Thoughtful Thursday

Benefits of Rough and Tumble Play

In her article, "Rough and Tumble Play 101," Frances Carlson points out the reasons to support big-body play in early childhood programs:
Through the (very) physical interactions required in rough and tumble play, children are learning the give-and-take of appropriate social interactions.  Successful participation in this play requires children to become adept at both signaling and detecting signals — a social skill they will need and use throughout their lives.  When detecting these signals, they are learning to read and understand the body language signifying the play should come to an end.  The play also requires children to alternate and change roles.  Sometimes one child chases; at another time the child is chased.  Because this give-and-take mimics successful social conversations and interactions, the social roles practiced and learned in rough and tumble play provide children with the social knowledge needed for future relationships.

When children use this big-body play, the intense physical exertion of rough and tumble play also supports cardiovascular health.  Through their involvement, young children get the moderate-to-vigorous physical activity needed for optimum physical health.  And, because rough and tumble play is so physical, children get many of their vital touch needs met through the play.  Because the preschool period is a critical period for children to develop both physically and emotionally, rough and tumble play for preschoolers is invaluable.

Workshop Wednesday

Counting Apples


Setting: Small Group, Math Centers

Materials: red pom-poms, red sticky dots, construction paper, Sharpie, laminating film, basket, strawberry hullers

Directions: Laminate construction paper and cut out tree shapes, one tree per child in your small group. Write a different number on the bottom of each tree trunk with a Sharpie and place the corresponding number of red sticky dots on the tree. Place a basket of red pom-poms on the table and have students place the correct number of “apples” on the trees using a strawberry huller. The strawberry huller incorporates fine motor exercise into this activity.

Extensions:  Change it up by switching apples for leaves or acorns. Instead of writing numbers you could use  a die. Children roll the die and place that many objects on the tree. Simple, yet so many ways to use!

Transition Tuesday

 

APPLE TREE

This is the tree

With leaves so green.

(make leaves with fingers outstretched)

Here are the apples

That hang in between.

(make fist)

When the wind blows

(blow)

The apples will fall,

(falling motion with hand)

Here is the basket to gather them all.

(use arms to form basket) 

Make & Take Monday

Design Your Own Dry Erase Boards

Dry erase projects allow children independence and a less frustrating experience if they are unhappy with what the’ve written or drawn. These boards can be designed to fit any theme or unit you are studying. The basic materials include cardboard or canvas, clear contact paper, and cardstock paper.

Try this Jack-O-Lantern Board for October.


Photo taken from No Time for Flashcards

Materials: orange and green card stock, a hard piece of cardboard or canvas, scissors and clear contact paper

Directions:

1. Start by drawing a basic pumpkin shape on your orange paper.

2. Cut it and a green stem out and place on your canvas or cardboard.

3. Cover with clear contact paper.

4. Have children make faces on the Jack-O-Lantern with a dry erase marker.



For fall, draw a tree pattern and have children add apples or leaves.

Feature Friday

PINTEREST

What is Pinterest?

Pinterst is a virtual pin board. According to the company itself, “Pinterest is a place to catalog the things you love.” Pinterest lets you organize and share all the beautiful things you find on the web. People use pinboards to plan their weddings, decorate their homes, and organize their favorite recipes. Best of all, you can browse pinboards created by other people (educators). Browsing pinboards is a fun way to discover new things and get inspiration from people who share your interests. To get started, request an invite at www.pinterest.com.

The essence of Pinterest is this: You are browsing early childhood blogs and websites and you come across a really cool graphic (idea) you want to save. So you press a button in your browser, save (or “pin”) the image to your Pinterest account, and then all of your followers on Pinterest see the image that you pinned. (All pinned images include links back to their original sources on the web.) People can also repin anything that you like that someone else has pinned. This is the Pinterest version of a retweet. When you repin something, it shows up as a pin on one of your boards and also shows who the original pinner was.

Most of the early childhood sites have a button tagged "Follow me on Pinterest" and you can click on it and go directly to their pins. You can get some great ideas for your classrooms here! In order to save and organize them on your own board you must enroll in Pinterest ( a free service). You can catalog all of your seasonal or unit ideas. At any time you can go back and get those ideas! It's like a virtual file system!
Some ideas (images) from Pinterest:

Thoughtful Thursday

Great Quotes to Ponder

 

"The human race has one really effective weapon, and that is laughter." ~ Mark Twain

"Don't speak negatively and don't listen to those who do." ~ Ron Luce

 "You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself, any direction you choose." ~ Dr Seuss

"Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don't matter, and those who matter don't mind." ~Dr. Seuss

"It requires less character to discover the faults of others, than to tolerate them." ~ J. Petit Senn

 

"Life is 10% of what happens to you and 90% of how you react to it."~ Charles R. Swindoll

Workshop Wednesday

Color Match Car Parking

Park each car in the correctly colored parking space.  

