The Crazy Pre-K Classroom

We  all know that February is Dental health month and as I sit here eating ice cream with candy topping I am reminded that I need to start planning for some dental health activities. Here is what I have come up with. 1. Soak a hardboiled egg in cocacola and have the students brush the stain off, remind them of how important it is to brush everyday or else they get stained. 2. Use floss to create art, dip in glue and shape as you wish. 3. Get a supply of toothbrushes and let the children paint with them. If you tilt the toothbrush with bristles up towards the paper and run your finger through the bristles you get a splatter effect and the kids love it. 4. Create a tooth pattern. Outline with glue and glitter, don't shake off the excess. Allow to dry. Place the tooth on a tray and have the children brush it off. 5. Use teeth patterns to create a read the room activity and staple a few together to create a book that the children can record their words in. My TpT ...

Round Rock Christian Academy is having an open house tomorrow (January 31st) at 10:00 am and 7:00 pm. Please come see how great this school is. Take it from a Mom that has a child with 6 learning disabilities and is on or above level in every subject because of this school. The teachers, administrators and families love children and want to seal their hearts for eternity in Christ. If you cannot make the open house please make an appointment for a tour. You won't be disappointed! (preschool-12th grades) Round Rock Christian Academy 301 N. Lake Creek Dr. Round Rock TX 78681 (in the Central Baptist Church buildings accross the street from Round Rock high School) Round Rock Christian Academy Website

This year for Valentines day my department has decided to have a teddy bear picnic and have a box outside our classrooms for notes from Parents, Teachers and other loved ones. I wanted to incorporate the Valentines theme into my lessons for the week and here are some of the ideas I have come up with: 1. Put words on hearts and hang around the room at eye level. Give children hearts stapled together for a read the room exercise and a cute take home book. (literacy) 2. Divide heart doillies in half, quarters, thirds, etc. and talk about part to the whole. Give each child one cut up and have them glue back together on a sheet of construction paper. (math) 3. Use heart die cuts to count, label with a number or number word: count forwards, backwords or skip count. Match the number to their words.(math) You can find these ready made in my TpT unit: Valentines Math and Literacy Unit 4. Give each child a blank sheet of paper and a set of markers. Direct the students to draw Valentines...

I had a breakthrough today, an answer to prayer truly in my classroom. I have been struggling with how to help a child get through the Reading Group rotations that have been going so well for the rest of my class. This little one could not stay in his area or stay quiet enough for others to stay focused. At times I have had to have him removed. I thought I had tried everything, giving him books, papers, drawing binder, and all sorts of other activities. Today I asked him to sit next to me, which he has to do everytime, but this time I held his hand, just that simple thing made a world of difference. I held his hand while instructing my reading group and he sat quiet and was engaged in the process. Tomorrow I am going to try this during his own reading group as well to see if he focus' a little better. Just a little sensory trick that maybe you could use for one of your little ones, so simple yet so effective! Till Next Time, Christine

This week my class is talking all about winter, here are some ideas you could use in your classroom: 1. Winter Garb Day: Have the children come in with all of their winter dressings, make a graph with a picture of each on the bottom. Fill in a square or have the children write their name on the graph. Count how many of each item you have, which do you have the most, least etc.? 2. Discuss the concept of pairs with mittens and gloves, things that go together, bring in some summer items and see if the children can distinguish between which belongs and which doesn't. 3. Hide small plastic winter animals in a large mitten, have the children feel and guess then pull the animal out anf tell you the name, discuss beginnig and ending sounds, whatever literacy concept your class is working on. 4. Hang signs around the room with a designated amount of each item on them, have the children read the room, counting and writing the number of each item they saw. 5. Make vocabulary cards ...

