The Crazy Pre-K Classroom

O.K. so we all remember those famous dioramas that we made in elementary school were meant to teach us about animals and where they live. While these are cute projects with a purpose they are best suited for elementary students not pre-k. But with curious minds and a natural love for animals it only makes sense to introduce our kiddos to facts about animals and where they live around the world. For pre-k there are so many great easy ways to incorporate animals into our classrooms. I like to make animal masks for each habitat we are working on as well as read the room cards and recording sheets. The kiddos can record the name of the animal by reading it on the other childs mask. My class also enjoys making animals out of construction paper and gluing some facts that I have typed and printed about the animals. I like to try to decorate my room to mimic the habitat we are working on, I have to say I am a huge stuffed animal collector so I have many of the animals needed in beany baby size...

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 ...

This is one of my favorite weeks of the year. I change up my normal routine and make sure all of our activities are centered areound Christmas. I found some great free printables on teacherspayteachrs.com and have gotten a few tricks up my sleeve over the last few years. I have listed a few activities that I think are the best of the season. Christmas Tree crayon resist: make copies of a black and white christmas tree on cardstock, have the children color with crayons, adding ornaments with different color crayons, once the coloring is done, go over the tree with blue watercolors. Gingerbread man geography: Decorate paper gingerbread men, have them run away, notify the parents to have friends and family from all over the world send postcards saying they saw the gingerbreadmen where they live. Use a US map on the wall to track where the gingerbread men have visited, look up the different cities and show pictures from them on your computer. On the day before school  ends for ch...

I just had another idea as I posted my new sunflower literacy unit to TPT. To extend your unit into art you could take a paper plate and construction paper, have the kids cut petals and seeds, glue it all together and then write the room on the plate and petals! I am going to try this with my group next week. I think they will enjoy it. They could also use the ABC sunflowers to make a bouquet by collecting them from around the room and gluing them onto a piece of paper with a flowerpot on it, they could then cut stems and leaves and complete the project. This could extend the bouquet spelling mats that are already included in the unit. I hope you have a chance to check it out, please follow my blog for more great ideas to come! Till Next Time, Christine

So, have you ever had one of those days at school that seems to go on forever because oyu can't take the children outside? I know most people would say just pop in a movie and grin and bear it. i'm just not that teacher, don't get me wrong I have shown short veggie tales and such before but I have decided that if I don't want my child watching extra TV at school than why is it o.k. for me to impose that on others children. Here are a few ideas I have come up with to pass the indoor time that have prooved more enjoyable for child and teacher than watching tv! - Art Centers : I love art and there is just not enough time in the day to have enough art, so last week when we had a rain day I set up four different tables and allowed the children 15 minutes at each table, they loved it: watercolors, stencils, stamps and punches and dry erase. The art was fantastic and the kids didn't even miss thier outside time. -Movement Activities: I bought a set of movement mats at ...