The Naughty Leprechaun!

It might be February, but we all know time flies when you teach littles!  If you're like me, you're always trying to look ahead to what's coming up so that there is time for preparation and on-line ordering (if needed).  

I am looking into March's plans and wanted to share a fabulous book with y'all:

(Click the book to visit Stephanie's website!)

 

I was contacted by the book's author, Stephanie Hicks, to review this book and it's 100% adorable and perfect for St. Patrick's Day.  It comes in a beautiful case to protect the book.  The case also holds a gold coin of the naughty leprechaun, Leyland, and the nice leprechaun, Liam.  Check out this video:

This book is perfect if you celebrate St. Patrick's day themed activities in your classroom.

In my room, I love to build leprechaun traps with my littles and this book mentions leprechaun traps.  Leyland, the naughty leprechaun causes havoc and must be caught!  It will be an awesome book to read before the trap building.  

Here are some pictures of my kiddos traps over the last two school years:

 

Before building our traps, we made a plan on paper.

If you're interested in learning more about The Naughty Leprechaun book, click below to visit Stephanie's website or facebook page.

 

 

TO grab my FREE leprechaun trap planning page, click here.

Texas Kindergarten Conference!!

I was blessed to attend the Texas Kinder Conference today and get to go back again tomorrow!  Look who I met today!!

 

What a happy Monday!

Oh fish sticks!

We have been learning about animals this month and spent a week on ocean animals.  We have also been reviewing numbers 0-10 before moving on to larger teen numbers here in pre-k land.  I pulled out my Oh Fish Sticks game for a quick counting and number identification review of these numbers.

To play the game, students go fishing for fishies who have ten frames on their bellies with numbers 1-10.  Students count the dots and cover the matching number on their board with a gold fish cracker.  Then the fish is tossed back, face down.  Students continue fishing and covering their board until one player's board is filled.

Click here to grab this game in my shop!

Animal Antics!

Since we returned from winter break, we have been learning about animals.  In our centers we have a jungle safari in our dramatic play center:

My cuties have been exploring with binoculars I made from toilet tubes and snapping pictures of all the animals to record in their animal journals.

In my sensory table, we had snow made from mixing corn starch and shaving cream.  There were polar bears in there to hide in the snow and camoflauge them.

 For our blocks center, we had zoo animals to build a zoo.

Our art center has ben an exciting place with "how to draw______" cards.  My cuties have loved looking at each step and mastering how to draw different animals.

These cards inspired my cuties to make their own zoo!

I love when they work hard and communicate on what they need to each other.  They had such team work to make their zoo!

 

Have a happy week!

Happy New Year!

I hope 2014 has been a blessing to you and your family.  I have enjoy the first day of the year.  It was a nice day at home for me and my puppies.  I love staying home!

Before I share some new goodies I made, I just had to show y'all the Polar Express train my cuties made before the break.

They worked so hard!

Today I enjoyed creating two new letter units.  I have been tickled pink with the response to these units and love making things when people ask for them.  Here you go!  Letters Nn and Oo are complete.

Have a happy new year!!

Letter Mm Activities

This week was letter Mm week.  We started the week going on a letter/sound hunt with monster wands.

When students found a picture, they had their monster say, "Mmm, mmm, good!" and then colored that picture on their recording sheet.

The recording sheet, picture cards to hunt, and monster wands are in my Mm unit.

We also made monster claws to wear.  These were so simple to make and helped with scissor skills.

To make them, I traced around students' hands about an inch from each finger so the hand was bigger like a monster hand and so students felt successful cutting.  Then students glued die cut triangles onto the "fingers".

I attached a paper band when students completed their part.

We enjoyed reading Go Away Big Green Monster and made lowercase m crafts.

(Are you catching on to our monstrous theme?!?)

We also learned how to form letter Mm with the help of our Mm mats and moose.

My cuties love these letter tracing mats in my letter units from my store.  I have a fun little character/object to use to trace the letter.  That object matches the character/object on the mat so students know where to place their character to begin tracing.

After this tracing fun, we played a spin and write letter game.

For extra fun, I added monster eyeballs (water beads from Michael's) to our sensory table.  They loved those things!!!!

We also made letter Mm with marshmallows.

Check out my letter Mm unit by clicking below.  It's usually $2, but it will be free for this weekend only!

 

Oh, and we had our 24th project funded this week from Donors Choose!  We are getting more Heidi Songs CDs and DVDs.  We love her songs!