The Crazy Pre-K Classroom

WOW! This was about the fastest September in my immediate history! I can't believe that switching from Pre-K to Kinder has left me with no classroom reveal or new ideas for my blog! Thank you everyone for being so supportive and patient. I promise to catch up as much as possible over the next couple of weeks. So, my classroom, where do I begin? I went from a decent sized room with windows to a closet with none. Don't get me wrong, I am not complaining it just poses certain storage and space issues that I had not needed to address in several years. How do you fit a full classroom of supplies into a tiny space, how do you organize it and how do you fit anything new that you will need for your new grade? Well, I started by clearing my entire classroom into my living room over the summer and doing a serious purge (which was very painful since I hoard all things school related!) then I went shopping! My Michaels' teacher discount, a coupon and other sales helped me to purchase q...

Tonight I reached 500 followers on TpT! I am super excited so I am throwing a Valentine's Day Giveaway to thank all of you for your support! Enter below as many times as you'd like for a chance to win my Valentine's Math and Literacy unit , Valentine's Print and Go Worksheets and my Dollar Store Valentine's Centers unit ! Check them out in my store for more details! The winner will be chosen by rafflecopter on Monday, February 10th! a Rafflecopter giveaway

Hello All! I truly hope you are enjoying your winter. I know many of you have had several snow days, here in Texas we have had 2 ice days, which is unheard of down here! This week my class started working intentionally on addition and subtraction concepts. While I always try to connect simple addition and subtraction concepts to my numbers lesson it is very informal. I am now planning the majority of my number lesson on addition and subtraction concepts.I know my class is ready to begin these concepts when they can count to 50 forwards and backwards, can pattern easily, can put numbers to 20 in order and can easily sort by color. With all of this in place teaching the basic addition and subtraction strategies should be easy! (Well, we will see!) So, we started this week with 10 frames,you can easily make your own or print out free sets through a google search. Each child then has 10 objects to use to count. I start with addition problems to 5. I instruct the children to "place 1 c...

When I think about the word bundle I think about the cold winter and being all curled up under blankets on the couch watching a good movie. For Drew however being all bundled up on the couch is not possible, he is spending his winter days in the hospital. Drew was diagnosed with Juvenial Rheumatoid Arthritis a couple of years ago and when he got strep last year it went to his brain causing intense pain, pressure and an inability to walk. The Doctors have tried everything and Drew was able to live at a tolerable pain level for a while. Now he is back in the hospital in a great deal of pain awaiting a much needed surgery on his brain. Because this surgery has never been performed on a child the families insurance has denied coverage. The Dr. has waived his fee however the family is still looking at $20,000.00+ out of pocket. This surgery is a last resort to try to get Drew a pain free, normal childhood. http://i1311.photobucket.com/albums/s677/prekchristine/drew2-001_zpse0ad3925.jpg I ...

Hello All, I have taken a few activities from my Winter Units on TpT and made them free for you to sample! Each one can be found as part of one of the Winter units found in my store. I hope you enjoy these and the sale I am having on all of my Winter units as a Thank you for being great followers! This 20% off sale will last through the weekend! Have a Wonderful Christmas and Holiday season!Use this link to get your freebies: Winter freebies link!

Debbie Diller and other succesful educators have said that children can distinguish between objects when they have a frame to seperate them. This would be why word walls, number walls and many educational posters frame there content so that children can concentrate on one space and not get everything all jumbled together. This is especially important when learning how to decode words and counting. One to one correspondence practice where a child places one object in one section of an egg carton is the same idea. This year I have been working diligently with my pre-kers on using 10 frames. I am seeing this tool used more and more often to help with counting, one to one correspondence, identifying amounts and grouping. There are endless possiblilities for using these in the classroom. This week after practicing with the ten frames from my Hibernation Unit we completed the following worksheet. You can see that the child who colored in red understood the concept pretty well but the child ...