We're Going To The Zoo

In Milwaukee, we are very lucky to have access to a high quality zoo.  The Milwaukee County Zoo has lots of really neat programming that will come out to your school for a learning opportunity.  It also provides a great field trip for students of all ages.  This week, we learned about zoo animals in preparation for our trip on Thursday. 

The zoo trip is an all day trip and we don't have school on Friday, so it was a quick three days of packing in as much zoo animal and zoo behavior expectations as we could. On Monday, we introduced zoo animals by reading "1, 2, 3 at the Zoo" by Eric Carle.  We also did Farm Animal or Zoo Animal sort that can be found in the We're Going to the Zoo Early Learning Pack in my Teachers Pay Teachers store.  This sort is tricky for my students because being in Wisconsin, the Milwaukee County Zoo actually has a working Dairy Farm on the grounds.  Many of my students have never been to an actual farm so they think that cows, horses, goats, and donkeys are zoo animals too.  We talked a lot about how real farms are very large and have a variety of other animals as well.

On Tuesday, we reread our story and then completed a counting book that is also in the Early Learning Pack.  My students really got into this counting book.  I loved seeing them also say these are zoo animals and apply the knowledge from the day before.

On Wednesday, we read our pocket chart story "I see animals." My little learners love to do pocket chart readings.  I go through each line with them first and then each student comes up and gets to read a line.  I love hearing "Ms. Kelsey, I'm a reader."  After we completed a book with the same words where they needed to match the animal pictures to what they read.  My 4 and 5 year olds had a great time taking these books back to their regular education teachers and showing them how they could read!

Finally, the day of our big trip had arrived.  My K3 students could barely eat their breakfast because they were so excited and talking about the animals they were going to see.  The zoo trip is an all day trip which is very long for my 3 year old who are used to just a half day of school.  We spent the day walking around with our friends in the Autism classrooms.  It's so much fun to watch how excited my kiddos get when they see the animals.  It's a great day of communication opportunities and fun.

We had a professional development day on Friday, but I was beat for sure.  I look forward to the zoo trip every year, but am always glad when it's done.  Stop by my Teachers Pay Teachers store to check out my Zoo Early Learning Pack and Interactive Emergent Readers.  I'm sure your little learners will love them just as much as mine did!

Things That Go!

This week was all about Things That Go!  I normally would spend two weeks on this, but March is a weird month with several non-instructional days and then Spring Break.  I shortened up our activities so that we can also get to Zoo animals and Jelly Beans this month.

The first day, we introduced Things That Go! by doing a transportation sort from Play to Learn Preschool.  I really love her Circle Time and Centers theme packs.  We use different parts of them in a variety of ways and there are so many activities that I can give even my students who are with me for 3 years a lot of variety year after year.  We hung the sort once completed on our focus wall to look at all during the week.

 

On Tuesday, we color sorted red, yellow, and green to make stop lights.  I love craftivities and feel like some of my students really learn best from them because they don't even realize they are learning.  Sorting, color identification, following directions, and task completion all worked on in one simple activity.

My favorite activity was on Wednesday.  We made name trains.  Each student worked at their level to make train out of their name.  Some matched, some just needed boxes to define space, some just put the letters down.  Then, we traced each letter to work on proper letter formation.  Everything turned out so cute.  I was so impressed how even my most resistant writers were into this project.  You can fine this project in my Teachers Pay Teachers Shop.

On Thursday, we completed an interactive emergent reader called "I see a parking lot."  My little learners used car stickers to complete the pictures to match the words in the book.  There are two levels to the reader.  One where students work on one to one correspondance by putting a sticker on a dot already in the parking lot and the other students put the correct number of cars by counting.  You can find the reader in my Teacher Pay Teacher store by clicking below.

Friday is kind of a weird day in our classroom.  Our occupational therapist does a group for all of my students and the timing throws our normal schedule off, so I take that day to cook snack with my students.  There are so many skills for even young children to learn by cooking together.  I love the conversation and different skills my kiddos are doing each week.  This week, we made grilled cheese roll-ups.  You can find the original recipe at Cook, Crave, Inspire by Spend with Pennies.  My kiddos assembled after a demonstration and then I cooked the rolls on a griddle while they were in OT group.  I love watching my students attempt to do the assembling just as they were shown.  I try to pick a recipe that has a few steps and enough "work" for everyone to do.

These roll-ups were a unanimous hit, which is very rare in our room.  One of my little guys ate 3!!  

Next week is a 4 day week with a field trip to the Milwaukee County Zoo, so check back to see how we prepare and get ready to learn about Zoo animals.

Dr. Seuss Week

As most people who are teachers or have young children know, last week Wednesday was Read Across America Day. Because this falls on Dr. Seuss's Birthday, I always take this week to do activities centered around Dr. Seuss books.  There are lots of activities through out our entire school including theme dress-up days, a Kindergarten feast of green eggs and ham, and guest readers from our district central office.  Even though it was a short 3 day week for me, it was an exhausting week.

Usually, I read the same story for 2-3 days, so we can work on comprehension, but during Dr. Seuss week, there are too many books and too little time.  Here's a peek at our week:

Day One we read "My Many Colored Days".  This is my absolute favorite lesser known Dr. Seuss book.  I love anything to help kids explain their emotions and the pictures are so vivid and engaging. Then we made a picture about how a color made us feel.  Each kiddo picked a color, colored the person from the story, and practiced writing their names.  I filled in the color and how they said it made them feel.

 My students all work on the same activity, but changed to meet their needs.  Some write their names independently, some copy from a card, some trace, and some do a combination of writing, tracing, and copying.  It really is how they can best practice and make gains.

Day Two was all about the "One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish".  Every year, I forget how long and hard to read out loud this story is.  More than one of my students found it hilarious that I had to stop and reread parts so it would come out clear.  Our table activity was then sorting red and blue squares of paper onto fish and then writing the color words by the correct fish.

Again each student got the writing adaptation they needed to complete that part of the project.  This guy had me cracking up because he had no problem writing the color words copying, but was made when he had to trace fish.  Never a dull moment and next time, I'll make sure he'll get copying for both!

Day Three was "The Cat in the Hat".  This is by far my student's favorite story and they all cheered when I said it was our story that day.  As an extra special treat, we watched a read aloud from YouTube on the SmartBoard.  After, we went to the tables work on our letter matching with our names to make the Cat's Hat.  For my students who were ordering the letters in their names without matching, we also talked about patterns because it helped with self-checking their work.

 While Dr. Seuss week is a fast paced, whirl wind, it is full of great learning opportunities.  Check back for an update on next weeks beginning learning about Things that Go!