Friday, January 25, 2013

Self-Help Skills - Putting on Coats!

Getting ready to go outside with a group of toddlers or preschoolers can be a daunting task.  Especially if you work in the classroom by yourself!!  Imagine if all 10 preschoolers come to school with gloves and they don't know how to put them on.  That means you will be helping 100 little fingers find their place in their little gloves!!  Ay caramba!!

Starting in the toddler group, it is so helpful and important to encourage the children to attempt to be independent with their self-help skills and it can begin with learning how to get dressed to go outside!!  Even if it starts with having them get their own jacket off the hook or from their cubby, it will help them and will help you!!  

By taking the extra time needed to sit down with the children and go step by step on how to put on a coat is a wonderful use of your time and a great skill for the children to master...
Here is a simple trick to help teach those young preschoolers to put their own jackets on that I did with some children in one of the JP Centre Street classrooms!!  


Paso #1:  TAG by your TOES
Etiqueta por los dedos del pie


Paso #2:  HANDS in the HOLES
Manos en los agujeros

Paso #3: Then UP and OVER!!!!
Arriba y por encima!!

Hopefully it will warm up soon so we can go outside and beat the winter blues!!

Jacie




Friday, January 18, 2013

Playdough!!



Maru in the Pre-K class in Brighton was showing me how she was teaching her students how to make letters and words with the playdough!!  I just LOVE it!!

Maru en la clase de Pre-K en Brighton me mostraba cómo estaba enseñando a sus alumnos a hacer letras y palabras con la plastilina!  ME ENCANTA!

First she taught them how to make a "snake" with the playdough, and then it was up to them to try to write the words!!  What a wonderful combination of fine motor work, a sensory experience as well as a literacy activity!!!  

Here are a couple of Playdough Recipes for you to make for your students!!  It lasts a long time if you store it in an air tight container or a plastic bag.  

Primero les enseñó cómo hacer una "serpiente" con la plastilina, y luego  ellos tenian que tratar de escribir las palabras! ¡Qué maravillosa combinación de trabajo de la motricidad fina, una experiencia sensorial, y una actividad de alfabetización!

Aquí hay un par de recetas de plastilina que pueden hacer para sus estudiantes! Dura mucho tiempo si la guardan en un recipiente hermético o en una bolsa de plástico.


Playdough Recipe

Ingredients:
1 cup flour
1/2 cup salt
1 cup water
1 Tablespoon oil
2 teaspoons cream of tartar
Food coloring by drops
Directions:
1. Combine all ingredients in a pan and stir.  Cook over low heat, stirring until a ball forms.
2. Add food coloring and mix thoroughly until desired color.
3. Cool on foil. Store in covered container.
As an alternative, try adding koolaid, peppermint, lemon extract, glitter or any other fun things to the playdough!
I came across these "I Can" task cards from Pre-kpages.com.  I love it so much!!  We could easily make them into "Yo Puedo" task cards in Spanish!!
Me encontré con estos "Yo puedo" tarjetas de Pre-kpages.com. Las amo tanto! Fácilmente podríamos hacerlas en español!

The play dough task cards included are:


  • I can use cookie cutters   Puedo usar moldes de galletas
  • I can spell my name  Puedo deletrear mi nombre
  • I can make people     Puedo hacer la gente
  • I can make snakes  Puedo hacer las serpientes
  • I can roll the dough  Puedo extender la plastilina
  • I can cut the dough Puedo cortar la plastilina




This is what the Playdough Center looks like in pre-kpages.com's classroom.  



This is what the actual cards look like!!  There's so many things that we can do with playdough!!  






Thursday, January 10, 2013

Dramatic Area Ideas

El area dramatica les invita a los ninos a aprender a traves de sus imaginaciones y juego.  Solamente cambianado y agregando unas cosas interesantes en el area puede promover un monton de aprendizaje y diversion!   Cambiar el area dramatica cada mes es algo que toma un poquito de esfuerzo, pero les da a los ninos algo nuevo hacer e interesante!!  Aprenden escribir, comunicar, mejorar su desarollo social y la motricidad fina, cooperacion, organizacacion y curiosidad en herramientas nuevas!!  Aqui estan algunas ideas de materiales que pueden poner en sus areas dramaticas para que no tengan que tener una cocina/"housekeeping" area el ano entero.  No olviden poner en sus calendarios de curriculo lo que van a agregar a sus areas dramaticas!!  

