My teacher always says...

One of my very favorite bloggers, Tammy at Forever in First, is having a Linky Party of classroom mantras.  I'm not sure if my kiddos would come up with other things that I always say but I certainly say each of the following several times a day.

I teach preschool and I am the best swing pusher.  The kiddos in my class usually remember to say "May I please have a push?" but I still say this several times a day to the younger kids.

I say this when a kid shares something they have accomplished.  For example, "Look, I just tied my own shoe." A long time ago I read that it helps a child to value intrinsic motivation if we say "You must feel proud." rather than "I'm so proud of you." I like the idea of helping kids recognize that they don't need adult validation to feel good about themselves.

I often say this to my class when do something well.  Either I will be "shocked and amazed" or we will share something we are learning with a visitor to "shock and amaze" him or her or I will tell the kids that their parents will be "shocked and amazed" by what the kids are working on.  When we wrote our class book about a visiting leprechaun, the kids insisted that the leprechaun would be "shocked and amazed!"  

I just started saying this after Tammy blogged about it.  My kiddos really seemed to "get it" when I said this when they were tattling. 

I know this doesn't really make sense but it seems to help my little ones not blurt out what they are thinking.  We "think inside our own brains of something we are thankful for" during our moment of silence before snack and other times when I want the kids to quietly think about something. I always let the kids share what they were thinking about later.

I like this so much better than repeatedly saying "be quite."  I try to say it once and then quietly wait for the kids to get their coats and line up.  I can now just stand at the front of the line and they know it won't move until the line is quiet and everyone is looking at me.

I could probably go on and on but I want to read what other teachers say everyday:)

Our Water Week in Pictures

Last week was Water Week at our preschool bridge camp.  Here are some of the fun things we did:

Bubble Snakes ... These snakes were really fun (although I did most of the assembly).  For each child, I cut the bottom off of a water bottle.  I then put a section of a sock over the open end and taped it on with duct tape.  It is very easy to make this with the toe part of a sock (the kids could have done it themselves with a rubber band) but, because I just used small pieces of the sock, I was able to make 37 snake blowers with 3 tube socks. We put dish soap with a little bit of water on trays that the teachers held.  The kids dipped the sock covered end into the soap and then gently blew into the mouth of the bottle. The kids LOVED making long bubble snakes. We only had one child who sucked in a mouthful of soap (or at least only one for whom tasting the bubbles ruined the whole experience).

A Wonderful Water Wall ...it was a favorite activity every day.  Read more about how I made it here.

A drive through bike wash ... rumor had it that "the cleaned bikes went faster! 

Water beads...the kids loved playing with these water beads that I bought in the floral section of  Dollar Tree.  On the last day we were allowed to squish the beads until they broke (also fun).

Cork Boats... We "sailed" our simple cork boats in canals in our sandbox, a little pool, and in plastic gutters. Read more about our cork boats here.

 

It was a great week!

Cork Sailboats

 We made simple cork sailboats last week.

 The kids started by wrapping rubber bands around 2 corks.  They then decorated little sails that we had cut out from construction paper.  We laminated the sails (since we wanted to be able to play with them for several days) and then stuck a long plastic toothpick through the sail and between the two corks.  Simple!

Materials for sailboats...corks, rubberbands, long plastic toothpicks, and crayons for decorating.

The fun began when the children began playing with their sailboats.  Some tested their boats in our little pool,

others worked together to try to make a tin foil river in our sandbox. The river probably suffered from having too many engineers and workers (there were quite a few holes in the foil:).  

That night I went to Home Depot and bought two 10' plastic gutters (they were less that $6 each).  My co-teacher had the same idea and also bought end pieces for the gutter she bought. We put the one with end caps in the sandbox in a ditch that the kids built.  

 We attached the other two together with clips and the kids raced their boats.

It would have worked better if we had a hose.  Instead the kids had to keep bringing the water from the end bin (which was lower) back to the start bin.

This is an assembly line to move the water back to the top bin. :)

The kids were excited to bring their boats home to try them in the tub.

