Transportation

Our annual St. Jude Trike-a-thon just passed again... and as usual we do a transportation theme that week. For this theme (since we focused a lot of bike safety) we set up a practice bike track in our classroom.
I used small cones that i place around the circle rug. I also had a traffic light set up and we called out traffic signals for the children to follow.

We also set up a bike shop where the children could go and "fix their bikes"

 I also set out maps...small cars and construction toys for the children to manipulate

As part of our transportation theme we also made "hot air balloons" up until this year we have had a severe latex allergy in our school and have not been allowed to use balloons. So we made the most of this opportunity and made cute hot air balloons using straws, cups and balloons.
We added different sized animals and raced to see which was faster at hitting the ground (gorilla vs mouse, elephant vs. kitten etc)
The kids LOVED it!

The Kissing Hand

At the beginning of the school year I always read The Kissing Hand by Audrey Penn. It is the most adorable story about a little raccoon who is afraid to go to school. We have a cute little stuffed raccoon that we use to give each child a little kiss on their hand. Our kids love this story and always love cuddling with Chester the Raccoon in our reading area.

I downloaded a cute Kissing Hand game that i colored in the hearts, laminated and use along with this story in our math area. I got the game at Kissing hand

There is also a cute free stationary printable at makinglearningfun

A touch of Montessori

The preschool that i teach at uses the Creative Curriculum method of teaching but the great thing about our center is that we are allowed to use methods from a variety of preschools. During the 2011 school year we had been doing some Montessori activities with our children, but not in the exact same way, as they do it in a tradition Montessori school. We usually set out the activities for them, but this year i am going to include some Montessori trays in our fine motor center that the children will be able to choose as they please and put back when finished. I'm excited to see how the children react. I truely believe that being able to pull ideas from a variety of curriculum methods is the best way for both children and teachers to be successful.

Here are some of the trays i have made so far

Pencil sharpening

The children in my class absolutely love colored pencils and, i have to admit, i get tired of sharpening them over and over again. So i made thise Montessori tray so that my preschoolers can do it themselves.

Locks and keys

I'm not sure if my preschoolers will be able to lock and unlock, but i know they will LOVE trying, and i'm sure with enough practice they will figure it out.

Pouring

Although we do pouring activities throughout our center, it has never been set up for an idividual child like this. I didn't have a small sponge on hand, but there will be one added to the tray for spills.

Assembly

The object of this tray activity is to see if the children can correctly put the pieces of the flashlight together in order to turn it on! This flashlight has 2 batteries and a screw top...the screw top is the hardest part.

The other trays i'm making are:

Beading - Beads and pipe cleaners

Scooping - Small scoopers and navy beans

Transfering - Eye droppers, colored water and ice cube trays

Claming - Muffin tin, small wooden colored cubes and child sized tongs

Hole punching - Variiety of shaped hole punchers and paper

I also plan to add a clothesline with clothes pins, socks, and child sized clothing for hanging

Science Experiments

Really fun experiemtn using milk and drops of food coloring.

Dip a q-tip in dawn dish soap and watch the colors spread!!!

We use this water to make our Goop

My Classroom

 My classroom 360

My classroom is divided up into learning stations.

Art
Writing
Dramatic Play
Building
Sensory
Discovery (science and math zone)
Fine motor

I try to keep specific items in their designated zone, although we do sometimes overlap stations.
Ex. sometimes in our dramatic play area we are also writing etc.

This is our writing area:
In our writing area i always have:
Ball point pens
Clip boards
Note cards
Letter worksheets
Tracer pages
Colored pencils
Writing paper
Stationary
Site words

This is our Art area, it is located next to the writing zone. We include a large table (in which we set out all the supplies at center time) our writing table, a dry erase board and I also located our computer in this area for 2 reasons. #1 We sometimes use computer games that have a painting and drawing functions and #2 I don't have another good place to located it right now!!! We also have plenty of wall space to display their art projects and a drying rack (not seen in this photo)

This is our "discovery area" (math and science activities take place in this zone...this is also where are sensory table is located)
If possible ALWAYS locate your science area by a window
In our discover area I have a closet that keeps our theme related items. I put them out at center time, but i have certain items that are out at all times for the children to use.

