Letter Pp has become Pretty Popular!

    Wow, as I sit here and get ready to share all I have done with the letter Pp (at home and in my classroom), I realized that Pp is pretty  popular!

    Seeing that we have still been on a Pumpkin Palooza high, my little munchkin and I did some work with the letter Pp. I utilized many resources that I have found over the past few weeks that I just love!

    I purchased a Letter Land pack by Live Love Laugh Everyday In Kindergarten, earlier in the school year and it has become one of my faves to use.

    I had the little munchkin search for the letter Pp.    

Click here or the pic above to grab your own copy of this great resource!

    

Then we used these Phonics bookmarks created by Lidia Barbosa over at Kinder Alphabet. I LOVE these! Great way to save paper and practice skills!

 There is so much in there and I will be using it in my classroom very soon!

                      

   Click the picture below to purchase your own pack. 

    And the Pumpkin Palooza and Letter Pp fun carried over into my classroom, as we began our study on the Letter Pp and Pumpkins!

    When I introduce  a new letter, I like to do art projects with  the actual letter. Here, we used the eraser tip of a pencil and paint to make a Polka Dotted Pp.

    Then I like to do an art project with something that begins with the letter sound. Here, I had the kids make a Pepperoni Pizza.  They had to find “pepperoni” circles that had the letter P on it and glue it to the “pizza” (bigger circle)

    To begin our study of Pumpkins, we created a web and wrote things that we knew about pumpkins and they   were all very excited to learn more!

    I spruced up my Science Center this past week and put different sized pumpkins in a basket for the munchkins to explore. 

They explored and compared the different sizes and a few of them even tried to measure the circumference of the pumpkins! I was impressed!

    We read the book “Plumpy Dumply Pumpkin” and explored different textures, which led us to create our own textured pumpkins, using art materials like feather, felt, glitter, buttons and sand paper. 

    They loved using silly words to describe what the objects felt like. My favorites: "Scritchy & Scratchy", hence the reason I had to use it in the display title!

    And the best part of our Pumpkin Exploration was when we opened up the pumpkin and took a look and a feel inside!

    Some of them were very excited to stick their hand inside and pull out some seeds, while others were just not very into this sensory experience- which  was okay with me! I absolutely LOVE the expressions on their faces when they felt the wet, squishy pumpkin guts!!!!

    Here are a few pics of my little one doing the exact same activity at home, right before Halloween!  What an awesome sensory experience!

    So, as you can obviously see, the Letter Pp sure became very popular these past few weeks!

    But I think Pumpkin Palooza is now in its final days! Time to move on...

On the Road to Literacy!

   So I know the last time I posted anything about my classroom, I mentioned that things were under construction. Well, things are still under some construction as I continue to find ways to meet the needs of my munchkins, who have been a challenge for me thus far in the school year.

   The past few weeks have been both stressful and hectic, yet somewhat inspiring at the same time; as I have been able to reflect on my teaching practices and express some of my concerns and challenges with my director who has given me some direction and further insight on how to manage my classroom of boys! 

    I think I now have a clearer sense of where I need to focus my attention & energy and where to start. It is basically back to the drawing board!! 

    I know, it is already November, but I have to start somewhere right?

    In our preschool curriculum, we have just begun our Letter of the Week series.!  Although I have been implementing literacy activities since Day 1, it is now time to focus on one letter and sound at a time.

   Learning the alphabet alone provides SEVERAL different fun and engaging learning activities for my kiddos. And thank goodness for Pinterest and  my wonderful collection of The Mailbox Magazines (which have always been a valuable resource for me) which highlight many different hands-on letter activities that I plan to use in my classroom this year!

    So, we are on the Road to Literacy! J

    Here are a few things we have been doing to get ready to learn letters:

    The most appropriate way we began our study of letters has been through name recognition activities.

    The munchkins have done name puzzles and have matched  and counted the letters in their name.

    I created a dry erase card for every child to use, by gluing a sentence strip onto white construction paper and then laminated it. I made sure the writing section contained no lines at all, giving them the confidence to write their letters as big and round as they need to!

Some kiddos are working on writing their full name, while others are practicing their first name.

    I pulled out a set of alphabet flashcards and have provided several opportunities throughout the past 2 weeks for the children to explore them and practice writing letters on blank dry erase cards.

    And we are still getting some good use out of our old Apple Pie PlayDoh by using letter cutters to spell names!!  (This is definitely the last week of it and then  it is getting tossed in the trash!)

    And… our sand table has become an Alphabet Digging Ground.

    There are so many fun and engaging ways to introduce and learn the Alphabet, my mind is in over drive! 

     What are some of YOUR favorite Alphabet activities???  

     Please share.! I would love to hear comments and/ or suggestions! =)

Rainy days means more time for Pumpkin Palooza!!

   The weather here has been rainy, windy and cold. Yuck! But that's Fall weather right?

   Anyway, all the rain and cold has kept us inside and so, my little munchkin and I continued our Pumpkin Palooza fun!

   We made Pumpkin Playdoh. It’s a simple recipe that I use every time I make some fun type of play-doh!

1 cup water

1 cup flour

1/2 cup salt

1 tbsp oil

1 tbsp cream of tartar

red & yellow food coloring (enough of each to make orange)

pumpkin pie spice

               It's a delicious and fun way to play with playdoh! Smells great!

