Family Mini Book

I was so lucky to happen upon this mini book.  Since we read, Polar Bear, Polar Bear, What Do You See, a few weeks ago, this was sure to be a hit with the kids!

Family Mini Book

Here is a picture of us completing our classroom book:

to download the book click the above link or visit:

http://www.playingwithwords365.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/DaddyWhoDoYouSeeBookPDF.pdf

Family Unit

Monday, January 28, 2013

Today we began a unit on "Family".  We had new items in our free choice area and sensory manipulatives to start the week off right!

  ( I enjoyed the eyes in the I Spy containters!)

The students really enjoyed bubble wrap and bubbles for sensory.

To tie family into the free choice area, I brought in some socks for sorting and matching.  This also could be considered skills practice for doing laundry which is always a family activity - at least it is at my house!

They also enjoyed making soup and creating meals!

I also brought in a pot and some kitchen utensils for pretend play cooking and cleaning dishes in the sink.  Our students really like water!

I also brought in my daughters old doll house and cut out some paper doll silhouettes for the students to use inside the doll house.

During Speech we watched a video about, "Goldilocks and the Three Bears".  The teacher prepared several mini activities to accompany the story.  It was really a great time!

This is the video that the teacher used for her lesson:

This will be a great way to watch the story over and over throughout the week.  The students love anything set to music:

A great sequence/sizing activity that we used to accompany our Goldilocks video and book reading  was this noodle and card necklace...students looked at sizing: small, medium, and large along with discussing what Goldilocks did first, second, and third.

We are always looking for fun ways to paint which do not ruin clothing.  I came across this idea while perusing the Internet one day...

The students painted a bear cut out with chocolate pudding!

The students created bear-shaped chocolate chip cookies for this unit!

A bulletin board outside of our classroom displays a Math graphing activity fro this unit.

We also created family books using cutouts which the students used to create images of their family members.

And, last but not least, we had to create a "home" tent out of blankets, pillows, and bean bags because our students love small individualized spaces!

Fish Tank

Our classroom is getting a fish tank!  So excited!  I am going to use this post to share pictures of the tank.

So far we have the tank, some equipment, and some rocks!

Yahoo!  We final have fish!

When there were no fish, we decorated the outside of the tank so the students had something to look at which distracted them from opening the tank...

Now we have starter fish that the students love to sit and admire!  There are 6 small fish!

TGIF!

Friday, January, 25, 2013

Every Friday our classroom cooks a treat in the afternoon.  This week we cooked up some blue cupcakes!

Why blue cupcakes, well they sort of tie into our Ocean unit, but the real answer is that one of our students was really interested in blue cupcakes this week.  They even looked them up several times on different days on the Smartboard.  

                                   

For the one hundredth day of school I worked with the students as they counted out 100 pieces of cereal and glued down pieces of construction paper to create a gum ball machine work of art!

Another ocean craft from this week was a coffee filter seahorse.

Check out this artwork created by one of our students during their free choice time...they look a bit like illustrations from a Dr. Seuss book!  The students amaze me every single day.

Ocean Activities and Crafts

Today we were able to work on our ocean books during writing...

I supplied stickers, sandpaper, and suggested some drawing to fill the picture portions of the books.  I glued sentence strips to the bottoms of the pages with accompanying ocean words. I made a mental note that it would be a lot easier to write the letters onto the sentence strips before giving the books to the students.  This way the students who could copy the letters, those who need to trace, and those who need hand-over-hand could all write at the same time.  This would have eliminated the time it took to help each student work to their potential.

I also set out some water sensory because our students LOVE water!  I looked for small plastic fish at the store, but didn't have any luck.  I guess winter is not the best time to shop for plastic fish!

We also read One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish, which was also a crowd pleaser!

Meet The Students

I thought of many ways in which to share who my students are, but with confidentiality looming, photos would be out of the question.  I was helping another teacher create a bulletin board when a thought occurred to me.  The teacher was creating a "Guess Who" board using silhouettes of various characters.  She asked me if I could create silhouettes of the students for the board.  As I finished and had the silhouettes laying out on the table, it hit me that I could upload the paper silhouettes as a means of sharing the students on the blog.

Here are my students:

Music/Sound Inspired Sensory

Wednesday, January 23, 2013

I wanted to share this really neat instrument that our music teacher brought for us yesterday.  Since she knew that we were learning about the ocean, she brought in this wonderful ocean drum.  I included a video so that you could hear what it sounds like.  Our kids LOVED this!

