Wednesday, September 25, 2013

Letter C learning Centers

This week we started learning all about letter C! It's been a super fun week filled with: cakes, cupcakes, cookies, car washes, colors, cutting, crayons, cats, cars, and cooks!!!

 
For one of our fine motor activities I put a bunch of pom pom balls in a container and then put different colored dots on the bottom of small cups. The kids have really got into sorting all the pom pom colors in the the cups!!
 
One of my good friends made me some felt cookies with chocolate chips on them! Each cookie has a different amount of chips on them. I made paper cookies on a baking sheet and let the kids match it to the right ones using a spatula! This was such a fun idea!
 
One things we talked about with letter C was cold. So I put the game of don't break the ice out for the kids and had them try to build a cold house! I wanted to be able to use my game for other centers and this worked out very well. They would even put gloves on so the ice wouldn't make their hands cold when they were building!
 
I introduced cutting this week and the kids did great!!! I had some leftover "birds nest" that I had used for my beginning of school décor that I let them cut up! They worked out great and were the perfect material for them to practice with. I also included a small dustpan and sweeper to help clean up all the little pieces! I haven't had one problem with a big paper mess because they love the cleaning as much as the cutting!

 
For dramatic play we had a cakes and cupcakes shop! We made a small menu where they got to list the prices of each thing and they also could display them on the little racks as well. They had lots of fun taking orders and making cakes and cupcakes for their friends. Oh and who could forget the coffee to drink as well! 
 They used the clipboard to circle what the customers order was!

 

 
 
It has been a very fun week! :)

Saturday, September 21, 2013

Review week

This past week was a review week for our classroom. We had a lot of the same centers from the previous weeks but I did add some new items for them to explore.
 
 
In our dramatic play center we added breakfast food items. The kids loved this felt pancakes and eggs and of course bacon! I loved watching them putting them in bowls and cooking them! 
 We had our babies in our dramatic play center as well and after they ate their breakfast they of course had to have a bath. The boys in my class really got into taking care of the babies!
(he is washing the babies face )
 I also added books on tape to our library center. Our book was an A book and they loved it. This cute guy wasn't listening to the story at this moment but I loved how he was sitting and reading!
 The boys decided it was bed time for the babies. They tucked them in and were all telling the babies night night stories. It was seriously the cutest thing ever!
So there was lots of B things added including, babies, bathtime, bedtime, breakfast, book on tape. I did have quite a few A things out but they were previous things I had already posted about.

It was a great review week! Next week will be all about Letter C which means lots of: colors, cutting (practicing), crayons, caterpillars, counting game, cup/color match game, cakes, cupcakes, cars, car wash, construction, and computers. There will be lots to post about next week! :)

Friday, September 13, 2013

Letter B Centers

We had our letter Bb learning centers this week and the kids loved them! We have been in school for a month now and the kids have done great with learning how centers work in our classroom. I don't have a problem with clean up or fighting over toys and most importantly they are having fun and learning!!
 
Next week for us will be a review week which means we will be going over Aa and Bb together so there will be different things out for both letters. I am introducing a couple of new things but over all it will be some of the same things they have been playing with the past two weeks.

Dramatic Play:
Letter B is always one of my favorite letters because we get to play in our beauty shop! I love it as much as the kids. For this center I have a small blow dryer, brushes, curlers, a pretend straightener and play shampoo and conditioner. I always set up a waiting bench with magazines to read while you are waiting. There is also some wigs you can try on and have styled. One addition to the center this year was small little buckets that were different colors that I used for coloring hair. I put a paintbrush in each one and had them pretend that it was for coloring their clients hair. They also started using it for painting each others nails and even eyebrows lol. (there was no real paint in anything so it was fun watching them use their imagination with all of it) I also posted by signs and had the kids tell me the price for different things, they had a good deal on haircuts but a style was a bit pricey. :)
 
Fine Motor:
For this activity the kids would match the beads to the pipe cleaner. They seemed to really enjoy this one and even started making different patterns with them.
 
 This was our bucket of beans. I also had some beads mixed in and had them to try and scoop up the beads that had a letter B on them.
 
We of course had to pull our bugs back out.
  Science center:
For science center I had, bugs, bubbles, sensory bottles, and binoculars

Art:
For art we had bug stamps and blue and brown paper

Blocks:
For block center we had blocks, a barn, and tools for building.

Library:
The main thing we did was added more B books and puppet animals that began with B.

Extra:
We had some fun extra activities this week as well. We had a bear parade on Tuesday which the kids loved. They all got to bring a bear from home and we marched around the school singing "We're marching in a bear parade, bear parade bear parade, We're marching in a bear parade, B said Buh"

We also had a balloon launch with red balloons!

There was also a boat race. I made small little boats out of foam paper (next time I will use foil) and had the kids blow them across the water. They loved this!
 
Overall it was a great week! I am excited about the new things I will add next week, I think they will enjoy them a lot!


 

Wednesday, September 4, 2013

Letter A Center Pictures

Just a short post so I can look back on the set up of our letter A learning centers. The kids are still having so much fun this week!
 
Animal Hospital:
We have a bench for the animals to sit and wait for their name to be called. After they are called they go to the exam room to be checked out. (I printed free printables from teacher pay teachers, I have an eye chart and pretend doctor certificate)

 This is our clipboards that they use to fill out on each patient. I found these on pinterest as a free printable.
 Fine Motor:
I have some colored animal beads that they can sort out into the muffin container. There is a colored dot in the bottom of each one.
 This alligator has been around for quite some time and it is still one of the most played with toys in my room. You can pull the teeth out and if you pull the wrong one his mouth will close.
 I couldn't resist posting this picture of some of my boys helping out our sick animals. They were doing a great job! :)

Tuesday, September 3, 2013

Letter A Centers

This week is our 3rd week of school but our first week to really dive into everything. I love this week because I begin introducing the kids to the alphabet and counting. It is such a fun week because we get our first playtime with new toys that go along with our lessons.

Dramatic Play:
This center is my favorite and was a favorite with most of the kids today. This week it has been turned into the "Animal Hospital". I have stuffed animals that have came to the hospital very sick and my kids have to help them feel better. This center is set up with a waiting area where the animals wait for their name to be called. I have two clipboards in the center that have sheets on them that each child can fill out about their patient. There is all sorts of doctor tools to use including band aids made out of felt and Velcro. There is a treat bowl for each animal that is a good patient as well as pretend food and water for them to have. It is definitely a lot of fun.

Blocks:
This is our airport for the week. It has its own airplane and runway with different locations for the airplane to arrive too. They have had fun with this as well.

Fine Motor:
I have an alligator game from when I was a child that is the favorite in this center. You have to help the alligator out by pulling his teeth for him. It's a great way to work fine motor skills and the kids love it. There is also animal sorting. I have a muffin tin with different colors in each one. The kids have to sort the colored animal beads into the right spot. I also have a small block puzzle made by Melissa and Doug, you have to match the two sides together in order to make the correct sound on the picture.

Art:
For art center we have different animal stamps and a red ink pad for them to stamp the animals on.

Science:
In science center we have alligators and ants. Not real ants because I am too worried about them getting out but we do have picture books about ants.

Library:
For this center I added some new animal puppets and some new letter A books.

Computer:
I have found some letter tracing games on the ipad for them to play and also have a small computer for them to play learning games on.

So that is my list of new activities in our learning center for this week. The kids are so excited and have had a blast today playing in them. I will get pictures up soon of each center and everything in it but I had to add a couple pictures of my class doctors today. They took very good care of the animals!

Happy Playing! :)