Our WONDERFUL Water Wall

         This week is Water Week at our preschool's bridge camp (an optional program between our school's last day and the local school district's last day).  I have been seeing water walls on Pinterest and really wanted to make one.  I originally planned to use a pegboard but decided to use plexiglass instead because I because I wanted a wall that was very portable and able to handle a lot of kids. I started by going to Home Depot and buying a 36"x 48" sheet of plexiglass, clear plastic tubing, and small nuts and bolts. Because I wanted some color and flexibility I  bought pop tubes from Amazon.  I also collected  the adjustable coat rack that I had bought years ago at Target for my pocket chart, zip ties, lots of different sizes of plastic bottles,  funnels, my hot glue gun,  duck tape and my drill.

        I began by adjusting the coat rack to be the right height.  The plexiglass was slightly wider than coat rack but I decided that that would make the board more sturdy.  I propped the plexiglass next to the coat rack and started drilling holes about 1/2 inch below the top of the plexiglass and zip tied it to the rack.  On the sides I drilled holes on both sides of the rack and then attached it with the zip ties.  The plexiglass is easy to drill (I left the protective plastic on until I was all finished).

Tube wrapping around the edge.

I then just started drilling holes and attaching bottles with the nuts and bolts.  I put holes in the bottles with a punch tool.  I attached the tubes to bottles with hot glue (I just put a lot inside the mouth of the bottle) and then wrapped the connection with duck tape (partly just to add color).  Sometimes I cut holes in the side or bottom of bottles, other times I drilled lots of holes in the bottom. My son got involved at one point and brought up a big drill tip (the kind you use for drilling a hole for a door knob) and we put a hole in the middle so we could have one of the tubes go from one side to the other.  We also put large holes down one side so we could wrap a tube around and edge of the the water wall (and the frame).

I tried to have places that the kids could add water at different heights on the board.  I also made several places where water came together from 2 different places and a few spots where the kids could move a bottle to change the direction of the water. The kids LOVED the wall.

They really loved, loved, loved the wall.  I loved that the kids quickly figured out that they could put a cup under one of the places that water came out to collect water and they worked together to "give" each other water.  It was so much fun to see the little engineers following the paths and "experimenting" over and over! Tomorrow we are going to use colored water for a little color mixing fun.

The total cost of the wall was probably $50 (give or take a few dollars because I had some of the materials around the house).  A pegboard would have been cheaper (the plexiglass was almost $30) but I love the fact that the kids interacted as they used both sides of the plexiglass.  Please let me know if you have any questions.

I'm linking up with 4th Grade Frolics' Monday Made It.

Encouraging Writing with a Secret PenPal

 When we returned to school after St. Patrick's Day, we found a note from a leprechaun name Patrick that had visited our classroom.  In addition to leaving us Magic Juice that turned teachers' feet green, Patrick left a magic notebook for each of the kids.  Patrick's note said that we could draw or write anything we wanted in our notebook and that Patrick would stop by to read our notebooks and leave us notes.  The kids were so excited to draw pictures and write notes to Patrick.

Norah originally drew a picture of a girl.  Patrick added shamrocks to the bottom of the dress and asked if Norah liked it.  Norah wrote "Yes" and then Patrick added more details.

The kids really enjoyed writing to Patrick.  I learned a few things right away.  After just one or two days, we realized that Patrick should have a special "mailbox" where we put our notebooks after we wrote in them.  After the initial novelty wore off, some days lots of people wrote to Patrick and other days he didn't have any notebooks to read (but he didn't want to check through 20 notebooks each day:).

We also added an ABC line so the kids could easily find their notebook (we have been having lots of fun working on putting things in alphabetical order.)

Next year I will remind them that books start on the first page.  Patrick spent a lot of time looking through notebooks for a page that might have been added in the middle. I think I will also give them a date stamp or put the date on our white board during calendar time (i.e. Today is 4-3-13).
At the end of the year, Patrick wrote a note to each of the children suggesting that they could write to him at the school and we would make sure he got the letter.  We've only been out of school for 3 days and he has already received a letter. Love it!

Moms Are Like Buttons...

Moms Are Like Buttons

They Hold Everything Together.

I saw the quote about buttons on Pinterest and decided to do a very simple button inspired Mother's Day Gift.  I cut out hearts from fun foam.  The kids glued on buttons and chose a pin or magnet for the back of the heart.  Inside the card they drew a picture of Mommy and wrote "I Love You!" and their name.  I also included the adorable survey about Mom that I found at The Crafting Chicks. I might laminate the surveys; their answers are so sweet.
Last year I posted several other cute and simple Mother's Day ideas here.
There are lots of other cute Mother's Day ideas at The Happy Teacher's Linky Party.