We didn't do a lot of beating on the drum.  We swirled the small metal beads around to make neat sounds!  This is a picture of the drum in our classroom, it is the same drum from the above video!

I brought in smaller sensory sound tubes from recycled Pringles cans.  I used aluminum foil, rice, cereal, and bells inside three different tubes to create unique sounds.  I covered the tubes with sparkle scrapbooking paper.  The paper was an added bonus for sensory because the kids liked the way the texture felt on their hands.  One student was so entertaining, he rubbed the paper then studied his hands carefully.  He could rationalize why the crumbly texture didn't transfer and make his hands messy!  It is so sweet to see the student's expressions when they are really concentrating!



It's Ocean Week Part II

Tuesday, January 22, 2013

The first week of our Ocean unit was a success so we decided to extend it another week!


My daughter learned this song many years ago and I thought I would teach it to the kids today:

One, two three, four, five (hold up fingers while counting)
Once I caught a fish alive,
Six, seven, eight, nine, ten (hold up additional fingers)
Then I let it go again.
Why did I let it go?
Because it bit my finger so.
Which finger did it bite?
The little finger on the right (hold up pinky on the right hand)

The teacher had this great activity where the kids could fish from the sensory table.

We created starfish today.  I passed out a colored starfish which was cut and pasted onto another piece of colored paper.  I asked the kids to tell me the colors and/or stated the colors and had them repeat them back to me before we started the activity.  We used Honey Nut Cheerios and glue to add texture to the starfish - which I brought lots of cereal as it is a crowd favorite in this classroom!

We also listened to Disney's, The Little Mermaid, online off and on throughout the day.

Ocean YouTube Picks

A video that would be good as a moving aquarium on a Smartboard.

The students really liked this jellyfish video.

This was an interesting video about crabs.

Winter Bulletin Board

Yet, another Pinterest inspired board.  I found this snowman idea and the student craft on Pinterest.  I thought the puzzle piece snowflakes were so neat!  I had to adjust the craft by making a ring of puzzle pieces that the students could build from.  They glued their pieces together after watching videos which taught them that no two snowflakes are alike.  I also love the winter book, No Two Alike.

On a side note: we also watched this TOTALLY sweet video with the kids.

This is a great video to share as you explain the formation of a snowflake:

Reading Bulletin Board

We had an empty space above a student cubby that I transformed into a reading record of sorts.  I got my inspiration for this board from Pinterest.  I LOVE Pinterest! I have written the titles and authors of books which we have read to the students onto the marshmallows.  They might seem disproportionate in size and easier to read this way.

Valentine/Dr. Seuss Birthday Door Decor

As Valentine's Day approaches, so does Dr. Seuss' Birthday.  I thought I might save myself some time and create a Valentine themed door that could be easily turned into a love for reading Dr. Seuss door at the beginning of March.  I like to make decorations a bit 3D, so I tried to bend the hearts outward from the centers/from one side or the other, but this is hard to see in the photo.

Ocean Sensory Bottles

I thought we could use some themed sensory as part of our unit.  I thought it funny looking back at this photo that the bottles were sitting next to the hard hat, as they have been tossed around a bit.  The students in our room like the sounds certain toys make when they hit the tile floor.  Small plastic screws, wooden alphabet blocks, and a few other items must really sound interesting to them as they are dropped on the floor because the students will drop them and then stand still for a moment as if they heard something fascinating....

Ocean Week Snack

Monday, January 14th - Friday, January 18th cont.

Swedish Fish, blue (very aromatic, those of you who work in special ed. classrooms would understand my appreciation of this factor) Jello, and octopus gummies make a great oceanic snack!

Ocean Week Cont.

Monday, January 14th - Friday, January 18th cont.

As I mentioned in the previous post, I had to catch up on the week via a few lengthy posts.

This week we started an Ocean unit.  I took a photo of the bulletin board I created outside the classroom using a few works of art the students created.  Some of you might recognize the found material in this picture.  When I arrived at school on Tuesday,  I spotted these blue trays sitting outside the cafeteria awaiting pick up for the dumpster.  The trays were from the previous day's healthy afternoon snack of bell peppers.  I thought they would make great ocean wave backdrops so I swooped them into our room!  The students used them to count and play with paper fish.

I sat a tray, along with alphabet fish and a large book about fish, under the bulletin board in our room.  One student in particular enjoyed swimming the fish from the board over the pages in the book and in front of the bulletin board.