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Families, Apples, and some Halloween loot!

Hello blog friends!  I am sooooooo excited that tomorrow is the first day of the best month of the year!!!  October!!!  Yay!!!  Like many of you, fall is my most favorite time of the year!   The weather, football, pumpkins, MY BIRTHDAY!!!  My birthday is October 25th and growing up, my birthday parties always had a halloween theme going on and I always LOVED IT!!!  I wondered if I would still love celebrating my birthday as much as I got older, and as one about to turn 36, I can totally say HECK YES!!!! 

Anyway, enough about me and the BEST MONTH OF THE YEAR..... :)   

 So last week we started our Apple Study, but before I get into that, the week BEFORE that we finished up our unit on All About Me and Families, and since I've been a bad blogger I never got around to  finish showing you all the fanatublous things my sweet little friends worked so hard on soooooo here we go!!!!

We talked about our families and how they are all different and we did a Who lives in My House Glyph.  We did this last year and the kids did such a great job that I had to do it again!  It's a great visual for the kids to see how all families are different- they don't all have the same color and number of squares!  

Ignore the glare!



Look at the fabulous cutting skills on those houses!



We talked about people that make up our families and we did a Venn diagram with brothers, sisters, both,  and my little guys up in the corner that are only children!

After reading many stories about families throughout the week we discussed things that families Are, Have, and Like To Do!  I saw this idea on Pinterest of course! 

The orange paper at the top says "Our Preschool Family" and we put up our class picture...guess I took this before I got that up!

Then....last week we started our Apple Study!!!  Seriously this is always one of my favorite studies!  Unfortunately, I was out half of the week last week with my poor sweet baby girl, who came down with croup :(   So some of the Apple Fun had to happen without me, which means not many pictures, but here is what I did get on film...

We discussed the parts of an apple and then snip snip snipped some seeds!  These sweeties have great scissor skills already!

Of course we read 10 Apples Up On top and then we counted and patterned some apples!  They totally have the AB pattern thing down!  I will let these hang for this next week and then make into a class book!  We love class books

  

We finished our September page for our Preschool By The Month books!  Each month we make a new page.  Each page has their picture, their handprint, and they write their name.  We also work on our patterning skills!  I hang these outside our room each month and then keep them and assemble them into a book to send home at the end of the year!  The parents LOVE these and so do I!!

 


That's me!

     

And no Apple Study would be complete without making apple sauce!  The kids thought it was so much fun to watch the apple peeler go!  And they really had to use their muscles to get that thing to turn!  We mixed and measured and my, how good our room smelled!  Everyone tried it this year, which is a first, as I usually have at least one that wont even try it!  

There were a few things that they did while I was out, so I didnt get any pictures.  They made an apple pattern hat, and they sequenced the life cycle of an apple tree!   We will finish up our Apple Study this coming week!

Now, as I stated up above, October is the best month of the year for many reasons, and one reason is HALLOWEEN!!!  And boy, did I hit the jackpot with some great Halloween goodies from two of my favorite spots- Target Dollar Spot, and Dollar Tree!!!  Check out this loot!!!



 





 

 

 These silly staches and spooky eyeball glasses are going into my treasure chest!  The staches are from target and the glasses from Walmart.



 

 Halloween stamps for the writing center!  Dollar Tree baby!





Bats!  They are from the Dollar Tree.  They also had pumpkins, spiders, and skeletons, Oh my!



 

Foam bats from Target Dollar Spot!  I actually got some turkey ones today too! heehee





Glittery spider and pumpkin stickers!  Dollar Tree!



 

Spider and ghost table scatter and cat erasers!  All from Target dollar Spot!



 

 And a witches cauldron of course!


So many goodies!!!  I have already started making centers for this loot, so check back soon to see how I plan to use all this spooky goodness!  I know my little friends are gonna LOVE IT!!!





We've been busy!!!!!

Oh my....three weeks into a brand new year and I have yet to find time to share all the fun we are having in prek!!!  I love my class!  Such cuties and wow, some smarties too!    It;s only been three weeks, yet it seems like forever!!!  And hello- I have soooooo much going on with all my own kids stuff- seriously,  I am a taxi cab, and when I'm not driving/dropping off/picking up, then I am watching or attending a game, meeting or function!!!   

 Anyways, here is a look at some of the FUN we have been having!!  

The first week we spent most of our time learning about our rules and routines.  We also focused on preschool basics like lining up, sitting in circle, raising our hands, waiting our turn,  exploring our centers and using our tools and equipment properly.  We of course read The Kissing Hand and did an activity to go along with the story (which I forgot to take pictures!!)  And we discussed things we can do at school and did a shared writing activity/predictable chart and then they drew a picture showing what they could do at school!  We played Beach Ball Buddies- my kids last year loved it and my new littles did too!  And Friends Bingo!!!



