Hello again!

I'm going to apologize in advance for the long post and all the pics!  In my dream world, I would like to sit down a few minutes each day and write something on our blog and post a few pictures.  Hahaha!  Like I said---my dream world.  Reality is I can't ever find that few minutes and then it all piles up and I have to post everything in one day--like today.  Here are a few things that we have been working on in our class.

First of all, let me say after 9 weeks, we are finally getting into routine and becoming more independent.  So now we can do lots more fun and learning in our room and not as much redirecting.

Let me take you back a few weeks....

During "A" week (yep! We do the letters in  order) we talked about Alligators.  We are from Louisiana after all.  Our poem for the week was called "Alligator."  We read it, sang it, colored it in our poetry folder, hunted for all the "A's" in the poem and we did a rewrite of it and made it our own.  This is what became of the rewrite.  I love it when art and writing come together to make it more meaningful.

 During "D" week, we invited our Dad's to come and eat donuts with us.  They came and ate and saw our classroom and all the things we have been working on.  We love our Dads!

One of our favorite cooking activities is Green Eggs and Ham.  It's messy and fun and delicious!

Some of us love green eggs and ham Sam I Am!................Some of us do not!

Now on to "F" week.  One of my favorite weeks!  This week we continued our lesson on oviparous animals and talked about Frogs.  We made this cute little guy and after we learned the life cycle of the frog, we put it inside our frog's mouth.

Of course our poem this week was called "Frogs".   Here's how we use our poems in the classroom:

We read and sing the poem on the first day all together.  I wrote the poems to familiar tunes so they make it easier to "read" for my PreK.  We talk about the lesson that is in the poem.  This one was about subtraction.

The next day, we get our our poetry folders and color the picture.  Then we circle the focus letter throughout the poem and we read it all together.

The third day they get their poetry folders out and find a friend to read to.  They read this week's poem and they can go back and reread our previous poems to friends.  I love hearing them sing all the poems they know to their friends.

The fourth day we "rewrite" the poem and tie it into an art activity.  This gives them a chance to make it their own and make some connections.

Our number was "7" this week.  For math, we made a giant frog with a super long tongue and put 7 flies on it in number order.

Ok!!  How much do you love dollar store items?? I love finding a good deal and trying to figure out how I'm going to use it in my classroom. I found these cute frog shaped eggs at Easter and I finally figured out what to do with them.  I put a colored dot on the bottom and put a different number of bugs in each one.  They had to color the frog the same color as the dot, count the number of bugs in his tummy and write the number.  They loved this!  They like when there is something new to do math with.

This week is "G" week and we are doing one of their favorite stories---The Three Billy Goats Gruff.  We read the story and sing the song --over and over and over-- by Jack Hartmann.  It gets stuck in your head and we end up singing it all day long.

We made story props so they can retell the story.  They had so much fun making the bridge and coloring the goats and troll.  Some wanted to tell the story to their friends and some wanted to retell it by themselves.  Lots of great learning going on---story recall, communication, sequencing, drama, art, listening and confidence building.

Whew!  Thanks for hanging with me through all of these super fun activities!  Hopefully my next post won't be so long in coming!

Welcome Back!

Whew!  With these new little ones, it's hard to sit down at my computer for even a couple of minutes!  And when I get home it's worse!  I have two teenagers (who don't drive yet) that need to be taken to all their activities.  And somewhere in there I have to cook supper, say "hi" to my husband and play with my poor dog who has been alone most of the day.

I am looking forward to having my students in a routine soon and things will go so much smoother.  I forget how long it takes at the beginning to get those routines and procedures down.

Here are some pictures of my room for this year.  It looks very much like last years with a few minor adjustments.

We are still the Monster room!

First of all, I am a little OCD about organization.  Otherwise I'm crazy looking for things and my room feels chaotic.  It also helps my wee ones be  more independent if everything is organized.

Our Art center is always open for my little creators!  They love going here all year.  I change it out each week and have different materials for them to explore.  They are excited to go see what I put out each week!

I have all my books organized by theme so that I can reach them quickly!  (and file them away quickly)

I have 3 table in my room and they each have a color.  Each table has their own color coded trays, buckets and monster.   The students at the tables share fat markers and skinny markers and the trash tub.

Each child has their own art tub that holds their crayons, glue and scissors.


There is table leader each day that is responsible for putting away their table's markers and emptying the trash tubs.  They also make sure the chairs are push in each time we leave the room.  It takes a while to train them with these responsibilities, but the independence later is sooooo worth it!

These are our alphabet boxes.  Each week we bring in an item that starts with the letter we are studying.  We match the items up with our alphabet cards.  This is great independent activity that we do daily. Our mailboxes are on top.  This is a fantastic(organized) way to keep up with their papers--and you guessed it--they can do it themselves.  I love fostering independence!  Can you tell?

Here is a picture our letter focus wall.  All things that have to do with our letter this week go here and we can review at a moments notice.

This is our writing center and our pocket chart wall.  We haven't gotten to do these yet because we are still learning procedures for each center.

