T- Thrifty
E- Educational
A- Artsy/Artistic
C- Creative
H- Hands-On
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Tuesday, January 31, 2012
T.E.A.C.H Awards
Here are my picks for January. Congrats to those who were chosen. There are so many great posts within a month, that is very difficult to choose winners. I may have to start choosing 2 or even 3 for each category. Thanks to you all for being so awesome! Also, don't forget to nominate a fellow blogger's post that you think is extraordinary and fits into one of the T.E.A.C.H. categories for next month!
Monday, January 30, 2012
Sunday, January 29, 2012
Storytime Sunday: More Building Houses
Here are just some of the many books about houses that you can read with your preschoolers. We did The Three Little Pigs, This is the House that Jack Built, and Albert's Alphabet this week. I added Mother Goose because you could read The Old Woman Who Lived in a Shoe. I will be checking out the ABC book from the library whenever it comes in.
I love the Albert's Alphabet book because not only does it teach the alphabet, you can see all the different ways to build letters. Here is some of the houses we worked on using sticks this week:
The children had to describe what kind of house they built and we recorded what they said. We also build houses (more like towers) in block area:
And I had the children look at houses around the neighborhood when we went outside for outdoor play. We took some photos of them. I will print them and have the children talk about them and compare to some other houses from around the world.
The House that Jack Built is a great book for repetition. It is great to have the children say the words along with you on each page. Also, there is a lot of rhyming and new vocabulary you can introduce. Tattered and torn, forlorn. These are words that kids don't hear just every day. I think most kids will love this book. It is just silly enough to get them involved!
Saturday, January 28, 2012
Saturday's Top 5 Laughs
Here are my 5 laughs from preschool this week.
1. We have been learning about houses this week so I asked a little girl "Where is your house?" Without hesitation, she made the astute observation: "At home!"
2. Today one of the girls in my class told me all about where she came from. She said "I used to be a tadpole in an egg in my mommy's belly. I was in there with my brother!" When I told her mother about it later, she said she had told the daughter before that she started out as a tadpole. And when the mother had asked her how she got out of mommy's belly, she had responded that she crawled out.
3. We were reading the book The Three Little Pigs. Upon seeing the picture of the wolf blowing, the other teacher asked why is the wolf mad? One little boy said "Because his face is purple!"
4. After reading The Three Little Pigs, one little boy was snorting and another girl said "He smells like a pig." We quickly corrected her, saying "He SOUNDS like a pig." But I guess technically he was "smelling" like a pig does :)
5. Upon arriving in the classroom at lunch time, one child said "What smells like food?"
And a bonus laugh for those of you who love or have kids who love Angry Birds...
My hubby overheard this conversation the other day:
Mom: We can kill 2 birds with one stone.
Daughter: Mom, don't you mean we can kill 2 pigs with one bird?
1. We have been learning about houses this week so I asked a little girl "Where is your house?" Without hesitation, she made the astute observation: "At home!"
2. Today one of the girls in my class told me all about where she came from. She said "I used to be a tadpole in an egg in my mommy's belly. I was in there with my brother!" When I told her mother about it later, she said she had told the daughter before that she started out as a tadpole. And when the mother had asked her how she got out of mommy's belly, she had responded that she crawled out.
3. We were reading the book The Three Little Pigs. Upon seeing the picture of the wolf blowing, the other teacher asked why is the wolf mad? One little boy said "Because his face is purple!"
4. After reading The Three Little Pigs, one little boy was snorting and another girl said "He smells like a pig." We quickly corrected her, saying "He SOUNDS like a pig." But I guess technically he was "smelling" like a pig does :)
5. Upon arriving in the classroom at lunch time, one child said "What smells like food?"
And a bonus laugh for those of you who love or have kids who love Angry Birds...
My hubby overheard this conversation the other day:
Mom: We can kill 2 birds with one stone.
Daughter: Mom, don't you mean we can kill 2 pigs with one bird?
Thursday, January 26, 2012
Thinky Linky Thursday
Happy Thursday everyone! Here are the most viewed links from last week:
And a tie for 2nd place:
And...
Congratulations! Please feel free to take the featured button if you are a winner!
Thanks so much to all who linked up.
Wednesday, January 25, 2012
Rice Sensory Table
I am so sorry that Wishlist Wednesday got messed up this week! I made a scheduling mistake and accidentally reminded the wrong person to get their post ready, so I will hopefully be rescheduling the person who I thought was supposed to post for today.
Anyways, instead here is some things we've been doing with rice in the sensory table this week.
Anyways, instead here is some things we've been doing with rice in the sensory table this week.
We measured and poured. Using the sand toy, we discovered how pouring something into the top makes the wheel spin.
We shoveled, raked and funneled.
We used seasoning shakers from the kitchen area to fill with rice and pretend it was salt or just to shake them up and hear the sound it makes.
Tomorrow, we will be having an ABC treasure hunt by digging in the rice to find some hidden letters!
What have you done with rice? Next time, I want to try to make the colored rice I have been seeing all over other blogs and Pinterest such as these...
Monday, January 23, 2012
Winter Bulletin Board
Here is our display of our winter work in the hallway. We used shapes to make these snowmen. The snowflakes we made in this post. And I normally would have put up a nice snow border, but I didn't get around to it this time.
Sunday, January 22, 2012
Storytime Sunday: Homes Continued
Here are 2 of the very best books about houses that I know.
"A web is a house for a spider. A bird builds its nest in a tree. There is nothing so snug as a bug in a rug and a house is a house for me!" Everything from a car to a teabag to ink has a house if you think about it long enough. I absolutely love how this book thinks outside the box for the meaning of a house. The illustrations are marvelous and I especially adore the very last 2 pages: "Each creature that's known has a house of its own and the earth is a house for us all." Think about the deeper meaning that could have!
This book is so great for younger ones. It is short and very to the point. The basics of building a house, step by step all the way to moving in. Children will love it and can easily sequence the steps or act out the story.
So some of the continuing activities we did this week about building houses include:
This is AM class's venn diagram comparing 2 different houses from different areas of the world. They were able to come up with some similarities and differences.
This, however is PM class's venn diagram. And I pretty much had to give them these answers. So, I decided with the PM class being mostly 3s, they might not be ready for this activity just yet.
So here is what I made for them instead. A much easier concept. We just talked about the parts of the house and the children were able to take apart and put together the house however they wanted it. Much better results with this. Although I think I will pull out the venn diagram again and give it another try.
We used mini marshmallows and pretzel sticks to build houses as well. They were a lot more difficult to stay together than I thought. Probably should have used regular sized marshmallows. But, as you can see, one little boy persisted and was able to build an entire house and get it to stand up!
Then, we sorted photos of different types of landscapes where your house could be located.
I also printed maps of countries where each of the children's family is from. We talked about the purpose of a map and some of the features of maps. In case you can't see, all the maps are different types. Some are just regular maps and some are topographical, etc.
Where do you search for books for the studies you do in your classroom or at home with your children?
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