November - I’m Thankful For...

During November we learned to appreciate the people that we’re close to; our families and friends. We also spent time exploring the history of Native Americans, Pilgrims, and celebrating a holiday they created together, Thanksgiving.

Here the children have made family quilts by drawing family members onto construction paper that was then cut into squares and glued onto a rectangular piece of felt. We then added a sleeping face peeking out from under the covers and hands holding it up.

We also had class Thanksgiving dinner with our students and families. The children made mashed potatoes (a mixture of instant and freshly boiled redskins) and stuffing (instant mixed with raisins and celery the kids added) and a sweet potato pie. It was a yummy spread that also included turkey, Latin style yellow rice with pigeon peas, salad, baked macaroni and cheese, cake, cookies, chips, sweet potato pie, and juice.

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November books to read:

October - Fall is Here

In October we learned about farms and the animals that live on them, leaves, apples, pumpkins and Halloween!

On October 7, 2010, classrooms participating in Jumpstart's Read for the Record campaign came together and read The Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats to create the largest shared reading experience in history! A record breaking 2,057,513 children the story on that day!

Here the children made sheep with wool using recycled pillow stuffing. They also finger painted spots onto the cows and mud onto the pigs.

Since we didn't have access to a farm this year, we bought apples at our local supermarket one day and scattered them around the park down the street. The kids hunted for the apples and put them in paper bag baskets (paper bags with pipe cleaner stems for handles)

Here we made a class apple tree using paper plates and tissue paper.

We also were able to purchase miniature pumpkins at the supermarket that we then hid in the classroom for pumpkin picking. The kids then placed them onto our haystacks (cardboard boxes with shredded construction paper glued to them). They later painted them.

We also celebrated Halloween by making our own costumes for the children to wear during the Halloween weekend using plain white tshirts, shaped sponges, paint brushes and fabric paint (sorry-no picture). The kids also used this same method to make trick-or-treat bags using small totes bags I had purchased for them. We topped the celebration off with a mummy making using toilet paper.

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October books to read:

September - All About Me

This month we learned about ourselves, our friends, the 5 senses, and body parts.

We started off the week learning about ourselves. We had the children lay down as we traced their bodies onto white bulletin board paper. We then took the pieces of paper and taped them to the walls and doors to have the children color them in.

For our 5 Senses week we made Jello to see, smell, feel and our favorite-taste and painted with "puffy paint". The texture was a mixture of shaving cream and tempera paint to produce 3d paint.

We also spent some time outdoors at our local park while the weather was still pleasant.

Here we are during our first Circle Time of the year on the first day of school.

Part of a Circle Time routine includes fingerplays. These are songs with physical actions that are done along with the singing. Here our class is singing "The Wheels on the Bus"

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September books to read:

Extreme Classroom Makeover!

Here is the shell of a classroom I was given. It was pretty much stripped bare.

Here is the BEFORE:

AND THE AFTER:

Not a bad start after 3 days of pulling together donations from family, friends, and the internet. I highly recommend joining a Freecycle group to anyone who has limited funds and wants gently used items.

Back To School Fever

It's August and I'm excited to start a new school year. I'll be getting a new set students (two year olds) starting September 8th. I started clearing out my classroom this week to make way for the new kids. And I do love a good end of the year cleaning. Back to school shopping also gets me in a good mood when I come across great deals. I just love the smell of a fresh new box of Crayola crayons!




While going through my closet and looking for lesson materials to start my planning, I found this wonderful photo!

It's my first day of PreKindergarten! Sept 1984. I'm all dressed up for school in my baby blue sweater. Books, games, lunch and naps - best way to spend a day back then and still is.

Carlos Tapia Elementary School P.S. 120. Bushwick, Brooklyn NYC.

August means 3 weeks of classes and 2 weeks training!

This year, my center has decided to take no breaks. We'll have children continuing to attend for the first 3 weeks of August and we'll spend the last 2 weeks in training and preparing our classrooms for the new school year. I've been home this week thinking of new hands on circle time activities to engage the new set of students we'll be getting. The class will be much larger and the majority of the students will be special needs children.

A wonderful resource that I've been using is a book called Early Intervention Games by Barbara Sher. She clearly lays out all the games with instructions and material listings with their intended goals and outcomes so you can pinpoint exactly what skills you want to work on with your student.

A Little Late Update

There has been such a whirlwind of activity. Here's what's happened so far:

- I've been promoted from Assistant Teacher for the past two years and finally made a Head Teacher for a class of eight 2 year olds this coming September.
- The Assistant Teacher I was given is a former parent whose child was in my PreK class last year and contributed to a lot of positive changes and events at the center.
- I've been given a shell of a classroom that only has shelves, cubbies, tables, and chairs in it. Decorating challenge accepted!
- I'm embarking on getting items of my classroom via donations with the help of friends, family and the internet!