These items include:
Weather chart
Skeleton felt board
Globe
Map
Magnifying glasses
Microscopes
Paint swatches
Wind chime
Abacus
Bug Jar
Tape Measure
Lanterns and Flashlights
Rocks
Bird feeder (outside the window)
Bird watching kit (binoculars and a laminated list of birds in the area...with photos of course)
Wall thermometor
Counting pom poms
3D shapes
Sensory table

In our kitchen area (that we call dramatic play) we change the props weekly depending on theme, but there is always a kitchen set, table and chairs, cash registers and dress up rack available in that center. I am also putting up a clothes line to go with our new ironing board! SO CUTE!!

Our reading area is currently located where I conduct circle times... partly because it's the only corner left in the room and it's where most of our stories and CD player is located. So i just rolled our bookshelf over to create a little nook for the children to sit and read. I also allow them access to the CD player, books on CD and our felt pieces. We used to have some pillows in this area too, but some of my boys started sumo wrestling with them, so i had to take them away :(

Letter of the Week ABCDE

Every week we study a new letter. I try to plan as many activities that start with that letter as possible!
These are some of the activies we do, as well as letter worksheets and letter stories.
Letter A
Apples
So many activities to do with apples
Apple painting
Apple pealing
Apple sauce
Apple printing
Apple orchard
Ten Apples up on Top
Johnny Appleseed
Apple taste test
Apple sandwich
Trip to the apple orchard

Montessori inspidered apple tree

Apple sandwich (Soy butter not PB) chocolate chips and oats

The list goes on

Letter B

Bears
Learn the different types of bears
Polar bear, panda bear, sloth bear, moon bear, spectacled bear, sun bear, brown bear, black bear

Read Bearinstein Bears
Read Brown Bear
Read The Bear Snores on

Cook Banana Bread (Yum)

Birds - set up a bird watching station in your science area. Use binoculars and post photos of birds from your area.

Bird feeders- make bird feeders to hang outside your science area - we use pine cones covered in honey or soy butter (can't have pb at our center) then roll them in bird seed

Bubbles -  who doesn't love bubbles? I buy cheap kid bubble bath from the dollar store to add to our sensory table and i allow the children to wash the sensory table and chairs if they want!

Letter C


Letter D


Letter E

Elephants
Elephun (super cute game and very easy for all ages)

Letter of the Week FGHIJ

Letter J

Jello
Jello is a easy fun food for children to make and eat. The colors fit with any theme and you can add gummy candies to make it more fun!
For an ocean theme we use blue jello with swedish fish inside! We make the jello in pitchers for easy pouring!

Letter of the Week KLMNO

Letter of the week PQRST

Every week we study a new letter. I try to plan as many activities that start with that letter as possible!
These are some of the activies we do, as well as letter worksheets and letter stories.
Letter P
Popsicles
We use those cute little popsicle makers (for the dollar store) to make our own popsicles. I have a variety of juices available and some lemonade. The children can make whichever flavors they like...freeze them and enjoy!!
Yogurt works great too

Parachute!
Always a favorite and i love it because it can be changed to match any theme.
Bounce leaves, bounce bears, bounce flowers....whatever you like

Pennies
Read Bennies Pennies (awesome book)
Clean Pennies - we test which works better Vinegar vs soap vs coke vs ketchup (ketchup wins)

Letter Q
Quilts
Pre-cut felt squares and allow children to decorate, using fabric markers, photos, handprints etc. String the pieces together and create a one of a kind preschool quilt

Letter R
Race cars
Pull out the hot wheels and car ramp
Meausre how far your race care went

Ramps

Encourage children to create their own ramps using flat blocks.

Recycle
For a recyling theme we create art out of donated items (yarn, plastic bottles, foil, boxes etc.) Usually we create a big "Recycle Robot" for our science area.
Recycling is a great way to teach classification. I print out kid friendly recycling icons for plastic bins in our room and then bring in a variety of items for the children to sort.

We also sort through all of our old broken crayons and recycle them into new crayons. Seperate them by color to make solid color crayons or (for more fun) mix up the colors to create rainbow crayons!
Put them in muffin tins and cook them in the oven. (these crayons work great for rubbing projects)

Letter S
Slime!
A classroom favorite!
In the sensory table i provide cornstarch and green water. I allow children to mix these together to create their own slime ( sometimes i make glowing slime by soaking highlighter tips in water over night and use the glowing water for the slime)

Letter T

Tye Dye
Our kids love Tye dying... we ask parents to bring in a plain tshirt about a week before hand. I help the children wrap marbles in their tshirts and cover with rubber bands. You really can't go wrong with tye dye...any pattern looks great

Tornado
I bought one of those cheap tornado connectors from the teacher store. It's really simple and always a hit. We keep one in our science area all the time, but we make extra tornados for letter T day!

