Storming Centres

What an amazing day I had today!!!  We had what I would call a wonderful breakthrough in the centre department.  

I've tried on a number of occasions to have the children work and rotate around to math centres, with limited success, (they could never handle all the freedom) BUT today was a seriously wonderful display of team-work and cooperation in my JK class!!! 

I wanted to have a party to celebrate! Usually when the weather is crazy outdoors, the atmosphere in the classroom is a reflection of the outdoors, but today was a different story.  

I had 6 stations set up and gave the children the opportunity to choose which ones they wanted to go to.  They were permitted to move around from one station to another, the only stipulation being that there was a limit of 4 children at each station.  

They worked so well together, making shapes with play-dough, clipping patterns, sorting colour activities, playing file folder games and puzzles, and playing a memory game.  

It was a joy to see that all the routine practising of the past 2 months has finally paid off!  

There were a few exceptions, of course~a few who could not quite handle some of the activities, (mostly because they needed more help to understand the pattern activity,) but for the most part, the children worked independently and had a great time.  

It may have been storming outside, but in this JK class today I was experiencing some teacher heaven!

Autumn Is Here (2 freebies too)

Autumn is most definitely here......cooler nights......shorter days......my drive into work is much darker......but it's still one of my favourite seasons......(I don`t exactly have a favourite, 'cause I like them all for different reasons).

It is Autumn in our JK class and we have been busy with themed activities related to fall.  We just finished celebrating Canadian Thanksgiving, and the children had fun making hand-print turkeys and decorating thanksgiving leaves.  The hand-print turkeys were a keep-sake for mom and dad, and the leaves are decorating the hall wall and our "Fall in Love with Jesus" bulletin board outside of our classroom.

I have been busy creating more autumn themed resources......autumn ten-frames and pattern cards to be used in centres and small groups, adding and counting printables, and some follow up activities to go along with a book we read entitled, "The Pumpkin Patch Parable."

The autumn-themed ten frame cards are so easy to use.  Just supply the children with items that they can put on the frames, either small dollar store bugs and counters, or they can make balls or creatures out of play-doh......just let their imagination go!  I love it because it's a great fine-motor activity that gives them opportunity to be artistic and creative too!

There are three sets included...two themed and one blank.

You can find the ten-frame sets {here} or {here}.

Kids love to clip-a-pattern!  It's a simple math centre activity that they can do on their own or with a friend.  Just supply them with clothes-pins and they are ready to go.....Cute creepy-clipping fun!

 

You can find the pattern clipping activity {here} or {here}.

This collection of Add 'em Up Preschool math activities is multi-themed for use all year long.  It contains themes such as fall, Halloween, winter, Christmas, bugs, dinos, bears, service/community helpers etc.  They are simple counting activities with both tracing and non-tracing number pages for children at a variety of skill levels.  There are also cut and paste activities included for the children who love to get busy with scissors and glue......great for developing those fine-motor skills!

These printables can be photocopied for the class, or if you like to save the trees (and paper), you can print them on to card-stock and laminate them so that they could be reused by the children in math centres with dry-erase markers or crayons.

You can find the Add 'em Up activities {here} or {here}.

If you'd like to try out the Fall Add 'em UP freebie

  it's {here} and {here}

Towards the end of October, we read the book, "The Pumpkin Patch Parable" by Liz Curtis Higgs.  It's a cute story about how a farmer works on a pumpkin to change it into a wonderful sight.  There are lessons and parallels to draw from the story to teach the children about how God changes us, 

takes out the "yuck" and makes us beautiful. 

I created the following follow-up activities to go along with our book of the week.   There are activities that involve drawing shapes, tracing letters and numbers, and a pattern page that involves scissors and glue (something my JK's need lots of practice with.)

You can find these freebies {here} or {here}.

It is time for me to go out and enjoy the awesome autumn colours while they last!!!

Until next time......Have a blessed day!

A Timely Find

I love coming across unique and fun things that I can incorporate into my classroom instruction.
Last week, while enjoying a lovely "EXPLORE" at Indigo with the family, I came across this adorable wooden clock puzzle by "Melissa and Doug."
I loved the great geometric shapes, and the fact that even my JK's can use this no matter what level they are at in their number sense. 

The best part of this story is.......IT WAS ON SALE!!!
That, plus my book-club discount, made this one very sweet purchase......yes, the dutch in my genes made an appearance...

Classic "Shape Sort Clock"
from Melissa and Doug

Well, that discovery led me to look for some kind of follow-up activity that I could do with the children either in a whole-group situation, or for a math centre.
After searching the internet and not finding what I wanted, I decided to make my own of course!!!

I made three of my own clock activities that give the children opportunity to cut, paste, stamp and colour (some of their favourite activities to do!)

