The Crazy Pre-K Classroom

Hello All, I am so excited to share three of my most popular items with you at a 40% discount on Teachers Notebook tomorrow, Saturday 4/20. Read the room mega pack:27 sets with recording sheets Where do animals live? 11 habitat units Butterfly life cycle with anchor chart, craftivity, teacher book, minibook and more You can find each of these items in the daily deals box on the homepage of Teachers Notebook or visit my shop www.teachersnotebook.com/shop/cropingchristine Enjoy your weekend! Christine

Today we had a blast learning about the life cycle of a plant. My class invited another class to join us for a lesson and craft. We started off by listening to a book and answering some comprehension questions. I then went over the life cycle on an anchor chart, the class was very excited to have this concrete visual to look at and explain. My teacher freind and I moved all of the tables to the sides of the room since we weren't going to have enoug spac fro each child to work at the table. The kids thought this was fantastic! I showed tem a finished project and we began to work in stages. I had all of the construction paper pieces cut ahead of time but you can gauge how much your class is capable of. We started with the stem which I folded a 13x18 piece of green construction paper 5 times. I then had the children cut out the lif cycle pieces and lue them into the stem. We then glued the stem to a 13x18 piece of white construction paper. Once this step was finished I allowed the c...

Not only are life cycles fascinating but they have a way of showing small children the growth that occurs in nature. Most of my 4 year olds are fascinated by the idea that frogs, butterflies and the like were born from eggs and not like humans. I like to use anchor charts, teacher books, craftivities and read the room activities to help the children understand the sequence of a life cycle and have a chance to go over more facts about the subject being studied. Since anchor charts are my favorite way to teach life cycles I have decided to give away my Butterly life cycle anchor chart for free. It is listed in both my TpT and TN stores. You will find links under the pictures. This weekend I was able to list my Frog life cycle unit and my Butterfly life cycle unit I hope you will take a chance to check them both out. And soon to come is my ladybug life cycle unit, plant life cycle unit and chicken life cycle unit. Be on the lookout for those later this week. Teachers notebook link: But...

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 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...

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!