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Preschool Activities for Thanksgiving
It’s snowing in Ohio, so it feels a little more like Christmas than Thanksgiving right now, but I’m doing my best to embrace Thanksgiving. I always make sure to spend some time on this particular holiday, it’s easy to forget about what it really means (because sometimes it feels like the sole purpose of Thanksgiving is to usher in the Christmas season). I love to spend time sharing what I’m thankful for, and encouraging my students to do the same, we also talk about ways that we can help others, and let people know how important they are. If you need a few more activities for your holiday celebrations, here…
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Freebie Friday – Community Helpers
Happy Friday! I don’t know about you, but this was a super long week, thank goodness the weekend is finally here! Today’s freebie is really cute, and a great way to add to your dramatic play centers, especially if you’re on a budget (aren’t we all!). These free community helper hats are from Kari Bolt – I think I may be obsessed with her store now – I cannot believe the quality of these images. I would love to have enough community helper dramatic play gear for all of my students to be able to dress up together, but I just can afford to buy the really great sets, and…
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Daily Reflection Calendars for Preschool
I scored some great freebies at the NAEYC Annual Conference, so of course, I have to do something cute with them! I have wanted to turn my daily calendar routine into an opportunity for reflection for quite some time, and I think I finally found a way to do it. This daily tear off calendar (a freebie from Lakeshore Learning Materials) has lines so that you can write on each page. I tore the calendar into sections (grouped by month), punched a hole in the pages with myWe R Memory Keepers Crop-A-Dile II Big Bite Punch, and put each month on a binder ring. I plan to ask my students…
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Preschool Social Studies Activities
It’s been a couple of weeks since we finished our round up of activities that meet social emotional standards, and since we are heading into the holiday season, now is the perfect time to explore some ideas that meet social studies standards. Remember, the Standards that I use every day, and am most comfortable with are Ohio’s Early Learning Development Standards – you can review them here, however I’ve found that even if your State’s standards differ, many of these activities can still be aligned similarly. I’ve rounded up some great ideas today!Domain: Social StudiesStrand: SelfTopic: Historical Thinking and Skills This standard is less about history lessons, and more about understanding…
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Book Talk Tuesday – The Family Book
Now that my students have begun to come down from their Halloween high, it’s time to start thinking about Thanksgiving. I’ve always taught Thanksgiving a little differently. In my experience, young children can’t begun to understand the symbolism related to Pilgrims and Native Americans because they don’t have the background understanding of the historical value that these symbols represent. In the weeks leading up to Thanksgiving my class spends a lot of time exploring the concept of family – the people who make up our families, what it means to be a family, and reasons why families are important. These are all topics that children can easily understand and relate…
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Dallas Blogger Meet Up
Oh. My. Goodness. I am still pinching myself, while I was in Dallas I had the most incredible opportunity. I got to have dinner with blogging superstars! It was so nice to meet all of these wonderful ladies, I’ve followed many of them for years, and they were so wonderfully generous to share their great tips and ideas with this blogging newbie. I have to say a huge thank you to Vanessa from Pre-K Pages for organizing the meet-up, Holly and Rachel from Kids Activities Blog for sponsoring the meet-up, and my awesome friend Jamie from Play to Learn Preschool for including me! I also got to meet: Debbie from…
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NAEYC Expo Highlights
Yesterday was wet and gross in Dallas, so I spent most of the day hanging out in the Convention Center, but the real fun didn’t start until the Expo Hall opened! I have a bunch of photos to share with you, some are of the great freebies that we got, and some are of awesome products that I was introduced to. I am going to do my best to highlight the exhibitors that wowed me on the first night. The one thing that I love about the opening of the NAEYC Exhibit Hall is the atmosphere. The room is full of genuine appreciation for teachers, which is absolutely amazing! The…
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NAEYC 2014 – Sessions on my radar
Happy NAEYC Conference Kick off day! I thought I’d do a quick write up about the sessions that have grabbed my attention, but let’s be real, it won’t be quick, it’ll probably be really long, because there are so many! Before we get into that I want to tell you what else I’m doing to celebrate. For the rest of the week all of my Portfolios and Assessments are 20% off! So if you are looking for ideas for portfolios, or new assessments, please take a minute to see what I’ve got, they are all standards-based and so helpful! Ok, so here are the session that I’m most interested in.…
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Book Talk Tuesday – All things Reggio
One of the things that I am most looking forward to this week at the NAEYC Conference is hearing from the experts. I am always looking to further my understanding of different philosophies, especially Reggio Emilia and the Project Approach. I’ve implemented both of these approaches in my classroom and teaching this way has fundamentally changed my relationships with my students. They know that I respect them as my partners in teaching and learning, and that I want them to work to find the answers to their own questions. They also know that they can count on me to support their efforts, and to encourage them to look at things…
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NAEYC Here I Come!
I feel like I have been preparing for this week forever, and now that it’s finally here I am beyond ready to get this show on the road! I’m leaving for Dallas and the NAEYC National Conference on Wednesday, and I have a ton of great things planned that I can’t wait to share with you! My posts this week might be up a little later than usual, but that’s because I really want to share things as they happen. Wednesday night I’ll have the highlights of the Expo Hall (yay for freebies and getting to play with awesome new products!). On Thursday I’ll share some info from the sessions…
