Bulletin Board Ideas

Here are a couple of the bulletin boards we have up outside the classroom. The first one focuses on our transportation unit. There is some of the children's work posted. It was a project where they had to tell how they come to school, by bus, car, truck, etc. and then cut out that vehicle and glue it on the paper. I also added some strips of paper that have objectives listed that relate to what the children learned and on the outside, I posted some photos from our wrap-up celebration of our study when parents were invited to come and race remote control vehicles with their children. 

These are our patterns we made using different color light bulb cutouts for our "Investigating Light" study. As you can see at the bottom center the one that is all blue, one friend got creative and decided to cut out and glue on his own light bulb. Although he didn't create a color pattern with it, I felt that it was worth displaying as he took it upon himself to extend the activity.

I like how both of these turned out with the bright colors. I felt that they really stand out!

Playing with Light and Color Patterns

Snugglepuppy and I have been playing with different apps that allow you to create with light. I will list the ones we have found that we like that are free.

Android:

1. KidsDoodle

This app is lots of fun. You can draw or write with many different brushes including the ones shown in the pic above. You can change the background color, undo and redo brush strokes and the really fun part is you can watch a video of how you made your creation!

2. RotoDoodle

This app is a digital version of a spirograph. It is fun to play with. You can choose the size, color, and pattern. We decided to look for an app like this after buying a spirograph from the dollar store for Snuggle Puppy's prize box and then realizing that it requires a lot of hand strength and hand eye coordination. He's not quite ready for it yet, but this one is much easier to work with.

3.Magic Brush Box (Kaleidoo)

This one is similar to the last spirograph type app. The difference is you can control more of the factors on this one. You can change the type of brush you use and you can draw your own pattern instead of choosing a pattern that will just keep repeating. This app is by the same people as KidsDoodle and you can do the video of how your created your drawing on this one as well.

4. Glow Spin Art

This app is so fun to play with. It spins and you put your finger or stylus on the screen to make spirals out from the center. You can change the speed at which it spins, the size, color, and shape. You can also stop the spinning to take a closer look at it.

Ipad or Iphone

1. Art of Glow

This app is kinda like fireworks. Wherever you touch the screen, shapes explode out everywhere. You can control the shape, color, amount of shapes, size, length of time they last, speed, blink speed, and whether they will renew or burn out. Kids love this one. You can stare at it for hours!

2. Forge of Neon

This is by far my favorite one. You can make patterns in symmetry of 2,4,8,16, or 32. The picture shown above is with 16. Then you can also choose your shape and color. The best part about it, is your pattern is 3-dimensional. You can pinch and zoom, use 2 fingers to move the image on the screen, or use 3 fingers to rotate the image around. It is very interesting to play with.

Hope you found some apps you will try that can be great for teaching math concepts to your kids!

Marble Painting

We did marble painting this week as we have started a new study on balls. This is a pic of one we did in class. We  laid the paper in the bottom of a box, put some paint in the middle and the marbles. Then the kids shook the box to roll the marbles around and paint a picture.

I also did this activity at home with my son.

Before

During

After

Painting Sticks

We also painting sticks last week. Why, you ask? Because we can! Painting on paper gets kinda boring after a while, so we decided to gather up some sticks outside in the dump truck:

Then we used all these different colors to paint. We talked about the colors as we painted.

 He used fine motor and hand eye coordination to paint the sticks.

It was kinda hard to get the stick to hold still while he was trying to paint it, so he decided to pick it up and dip it in the paint.

The brush we used was a little too long for him to handle. (I have since bought more kid-friendly brushes)

Eventually he gave up the brush altogether and the sticks and went to painting himself.

See, look what I did!

Here are our finished sticks before they dried. I helped him finish up painting them.

 Here is the finished product after they dried. If you have any ideas on what we can do with them now, please comment!

Sorting using Venn Diagrams

Ok, so I'll admit, this activity started out as just shape and color review. Here is what I put in the block area. The "blue things" box I added on Wednesday and the "squares" on Thursday. That was going to be the whole activity. The idea was for the kids to just be aware of them, identify them and try to figure out what the items have in common. 

But then I began thinking, what if the kids notice that there are some blue squares and ask which box it should go in. What a great way to teach sorting by more than one characteristic. I don't know if that is an objective in your curriculum, but it is in Creative Curriculum. So, why don't we make a venn diagram and allow the kids to sort and that way it will account for those blue squares.

These 3 photos above are what it looked like when I sorted the items just to show how it would look. Below are the results I got when the kids did the activity:

I thought there was no way to fit all those items on that small paper, but leave it to the kids to find a way! They did an awesome job and I am so very proud of them!!!!

CLICK HERE TO SEE WHERE I LINK UP

Storytime Sunday: More Farm

Ok, I know I have been a slacker this weekend. It is technically Monday when I am posting this. Please forgive me. Anyways, we have been studying pets and farm animals the last few weeks. I have been getting the idea that there were still a few things my kids were not understanding about the farm. For example, they know about specific animals and barns, but I'm not sure if they know about what a real farm looks like and the names for some of the baby animals. Here are some books I found in my personal library that I thought would be helpful for them.

This story is great because it explains in detail what the farm looks like and what all the animals do on the farm. It tells about the sounds the animals make and some things that grow in the fields. It has colors, counting, and rhyming and it goes through the whole day from morning to night. There are a lot of descriptive words and vocabulary.

Next is a book about a boy who lives on a farm in Mexico and takes care of the animals. I especially love this one because it is going to be an awesome transition into our study about countries and cultural diversity. It has some simple words in Spanish and tells 5 stories about different animals and each one has a riddle that Ramon makes up about the silly actions of the animals. I know the children will love this one!

A very simple book with large print and very few words, this tells the name for each adult and baby animal.

And last is a simple reader that introduces the sight words "a, big and little" and other words "chair, sheep, three and white." Kids will enjoy reading this all by themselves!

HAPPY READING!

Thinky Linky Thursday: Are you afraid of the dark?

I have been letting the baby play with flashlights and tonight, we were in his playroom and I turned off the lights and realized we could have a little fun as most of his toys light up. He thought it was pretty funny. Anyways, there are so many activities you can do with children in the dark using flashlights and other things that light up. For example, for younger children, even babies, they may not understand that they are controlling the light beam coming from the flashlight. Allowing them to explore and make shadows is a great way to help them understand what light is and how it works. Using different color lights or laser pointers can also be fun and help them identify colors.

You can even talk about prisms and how light splits apart for older kids. Have a campout in a homemade tent to start your adventure and let the discovery begin! And for some gross motor, you might want to add in a game of flashlight tag.

<a href="http://preschoolteacher81.blogspot.com/search/label/thinky%20linky%20thursday"><img alt="Preschool Teacher" src="http://i142.photobucket.com/albums/r103/loriajones/ThinkyLinkyThursButton.jpg"/></a>

Storytime Sunday: Pete the Cat

If you have ever read either of the Pete the Cat books to your kids you will know these books rock and kids love them!

The librarian that comes in once a month had read I Love My White Shoes to the kids last year, so I decided to check them both out from the library this year for our pets study. My kids won't put it down. They love to sing along and the story is easy to tell by looking at the pictures. Even some of the kids who never want to look at a book are trying to get to the rug first to get these books! They are completely amazing.

Eric Litwin (Mr. Eric) has a great website with a page full of links including blog postings and Youtube videos. Here is a Youtube video of a live reading of I Love My White Shoes.

Happy Reading!