First Week of September 2013

I took a break.... a long break!!!  My group has changed drastically this year... I've taken infants into my program which is something I haven't done in years.  When the little people arrived my life went topsy-turvy and I just couldn't document what we were doing any longer.  The blog, the pictures, the time... I just didn't have time for it as I was running all day attending to everything and trying to figure out how to make it all work for everyone.  The blog just wasn't on that priority list.

I'm glad to say things are settling down some... but I still have some smaller people than what I've had in the past.  So documenting becomes a little more difficult because I have basically three different levels of children in my group.  The two little tots, the one tot who is a little more advanced, and the three preschoolers.  My lessons are a juggling act most days and flashing the camera doesn't always happen... if you know what I mean.  So... with that all said... no promises here but I will do my best to get it done as (and I'm being selfish here) I love personally going back to see my former children and their lovely work.  So, you see, I do it for me but hopefully someone else can find the joy in watching these little ones grow (or for ideas).

So on with what we've done our "First Week in September"...

You can download my lesson plan for the week here.

The week prior to our actual preschool starting we made our "Know The School Rules" book.  Along with these books we learned the rules using hand motions and each day during our circle time routine we say the rules.  Below are pictures of the pages of our rule books.

And the video of my preschoolers saying the rules

Recognizing our names
A big beginning of the year activity is recognizing their names.  We spend a lot of time on this and also recognizing the letters in their name.  Here are some of the activities we did.

We used the dot markers to fill in our names

We used bottle cap letters to spell our names on a template.

We made fancy stars with our name in them.

We find and spell our name on a school bus picture daily.

School Bus

Years ago I ordered High Reach and got a school bus puppet with the order.  We use it all the time in September with this particular cycle of curriculum.

They love when I chant...

The school bus is coming, get on board.... beep, beep!

The school bus is coming, get on board.... beep, beep!

(the bus stops at a child's chair or spot and then I say)

Welcome to (child's name), Get on board!

(once we've collected everyone then the bus stops at school to let everyone off the bus.)

We made a school bus puppet to drive around.

I am Special

We talked about how special they each are and made a mirror to go along with the activity we did.

Birthdays

Our school bus puppet was having a birthday, so we talked about birthdays.  We did a maze to get the birthday card to the birthday house.

And we talked about balloon safety and colored the balloons in this picture.

That about concludes our week.  We took it easy our first week back.  Hope you enjoyed reading about our week.

Best,

Rose

Winner of the Joy Cowley Classroom Giveaway Big Book!!!

Congrats to:




Melissa Mize
mizemelissa@gmail.com

The winner of a Joy Cowley Big Book.  


I will be sending you an email shortly to get the information needed so you will receive the big book.

Thank you to everyone who checked out the Joy Cowley Giveaway.

Joy Cowley Classroom Giveaway!!!

Recently we used the book "Mrs. Wishy-Washy's Farm" by Joy Cowley for our "5 Day Read".  You can view that post here.  I loved using that book and my preschoolers loved using that book.  You can still here them in their dramatic play saying, "wishy-washy, wishy-washy" as they are cleaning something or referring to the story in some way.

I was sent two books from Hameray Publishing for review.  Both titles involve Mrs. Wishy-Washy.  I can't say how wonderful both titles were!

The first title I reviewed was Mrs. Wishy-Washy and the Big Wash.  Children are often fascinated or completely afraid of a car wash.  It's almost like the roller coaster ride for the little one without a height requirement! This book presents a problem and a solution in how to get the animals clean when there is no water at the farm.  And we know that with Mrs. Wishy-Washy around the duck, cow, and pig need to be cleaned.  But where can they go to get clean?  Where can they find water?

The second title I reviewed was Wishy-Washy Clothes.  This is another book I feel my children would love.  It is simple, funny, and has an easy story line for little children.  This book talks about how Mrs. Wishy-Washy washes her clothes and hangs them out to dry.  What will pig, duck and cow do when they see Mrs. Wishy-Washy's clothes hanging on the line?

I have big plans for both of these books and will be creating material to go along with them... so keep an eye out for them!

