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

Someone Stop Me!!!

Okay, I think I am in serious need of a holiday......

I have been having such a blast creating new things for my class!!

  The latest adventure in my great JK Adventure is opening a TPT store and posting some of the things I have made.  For those of you who haven't heard of TPT, it stands for "Teachers Pay Teachers."  

I thought since I'm making these things for myself, I might as well share them, and maybe someone else will be interested in them enough to even pay a buck or two for the digital download.  

If not, that's okay......I'm using the stuff and having a lot of fun making them!

Here's a taste of what I've been up to:

These are the coathook/nametags

Coathook Nametags

This is an autumn Write the Room activity:

Jolly Phonics Autumn Write the Room

This Write the Room activity goes with our Fire Safety unit.

Fire Safety Write the Room

Someone please stop me......I'm riding the creativity train and I'm not sure if I can get off!

A Few Nice Finds

I found some wonderful "containers"  at the garden centre.

They will be great for our school tools.  

I bought two smaller ones for pencils and erasers, and a few

larger ones for glue-sticks and scissors.

All the pails have cute little labels, and just in case you can't read,

there are pictures on the back of the labels.

(After this pic was taken, the pails were given a few stickers for decoration.)

The best part about these containers is they aren't made of plastic, 

so they won't crack when dropped!

 I thought these containers were just the perfect size for book bins:

I found these "dry-erase" books for $1 at Staples...

Last but not least, I bought some name tag clips to add to the cute little name tags that I made.

I think they'll be VERY helpful for the first few days of school while I learn their names!

I plan to keep them on hand for supply teachers.  

If there's one thing I had always wished

I had while I was supply teaching, it was name tags for the kids.

(Needless to say, I'm hoping I won't be sick and in need of someone to take my place!)

Techno-Kid to the Rescue

I called upon my wonderful eldest daughter this afternoon, to do some computer work for me while I saw to the house-cleaning that I have so seriously neglected.  I gave her a template to start with, we decided what we didn't like about it, she removed several things, added the capital letter alphabet, changed some graphics, and then I added the tracing letters.  They will be printed & laminated, and then the children will be able to trace their names on them with dry-erase markers.  I think they're rather cute AND very functional.

The other thing I worked on this afternoon was to make labels for our "Classroom Helpers" Bulletin Board.  I bought this cute set from Scholar's Choice. 

This evening I decided to make my own number/number-dots game for the numbers 1-10.  All you need is some string and a few clothes pins and you can do the laundry with your class. 

I found a nice t-shirt template with 6 different coloured t-shirts, 

and I added my own numbers and dots. 

  

A big thanks goes to Amber for her patience today!  (It's amazing what you can learn from your kids if you're willing.)  She taught me a lot of great tricks in the paint program. I'm hoping to use these cute shirts in a "number" of different ways.

(On the down side, I now have another item to print, laminate, & cut out...)

(When I uploaded this file to Google Drive, I think it changed the size of the shirts, but you can always edit them and make them whatever size you want!)

My to-do list is getting shorter!!!! Yipee!!!!  That's a very wonderful thing, because I want to enjoy our anniversary without having a dark cloud of unfinished tasks hanging over my head.  

Now I think it's time to go watch some Olympics......I'm almost over that nasty football loss to the Americans...well, almost...