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I am a first grade teacher who has rediscovered a love for firsties this year. I have taught pre-k, kindergarten, first grade and even second over the past 16 years. I have been married for 17 years to my wonderful husband and have been blessed with 2 very active boys.

Pre-K Back to School

Pre-K Back to School
Pre-K Back to School

Pre-K/Kindergarten Literacy

Pre-K/Kindergarten Literacy
Pre-K/Kindergarten Literacy

Pre-K/Kindergarten Literacy

Pre-K/Kindergarten Literacy
Pre-K/Kindergarten Literacy

Phonics Games

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The Resourceful Apple 2016

Showing posts with label dramatic play. Show all posts
Showing posts with label dramatic play. Show all posts
Peek into Pre-K {December}

Peek into Pre-K {December}

9:45 AM


As with all kiddos right now, my pre-kinders are over the top with excitement!
Christmas is right around the corner:)
So we have tried to embrace the craziness and roll with it this month!!

Circle time is where we start our day and come back to through out our day for stories, songs, games and other fun activities.  As one of our pre-k standards, we are working on counting words in a sentence.  Drawing boxes around the words gives students a visual to understand that letters make words and words make sentences.  My little helper of the day gets to lead our morning calendar time.  I love watching their confidence grow during this time.  Our poems and songs build rhythm and rhyme as we work on phonological awareness.  



December Poetry Notebooks can be found HERE  
They are a super collection of original poems and favorite nursery rhymes.
Small group is the time we introduce new concepts, provide practice for prior skills taught and work together in fun, meaningful ways.  We have five rotations consisting of Listening/Library Center, Math, Literacy, Computer and the Independent Learning Table.  The Math and Literacy tables are teacher and para led while the Independent Learning table is usually manipulative based and builds on out literacy and math concepts. Class books, glitter number rubbings, games and poetry notebooks are favorites again and again. 




Alphabet Mats cane be found here  Alphabet Mats are perfect for play dough, 
small manipulatives for fine motor engagement  and letter formation.

Center time provides students the opportunity to choose what they want to do and where they want to go.  It includes the dramatic play area, blocks, the alphabet center, the math center, the science center, the sensory table, the puppet theater, computers and the art center.  Children start this time by verbalizing where they want to start playing.  For example, "I want to go to blocks today." This helps develop language with my students and helps them develop a plan for where to start.  

Here is the pin where this adorable project can be found.







Thanks for stopping by for a Peek Into Pre-k {December}.
Feel free to follow me on Facebook for daily updates and peeks into our day.


You can pin this image for easy reference and follow me on Pinterest.


Happy December Friends!

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Mrs. Wathen
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Five for Friday

Five for Friday

11:01 PM
Happy Friday Saturday Friends!  

Do you know how some weeks feel like they are NEVER going to end?  Yes, that would be this week for me! Coming back from spring break is always hard, but we also had a sick dog, vet visits and I had a student fall on the playground who need stitches!  #heavyheart


So I am looking forward to some down time this weekend and to yes, catch up on some much needed sleep...I am linking with with Doodle Bugs Teaching with Five for Friday.

There is nothing like a little pick me than a new tote and lunch bag from Thirty One!  I love this new summer print and my husband can't believe there isn't any black in it! #mygotocolor


We are working on graphing and what better time than Easter? This week we graphed "Our Favorite Flavor Jelly Bean" and "Have You Ever Colored Easter Eggs?"  Next week we will be using our self portraits to graph "Are You a Boy or a Girl?" and "What Is Your Favorite Color?" with colored hand prints.  We talked about what is a graph, sorting/categorizing  information and comparing quantities with more and less.


Our Dramatic Play area has turned into a Chinese Restaurant.  We have added Pei Wei to go boxes, "noodles" and "rice" made from yarn, chopsticks and a wok set from Melissa and Doug toys. This has been one of their favorite centers to date!

We are working hard on phonological awareness and phonics.  We are in the last quarter of school and are now moving to blending words with the majority of our students.  Our go to resource is CVC Words by Learn to Play.  There are a handful of littles who needs LOTS of practice with letters and sounds. 


