Storytime Sunday: Dr. Seuss's ABC

Today's book is one of my favorites, Dr. Seuss's ABC. There are so many activities you can do with this book. One of my favorite things about Dr. Seuss other than the rhyming of course, is his made-up characters. The kids really get a kick out of these creatures and the silly things they do! 

So, we decided to do a writing activity with this book. We used this as our sample. The kids were to write as much of this as they can (choosing their own letter) and then draw a picture of something that begins with that letter.

Here is one of the children's work:

And here is another. She didn't get around to drawing a picture, but she wrote more of the text.

We made letters with gear blocks as you can see here. We also have the Dr. Seuss's ABC computer game on our computer, so it was a great extension of the book about which we had read and written.

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Saturday's Top 5 Laughs

Here are my laughs for the week. Haven't done this in a few weeks as we've been out on winter break.

1. Little boy, playing with cars, says "My racecar can go superfast like 20 miles per hour!!!"
2. Playing with playdough: "I'm making you a cake for your birthday. These are the candles." I asked how old am I, 20? "No, older." I asked, 100? "Yes"
3. I saw a boy in the kitchen area hitting the baby doll in the head with a stick of asparagus and asked why he was hitting the baby? "He was saying bad words."
4. At art, I asked a student what they were painting. "A grape maker." What's that, I ask dumbly? "It makes grapes." OF COURSE! :)
5. We notice a little girl is walking around with a memory car in her hand and says "Adrian gave this to me." So upon questioning, Adrian confirms it's not his. We ask the girl, "Which Adrian?" (Technically we do have 2, but one was not here then.) She went and pointed to someone totally different with a similar-sounding name.

Recipe for A Happy Day

Thinky Linky Thursday: A Day in Preschool

Here are some of the things we did since being back from winter break. (only 1 day) It was so nice to be back with my kiddos! Love them :)

Floating sailboats. Matching colors and shapes. One of my little girls made up her own song "I'm sailing, we're sailing together."

Love the way this little boy set up the dramatic play area with our new baby dolls! Setting the table shows understanding of 1:1 correspondence.

Isn't this snow angel adorable?!

For small groups, we sat at the discovery area by the window and looked out at the snow. We talked about winter and what happens to the weather when winter comes. Then we drew pictures of things we can do with snow.

My car-obsessed student decided to build this ramp/street/track to run his cars on. A bunch of other kids joined in. Just look at how he matched up the blocks to make them fit together. Excellent!

And lastly, we used these gear blocks (not sure what they're really called) to make letters. 

What have you been doing with your kids?

Link up below!

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Wishlist Wednesday: Whole Child Creative Curriculum

This week's guest blogger is Carla from Whole Child Creative Curriculum. If you have not visited her blog yet, you definitely need to stop by! She has so many wonderful learning ideas and even a "free" section. We all love free, especially after the holidays, so come and take a look. I also like her "Teach Me Tuesday" feature.

Hi Everyone!  I am happy to be guest posting here at Cachey Mama's Classroom, and am excited to share a simple experiment that preschoolers love to do...over and over and over!  I blog about teaching preschoolers at Whole Child Creative Curriculum, and would love to get to know you there too!  I host a weekly link party on Tuesdays and invite you all to link up any education-related posts you'd like to share!

Now, on to my wish...

Early childhood is such an important time in children's lives!  Their minds are inquisitive and they love, love, love to experiment!  You could turn them loose in the kitchen and the mess would let you know they learned a ton!  Of course, that same mess is the biggest reason preschoolers don't always have the freedom to experiment the way they would like.

My wish for this Wednesday (and for the entire new year!) is that we can worry a little less about the mess and give our kiddos a few more chances to learn about their world through experiments.

Color Cups is a fun experiment that preschoolers will happily repeat more than once!  As they do so, they learn about colors, mixing, liquids, weight, and texture.  Their fine motor skills are strengthened as they pour, pinch, or scoop and their observation skills are enhanced as they notice new aspects of the experiment each time.

Color Cups' Supply  List is short:
4 plastic cups
4 spoons, droppers, or other tools to transfer water
red, yellow, and blue food coloring  (You can always use other colors too, but these do mix nicely.)

