Feature Friday

Today's feature is a favorite of all - Dr. Jean. Everyone loves Dr. Jean - her music, her ideas, her books! Make sure you check out her website - http://www.drjean.org/.  Each month she highlights a certain theme or topic. This month is High Five, Nifty Fifty - fifty nifty centers you can create in five minutes. She always has great ideas and is so practical!

Here is a sample of one of her activities this month.

Rainbow Writing

Materials: paper, crayons or markers
Directions: Children write a word and then trace around it with several different colors of crayons. *Make a giant letter or word on a large sheet of newsprint for the whole class to create a giant rainbow word.

Taken from http://www.drjean.org/

Thoughtful Thursday

Martin Luther King's impact in the United States was immense, in his Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech in Oslo on December 10, 1964, he spoke out against violence and armed conflict around the world. Consider his words as we celebrate his legacy.

"Sooner or later all the people of the world will have to discover a way to live together in peace, and thereby transform this pending cosmic elegy into a creative psalm of brotherhood.  If this is to be achieved, man must evolve for all human conflict a method, which rejects revenge, aggression, and retaliation. The foundation of such a method is love...

...I have the audacity to believe that peoples everywhere can have three meals a day for their bodies, education and culture for their minds, and dignity, equality and freedom for their spirits. I believe that what self-centered men have torn down, men other-centered can build up. I still believe that we shall overcome!"

Workshop Wednesday

Snowman Letters
Setting: Small or Large Group, Literacy Centers

Materials: Snowman cut-outs, Sharpie marker, laminating film, plastic container or basket to hold cut-outs, recording sheet, Do-A-Dot markers

Directions: Write one letter of the alphabet on each snowman cut-out using the Sharpie marker. On the 27th snowman write the word “Brrr!” with the Sharpie marker. Laminate the snowman cut-outs for durability. Place all the snowmen in a basket or plastic tub. Give each student in your small group a recording sheet and a Do-A-Dot marker. Have the students sit in a circle and pass the basket of snowmen around. Each student closes his eyes and removes one snowman, then “reads” the letter written on the back aloud. If the student can read the letter he keeps the snowman and marks the letter on his recording sheet with a Do-A-Dot marker. If not, then he may ask a friend to help him read the letter. If a student gets the snowman that says “Brrr!” all the students can chime in and say “Brrrr!” out loud together and act like they are cold. After the “Brrr!” snowman is chosen the person who selected it must put all of his snowmen back in the basket.
This game could also be played using sight words on the snowmen in place of letters.

Taken from Pre-K Pages

Transition Tuesday

A SOUND IDEA

Make a tape of sounds from the environment.  Example: crickets chirping, cell phones ringing, water running, a thunderstorm, and a kitty meowing. When the tape is played the students are asked to identify what the noise is. Keep a numbered list for your own reference so you don't forget what's on it.

An extension: Make picture/photo cards to match the different objects. Randomly pass out the cards. Play one of the sounds (ex. bell ringing). Children who have the card with the object (ex. bell) on it can line up. Continue until all children have lined up. To keep the children already in line involved have them whisper the name of the object in their neighbor's ear.

Feature Friday

Holly’s Red Boots by Francesca Chessa is a delight to read. Holly wants to go outside in the snow but can’t find her boots and the  readers follow along as she looks for them. It’s a cute story and the pictures are scrumptious.  Fun book!

Tacky the Penguin by Helen Lester is such a cute and funny story, your kids will love it! Tacky is an odd bird but when hunters come to get some pretty penguins is funny odd ways of doing things turn off the hunters and saves Tacky and his perfectly not odd companions. This is a sweet look at being different and being happy as pie about being different.  This is one of my all time favorite books!

Thoughtful Thursday

10 Tips for Staying Healthy

Don’t you just hate to be sick? There’s nothing worse than feeling awful and being a teacher; you are constantly on the go and can never sit down -which makes you feel even worse! I think one of the most difficult aspects of teaching is staying healthy enough to actually teach, especially in an early childhood classroom where germs can spread like wildfire. Below are ten tips for staying healthy.

1. Flu Shot - try to get one every year.
2. Lysol all tables, desks, surfaces, and door knobs daily.
3. Wipe telephone and computer keyboard with alcohol wipes weekly or after anyone else uses them.
4. Never use the same tissue box as the students, place a separate box of tissue in a location that is out of the student’s reach.
5. Teach students to cough in their elbows and not their hands.
6. Never use student pencils, crayons, or scissors; wear an apron and keep your own writing tools inside.
7. Never touch your face during the day at school, don’t rub your eyes, nose, scratch etc- it’s a hard habit to break but it is very important to your health.
8. Drink plenty of water daily; staying hydrated is crucial to your health.  Teachers can become dehydrated easily because we are constantly on the go and looking after lots of little people.
9. Wash your hands and arms up to your elbows as soon as you get home from school with hot water and plenty of soap. This will prevent you from bringing any germs home from school that might make family members sick.
10. Change your clothes when you get home so you don’t spread germs from school around your house.

Try these tips and Stay Healthy! I know I will!

Workshop Wednesday

Snowball Colors

Crumble white trash bags into balls and secure with clear tape. Add a colored dot to each snowball. Label laundry baskets with color words. Line the baskets up on one side of the carpet and have students stand on the other. Students throw snowballs into the correct baskets. You could adapt this activity to numbers, letters, shapes, etc. And what a great gross motor activity too!