The Crazy Pre-K Classroom

Hello All, I had so much fun with my 5 senses unit this week at school that I decided to create a whole unit around it. I included some items that I have been using in my classroom such as the vocabulary building cards and the word wall/pocket chart vocabulary cards. Use this link to see the entire unit: My 5 Senses Unit I have also written a teacher big book, created a few worksheets and given my ideas for centers/activities that I have been doing for years with this unit. My favorite part though has to be the treasure hunt that I posted about a couple of days ago. My freind, Bev Fleming and I came up with this and it was so much fun! Check out the past post and get the recording sheet for free by scrolling down past this post. This unit also has a freebie of its own, I am giving away my hearing worksheet, you can find the freebie by clicking on the following link: 5 Senses Hearing Worksheet Freebie

This past week we studied the 5 senses. I was eager for something new to do that wasn't the same old lesson. My teacher friend, Bev Fleming, and I came up with an idea. We decided to create a 5 senses treasure hunt. We started with a plan to create 5 stations that the children would visit, each one dedicated to one of the 5 senses: 1. Hearing: We used a sound CD that came with an ABC sound bingo game and each child had a set of earphones. 2. Tasting: We used marshmallows and had the children shut their eyes and hold out there hand, then taste. 3. Touching: We placed smooth items inside a box with a small opeing cut out of the top. The children were told not to look into the box. 4. Sight: We used view finders, you could also use kaliedescopes or toilet paper rolls with pictures taped to the end, look through to the ceiling to see the picture. 5. Smell: We used garlic, pepper, pepperming extract and candy for the children to smell without removing the lids on the garlic and pep

First for the freebie! Download a free sampler of my new Fall themed ABC and 123 worksheets here: Fall Themed ABC and 123 Worksheet Freebie Scroll down for more images and info on this entire set! You know it is a wonderful day when a teacher is recognized for their talent. Georgia kindergarten teacher, Deanna Jump, has earned $1,000,000.00 (yes a million) on Teachers Pay Teachers and is still teaching in the classroom! I think it is a wonderful time to be a teacher, when collaboration and technology can impact our classrooms for the better. Congratulations Deanna! Now onto my newest endeavor! I have created a set of Fall themed worksheets for my class to practice their ABC's and 123's with cut and glue, writing, matching and more. I have found that my group of fours this year needs worksheets that have a kinesthetic element. They are successful with the academic element but seem to be missing some of the basic skills necessary to succeed past Pre-K. Cutting skills, glue

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

This week in our apple unit we joined with another class to have an apple tasting. We sampled red, yellow and green apples. We talked about their names, what they taste like and if we liked them. We then made a graph of our favorite apple and then counted how many of each we liked. You can see we ended up with a tie between the red delicious and granny smith apples. After our apple tasting we cut a pear, apple and orange in half. We showed them all to the children and then filled in a venn diagram for a compare and contrast lesson. The classes were so interested in these activities, they were great science lessons. I hope you can enjoy some of these activities with your kiddos!

Pre-K children often come to school with the ability to rote count to 10 or 20 but most of the time they cannot connect the counting to the number. In order to facilitate this connection I taught a very simple lesson during group time on the carpet. I took my apple number and graphic cards and also found some basket cut outs. I lined the baskets on the carpet and placed the numbers 1-5 in order on the baskets. I then laid out the graphic cards out of order. I called on a few children to come count the apples and match them to the proper basket. I then switched the numbers up and placed them out of order. This was a little more difficult but it showed me who knows their numbers and who doesn't. The little girl in the pictures below originally matched the 5 graphic with the number 4. I held her hand and helped her count. I then helped her find the correct card. Once I had taken her through this process she was able to do her next number without issue. You can find th

Hello All, This week my class was working on color sorting. A few of my little ones struggle with fine motor skills and attention to activities. This activity was awesome, the children were occupied for 20 minutes! This is what I did: I bought these chip and dip trays at the dollar store over the summer. I placed pony beads of assorted colors in the center and gave each child a different color of tweezers. I bought these tweeezers a few years ago from oriental trading and they have been fantastic for all kinds of activities. I showed the children how to grab one bead and place it in their corner. They each had to grab the pony beads that were the same color as their tweezers. Once they found and sorted all of their assigned color they counted how many they had moved. The children who finished early were allowed to move the unused color beads to the empty corner while counting. After 20 minutes I finally had to tell the class to clean up, I think they would have played

Hello All, Last year I did not hear about Teachers Pay Teachers until November, that is when I began creating my units and started this blog. I used some time in the summer creating for TpT but never thought about having missed creating units for fall. So this week I an hurriedly creating some awesome activities with fall themes. I have done most of these activities in my classroom as a Pre-K teacher for the last 8 years but have now given them cute graphics and compiled them for easy grabbing when planning. My 2 latest units are themed on apples and pumpkins. They are similar units in that they include math, literacy and art activities but the pumpkin unit builds apon the apple unit since it comes after. So for instance both units contain matching uppercase to lowercase letters but the pumpkin unit includes beginning sound descrimination. The bingo in the pumpkin unit uses both letters and numbers to help with visual discrimination. Both units include letter and

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"