The second week of school we had a week of Chicka Chicka fun!  We started the week with our Letter Tree!  Remember this from last year?!   This is actually the picure from last year- I forgot to take one this year!  The kids looooooved this!  I made this bad boy last year with a blow up tree from the Dollar tree and foam letters.  Those big plush letters are from Lakeshore, and you may or may not remember how I scored those puppies for 2 BUCKS at a garage sale!!  Whoot Whoot!   I take all the foam letter off the tree and put them on my flannel board and everyone gets a big letter and then they come up and find the foam letter that matches their big letter, name the letter, and then put it on the tree.  They love this, and it gives me a heads up on who does and does not recognize uppercase letters.





We also made letter for our Chicka Chicka Boom Boom Look Who's In Our Room bulletin board that is outside our room!  This was our first experince with glue this year and they did great!!    Don't you just love those cute little fingers reaching in to get some goodies!!!    I forgot to take a picture of the board, but I cut out the letters, attached their picture and hung them up- I think I have a picture of last years somwhere on this blog! lol




We made these cute little Chicka name trees.  We did these last year and they were so cute I just had to do them again!  I found the idea on Pinterest last year and I can't remember where they originally came from so if its you then THANKS!!!   





We made Chicka hats!  I knew I stocked up on those alphabet stickers from the Target Dollar Spot for a reason!!!    I didn't get a picture of them assembled, but they were soooo cute!  Again., found on Pinterest!! How did I ever survive without it!!??





To end our Chicka fun, we explored a real coconut!  Now, if you remember my post from last year, not only did I have a hard time getting the danged coconut open, it also tasted BAD, like REALLY BAD!!  I thought I must have just had a rotten coconut, because, dude, I LOVE me some Mounds and coconut cake, and macaroons, so I knew i liked coconut!   Soooooo when I finally cracked that baby open this year- and yes it was still an ordeal, I was excited to drink that coconut milk, beacuse I JUST KNEW it was going to be yummy, I mean people pick these things off of trees and drink the milk on tropical islands- RIGHT????  Oh man it was NASTY!!!  Are there more than one type of coconuts??  I mean, it's the only kind they had at the grocery store.... Anyway, the kids faces were again priceless as they tried it!  We filled in all of our chart before we tasted it- except the "taste" part and some of the things they said were hilarious.  Can you see one of them actually said it tasted "filthy"  heehee!!!   And then we graphed if we liked it or not.  The one that said she liked it was the one that said it tasted filthy, of course. heehee



 

  Finally, this past week we started our All About Me unit.  They each had their name and they had to cut it apart, and then glue it back in order.   We then counted the number of letters in our name and graphed them.





We graphed the color of our eyes- they cut our those white eyeballs!!!  Whoo Hoo!  And then we did a shared writing predictable chart and they wrote the word I!!!!  Little smarties!!!!





We talked about how we are all different, but each one special.  I passed aound a mirror and then they had to draw their self in their mirror.  Again, I saw this on Pinterest!!!    We had to use sharpies because regular markers wiped right off of the foil.  So cute!!!





We also sorted foam shapes by color, painted our letter I with ice, and wrote in our journals!!!  Wow we were soooo busy!!! 



Soooo that about covers our first three weeks!  Next week we will be focusing on Families and I promise I will not wait three more weeks to share our fun!!!

Better late than never, right!?!

Posting once a week?  Did I say that?!?  Okay, I guess I did, yet here it is weeks later, and FINALLY I get around to posting...this after not posting for an entire year!!!!!  Anyways, last week was our first week here in prek and what a week we had!  Actually it was a FABULOUS week!  My little sweeties are cute, sweet, and soooo little, just babies!!  At the end of the year, my kiddies all seem so big, ready to head off to Kinder, and I just forget how little and baby-like they are when they come in the fall!!!  Even though they are all four, they just seems so....young!!! 

Before I get into our week, I wanted to post some pictures of my room, however, not much has changed from last year- different bulletin board colors, and that's about it! My room is teeny, teeny, tiny, and I don;t have a lot of options on rearranging my room - which drives me CRAAAAZAAY, as I am one that likes to change it up, and I just can't.... sooooo things are basically the same as last year... I guess I added/changed a few things on my calendar wall, and changed some things on the walls...but basically just the same...

Here is the view from my door straight into my classroom. Notice how loooooooong and skinny my room is?? Yeah, and the mauve colored ceiling- PUKE!!!  And my daughter snuck in there too!

 Here is looking to the left of the door- my art supplies, easle, closet...

