Feature Friday

I have to share my latest purchase - Xyron 500 Create-a-Sticker Machine. I featured this product in August. It is the coolest! The Xyron 5" create-a-sticker turns almost anything into a sticker by applying an even layer of adhesive to the back of all kinds of materials, including paper, photos, fabric, leather and more. Simply feed the item in, turn the handle and trim. An even layer of Acid-Free Permanent or Acid-Free Repositionable adhesive will adhere to items up to 5" wide. I purchased the Xyron at Wal-Mart for $20. The refillable cartridges were $10 a piece. (I bought the repositional adhesive and the permanent adhesive.) I am so excited. I cannot wait to try it out. The possibilities are endless - labeling cubbies & mats, making games, labeling containers, etc. I will keep you posted.


Xyron 500 Create-A-Sticker



Thoughtful Thursday

Last night I listened to the news for a recap of the final gubernatorial debate. An education major at a local university who attended the debate came away feeling more confused than ever as to whom to cast her vote. The student said the biggest problem with the debate was that it was "childish and catty" and neither candidate won her vote with the way they interacted with each other. She went on to say they argued about how many jobs were in the  department of education as opposed to talking about the real issues and how they were going to create  better education for the children of South Carolina. At this point she questions if that is how they are going to act in trying to be bi-partisan in the government.

As we approach election day on November 2, my advice is to read and study the issues for each candidate and make an informed decision. Go out and VOTE!

Workshop Wednesday

Halloween Transfer Activities (The Last Halloween Idea!)

Pumpkin Transfer: An egg tray with little pumpkins to transfer.  Pumpkins and tray are from Hobby Lobby.


Spider Tweezing: This is a fun little transfer activity. The pumpkin tray is from the Dollar Tree.  The little fake spiders are from Dollar General.  The tweezers are perfect for grabbing their little legs!


Spider Sifting: Use a slotted spoon to sift Halloween spiders out of a bowl of rice and transfer to another bowl. The spiders are plastic spider rings with the ring part cut off. Swapping the white rice for black or orange rice would be delightfully eerie!


Ideas taken from My Montessori Journey

Transition Tuesday

Need a quick tranistion activity to get the wiggles out. Try this idea.

Hands on Hips

Hands on hips: now turn around.

Plant your feet here in the ground.

Twist your hips, now stretch and bend.

Turn around. Smile at a friend.

Bend your body; sway and sway,

That is all we’ll do today!

(Read slowly so that children will have sufficient time to perform each activity.)

Make & Take Monday

One more Halloween Treat!

(Okay maybe not. )

Halloween Play Dough
Make 2 types of play dough for Halloween to add to your play dough center: black with lots of purple glitter and orange.  Both are unscented. Add Wilton gels, instead of food coloring,  to make the play dough brighter. (Be careful when making the black. Your hands will be stained a purplish/reddish color). Add  purple glitter to the black play dough and then add some pipe cleaners and wiggly eyes for spiders. Put out some Halloween cookie cutters with black beans for Jack O' Lanterns.

This make & take activity is sure to be a treat not a trick!

Feature Friday

More Halloween books for your classroom library.

Inside a House that is Haunted by Alyssa Satin Capucilli is a rebus read along, so it is repetitive and it builds upon itself. This is great for children who are eager to “read along” before they are able to read words. The repetitiveness allows them to anticipate what is next and feel included. Very cute even after reading it hundreds of times.

There was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Bat! by Lucille Colandro will be a huge hit! It’s a reworking of the classic song "There was an old lady who swallowed a fly" only this one swallows a whole bunch of Halloween creatures, like a goblin, ghost and of course a bat.  She continues to swallow bigger and bigger things until at the end the old lady belches. Children will laugh hysterically.

Dem Bones by Bob Barner is sort of two books in one. The superficial layer uses the words of the ever popular old time spiritual with fun Halloween inspired skelleton illustrations. There is also a second layer that has longer text for older children that goes into the anatomy of the bones the song sings about. Great way to keep a Halloween theme strong while teaching about the human body!

