Happy Friday Saturday Friends!  

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!

Small Group Instruction is by far my favorite time of the day in pre-k!  It is time to teach specific language arts and math skills in a fun, play based way to engage my littles. We have 4 rotations that last 12 minutes each for our classes.  I have 19 students in my morning session and 12 in the afternoon.  I have names and post its on the board to help my para professional and I keep track of the kids and where they belong.  I know I want it to look much cuter...  So please do not throw rotten tomatoes... **This has been on my list of things to do all year.**
My sweet para, Becky, and I rotate daily between Literacy and Math.  Let's just say that Becky is my right arm in the classroom and I am truly blessed!  In between the literacy and math centers are the library/listening center and the computer center.  We have tried to incorporate all things reading in the library area.  Read-a-loud books that I have shared over the course of the weeks are left on the front ledge and on the easel.  Large poems from our poetry notebook are available to read with pointers.  The listening center changes every other day as this gives all the children in the group a chance to hear the story.  Alphabet puzzles are put out occasionally for a quick review of alphabet letters and sounds as well as Alphabet Flip Books.  Our library is stocked with board books of our favorite predictable stories like Brown Bear, Brown Bear What Do You See?, Chicka Chicka Boom Boom and The Napping House.    Our math group is one of our four rotations that is guided my Becky or I.  We have a scope and sequence of skills that need to be taught during each quarter of school.  We work on number recognition, counting, measurement, ordinal numbers and patterns.   We use LOTS of hands on manipulatives, play dough and games galore.  The CRASH game is part of our Farm Unit and a favorite for sure! What's Under the Cup is another fun game we play in the classroom.The teacher hides the bear under one of the cups.  We were practicing ordinal numbers so the students had to use an ordinal number when guessing which cup the bear was under.  You can put any skill on the outside of the cup- shapes, letters, numbers...the sky is the limit!   

We are lucky enough to be able to use computers as a rotation in out room.  I have 3 student computers, 1 computer attached to my Smart Board and on teacher computer on my desk.  We use all 5 during morning small group time.  We started the year with Starfall and the letters taught to date were on the top of the computer for easy reference.   I later learned that teachers can get a free membership on ABC Mouse.  We tried it during small group time, but the students often wandered off into the land of ABC Mouse so we now save this for Center Time later in the day.   In January, our school asked us if we would pilot a computer program called Imagine Learning.  So now each student is working on his/her own levelin phonological awareness and phonics.    Small Group Literacy is a blend of phonological awareness, phonics and writing.  We practice building letters and words with play dough to work on fine motor development.  The lock and key matching game is from Lakeshore Learning.  The Interactive Alphabet Activities cards are used over and over in so many ways.I added magnets to the back of the small cards to match to the large alphabet letter.  The larger picture cards are used as we build our circle maps, in counting syllables and also in the salt trays to practice letter formation. We also started writing journals in January.  Some students are working on verbally forming sentences, while others are labeling pictures and then yes, a few are using sound spelling to stretch out words by sounding them out. The key to making small group time work is to keep the rotation time short (10-15 minutes) while keeling children engaged in hands on activities.  The activity can can stay the same while just changing the novelty with manipulatives and work mats.  Be sure to model procedures and expectations.  Children love this time of the day and don't even know they are learning!

I love celebrating holidays with my Pre-K friends.   Most of my littles have not been in school before so what they experience  in my room is a first, and that is exciting! So on Saint Patrick's Day, we had a visit from Lucky the Leprechaun. Let;s just say their excitement could not be contained... ALL DAY LONG!! Our rainbow windsocks took several days to complete,  but were well worth the effort!  I love how the colors compliment out alphabet too! We painted every other color the first day, so the colors wouldn't bleed together. After all rainbows were painted and dried, we worked on measuring and cutting the party streamers which was the perfect addition to our measurement focus in math this week. Windsock idea was found on Pinterest HERE. CRASH! is one of our favorite games! It is a matching game and can be played with any concept.  We are working on number recognition from 1-20  and I was able to differentiate the numerals worked  during small group instruction.   If the numbers match you keep them, if they don't match you return them and CRASH! makes you return all your cards to the pile! This edition of CRASH! can be found in my Farm Unit for pre-k and kinder. With our teacher work day on Friday and spring break next week,  we had to sneak in a few Easter activities this week. Easter grass, Easter eggs, large tweezers and buckets were a hit! I ordered the large tweezers from Amazon,  but have also seen some at the Dollar Store recently! Our class was invited to watch Scott Humston on Tuesday and his Pro Kids Show.   Can I just share with you that this is the BEST character ed show that I have seen in my twenty years of teaching! I saw the Pro Kids show five years ago at the elementary school  that I taught at and when my youngest son attended.   Scott Humston used comedy, magic, puppets and music  to teach character ed in a way that CONNECTS with students! So much, in fact, that my now middle schooler wanted to go watch  the evening show at my current school for parents and students! I LOVE his saying: CHARACTER IS WHO YOU ARE WHILE NO ONE IS LOOKING! I am linking up today with Doodle Bugs Teaching and Five For Friday. Be sure to head over to see what everyone has been up to!