                                      

Here is that same wall with the closet.  The board with the stop sign is our Solution Board.  Next to it is our Super Friend board, which is our behaviour management system.  Above that is our PBIS board with our mascot Pedro the Snail.  The crayon pocket chart holds the student's names, and I use it for small group instruction, and next to that is our classroom jobs board.  You can see the corner of our calendar wall...  Oh and how could you miss that little dino sitting there, our computer heehee   And my daughters arm, there in the corner...

Here is a close up of the Super Friend Board... I came up with this system last year and it worked sooooooooo well with my class...I had tried everything in the past, color cards, stop light, sticker charts.... this has worked the best BY FAR in my classroom... I hope I'm not jinxing myself and it works as well this year as it did last year...  Each day of the week is a different color, red = monday, orange = tuesday ect.. (prek is only m-thurs)  Each color has every child's name with velcro.  Each day in the monring they are given a Superfriend (which is a little guy with a cape, on velcro) and they put it on their name.  If they follow the rules and are a "superfriend" they keep it on their name.  If they don't, they lose it.  They are given chances to earn it back throughout the day.  They need to earn 3 superfreinds each week, and then on Thursday, if they have at least 3, they choose from the treasure chest, which is filled with all the happy meal toys from my own kids' happy meals and other trinket junk I buy from the dollar store!  They LOVE it!  Also,  We have a tally for each week- thats the colored squares that say week 1, week 2... If we earn at least 140 Superfriends by the end of the month, we have a Superfriend Party!!!  This system has really worked great in my room!

Another shot of my small group pocket chart and jobs chart.  I just rotate the stars everyday and everyone has a job...

This is our calendar.  On the far left is our question of the week.  I will ask a yes or no question and they come up and move their picture to the yes or no column.  I usually ask 3 kiddies each day.  Then we count up how many said yes, and my Teachers Helper puts up that number and we count the nos and they put up that number and we compare and put up the < or >.    We have started the question part, but we wait a few weeks to start the comparing...baby steps!  The rest of my calendar area is the actual calendar, the weather, and the green pocket chart with words that we will add to the word wall.  My word wall is under the calendar.  The big red pocket thingy holds my attendance, pointers, and other random things.  The three drawers shelf thing has my cd player and cds, calendar pieces and more random stuff!

This is a view from our carpet area right in front of the calendar, facing my desk- yes my desk is back there!! 

This is the wall opposite of our calendar.  I made these bulletin boards from foam insulation, as my room had NO boards.  I hang our PWIM poster on the red one and students work and other stuff on the big blue one.  Our science center is on the left and our library is in the middle with the couch and our listening center.  Our writing center is to the right.

Here is another shot of the writing center, and our Star of the Week board.  The shelf behind the writing center is our Math center.  It is filled with puzzles, counters, manipulatives and games. 

Here is another look at our science center.  I change out the stuff to go along with our studies ir themes. 

Here is our teeny tiny dramatic play area.  Of course this is the favorite place to go and since it is so small I can only allow 3 friends to go there at a time...wish it was bigger, but we make the best of it!

This is my desk/teacher area...yeah its pretty much still a mess...wish there was time to organize...

Another view of my desk...actually it looks pretty clean in this one...can't say it still looks this good after one week with kids lol

Okay, this ugly thing...I threw this thing together last year the day before school started.. I saw the idea on Pinterest and of course the one on there was so cute and crafty...It;s our 100 day count-down- bubble-gum-machine-thingy!!  The idea is good, my artistic ability...not so much!  Last year I just used little colored dot garage sale stickers and the kids added one each day until we got to 100.  each day we would count the dots and the kids could all totally count to 100 by the 100 day of school!!!  BUT it was a mess beacause the stickers were put on the machine in all random order-wherever the kids stuck them, as I threw it together last minute and didn't think it thru all the way, so I vowed to remake it better, the right way for this year...only I forgot all about it until the day before school started this year and so I had to reuse the same ugly machine, only I added velcro and cut out, numbered, and laminated 100 colored gumballs so they could be put on in order...only after cutting and laminating and cutting, I realized they wouldn't all fit on the white part- doh!  So I had to put the velcro all over the danged thing...Anyways, its ugly, BUT it will serve its purpose and all my sweeties will again know how to count to 100 by the 100th day of school!!!!  And when we finally hit 100 day we have a bubblegum party!  Complete with bubble gum, bubbles and balloons!  WHOO HOO!!

Okay here is a picture looking towards the door, standing by the dino computer.  The huge blue thing is my birthday chart.

Okay so that's my room, or at least that's what it looed like before my sweeties came... 

I just realized how long this post is and I didn;t even share our first week!  Think I better save that for another post!  heehee
Check back tomorrow and I will share all the fun we had our first week in prek!