Christmas Nativity for Preschool

I wanted to let everyone know about my latest TpT product.  How many of your kiddos like hearing or retelling their favorite stories?  With this they can retell the greatest story ever told!  Click on the photo below to get it for your little storyteller!

Preschool Reindeer

I LOVE Pinterest!  

I found this Santa bulletin board and these adorable reindeer ideas! 

 Couldn't decide which one to do so I did them both.

 Too cute!!! 

 To finish it off, I asked each student if they had been "Naughty or Nice" this year. 

 Next, they had to tell me how.  

I laminated them so their families can enjoy them for years to come!

Play-Dough Snowmen

First of all, let me say how good it is to sit down and blog.  Life has been so busy!

We had our first snow about a week ago. It happened over a weekend so I didn't get to bring any in for the kids to play with.   I thought it would be fun to see them make snowmen with pay dough.

  I have to admit, I am a one color at a time kinda girl! 

 Mixing the play dough colors drives me CRAZY! 

 So, I modeled how to carefully build a snowman and then take it apart without mixing the colors.  I was blown away by their creativity.  Check these adorable snowmen and snowgirls out!

We had to get fresh play dough after this one, but the story that was being told as she built her snowgirl a beautiful dress was priceless!

Thanks for stopping by my blog.  Here's a little Christmas freebie for you! 

Just a fun way to practice one to one correspondence and number recognition.

Just click on the page below and get it for free at my TPT Store.

Freebie, Updates, Play Dough and a SALE!

Wow, this has been an amazing summer!  My summers are usually pretty quiet....but not this year!! 

 I visited my sister in Ireland for 3 WEEKS!  Had an amazing time with  my nieces and nephew. (Got a sister tattoo!!) Came home, spent one night at my house before leaving for the lake with my boys and husband for a week. (They are all taller than me now but still my little boys!). Came home, spent one night at my house before leaving again for a week long youth camp with my church! 

(5,000 teenagers learning about Jesus.....AWESOME!)

 Summer's almost over, time to get busy!!

Here's a freebie you can use to welcome your students back to school. Get it at my TPT Store.

I love my calendar but wanted to add a few things to it.  I added 3 new event cards (Graduation, Mommy Make Over Day, Class Picnic) and more "No School" cards.

The play dough center is always busy in my classroom.  I made this to add to the fun this year!

My entire store will be 20% off today and tomorrow.  Enjoy!

Welcome Letters and School Supply List

Do you send out a welcome letter and school supply list to your new students before school starts? 

 I do and thought that would be a good place to start blogging again for the upcoming school year.  My letter always includes a little about myself and my family, an invitation to a preschool orientation night, and a request for a family photo.  This is something I started doing a few years ago and love it!  I ask the parents to bring a framed family photo to school the night of orientation or open house.  They help their child choose the perfect spot in our classroom for their photo.  The purpose for this is to create a feeling of community in the classroom.  I have seen my students showing off their photo to their new friends, pick it up to give mom and dad a kiss, or just carry it around with them sometimes.  The photos are conversation starters among parents during class parties as well.  A great way to help people connect.

This picture is from last year. You can see a few of the pictures around the room.

My school supply list is a little different each year.  I take an inventory at the end of the year to see what we will need for the upcoming year.  Last year I added a WISHLIST to my supply list.  I don't know why I didn't think of it sooner!  I had a great response from the parents.  I'm sure you are like me and every other teacher out there.  We spend a small fortune of our own money in our classrooms.  The extra supplies were very welcome and the parents enjoyed sharing.

Ocean Week in Preschool

I love ocean week! It is different every year and I always learn something new myself!  I begin by reading a few ocean books to the kids and then ask them which animals they would like to learn about.  I write down each student's answer on a poster and we get started.  Each day we take 1-2 of the animals on the list to learn about.  As we learn about each animal we actually make that animal and add it to the class bulletin board.  The student's share what they have learned and we write their answers on bubbles to add to the board.  Here is the finished bulletin board.   

Here are a few behind the scene shots.....