Spring is the perfect time for a Farm Unit.  My littles loved exploring farms through literature and hands on literacy and math activities.  You can check out my Farm Unit HERE and it is 25% off through Sunday night!
So don't forget to check out Doodle Bugs Teaching and then get some much needed rest!
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Mrs. Wathen
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Nutrition Week at a Glance - Five for Friday

Nutrition Week at a Glance - Five for Friday

4:17 PM
For the week after Halloween, there sure were a lot of wiggly worms this week.
Perhaps its the sugar overload? 
I wonder who had a piece of candy or two for breakfast!!
This was the perfect time to work in a little nutrition unit with my friends!
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I introduced the 5 food groups through this fun song sung to the tune of BINGO.  We sang it every day and on Friday added it to our poetry notebooks.  We then highlight our letter of the week (You could target any skill.) and add an illustration. I take this opportunity to talk about drawing pictures with shapes for those who struggle with drawing and get frustrated.
It is part of my November Poetry with Rebus Pictures.  You can read more about the Value of Poetry Notebooks HERE.
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We continued to pattern this week in math so we pulled in our fruit manipulatives from Lakeshore Learning and then found this pattern FREEBIE from Ms. Jodi's Pre-K on TpT to go with it! We then took it a step further and worked on identifying the pattern unit.  This was HARD for my pre-k friends so I created the white box as a visual so they could see how to isolate and identify the pattern unit.   

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This was a little late in coming, but I LOVE our grocery shop!  I moved the word wall in the dramatic play center and am liking that I can add thematic words and carry reading and writing over into  this center.  They can make grocery lists and shop all in one center.  The adorable center signs are from Play to Learn's Grocery Store Pack.


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Healthy Helpings by Learning Resources was the PERFECT game to play during centers.  It gave the kids a great visual for what a balanced meal looks like as well as extra practice in categorizing food by food group.  The social skills of sharing, taking turns and congratulating the winner were a HUGE bonus!


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We finished the week with teacher directed turkey drawings at the art center.  I am not sure this counts a part of nutrition week, but I figured turkey is a protein!  I know I mentioned it earlier in the post, but so many of my friends struggle to draw independently and always ask me to do it for them. I am working on fostering independence and confidence, so many years ago I started breaking down pictures into shapes for them.  In our turkey drawings, we worked on straight and curved lines, circles, ovals and a triangle.
There is so much going on at this time of the year.  I love a peek into others' classrooms too so I am linking up with Five for Friday over at Doodle Bugs Teaching. Head on over and check it out too!
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Pre-K Practice and Five for Friday

Pre-K Practice and Five for Friday

5:04 PM
Welcome back to Pre-K Happenings and Five for Friday.  We just finished our 4th week of school and the students and I are settling into our routine!  Routine as such an important thing to establish in pre-k as the "littles" are so unsure of what will be happening when they first come to school.  When I think of how far they have come in a month I am SO proud!

http://doodlebugsteaching.blogspot.com/2015/09/five-for-friday-linky-party-september_25.html

I am linking up today with Kasey at Doodlebugs Teaching with Five for Friday.  I love taking a peek into one another's weeks!  If you are new to The Resourceful Apple, my teaching journey has diverged to pre-k this year and I am LOVING it!! So here are 5 random pictures of our pre-k happenings!

 

 
My little people are working on counting and one to one correspondence.  We have used TONS of counting activities from a giant number line to counting manipulatives to games and songs.  Variety is the key to keep their attention!
 
Songs, poems, nursery rhymes and finger plays are always fun and engaging!  I have started compiling a poetry notebook for student to share at home with their families!  The poems are sang and chanted all week in circle with large charts and then added to their poetry notebooks on Fridays during small group. The rebus pictures will make it easier for the students who need the visual cues for recall. You can find the September Edition on TpT HERE if you are interested!




 
 

There are so many activities that we take for granted that children need developed fine motor skills for.  Cutting is one of those skills that needs fine motor strength.  At the beginning of the year, we work on holding the scissors correctly, how to hold the paper that you are cutting with the other hand and then yes, put is all together and as they try to move the scissors to cut.  It is not as easy as it sounds!

 
 
 
https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Interactive-Alphabet-Activities-1966360

As I follow our pre-k pacing guide, we have a letter or two to focus on throughout the week.  I am not a "letter of the week" type of teacher as I believe students need to have meaningful experiences to make the letter /sound connections.  We are always looking to poems, big books, environmental print, our word wall  and yes, our "letter of the week" for meaningful connections.  This magnetic game is a class favorite and  can be found in Interactive Alphabet Activities HERE. 

 
 
I love the dramatic play area and girls AND boys practice home living skills and use their imagination to role play various scenarios.  This little guy is the FIRST one to ask for dramatic play EVERYDAY and ALWAYS goes right to the baby.  He is going to make an AMAZING dad!
 
I hope you had a great week and are ready to jump into October later next week!  I can't believe fall is upon us (even though it is still ninety something degrees here in Florida)!
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Mrs. Wathen
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