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!

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!

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)!

We have been counting to ten this week.  We used manipulatives, manipulatives and more manipulatives!  We then traced our hands, the teachers cut them out and my kids practiced moving and counting each finger.  We then took it one step further and numbered the fingers too!

 

Five Little Monkeys is our absolute favorite song so far this year.  The boys especially love when we take out the hats and act it out!

 

Jack and Jill was our first poem of the year I charted it and we followed along whole group all week.  I modeled tracking, we discussed and acted out vocabulary words and we  identified letters in the poem.  On Friday, they received their own copy for their poetry notebook and were thrilled!  The illustrations were adorable. 

As we continued working on recognizing and writing the letters in our names, we used BINGO dabbers, rainbow writing, dry erase boards and made a class book with I see _____. 

 

I saved the best for last!  Pete the Cat was a life saver this week!  We listened to Pete's books SEVERAL times only to hear, "Again, again!" We made a Pete craft and ventured onto cutting whiskers at the art center.  It was the first time scissors were brought out.  This was definitely a small group project and they did great:)

 

Pre-K has been an adjustment for me coming back down from first, but I am loving all the hands on learning and conversations that take place during small group time.  These kids are FUNNY!

 

 

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!

As I am preparing my classroom for back to school, I have scoured TpT for the perfect alphabet for my new pre-k class.  I have seen so many amazing alphabets, but none were exactly what I was looking for.  I really want my students to interact with the letters, pictures and words. Hence, the birth of interactive anchor charts!


As I formally introduce each letter and sound, I will model how to match the beginning picture sound to the letter.  The alphabet anchor chart activity will then be available for my pre-k friends to manipulate during centers.  The alphabet anchor charts will be backed with magnets and find a home on my metal cabinet for students to use for review. You could easily use Velcro or sticky-tack to make your interactive alphabet anchor charts too or leave it all off and just use it as a table top center.


I love the storing this activity in the plastic pockets that I ordered from Amazon.  You can find them HERE.  I  store the alphabet letters in the large pocket and the picture cards in the smaller one.  I am planning on ordering more as I want store all my pre-k centers in these.  Did I mention that the slide at the top of the folders are different colors for even more organization!


All of the letter and picture combinations are also available in a pocket chart size for whole group lessons and additional review!  These are great for sorting activities during centers and small group instruction as well.  You can view the pocket chart cards in the product preview HERE on TpT.

Both the interactive alphabet anchor charts and the pocket chart cards are available in Interactive Alphabet Activities.   This unit was also featured in the Teachers Pay Teachers Back to School E-Book.

This resource is full of fabulous back to school tips, freebies  and product resources to get your year started on the right foot! Just click on the picture above for the pre-k & kindergarten edition.  Other grade level links can be found there as well.

I hope this helps out as you head back to school in the coming weeks!

Glad that you were able to join us for the third annual Orange Ya' Glad it's a Blog Hop!

If you have hopped with us in the past, some things will be familiar, and some things will be new  This year, all of our bloggers are focusing on FREE tips or ideas that they can share with you to get your school year off to a great start.  Some ideas will have a freebie, others might just be a stand alone concept.  

 

Let's get started!  This year, I am moving from First Grade to Pre-K so I have come up with this idea that works in the primary grades.

The Orange Ya' Glad Its a Blog Hop girls will be having an Instagram giveaway again!  You have the opportunity to win $10.00 in product from each store!