The best part in reviewing these books is I get to announce the 

Joy Cowley Classroom Giveaway

Teachers, parents, friends, relatives and anyone else who wants to nominate a classroom to possibly win 90 new titles for The Joy Cowley Collection and The Joy Cowley Early Birds Collection by the beloved author and Mrs. Wishy-Washy creator, Joy Cowley this is your opportunity.  The collections of leveled readers, for Kindergarten to 2nd grade classrooms, are developed for shared, guided, and independent reading.  And if that isn't wonderful already... the winner will also receive finger puppets and 3 audio CDs which is a value greater than $400!

So you may be asking how do you nominate someone... click on Mrs. Wishy-Washy below and it will take you directly to the giveaway.

You can find out more about Hameray Publishing, Mrs. Wishy-Washy, and other fun activities at:

Pinterest

Hameray Publishing

Facebook

And that's not it...

I am hosting a bonus giveaway!!!

One lucky reader will receive a free Joy Cowley big book. 

All you have to do is leave a comment on this post with a working email address so that I can contact you. You may recieve an extra entry for liking me on Facebook (please note in the comments that you liked me on Facebook to receive the extra entry). This contest is only valid for readers living in the United States or Canada (no PO Boxes, please).  This contest will end on April 25 and the winner will be announced on April 26.  So good luck to all of you.

All of my readers will get a 20% discount that expires on 6/30/13 by using the code:  ZJCC13

Hameray Publishing Group is dedicated to publishing innovative literacy materials for Pre-K to Grade 8 students. Combining research-based methods with cutting-edge content, Hameray develops titles for striving readers, English Language Learners, and children requiring reading intervention, as well as those children reading at grade level.

Hameray offers informational text and fiction for early readers, high interest books with low vocabulary for older students, and wordless books to stimulate oral language development. We aim to keep reading fun for children of all skill levels by presenting them with engaging storybooks and fun facts about the world around them.

For more information, please visit www.HamerayPublishing.com

 “Disclosure: I received complimentary products for review.  All opinions are my own and this is not a compensated post.”

Time 4 Learning Review

We signed up to do a free month with Time 4 Learning.  I used it with my 2 preschool daycare girls and my son who is in the 5th grade.

For daycare we used it as a supplement to our regular curriculum.  The girls loved the activities they tried and looked forward to computer time each day.  It was nice to have something that was actually reinforcing what we were already doing during our learning time.  I'm not sure at the preschool level if I would use it as the sole curriculum though as I feel children of that age need actual hands-on experiences with the ability to express themselves and what they are doing/discovering vs. sitting at a computer.

My 5th grader goes to a full time public school so this program was hard for him to do a lot with as he has a lot of homework and needs time to be a child.  I really could see the value in using this site in a home school situation and am strongly considering using it as our summer supplement for him.  I also assign some form of reading/math homework daily during the summer to keep skills up and this would work as a wonderful alternative to what we have been doing.  I was impressed with all the topics and level of work he could do with this program.

You can get your free month trial here.

***Disclosure:  I was able to obtain a free month of "Time 4 Learning" in return for a review of the product. All opinions are my own and I was not compensated for this post.***

"Mrs. Wishy Washy's Farm"

Our next "Five Day Read" was "Mrs. Wishy Washy's Farm".

The children really enjoyed this book and I still hear them in their play using ideas from this book.  I did get lucky in planning this book as I had purchased the month from Itsy Bitsy Bookworm that had this book.  This is a great literacy program that I highly recommend!  So many of the ideas I used came from this program.

Since we already did letter Ww (the obvious letter for the book) I decided to do letter Ff for farm.  As always we did a letter book and here is what was inside our book.

And some of the projects we did...

 We did a paper piecing from Making Learning Fun.

 We painted water and bubbles in the wash tub.  Idea from Itty Bitty Bookworm (October).

 We made an "In the Barnyard" emergent reader... I forgot to take a picture of the

pig page.

 We did a positional word activity with the characters in the story.

 We put the animals in the animal jail.

We did a cute version of the Hokey Pokey putting the animals in the tub from Making Learning Fun.

 We made some props for Mrs. Wishy Washy using Making Learning Fun and DLK's

site.  We used aluminum foil to make a wash tub.

And we had a great deal of fun playing with our set.

 And we did some counting activities.

This is just a few of the things we did with this book.  Hope you enjoyed.

Next up..."Brown Bear, Brown Bear".

Best,

Rose