Germs

A few weeks ago we talked about germs. I had a parent bring a book that was such fun to read to the kids on a daily basis. The book is titled "Those mean, nasty, dirty, downright disgusting, but invisible germs"

We made these really fun "germs" and hung them from the ceiling. It was great seeing the kids let loose creatively.

Halloween in the class

So I got very excited to have an older class for Halloween this year. I have done a ton of decorating and activities and crafts.

We decorated the playhouse to be out Haunted or Halloween house (depends on who you ask ;).

Today I made a spider web on the wall with clear tape and let the kids throw "spiders" (balled up newspaper) at the spider web. They loved it!!

On Halloween we will be bowling and playing a Halloween punch game and more. :)

Incentives

So in conjunction with my behavior chart I have decided to come up with an incentive for my kids to strive to get to purple/outstanding each day, painted rocks.

In the parking lot of my work they have garden beds layered with tons of river rocks. I picked out probably a dozen or more rocks, cleaned them with a water bath and then started painting. I did simple yet fun designs. I also did things that related to the most recent themes we have talked about. Then When they were dry I did one coating of a varnish to seal it and make it Last longer. After all the rocks were dry I it then all I a large tin can and when a child gets to purple they get to pick their favorite.

I tried this out today because I had 5 kids out of my 10 total make it to outstanding (very good day) and I let them pick a rock. They were so excited and proud to show it off to their parents.

Classroom management

I recently took over the preschool class at my child care center. It was a great step up for me but the class was out of control and had no idea how to listen to a teacher let alone do what I asked of them. I created a behavior chart and we as a class came up with rules we all had to follow. During our rule discussion I asked "what kind of rules do you think we should have?". One boy responded "happy rules!" so our class rules are happy ones that are phrased in positive, what you can do , ways instead of negative no, don't, can't ways. The combination of the behavior chart and the easy to read or understand rules has turn my class of 9 physical boys and one sweet girl around in two short weeks.

Happy class rules: I found a class rule poster on pinterest that had simple drawing of faces and feet and other things to remind the kids visually what rules to follow. So I sat down with the kids and asked them what rules were important to them. The only one I helped them with was the sharing URL. The rest they said to me. I turned them into positive phrases because who really like being told what they can not do. I know I don't. I have found that the more often that you remind a child of what they can do instead of what they are doing, the more likely they are to do the actions we want them too.

After I completed the rule poster I showed it to the kids and talked about what each rule was and the picture that goes with it. So now when someone has a hard time remembering what rule they should be following I just tell them the rules number and even though they can not read yet, they can tell me what the rule is.

Behavior chart: I also found this type of chart on pinterest but for kindergarten ages or older. The ones I saw just had words on it. I wanted to add faces do the kids had a visual picture of how their actions effect their day. It has been challenging to monitor exactly when someone needs to move up or down because at the preschool age they are so active and still figuring out how rules work. But they get really excited when they move up and so heart broken when they have to move down. During our rule discussion we also talked about why we move down and what happens when we get to red.

Bug week

Here is a cute idea I found on pinterest. You let the kids make bugs using finger and thumb prints. The kids had fun making this with me.

Preschool center idea

I was at the dollar store looking for things to enhance the centers I have in my preschool class. I found the little butterfly clips an knew I needed to use them for something. The skill of being able to open them with their fingers will lead to better muscle control for writing. So I got some pencils for the kids to practice clipping them too.

I tried this activity today and they loved it. Or at least those advances enough to open the clips with out help. They matched the clip colors to the pencil colors and they also clipped them to the side of the bowl. One girl put as many clips as she could on a pencil and then counted them. 13 in all fit on the pencil. :)

My pets

Here is a barrage of pictures of my pets. I have three beautiful dogs and I love taking pictures of them. They can be so expressive. :)

A change

I am excited to share with everyone that I am moving classrooms in two weeks. I will no longer be teaching toddler. I will be tackling the wild preschool class. I am sad to be leaving the toddlers but some of them will follow me in a few months. The preschool class is in dire need of a teacher they will respond positively to and I know all of those kids personally so I know that I will succeed with them where two other teacher have struggled so much. I know it will have challenging moments but they will help me to grow into a better teacher. I am super excited to teach thing to kids who have a higher understand and bigger vocabulary. I am super duper excited. :)

Caterpillar to butterfly week

This week in toddler land we talked about caterpillars turning into butterflies.

Caterpillar art-I cut a circle (the size of a standard paper plate) out of white construction paper, for each toddler and let them color with markers and my dot markers. You could make these colorful in so many ways. Them I made a caterpillar head out of scrapbook paper (12x12 sized). After their circles were dry I hung up the head of the caterpillar and then used the circles for his body. The kids just love talking and pointing out the caterpillar to everyone.

Butterfly art-this was originally going to be a shape project but I ended up making it look more realistic. I cut out two wings out of red poster board and the head and body out of black poster board. Then I drew 5 (I have 10 students) shapes on one of the wings and when I was satisfied I had taken up enough room and made sure the shaped were all about the same size I cut them out and used them as templates to cut the same shape out twice with white card stock (for the kids to color on). **now when you go to let the kids color on these remember you need the shapes to correlate with each wing so I put X's on the backs so signify that the kids had to color on the fronts. Then you don't have to ask them to do it again because teacher made a mistake. Lol**
I let each kid color with markers and then glue different colored tissue paper pieces. They had a blast with it. When the prices were dry I taped them up on their spots. The kids love talking about the butterfly all day long. :)

Community worker-Mailman

This week we are talking about community workers. Today we talked about Maiman. I thought I would share an activity I did with my toddler class.

I made different colored "letters" to be delivered using colored index card from the dollar store. Then I made mail boxes to have the "letters" delivered too. Then attached a "letter" to each one so that they can deliver to the matching colors. The toddlers had a lot of fun delivering the "letters".

To make the mailboxes I took a paper plate and cut a half circle out of the middle, it looked kinda like a basket with a handle after. Them I glued the edges to card stock and let it dry. After it dried I cut the extra card stock off around the plate. Then I glues a "letter" on the front of each. I taped them to my felt board when we used them.