Wednesday, July 27, 2011

Pinning and Doing

After long hours of pinning, I felt it was time to start doing something about my addiction.  Here are some re-do's.
This really isn't  a repin, but I re-purposed this metal bookcase, that was taking up space at my Mama and Daddy's house.



I spray-painted the bookcase.  It's now my Math Work Station storage.  Right now I have 6 tubs, but I will be able to add 3 more stations if I need to.  Students will be able to use the back as a magnetic board.


Here's the first idea that I re-did from Pinterest.  I found some Legos-type Building Blocks at The Christmas Tree Shoppe for $1.99.  I bought two sets, but I think I'll get more.  You'll find other uses and manipulatives at; Filth Wizardry
Back to ?


I bought four party trays at The Dollar Tree a few weeks ago.  I had no idea how I would use them.  Then this morning, there it was.  This coin sorting activity would have been very useful this past year.  I will use the other three trays for other sorting activities. This idea originally came from;  Growing in Pre K
Coin Sorting Tray

Saturday, July 9, 2011

Calculator Fun: Number Words

Okay! I'm going to try to share some task cards that I created with power point.  It is not as cute as I'd like it to be, but I'm new at this.  It is more important for me to get it posted to share.  If this works, I'll work on the cuteness later. LOL!!!

I guess this activity goes with chapter 4 from Math Work Stations.  I think the students will enjoy using the calculator to practice recognizing number words.  Students will also develop listening skills too.

Let me know what you think.


Friday, July 8, 2011

Down at the Bottom of the Deep Dark Sea

I've been reading to a group of preschool children this summer.  They have been doing a beach/ocean theme.  Last week I read Rainbow Fish, and did some activities with them.  This week, I read Down at the Bottom of the Deep Dark Sea. It is about a little boy who is afraid of water.  He's afraid of water in the tub, sprinklers, rain, and most of all the roaring waters at the beach. The little boy is afraid the water will swallow him up and he'll find "pinching crabs and slimy monsters..." at the bottom of the sea. He stays far away from the water when the family goes to the beach.  He plays in the sand while his family plays in the water.

After reading the story and talking about why the little boy had no reason to be afraid,  the children went deep sea diving.  ;)  The director's daughter and I had already laid a twin-sized, yellow, fitted sheet on the floor under a classroom table, and scattered shells, and plastic sea creatures on the sheet. I taped construction paper fish and seaweed to a dark blue plastic, tablecloth, and draped it over the table, with one side opened. I wanted to tape some green streamers (seaweed) to the underside of the table but I never got around to getting the streamers. Two children at a time were allowed to "dive" into the ocean to observe and handle some of the creatures.  They were warned about the crabs, and told to watch for sharks and jelly fish. It was so much fun watching their faces when they found a starfish, crab, lobster, conch shells, clam shells, and stingrays. Thank you, Dollar Tree and Hobby Lobby.




While the director and her daughter cleaned up the ocean, I read The Three Little Fish and the Big Bad Shark. I was hoping they would make the connection with The Three Little Pigs and the Big Bad Wolf.  Then we made sand art bottles.  I tried to find the smallest bottles I could for this, because I knew I didn't have enough sand.  Thankfully the director had some.  The sand art was beautiful.  Finally, I left them with Sand Cups for snack.




I didn't do any math or literacy activity this time, but the children still got to experience something that they can talk about.  Hopefully they will be able to retell the stories and make connections to activities we did.  I love using literature to teach.

Thursday, July 7, 2011

Mrs. Dillard's Linky Party: Classroom Jobs

For the past 2 years, I've had a Hollywood theme.  Everyone had a job.  I was the Executive Producer. ;)

Director: Assisted by running errands, and made sure everyone else did their jobs.
Manager: Calendar and Lunch Count
Leading Man/Lady: Line Leader- The specialists liked this. LOL!
Supporting Actor/Actress: Door Holder
Ushers: Monitors (Girl and Boy)- Could be door holders
Stage Crew: Table Washers (2) and other clean-up
Publicist: Greeter (Also reported news from specials)
Script Supervisor: Checked the attendance board, put the next day's lunch menu on the board, and made sure the attendance board was ready for the next day
Props: Passed out materials (2)(could also handle playground equipment)
Lighting Director: Turned the lights and projector off when we left the room
Stand-in: Substituted when a helper was absent

Other jobs could be: Mixer/Trainer: start the CD for exercise/ lead exercises, Technical Director: Help students get into AR or onto a specific website, and Make-up: make sure absent students have make-up work.



You can see how small my class was.  The header for the jobs board and the job cards came from Teachers Clubhouse.  They have other themes and products.
http://www.teachersclubhouse.com/classroomthemes.htm