"Estacion De Gasolina" Eliana's Pre-K in
Porter Square 
Eliana dicidio convertir su area dramatica en una estacion de gasolina. 

Hizo las senales para los precios de Regular, Disel y Plus....

Y los ninos ayudaron a hacer un carro de una caja!!  


La gasolinera tiene un tubo de la caja para poner la gasolina en el carro!!  

El Hospital - Jenna's Pre-K class in the South End

A veces todo lo que necesita es un poco de imaginación para crear un área de hospital en una ventana como su área de juego dramático!


AGENCIA DE VIAJES: (Marissa's Pre-K class in Needham)

Marissa utilizó su escenario de títeres para hacer su agencia de viajes!

Ella es un miembro de la AAA, así que ella fue capaz de ir a recoger un montón de folletos de viaje para poner detrás del escritorio.!

Después, los niños van en esta área dramática para planear sus vacaciones!

Por supuesto necesitan un pasaporte!

Me encanta que hay pequeñas libretas y lápices para que los niños puedan trabajar en sus habilidades de escritura también!


AVION:  Emily and Madelyn's Preschool class in Needham


Hay un avion con sillas, folletos, mapas, ventanas y un carro tambien.


Los niños utilizan este pequeño carro para "servir bebidas" a los pasajeros en los asientos. Too cute!

Hay maletas y pasaportes tambien!!!

Estacion de Bomberos: (Alicia and Karina's Preschool class in Brighton) 
En noviembre, el área de juego dramático se convirtió en una estación de bomberos!










Alicia tambien hizo una Cueva de Hibernacion en Diciembre!!



Un Supermercado: Maria y Carmenza - Toddler Teachers in Needham



Ellos usaron las cajas reales de los alimentos en el supermercado para los niños!

Ellos pusieron "pan" en canastas y lo colgó por encima del estante.

Se inclinó las cestas de modo que fue fácil para los niños a ver la fruta!

Pizzeria: Gala's Preschool Class in Needham


Gala volvió la zona de la cocina en una pizzería añadiendo unas apoyos simples.

Unos menus de una pizzeria y una cajas reales de una pizzeria!!


Tambien puso unos containers de plastico de comida real!!  


There are endless ideas of what you can do to make your dramatic play area fun and interesting too!!
Jacie








Friday, January 4, 2013

Ideas for Organization!!

Happy New Year!!  Feliz Ano Nuevo!!  

With the start of the new year, it's a great time to begin to think about re-organizing your classroom, and even re-arranging your room!!  Here are a few tips from the Pine Village schools, and from other bloggers on how to get yourself organized!!!  I look forward to coming back into the schools this month to see how everyone is progressing with portfolios, prepping for the Multicultural Feast and also building their Curriculum Boxes!!  Hasta pronto!!

Step 1:  PURGE ANYTHING YOU DON'T NEED!!  As teachers, we tend to hoard items that we think we will use some day.  Now is the time to decide what items are important enough to keep and which ones need to find a new home.  Ask yourself, do I REALLY NEED this?  Have I used it in the last year?  If you're like me, you cringe at the thought of throwing something out that may be useful for someone else.  Create a FREE box and let your families go through it.  Or post your items on a website like FREECYCLE.ORG (I"m a big fan).  Or see if your director can bring items to the office that another Pine Village school may be able to use!!!  


Step 2:  REFLECT, REFLECT, REFLECT!!  ARE YOUR SYSTEMS WORKING?  Do you find yourself always scrambling at the last minute to prepare the materials for your curriculum throughout the week?  Are the kids stuck "waiting" while you run and grab paint from another classroom, or get the smocks from the main closet?  Think about what is working and what needs improvement.  If it's not working, then now is a great time to reflect on that and come up with a new system. 

Step 3:  ACTION!!   Make the time to put your systems into action!!!  Then you will see the results in no time at all and it will be so worth it!!

