Spring Games!

Aren't these chicks ADORABLE?!! They came in a pack of six from Dollar Tree.  Students can identify and/or count and fill the chick eggs with the correct number of beads. I have about 20 felt flower buckets that were recently bought at Goodwill! I have seen some translucent carrot shaped eggs..vegetable/garden unit game? I might have to go back for those!

Here is an ABC upper/lower case match game..there were 24 eggs in the pack from Dollar Tree.

I made this folder game a few years ago and it has held up quite nicely (despite one beakless bird!) It's a traditional roll'em, count'em path game.  

Perfect rainy day or math center game for April!  I have a total of four mats...1-4 students can play this game each with a mat...OR two people can play on one mat (object would be just to fill up the whole mat together).  

again...TARGET DOLLAR AISLE!  : )  These are perfect game piece holders for our upcoming Hungry Caterpillar unit! 

Paper pads and bulletin board cut-outs to make into more spring vocab..purchased from Apple Tree!

A teacher friend of mine introduced me to "Smellies!"  A student reward, a smear of smell good chap stick on their hand, that is inexpensive and last a long time!  The kids love it!  Chap stick is reminding me of something one of my students replied back to me when I asked her to put away her own chap stick.."But Mrs. M, I'm just gonna keep it in my pocket, so it's close, 'cause I might need it to chap my lips later."  : )

Construction Unit Part II

I bought a printable tool unit off of teacherspayteachers.com ..it came with many vocab cards, games, and activities..well worth the purchase!  You can purchase it for $4 from:
 http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Tool-Preschool-Unit-Printable

Wouldn't  the new Disney movie "Wreck it Raph" go so perfectly with a construction theme?! I see a Wreck it Ralph/Fix it Felix sensory bin or math game in the future! 

Construction vocab in all the centers...

Here is one of the games from the printable pack I purchased...fits perfectly in my Target dollar bin mini pocket chart! 

My construction unit flows into transportation and community helpers...These truck math mats are from another printable pack called "On the Road and in the Air." Click this link to purchase: http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/On-the-Road-and-in-the-Air  
This pack also comes with word wall cards, flannel board stories, and a fantastic community helpers bingo game!

This is from the same pack also... For this math game, students choose how many people to ride in their airplane, train, or boat, count, and write the number.. I laminated my mats but you could also use plastic sleeve protectors.

Fairy tales Part II

Here is some photos of our "Princess and the Pea" art that I promised to post. Students chose what (and how many) mattresses (leftover scrapbook paper!) to use.  A pom pom was glued on for the pea..snoozing princess or princes were drawn at the top..and then students wrote the number of mattresses used. My assistant drew the cute sign!

Click the link below to view more fairy tale fun from our classroom:
http://prektweets.blogspot.com/2013/02/3-bears-new-toys-and-fairytales.html

What would YOU do with Jack's beans?  We read a few different versions of "Jack and the Beanstalk." Students ounted jellybeans..sorted jellybeans...planted bean seeds..and students drew on paper leaves what they would buy with Jack's beans...we now have  a gigantic towering "beanstalk" in our science center!

During our feelings unit, within our Fairy tale theme, we read and acted out the nursery rhyme, "Humpty Dumpty."  Students had to state kind words or describe actions that could make a friend feel better. I wrote down students' thoughts on our  Humpty throughout the week and the students mended back the pieces with band-aids...who knew band-aids could be such a hit!? The original idea for this project came from: http://www.pre-kpages.com/humpty/

We read a few different versions of Princess and the Frog...one of our projects was this Pucker Up! graph... There were many giggles during this math activity! The original idea for this graph came from: http://perciousperks.blogspot.com/2011/10/if-i-had-fairy-godmother.html

Michaels dollar bins!

I thought these cute animal masks would be perfect for story retelling for our upcoming zoo unit!   I picked them up in the dollar bins at Michaels craft store this week. I'm thinking of going back for a couple more..how cool would it be for some interactive addition and subtraction problems?! ..OR sing-a-longs..wish they had monkeys for "swinging from the tree/jumpin' on the bed."

Here are a few poems/songs I have found for zoo animals:

Five Big Elephants
Five big elephants - oh, what a sight,
Swinging their trunks from left to right!
Four are followers, and one is the king.
They all walk around in the circus ring!

The Zoo 

At the zoo we saw a bear 

He had long, dark fuzzy hair 

  pretend to walk etc. like a bear

We saw a lion in a cage. 

He was in an awful rage. 

  pretend to be a angry lion

We saw the big, long-necked giraffe, 

And the silly monkeys made us laugh 

   everybody laugh

But my favorite animal at the zoo 

Is the elephant--how about you?

Pretty pretend food...

Last summer I hooked on crafting with felt (featured on my other blog glitterandgarnish.blogspot.com)...and my mother in-law got hooked on amigurumi.. together we have created a quite a collection of different textured, yet realistic looking, pretend food for my pre-k kids! The possibilities are endless..I've seen everything from felt sushi to amigurumi tacos! Here are few photos of things we have made so far...she's also created some ice cream cones and I'm working on felt watermelon slices for "Beach Party Picnic" pretend center. I am slowly weeding out all the plastic pretend center foods and dishes and replacing with felt, amigurumi, and artificial foods (the kind you would decorate your kitchen with). Felt is great because you can create leaves to be opened up on corncobs or lines in a pumpkin..and students can feel the different textures. Artificial foods (although pricey!)like heads of cabbage, rubber grapes, fruits..etc.. are wonderful because they are SO realistic! I would love for my pretend center to be filled with as much realistic and real items as possible...real dishes, real tablecloths, real rugs,real plants... 

See previous posts on how to incorporate more "real" food items into dramatic play:

Harvest Farmer's  Market  http://prektweets.blogspot.com/2012/09/harvest-time.html

Bakery  http://prektweets.blogspot.com/2013/02/little-red-hen.html

Spring Farmer's Market  http://prektweets.blogspot.com/2012/04/blog-post_28.html

Finger play puppets

A sweet family friend had some mismatched gloves and asked if I could make a craft out of them and use them for my class ..and so here are two new finger play puppets for spring!..one for addition and one for subtraction!

Five Little Ladybugs
Five little ladybugs climbing up a door,
One flew away then there were four.
Four little ladybugs sitting on a tree,
One flew away and then there were three.
Three little ladybugs landed on a shoe,
One flew away and then there were two.
Two little ladybugs looking for some fun,
One flew away and then there was one.
One little ladybug sitting in the sun,
She flew away then there were none.

I found this fingerplay/song on Kindernature.com for more ladybug poems and songs click here: http://kindernature.storycounty.com/display.aspx?DocID=20111024922

Five Little Bees

 One little bee blew and flew.

He met a friend, and that made two.

Two little bees, busy as could be—

Along came another and that made three.

Three little bees, wanted one more,

Found one soon and that made four.

Four little bees, going to the hive.

Spied their little brother, and that made five.

Five little bees working every hour—

Buzz away, bees, and find another flower.

This fingerplay/poem is from:

 http://etc.usf.edu/lit2go/66/counting-and-math-rhymes/4760/five-little-bees/

felt cottage DONE!

I started this little felt cottage during our gingerbread man unit hoping I would finish it in time.. well here it is, spring break, and I finally pieced it all together!  It honestly wasn't that hard..just time consuming.. I drew out a paper template for the front, back, roof, sides, and base. Then, I cut all the brown felt pieces and stitched on the details!  I'm going to use it in books center or blocks center next year for 3 bears, Little Red Riding Hood, or Gingerbread Man!