     Here I have created a set of 26 ABC worksheets to go with my Scrabble Spelling Unit on TpT. I will post several of these for free on the freebies page for you to download and print out. More ideas are included below the pictures for your Word Work station. You can get the entire set by clicking the link below which will redirect you to my TpT store. Enjoy! ABC Letter Find Unit Each of these worksheets can be used for visual discrimination assessment, letter knowledge and following directions. I always do the first couple as a group and then once the class gets the hang of them I allow them to be done on thier own. I can then take a few minutes to work with those that need some extra practice on letters. In my word work center I have scrabble tiles that I have gathered from old games at garage sales etc. The class can use them to build the sample words on the worksheet, can be challenged to make other words that have the key letter ...

Congratulations to Caitlin Clabby at Kindergartensmiles for winning my first giveaway! Caitlin will recieve the full unit All Star Spelling from my Teachers Pay Teachers store! Thank you to everyone who entered, remember you are now automatically entered for the rest of the year, check back often to see if you've won, make sure I have your email to send you your prize! If you missed this giveaway you are not out of luck, I am giving away a unit every month this year! Go to the giveaway page for details on how to join the giveaway! One enrty puts you in every drawing this year! Giveaway winners are announced on the 15th of each month! Till Next Time, Christine Visit Caitlin at her blog!

Don't forget to join my giveaway for a free TpT unit! All Star Spelling will be given to one lucky winner and announced on this board in the morning! All Star Spelling Click on this link to see a full description and details about this Unit. You can also visit the giveawy page for more details, entering is simple: Join this site Visit the link above and download one of my freebies Rate the freebie and leave me a comment to let me know you want in! That's it! Till next time, Christine

      I have met many people who do not believe children who are 4 can or should be taught academically to read well and fluently. If you met me 7 years ago you would find a person who agreed, but I have to say over my last few years of teaching my mind has been changed. The Pre-K program I work for used to be play based and then very decidedly went academic based. A huge change for the better of our children, here are 10 reasons why children need an academic pre-Kindergarten program. 1. Don't let your local public school tell you that your child needs to know nothing when they get to kindergarten, most children are loosing invaluable learning time if teaching is postponed till they are five. Developmentally children should know their letters, sounds, numbers and some words before they go to formal school. Plus, those who attend an academic pre-kindergarten ar more likely to be given a chance in the gifted and talented program in the public schools becasue the...

Make sure to join the giveaway for the All Star Spelling Unit! One lucky winner this month announced right here on the 15th! Visit the giveaway page for more details! Till next time, Christine

O.K. all I found myself with some nervous energy tonight and made a book to go with my Arctic Freeze Unit. It is super cute and works on number writing and number word writing. There are also 5 worksheets and 5 center ideas, have fun! Photos to come, uploader is not working right now, sorry! Same graphics as the Arctic freeze unit blog post Arctic Animal 1-10 book

Last night I posted what I think is my best unit yet for TpT! Scrappindoodles.com had the cutest Arctic Animal graphics and I just couldn't resist buying them to make this unit. I just love creating worksheets and readers with their graphics. Check out some of what is included in this Winter themed Unit focusing on Arctic Animals, there are 95 pages of fun! Vocabulary cards for flash cards, read the room and literacy centers. Shared full page size reader with easy to understand sentences about the animals of the Arctic and Eskimos. Rhyming practice sheets for critical thinking and rhyming ability assessment. ABC and 1-30 ice for number/letter practice, word work and matching numbers to their words. Number word igloos 1-30 for a combined literacy and math center and group instruction. I have /Who has ice for ABC's, 1-20 and sight words. Book to be printed for each child and colored, words are provided on a seperate sheet for them to cut and paste into the book fol...

This week I added a new game to my centers. I created this unit becasue I couldn't find exactly what I needed to reach all of my students in the same game. I don't want my younger students to feel as if they are missing out because they are not on the same reading level. So, my unit includes popcorn with letters, vowels, CVC/CCVC/CVCC words and the dolche pre-primer, primer and first grade lists. That is approximatly 350 popcorn pieces that can reach everyone of your students.   Letter Popcorn Initial and Final Blend Popcorn Short Vowel Word and Sight Word Popcorn Letter to parents explaining unit. Word Work Sheet, there is also a similar page for reading the room. Cut and Glue the correct sight word into the sentence.  Cut and paste the words in the correct order and find the correct punctuation. This unit has everything I needed to meet all of my students needs.  My class ranges from just 4 to 5 1/2 years old. There are huge developmental differ...

