"Over in the Meadow" Felt Board Story

We are studying the weather changes that come in the spring, including the animals coming out when it starts to get warm. So, I decided to read the book Over in the Meadow and made some felt board animals to along with it. This book is great for counting and rhyming and learning about what different animals do. 

Bear Story Time

The librarian came to our school for story time and focused on bears. 

She used the bear and the bee puppet for this rhyme:

Here is a Bear

Here is a bear, the bear is fuzzy; Here is a bee, the bee is buzzy.

The bee makes honey in a hollow tree.

The bear likes to eat honey you see.

Here comes the bear, Oops! There he goes.

The little bee stung the bear right on his nose.

She's reading Where's My Teddy? by Jez Alborough

This book was really cute and wonderful for predicting.

She also used laminated bear stick puppets for each child to sing the song, The Bear Went over the Mountain:

Oh, the bear went over the mountain, the bear went over the mountain.

The bear went over the mountain, to see what he could see.

And what do you think he saw? And what do you think he saw?

The other side of the mountain, the other side of the mountain.

The other side of the mountain, was all that he could see.

So, he went back over the mountain, he went back over the mountain,

He went back over the mountain, so very happily.

She also used some props to go on a bear hunt:

Going on a bear hunt, leaving right away,

Gonna find a bear if it takes all day.

1. Did we bring the map? Yes, we brought the map.

2. Did we bring the flashlight? Yes, we brought the flashlight.

3. Did we bring our lunch? Yes, we brought our lunch.

4. Did we bring the honey? Yes, we brought the honey.

5. Did we bring the camera? Yes, we brought the camera.

Ready for a bear hunt! Now, let's go!

And, we also sang the song, If you're happy and you know it doing these actions:

Clap your claws...

Stomp your paws...

Give a growl...

Do all three!

And one last rhyme:

Teddy bear, teddy bear, turn around. Teddy bear, teddy bear, touch the ground.

Teddy bear, teddy bear, show your shoe. Teddy bear, teddy bear, that will do.

Teddy bear, teddy bear, climb the stairs. Teddy bear, teddy bear, say your prayers.

Teddy bear, teddy bear, turn out the light. Teddy bear, teddy bear, say goodnight.

Below are some of the books that she read and/or recommended about bears. 

Farm Study

These photos are from my co-workers classroom. They have been working on a farm study the last couple of weeks and she has a TON of great ideas. I will probably be using some of these ideas soon myself. Thank you to Crystal for allowing me to use your photos!

Playdough Cupcakes with Sprinkles

This week, we are beginning our study on pets. We are reading this great book, If you Give a Cat a Cupcake by Laura Numeroff. I love this series of books. They are so great for sequencing and retelling. Then, since my class has been so into playdough recently, I decided to put a little twist on that. 

We made cupcakes with playdough and then added "sprinkles" on the top using glitter. The children had so much fun with this activity. To add a little more literacy to this, I had them choose a friend to make their cupcake for and write the friend's name on a card. If they couldn't write the letters on their own, I made the letters with dotted lines for them to trace.

What have you done with this book or any of the "If you Give a..." books?

Tutorial Tuesday: Planning Preschool Activities

Planning Preschool Activities 

Hi! My name is Trina from Teaching My Blessings! I am a former elementary teacher and the Mommy to my three sons, who are my most amazing blessings. I am honored to be guest posting here today at Tutorial Tuesday. Today I will be discussing how to plan preschool activities and match activities with books.

One of my most favorite things to do is PLAN! I am a planner by nature. My calendar is my friend! When I was teaching full time my planning period was always my favorite time of the day. When I first started teaching I always loved getting a freshly, sharpened pencil and my empty lesson plan book! Then as technology progressed I began to type my lesson plans and then I loved looking at my blank excel spreadsheets to fill in. Oh how I do enjoy the planning piece of teaching. I learned over the years to be flexible with my planning. The ideas in my head can often be so much greater than the “real” world of teaching and learning.

In August of 2011 I decided it was time to engage my sweet boys more at home, therefore my new adventure began. I decided I would teach them concepts that I felt they needed to know at home at least two mornings a week. As the year went on I learned to be flexible with this piece of the planning process too and we did “preschool activities”, as we like to call them, anytime.

I began planning preschool activities for my children. First, I ran to Target to purchase an empty lesson plan book from the dollar section. I was so excited to have a blank lesson plan book again!

First, I planned the year thematically by choosing a theme for each week. I included monthly themes to coordinate with holidays. Then I researched online preschool themes to get more ideas. I found a ton of great resources! Including an amazing community of bloggers all blogging about teaching their children. I also asked my boys what they wanted to learn about this year and I included those themes in my plans. One week we learned about dinosaurs because that was what my son was interested in at the time. Another week we learned about Big Bird and Ernie at my son’s request.

I love to match our learning activities with books. I have a huge love for the public library. During the planning process I use our public library’s online card catalog to search for books to match each theme. I write the coordinating titles in my lesson plan book next to each theme. Then I put the books on hold to match each theme according to when I need them. I try to plan ahead and reserve the books to coordinate with each theme. Reading to my boys is one of my most favorite things to do as a parent and it is so important!!

I then search many of the blogs that I follow to find activities and printables to match the themes. I preview the activities and if I feel they are age appropriate for my children I bookmark them and write them in my lesson plan book.

This past year each week I planned:
Letter of the week
Shape
Color
Bible Verse
Character development Trait

I also plan crafts, cooking projects and field trips to coordinate with the theme when appropriate. The more hands on, creative, and fun activities I can plan, the better!

I hope this simple tutorial of how to plan activities has inspired at least one reader. Happy Planning!

10 Plant Activities for Preschool

We just wrapped up our plant study that lasted about a month. Some of the topics we covered included: 

Where can plants grow?

What are the parts of a plant?

Does a plant need soil to grow?

What do you need to do to plant a garden?

Here is my original post about our garden center. We have done so much since then! Here are 10 of our favorite activities.

1. Tracking the growth of our plants.

The different seeds we planted included pinto beans, sunflowers, marigolds, and forget-me-nots. As you can see, some starting growing much faster than others. Each day the children looked to see if their plant was coming up yet and we made a list. 

Here is a closeup of what they looked like toward the end of the study when we sent them home.

2. Writing nature words.

3. Nature walk at our living habitat.

The children pointed out lots of things they saw growing. This was also one of the ways we investigated our study question: Where can plants grow?

They documented what they saw on mini clipboards.

We discussed different environments including wetlands.

4. We used the felt board to sort some laminated photos of plants growing in different types of habitats.

5. We talked about how fruits grow on plants and graphed our favorite one by writing names.

6. We did a chart of different questions relating to our previous experiences such as:

Have you ever made a bouquet of flowers?

Have you ever seen a plant growing in snow?

Have you ever been to a greenhouse?

Then we counted the amount of each answer to see which was the most and which was the least.

7. We filled our sensory table with water beads.

8. We filled our sensory table with sand and soil.

9. Gluing seeds in the center of a sunflower. I can't honestly take credit for this one, it's my nephew's artwork from preschool. But it is a great idea and if I would've seen this sooner, we would have done it as well. 

10. We read some great picture books about plants and gardens which you will definitely want to check out if you are doing a plant study.

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