Winter Weather Week

Living in the south and studying winter weather usually isn't too exciting. Sure, we talk about snow but we hardly ever get to see any. Well, that seems to have changed this year! We actually got snow on Christmas Day this year! Something that has not happened since the mid-1950's. AND as an added bonus, we are out of school today because of an ice-storm. My house doesn't have much snow but the driveway and streets are one large sheet of ice. Good day to update my blog!

For Christmas a friend of mine, Laura (you remember Laura, the x-ray technician who visited us in October) gave me some instant snow.Once I saw what this was I had to go get more! Unfortunately, this was a hot item (remember we don't get snow in the south) so I ended up buying all the lady had. I have no idea what it is really made of but I think it is the stuff that is inside of a disposable diaper. Since most of the product information was written in Chinese, and I don't speak or read Chinese, I quickly gave everyone instructions not to put the "snow" in our mouths! With that one and only bit of information out of the way, we added 1 1/2 cups of water to 1 packet of instant snow! Let the fun begin!

We had such a good time, a messy good time, but still a lot of fun!

Next we talked about ice! What fun is just talking about ice? We had to make some ice. Everyone received a little cup of water (we used those little containers that instant drink mixes come in) and dropped a plastic fish in it. Some of the fish floated, some sank. Then we popped them all into the freezer. When they came out we talked about what happened to the fish. Some children wanted to rescue the fish so they started rubbing the ice. Soon our fish were free!

No winter discussions would be fun without a making a few snowmen or snowladies. Our class made dancing snowpeople!

We called them our "Dancing Snowpeople" because they would sway with the music thanks to some old yarn that held them together.

Of course no week would be complete without a good snack! This week we made "snowpeople" cookies! 'Nilla Wafers, vanilla icing, pretzels and some leftover Halloween candy sure do make yummy cookies!

One of my favorite things that we do in our class each year is the snowman! Yes, we make a snowman, well a southern snowman. It all starts by making lots and lots of snowballs. We use newspaper! Once we have enough snowballs we HAVE to have a snowball fight!

Lots and lots of FUN!

Then we stuffed some white garbage sacks and made our snowman!

Next week we continue our discussions about Winter and the animals who live where it is extremely cold!

2011 New Classroom Ideas

Happy New Year! It is so hard to believe that it is the year 2011! I am looking forward to a happy and healthy year. I have worked most of the Christmas break organizing and getting ready for the remainder of the school year. I was very fortunate to be able to attend a Dr. Jean seminar http://drjean.org/ in December. Unfortunately, all those wonderful ideas had to just sit in my head because I was way to busy at school (and my second job and Christmas shopping and Christmas decorating, etc.) to implement any of the ideas. HOWEVER, I have worked so hard these last couple of weeks and I must admit, I am very excited about starting school. Let me share a few things with you that I am going to do. . . .

One of the challenges that I have faced this year is during my "Circle Time". I usually try to divide my large group sessions into two or even three separate times. This way the children (and I) don't have to sit still for too long. Even though it is only just a short time it seems like everyone wants to talk at once. Even though I enjoy the enthusiasm, some of my students are getting left out. I hopefully will solve this with an idea from Dr. Jean - my new microphone! Our new rule will be "you can only speak when you are holding the microphone" and of course everyone will get an opportunity to speak. By the way, the microphone was made with left over wrapping paper (that's the blue part) wrapped around a paper towel tube. (note: my husband suggested that I stuff the paper towel tube to keep it from collapsing. Great idea! I used old plastic grocery sacks.) The top is an old plastic Christmas ball that was on it's way to the garbage, covered in aluminum foil. The entire base was wrapped in clear packing tape to keep in from falling apart. This cost almost nothing!

My next dilemma has been walking from our classroom down the hall. It seems a have one or two that love running and yelling! My solution . . . .

The front of the bottle.

The back!

Mrs. Karen's "Quiet Spray"! It is an old spray bottle (completely cleaned and dried out!). There is nothing in the bottle but it does make a little "squirt" sound when you pull the spray trigger. Everyone will get a squirt of "Quiet Spray" as we walk down the hallway.

The next little item I decided to try is "Brain Sprinkles"! I borrowed this from Dr. Jean. It is an old coffee creamer bottle with the label removed. First I filled the bottle with about two tablespoons of rice. Then I put a piece of plastic wrap under the lid and glued the lid with my handy-dandy E-6000 glue. (If you don't have this glue - go get some!!! It will glue anything together.) The plastic wrap allows me to actually open the lid. Everyone will get a little sprinkle before our "Circle Time" begins! Very low tech, but I am hoping it will be effective!

The last thing (for today) is another new game. Does this look familiar??? It's the little lid that comes off the top of baby wipes! I asked my fellow teachers to save them for me. I laid 15 of them on a piece of poster board and wrote our numbers on the top.
On the inside there are coordinating "dots"! I believe this will be a fun way to help my students count and review our numbers.

Again, this is virtually free and very, very low-tech!

Thanks for checking in with me. See you soon!

Playing Catch Up - Part II

Christmas time in Mrs. Karen's Class is always busy! This year was especially busy and fun because we joined together with Mrs. Christi's class on Mondays and Fridays. I like joining the classes because it gives us all a chance to meet and make new friends. Our Christmas tree was a perfect example of making something new out of something old. The old part came from the left-over scrapbooking supplies. I mixed up all the paper and the students tried to put the paper in decending order. They were all so good!

