Eggs, Jelly Beans, & a Trip to the Movies

This week was our last week before Spring Break.  As much as I love teaching, I am looking forward to a nice long break.  The weather here in Wisconsin hasn't been very spring like but hopefully it can still be a relaxing few days away.

This week started by talking about Easter egg hunts.  We talked what eggs looked like in the carton and how eggs for hunting look.  After that, we completed a writing activity where each student worked on coloring, writing their names, and color identification.  Most of our writing activities are centered around my littler learners names and then have a little added flair to them.  I was really happy with how it turned out.

Tuesday was a special day.  As part of a school-wide positive behavior incentive program, my students earned a trip to the movie with 170 other kids from our school.  My little learners were so excited, but I underestimated what a movie with 3 and 4 year olds would be like.  Thank goodness our school had the theatre all to themselves.  All in all, it was a very fun experience.

The next day, we were back to business as usual. We did not do a new letter of the week this week as it was a short week, so instead we reviewed by playing different games on the SmartBoard.  We also worked on a jelly bean interactive reader.  My students had to count the beans, write or trace the number in the sentence, and then color the beans by the word in the sentence.  You can find the reader in my Jelly Bean Early Learning Pack or by itself in my store by clicking the pictures below.

We continued the jelly bean learning on Thursday by sorting 6 different colored jellybeans.  This was of course my little learners favorite activity because once they were done, they could eat the jelly beans!  The mats are also in my Jelly Bean Early Learning Pack.

No short, before holiday week would be complete without a lot of playing.  This little lady decided that she was going to be a loner during iPad time and play with the blocks.  How could I say no?

If you think your little learners would have as much fun as mine did with these activities you can find them here:

   

I will be taking the next week to work on some products, do some planning, and enjoy some time with family both near and far.  I hope everyone else is enjoying their spring breaks or long holidays.

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!