ABC Painting

Today we had fun painting with the alphabet. Simply put the colors of tempera paint you want on some paper plates, be sure to have trays and smocks handy (easier clean-up), then all you need are some ABC cookie cutters.......the kids dip them in the paint and place them on their paper.

Be prepared for some teacher guidance as you discuss the letters they are stamping, or words they are even writing. This is a great activity to build your childs literacy!!

Eating Alphabet Soup

We had a simple but yummy snack today in preschool. The kids thoroughly enjoyed eating the ABC's!! None of the kids had ever had this soup before which made it even more exciting. We had so much fun finding the letters in our name in the soup and then I would call out a sound or a name of a letter and we would see who had one in their bowls. As soon as we had found what we could the kids got to eat that letter off of their spoon.....it was a fun way to keep the anticipation up for eating.

After snack, most of the kids couldn't wait to go home and tell their moms to make them some "ABC Soup".......too much fun!

happy ABC eating!

Pretzel Letters!

How can you learn about the alphabet and NOT make pretzel letters?? The kids had blast making the first letter of their names and then being able to eat them!!

Check out this yummy pretzel recipe so you can do it at home or in your own preschool!!

INGREDIENTS

2 1/2 cups warm water

2 TBSP yeast

2/3 cup brown sugar

1 tsp vanilla

1 tsp salt

about 7 cups flour

2 TBSP baking soda

1 cup boiling water

1/2 cup melted butter

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Dissolve yeast in warm water and let set until activated. Add brown sugar, vanilla and salt. Add flour one cup at a time until mixture isn't moist. You may need a little less flour or a little more. Let rise for 30 minutes.

Let the fun begin!! Form balls of dough about the size of small fists. Roll dough into a thin rope (emphasis on thin) and twist into desired shape. Have flour available to roll and shape in.

While pretzels are being shaped, boil water and baking soda in a saucepan. Make sure baking soda is dissolved and then keep very warm.

After pretzels are shaped, dip them in the baking soda water and then placed the dipped pretzels on a cookie sheet. You can sprinkle with Kosher salt if you want (I don't like the salt) and then bake for about 8 to 10 minutes. When they come out, brush them with melted butter!!

These really are so yummy!

Fishing for Letters

I put these cloth alphabet letters in the messy table and we used some fishing poles I've had for awhile that I think I got at Target......way fun and cute!! So the kids had a blast fishing for the letters, putting them in the bucket and making sure they don't get away by using the fishing net!

I saw so much great interaction on going on. I would jump in every once in awhile and ask, "What letter did you catch? OOh, I think I hear it saying something!" (I would obviously follow up with the sound that letter makes).

Don't let them get away!!

Something that I saw happening in the classroom that I didn't expect......the kids started bringing the letters over to the kitchen area and cooking up the "fish" letters. They would serve them by saying, "Here, have a letter M." I just love it when the kids carry the activity that I put out a step further!!

GREAT!!

Stamping Letters

On with our ABC week.....stamping is always so much fun!! So we took out the old letter stampers and let the kids go crazy. This activity is great for letter recognition and even just getting to know what letters look like better!! Some of the more advanced students were sounding out and writing while some of the younger students were simply stamping...both are great ways to learn and both students are getting a great lesson from this activity. I would guide the younger students as they stamped, saying things like, "Oh, you found the 'b', it says b"...

This little boy wrote his name and was currently finishing up stamping, "I luv mi dad".....what great experiences!!

Happy stamping

Chicka-Chicka-Boom-Boom Trees

I'm sure you all know the book "Chicka-Chicka-Boom-Boom" by Bill Martin Jr. I love his books! This is an activity that is done all of the time, but that's just because it's so great! Whatever activity you can link to a book is one of learning and the child will get more out of it.

I just had these extra letter tiles from when I taught the Saxon program in kindergarten. So I let the children glue them on and go to town. You could use any sort of letters, printed out, written, cut out, whatever you have on hand works great. This is a great activity for letter recogntion. I would ask the kids what letters they had on their tree and if it was ready to tip over yet? At the end of the day we read/sang the book together with our own Coconut trees!