We also worked on our alphabet. The letter "J" was fun. We talked a lot about Christmas being a time when we celebrate Jesus' birthday. We even made a fun little jacket to go over our "J".

Of course no Pre-school Christmas would be complete without those wonderful gifts to our parents! As always we dressed up like little angels, no really, angels, see . . .

Then we made little manager picture frames out of craft sticks.

We made our own wrapping paper from butcher paper and stamps. This year we decided to make light bulb stamps. The children stamped and then after they dried I added the details!I thought they were so cute! Hmmmm . . . maybe next year I'll make some for my presents!

Of course we just had to make some Christmas cookies. This year we headed to kitchen and made "Christmas Ornament" cookies. Just a few 'Nilla Wafers, icing and sugar sprinkles make the most yummy cookies ever!

I can't wait to see what January and the year 2011 brings!!!

Dr Jean!

Right after Thanksgiving I was given an amazing opportunity to attend a Dr. Jean seminar. http://drjean.org/ If you've never been - TRY TO GO! I had no idea I would enjoy it so much.

That's me on the right and on the left is our amazing new director, Mrs. Cynthia Turner. I don't think she has ever seen me so quiet! I didn't want to take a breath or go to the bathroom in fear of missing something. I learned so much and now feel as though 2011 will be a more fun and educational year for my class.

Let's Catch Up - Part I

Sorry to do this to everyone but I'm going to try and post some of our wonderful Thanksgiving work. I know! It is almost January! But like I've said before, between school, my second job (which technically takes up more time than school), my son graduating from the police academy, a house FULL of people at Thanksgiving AND then Christmas, I've hardly had time to breath. So, like I said, "let's catch up". . . . .

Look at this adorable turkey. He is made with one toilet tissue roll and scrap paper. First, I cut the tissue roll and glue them together with some "Aileen's Tacky Glue". Then the children started painting him.

After he dried we added the wonderful details. His feet are two stars. His beak is a square, folded in half to make a triangle. His little eyes are circle punches. His feathers, which happen to be our favorite part, are fingers prints. We simply painted our fingers with the different colors and wiggled them onto some scrap paper - perfect feathers! Many of the parents said they would be using him (or her) for their Thanksgiving centerpiece.

Here is our "Square" turkey! As you can see some of the students liked a lot of squares, while 3 were just enough for others.

For our science experiment we decided to dye some noodles to use for our indian necklaces. We divided up into partners and started dying! Our recipe was quite simple, alchol and food coloring. No measuring just squirting! Even the ones that turned out different than we expected looked really good! These were suppose to be purple and blue, but we didn't mind! Good thing we did these on friday. They needed all weekend to dry. Friday kept us in the kitchen for a while because we whipped up some turkey cookies for snack. A 'Nilla Wafer and icing started our turkey off. Then we added some candy corn for his feathers. Next came the head, a malted milk ball of course. We talked about adding some eyes, but everyone decided to just go ahead and eat him. He was very good!

Color Box

I know that I should be doing some cleaning or something constructive here at home during my Christmas break but I just can't. Instead I am spending every waking second thinking of new things for school. To be honest though, there isn't much to do here at home since Bill and I are all alone. Well, not unless I want to start my much needed remodeling process, but that is another blog all together :).

Once again my poor brain went into overdrive when I saw this box.

The inside will make some wonderful snow (wait I'm getting a head of myself)!

Surely there was something that I could do with it! Then WHAM, I knew!!! My class and I play "the color game". That is when I say the first part of a silly rhyme, for example I say "Get out of bed and go find me something_____ " and they fill in the blank by screaming "RED". We have a great time with it but it never fails someone is in a grumpy mood and will say, "I don't want THAT color". Of course everyone else follows. NOT ANYMORE! We will now roll the color dice and you will decide your own fate. Here is our NEW color dice!

This was so simple and so cheap to make. I used left over pieces of old scrapbook paper and stickers. After I took all these pictures I wrapped it in wide packing tape for a little protection. It is now ready for it's debut in January 2011! Of course I am now on the lookout for more square boxes. I can see this same idea with other colors and one with our shapes too! For older classes you could write letters on the side and try to come up with words that begin with that sound! Oh, the possibilities!!!!!!!

New Game!

Oops I did it again! I have to apologize for not posting in TWO months! Oh my goodness I have been so busy! Between school, my second job, my son's graduation from the police academy, Thanksgiving and Christmas, I have neglected my class blog. PLEASE forgive me! :) I'll be playing catch-up from now until school starts but there is something I just have to share. Our new game! It is made from a cupcake holder, the kind you get your cupcakes in from a bakery.

This is what was left after a birthday party. I knew I NEEDED to keep it, but I wasn't sure why. Then inspiration hit me!!! First I lined the bottom with circles.

I'll tell you a secret, those scrapbook supplies came in real handy for this project! My circle cutter made this really fast and easy. Next I used some old stickers and put numbers on each circle.

I could have put the numbers in order but I wanted my class to have a challenge. We will now use all those little scraps of circles, squares, heart, etc. to add to the game. Simply but one circle in the 1 hole! I'm going to try and use items that coordinate with our theme or letter of the week. When school starts back we will be reviewing for a while so I'll just use some plastic snowflakes I found. Isn't this a great math and fine motor skills game. I think so!!! You could also simplify it by using colors or shapes. Of course you make it harder by using Roman numerals or words. I hope you try it!

Thanks for stopping by!