Happy Friday Friends! I am joining with Doodle Bugs Teaching for Five for Friday.  

Truth be told, I am tired this week! I have been resourceful with lots of activities, not so much creative. And I am ok with that!
As we wrapped up our farm unit, our county scope and sequence has letter formation listed for March.  We have been consistently working on this with play dough, salt trays and yes, writing instruments.. So my pre-k friends labeled their farm animals today in a little book they made.




This is a little off topic, but I am super proud of my hubby's promotion and second stripe.  That being said, teaching is somewhat like police work -under-appreciated and underpaid!This week a police officer was shot and killed on her FIRST day on the job in Maryland and another officer was shot and killed in Texas.  It makes my heart so sad.  Not only is it too close to home, but the blatent disrespect for the law and police officers sickens me!  #pleasepray
Be sure to head over to Doodle Bugs Teaching  and check out the Five for Friday Link Up  to see what other sweet teachers are up to!

Circle time can be to most joyous or tedious time of your day. Sometimes it depends on the class while at other times it depends on my frame of mind.  This year I have made a conscious effort to embrace circle time at the start of our day.

Here are 5 top reasons to embrace circle time!
ONE
Circle time is a time for connecting.  It is my favorite time to hear about what is going on my my students lives! Our "teacher" persona is on for so much of the day.  The reading teacher, the language arts teacher, the math teacher...you get the idea!  This is why circle time is the most important time of the day.  It allows my students to know I am interested in their lives in and outside of school.  When I make these connections first thing in the morning, my students are more apt to go the extra mile in class. TWO
  Its show time! This is my time to be silly and over the top! I need to grab the attention of 19 little people for 15-20 minutes.  I need to keep them engaged which means what I do needs to be engaging. "We are all in this together!" is our motto.  Circle time belongs to us as a class.  We sing, we dance, we talk, we move and yes, we even learn!  Key word:  WE.
THREE
Friendships bloom.  I randomly call children to the carpet  for circle time so they are always sitting next to different friends.  I use Kagan strategies to get the ultimate engagement.  Pair Share is a favorite on the carpet where I pose a question and partner up children share what they know.  This not only gets students taking, sharing, and building vocabulary, but students are talking to classmates that might not be in their close circle of friends! It is a win-win.
FOUR

Novelty is key!  Young children LOVE novelty! I can take the same game, song or activity and change the novelty from apples to pumpkins or from hearts to shamrocks and I have my kids attention and enthusiasm!  Young children need consistency with the activities so they can concentrate on the new skill. This is why the activity stays the same.  The novelty is what keeps them coming back each and every time.    FIVE
"Once upon a time"...it was story time!  I always share stories at circle to introduce new concepts, provide models for the children, build on our theme, and yes, just to enjoy the story because everyone needs a "and they lived happily ever after!" 

My wish for you is that you embrace circle time like an old friend: comfortable yet silly, predictable yet exciting and where everyone lives happily ever after!

I am back to share some pre-k happenings with Five for Friday!



This is a public service announcement! Do NOT spill the beans. #trustme  #Mondaymorningblues
My time with my pre-k friends is so short as I have two half day sessions. This being said, we don't have time to watch movies or videos.  Sometimes I can work in a short clip from You Tube about a subject or theme to peak the interest of my students, but this is usually limited to about five minutes or so.  This being said, I have to say we LOVE this video! It totally engages the children and they sing the catchy letter song ALL DAY LONG!  Several of my friends even asked for it for Christmas!