I have survived my first week in pre-k after teaching first grade for ten years!  Let's just say Monday was exhausting but the growth in just a week was amazing!  Establishing classroom routines was on the top of the agenda E.V.E.R.Y day!

 

We counted with bears, snapping cubes, themed erasers, beads, actual children and anything else we could think of! Children love the novelty of a variety of manipulatives!
 

This week we were working on letter recognition in our names!  Most of my students do not recognize ANY letters so we backed it up to the first letter of their names.  We learned how to glue collage squares onto the letters, we practiced writing the letters on dry erase boards and we practiced letter formation in salt trays. 
 

 

Fine motor is the developmental skill that is weaved into so many hands on activities in pre-k.  My pre-k kids worked on stringing beads, rolling play dough,  gluing paper squares, squeezing tweezers and even correct pencil grasp! 

 

 

 

I have teamed up with my sweet friend, Tamara Russell from Mrs. Russell's Room with The Ultimate Wonders Giveaway.  It will include everything you need to supplement your Wonders instruction in Unit 1 for first grade. I will be back tomorrow with all the details so be sure to check in!

 I love when something comes to me while planning a lesson!  I was prepping for a graphing activity and I wanted my kids to work in partners to roll a die and record the result on the graph.  So, I needed to find 9 large dice or cube shaped blocks.  Walking through a second grade class, I spied base ten blocks with thousands cubes! {Insert angels singing!!}

 

 

What other manipulatives do you repurpose?

Please share:)