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!

Book Study at its best!!

It's a book study at it's best!

Worksheets Don't Grow Dendrites by Marcia Tate

I am so lucky!  Our school had Marcia as our in-service speaker for the beginning of school! (we had her all to ourselves for a couple of days)
Her book Worksheets Don't Grow Dendrites will inspire you to think of new, fun ways to engage your students.  She give practical ideas and the reasoning behind it.
For many of us who teach the little ones, we do a lot of it without realizing it --art, music, storytelling, manipulatives, visuals and movement. But it was nice to see that our Jr. High teachers were getting into too and finding ways to incorporate these strategies into their classrooms!

I am super excited to link up to these sites for the book study!  It's a great reminder of what we have been working on all year.

Mrs. Wills Kindergarten (March 7th)
Queen of the First Grade Jungle Chapter 4 (March 10th)
Fabulous in First  Chapter 5 (March 14th)
One Extra Degree Chapter 6 (March 17th)
Mrs. Jump’s Class Chapter 7 (March 28th)
The First Grade Parade  Chapter 8 (March 31st)


In April
,
Mrs. Ehle’s Kindergarten Chapter 9 &10 (April 4th)
What The Teacher Wants Chapter 11 (April 7th)
First Grader At Last Chapter 12 (April 11th)
Erica’s Ed Ventures  Chapter 13 (April 14th)
KinderGals Chapter 14 &15 (April 18th)
A Rocky Top Teacher Chapter 16 (April 21st)
The Inspired Apple Chapter 17 (April 25th)
Little Warriors Chapter 18 (April 28th)
Falling Into First Chapter 19 (May 2nd)
Kickin’ it in Kindergarten Chapter 20 (May 5th)


So go get your book and start reading!  It's not too late and it will make a huge difference in the way you are preparing your lessons!
See you on Saturday!

Teachers are heroes everyday to the children in their class for so many reasons.  Some things teachers do for their students, many people will never know or see.

Teachers encourage, inspire, comfort, laugh, cry, and love their students.  I think of my students as my own children.  We are there when they are having a bad day, when they need a cheerleader, when they need an advocate, when they need a shoulder or listening ear.  We are there when they have good news or success and they need a hug, a praise and a huge smile.  

Teachers challenge their students to be anything they want to be and help them get there!  Sometimes we push, pull and drag, but cheer them on the whole way.  We open the doors to so many possibilities and opportunities!  No one would be where they are today without teachers!  

Teachers Pay Teachers  is having a sitewide sale on Wednesday, February 25th!  Some stores on TPT are having a bonus sale on Thursday too.  I know my store will be on sale.  

Now is a great time to get those things you have really been wanting.  Click on the pics below and they will take you right to the site!!

Go be a Hero to Your Kids!

<a href="https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/SitewideSales"><img src="https://mcdn.teacherspayteachers.com/img/sale_superb/sale_300_300.jpg?rand=023597" alt="300 × 300" /></a>

Let the Good Times Roll!

Cue the Second Line music!  Today was super exciting with our Pre-K 3's doing their annual float parade in our Spirit Assembly!  They loved dancing and throwing beads to us.  Throw us something, mister!  We wore our super cute Mardi Gras hats and then came back to our room to make King Cakes.  I just finished uploading our Mardi Gras unit to TPT.  It has our recipe for the King Cakes and many other fun activities.

Now we are off for the week for Mardi Gras!  

Happy Valentine's Mardi Gras!

This has been a week for the record books!  We haven't been this busy in a long time--not even Christmas!  The way this week falls we have Valentine's to celebrate and Mardi Gras!  Both are a huge deal and since we are out all next week (Mardi Gras Holiday), we have to squeeze both holidays into one week.  Oh and did I mention it is also Registration Week for  our school!  Wow!  Here are some pictures from our week and some of our cute art and games.  These games and activities can be
found in my Hearts and More unit or in my Valentine's Bundle which is acutally 3 of my Valentine units together at a great price.

We are playing "Heart Attack" with our partners and chocolate of course!  There are 3 different game boards.  Some are playing with number 1-12, some with 1-15 and some with numbers 1-20, depending on their level.  They all look the same so most of my children never know they are different.

Of course we love to graph those candy hearts!  (And eat them)

 In our Mardi Gras study we read the  book Today is Monday in Louisiana by Johnette Downing.  We also have the song on her CD "From the Gumbo Pot".  We talked about all the foods that we eat that are unique to Louisiana.  We eat them so often, my kids thought that's what everyone in the country ate.  We made our own "Today Is..." book using pictures from magazines.  Now the children can read and sing their own books and ownership is often the key to them choosing a book to read.

 We read the story  The Day it Rained Hearts by Felicia Bond. Then we talked about how if it rained hearts, we would have so many Valentines to give away.  We put it with our poem and they chose who they would give their hearts to and we wrote them one on each heart.

 Another book we "wrote" is our Valentine Friends book.  I photo copied all of the students in our class and they got to choose 1 for each page.  They had to find the friend's name in our room and write it on the blank.Then they decided what color valentine they wanted to give that friend and glued the heart on the page.  They had to write the color word on the line.  Lots of heart cutting practice today!

 And last but not least, we had to make our Valentine bags for collecting our Valentine's at our party.  I had each parent write 4 things they loved about their child and we put them on the bags after we read them.  I think each of their own little hearts grew as they heard all the love from their parents!

Here in PreK world, I am all about connecting our art to our math and our literacy.  Many times we use our poem for the week and we make it a math lesson and an art project.  We love it when that happens!  For "O" week we did "Octopus" and we made different combinations of 8 with our beads.  Some of my kiddos did the same combination over and over.   That's totally fine with me because that's where they are.  Some kept trying to find new ways!

 We did groundhogs counting by 10's with our Groundhog poem.

 We subtracted banana's during our "M" week for monkeys.  I adapted Deanna Jump's monkey.  It was so super cute.  My girls wanted girl monkeys of course!