small  groups, these assessments are only reinforcing where I believe each child is in terms of their own development and skill level.
   Anyhow, that has taken over classroom time and fundraiser & school events at my own munchkin's school has kept me busy for the past week or so. But now,hopefully as the month winds down, things will get back on track... only to get all shook up again when the holiday season hits!
   Last week, we did some fun Monster activities after reading fun books like Where the Wild Things Are and Go Away, Big Green Monster! Little munchkins always love Go Away, Big Green Monster... It is one of my favorites too!

    They created their very own monster, and some of them looked pretty scary and creepy, while others looked funny and cute! They each glued a sentence onto their paper and we added the color word of their monster.

    I added some fun little props (googly eyes, straws, beads and ghost & pumpkin cookie cutters) into the playdoh area so that they could get creative and make their own playdoh monsters. This was such a fun activity for them. We had the activity during our learning center time and when it was time to switch, many of them were too involved with making their monster, they gave some resistance in having to leave the table! 

Check out some of the awesome creations:

    I really enjoyed watching their creativity come through and the smiles on their faces as they were doing this... it makes me smile when I see how much they enjoy the activities that I put together for them.

    We also worked on print concepts, as the munchkins learned how to track words in a sentence. I created sentence cards with the predictable text in Go Away Big Green Monster. And they put a smile on my face at dismissal time, when some of them proudly showed their mom that they could "read" the monster sentences!!

This is only the start to all the Halloween themed fun we plan to have... and I say "plan" because my time in the classroom in limited until the Fall assessments are all completed and so, anything goes... !

Fun with Math and Pete the Cat!

    Have you fallen into the Pete the Cat craze? We have been talking and learning about different types of pets, and alot of our learning and playing has been centered around Cats this week. And lo and behold, our favorite cat character made a comeback!
    We had a big Pete the Cat thing going last school year... and here we are again, knee deep in all things Pete. There are now quite a few My First I Can Read! books centered around the adventures of Pete the Cat. With the munchkin eager to read, we picked up a few and the whole obsession started again!
    Alongside having fun with the new books and reading and dancing to the songs in the older books, we also had some hands-on math fun, with Pete the Cat and His Four Groovy Buttons.

   I felt somewhat crafty and made our Pete the Cat a litte yellow shirt from felt material. I am hopeless when it comes to sewing and ideally I would have sewn an actual shirt together BUT with the material that Pete is made of, there was no problem with the felt shirt sticking right to him! A simple velcro strip and velcro on the backs of buttons and we had a shirt for Pete... even if it was one sided!

    Anyhow, the little munchkin reinacted the story first, removing buttons as we read the story.

    Then I threw in some addition and subtraction work with the buttons, by placing a random number of buttons on his shirt and gave her a simple addition or subtraction problem and she removed or added buttons to find the answer.

And then she decided that Pete needed more shirts- so she made him some more:

THREE  more!  (That lucky Pete the Cat!)

Are you and./or your munchkins fans of Pete the Cat? 

If not, "It's ALL Good!"

Is there a thin line between love & hate for snow days?

  Oh, snow days how I love thee. But enough already...ok?

  I wonder if there is a thin line between love & hate when it comes to snow days? Sure, I know kids love them. But how do adults feel?

   I think alot of people can honestly say that they are going a little stir crazy today... I know I am! The kids and I have been holed up in the house since Monday afternoon. It has been far too cold (in Buffalo) to leave the house and I admit, it is starting to get to me and I can tell it is driving my muchkin a little mad. The routine is all messed up and meltdowns (from the little munchkin) are happening throughout the day!

  The one good thing about snow days is that it allows me extra time with the kiddos. And I have been able to get the learning fun back on track after the long holiday break.
   But I will be glad when the kids are back in school tomorrow... they need the structure and routine back... and I need to get a handle on my own sanity!  =)

   Anyhow, over the winter break when I had some downtime, I did some searching on TPT, and I have found yet another favorite seller: Lavinia Pop. She has some awesome packets. I purchased a few of her Winter (math & literacy) packets to use with my daughter throughout the month of January.

     I put together a  little January Work binder for the munchkin and she will pick and choose a few activities that she wants to complete during our random "work times" or at any given time during the week.     

                  

    When school started up in September, I chose not to have an established work time, simply because some days she was too tired after school and other days, all she wanted to do was work. So, now we just go with the flow. I think it will be easier to have worksheets like these on hand along with other manipulatives to complete them, (rather than just pencils and crayons), so they are ready when she wants them.

     Today it felt right to read a few winter books and focus on some winter vocabulary. And this pack (also by Lavinia Pop) came in handy.

    We chose 10 Winter Words to put in our pocket chart. 

                   

    We reviewed each word, focusing on the beginning sound. I then cut out the pictures of the words she chose and she glued each picture and copied each word onto the pages of her Winter Words book.

                

She was very excited to "read" her Winter Words book when she was done!

  And of course, she had to make a snowman! I came to notice that she was bringing home alot of artwork from school, and a huge chunk of it was simple shapes that the children may or may not have cut out themselves and glued together-- not very much process art. I mean, I can understand why preschool teachers would have children do art this way; I have done it myself at times.
   But for the sake of art variety, I am going to continue to focus on providing the little munchkin with somewhat open-ended process art activities at home. Plus, I love to see what children's imaginations create in art, especially hers!

   So here is the process art snowman she made: 

   She was ectastic when my son and I joined in on the art activity. (And later told daddy he needed to make one!)

   And the snack of the day was..... Donut Snowman!!

   Well, the snow days have been fun. But now it is time to get the kiddos back into school and get that routine started up again! I just hope there are no more crazy snowstorms in the near future that would cause everyhing to shut down again! 

    BUT-- I am in Buffalo, so ya never know!!

   

More fun with Letter Mm!

     So, the Back to School countdown for my kids has begun!
     The school clothes have been bought (just need shoes) and almost everything is crossed off the School Supply lists!
     Even with all the Back to School craze, the little munchkin and I still find time for our learning fun with the letter Mm.

     We worked on the letter Mm in different ways. She built M & M shapes using printables from the Letter of the Week curriculum created by Confessions of a Homeschooler, and then she quickly did a graphing activity--- so she could eat the M & Ms!!

      

             

     She gave her little fingers some work as she cut small pieces of tape to secure her Mm stencil onto a paper. To add variety to her painting tools, here she clipped cotton balls onto a clothespin and used it to paint.

           

    And more fine motor work came with cutting and gluing to make a Monkey!

      

      

     Earlier last week, we explored our new Alphabet Soup Cans and drew pictures of the items. Mid week, I created some labels and pulled out letter tiles and she worked on spelling each "M" item on the tray.                                  

                

    And here are a few pics of her Reading Corner. We had a monkey theme going on all week!

         

    We had so much fun creating these Five Little Monkey Props. I made the bed simply by covering a tissue box with felt and added a little blanket... and rolled up the extra felt to make a pillow! 

               

     Lots of letter Mm fun...some Montessori and some not! 

     But all fun and educational either way! Just the way I like it!!