Preparation is easy:

1-  Fill three of the cups about half full with water.
2- Add 2-3 drops of food coloring and talk about the way it mixes with the water.  You could let your child stir it up if he is impatient!
3- Place a spoon in each cup and give your child the empty cup.

Step back and let your child experiment!  Don't worry about the spilled water...it's just water!  Take some pictures and keep paper towels handy.

Most preschoolers will be done within 15 minutes, but will want to repeat the experiment again a few days later.  After a few repetitions you can vary things by letting your child drip the colors on a piece of watercolor paper or by providing a cup with something in it besides water.  Above all, remember to have fun!  Preschoolers learn when they are engaged and enjoying what they are doing!

Thanks again to Cachey Mama for having me over!  Feel free to come say hi at Whole Child Creative Curriculum!

Post Holiday Sensory Bin

Here is our wrapping paper and bow sensory bin we came up with using leftovers from Christmas. My son (13 mo) LOVED the bows on Christmas. He played with them while his presents were being opened by other people. Also, I've noticed that while he really didn't have much interest in tearing the wrapping paper off his gifts, he does often like to tear apart a random paper or tissue that he gets a hold of. So, seeing all the sensory bins other people have been doing on various blogs, I decided to give it a try. Here are some photos. (You can also see our light box in some of the photos.)

Yeah, little buddy is very active and tends to get distracted sometimes, but that's ok. He did come back to it.

He decided to decorate the light box all on his own :)

As you can see, I just used a drawer from my plastic storage cart.

Remember, a sensory "bin" can be anything that will hold the necessary items.

He did end up tearing some of the paper up. He carried one piece all around the room with him for a while. I used different types of wrapping paper in the bin. The shiny and see through ones could not be easily ripped. I wanted to see what he would do if he couldn't tear it, but he never got that far. 

Also, an important thing to remember in learning through play is that there are no such things as mistakes and  that messes are ok. Example: I knocked L's cereal on the floor and it spilled right in front of him. Just as I was about to get frustrated, he began picking them up one by one and putting them in the container I had just given him to play with. What was especially great about this is that earlier I had been showing him how to clean up his blocks from the floor (since he LOVES to throw them there, but rarely picks them up). So you can see why I was a little happily surprised! I love how little ones always put you in check and help you remember the important things. Each and every moment can be a teaching moment if you seize the opportunity.

Have you seized the opportunity for a teachable moment recently? Leave me a comment about it!

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Favorite Post of 2011

Ok, I am finally jumping on the bandwagon with my fav from 2011. This goes back to one of my very first posts. I loved doing this plant unit. It was really fun to watch the kids and see them actually learning a lot from it and having fun. The children were really engaged and asking a lot of questions. I think they really got a lot out of it.

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 I linked up with:

Motivational Monday

This is one I snagged from A Magical Childhood. Love it!

Happy New Year!

Storytime Sunday: Fingers and Toes

This week's book is:

If you missed the 20% off sale at Half Price Books, I'm sorry. But I didn't :) And I managed to pick up some books for my son as well as for the classroom. I found this list of must have books for your baby's first library conveniently just as we were driving to HPB and decided to see if they had any of the ones I don't already have. Ten Little Fingers and Ten Little Toes is one of them.

Our class is so diverse that we are going to be starting a whole unit on cultures and countries around the world when we return from break. This book could be a great introduction to the unit. I am so excited and I think the kids will really get into it and begin to embrace their own various cultures and traditions. Hopefully it will last a while!

Anyways, I got this book for my baby's collection. It talks about different babies being born at the same time in lots of different places, but as everyone know, they all have 10 little fingers and 10 little toes. From the baby who was born in the town to the baby born in the hills and even the baby born on the ice, there is something for every child to relate to. I especially love the pictures of the babies which I know kids will love as well.

For an extension of this book, you could do any of the many many hand print and foot print activities found on Pinterest. Here is an example that my son made at school although it's a little late for this:

Also, it is a great way to talk about geography and the types of houses people live in in other parts of the world.

So if you haven't read this book, please add it to your collection ASAP!

Happy Reading!