Healthy Cute Kids Lunch

What can I say? He ate it all and asked for more... and then more carrots! 

Happy New Year to all! Hope 2014 brings you lots of health, happiness, and love :)

Pets Prop Box

This week, we began our study on pets. With the help of one of our parent volunteers, we used this nicely decorated cardboard box as a prop box to introduce the topic of pets.

We put several different items in the box including a dog leash and collar, a food/water bowl, and a dog toy. Also I added photos of different pets.

I also checked out a box of puppets from our resource room to use with the kids. They seem to really be interested in the puppets.

More pet activities to come!

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?

Potato Printing and String Painting

Potato Printing 

I'm sure you've heard of this and probably have done it as a kid. I decided to try it out with Snugglepuppy. He thought it was pretty great. Here are some pics of what we did. I cut the potato in half and carved some lines and dots into the cut surface. Then used them as stampers to print on the paper.

I decided to try mixing some colors with a toothpick, so of course Snugglepuppy wanted one too.

The we decided since we already had a mess, we would try some string painting. 

String Painting

We each got a medium length piece of yarn and dipped it in the paint. Then, we pulled it across the paper to make lines and patterns. Snugglepuppy decided he wanted to form his string into letters. You can see his P below.

What are some other types of painting you have tried with your little ones? I am thinking about trying some edible paint with baby Ladybug.

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!

Green Eggs and Ham

Today, I decided to make green eggs and ham for breakfast. Snugglepuppy has really been getting into the Dr. Seuss books and that book and The Cat in the Hat are his favorites. He pretty much became the character from the book and I, Sam I Am, of course :) He refused the first few times I asked him to try it, but eventually when I held a spoonful right up to his mouth, he agreed to take just one bite. Lo and behold, he liked it! He proceeded to eat the rest of his bowlful.

Just the eggs and green food coloring.

After the eggs started to cook, I added some butter, milk, cheese and the ham chunks.

Here is the final product. Not too bad and very tasty!

Also, I have made up a bag for each of the most popular Dr. Seuss books with different activities and the accompanying book inside. See my previous post to see what the bags look like.

What's your favorite Dr. Seuss book and what activities do you do with it?

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

Clean-Up Race Game

Here is what we've been doing to encourage the children to clean up faster. First, we start the clean-up song playing on the CD player. We use our chart with all the areas. 

Once an area is clean, we cover it with an apple until they are all cleaned up. If they are all clean by the time the clean-up song is over, they get a star. 3 stars in one week means we get to play Wii on Friday.

What do you do for clean-up time?

Rule Chart and Chant

Here is our rule chart. I made this using the rules the children came up with. We wrote out their ideas on chart paper and then consolidated them into these 4 simple rules.

We also do a chant to go along with it:

Hands to yourself, hands to yourself,

rule number 1 is keep your hands to yourself.

Continue with each rule.

How do you enforce the laws in your classroom?

UNDER CONSTRUCTION!

This blog is undergoing some changes. I have decided to broaden the content by adding topics such as recipes, parenting, crafts, etc to my main focus which will still be teaching and activities for young children. Thus, I am also changing the title of the blog to Cachey Mama's World of Learning. The Facebook page, Google+ page, and Twitter are all still the same as is the domain name for the blog: www.cacheymama.com. If you have any questions, suggestions, or to report a problem, please feel free to e-mail me at  cacheymama @ gmail (dot) com. Thanks!

Bean Letters

Here is our art project from today, bean letters. Each child got a letter (printed from a word processor document) and glued beans to the letter. Then we glued them to cardboard to make them more sturdy.

Short and simple one today. What are you doing to start teaching literacy to your class?

Macaroni Art

Here is some of macaroni art projects we made last week.

We glued the macaroni on the first day, then waited for it to dry. The next day, we painted our pictures.

This is great for working on fine motor skills. By using glue bottles, children have to squeeze just the right amount out at one time while controlling where the glue goes. Also, while we allowed the children to make anything they wanted, you could give a topic for them to create or they could try to write their names with it. 

Also, you can experiment more with this activity by adding salt to the paint for example to give it a rough texture. Or come up with your own ideas!

Have fun and MACARONI on!

Classroom Organization

So, here are some before and after pictures of my classroom.

BEFORE:

AFTER:

Circle time and library area with the computer just off to the left so we can show videos at circle time.

The Childrens' Hatch Computer

Our word wall with no words added yet. I love that it takes up much less room than the one we had last year.
These letters were printed from the TpT Store of Love of Teaching.

Writing Area

Sensory Table

Block Area

Dramatic Play Area

Toys and Games

Discovery Area

Art Area

A lot of the room stayed the same, but we just flip-flopped the blocks with toys and games and the circle time with dramatic play.  I love the new setup because it's much easier to show the whole class a video on the internet now and the room just feels more organized. I also love our discovery table. So far, the kids have mostly been flocking to the dramatic play area, although when we get out specific table toys, they tend to like those as well. We'll see how it goes and if we need to make any changes. I also tried to de-clutter as much as possible. Sometimes I feel like that is a losing battle with 2 classes of 17 coming through there each day and 2-3 other adults sometimes using the space as well, but you will never get there if you don't start out that way.

What did you do differently in your classroom setup this year?