So, we have all been there, trying to teach a small group while the rest of the class is causing noise and disruption. I have found that the following procedures and ideas have worked for me. Quiet centers that can be done alone, quickly set up and quickly put away. Wiki Sticks with mats Pop beads in a bag Lacing beads with plastic needles and yarn (patterns) Lego Minifugures, especially popular with the boys, I take them apart after each playtime. Lacing ABC's, great with sight word cards. Number stencils, paper, stamp markers I also use peg boards, rhyming trains, hexabits, bug patterns, magnetic dolls, stencils, sewing cards, patterning beads, classification cards, sequencing cards and file folder games. Anything i think they can play quietly on thier own I will try in my two towers. The kids are really enjoying the variety and most are not choosing the same center over and over as I had expected to have to address. I think this system is encouraging even more concepts...

The small orange table houses my writing center. To begin I have my dry erase boards with markers and erasers. I then added thin line markers, colored pencils and the pencil sharpener. there is a file holder attached to the side of the drawer cart that you cannot see that holds construction paper, coloring sheets and dry erase practice books. Since the table is so small I have the students take the supplies to the nearest table that is reserved for the writing center during our rotations. I will be rotating different supplies in and out of the writing center each week. My students love tape and staples, while i would normally reserve these for the art center I find that the children write more when they have access to these tools. Crayons, dot painters and q-tips with paint are also frequent fliers in my writing center. The children know that writing needs to take place and art is for another time. Till next time, Christine p.s. don't forget to join and enter the giveaway

I finally have pictures of my new reading group setup. I have completly rearranged my classroom for the second half of the year in order to put my new system into place. Because my school requires I put everything into cabinets at the end of the week (we share our classrooms with the church) my system had to be portable and storage friendly. I purchased 2 towers with 10 drawers each. Everything else I already owned. Picture 1.: The back corner of my room houses the two towers, they are filled with quiet centers such as letter and number stencils, wiki sticks with ABC mats, pop beads, stringing beads and more. Picture 2: Closeup of same area Picture 3: Early reader buckets, classification center, word work tiles, Popcorn words (Unit found on TpT) and a bucket with the students handwriting workbooks.  Picture 4: Classification center with letter and word tiles for word work. This is a standing center that allows movement and keeps ctudents from having to sit for ...

Hello All, Last night I posted my newest unit to TpT all about the garb we wear in the winter. Super cute graphics from scrappindoodles make this book and sight word kit adorable. Be sure to check it out, the unit is 20% off until Wednesday. Make sure to download the freebie for this unit. p.s. don't forget to enter my monthly giveaway, visit the giveaway page for details! Till next time, Christine

Do you know what you are when you spend your vacation working? Do you know what you are when you spend your own money on work? Do you know what you are when a child that is not your own looks up at you and says "I love you?" YOU ARE A TEACHER WHO IS MAKING A DIFFERENCE FOR CHILDREN! THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU  to all of you who spend your love, time and money on others precious children! My life and both of my children's lives have been impacted by teachers like you! With many blessings for a wonderful 2012! Christine

Well, I have finally put together the two towers I purchased for my learning centers and quiet play centers. I am using these as stations during my reading group time. I also saw at Mardel's that they hung a small file pocket chart off the side so I purchased those too. The pocket chart on the quiet center tower will be filled with fun worksheets and coloring sheets and the one on the learning centers tower will be filled with assessments and learning papers that the children can choose to complete. I am sooooooo excited to put this in my classroom tomorrow! I purchased these book bags to put in the drawers, I suppose a ziploc would do the trick but these seem a bit more sturdy. I will use these to hold all of the counters and small pieces that go with each center. In my quiet play center drawers I have several of these Melissa and Doug magnetic dolls. My class loves these and I found the boy set of three different sets on clearance at Sam's Club after Christma...