Search results matching tags 'preschool' and 'books'

All Things MUD Books + Art Projects

Anonymous — Thu, 11 Apr 2013 10:00:00 GMT

APRIL SHOWERS BRING “MUD!”

It is that time of the year when I watch the plants poke their little heads through the damp, cold, muddy earth. Every child should have the chance to see this spring event. They should be able to predict:

what will happen as the flowers grow

what color will they be
what kind of flower is it (daisy, tulip, etc.)
how does it smells.

Invite children to make a flower garden using a pop bottle, paper plate and paint. Invite the children to pick their colors and then give me brushes and paint to make the stems, leaves, and soil for their flowers. They can add any touches like the sun, butterflies, birds, rain or whatever their imaginations can conjure up.

As April showers fill our world with mud it is great fun to get mud from a familiar area for the children and invite them to finger paint with the mud.Talk about how the mud feels, smells and who lives in the mud. This is always an opportunity to talk to the children about WORMS

PLANTING

When a project like MUD, turns the conversation to another topic such as worms, seize the moment and find a good book.

Enjoy the beauty of spring as each day brings more color and experiences outdoors. Visit me *** www.storytellin.com, Facebook and check out PrekandKsharing EEE!

Mary Jo Huff

Author, Storyteller, Puppeteer

www.storytellin.com

Exploring Weather with Science Experiments in Preschool

Anonymous — Sun, 07 Apr 2013 09:30:00 GMT

Hello again and Happy Spring from Ayn at little illuminations!

We have been learning about weather in our class lately. Even though the calendar says Spring is here, it has still been unseasonably chilly in our area. We've talked a lot about the weather and how certain weather conditions happen. Our discussions have led to several science experiments in class.

We used shaving cream to simulate clouds and food coloring for water. When the clouds get full, the rain falls from the clouds.

We also used some recycled packing peanuts to explore this concept. The children cupped their hands while others filled their hands with the peanuts. When too many peanuts were put in, they fell down like rain.

Another way we explored rain was by putting a dish of ice over a vase filled with hot water. As the ice melted, condensation ran down the insides of the vase demonstrating a rain effect.

We explored wind by placing several items in front a fan to see which items would get blown by the wind (fan). It was interesting to hear the students' predictions and reasons why they thought certain items would blow away.

We charted the weather over a week long period. We've talked about how scientists have to collect data and record it over a period of time, so this was a good way to put that into practice. Here's a FREE printable of our weather chart!

In our art center, weather has been a popular interest. The children have been making a lot of pictures with rainbows and clouds.

We talked about the properties of wind and how that relates to flying a kite. Later, one of the kids made a little kite using items from our scrap box. Later, he took it outside and tried to fly it. For several days after that, the kids were making kites like crazy! (In fact, they are still making one or two daily!)

Pretty soon, kite flying was the highlight of our outdoor time!

Some of the great books we've been reading as we've explored weather can be found in bookstores or online. Here are a few of our favorites:

Hope Spring is happening in your area! We hear that it will soon feel like Spring here in Augusta, Georgia. Be sure to check out the Master's Golf tournament this week to see some of our lovely local Spring foliage. The weather may be confused about when Spring began, but our azaleas won't be fooled!

Stop by and visit me anytime at littleilluminations.blogspot.com or visit the little illuminations fanpage on facebook! And be sure to check out PreK+K Sharing EEE!

How to Grow a Classroom Library...QUICKLY!

Anonymous — Fri, 20 Apr 2012 13:40:00 GMT

As educators, we all LOVE books! We LOVE to buy books! We LOVE to collect books! We LOVE books in our classroom! We LOVE talking about the latest and greatest book! Picture books, chapter books, easy readers...they are all so WONDERFUL!! There is nothing better than having a classroom full of wonderful books for our students to read.

However, books cost money...lots of money! So how do you get more books for your classroom in no time at all? Well, I have have a little tip for you that helped me grow my classroom of 15 books to 300+ books in less than a couple of weeks....for FREE!!! Well, almost free:)

Tickets

When I transferred schools because I started job-sharing, I left my collection of books to the teacher at my old school. Silly, I know! I was tired, VERY pregnant and just wanted to start my summer vacation. Well, needless to say, I needed a new library...and FAST!

I asked the kids if they had any library books at home that they no longer read. IF IT WAS OKAY WITH THEIR PARENTS, they could donate the books to our class library. In exchange, I would give them 2 tickets. We would use these tickets in a drawing for prizes at the end of the week.

WOW!

They came to school with bags of books! The books ranged from Kindergarten to 8th grade, which was perfect for meeting the various reading levels in my classroom!

Can you imagine how many books you could collect in 5 years?? I would suggest that you send home a letter to the parents first:)

I have a few more tips up my sleeve, so hop on over to The Moffatt Girls blog to get some more tips on growing your library of books...for the classroom or the homeschool room!