ABC Week

In the messy table today I had all of these different magnetic letters to explore with for the kids. Cookie sheets and magnetic chalk boards work great. I saw so many great things going on. I love the stage of reading and writing where the child links together a whole bunch of letters and then asks, "Teacher, what did I write?" This type of thing happened all day. We all get a big kick out of it because the words are so silly. For example......"trhugnf". I always say something like, "What did you write? trhugnf? You silly, what does that mean?" Sometimes they like to think of their own meanings for these silly words.

Some kids are at the stage of sounding out phonetically. When it comes to phonetic spelling I'm a big believer on letting them sound out on their own and figure out what letter it is. I don't care if it is spelled correctly, but just to see them figuring it out and getting the letter sounds is AWESOME!! Eventually, when they are more developmentally ready, they will be ready for all of the crazy rules. But right now, they need the confidence with those basic letter sounds.

One child sounded out, "pulees reer reer". Which translates into "Police - reer, reer" (making the siren noise). Wow - I LOVE to watch learning in action!!

If I were the President of the United States........

Since yesterday was Presidents day, I figured I would take the opportunity to enjoy a day of learning more about this special day. Along with books about the White House, what the President does and more, the children also had a great time thinking of things they might like to do if THEY were President of the United States......

Some other kids wrote things like......."I would write stories all day", "I would plant all the flowers I could".

I love how kids think!

Preschooler, Preschooler, What Do you See?

For our Sense of Sight Day we like to make a class book. It's a spin off of "Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What do you See?" A great child's classic!! Brown Bear is such a great book to read because the children can help you read from just one reading. It's so repetitive and the pictures are so easy to follow!! What a great sense of accomplishment!

So anyway, I have the children think of something they see at school and draw a picture of it.

These are pages done from a previous year. You can write the words or type them. Then on the page before each drawing I put the words, "Preschooler, Preschooler, what do you see?" and their picture below it.

This becomes a book that is read OFTEN in our classroom. I also take the pages to a copy center and have a copy made for each child. This is great book to keep to remind them of preschool, their friends, and something they might have seen (or not seen) when they were young. So parents of kids in my classroom, you heard me right.....a copy of the book will be coming home to you shortly!!

Happy reading!!

Puppet Theatre Time

We had the puppet theatre set up today that my older sister sent to me as a gift one year. I love this puppet theatre because it stores easily by being rolled up.

The kids are always HOOT to watch at this area. I always introduce it to them by making up a story of my own (using beginning, middle, and end sequence). Even just demonstrating how a story sets up, begins to give them basic storytelling AND story writing understanding.

While the kids are at choice time, I am always there to assist in a story or be the audience. When we get more familiar with the puppet theatre, I will set it up with some chairs as the audience and popcorn bags. It's always fun to mix things up and give them a different setting!

Many times, for a child to be comfortable at an area, they need teacher guidance. I will not exactly show them how to do something, but I will assist in imagination, or creativity. You will see this a lot in the dramatic play area, or places like the puppet theatre, where they aren't quite sure where to go with the idea. I always have a ball playing and interacting with the kids, watching their imaginations bloom. As soon as they get the hang of it, I step back and let them take it from there.

happy storytelling!!

When I Grow Up.......

We're finishing up our unit on careers and I had the kids draw a picture of what they thought they might want to be when they grow up. I absolutley LOVE children's illustrations. Many of the kids also wanted to write what they wanted to be all by themselves!! I'm so proud of their progress and all of the learning that I see is so exciting!!

Letter Tiles

I had letter tiles set out today that the children worked with. They really enjoyed these and had fun matching the letters and spelling their own words. I love to watch literacy development!!

The letters on the mat are what I call "computer" letters. Then they get to match the tiles to the correct letter on the mat. It's important for children to know that letters can often look different, which is why I introduce "computer" letters (g, a, q, etc). Many kids might see these letters if they haven't been introduced to and have no idea what they are.

I also had the tile holders out so they could spell different words. I had a list of words set out on the table they could spell, but many just wanted to practice their names or family names or other words they like.

One boy said, "Miss Chelsea, how do you spell preparing taxes?" I couldn't help but chuckle......I guess we know what his parents must be doing - ha ha ha!!