Letter of the week UVWXYZ

Every week we study a new letter. I try to plan as many activities that start with that letter as possible!
These are some of the activies we do, as well as letter worksheets and letter stories.
Letter U week:

Upside down art! we tape paper to the bottom of our tables and let the children color while upside down! Its a fun twist to our art table!

Unicorn craft - unicorn cut out, glue, yarn and plenty of glitter!!!!

United States Puzzle

Letter V Week:

Valentines- We make valentine cards in our art center and practice writing names on them.
I set up a post office center in our dramatic play area. We use large mail bags, envelopes, stamp pads with stamps, a scale, cash registers, cards and a variety of stationary. I found a few really cute mailboxes in the dollar section at target that we pull out too. I also made a mail box and painted it blue for a more realistic addition. The children love making their own letters to mail out!

Vegetables - I send home a note earlier in the week to request vegetables from the families. We put all of the vegetables in our science area along with our usual science tools (microscopes, plastic knives, tongs....etc.) I allow the children to disect the vegetables in the sensory table and find the seeds. We then plant the seeds outside in our garden.
We also cut up vegetables and put them in our art center to do some vegetable printing. (potatoes work great!)

Vegetable taste test- I make a graph for our circle time and we vote on our favorite vegetables.

Volleyball -This fun and simple game can be set up outside. We do not have a volleyball net but i just tie streamers between our trees in the back play yard.

Volcano
I almost bought one of those make your own volcano kits from Lakeshore Learning but decided i could make one for cheaper...and i was right! They charged $27.00 for the small kit at Lakeshore but i made a much larger one for $15.00. I used a small piece of PVC pipe a small bucket container (for the dollar store), cement and spray paint.

There are many ways to make your volcano "explode" we sometimes use red pop and baking soda or vinegar or alka seltzer.



Letter W

Water!
There are so many awesome activities you can do with water.
We fill up our sensory table and practice pouring with various containers

We use colored water in ice cube trays and mix colors with eye-droppers

Mrs. Wishy Washy
One of our favorite stories!
You can find tons of fun Wishy Washy activities at http://www.makinglearningfun.com We read the story using felt pieces, act out the story in the sensory table using pudding as mud, and we even do a Wishy Washy puppet show!

Another cute idea for Wishy Washy is to make chocolate pudding with your children and add animal crackers that can "jump into the mud!"

We also sing a Wishy Washy song to the tune of Hokey Pokey
You put the cow in
You take the cow out
You put the cow in and you wash it all about
You do the Wishy Washy and you scrub yourself about
Thats what it's all about
(continue with each animal)

Wind
For letter W week we use a variety of tools, nuts and bolts, and old silverwear to make wind chimes. We hang them outside of our window so that we can hear when it's windy.

Letter X

BOX!
My all time favorite thing to play with is a box...the bigger the better. I call ahead to my local grocery story and they are really good about saving boxes for me. They give them to me folded down and all i do is tape them back into a box shape. We cut doors and windows in and i let the children decorate it however they like.

We also play construction with boxes. I give the children tape measures, hammers, goggles and worker dress up outfits and they just love building the towers as high as they can.

X-rays
We set up our usual doctor dramatic play but i add X-rays for the children to view. I also tape x-rays up to our science area window. (you can ask your local doctors office to donate old x-rays)

X marks the spot- treasure hunt!

Y week

Yellow!
Make a variety of shades of yellow with the paint pots
Play a color matching game with paint samples from home depot (you will be suprised how many shades of yellow you can find)

Read little blue and little yellow
Make blue and yellow playdough and use it to act out the story

Yoga
Set up tumble mats and a yoga dvd with a tv in your dramatic play area.
My kids are suprising flexable and could even do some of the complex moves!

Z week

Zoo - we use this week to study zoo animals. We make our own zoos in the block area...it's always a big hit!

Zebra painting

Using a  shallow box, some paper Z's and marbles you can create a super cute marble painting!