once a month posting

Well looks like a month has gone by and I am just making time to post again.  With a daughter getting married at the end of the month I am on remote control teaching right now.  Thankfully, I have a wonderful class of new little friends that are very receptive to what I have to offer.  The business of a wedding has helped me relax more with my little friends and take a less is more approach to the year.  It is proving very beneficial for us all. 
I do want to share two things one is Pinterest.  If you haven't started your own boards you need to and then browse the ideas that stream through there. 
The other is something I found on pinterest something all teachers preschool or otherwise need to remember

Mrs. Nanette's Nuggets: 5 things I love about my job- starting my year

Mrs. Nanette's Nuggets: 5 things I love about my job- starting my year

5 things I love about my job- starting my year

Well it is time again for school to start, and we have spent the week preparing ( actually some of us have spent the summer) and I am excited and ready to meet the new members of my class family. Let's start the year off right with 5 things I love about my job
1) I love going to conferences getting new ideas for the year
2) I love the ladies I work with
3) I love that to me it is a ministry more than a "JOB"
4) I love my assistant who keeps me organized
5) I love all the fresh new stuff to make our classroom cute and inviting
6)BONUS:  I love that our school really does not start until after Labor Day.

Back to school

Looking forward to the first day with my new class.  New ideas ready to go, new cute stuff to make Jumping into another year of preschool fun for me as well as my class.  Found alot of new fun froggy stuff for learning centers as well as decorating ideas.  This year in my searches I found 2 really great ideas for helping your children learn their classroom, as well as one that I made many years ago and still love using. 
The two new ideas are Can you find this in my classroom.  I found this great idea on another teachers blog http://www.littlekinderwarriors.blogspot.com/.  The other idea ws to go on a treasure hunt in the classroom.  It was for an older group of children that had some reading skills but I thought it could be improvised by posting a treasure box picture on each of the different items they were hunting for in the classroom.  When the children finished the hunt and everyone had a treasure sticker they could treat themselves to a treasure from our class treasure box. 
The old idea I have used for years is to take close up pictures of different things in the classroom.  taking the pictures so close that only a piece of what ever it is shows up. An example would be to go to the book shelf and take a picture of just the corner of the shelf with a piece of the book, or to take a picture of a small piece of the calendar, etc.  I usually have 16 pics so everyone can figure one out.   The children have to guess what the picture is of in the classroom.   Lot's of fun.   The first two days of school we spend much time learning about our classroom enviornment, and the rules to keep it safe.  These games are good to use during these times. 
Well happy school year to all of us

A New year ahead

Well, long time no post.  I have been on a REAL break from preschool for the first time in so many years.  It was a good break but I am ready to roll again with a new group of special little friends to add to my heart full of so many little friends from the past.  My husband and I went on a New England cruise and believe it or not the last night on the cruise ship I ran into one of my past students.  She was going in the 7th grade.  Wow, it just shows that preschool teachers tend to make a lasting impression.  That brings me to how important it is for the children in our classes to feel love, acceptance and especially to know they are safe as they leave Mommy at home for the first time in their little lives.  I teach PreK but work at a school that has Babies through TK. 
Back from teaching conference I am on my mad rush to write my lesson plans through November since I have a daughter getting married  at the end of October.  New great websites and ideas from the conference will tweek my old lesson plans. 
I look forward to sharing another year on my blog. 

A camping we will go

Last week of school we set up camp grounds inside the classroom.  I have parents bring a tent and a small pool becomes a pond.  This year we have ducks and nets in the pond.  Some years there are fish and other things.  I also bring rocks and dirt for a sensory digging center.  We have horse shoes, a pretend campfire and some pretend cooking equipment. I have a plastic cast iron kettle that I bought after Halloween one year.  It is use for cowboy unit, campfire units, really anything that is cooking outside, and also my pioneer unit.  Worth keeping and eye out.  I even use it in sensory for ladling beans in and out of the pot.

Two friends roasting pretend marshmallows at the pretend camp fire.  Notice the logs are blocks, and the fire is tissue paper. The marshmallows are cotton balls and skewers are 18" dowels.  the kids just push the cotton balls onto the dowel and roast away.  They had a blast with this, and it was just a last minute brain storm of what could I use as pretend marshmallows.

Cotton balls are handy for a lot of brain storms, lambs wool, fluffy clouds, snow and now marshmallows.

 We use compasses to learn about finding our way.  We use flashlights to help us find our way in the dark  Lot's of night time books, because my actual unit is called outdoor fun day and night.  It is a great way to end our year as a class family. Notice from the picture the tent inside the classroom.  It was such a blast.
another fun year of classroom camping. 
We purchased water bottles and flashlights for the kids to have as camping gear, and thanks to
Chick-fil-a  we got compasses as well.  Their toy for this month was spy gear compasses, and they generously donated 16 to our end of the year camping event. 