Materials:

Construction paper rectangles (different colors)

Black construction paper for the game mat

White construction paper for the parking lot lines

Toy cars (same colors as the paper rectangles)

Glue

Directions:

Glue the construction paper rectangles on the black game mat (see photo below)

Glue small white rectangles for the parking lot lines (see photo below)

Add toy

The kids are going to LOVE this activity!!

Taken from Pinterest

Transition Tuesday

Climb Aboard The Spaceship

 Tune: Itsy Bitsy Spider

Climb aboard the spaceship, We're going to the moon.
Hurry and get ready, We're going to blast off soon.
Put on your helmets And buckle up real tight.
Here comes the countdown, Let's count with all our might.
10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1---BLAST OFF!!

Taken from Learning and Teaching with Preschoolers

Make & Take Monday

Paper Tube Trees

Materials:
paper tubes; construction paper; paint; crayons

Directions:
Provide a variety of tree shapes (different shapes and sizes).
Have children paint the tree shapes green (front and back).
Add apples or leaves by dipping fingers in red, orange, or yellow paint.
Color or paint paper tubes brown.
Cut a slit in the top of each paper tube so the tree shape will fit securely.
Place paper tube trees in the block area for fall fun props!

Feature Friday

The cool weather is getting me in the mood for fall. Check out these books.

A Friend for All Seasons by Julia Hubery is a gem! The book explains the change of seasons in a fun and easy to understand way for young children. Readers follow along with Robbie Raccoon as he notices the changes that are happening around his home, a big oak tree.  My favorite part of this book was when Robbie and a few woodland friends notice that the tree’s leaves are falling and they assume he is crying, so they give him a hug. Robbie’s mama raccoon explains the changes and before they go to sleep for a long time during winter’s dark days, they plant 5 acorns. I like that it provides an opportunity to extend this into a science lesson about seeds, and a oak tree’s life cycle. Sure enough when Spring comes there are tiny baby oaks waiting for Robbie when he awakens.

Every Season by Anne Love Woodhull and Shelly Rotner is a keeper. The text is simple, but the pictures really capture all the wonderful things that each season brings to make up a whole year. The photographs can be used as ice breakers about things children love about each season, are looking forward to or even don’t like. Either way this book is full of possibilities.

I Know It’s Autumn by Eileen Spinelli  is  age appropriate for young preschoolers and  toddlers. The book is a simple look at all the things that tell a small child that Autumn is here. Pumpkin muffins, apple picking, cooler weather,  hayrides and more all signal that the summer is gone and the fall has arrived. I like this book because there will be something a child will relate to and be able to identify with.

Workshop Wednesday

Popsicle Stick Sorting

Materials:

Colored craft sticks (you can paint/color plain sticks if you cannot find colored sticks)

Paper rolls (toilet paper size)

Construction Paper (same colors as your craft sticks)

Container to hold sticks

Tray/basket to display activity

Directions:

Make color sorters from construction paper and paper rolls.

Place colored craft sticks in container.

Have students sort craft sticks in the color sorters by color.

Extension:

Change colors to numbers.

Transition Tuesday

JUKE BOX

Glue copies of rhymes, songs, or finger plays to old CDs or 4 ½” circles.  Place in a gift bag or box and write “Juke Box” on the front.  When you’ve got a few extra minutes pull out the “Juke Box.”  Give a child a pretend quarter to put in the “Juke Box” and choose a song or rhyme.  According to research, most classrooms waste 20% of the day having children wait, line up, wash their hands, clean up, etc.  What a super simple way to take advantage of those teachable moments!

Taken from Dr. Jean

Make & Take Monday

Colorful Seating Mats

Materials: colorful, place mats (I don’t know what you call this material but it reminds me of the mats you use under carpets to keep them from slipping.)

The idea is to keep the spots close to your meeting or circle area and when you are ready for circle time to begin, you can say “Grab a Spot!” and invite the children to join you for circle time. Each child gets to sit on their own spot. You could add a “Spot Helper”to your classroom jobs. The spot helper can help pick up the spots or set them out. If the spots are already set out then you might want to change it up and say, “Choose a Spot” for the children to sit on.

Depending on the group of children, you would have to see whether “grabbing a spot” (letting the children pick their own spot and set it in the circle) or “choosing a spot” (putting the spots out ahead of time for the children to sit on) works better for you.

You could also use the colorful mats for games and work spaces.