 

  I can't bring the ocean into the classroom or take the students to the beach.  What's the next best thing?  Goldfish in the sensory table!  I didn't get a very good picture this year of the fish.  The kids absolutely love watching them for a few days!

Here are a few pictures of some of the ocean themed centers that were open during the week.  These are activities from my "Ocean and Beach Fun Unit", available at my TpT Store.  

This is a freebie I made, "Ocean Hidden Pictures".

  Fun activity to use for counting and number writing practice.

We ended our two week ocean unit with a beach party!  The students brought their swim suits, beach towels and sunglasses for our "indoor" beach party.  After watching some videos of kids surfing and listening to some Beach Boy's  music we were ready to make our own surf boards. 

Surf's up!!

Superhero Week

This is one of our favorite weeks!  Check out some of the fun we had!

The kids LOVED learning how to fly....

 Each child brought an old t-shirt from home that we used to make capes.  

They were welcome to dress up as superheroes all week if they wanted. 

 I had some little boys that were more than happy to wear their Halloween costumes again!

 We discussed the character traits of superheroes and ways we could have those same traits everyday.

 We also learned about some superhero's weaknesses.  

We were very careful not to touch the "kryptonite" as we had races to fill our buckets.

 We used our wrist shields to protect ourselves from the Bubbles of Doom!  

 Our superhero boots came in helpful too!

 Who says Venn Diagrams are only for big kids!  

We found things that were the same and different between Superman and Spiderman.

 We learned about the "super power" of static electricity.  

Rub a balloon on the carpet then hold it just above a plate of salt.  

The salt jumps up and clings onto the balloon!

 Some were curious what else they could get the balloon to stick to.  

Then they found the air vent! Amazing fun!

 

 Magnets were another fun "super power" to explore.

 The girls loved it just as much as the boys!

So did we!

The BIG sale is here!

 I would love for you to stop by my store during the sale.  

While you're there,check out my new St. Patrick's Day product!

Happy Shopping!

Warning! Preschool Booby Traps!

During centers a couple of weeks ago, one little guy went over to the yarn and started quietly stringing it under, over and around everything in sight.  Instead of jumping in to make him stop I sat back and watched for a few minutes.  He stayed focused on his work as the other children played around him.  I finally asked him what he was working on.  He looked up at me with a smile and replied, "I'm making booby traps!"  He wasn't trying to catch anything or harm anyone.  Just simply making booby traps for fun.  This went on for a few days and soon half of the class had joined him!  I couldn't bring myself to stop them.  It was so much fun to watch the creativity, teamwork and problem solving unfold.  

So I decided to join them!

  One morning when they arrived they found a note on our door warning them that our classroom had been booby trapped. Enter at your own risk!

They had so much fun passing their coats and backpacks to friends on the other side so they could belly crawl into the classroom.  

(This was high enough for them to have to go under but low enough for me to step over!)

 I also had a "Laser" maze set up over our rug.  

This was a fun way to reteach positional words.

 (Crawl under, step between, jump over)

FREEBIE and a SALE!

This is my 3rd snow day this week!  

Finally, some extra time to make some new products! 

 Here's what I made this week.

Grab the freebie and enjoy 20% off in my TPT store until Sunday!

My students love the "Wheels on the Bus" song.  One little guy asks to sing it EVERYDAY!

This is for him....

Here's the Freebie!

We've been working on drawing shapes lately.  

Some of my kiddos are still struggling with straight lines and corners.  

This is for them...

Enjoy!

High Wire or Balance Beam?

Each day this month we are reading a different fairy tale or folk tale.

  Earlier this week we read "Mirette on the High Wire" by Emily Arnold McCully.  My students loved learning about Paris, hearing some French, and learning about the art of walking on a high wire.  

We pulled out the balance beam and tried walking it ourselves!

Next we made balance birds.  

Super easy to do, cut bird pattern (old file folders work great) then attach a paperclip to each wing.  

We discovered we could balance them on our fingers and even our noses!

What else could we balance them on?

Great way to incorporate social studies, gross motor and science into story time!