If you don't teach a class, try an indoor camp out at your house.  The kids will love it and you will be a hero. You don't even need a tent because sheets and blankets work
 great.  Use your imagination and have fun with them.  Surely you had some fun indoor camping adventures as a child.  I know my girls did. 
Here is a a good camping rhyme for nightime noises
Night time noises


The children love this one. I use it when we do any night time activities, slumber party, campout, God made the night and day.

Chant this:
I was laying in my sleeping bag  and I couldn’t get to sleep.
The winds began to howl (howl)
And the bugs began to creek ( creek)
So I rolled to the left ( roll left)
And I rolled to the right ( roll right)
And I heard all the sounds that you hear late at night.


Repeat the rhyme with other sounds like people began to snore, frogs began to croak, owls began to hoot, dogs began to bark. Have children think of noises they

hear at night.
A few good books for camping theme.

Spring time fun

There is so much fun learning to do in the spring time. We spent a week learning about the weather changes, and nature changes that occur during the springtime.  We learned about spring colors and how to make pastle colors by adding white to red, blue, yellow, green.   The children always think mixing paint to make a new color is fun.  We used sponge mops to make the paint part of this art collage.  After all was dry, we let them add some more to their picture to make a beautiful spring garden.

 We have been having a great time swatting bugs with letters, numbers, and pictures for letter sounds on the back.  I put velcro on the fly swat and the other half on the bug. 

We also have been checking out our patterning abilities by using colored sticker dots to create patterns. 

One of my favorite learning activities in spring is teaching them about ants and insects in general.

We use what we learned about insects to do a special math project.  We learned that when you have x ants and x ants it makes x ants in all.  Addition!!!!!  I let the children roll the dice and make finger prints on their pre-drawn ant tunnels (they draw the tunnels before the math begins) Each insect has 3 body parts.  We count together so they don't lose track of the bugs they are making.  They roll the dice again for the second number.  After all the ants are made we count them all and write our numbers on our paper.  The children love the finished result. 

Another fun math activity is pattern caterpillars.  We used green construction paper for leaf and sticker dots for garage sales for our patterns

 There are so many great books to go along with spring time learning.  Check out Eric Carle for many great bug and spring books.

Pet show valentine party

During the week or week before Valentines, I like to do my pets unit.  We learn about all the kinds of animals we might have aas pets and about caring for them.  We pretend to be veteranarians, and pet store owners, we add to our class made books by illustrating what kind of pet we would like to be.  Sooo much fun.  We sort dog food, from cat food, and different size dog treats.  The best part of the week is the last day, when we all come to class dressed as a pet.  This day is special because it is our valentine party.  We play all day and after a valentine exchange, we have a pet show.  Each different pet (aka student) does some pet tricks and each pet recieves a Best show ribbon for what ever they have done.   It is always a huge success and adds a little spice to the usual Valentine party.
The new thing this year was the bags we made to put our valentine goodies in:  I usually use a valentine man on the bag but this year I designed a cat or dog bag for the children to make. 
The original valentine man was from  http://familyfun.go.com/crafts/holiday-seasonal-crafts/valentines-day-crafts-cards-gifts-decorations/
 
 The idea for the dog and cat came from that and some valentine coloring pictures another teacher had.
The cat requires two large hearts.  One is for the head and one is for the body.  Then you need two smaller hearts for the years and 2 pink hearts a size down from that for the inside of the ears.
You also need 2 pink hearts the same size as the original ears for the paws.
1 more pink heart makes a nose.  Large google eyes were used for the eyes
For the dog it requires two large hearts for the head and body,  You need one heart a couple of sizes smaller and cut in half for the ears. 
2 smaller hearts for paws and then one a little smaller than the paws for the nose. 
I pre-made all the heart on the cricut except the head and body.  The children could look at my example but choose how they wanted to put their bag together. 

                                                  Very cute and we will do this from now on.

This Valentine.......