Our Farm Unit in Pictures

Last week we completed a School Wide Farm Unit. We had a lot of fun (although it did feel very rushed...there are just way too many things that I want to do!)  I haven't had time to blog regularly but I figured that I could at least post some pictures of the wonderful things we did.

Our Farm Sensory Bin.  I replaced our sand with green rice (I used vinegar and green food coloring to color the rice) and beans and lots of farm toys. I liked this better than other sensory bins I've done in plastic bins because it was so much bigger.  The kids loved it!

Old McDonald's Bulletin Board.  The kids really enjoyed making the animals for this bulletin board. The animals are similar to ones I did with TLC patterns.  I didn't follow anyones pattern but instead just cut lots of rectangles with the paper cutter. The kids then cut corners to make circles or ovals and used little dots of glue to put the pieces together.  The pattern for the pig is here.

Farm Market Baskets.  I found the idea for these cute baskets of vegetables and fruits on Kim's Blog Kinders by Kim.

 

I think I may have made them more complicated that they needed to be but the kids really did enjoy making them.  I started by drawing the templates for a potato, corn, strawberry, carrot and peas.  I then put the following text on the appropriate vegetable:

My carrot is a _______ that I can eat. (root)

My peas are ______ that I can eat. (seeds)

My strawberry is a _________ that I can eat. (flower)

 (I researched this, and indeed, the strawberry is part of the flower)

My potato is a _______ that I can eat. (root)

My corn is a _______ that I can eat. (seed)

I photocopied the vegetables onto 11x14 pieces of paper.  I then glued 3 sides to a piece of colored paper.  (I originally cut out the vegetable and then realized I didn't need to and I just quickly glued the fruit onto the colored paper).  The kids filled in what part of the vegetable we eat and sponge painted any 3 of the vegetables. If they chose the corn, they painted bubble wrap and then carefully turned ti over and pushed it onto the corn to print the corn kernals. 

After they dried, the kids cut out the vegetable or fruit and then stuffed it with fiber fill.  I stapled the top (with little green leaves).  The kids then wrote their name on this poem:

_____________

How does your garden grow?

With ________, _________ and 

__________ all in a row.

I originally planned to have them write the names of the vegetables but decided they would have trouble fitting the words on the lines.  Instead, they glued the proper word on the lines. Although these took quite a bit of prep work, I would probably do them again because they involved a lot of cutting, writing and following directions practice and the kids really enjoyed the painting, stuffing and the final product.

Planting a Pattern.  My class LOVES anything involving patterns.  Unfortunately, the patterns they have been creating recently have become so complicated, I was worried they were forgetting the important repetition feature of patterns.  I solved this when we did these bean patterns by having them roll a pattern first and then show me how they could do the pattern with beans.  They were very good at it. I found these adorable Planting Patterns at Froggy Friends Fun.

The Life Cycle of a Chicken.  The kids made these adorable models of the life cycle of a chicken in Science.

Acting Out Mrs. Wishy Washy. We had lots of fun acting out the story of Mrs. Wishy Washy.

Making Butter. We made delicious butter.  I put heavy cream and a little salt in 4 glass jars.  We then turned on the music and started to dance.  When I turned off the music we froze and then passed the jar to our neighbor so he or she could take a turn shaking.  It was lots of fun!  The music we danced to was
Jazz for Kids: Sing Clap Wiggle & Shake. What a perfect cd for a farm unit.  It included Ella Fitzgerald singing Old McDonald and Louis Jordan singing Ain't Nobody Here But Us Chickens.  It is impossible not to dance to this music.

Farm Garden.  The kids grew grass in science and then used it for play with little animals.  They really enjoy this too.

Vegetables Growing Underground.  I LOVE melted crayons.  These vegetable were "painted" in science with melted crayons  (pieces of butcher paper were dipped in crayons that were melted on a piece of foil on a hot tray).

Our Big Red Barn. Of course the kids favorite part of our farm unit was probably the big cardboard barn we made.  You can read more about it here.