Barnes & Noble educators sale online

Anonymous — Wed, 20 Jul 2011 19:44:26 GMT

I just got an email from “Barnsey” (as Mrs. Mimi calls it) and they are having an online sale for teachers.

Teach Like a Champion is only $15.37 on sale (instead of $27.95).

Vivian Gussin Paley has a new book! Actually, it came out last year, and I somehow missed it. It occurs to me that I have never posted about my deep, abiding love for the books of VGP, and I should remedy that soon. Anyway, you can check out The Boy on the Beach for only $11.59.

The only-partially-hidden educational conservative in me hearts E.D. Hirsch. You can get What Your Preschooler Needs to Know for $9.90 if you are a Core Knowledge fan.

Tools of the Mind! It’s still expensive on sale ($23.45), but definitely worth checking out. I have posted about this before, and probably need to buy this book.

There are lots more good deals for teachers, so you might want to check it out.

the library on a sunny day

Anonymous — Thu, 31 Mar 2011 00:50:32 GMT

We walked to the local library today for story time. Last time we were there, a baby toddled around and then plopped herself down on the lap of one of my little boys, who was both astounded and delighted. She was our favorite part of that story time visit — she kept getting up and then sitting in the laps of various little boys in my class.

We talked about that funny baby today, actually, in keeping with my goal of telling stories with the kids about our shared experiences. We had another exciting experience on the way to the library — one little girl fell down in the street as we were crossing and didn’t get up. I was up front, leading the way, and oblivious. My Americorps volunteer ran over and scooped her up and carried her across the street.

Roo thought it was thrilling. ”I thought she was dead!” he cried. Both Roo and the little girl who fell have a story to write about, that’s for sure.

At story time, the wonderful children’s librarian met us at the door, and led us to the story room. We read three great books, including A is for Salad and Miss Brooks Likes Books, and I Don’t. Then we went downstairs to check out the actual library itself, for the first time ever. They weren’t as quiet as I had hoped, and they got tons of books off the shelves, which I had not anticipated (“I’m sorry!” I told the librarian, but she said not to worry, that is what she wanted them to do.)

We checked out the books we’d heard at story time (and I picked up the book I’m supposed to have read for book club on Sunday to discover that it is 500 pages long; I wonder if I can read 100 pages a day?), and then walked back to school in the sunshine.

The playground was free of snow for the first time, so I let them have a very long recess. They ran and ran and ran, and played “Witch” and “Angry Girls” (?) and “I’m falling down the slide!” and I’m sure they all took nice long naps when they got home.

How can I best teach Spanish to preschoolers?

Anonymous — Tue, 25 Jan 2011 04:49:00 GMT

Ms. Dorothy,
I am teaching a pre-school Spanish class this coming summer. I've taught Spanish for years, but mostly 3rd, 4th and 5th grade. What do I need to think about differently for 3, 4 and 5 year olds? Any great resources you could recommend for this age group would be great too!
- Spanish Teacher

The most important thing to know about pre-schoolers is that they need to move!

You won't need to worry about paper and pencils, but books, songs, dances and games are your friends with this age group.

My recommendation would be to keep change activities often, and practice some simple things like numbers, body parts, and greetings.

Look for CDs by Jose-Luis Orozco they are full of culturally authentic songs that are fun to sing and move to. He has a book of finger plays with some great Latin American active songs too.

There are wonderful picture books by Arthur Dorros that introduce Spanish phrases into an English story.

You can also use Spanish translations of English pattern books that they are already familiar with too. Eric Carle books in Spanish are fun, though not a tool for cultural literacy.

Enjoy the little guys, they will love you!

knuffle bunny free

Anonymous — Mon, 20 Dec 2010 16:16:20 GMT

This week’s New York Times Book Review had a lovely review of Mo Willems’ latest in the Knuffle Bunny series. I haven’t been keeping up with Mo’s blog lately, so had no idea there was a third book until I stumbled upon it at a bookstore a few weeks ago. It was such a great book I wished my kids were still little so I could buy it for them.

I do read Knuffle Bunny each year to my class, but haven’t read them the second book yet. I’m not sure that I will read them the third. Just as the first book is for the little ones like Trixie was back then, I think this one is for elementary school kids, like Trixie is now. (Did you know that Trixie is Mo’s daughter? I’m pretty sure there is – or was – a real Knuffle Bunny.)

marvelous mittens day

Anonymous — Sat, 05 Dec 2009 17:59:43 GMT

Every year in December we celebrate Special Days. The idea came from some December preschool ideas book, and I’m firmly committed to the idea. It gives me a wonderful way to teach the children about winter, and to introduce some of the holidays that are celebrated in December in a low-key way. It also gives me a way to channel the excitement that builds in December into some age-appropriate activities. But mostly I do these special days because they bring joyfulness and magic to the classroom.