Taken from Teach Preschool

Feature Friday

Organizing Your Classroom Music

Have you thought of using iTunes to organize your teaching music? You can sort your songs into playlists, for example “Alphabet”, “Math”, “Movement”, “Rhythm Sticks”, etc. Now, iTunes even allows you to make folders for playlists (and folders within folders). This is useful because you can separate your “School” music from your “Personal” music in folders. Then, you use the folders to organize your “Songs with Props” playlists (rhythm sticks, bean bags, rhythm instruments, castanets, etc.) You might want to start making a playlist for each month, and organize these playlists into a “Months” folder. It is much easier to find the song you need and you don’t have to change out CDs. You play the songs from an iPod with speakers. You can also make an “On-the-Go” playlist on the iPod, and use that playlist just for the songs you're going to use each week. Include an “iPod with speakers” on your classroom wishlist. You never know what you will get until you ask!

Taken from Prekinders

Thoughtful Thursday

Wishbones Vs. Backbones

"Never grow a wishbone where a backbone should be," advises Debra Sullivan in her article, "Learning to Walk: Changing Yourself, Your Perspectives, and Your Assumptions," in the 200th Issue of Exchange.  Sullivan continued...

"Clementine Paddleford, a culinary journalist and a pilot who flew a Piper Cub around the country in the 1920s, gave this advice to her daughter.  This reminds us that you have to take responsibility for your life and not wait for someone to come fix it for you.  Sometimes we want change, but we want someone else to make it happen.  This can happen in big ways, like wishing a family member would stop making bigoted statements; and it can happen in small ways, like wishing your neighbor would stop parking in front of your house.  If only people would change their behavior or change their minds without you having to say anything or do anything.  Unfortunately, wishes don’t always come true.

"You can wish all you want, but sometimes you have to take a stand.  Babies can take a stand and walk because they have a backbone.  Personal change is about taking a stand, using your backbone, and deciding to take personal responsibility for the change you desire.  And, yes, taking a stand can be scary, but don’t let that stop you.  If you really want something to be different, you will find a way to make it happen."

Workshop Wednesday

Name Finding
Small Group Activity

Combine the experience of scooping and brushing rice with a little name and letter recognition. To play this simple but engaging name activity, start by putting laminated name cards on a tray then pour some rice on the tray too. The children can use their hands or brushes to search for their names and the names of their friends. This is a wonderful way to help the children identify not only their own name but all the names of the children in your class. Once the children get pretty good at recognizing their names as a whole, then you can cut up the name into individual letters and invite them to search for the letters in their name. This is also fun to play with a partner. One child hides all the letters under the rice then the other child searches for the letters. Just the scooping and brushing rice makes for a wonderful sensorial experience. Once children are able to do independently move the activity to the centers.

Hide the name cards under the rice.

Add friends names too!

Cut the letters apart. Find the different letters and put together to spell name.

Idea taken from Teach Preschool

Transition Tuesday

Citizenship Song

As you continue to teach procedures and rules, try singing this song to promote positive behaviors and good classroom citizens.

(Tune: London Bridge)
In our class we follow rules
Follow rules, follow rules.
In our class we follow rules
Like good citizens.

We treat our friends with respect,
With respect, with respect.
We treat our friends with respect
Like good citizens.

In our class we wait our turn,
Wait our turn, wait our turn.
In our class we wait our turn
Like good citizens.

We keep our hands to ourselves
To oursleves, to ourselves.
We keep our hands to ourselves,
Like good citizens.

Taken from Mailbox Magazine (Aug/Sept 2009)

Make and Take Monday

Sorry I have been out of commission. I have recently moved and my computer has been down.
I am trying to catch up for this week. Thanks for your patience.

Colorful Sensory Gel Bags

These bags can be added to your art area, discovery/science area, writing area, or even table toys ... practically anywhere. And the kids LOVE them!

Materials:
Hair gel (from the dollar store - clear or yellow)
Baggies
Food color (the food coloring in the tubes makes bright colors)
Clear packing tape
Trinkets (optional)

Directions:
1. Fill each Ziploc baggie with about 1/4 to 1/2 cup of hair gel. (The yellow hair gel works as well as the clear gel and it smells great!)
2. Add some food color to get the bright colors.
3. Add trinkets if desired.
4. Use clear packing tape to seal the top of the baggies.

TIP: To remove the Ziploc print from the baggie all you need is to lightly rub the white letters and symbols with a very little nail polish remover and a sponge and the white print will come right off.



Make a baggie with each color and place in the art area for children to explore.



Add trinkets and add to your table toys area.
Have children "squish" around and count the number of objects in the baggie.

Add trinkets related to your current theme and add to your discovery area.
For example, nuts, acorns, apples, etc. for fall.



Use for small groups. Give each child a baggie and have them trace letters, shapes, numbers, etc.

Photos taken from Teach Preschool