A few years ago I ran across a Valentine rhyming book for the kids to make for a valentine gift for parents or just for a valentine book.  I have used it for many years now, and have no idea where I originally saw it. 
The title page is This Valentine
Each page there after says p. 1 - This valentine is red and small
                                          p. 2 - This valentine is the BIGGEST OF ALL!
                                                    I have the children trace a big heart shape and cut out for this page
                                          p. 3 - This valentine is glittered and glued
                                          p. 4 - This valentine is shiney and blue
                                                              We are skipping this page and putting page 3 right before  page 7.                            
                                                                       I had planned to use eagle brand milk and blue food color to paint
                                                                       the heart, but I usually use a shiny blue paper and have them glue pieces
                                                                       on the heart.  (to many snow days have cancelled this page :()
                                          p. 5 - This valentine is covered in ribbon and lace
                                          p. 6 - This one has a Funny Face!
                                          p. 7 - Ths Valentine is made just for you,  and it says "I LOVE YOU"

Obiviously each page is decorated by the child.  I have made the words for each page in different fonts to make the book.  The children enjoy it as well as the parents.  I do many things and am attracted to ideas that create books just for the great literacy connection they make. 

also, I  wanted to share a really fun Valentine book that I have use since I found it at the Half Price book store a few years ago.

A few Cabin Fever busters

This post is dedicated to the kids in my class.  We have had school closed all week and we are all so bored.  Well here are some fun and easy ideas for home.

• Make some playdough-  MAKE IT SURPRISE BY ADDING THE FOOD COLOR BY POKING A HOLE IN THE BALL OF DOUGH, SQUIRTING A FEW DROPS AND SEALING IT UP.  The surprise will be shown as the child kneads the dough.  I have even made this a party favors for my own children when they were younger.  It was a hit. 

My Favorite Playdough Recipe

2 Cup flour
1 Cup salt
4 tsp. cream of tarter
2 T. oil
2 Cup water
food color or unsweet koolaide (for smelly play dough)
  Put dry ingredients in a sauce pan. Stir in water and oil and coloring, while cooking over med heat. Cook until mixture comes away from the pan and begins to ball up. Store in air tight container. Keeps for a very long time.

• Scoop up some of the ice outside and bring it in put some salt and food color on it and watch the colors bleed. 
• it's almost valentines, get out the scissors, glue, stickers, crayons, glitter and whatever else you have and make homemade valentines.  ( I think I will do that tomorrow)
• make a tent in the living room with blankets and sheets.  I could play like that all day when I was a child and my girls did the same when they were little
• food color in eagle brand milk.  paint on white card stock.  when it dries it makes shiny and non sticky pictures.  It is sticky until completely dry. 
• golf tees hammered in card board boxes or styrofoam.  ( if you have toy hammers that is)
• egg carton race-  put 5 beans in each side of the egg carton at one end.  Let the child roll his dice and move his beans that many spaces.  other player does same thing on the other side.  First player to get all 5 beans at the opposite end wins.  Roll must be exact to get to the end, or you can improvise so there is no frustration.  ( kinda like manacula game, but simple for little guys) 

Well, hope these few ideas will get the friends I know through the Cabin fever days.

Brrrrrrr ----snow day in Texas a good day to blog about Buildings and machines

Well, our school is closed for bad weather today, and it's during one of my favorite units.  I love doing the building and machines unit, because the boys are totally engrossed in the learning during this unit. Warning though building unit is NOISY!!!!!!!!

Fun in Preschool......

I love preschool children, in their eyes the smallest discoveries are so grand.  We are learning about building this week.  We are also learning about the Fruits of the spirit  (Galatians 5:22-23) in our Bible time and this weeks fruit is PATIENCE.  I like to use Noah building the Ark, because he had to have patience, and because he had to build. We counted to 40 yesterday.  Kids like to race ahead if they know how to count, and those still struggling stay right with your pace on the count.  We stopped at about 20, because several had passed us in the count.  I said PATIENCE we need to count together.  We had already defined what patience was and it became a perfect example.  I get tickled when they rush through, like that makes it end faster, but they still have to wait on the rest of us.  Just one of the joys of preschool teaching. Little life examples are such a blessing when teaching God's word. 

Just a few of the things we will do, if our weather let's us go back to class

HOME LIVING: WE ADD TOOLS AND STYROFOAM AND GOLF TEES TO HAMMER INTO THE STYROFOAM. 

BLOCKS: WE BUILD WITH MANY DIFFERENT KIND OF BLOCKS, AND PLAY WITH GEARS

EXPLORING WE USE NUTS AND BOLTS, REAL ONES AND PLASTIC ONES.

ART; 1.WE USE PAINTERS TAPE TO TAPE OFF AREAS N PAPER AND THEN USE PAINTER ROLLERS AND SPONGES TO PAINT THE PAPER.  WHEN IT DRIES WE WILL PULL THE TAPE OFF TO SEE WHAT DESIGNS WERE MADE BY OUR TAPE.