In the mornings when they first come in, they can can pick "Monster Tubs".  These usually have games, or activities they can do with a small group.  The activities and games are repetitive and predictable so I am not having to explain directions everyday.  They put their tag on one of the monsters and then go get that tub.  At the end of the day we mark out the monster they went to so that the next day they have to choose a different color "monster tub".  This ensures that they go to 5 different tubs each week.  At the end of the week we erase all the marks and start over on Mondays.
I got this idea from another teacher(I can't remember who) and I made my own that was easier for my littles to do.

Our Promethean board is a time saver and a life saver sometimes.  We can do our shared writing, play games at center time, practice writing, read poems and show examples of how to do certain pages right here.  It is also great for looking on the computer for interesting facts about our topics for the week.

We have been learning about alligators and the number 1.  We did our alligator art in combination with our Alligator Poem Rewrite.    Click here to get the poem.

This week we are learning about Bears and the number 2.  Our math this week was "Bears in Pairs".  We matched up our bears, practiced sequencing the numbers and then tracing them.

Totally Terrific Teacher Appreciation Week

Teachers are wonderful, remarkable people!  As teachers we do so much more than teach.  We encourage, nurture, create, inspire and love our children.  I am so thankful for the amazing teachers that my two girls have had over the years.  They have learned so much, but they have also been encouraged to do more and do better.  They have been inspired to be creative and take chances.  They have been allowed to make mistakes and learn from them.  Most of all they have had loving teachers that care about them as much as they care about their learning.  We are so blessed!

As the year ends, I am sad to see the children leave my room for kindergarten.  But I am so happy and so proud of all they have accomplished this year and  I know they are going to do incredible things in the future!

It's Teacher Appreciation week!  It's a chance to let all the teachers in your life know how grateful you are for them.  It's also a chance to let your co-worker know how much you appreciate them.  I can honestly say that I wouldn't want to teach without mine!  We are such a team!!

TPT is having a teacher appreciation sale May 5-6

Everything in my store is 20% for those 2 days!!!

Plus, you can get another 10% off from TPT by typing in the code ThankYou

Get some things to finish this year and stock up for next year!!

Click on the picture below to go directly to TPT!

Creating!

I love making new things for my TPT store and I just love when a new inspiration floats in!  I'm very particular about what I put in my store and I only put things I use in my class.  So everything has been tried with 4 and 5 year olds.  I find it usually works the kinks out before someone else has them.

With that being said, sometimes it takes a long time (forever) for me to put products in my store, especially my year long activities.  I have 3 new one that we have been using all year and now that we are at the end of the year, they are complete!

They worked really well in my classroom, because I (and my kiddos) like routine.  We like knowing what's coming and what to do.  But we still want to learn and have fun doing it.  I hope you find these products useful in your classroom!

Alphabet Readers are predictable, printable books that reinforce letter formation and letter sounds. In my class, I find putting their words to music helps my PreK kiddos remember and "read" to themselves and their partners. ( ABC Poems and Songs)  These Alphabet Readers can be all be sung to the tune: "Farmer in the Dell."    There are 4 pictures in each book that start with the letter and they are allowed to put them on the page they want. Everyone's book and song is a little different.  Just click on the picture below and it will take you straight to my store!

Another year long project I just finished is "Write With What?"  This gives students the opportunity to practice letter formation - upper and lowercase. They get to use instruments that we don't normally use in PreK and they feel so grown up.  I change out the kind of markers and the kinds of pens each week, so they are never bored.  I put these pages in my ABC center or in my writing center. They are very independent pages!

The third project (this one has taken so long)  is my Home Helpers. Do you have any parents that say, "What can we do to help them at home?"  This is the page that I send home at the beginning of each week.  It has activities that correspond to the letter we are studying and it includes math and literacy activities.  I give lots of options and tell the students to choose one or two they would like to do that week.  It simply reinforces what we are learning in the classroom.  It's enrichment for some and practice for others.  It has our weekly poem and a letter card that they collect and use as flashcards.  It also has a place to practice letter formation and writing their name.  I don't usually have them return it.  Sometimes my kids get so excited about an activity on the sheet, that they bring in the product for me to "check out!"   One of the activities is reading the Alphabet Reader.  It doesn't have to be this particular book, though.  This can be any book that you would choose to send home for practice.  

I hope these products inspire you as you wrap up a year and of course prepare for the new one!  Isn't that what we all do in the summer?!

It's Raining! It's Pouring...and pouring...and pouring...

We might just float away!  It seems like it is raining everyday!  At least it's washing away some of this lovely yellow pollen!  Also,  it is a great week to teach my weather unit!  We always bring umbrellas for our weather unit, but this week it is a necessity.  It's fun to play in the rain with our rain gear and umbrellas too!  Our Math lesson was on geometry and sorting.

For our math lesson to day, we made umbrellas and sorted by shape, color or both.  I let the kiddos choose which way they wanted to sort.

We got to do work under our umbrellas this week and we go to nap under them too!  This is one of their favorite weeks.  

I also love this time of the year, because my little ones are getting so independent.  They are playing games and doing their activities with their friends and on their own.  They don't need me to be hovering right over them the whole time.  They are growing so much.

 Easter break next week! And then we are coming back to do our planting, vegetables and farm week!  I can't wait! I love Spring!