More Teacher Made Materials

The ideas are endless of materials that you can make to supplement the materials you have in your classroom!!  Here are a few of the teacher made materials that I have seen and wanted to share!!  More to come!!

CLOTHESPIN GAME

Claudia in the South End made this wonderful clothespin game to do with her toddlers!  It's excellent to practice fine motor skills, math skills with matching and language skills by saying it in Spanish!

MAGNETIC LETTERS

The children in Joanna's Pre-K class in the South End have a wonderful time with the magnetic letters and pans from the Dollar Store!!  

It's fun to add name card and word cards for the children to practice spelling out!!

MATH JARS

Preschool teacher, Lidiani, in the South End was inspired to make her own MATH JARS based on a previous post made here in the Ideas de Inspiracion Blog!!  

She gathered a collection of baby food jars in different sizes.

Then added a variety of items that the children can count and sort.

It's a great start to the collection!!!  Lots of estimation, counting, graphing and sorting in the future!

Sensory Bags of Gel

Jenns in the South End created these sensory bags using hair gel!!  They are double bags and taped closed for the children can explore with all of their senses.  This looks like something AWESOME to put on a light table!!

DOUBLE SIDED CHALK BOARD AND FELT BOARD

Preschool teacher Karina in the South End took a chalk board and turned it into a double sided activity board!

She then hot glued a large piece of felt to the other side, to creatd a felt board!

This is just one of the games that she uses on the felt board.  A letter matching train game!!

LETTER MATCHING GAME

Here's another matching letters game in SPANISH that Lidiani in the South End created for her preschoolers.

She laminated all of the letters and got some velcro on the back so they can play around with the beginning sounds of the words in Spanish!

VISUAL AIDS

The teachers in the South End have these adorable visual aids that they made in Spanish and put on sticks to help remind the children what to do.  I have color copies of these if anyone wants them!!  Let me know and I can make copies on cardstock paper for you.  

The hand says "Levanta tu mano, por favor"

The flag says, "A la fila, por favor"

The mouse says, "Silencio, por favor"

The owl says, "Ojos a la maestra, por favor."

The clock says "Tiempo de limpiar"

The chair says, "Sientate por favor."  

LACING CIRCLES

Fiorella in JP Revere created this excellent fine motor lacing card for her young preschoolers.

She took a lid of a butter container, cleaned it out, and punched holes in it so the children can use the lacing strings!!  I love that we are re-using materials!!  

Print Rich Environment

 What is a print rich environment?  

A print-rich environment is an environment in which reading and writing are used for a wide variety of authentic, everyday purposes.

A print-rich environment includes:

• Child-made books (individual and group-process made)
• Teacher-made books
• Books made by the class based on shared experiences
• Picture books
• Children’s magazines
• Pillows, rugs, rockers (to create a soft, comfortable area)
• Flannel board with stories children can re-tell
• Familiar books that children can ‘read’ from memory
• Pictures of children reading
• Story tapes
• Books for reference
• Dictation taken by the Teacher and posted on large sheets of easel paper.
  Children should be asked open-ended questions (preferably on the curriculum topic of interest for that week) and then their quotes should be written down verbatim. This gives children the message that there are symbols for their words. You will also find when you write down exactly what children say as they say it, over the course of time you can see real strides in language development.
• Quotes on children’s artwork, again word for word. Ask the child if he/she would like to tell you about his/her work.
  Ask if they would like for you to write it down, and where they want it on the picture. What children say about their own work tells us what they are thinking and feeling and their views on the world. It is also a great communication enhancer between parent and child.
• Items labeled throughout the classroom.
  Again, this is to give children the message that everything has a set of recognizable, common symbols that are written down that universally identify it.

Here are some highlights of the South End School to help inspire you to create a Print-Rich Environment too!!

LABELS, LABELS, LABELS

Every item in your classroom should have a clearly labeled spot to store it. 

 If you don't have it in a box, then a label on the shelf will do!  

Here are A Few Tips on Labeling

Make sure your labeling is neat.
If you cannot print neatly, do your text on a computer.

Use the style of writing that is consistent with what we teach.
as that is what your children will be learning to recognize. Big ‘puffy’ letters in all capitals may be confusing to children when they are just learning to recognize letters. 

When labeling shelves for toys, try to use a picture as well. Photographs of the actual object are very helpful.  
If the toy is off the shelf and there is no picture, the word itself usually is not helpful to the pre-reader.

Things are written Left-to-Right, starting at the top left hand of the page.
With the exception of a child’s preference on his artwork, all writing in the classroom should start the same way in which children will be taught to read. We are training their eyes to naturally look to the top left hand part of the page. Also, when reading, sometimes the Teacher should use a finger to ‘track’ the words as he/she reads them, illustrating the progression of the story by text.

Check out these pictures from the SOUTH END!

LABELS ON BULLETIN BOARDS

LABEL YOUR BOOKS 

Labeling your library books with blue painters tape helps to keep the books organized!!

LABEL YOUR CENTERS

There are many ways to decide how many children will be in each center, here's how they do it in the South End school.

EVERYTHING HAS A LABEL!

LA CANASTA DE FRUTA

THE FIRST AID BACKPACK

THE PORTFOLIOS

A SIGN TO REMIND THE PARENTS TO SIGN IN!