2.  WE WILL PUT GLUE AND WOOD SHAPES AND CRAFT STICKS OUT, FOR DESIGN EXPLORATION.  (INTERESTING)

3.  WE TRACE BLOCKS, AND CUT OUT OUR SHAPES FOR A SHAPE COLLAGE
4.  WE ADD TEMPERA TO PRE-MIXED WALL COMPOUND AND USE  PUTTY KNIFES TO PAINT ON POSTER BOARD
5.  WE DRAW ON SAND PAPER WITH, CHALK AND CRAYON (TO SEE THE DIFFERENCE)

SENSORY:  WE WILL PUT PLOWS AND DIGGER CARS IN THE RICE,BEANS OR WHATEVER IS IN OUR SAND TABLE, AND SCOOP AND PUSH, AS CONSTRUCTION WORKERS DO ON THE ROAD.

LEARNING TABLE: WE EXPLORED RULER USING YESTERDAY AND TRACED AND MEASURED THE SIDES OF OUR BLOCKS.  THE KIDS DISCOVERED THAT TWO SIDES WERE THE SAME ON THE RECTANGLE MEASURING AND 4 SIDES WERE THE SAME ON A SQUARE.  ACTUAL DISCOVERY IS AN "AH HA" MOMENT WHEN OUR SONGS HAVE TOLD US THAT ALREADY. 

THE BUILDER UNIT IS PERFECT TO SPEND A LOT OF TEACHING TIME ON SHAPES.  WE WILL BE MAKING A SHAPE BOOK. AND ON THE LAST PAGE WE WILL BUILD SOMETHING WITH SHAPES ON PAPER. 

Pictures will be added of our fun week when I get back to school.

Oh by the way, putting a Noah's ark set in the blocks is a fun way to add the Bible to the play centers

and a giant ark shape on the wall with some glue sticks and brown paper strips to build the ark is fun too.

Artic Friends

Each year at the end of my winter unit I do a unit on Arctic friends, animal and people.  We talk about Alaska and the north pole and Northern lights.  the last two years I have had the children paint their interpretation of northern lights at the easel.  We water down tempera ( about 1/2 and 1/2)  and they begin brushing from the top and letting it drip down.  We use yellow, red and blue.  They turn out very nice.Sorry I have no pictures


During this week we also learn about polar bears, penguins, walruses, seals and whales.  We pretend to do scrimshaw on walrus tooth.  For this we use Styrofoam plates and cut teeth shapes out.  They then draw on the Styrofoam with a shish kabob skewer pointy end and then we brush black tempera on and rub it off.  It leaves the design in the groves and gives the effect of scrimshaw.

For a penguin activity we spend every line waddling like penguins and  we make a penguin fact book that looks like a giant penguin.  I have elaborated on the idea I originally found for the book by having the children take two large black ovals we fold one hot dog style and crease the line in.  They cut on the line, to make the wings,  we take a small orange oval and they cut hamburger style to make the feet.  The children are cutting and learning about folding vertically and horizontally.  The eyes are sticker and the beak is folded paper that I have pre-cut triangles in to make the beak.  We have 5 round balls with the penguin words on them.  I want to say this came from and old Mailbox magazine, but I am not positive.  The title is PENGUIN PALS.  We sort our 5 pages and put them in order and staple our little book.  We then add the white round book to the center of our oval penguin and there you have the giant penguin book.  This is not art, because the children don't have total free reign on what they accomplish.  This is a learning project which involves, listening ears, cutting, folding, and pre-reading skills. Everyones wings end up in different directions and they are funny.  The children think it is fun though, so that makes it great for me.  After all who wouldn't like a giant penguin book.  I sweet mom took a picture of her daughters penguin along with a snowman that we got the idea from another teacher blog.  Both turned out so cute

The last thing we did this for the finale of our winter studies was make the sock snowman that I saw on another blog.  I have been hunting all afternoon for the link and have yet to find who to give the credit to.  It was wonderful.  And the children have something to really keep.

5 things I love about my job

I love everything about my job, I can't think of 5 specifics, I love the fun we have in the classroom, the parents present and past that affirm I am doing what I am suppose to be doing, the children who struggle and the children who get it right off the bat. I love the assistant that I have that just goes about and gets stuff done while I am interacting with the children.  How lucky I am.