Organizing Your Weekly Materials


This is a really wonderful system for organizing your materials for the week!!  It's $49.99 at Lakeshore (see link above) but you could make your own similar system!!  Everything you need is placed in the bin for that day.  You could put the papers you need, the books you will be reading and the CD's you'll be listening to. You could even put your portfolio packets in there so you know which day of the week you'll be working on them!!    Imagine if you are out sick how happy your substitute teacher would be!!
Or another way to do it is...Fiorella in JP Revere just has a bin that says "Proyectos de la Semana" for her to place everything she needs for the week!!  It's a great system so everything is prepared for the week!


Organizing Your Classroom:  
I have shared various systems for classroom management systems like Job Charts and Dividing out the Centers over the past year, but here are a few other systems that I have seen in the schools that can help you get organized!!  

BE INSPIRED!!

Hospital para Libros
Alicia in Brighton has a "Hospital para libros" container so whenever the books need to be fixed with tape, then the children put it right in the bin to be fixed at another time.  





Bleach and Water Disinfectant System
The Newton teachers prefer to prepare their Bleach and Water solution daily as opposed to using the EPA certified disinfectant sprays.  So Kelly prepared this basket to hold all of the items that they need in order to make their daily Bleach and Water Disinfectant!!





Nametags
The teachers in Newton change out the nametags for the children's hooks with each changing theme or season.  To make it easier on them, they just print out new clip art to place in the plastic envelope and they don't even need to change the name!!  It's just so easy!!


Project Time:
In order to have easy clean up after a messy art project, it just takes some simple planning in advance to prepare the table with newsprint or a reusable plastic table cloth from the Dollar Tree like Britni and Katie do in their Pre-K class in Newton!!  


Anecdotes:
Britni and Katie have all of their anecdotdal sheets on a clipboard which they hang on the refrigerator in their classroom!  It's a great way to organize themselves for the portfolios!!



Infant Toddler Labels for Portfolios:
Patricia in Brighton made it easy to find what she needed for her labels for the portfolio samples by labeling the Infant Toddler Guidelines Book with post it notes!!  




Checklists:
Denise in Brighton created this Daily Tasks sheet to be filled out at the end of the day to help with the End of the Day Closing Procedures, and also the weekly tasks that need to be accomplished!!  Having a checklist keeps everyone organized!!  




Bulletin Board Borders Storage
I thought this was a really creative way to hang and store all of the borders for the bulletin boards in Brighton!!  They have a storage room, but this could easily be done on the back of a door or in a closet too!!   




Teacher Storage and Organization Ideas from PreKpages.com Blog.


PVC storage and organization shelf for teachers via www.pre-kpages.com
Do you have a lot of stuff? That was a trick question; all teachers of young children have a lot of stuff! There’s a big difference between having a lot of stuff and finding the room to store it all as well as keeping it organized so you can find what you need when you need it.

In the picture above you can see how I store all of my dramatic play props and the materials for my professional development sessions. I purchased the PVC storage shelf from Amazon.

I used to store my dramatic play props and kits in two big plastic tubs but it was difficult to find what I needed and I was wasting too much time digging around in the boxes searching for things. Then I switched to storing the items for each dramatic play theme separately in file boxes and it has really helped. Each box is clearly labeled on the end with the name of the dramatic play scenario or workshop. I printed the labels out on Avery Sticker Paper and attached them to the end of each box so I can quickly locate what I need.

I also had difficulty packing for my workshops. It was taking me a day or more to locate all the props and materials I needed for each event, not cool! I now have a box for each topic and the items for each session are inside the box in a giant zip top plastic bag. All I have to do is open the box and take out the bag, then throw it in my suitcase and I’m good to go!

Theme Storage Tubs


Theme storage tubs for teacher organization via www.pre-kpages.com
So you’ve seen how I store my dramatic play and workshop materials, here is how I store my thematic materials. This is my garage by the way, and these are only a FEW of the 20 or more thematic tubs I have. Each tub holds everything from thematic puzzles and manipulatives to story props and thematic books for the classroom library. The tubs I use are the Sterlite brand from Target.

Organizing and Storing Books for Read Alouds
Read aloud book storage and organization via www.pre-kpages.com
Books for read alouds are stored in these inexpensive ice cube containers pictured above. You can read more about them here and download the free printable book box labels.