Thoughtful Thursday

"Teachers and caregivers have daily opportunities to be the catalysts for spectacular developmental advances for children who otherwise seem destined to end up in a developmental wasteland.  We help provide love and attention, a healthful environment, good nutrition, and appropriate interpersonal interaction day after day.  So, whether we think of these dramatic changes as miracles or simply developmental advances, they are all around us, just waiting for a chance to happen — and waiting for us to help.  The opportunity to be part of such miracles in the lives of young children is a bonus of our professional work that should not be taken lightly."

How many lives have you touched today?

Taken from "Frankie's Story: Early Experiences Matter" by Bettye Caldwell.

Workshop Wednesday

Halloween Math

It is a Cards and Counters variation.  The children lay out the numbered cards in order and then place the appropriate amount of Halloween pencil toppers beneath the numbers.   Erasers and the little felt "bucket" can be found in the Dollar Spot at Target or at the dollar store.  What a fun way to reinforce counting!

Taken from My Montessori Journey

Transition Tuesday

Try this cute little fall action poem to transition children from one activity to another.

 Autumn is Here

Acorns drop—plop, plop, plop! Drop to the floor; pat it with your hands.
Colored leaves in the breeze. Twirl like a leaf.
Pumpkins bright, what a sight. Hold arms out to resemble a round pumpkin.
Autumn's here—give a cheer! Jump up and down in excitement.

Make & Take Monday

Want to add some pizazz to your sensory tubs, try this Halloween idea. Most of the items can be purchased at craft stores and dollar stores.

Use dried black beans, plastic spiders, bats, skeletons, and scorpions (from the dollar store), orange pom-poms, orange beads, googly eyes, orange pipe cleaners, and orange feathers. Add in a scoop, cups, tunnels,  and tongs for even more fun! The possibilities are endless. Enjoy!



Taken from Counting Coconuts



Feature Friday

Halloween Books

Halloween will be here before we know it and all the good Halloween books will be gobbled up at the library soon too.  I thought I’d share my favorites now so you have time to grab them before someone else does. Remember preschoolers love to relive special days after they happen so don’t put the books away with your decorations, leave them out a little longer.

"Big Pumpkin" by Erica Silverman is a staple in most preschool classrooms. It’s a cute story about a witch who is desperate for pumpkin pie but her giant pumpkin is too big for her to pick up! Luckily she enlists the help of a ghost, vampire, mummy and bat and with a little teamwork they save the night! The rhyming text is almost like a song and kids love it!

"10 Trick – or Treaters" by Janet Schulman has the most adorable pictures and in every page there is an owl hidden somewhere, which is a great trick to keep reluctant readers involved. The story counts down from 10 to no trick or treaters with fun rhyming text and a fun array of trick or treaters in cute costumes.

"Wobble the Witch Cat" by Mary Calhoun is a vintage story that is charming and much loved by young children. Wobble is a cat who belongs to Maggie a kind old witch , but Wobble hates riding on Maggie’s slippery broom. The other cats tease him and with Halloween coming up he decides to get rid of Maggie’s broom. When Maggie can’t find her magic broom, all she finds is a vacuum cleaner, but will it fly? 

Thoughtful Thursday

I still get wildly enthusiastic about little things…

I play with leaves.

I skip down the street

and run against the wind. 

Leo F. Buscaglia

 

Everything about this time of year makes me feel like I’m six again.  The colors jump off the trees in all their glory. The weather is getting cooler. The crunch of the leaves as we walk outside. And the smellsl - pumpkin, nutmeg, cinnamon. I sure do love this time of year.   



Photography by Katherine Marie



Workshop Wednesday

Paper Bag Pumpkins

Taken from Teach Preschool

What you will need:

• Paper lunch bag
• Craft stick
• Green and orange paint
• Green yarn
• Newspaper

What your child will do

• Paint the paper bag orange
• Paint the craft stick green
• Fill the paper bag with newspaper or other type of scrap paper.
• Stick the painted craft stick into the top of the bag
• Tie the bag closed with a piece of yarn.

Transition Tuesday

Good Morning Sunshine!

Want to a new way of taking attendance and morning message - try Good Morning Sunshine! As children enter the classroom place an easel with notes about the day, i.e. special events, activities, any visitors, etc.  Also, include the children's name tags.  When the children arrive they find their name tag and choose a spot on the morning sunshine to place their name. At morning greeting circle, sing Good Morning Sunshine and have the children greet one another. Then read the message.