Stay tuned for more Ideas de Inspiracion!!

Jacie

Primera semana de la escuela - GETTING ORGANIZED

WHAT A WEEK!!  I was so excited to go out and see a couple of the schools in action this week.  The schools look AMAZING and I just can't wait to share some of the things that I have seen!

CLEANING TOYS

Part of our job is not only to ensure that we are providing a stimulating curriculum in Spanish, but also to make sure that we have a safe and HEALTHY environment!  With cold and flu season just around the corner, I wanted to share a brilliant way the teachers in Newton wash the children's toys.  

ALL TODDLER ROOMS should have a container (or placed directly in the sink in your classroom if you have one) to put toys that the children place in their mouths so they can be washed with BLEACH AND WATER SOLUTION every day.  

Other classrooms should rotate the frequently used toys to ensure we have a healthy environment for all of the children.

Darlin (toddler teacher in Newton) shared this technique with us and got all of these mesh laundry bags at the Dollar Store for each classroom.

Place the toys to be washed in the mesh bag, and then in the sink.  Fill the sink with your bleach and water solution and allow to soak for 5 - 10 minutes.  Rinse and get ready to hang!

Once the toys are washed, they can easily be  hung up to dry!!  Brilliant!  I love it!  Every Friday the teachers wash the toys.

Even Newton's Director, Kelly, is excited to get in on the cleaning action!!  

INSPIRATION FOR DIRECTORS

It's that time of year to get all of your paperwork in order and to start the year off organized!!  

Kelly in Newton arranged all of the classroom files with a different color.  They are alphabetical and everyone knows where to easily return a file to its spot when needed.

***ALL TEACHERS SHOULD REVIEW THE CHILDREN'S FILES SO THEY ARE AWARE OF IMPORTANT DEVELOPMENTAL HISTORY OF THE CHILDREN***

The outside of the filing cabinet is labeled with the order of the classes too!!  Great idea!!  I already saw Porter and Brighton's files organized in the same fashion based on your inspiration!  :-)

PORTFOLIO ORGANIZATION

I just LOVED this system that the teachers in Newton created to organize the papers for portfolios!!  Each child has a "mailbox" where the packets of the monthly portfolio packets are stored.  As children finish their art, then the packets will go in the binders at the end of the month!  LOVE IT!!

I also wanted to share that Eliana in Porter Square displayed the first cutting sample that will then go into the portfolios.  Looks AWESOME!!

I will be coming in to review portfolios in OCTOBER so please make sure that you have samples organized from September completed.  If you have any questions about how to use the labels, the portfolio checklist or anything at all that you are confused about, please let me know!!  I am here to help!!

ORGANIZING PAPER GOODS WITH IKEA

IKEA is a very good friend to the staff in our Needham school.  :-)  These buckets hang easily on these bars which are easily accessible to the children to be able to get their plates, napkins etc...The buckets can also be taken down easily since they are just hanging on the bars for children to hold and pass around!!  

ORGANIZING THE SCIENCE/MATH CENTER WITH IKEA

This shelf is a perfect size to place all of the science materials on and underneath.  There is a microscope, a balance and all sorts of materials to use!!  

ORGANIZING THE BALLS WITH IKEA 

The Needham school uses the big IKEA bag to hang their balls up off the ground, but are easily accessible.  Porter Square also has their balls hanging in ikea  laundry baskets on hooks (forgot to get a picture!).  It's easy to grab for Gross motor time indoors or outdoors!

ORGANIZING MATERIALS IN NEEDHAM

The Needham school (Madelyn's classroom - Preschool 2) has enough shelves and space to use one shelf for the outdoor/indoor shoes, the mats and also the water bottles and lunchboxes.  Everything has its place and it looks very organized!

EVERYDAY LITERACY: 

WRITING OUR NAMES

Marissa's Pre-K kids know that they need to sign in with their names every day upon arrival.  They go to the door to get their dry erase board which is attached with velcro, bring it to the table and write their name.  There are nametags to use as a reference to help.  

They sign in at the table with dry-erase markers, and then they put it back on the velcro dots on the door!

Madelyn in the Preschool 2 class also has nametags for the children to refer to when writing their names.  It is important to have children practice writing their own names on their art projects each day.  It makes it a meaningful way to tell whose project belongs to who.  

These guys were decorating paper "cookies" to give to someone in their family that they love.  First step: write your name on the back!!  They all did an amazing job!!  

LABELS, LABELS, LABELS!!!

Please make sure that all of your materials are clearly labeled with a PICTURE and the word in SPANISH (or you can make it BILINGUAL).  You can use photographs of the actual materials, clipart that you print, or even cut outs from Discount School Supply Magazine.  This is a good naptime project to work on or even during your planning time!!  This is something that your director will review on your MONTHLY CLASSROOM CHECKLIST that needs to be turned in by the end of SEPTEMBER.  

CLASSROOM ARRANGMENTS

I just wanted to share some of the classrooms and how they are arranged in Needham and Newton!

Toddler Class in Needham

Toddler Class in Needham

New Quiet Area in the Pre-K Class in Needham

Preschool Class in Needham

Pre-K Classroom in Needham

Pre-K Class in Newton

I could go on and on, but I think that's enough for today...I will be coming to more schools next week!  Looking forward to getting more inspired!!

GRACIAS!

Jacie