   We also did some craft foam pumpkin decorating. I wrote her first initial on the foam pumpkin, and found some black & white little rhinestone-like stickers at Michael’s (on clearance!). 

      I had her practice fine motor skills as she decorated her pumpkin with flashy rhinestones! 

Now we have a cute little pumpkin to put on our mantle!

        And now... it is November! That sure crept up on me fast!

"Pumpkin Palooza!"

    My thoughts and prayers go out to all those who have been directly affected by Hurricane Sandy. Here in Buffalo, we are feeling some effects, like rain and high winds. School closed today because of flooding and power outage concerns.

    So that gives me time to post a few things that my little munchkin and I have been doing.

    We have been having lots of fun with our own little “Pumpkin Palooza”!

    “Pumpkin Palooza” started last weekend, when we took a trip to the Great Pumpkin Farm! It turned out to be a perfect Pumpkin Picking Day!

      It was tons of fun and we ended coming home with quite a few pumpkins, in many different "small" sizes:
   Anyhow, on another note, I have been researching and learning about Five and Ten Frames and have been trying to find a way to introduce it with my little one and eventually, in my classroom.

To make things simple, I decided to begin with smaller concept of Five Frame.

    I created these Pumpkin Five Frame mats (and found the candy corn mats on TpT) to introduce my little munchkin to the concept. Of course I had to make it fun and used candy corn and candy pumpkins!

    I started by just having her counting candy pumpkins on each mat , then moved along to simple adding problems, such as “If you have 2 pumpkins and I gave you 3 more, how many would you have?” So we started with the math strip with 2 dots and I had her add 3 more pumpkins onto it and count the total.

 Then we moved on to Candy Corn Ten Frame. I found these mats in a Candy Corn Math unit (freebie), at Oceans of First Grade Fun. It’s geared towards 1^st grade, but very adaptable for lower grades too. Make sure to stop by and pick up a free copy and have some fun counting candy corn!

    The part she liked the best was when she was able to fill up the mats and then was able to eat them all up! (Well, not ALL of them!)

    

     And then we made Pumpkin Pudding!!

Ingredients:

One can of Canned Pumpkin (I used a little more than half of the can)

One Box of Vanilla Pudding

Cinnamon/Sugar

Vanilla wafers or even Graham Crackers

YUMMMMM!!  Deliciousness! 

"9 year itch?"

    Wow, so ok... Teaching Munchkins has been on a bit of a hiatus. But rest assured, I am still alive! Stressed to the max... but alive and well! 

    I have always considered myself to be a reflective person, always looking at aspects of my life and determining where I have done well and  where I have fallen short. Some may say that I am probably very critical of myself (especially when it comes to anything about myself as a teacher and my classroom), but it is because I am always looking to improve who I am and how I live my life. And a big part of that reflection takes place as I look at my career as a teacher. 

    This is my 9th year as a teacher; all 9 years spent in the realm of Early Childhood-- with 8 years of my experience in a preschool age classroom and one year in Kindergarten. ( It was so scary, I taught it for one year and then went crawling back to a preschool classroom!  Just kidding!!)

    This school year will mark my 1st full year as a preschool teacher in a city other than Chicago and I think I am feeling something similar to the "7 year marriage itch"...Except it feels more like a "9 year teaching itch"!!

    As I sat down at the computer tonight, thinking about what cute teaching activity that I wanted to blog about, I stopped and started thinking about the past few weeks.  And the only conclusion that I came to was that I am run down and in desperate need of a Mental Health Day!! This year I have 15 boys and only 4 girls in my classroom. Even with 2 awesome aides, it is ALOT to handle. And once again (3rd time this month), it has taken its toll on me. I  usually hit some kind of wall in mid-November, so this is really early for me!

    And I keep asking myself: "What am I doing wrong?" OR "What am I NOT doing that I SHOULD be doing?"  And that is where all the reflection sets in.

    This year, my Head Start program is undergoing its Federal Review, so the pressure is on for everyone! And as all teachers know, the field of Education is turning into a nightmare, where everything revolves around results and numbers. And with all that is: PAPERWORK!! Yes, the dreaded paperwork!

   Maybe it is just the paperwork that is stressing me out the most. Why? Because it takes me away from what I feel I do best: Teach young children. And with the group I have this year, the children need my undivided attention.

   Or maybe I have not yet mastered the ability to teach young children and meticulously keep up with data and maintain files. Maybe I procrastinate too much when it comes to entering data and pushing papers around. I don't know...but whatever it is, it has got me stressing out and seeking more out of myself as a teacher.

   So on that note, I am in the process of taking a deeper look at my classroom, the needs of my children and how I can better meet their needs. After 8 years of teaching in the same city and this being my first full year as a teacher in a new city, I am realizing that it is time to change things up. I am reflecting alot and I am seeking out ways to revamp aspects of my teaching.

    It is time to take a deeper look at my teaching practices & techniques and see what needs to come undone and what needs to be developed.

    In the time being, I will only be blogging about the learning fun that I am having with my own little munchkin at home. And we have been up to quite a bit of fun stuff!

    So, for now... My classroom and my teaching practices are currently: