All About Me Nutrition Project!

 We are learning about our culture and what makes us special this month.  One of our projects was the children making their faces with food.   Here are the pictures.

I got the idea from the Mailbox Magazine and then my assistant laminated it onto this board.

 

This was great for their fine motor too.  I gave them tongs to pick up the food.

The finished faces!

The kids really enjoyed this project and afterwards a lot of them actually ate the vegetables with dressing too.

New Circle Area

Here is a picture of my updated circle area:

 I have sections for weather, jungle jobs, schedule, counting board (we don't do calendar), and colors.  The alphabet above and numbers below are Handwriting without Tears.


And here is my updated job board with places for both AM and PM:

I made these with word and downloaded free clip-art for the pictures.  This shows AM and the blank side is PM.  I separated each class into 2 groups and I rotate the groups every other day.  So each student has a job two times a week.  Group 1-Mon/Wed and Group 2-Tues/Thurs.  This really helps them because when they ask when will they get a job the answer is today or tomorrow.  That way they do not have to wait a super long time to have a new job. 

Pumpkin Pancakes-Cooking with Preschoolers!

This week we made pumpkin pancakes for one of our monthly cooking projects.  Our program requires 2 cooking projects and 2 nutrition projects a month.  This was a big hit with both my AM and my PM classes.
My assistant made a picture recipe board that included the recipe for environmental print and pictures that showed the steps and they all took turns following the recipe.
Here are some pictures:

School has started!

Wow what a whirlwind these past two weeks have been.  I have completed 22 Home Visits and school has officially started.  I'm still working on all of my classroom management techniques and new students are joining everyday.  I even have identical twins starting Monday!  I updated my writing area and added more supplies and different languages to it.  Here is a picture:

There are stencils, alphabet stamps, wipe off boards, clip boards, and writing screens.  I'm going to introduce it at circle tomorrow so the kids know how to use this center.

The next area I need to update is my circle area.  My alphabets, numbers , and colors, are coming tomorrow so I will post a picture of that when they do.  I'm also going to add pictures to my job board because that helps so much with theses ELL kids.  My biggest hurdle has been how to have two identical systems in place for both classes AM and PM but not a lot of wall space.  So when I figure that out I will post it as well.  Any ideas would be much appreciated! 

New Room!

I joined a lnky party!  Check out these other fun classrooms!

  Tales of a first grade Teacher Linky Party


Wow what a busy week I have had!  I officially started my new job and I can't beleive how tired I am!
So first lets look at my room!  This was so exhausting, but I know I'm preaching to the choir :)

Here is my before pictures:

 

Now for the After Pictures:

This is my circle area.  The back wall is going to be where the children's art and projects will be displayed.  I saw this idea on pinterest.  I'm going to give each child a spot with their own binder-clip and name tag to hang their work.  I'm just waiting for my full class list so I can add them to the wall.  It is divided by AM and PM.  My circle cart is covered by sheet that was cut and velcroed on.  I also added more zebra material above the whiteboard for an accent.  The palm tree was going to be used for birthdays but this school does not celebrate birthdays :(

 This is the writing area.  It is a work in progress...I'm going to add alphabets in different languages and more supplies.  There is white cord above to hang children's art to dry.  No more heavy drying racks!!

This is my class reading hut!  I couldn't do my bamboo one like before due to space issues but I'm really happy with the way it turned out!  I have the reading buddies on the side, pillows with my zebra fabric, the back wall in covered in patio screening, and a canopy made from the burlap. The door to the right is the bathroom and the door to the left is my office.  It is going to be so nice to have an office this year!  

 This is my drama area.  The only space big enough with a wall was right by the door so we will see how this works.  I thought I could use the whiteboard to turn it into all of the different themes (store, vet, hospital etc.).

 This is the games and blocks centers.  This is also the backside of my circle area.

 This is where the kids will eat and brush their teeth.  These tables will also be used for Science, Games, and Art.  I think I'm going to label them with animals, for example the Science table will also be called the Tiger table.  That way the kids will see the tiger and know which table to go to.

 This is my circle area again, but this picture also shows my listening area and "My Family" picture area.  I took family pictures at the home visits and the pictures will go there.  Now I just to wait for the kiddos to start :)

    

Currently in August!

I'm linking up with Farly at "Oh Boy 4th Grade""Oh Boy 4th Grade" -Currently
for Currently August! 

Listening-I've really been enjoying my kids this summer and I like listening to them when they are laughing and just being kids.

Loving-I LOVE sleep :) If I could sleep until 11am every day I would!

Thinking-I'm starting a new teaching position for a public school district in 2 weeks teaching Pre-K and I can't stop wondering and thinking about what my year is going to be like.

Wanting-I seriously am going crazy because I have no idea what my new room looks like and I can't get in until August 19th!

Needing-I really need to organize my all of my classroom materials.  I purchased a ton of supplies for my previous position and it is all sitting in my upstairs bonus room.  I can't go through it until I see my new room and know what I need to sell and what I need to keep.  It is driving me CRAZY!

Back to School must haves: I have to wear orthotics so comfy shoes are a must.  I love making my teacher binder each year getting organized.  I use sharpie pens on everything to label books, supplies, make cubby name tags etc.  So I always stock up during the sales :)

Would love to hear what you are “currently” up to for August too!

Summer Teacher Finds!

I love shopping at the special teacher stores but it's not always in my budget so...just found this a my local Dollar Tree! In the Party decorations aisle.  I think I'll put him on the door and
will go great with my Jungle theme classroom.                                                                                             

 

 

 And a new weather set in the teacher section $1 that I just need to laminate and add velcro to :)

I also found these at Walmart:

 $2.69 Cookie game by Scholastic -It only comes with the cookie cut outs but I thought I could make a cute jar for them to go in or a plate.

 .97 cents Math Banner I just learned we are using Handwriting Without Tears for Literacy and Math and this Banner will go great with it's curriculum.

$6.99 Alphabet and Number Table Easels- I thought I could use these for small groups.

At the $ Spot at Target:

$1 Birthday Certificates, Stickers and Erasers for each child.  I have a total of 39 kiddos this year between the two classes!  I got 6 erasers for $1. I thought I could make a cute Birthday Basket and the kids could pick from it on their special day.

Name Tags for first day of school 24 for $1

$3 Bulletin Border Organizer-I'm always looking for ways to organize my supplies.  I've never tried these before but thought I would give them a go!

I told myself I would NOT buy a ton of stuff this year because I have bought way too much in the past.  Also I'm starting a new position with a public School District teaching Pre-K and I haven't even seen my room yet :)  So I don't want to go too overboard until I see what was left behind from the old teacher.  I will post pictures soon!

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Ocean Art!

Continuing with my ocean theme...here is an art project that the kids and I absolutely love!  First I read the Rainbow fish by Marcus Pfister and then the children color and paint their own rainbow fish or ocean scene with oil pastels and watercolors.

The first step I do is point out all of the colors on each page and ask the children after the read aloud which was their favorite and why?  Then I explain that we are going to make our own oceans and you can put in any ocean fish and sea creatures you want.  To do this project we use "special crayons" called oil pastels.  These are much brighter and they pop right off the page!  

After I the children draw what ever they want I explain that now we need to add blue water to make the sea creatures come alive and pop off the page.  The kids get a kick out of this and their eyes get huge when they see the colors resisting the water.  They usually all come up running and say "Look, look, mine is popping!"  I make sure to explain it needs to be blue so the water shows up and I do this project towards the end of the year because it does use a lot of the blue water color.

After they are done I use them to decorate our drama area "The Beach Cafe".  The kids love coming up to the pictures and seeing which one is theirs :)

Exploring the Ocean with Wave Bottles!

Since it is sunny in Seattle right now I thought I would share one of my favorite ocean projects that we make towards the end of the year.

For this project you will need:

empty water bottles; water, baby oil, funnel, blue food coloring; hot glue gun, several Rubbermaid containers or pans, plastic fish, seaweed, stickers, sand and sea shells.

Step 1:  Fill the water bottle 1/3 way full with water.

Step 2: Add 2-3 drops of blue food coloring

Step 3: Add some sand, sea shells, sea shells, and plastic fish to the water.

 

 

 Step 4: Using a funnel fill the rest of the bottle with baby oil. I ask parents to donate this as it helps with the cost of the project.  I think the parent purchased these at Walmart :)

 Step 5:   Place lid on the water bottle and decorate with stickers

Step 6: Hot glue (teacher only) lids to bottle so they don't leak.

I always have one or two parent helpers with this project, it just makes it so much easier to complete!  What fun ocean projects do you do for your class?

Let's Travel!

A fun theme we just finished was "Let's Move!"  I decided that would be a wonderful opportunity to add a new drama area to the classroom.  To go along with our school's international day I came up with the "Airplane" center.

Here are some pictures:

I added a pilot's outfit, globe with joystick, beverage cart, tickets, maps, luggage, magazines, pillows, blankets, and windows.  The children's artwork helps decorate the wall above the pilot's seat and I had the song "'Round the World With Ways To Say Hello " by Hap Palmer playing in the background. It says hello in a whole bunch of different languages and the kids would pretend that is where they were flying.  The kids asked to hear this song even when they were not in the center it was such a catchy tune.  I even started using it as my welcome song for morning circle! Can A Jumbo Jet Sing The Alphabet?

I told the children there are 4 jobs to do for our airplane center.

1) Pilot

2) Passenger

3) Flight attendant- deliver beverages and snacks to the passengers

4) Gate attendant- take everyone's tickets and make announcements

 Here is a close up of the art work hanging above the big plane window.

We also made suitcases for our travels!

These are made out of manilla envelopes and then grocery handles are stapled on the side.  The kids had fun decorating them with sponge stamps!   

Another fun project we did is we made "Loopers".  These are instead of paper airplanes.  They are made out of paper and straws and fly much better.  After we made them, we flew them, and then measured where they landed.  This was a great way for the kids to use math skills during this unit.

We also did a sink/float activity that was a lot of fun too!

What fun activities have you done around travel?