Taken from Montessori Mama

Make & Take Monday

Acorn Sorting Trees

Cover 4 or 5 Pringles cans with bark-like contact paper and cut a hole in the side.  Hot glue a nut on top of each can.  Place a basket of nuts next to the "trees" and sort.

Taken from the Mailbox Magazine

Feature Friday

Okay. I know I am rushing the season. But teachers prepare months in advance, so I wanted to feature a new Christmas book your children are sure to love -It's Christmas David by David Shannon. The book was released on September, 1, 2010 with plenty of time to spare for the holidays.
We already know how naughty David is; now imagine Christmas trees, cookies, candy, holiday parties, presents…and David. Is Santa watching and will David have any presents left under the tree? This one is a sure hit all children will be able to relate to. Move over Christmas Story here comes David!

Thoughtful Thursday

The Magic of Preschool

"Interestingly, the Perry Preschool didn’t lead to a lasting boost in IQ scores.  While kids exposed to preschool got an initial bump in general intelligence, this dissipated by second grade.  Instead, preschool seemed to improve performance on a variety of 'non-cognitive' abilities, such as self-control, persistence, and grit.  While society has long obsessed over raw smarts — just look at our fixation on IQ scores — Heckman and Cunha argue that these non-cognitive traits are often more important. They note, for instance, that dependability is the trait most valued by employers, while 'perseverance, dependability, and consistency are the most important predictors of grades in school.'  Of course, these valuable skills have little or anything to do with general intelligence.  And that’s probably a good thing, since our non-cognitive traits are much more malleable, at least when interventions occur at an early age, than IQ. Preschool might not make us smarter — our intelligence is strongly shaped by our genes — but it can make us a better person, and that’s even more important."

Taken from Exchange Everyday, August 20, 2010

Workshop Wednesday

My favorite season is here! I LOVE fall. I love the colors, sounds, smells, and most of all the cooler days. Today's activity, "Fall Trees", can be used as a small group activity or in centers and can easily be played by just one child or by two children.

Materials: Print the Roll A Fall Tree game from Play2LearnPrintables. Laminate the dice directions card. The tree (using the template) can be made from construction paper, poster board or brown craft foam.  The leaves can be made from the pattern, leaf die cuts, or foam leaves. Just make sure you use the correct colors. You will also need a container (tray, Ziploc bag, basket) for the game.

Directions: To play the child must roll the die and get a "6" to get the tree.  Then they add colored leaves as directed by future rolls of the die.  Place 2 of each color of leaf in a separate container.  See picture below.

Here is what the tree would look like when full of leaves. 

You could change this activity by having the children roll the die and add that number of leaves to the tree, regardless of color. There are many ways to use this activity. Adapt it to meet the needs of your children and have fun!

Transition Tuesday

  Clapping Pattern

Clap or tap in a pattern, for example, clap slowly twice and then clap fast three times. The students are to stop what they are doing and repeat the pattern. If necessary, do it again until all children have responded and are quiet.

Make & Take Monday

Brain Sprinkles

Cover a small Pringle’s can or similar container with shiny paper. Put a tablespoon of rice in the bottom of the can and glue on the lid. Make a label that says, “Brain Sprinkles.” When you have something special that you want the children to remember, pretend to shake the “brain sprinkles” on their heads.

Taken from Dr. Jean

Feature Friday

Rain Gutter Book Displays

Today's feature is an inexpensive way to display books for your classroom..
You will need the following materials:

• Plastic rain gutters from the home improvement store
• Special scissors to cut your gutters to the correct length, or a very helpful home improvement store employee who will do it for you
• End caps for the rain gutters
• Screws
• Electric screw driver or drill for attaching the gutters to the wall
• Measuring tape
• Books and stuffed characters to display

First, measure the area you will be using to display your books. Next, purchase and cut your rain gutters to size. Now, attach the end caps to the rain gutters. Finally, attach the rain gutters to the wall using your electric drill or screwdriver.

A great idea if you don’t have a lot of storage space – but have plenty of wall space.

Taken from Pre-K Today