Grocery lists

We were talking about Grocery Workers and I the kids write their own grocery lists. It was fun to watch them think about what they might find at the grocery store. I would either tell them how to spell the word as they wanted or I would write it down for them to copy. A few students aren't quite ready for that step so they would draw the pictures and I wrote down what they needed.

The kids would write their grocery lists and then bring their list to the "grocery store" I had set up in the dramatic play area to go shopping.

Shopping fun!!

"It's Chow Time" Books

These are some of the books I've used for my unit "It's Chow Time"

HAPPY READING!!

I love that this book makes it so easy to help the children understand the different food groups!!

"Eating the Alphabet" introduces different foods that start with the letters of the alphabet. It's fun to see the foods that we are all familiar with, but then others that the children might never have heard of!!

This book is always a favorite!! The monkey absolutley LOVES spaghetti and she doesn't want to do anything else. When her friend finally tries the spaghetti he can't stop eating it either.

As I have said before I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE Robert Munsch. He is definatley one of my favorite authors!! "More Pies" is a book about a boy who thinks he is absolutley STARVING. When he goes to the fair and wins the pie eating contest he ends up getting sick!! The kids just laugh and laugh!!

A great Caldecott Honor book. It's fun to talk about all the fruits we like to pick and I love to hear about the kids who have helped their mommies can fruits into jams, etc!!

A CLASSIC and a favorite! Enough said! We read this book many times throughout the year. With this unit we talk about how the caterpillar got sick eating all of the junk food and how the leaf made him feel much better!! Another classic and children's favorite!

I have a few different versions of the Little Red Hen. It's a great book to tie into our Grain day!! The children love hearing all of the different versions and trying to figure out how they are different and the same! Great literacy development!!

Like I said before - ROBERT MUNSCH!! I just love him!!

This is another of my favorite for this unit!! Gregory is one of the only goats who likes to eat "regular" food instead of junk like tires, cans, paper sacks, etc. The kids just love all of the funny foods goats eat and we talk about healthy/unhealthy choices of food we can eat!!

ABC FlySwatter

We like to play this game every once in awhile and the children just LOVE it.

Basically the kids SWAT the letter the teacher calls out. The swatter on the bottom is the person who gets to keep that letter. This works best as a small group with kids around the same developmental abilities so one child isn't winning all of the cards. To help with the kids not trying to be first, I say, "Hold your swatters up" and they hold them straight up in the air so they are all in the same position.

Just so you know, these swatters are UNUSED!!

This game also works with any other concept you might be learning about.....shapes, colors, addition, subraction, numbers, patterns, etc. Just switch it around with the appropriate cards or answers the children need to SWAT!!

Small Manip Shelves for February

The Small Manip Shelf is basically where the children can explore the different toys or games and help develop their small motor skills and also cognitive development with math and literacy.

I go over or demonstrate how to use these each time I change them so they know the basic rules and how to use the different manipulatives.

Here are the fun things I have set out for the month!

WIKKY STICKS I think wikky sticks are so great! There are so many different things you can do with them. Plus the children LOVE to explore with them. This time, I'm setting them out with a white board (which they stick to perfect) and the children can make different pictures, spell, etc.

This is an alphabet puzzle that is perfect for preschoolers. What a great way to help develop our letter recognition and also beginning sounds!

The Fishing Game has been a favorite so far this month. They can't seem to get enough of it!

I got these great fishing poles at Target (or you could easily make your own). The BIG material letters I ordered from a Books Are Fun place when I taught Kindergarten. The children LOVE the big letters because they are easy to recognize and fun to manipulate.

This is a great activity for eye-hand coordination also. It takes focus and the children LOVE it when they get a letter. I usually ask them, "Oh my goodness, what letter did you catch?" or "What sound does that letter make?"

The kids have also loved writing their names with the letters or asking me to help them spell a certain word out.......what GREAT literacy development!!

Valentine beading game........I set out some basic heart beads, string (shoelaces), and pink dice (for valentines time). The children roll a dice or both dice, count, and add that many beads to their shoelace.

This activity is going to help develop one-to-one correspondance, counting, eye-hand coordination and of course, small motor skills!!