GAMES FOR CHRISTMAS---- BETTER LATE THAN NEVER

I love playing games with my class friends.  During December we spend the entire month playing games to remind us of different parts of the Christmas story.  The first week we talk about the angel visiting Mary to tell her that she would be the mother of God's son Jesus.  We make hand print angels and a child acts out the angel part in the story.  On the last day of class I hide white feathers all over the class and tell them to remember our story this week their are angel wing feathers hidden all over the room.  The children love finding and keeping the feather.
The week we talk about the wisemen following the star to Bethlehem.  I hide 5 construction paper stars with the letters J, E, S, U, S on them.  When they children find all the stars we have to figure out what the letters spell.  Once we figure it out we put them on our wall for another game we play at our Christmas party. 
Notice  Christmas party not Holiday party.  I love being at a Christian school where we can celebrate our Christian heritage and the birth of Jesus our Savior.  " God loved us, and sent His son"  John 3:16 (simplified for preschool)  One of my favorite sites for getting Bible ideas is http://www.daniellesplace.com/.



Mrs. Nanette spinning the next player

Finally at our Happy Birthday Jesus celebration, we play a game called put the baby in the manger.  The children color the baby Jesus and then just as you play pin the tail on the donkey, we put the baby in the manger.  Everyone wins, but the real winners get first prize pick. 

Trash Bag SNOWMAN IMPROVED

I talked about my trashbag snowman last year and in my winter time 2 post.  I did it, wrapped the bags in batting and hot glued.  I made felt pieces and what great results.  The bags stayed stacked and the children had alot of fun. 

 

LAST YEAR'S TRASH BAG
SNOWMAN



THIS YEARS BATTING COVERED
IMPROVED

IN PROGRESS



COMPLETED!!! They worked and talked and made a fine snowman in the classroom.   Best of all we actually have real snow right now this year in Allen Tx, so they got to experience the real thing at home.  Some years, this little man is all they get!

 

Winter time fun.... #2

What a fun week, we played, we learned, we sang, we had a great week.  We did lot's of white things this week because our color was white.  For several years I have done this winter art that someone shared with me.  You color a snow scene on blue construction paper and then do a wash of epson salts and water over it.  As it drys the epson salts makes a milky crystal glaze over the page.  Winter time!!!!!!
     I think the most fun thing we did was mix up ingredients to make our own hot chocolate and then we had "snownuts" , which are really powder sugar donuts.  What made it all even more fun was my finding a site with a cute little song to use and some other great hot chocolate ideas, like counting marshmellows in a cup, and something I will definitely use next year, using a large marshmellow with white paint on brown paper, to show the marshmellow in the chocolate. The site for the hot chocolate was a blog called
littlefingersthatplay.blogspot.com. 
Look back to last years winter post for a trashbag snowman idea.  A teacher friend of mine just did this last week and she just stuffed the bags ahead of time for all the children to use the 3  trash bag balls and all the supplies for a snow man in homeliving.  I loved her revision of the idea.  We talked about how it would be cool to wrap those bags in batting, and put velcro on them so they would stay stacked better so I will be trying that out this weekend.  with batting I think that you could even use felt pieces for the buttons and eyes nose and mouth, and just have a variety of hats and scarfs for them to choose from. 

On another note, the sensory table is usually filled with Steven Spanglers fake snow, and letter cubes, and other white things, for a snow sensation, but I did not realize in time that I was out of the wonderful stuff.  This year I am using the fake snow from the Christmas decorations.  It has not got the same feel but it looks like snow.  This week we had to find the letters and make the words hot, cold and winter, next week I will add white packing peanuts for them to pick up with tongs and scoop up with scoopers. 

Wintertime fun

As we get ready to head back to class, I get excited once again to share my favorite collection of Wintertime ideas.  Check my last years January blog for our trashbag snowmen.  This year I am trying some new things as well as using some of my old favorites. A great game to use during these units is a game called Thin ice. I have seen two versions, and I think mine may be an older version, but the children pick up marbles with game tongs (great fine motor exercise}and place on a piece o tissue that is held tight in a hoop.  The goal is to see how many marbles it takes to break the ice.  It is a great resource to use with older preschool children needing those fine motor muscles to be getting strong. 

There are many games that help with motor skills along with learning how to communicate, and share with each other. Children with speech delays, or other auditory issues gain so much from the interaction in a good game.  If you don't have access to games make your own by purchasing some dice.

Snow man building game
 Have the children take turns rolling the dice, rather than giving each child their own.
 Let them build a snow man.  You can either just draw picture of different parts ( eye, nose, mouth etc) and have them place those on a pre-printed snowman, or you could have them roll for the snow balls. They would have to roll a 1, 2 or 3.  and if they had rolled a 2 they would have to roll a 1 to finish up their snowman before starting on the parts.   As I am thinking about this I have seen so many cute little decorated snowmen, why couldn't they roll and make that cute little snow man to keep.
  A game and craft all in one.  Love that multi tasking...just sayin....
All this said, I am ready to get back to work and play with my little friends.