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 Everyone,      It is giveaway time again, this month's prize goes to Christi Squires. She has won my Bug-Jar-Math Unit from TpT. She will enjoy 39 pages of bug themed counting activities including 1-10 bug jars for counting and one to one coorespondence, worksheets, sorting mats and more. Thank you all for being followers! Next months giveaway is: Frog-Fun-Math-Centers  (I changed it to a larger and more recent unit!) Frog fun math centers contains nine printable centers and practice worksheets for your pre-k to 1st grade students. Included centers teach and review: time, number words to 50, patterns, addition, subtraction, greater than, less than and equal to,non-satndard measurement and more. You can view some of my students work from this unit here on my blog under the posts: Tips for teaching number word recognition Clothespin color matching, counting and addition center Why teach non-standard measurement? Teaching time and clock concepts in Pr...

I have found that teaching time in Pre-k can be a challenge but with the right appraoch children can learn to tell time. Standing in the way are the enourmous number of digital clocks that children see. So here is where I start: 1. The Clocks: I print each child a full sheet sized clock on cardstock and laminated. I code the hands by color with the hour hand being red and the minute hand being blue. I attach these with brads, hour hand on top. I make sure my clock hands are easily distinguished from each other in size so that children can manipulate them easily. 2. Initial Introduction: I start with time to the hour, i use a play clock to show them and also tell them the real time on our classroom clock. When I catch the clock close to a certain hour I try to get the children to look at the classroom clock and tell me what time it is. Generally they pick up time to the hour easily, it becomes more challenging as you break the hour up into minutes. 3. Experimenting C...

Studying the Pond Habitat and all about Frogs is one of my favorite units of the year. We are lucky enough to have a pond close enough to walk to and take our students on the Friday our unit is over. I cannot wait to go! In the meantime here are a few ideas you can plan in your classroom to help children understand ponds, frogs, ducks, fish and all of the wildlife that relies on the pond as their habitat. 1. Create a pond center (with water or waterless whatever your school allows) You can do this 2 ways, either in a small bucket on a table or in a small kiddy pool. If you choose to include water you will need to make sure you find items for the pond that are made of materials that can get wet without getting ruined (ex. rubber duckies instead of stuffed ducks). Start by lining your chosen bucket with sand, add water if you so choose, make sure the sand is deep enough to hold up the flowers and pond plants you want the children to decorate the pond with. Gather the following supplies...

Hello All, I have just posted my latest unit to TpT titled Pond & Frog Math Centers! In this unit there are 9 centers, ready to print and use. Addition, Subtraction, Time to the hour, Greater than, Less than and Equal to, Number Word matching to 50 and much more! This unit is $7.00, there are so many uses for the pages in this unit. The possibilities are endless!  Click this link to see the full description, preview file and to purchase. Frog-Fun-Math This is for my Pond Theme Unit next week. I will also be creating a bulletin board pond to help learn about all of the different animals that live in the pond. I will also be making vocabulary cards for these animals as a read the room center. I plan on using some of the worksheets from this unit to assess the children's understanding of addition and subtraction, time and color words. I will use the large clocks for group instruction and the pattern mats for small group math time. Enjoy! Christine