Letter N

Some of today's letter Nn activities . . . 

No Noise . . . 

Lots of Noise!

This picture makes me laugh . . . a perfect peak into the fun we have!

  These boys are having a very animated discussion about 

exactly where Santa Clause lives in this Atlas. 

It was pretty funny :)

Creating Noodle Art . . . 

Noisy blocks and cars . . . 

Nifty Newspaper Nines for our Me Books . . . 

A Number game center . . . 

Looks like Letter N is Nifty, Nice and Neat! :)

G is for Game

G is for Game! 

Here are some of my favorite (with the rule adaptations) for preschoolers . . . 

Blockus.  

The kids try and fit ALL the pieces on the board like a giant puzzle. 

This requires team work as well as excellent fine motor skills!

 Don't Spill the Beans.  

Partnerships work together to see how many beans they can get on top before it spills.  Each time trying to beat their previous record.  

Again, this emphasizes team work and counting skills while practicing that ever tricky pincher grasp.

 UpWords.  

The kids put the letters on the board and stack similar letters on top of each other.  

More fine motor practice, letter recognition and team work!

Game Board Centers

Games for grown-ups also make great fun for kids. I just set the games out as centers and let the kids do whatever they want with them.

Blokus turned into a team effort to try and fit all the tiles on the board

While Rummikub became a number and color matching game.

I love to see kids so hard at work developing fine motor skills, team work, and creativity! Bonus: The kids feel extra special for playing something so grown-up!

Playdough Perk-up

Need a little something to make the same 'ol playdough a little more entertaining?

Here's a simple solution . . . 

mini cup-cake pans, 

measuring spoons, 

tiny cookie cutters 

and 

rolling pins.  

It wasn't too long before I was being invited to a fancy bakery that was making wedding cakes and preparing for a big reception! 

It was pretty fun to see those tough little boys (wish I got a picture of them . . . ) making wedding preparations!

Gotta love those imaginations.   

I had no idea when I set everything out we'd end up planning and attending a wedding!

The Block Challenge. . .

Ms Tamra's Block Center Challenge:

See if you can build a tower with blocks as tall as you are.

The results . . . 

 . . . were creatively impressive! 

It was so fun to watch kids try to come up with ways to meet (and far surpass!) the challenge! 

This was a great teamwork activity! Sharing ideas and working together to bring it to pass. 

I think the kids liked it almost as much as I did watching and listening!

More Centers

Here's a peek at more center work that happened today.  These are set up when the kids arrive and they are free to move back and forth between them as they choose . . .

For dramatic play the house and kitchen were open.

(I love this picture! So sweet!)

There was lots of word building at the Literacy Center.

The reading nook is always open for relaxing with a good book. 

The Art Center had crayons and watercolors.

I also introduced a new activity . . . which the kiddos LOVED (this would a be a super simple thing to do at home on those "I'm bored" days!)

I had a bin of brightly colored pony beads and some pipe cleaners.  

The kids strung these on anyway they liked.  

Some sorted by color, some created patterns and some just had fun stringing them anyway they wanted! All great fine motor practice.  

The kids really enjoyed this--it'll be coming out again soon!

Finally, the Jungle set also became a popular space.  It is so fun to watch the kids interact together--making up animal sounds, singing, and role playing.  I love it!

How do we start our school day?

When the students arrive each day, there are a variety of learning centers set up that they are free to explore and move between as they choose.  Here is a peak of some of the work that took place today. 

The art center was creating color bug themed emergent reader books.

  I forgot to send these home--so look for them in your child's folder on Monday!  Here is the link I used for these great books-- Cover, Page 2, Page 3 

Let your child "read" and re-read these to you over and over and congratulate them each time.  Encourage them to point to each word as they "read" it.  You might need to do it with them the first time--but they'll catch on quickly!

We also had play-dough fun . . . 

Dramatic play included fierce treasure hunting pirates . . .

The math center was a bug grid game . . .

Want to print your own?  Find it here . . . I would love to have bug counters to use with it, but instead we had bears eating the leaves! At home you could use beans, buttons or other small objects. It's simple to play--roll the dice and cover up that many leaves (you could also use regular dice or number cards).  When the grid fills up, you win! I had two of these set up so two kids could play together or it also works for individual play.  

And the always popular Geoboard.

So there's a sneak peek at the work going on during our center time today!

Bugs! Bugs! Bugs!

Each day when the kids arrive at school, they have a variety of centers set up to visit.  Here are todays most popular bug themed ones . . .


Our sensory exploration center came out today filled with wheat and . . . BIG bugs!

This is just a large rubbermaid container filled with wheat and different objects for the kids to explore with.  The kids LOVE digging through this stuff!

We also had this simple fine motor center . . .

The goal was to fill the line with flowers for each bug to visit.  If you want to use this at home . . . simply print the file below (I like to print activities like this on cardstock and then put in plastic sheet protectors . . . this makes it easy to store in a binder).  I used flower beads I found cheap at wal-mart, but you could also use stickers.

Bugs! Bugs! Bugs!

Name Tracers

For a great way to help children develop

fine motor skills,

name recognition,

and handwriting,

make name tracer cards . . .

Directions:

Carefully write the child's name on a piece of paper (I used name plates from a local teacher supply store), preferably with handwriting lines.

Laminate it (you could even just cover it with clear packing tape).

Children use a wet-erase marker (I have found these clean up much easier than the dry-erase ones) to trace "the train track" of their name.

They can easily wipe them off with a diaper wipe or wet cloth and repeat it.

Have several marker colors available and encourage them to let each marker have a chance to ride on their name train track.