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.

Community workers-doctor

This week we are talking about community worker in my toddler class. Wednesday we talked about Doctors. I thought I would share my circle time activity and color page.

Circle time activity (first pic): I found a line drawing of a boy and a girl on Google and colored them in. After covering each with clear contact paper, I put the soft side of sticky Velcro dots on different parts of their bodies. Then I colored the dots red. Now it looks like they have injuries. Then I printed off a page of line drawing band-aids on to a light orange paper. I cut them out and covered them in contact paper. Then I put the rough sticky velcro dots on them. I attached the boy and girl to my felt board and let each child come up and fix an injury with a band-aid like a doctor would. They played this game 2-3 times and loved doing it.

Color page is the same boy and girl from circle time. I let the kids pic which they wanted regardless of their gender. Then I let them color it how ever they wanted. After they sufficiently scribbled all over the page I let them glue the paper band-aids on where ever they wanted. It was fun for them to fix injuries. :)

Color poster

I wanted an original color poster in my toddler room. I free hand cut slouches out of construction paper. Then I searched through magazines for fun pictures to match the colors. After writing the colors name on each and doing some embellishing I glued the splotches on white poster board and covered the whole thing in clear contact paper.

Alphabet

I wanted an original poster of the alphabet for my toddler class. I used different scrapbook papers and a big letter stencil. I glued all the letter on two pieces if poster board to make the poster. Finally I covered the whole thing with clear contact paper. I could add small pictures if I wanted but I like the simple look. :)

**I am aware that my "Q" is backwards. But I did not realize that until I had covered the whole thing with contact paper. Lol**

Community workers-painter

This week we are talking about community workers.

Monday we talked about house painters. I cut out houses out of big white paper and let each child paint their own house. They got to pick two different colors. It was a lot of fun to watch.

For circle time I made a color match game using paint splotches and paint brushes. I free hand cut the splotches out of different colored construction paper. Then printed off a line drawing of a paint brush and colored the bristles the matching color. Then I covered both with contact paper and used velcro sticky dots to stick them together. The kids really enjoy matching the colors.

Weather crafts

This week we are talking about the weather. Today we talked about snow. I had the kids make snowflake art. Check it out. :)

I had a stamp of a snowflake so I let them stamp blue snowflakes on blue construction paper. Then Made snowflakes for them to glue on.

Here is a site that shows you how to fold paper to make a symmetrical snowflake:

http://highhopes.com/snowflakes.html

Spring arts

So this week we were talking about spring. I love the arts and crafts that I do with my kids this week.
1. I made flower shaped sponges and let the kids stamp flower shapes using paint. **pic to come**

2. Spring brings the ducks back so we used a kitchen spatula and paint to make duck prints. It looks like their little webbed feet. :)

3. I drew an umbrella on whit paper and let the kids color it. Then they glued rain drops on them. It's a spring shower. :)

4. I cut out a simple butterfly shape out of yellow paper. Then let the kids use my Do-a-dot markers to make spots on them. Then let them glue on different colored tissue paper squares and goggly eyes. When they are dry I will hang them from the ceiling. **pic to come**

Random craft projects

Below are some pics of random crafts I have done with my toddlers over the past 2 weeks.

The giraffe for Zoo Animal week. I drew the giraffe on big yellow paper and then let the kids use my brown dot-to-dot markers to make the spots.

The eggs in the grass for Easter. I cut up green streamers and tissue paper in to small strips and then different colored eggs. Then I let the kids glue it on to look like the eggs were in the grass (or floating above as in the pic lol)

The lion for Zoo Animal week. I took a paper plate and let the kids glue on yellow strips of tissue paper around the edges for the mane and then they glued on the orange face with hoodoos eyes. I drew the lion face on according to where the eyes were placed after I asked the child of the lion was happy or sad. Usually it's happy. :)

Tissue box to Easter basket

This Easter I made baskets for my toddlers to decorate and take home. I took an empty tissue box and cut the top off. I cut a handle out of cute card-stock and stapled it to the box. Then I cut out a grass type cover to go around the box. Finally I let the kids use my dot-to-dot markers to decorate the box. I was going to use sticker as well but ran out. :(. There are lots of fun things you can do with this idea though. Have fun!!!

Content

Feeling pretty content right now with life. :)

Bad dreams and little sleep

I just had a dream that I was mean to my assistant at work and made her cry. I hate it. I am not the kind of person that wants to make people cry. I woke up really mad at myself and heard my husband snoring really loud as usual. I could not take that either so I got up around 4:30 again!!! I am so tired of getting up early on the weekends. I want to sleep in. I am not getting much sleep anymore. That's probably why my dreams are so awful.

My middle daughter

I messed my middle daughter up pretty bad as she was growing up. I was a stay at home m going through massive depression and even though I should have known better, I did noted right by her. Thank god I am now better able to handle my emotions most of the time and finally have honest insight in to how to raise and treat kids. I hope that my daughter will have a normal life from here on out. I hope that she knows that I did the best I could with her and that it's not her fault she is the way she is. Wow I have never said that to anyone. Wow

Ugh!! Stress sucks!!

I have an anxious feeling in my body right now. I just got done fighting with my hubby about putting dirty dishes in the dish washer without rinsing them. It's sad that this would stress me out so much. I am tired of fighting with my husband about stupid things. Ugh! The stress of it is stupid.

Tv show addict

I feel as though I am such a waste of space and time. I just sit around watching all the creative shows that people can put out. I do this instead of spending time with my family or cleaning or continuing my education or play around with my dogs or improve my sewing or drawing skills or reading a good or bad book.

There are so many better ways for Me to spend my time, yet I choose to sit on my ass and waste my brain away on other peoples creativity.

I wish I knew how to stop being such a tv addict but it the only thing I truly feel connected to right now. The only thing that can take my mind off of how messed up I feel about myself or my husband or my kids or my job or our finances or my friends or lack of friends right now.

Well anyway I guess some would say that recognizing I have a problem is a step in the right direction but I don't buy it. I think knowing you have a problem and not doing anything about it is terrible.