The Crazy Pre-K Classroom

Hello All, Here is a follow up to my most recent post about the importance of math in the pre-k classroom. Today we worked on Graphs and Patterns. My class has been exposed to both of these several times in group teaching and number centers but this is the first time the children filled in the patterns and graphs on their own. I knew which ones would do well and which ones might have some trouble folllowing along. I will show you what both look like. I walked them through the patterns by first having a group pattern lesson on the carpet and then brining them to the table for the worksheet. We assigned each letter a color for the entire sheet so that there was no confusion in the switching of colors and so that I could use the colors to help them understand the pattern. A=orange, B=yellow, C=green, D=white. All typical colors of pumpkins; I even showed them pictures of each color pumpkin that I took at the pumpkin patch over the weekend but that is a different story. Back to the pattern...

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...

Hello All, I just wanted to share with you some great activities our department did this past week for Nocturnal animals and hibernation. We had so much fun exploring how animals live at night. We spent an entire day with no lights on, the kids brought small flashlights and one Mom donated finger flashlights (which are totally awesome, this was the first time I had ever seen them!). My class spent time discovering new animals that are nocturnal that we didn't already know about, like scorpions! My favorite part of the week though was our letter and number hunts. I hung the #'s 1-20 in my classroom and gave each child a clipboard with a recording sheet on it. They were instructed to roam the room with their flashlights and find each number. Once they found a number they were to color in the box that had the same number. We did the same with letters in my collegues room. The class had so much fun with this! I was surprised at how it kept their attention. They found all 26 letter...

Hello All, I am trying my hand at my first linky party! YEAH! Since fall is my favorite season I thought I would highlight it with links to fall themed freebies for our fellow teachers. Please link directly to your free item description on your blog or directly to your free item on TpT! To participate link up and please take a moment to place my linky party button with a short comment on your blog. I would sure appreciate you following me here at the crazy pre-k classroom and in my store on TpT. Here is my freebie for you: Corn themed mini unit I will be choosing a linky party participant at the end of the linky party (Oct. 13) to recieve my Fun in the Pumpkin Patch Math and Literacy Unit Have fun exploring some free fall fun! Link up below! You won't regret it! Till next time, Christine

After having a super fun week with my kiddos studying corn I decided to put everything we did down on paper and give it away for free! It all started with a pesky common core objective involving measurement but turned out to be so much more! My teacher freind Bev Fleming and I decided that our Autumn theme would be best served by studying fall veggies, which eventually lead us to corn. We decided to create a cornstalk that would "grow" all week long. I made a base out of wood and used an old lightbulb holder to place pvc pipe in. I bought 4 couplers to attach the pvc pipe together as it grew. Here is a picture of our cornstalk on day 3. It grew from 1 foot all the way to 9 feet, with 5 ears of corn on it. (this is my little boy, Collin) I used butcher paper and green paint to decorate the pvc pipe in sections so it could be easily assembled each day. I attached the paper with hot glue. For the ears of corn I glued 2 pieces cut into corn shape leaving a hole large enough t...

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, 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"...