The third activity is a small group activity, a puzzle game.
You put the wooden puzzle pieces in a cloth bag (something they can't see into).
Students take turns reaching in and pulling out a puzzle piece.
They then place it in the correct spot on the puzzle.
All the students in the group colour in that particular shape on their paper.
Play continues until the puzzle is complete and all the geometric shapes are coloured on the student hand-out.

Children who can NOT yet tell time, CAN learn the order of the numbers and their placement on the clock. It is the first step towards telling time!

These activities are perfect for math centres and they require minimal teacher assistance.

I'm looking forward to testing them out in my JK!!!

You can find these printables {here} or {here}.

October Autumn-Themed Literacy & Math Activities (a freebie too!)

This Thanksgiving weekend I "relaxed" behind my computer and took some time to make a few more new Autumn themed activities for my class.  The first is a pocket-chart syllable-clapping-sorting activity.  It has 14 simple autumn-themed words with either one or two syllables.  It's a great literacy activity that can also be done in small groups once the children know how to do it on their own!  

"Syllable Pocket-Chart Activity"

You can find these items {here} or {here}.

The next two items are both new word and picture match write the room activities.  One is Autumn-themed, and the other is Halloween-themed.  They both contain 6 picture/words cards and have a recording sheet.  Kids love hunting around the room for the hidden picture/word cards.

"Word and Picture Match Write-the-Room" 

Halloween Word and Picture Match

You can find the Halloween item {here} or {here}.

Autumn Word and Picture Match

You can find the Autumn item {here} or {here}

The following item was made to go along with the Jolly Phonics (JP) curriculum that I teach.  These activities introduce the letters in the same order as the JP program.  It is a simple three-step activity:  

1. The children trace the letter in the first column.  

2. They pick out the appropriate letter stamp and stamp it in the middle column.  

3. They write the letter and decorate it (with crayons or markers) in the third column.

I love the fact that it's a great literacy group activity that the children can do on their own with very little teacher direction, and I also love that it gives them an opportunity to be artistic and creative.

You can find the Trace-Stamp-Decorate Unit {here}or {here}

This last activity is a whole-class pocket chart activity.  It is a fun activity to do with the whole class early in the fall when you are learning names.  Children love to count the letters and see who else has the same number of letters, who has the most, least, etc.  It is a great simple math/counting/graphing activity, and it's FREE!

You can find this pocket chart game {here} or {here}.

Happy Thanksgiving!

It's Thanksgiving weekend and I am so happy to be home relaxing with the family.  It has been a busy month and we were all ready for a sleep-in and excited about spending a quiet time together to reflect on God's goodness and blessings to us as a family.

I pray that all my friends have a blessed Thanksgiving and that God will continue to show His grace and love to us as we enjoy this holiday dedicated to giving thanks.

We did a couple fun thanksgiving crafts in JK this week.  This one turned out so grea!.  They were all unique b/c the children could choose which colours to put on their fingers and of course every hand print is special! (Special thanks to my EA for her patience in doing this!)

There are a few new things posted in my TPT store, and the newest is this cute freebie!  Halloween themed number flashcards for 1-10...I don't usually do much with Halloween, but the graphics are rather cute and not too scary...

Click on the image or click here.

Happy Thanksgiving Friends!!!

September Survival

I did it!

I survived September, and so did the 20 "Wonderfuls" in my class!!!

There were a few tears, some cheers, some sharing, some cooperation, some singing, some reading, some routine, and a whole lot of learning.  I started the year off with 3 days of  "staggered start", where I had just small groups of 6 or 7 children.  It was a wonderful way to introduce them to the routines of JK and school as a whole.  

I have 20 children in my class, 12 boys, and 8 girls.  They are a busy, sometimes rowdy bunch, but I am pleased with how much progress has been made in a month.  I have to keep reminding myself that they are only 3 or 4 years old.  They are learning what it means to be a part of a group, how to keep their hands to themselves, and how to cooperate, share and take turns.  They are learning how to line up, sit at circle time, listen to stories without commenting every 5 seconds, take responsibility for their possessions, and how to be a friend.

Most of the activities we did this past month were teacher-directed, (other than their times of free exploration and creative play/centre time.)  We had a lot of fun learning the first few letters in our Jolly Phonics program, we did lots of activities with our Nursery Rhyme theme, and we visited the Fire Hall last week as a conclusion to our focus on Safety.  The kids had a blast trying on the fire-fighter clothes, and checking out all the fire trucks and emergency vehicles.  

I have a wonderful woman who volunteers her time in our JK class every Monday, and this past week an EA was hired to help out for the other two days.  So now there are extra hands, listening ears, and another set of arms for hugs when needed.  I love my helpers....They are a wonderful blessing to both the children and myself.

Until next time, here's a peak:

Town Centre

Thomas the Train Centre

Getting ready for a puppet show

My boys looooove the house centre!

Waffle Blocks