The Crazy Pre-K Classroom

Hello All, With fall in full swing and parent teacher conferences on Monday I have not had much time to create or blog however for all of my loyal followers I have decided to make it up to you buy bundling all of my fall worksheets at a discount and adding a 5 worksheet freebie to my store! My kiddos have been enjoying my newest sets of worksheets that are all interactive and keep their attention. I have taken out all of the centers and other printables in order to give you an entire unit of useable worksheets with 22 exclusive worksheets for free. You will not find these 22 new worksheets in any of my other units, they are only in the bundle.All of the worksheets are interactive withmore than one way of learning on the page. The students have really enjoyed all of the cutting/gluing, counting, coloring the correct number, matching the correct letter etc. These have been working so well in my reading group rotations. I have hardly been interrupted and this early in the school year that...

This week has been a whirlwind of fun apple activities. I think my favorite new apple activity is the apple fraction stamping we did on Tuesday. I sat everyone down at the table and showed them whole, half, fourths and eigths. They were amazed that you could cut and apple like that and put it back together. After each cut I had the children stamp that section on a piece of construction paper where I had written the different fractions. I was amazed at the amount of critical thinking this activity produced. My four year olds had the best questions like, "So if you cut it again what do you get?" and "Why does the apple have a stem and 5 points on the bottom?" Our last stamp was the 5 points at the bottom because it looks cool and reinforces the 5 section "star" in the middle of the apple that holds the seeds. One little one asked me, "Mrs. O'Donnell if the seeds are stuck inside the apple how do we get more apples?" So then we had a talk about ...

Hello All, I wanted to share with you one of my favorite days of the year. As you know fall is my favorite season, I can't get enough of it! This past Friday I made applesauce in my classroom with my kiddos. This was our final apple project :( It was such great fun and easy too! I did do some pre-planning by having some of my families donate apples and then gathering supplies the night before: What you need: Crock Pot with lid Apples any and all varieties Cinnamon Water Potatoe Masher Cutting board, peeler and knife(with cover for safety) Here is how our lesson progressed: We started by talking about the parts of an apple. I sliced one in half to show the star and discuss the life cycle. I then showed how you peel an apple and allowed the class to try the skin (there were no takers so I tried it myself, I personally love the skin!) We had a short discussion about kitchen safety, not touching knives and being careful of things that are hot. I then diced a few apples and p...

Hello All, Fall is my favorite season of the year and here in Texas I do not get my fill of fall like I did when I lived in New Jersey. I have to make my own fall experiences and "pretend" fall is all around me. In my classroom I hang lines of fall leaves and decorate with acorns, squirrel stuffed animals and fake apples. I use the whole month of September adding extra "fall" to my teaching. This next week our theme is apples (so early I know). I have so many plans that I am not even sure I will fit them all in. For science we will be having an apple tasting. I will be buying every kind of apple I can find and we will compare and contrast their flavors and features on an I chart. I also make a graph to show which children like which apples the best. (I will post pics once we complete this) For snack we will be making crock pot applesauce, mini apple pies, dried apples, sliced apples and apple cider. For literacy we will read "10 apples on top"...