-
Story Problems
I’ve mentioned before that I didn’t have a great relationship with math as a kid. This has turned me into a teacher who does absolutely everything in my power to make math not only fun, but also as easy as possible. I really wanted to try some story problems with my kiddos. I knew that many of them could do the addition that would be required, and I was pretty sure that a story problem would make a lot more sense to them than just throwing a couple of numbers in front of them and saying “add these”. Before I tried anything I wanted to make sure that I could…
-
Friday Freebies
It’s Friday, Yay! Today’s freebie is one that I found while working on my lesson plan for next week, I can’t wait to use it with my class. This is a cute Easter themed game from Yay for PreK that encourages children to practice their number recognition skills. It’s called Find the Bunny, and the pieces are designed to fit in a pocket chart. You “hide” the bunny behind one of the numbers, and as the children identify the numbers they get to check behind each egg to see if they have found the bunny. When I use this game I’m going to print two sets, so my kiddos have…
-
Easter resources link up
Hi everyone! I just wanted to let you know about a great link up that is taking place over at First Grade Salt Life. Head on over to check out the amazing Easter Resources and add your own!
-
Young Illustrators
As part of our Week of the Young Child festivities we have been celebrating children’s literacy. Each year one of my favorite activities is to have my students illustrate a book that they know very well. This year I choose Eric Carle’s “The Very Hungry Caterpillar.” My students seem to gravitate towards this book, and all of them have reported that they have a copy at home, so I knew it was one they were very familiar with. Our class book turned out great. Here is my class’ illustrated version of “The Very Hungry Caterpillar” (I did the cover page, the rest was done by my five year old students).
-
Library play
We were supposed to walk to the library this morning as part of our celebration of the Week of the Young Child, but it rained all morning, so I did what every good preschool teacher would do, I improvised. I set up my classroom like a library and made each of my students library cards, and we all spent the morning at Ms. Erin’s School Library. It was hilarious. My kiddos spent the entire morning whispering to each other, just like they would at the real library. They sat on the floor and read with each other – ALL MORNING. I’m going to do this more often! It was really…
-
Liebster Award for Blogging!
I am so touched! Alicia (also known as The Elementary Professor) nominated me for a Liebster Award! This blows my mind because I’m shocked that someone is actually reading my little blog. This is an award that is given to new bloggers by other bloggers, and in order to accept it, I have to answer some questions that Alicia came up with. This is great really, because I’ve talked a lot about my classroom, but I haven’t really shared much about myself. Here are the questions:1- What is your favorite subject to teach and why?I love language arts! I’m a huge advocate for the whole language approach, so I incorporate…
You May Also Like
I have some great things in store!
-
Celebrating amazing early childhood teachers
An organization that is near and dear to my heart is honored a group of incredible teachers this week. The Terri Lynn Lokoff Child Care Foundation selects a group of teachers each year to be named Child Care Teacher of the Year Award Recipients, these teachers represent the best in their field and honored with funds to complete a classroom project of their choosing. I was selected as a recipient in 2013 and I could not say nicer things about this organization. They really understand the struggles and demands placed on child care teachers, and they go out of their way to show their appreciation for the work that is…
-
Freebie Friday!
It’s Friday, and you know what that means! Freebies! Today’s awesome product is from Angie at Grins, Giggles, Gumdrops & Whole Brain Teaching. I am so excited to share her Rhyming Write the room. My kiddos LOVE to rhyme, they will find rhymes to go with anything – I’m serious, they pull food out of their lunch boxes and try to find words that rhyme with sandwich. They are going to love this one! I love this product because not only will it get them excited about writing, but also because it is easily differentiated. Go show Angie some love and download her great freebie. Be sure to check out…
-
We all need to play
This amazing quote has been on my radar since I found it on Pinterest a couple of weeks ago (have you noticed my obsession with Pinterest yet?!). I finally tracked down the original source, it is from U46 Early Learners Curriculum Blog. I teach preschool, so these words are not news to me, I experience them every day. The understanding that young children need to move, try new things, be loud, explore new places, and use their entire bodies to learn things all play a role in my lesson plans. I would, however, love to print this out and send it home to parents at different times throughout the year.…
You May Also Like
Easy Portfolios and Assessments for Early Childhood
-
Spring art project
I found the idea for this extraordinary art project at De tout et de rien (talk about seriously amazing ideas for children!) Occasionally I come across a project that I want to do as much as my students do. They love it when I join in. We started this particular piece of art by making rainbows on 12″x12″ sheets of cardstock with oil pastels. Now I know that I’ve used oil pastels with my class before, but for some reason they were absolutely amazed with them this time around. This could be because I was smudging them into my paper too. Their rainbows were works of art, seriously, they looked so…
