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Thursday, May 31, 2012

Thinky Linky Thursday

Preschool Teacher


Here are the featured links from last week:

from Train Up a Child

from Mama of Many Blessings

from Sunflower and Sprout


Congrats and I am pretty sure all the winners already have my "featured" button, so good luck this week to everyone else. We need some more competition!




TBA's Ultimate Linky Party

Tuesday, May 29, 2012

T.E.A.C.H. Awards for May (with added suffix)


Well, I was having such a hard time choosing which post should go with which category this month, I decided to expand my T.E.A.C.H. Awards. Although they will still be known as the T.E.A.C.H. Awards, I will add a suffix of -ing to the end to make it TEACHING! The 3 new categories are:

  • I-Inspirational
  • N-Nature
  • G-Gross/Fine Motor
I think these are pretty much self explanatory. In addition, I will be dividing the category of Educational into subcategories of Math and Literacy, so there will be 2 winners. I felt as if science and social studies are kinda already covered in some of the other categories.  Also, the Gross/Fine Motor will have 2 winners, one for each. Anyway, there are so many great, wonderful posts out there that it seems like even now with 10 featured, it is not enough. Hopefully you will find something you can use!

T-Thrifty
Messy Shaving Cream Play by 2 Big 2 Little

E-Educational/Math

E-Educational/Literacy

A-Artsy

C-Creative

H-Hands-On

I-Inspirational

N-Nature

G-Gross Motor

Fine Motor

Thank you so much to all who were featured for being exceptional at what you do and for allowing me to post your ideas for my readers. I know they will be just as thrilled as I was when I first came across each of these truly amazing posts!

Grab a button if you were featured:




Tutorial Tuesday: Sign Language

My toddler talks, why would I teach him sign language?

Some feel that the use of sign language is only to bridge the communication gap while infants are still not talking. True – sign language is a great resourceful tool to help with communication at the infancy stage but sign language is just as resourceful for toddlers as well!

Many of the benefits still apply!

  •           Reduce of frustrations (for both parents and children) & tantrums (when their point is understood quicker than trying to guess the verbal word they might not be able to get out intelligibly or remember!)
  •           Increase in social skills
  •           Increase in joint attention skills
  •           Promote early communication
  •           Increase in vocabulary skills
  •           Increase in reading abilities and desire to read
  •           Increase in visual attending skills
  •           Increase in cognitive development (higher IQs)
  •           Reduce “terrible two’s” J

Toddlers are able to attend to information presented to them much more than infants – everyone knows that. Why not provide them with educationally resourceful information while their brains are such active sponges? They are eager to learn. Using sign language teaches them a second language at an early age and being that toddlers are such visual learners, sign language fits in perfectly with their learning styles.  Toddlers are able to understand the association between the two-dimensional (2-D) picture with the sign associated to it.  They are so interested in the world around them. With the use of sign language, they are increasingly interested in playing together, reading together, and learning new lessons.

One thing I love about the toddler stage is ‘the power of the point’ (as I call it). Toddlers are at a great age that they understand and use joint referencing. So as the parent, when you point to something, your toddler will look. And this works vise-versa as well! When your toddler points to something, they expect you to look. This is a perfect way to learn new signs and increase their vocabulary skills. My daughter understands the sign for TREE every time we are taking our walk and she points to the tree. She looks at me pointing and I say, ‘yes, it’s a TREE.’  She always points to our family pictures in the living room – this is a great time for her to learn the labels of people and now sign (e.g. MOMMY, DADDY).

The benefits are endless. Many parents find that their toddlers and pre-school children are learning sign language at daycare as part of their curriculum. A few of my parents from classes or on the streets come to me and say, “my daughter is signing DIAPER because she needs her diaper changed.” My response: “Great – thank your day care because you are one leg up on that potty training thing that everyone else has such a tricky time doing.” But most importantly, it’s something that my family participates in together. Sign language – the benefits are endless!

Kristy works as a speech-language pathologist in the school systems, early intervention, as well as with private clients. Kristy uses ASL both personally (with her daughter) and professionally in her therapy sessions and by teaching classes, tutoring sessions, and workshops. She is a Master Level Certified Sign Language Instructor through Signing Time®, a new blogger, a student in Nova Southeastern University’s SLP.D program, a wife, and a new mom of a 14-month old. Visit her new blog and her Facebook page and become followers! www.hearmyhandsasl.com


Sunday, May 27, 2012

Mrs. Stanford's Good Reads Linky

Hello all! I am sure some of you have noticed my lack of posts the past couple weeks. Well, we have been wrapping up the school year as I am sure most of you have been. I am officially out for Summer vacation! So, I am finally getting around to Mrs. Stanford's linky party that I promised her I would join over a week ago. Here are my good reads for the Summer:

LOVE LOVE LOVE the Sookie Stackhouse novels (the books that the HBO show True Blood are based on) and the newest book just came out! I am so excited though I haven't started on it yet. I am working on finishing up this trilogy first:

I am currently on the second book "Catching Fire" and I can't wait to see the first movie. I know I am behind on that, but I would much rather read the book before seeing the movie.

Well, that's all I have for now. But I am such a slow reader, these should last me most of the summer, LOL! I am open to any suggestions of other books I might like. Just leave a comment!




Thursday, May 24, 2012

Thinky Linky Thursday

Preschool Teacher

MOST CLICKED LINKS FROM LAST WEEK:




Please grab a button if you were featured:
TBA's Ultimate Linky Party

Tuesday, May 22, 2012

Calling All Guest Bloggers!

Good Morning everyone! It's another Tuesday here at Cachey Mama's Classroom and I have some news! The winning idea for my new feature based on the poll results is Tutorial Tuesday. Now, I need lots of volunteers to be guest bloggers. I am totally okay with previous posts you have written that include a tutorial about how to do something kid-related or classroom-related. I am open to many ideas, so try me! PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE e-mail me (cacheymama@gmail.com) with your ideas and pass this on to anyone else you know who may be interested. Thanks!!!

Thursday, May 17, 2012

Thinky Linky Thursday

Preschool Teacher

Here are the most clicked links from last week.




Congrats to all who were featured and please grab the button below to display on your blog!



TBA's Ultimate Linky Party

Tuesday, May 15, 2012

Shape Matching Game using Border

Here is an easy way to make a matching game using this dollar store border.
 Just cut up 2 strips and children can use it to match shapes....
 or as a memory game.

Have fun!



Monday, May 14, 2012

Study about Cars

We did a car study with the afternoon class a few weeks ago. Here are some of our activities.

These are some streets we made with construction paper in the shape of letters. They can be put together to make different paths and then they drove matchbox cars around it.

We read this book...

and the kids loved this page about the tunnel. Some of them decided to build their own tunnel.

They used the train table lid as a ramp.

Then they went to work building the tunnel at the end.

When the tall one would not stay up easily, I suggested that they build a shorter one.



They had lots of fun racing the cars down the ramp and through the tunnel. As you can see, we also got out some measuring tools and measured and compared the distance each car went when it reached the bottom of the ramp. We predicted whether the big cars or the little cars would go further.

Here are the felt cars I made and below is the chant we did, starting with one car and adding one for each verse.


We did a graph of our favorite car...


And lastly, I don't have a picture, but we glued red, yellow and green circles on a black rectangle to make traffic lights.

Here are some of the books we read: