Counting with Apples

During our apple theme this week I made this lame extremely simple activity for my kiddos.   I have learned that simple is just as effective as something that's extremely time-consuming to make.  I made a page that had three trees on each page, with different numbers on them (1-12).  With my PreK kids, I just used pages (1-3) and (4-6).  They rolled the die (you can see it in my aide's hand above the arrow) and then they used tweezers to put that number of pompoms (apples) on the correct tree.  This utilized many skills.  First, could they identify the number on the die?  Second, could they find the tree with that number on it?  Third, could they place the correct number of pompoms on the tree?  Not to mention the fine motor skills they were developing with the tweezers.  So simple, yet so effective!

 

 

 

 

I just slid this in a dry erase pocket/sleeve and off they went.  I was a little nervous about not laminating it, but I wanted to see how it worked and it was great!

 

So just because I love you all so very much....here's a little something from me to you!  Click HERE to get this little lovely for free!

 

All About Me and Family and Pets Themes

This year we had an All About Me weekly theme as well as a My Family and Pets theme.  During these two different weeks we did a couple of different projects that I remembered to take pictures of!

First name assessment of the year.  We'll use this same page 3 times during the year to see the growth of how students wrote their names when they came to us and how they are able to write their name before they head to kindergarten!  I'm super excited to show students their page at the end of the year!

We put some faces and bodies out for students to decorate with playdoh, pipe cleaners, wiggly eyes, beads, and other odds and ends.

 

After reading the book "A My Name is Alice" by Alice Lyne we provided students with heads and half circles.  They got to choose which pattern to use for their half circle.  Once they had the head and shirt glued on their paper (they used glue sticks), we wrote up the saying "____ my name is _____ and I like ______."  This got glued on next.  The next day we provided pieces of construction paper for mouths and hair.  They decorated their person as they saw fit using glue sponges (BEST THING EVER!)  Once they were done I gave them their initial letter (which I had cut out) to glue onto the first blank of the saying.

 

Once we finished our people, we went to work on our names in small groups.  Students were provided with a paper that had their name printed in gray on it.  They then used bingo daubers to cover the letters.  This also helped me gauge fine motor and color identification skills.

 

When we finished both components they went on our bulletin board in the hallway!  They look amazing and we've gotten so many wonderful compliments!  I got the idea from Pinterest.

Another activity we did during our family theme was to provide students with sentence strips and ask them to draw their family on the sentence strip. 

Color Days/Weeks

Our school has school-wide color days each week.  So far this year we've done red, blue, and yellow.  Besides everyone (in the entire school) wearing the color of the week on a specific day, here are just a few of the things we've done so far to celebrate!

Each week we decorate our doorway with streamers and cut out shapes on the designated color day.

 

Each week we cut out (the color of the week) items from magazines and catalogs and glue them onto contstruction paper.

 

For red week we used tweezers to sort pompoms.  All the red ones went into the red mini garbage cans!

Blue Week Snack: blueberry pancakes and blueberry yogurt on blue plates!  YUM!

Little Boy Blue in a pocket chart!  Students used the blue chart highlighters to highlight the word blue.  They used the other chart highlighters to highlight the letter h (our letter of the day).

 

Yellow Week Snack: lemonade, bananas, and vanilla wafers (I wish I would have known about lemon Oreos I would have done those instead!!)

Animal Clinic

To go with our theme of My Family and Pets this week I set up a Animal Clinic in our Dramatic Play center. 

 

On the left side of the dramatic play center, on the top shelf, we have a phone, a box for patient records, and a doctor's prescription pad.  In addition, there are three different clipboards.  One has a patient sign in sheet, another with patient information sheets, and a third with doctor's notes sheets.  On the middle shelf we have containers for cotton swabs, cotton balls, tongue depressors, & medication (we used foam circles, I never want the kids to mistake real medicine for play).  We also have leashes, collars, & toys.  On the bottom shelf we have food dishes, doctor's tools, & dog treats.   

 

On the right side of the center we have the different animals (fish, cats, dogs, snakes, and a frog).  One of my students also decided we needed a microscope in this center and added it to this shelf. I thought this was awesome!

In the middle we have a waiting room.  Next year I'll move the hooks for the doctor's and nurse's jackets and bags, but they were there from last week's Post Office Center and I decided not to waste the command strips to move them! 

We also have a light table set up with "x-rays" on it for them to check out!

Checking in for an appointment.

 

Filling out patient information sheet.  This sweet guy asked, "Does your dog need a shot?"  Haha!

 

Writing down doctor's notes!

 

I had so much fun making this dramatic play center! Here are some close ups!

the patient information and doctor's notes pages.

cards to label animals in center, word wall cards, and prescription pad

 

number sequencing puzzles, fun with spinners counting game, cards to label items in center, number recognition cards, patient record page

 

 

Click here to purchase Dramatic Play Animal Center.