First up: Marvelous Mittens Day. The children come in that morning to find a giant mitten traced on the floor of the meeting area with masking tape. This in itself is very exciting and mysterious. At centers time we make mitten ornaments (see above) and we made mittens that I ordered from Oriental Trading that Miss Slinger placed in their memory books. By the time Miss Slinger and I were done with getting 20 children through two mitten-making centers, we were utterly exhausted.

Then came story time. We had done some preparation by reading Jan Brett’s The Mitten the day before.

For those of you unfamiliar with the story, it’s an old folktale about a boy who loses a mitten in the snow, where it is found by a series of animals who crawl in to get warm. The mitten gets stretched to ridiculous proportions (I enjoy asking my class, “can a bear really fit into a mitten?”) and then finally the bear sneezes, everyone flies out, and when the mitten is in the air, the boy finds it again.

I discovered Jan Brett’s website a long time ago, and made masks of each of the animals in the mitten. Instead of using the pictures as masks, however, I turned them into necklaces of sorts, and we just hang them around the children’s necks. We act out the story for the first time on Mittens Day, with me reading/paraphrasing the book and acting as MC/narrator.

At the end the actors lined up and bowed, everyone else clapped, and the kids said, “Can we do it again?”

It was time to go home, but I promised we could, and we have. Every single day since then.

snapshots of the next day

Anonymous — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 23:52:03 GMT

This morning I put on my lovely new red coat and went out to meet the buses as they arrived. When bus 3 came, I caught Cherry and Chutney as they got off and had them wait with me. When all the kids were gone, the driver got off, and I told her that I was their teacher, and that we were there to apologize to her for their behavior last week.

“Cherry, please repeat this after me. I’m sorry I stood up on the bus.”

Cherry hung her head. “I’m sorry I stood up on the bus.”

“I’m sorry I wouldn’t listen to you.”

“I’m sorry I used bad words.”

“It will never happen again.”

“It will never happen again, ” Cherry promised.

I went through the same routine with Chutney, minus the part about the bad words. The driver at this point was looking really surprised and also pleased. I don’t think she ever meets her bus riders’ teachers.

I found out her name (let’s call her Maria), introduced her formally to the girls, and explained that it is her job to keep them safe. It is their job to be respectful to her, and to listen to her, so that she can keep them safe. I said that their behavior last week was unacceptable, and if it ever happened again, Maria would let me know and I would give them a consequence in the classroom.

I held their hands and we went back to class, talking excitedly about our third reading of Knuffle Bunny. I am hopeful that we will not have a repeat of that behavior. They really are smart and wonderful girls.

***********

At centers time Cherry chose the reading corner. She read and re-read Knuffle Bunny out loud; she has memorized the whole *** thing. I think I need to call her mom and compliment her — she’s the mom who told me that when she found out she was pregnant, she started buying children’s books, and now Cherry has FOUR HUNDRED books at home. You can tell this is a well-read child.

***********

Plum was absent, so I guess she really was still sick yesterday. Zucchini had a wonderful time in blocks today, and no pee accidents. He kept building towers and showing me — “Look, cylinders! And this is a cylinder, too!” My new student wore a coat to school today. The room was clean, but when Zucchini opened the block shelf it was a disaster (I, in my usual anal-retentive way, have a specific place for each block to go). I suppose I will have to visit Miss Mellow’s class again to explain how to clean up the blocks, as I forgot to mention that yesterday.

***********

We finished the day with our third reading of Knuffle Bunny, where the children reconstruct the story and tell it to me, and then we got to watch the video, using my video data projector. It was wonderful, and a great way to end the morning.

I love this class

Anonymous — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 01:18:39 GMT

We walked to the library today for preschool storytime. When I had the kids on the carpet in our room to remind them about walking safely, holding hands, crossing the street, and all that, Cherry raised her hand.

“We can listen to the cars say ‘RRR!’” she said. (We learned the /r/ sound this week, with a story about getting in a race car, turning the key in the ignition, and hearing the engine go “RRRR”! The hand motion for R is turning a key.)

“You’re right, ” I said. I’d never had a child make that connection before. “We can listen for cars going ‘RRR’. We can also look for the letter R and the other letters we know on signs.”

So we started walking and pretty soon they were seeing S, M, A, R, and T everywhere. (Yeah, somehow the letters I’ve taught them so far spell out SMART. That was totally unplanned, but wonderfully appropriate.) I have never had a class like this one. They really listen to what I teach them, and then they talk about it while playing, or walking, or drawing.

We got to the library in plenty of time, and my class was beautifully behaved, as usual. The story theme was monsters.

I crossed my legs (the grownups were in chairs) and Pumpkin noticed my foot near him. He turned and gave me a beatific smile.

He held my foot lovingly for the rest of storytime.

And when we got back to school, I gave them a long recess and everyone pretended to be a monster.