Preschool Pizza,Pizza, Pizza!

I am so excited to finally share the unit I did with my up and coming kindergartners in our "Rising Stars" program in my district.  We began our week using the awesome book, Pete's a Pizza, by William Steig.   We then branched out and created many fun activities and learning games from pizza.  

Our first one was to teach the class how to act out the story with a partner.   This was probably the best part of the week.  They begged to do it as soon as it was free choice time and giggled the whole time no matter who was partnered together.  

To make this, we used our large roll bulletin board paper.  You could use a roll of packaging brown paper too for the crust.  We then made the sauce and glued this all together as seen in the picture.  We wanted to laminate it, but we had not planned for that at first and it was too wide.  I will laminate my next sauce and crust for sure.  We created the cheese and pepperoni out of fun foam and this is still in use and will last for a while.  Then we placed it out each day on the floor for children to use.  

                    

                  

Here are two kids laughing their little hearts our getting cheese sprinkles!  

This was our completed pizza.  A few days in we added a Parmesan cheese shaker with a real Parmesan cheese container and beads in it, however, I didn't get a photo of that.  When we did it as a group I had a small bottle of "olive oil" that I sprinkled on our first volunteer child, but I didn't give that to the kids so our paper did not get all wet.  

We also talked a lot about shapes this week, and we made these little shape hunt clipboards and walked the whole school to find shapes.  This was a tally mark count activity and they also wanted to repeat this every morning!  

                                

Throughout the week we also did other pizza themed activities you can see below.  

This play dough pizza tray game is sold on my TPT store.  Click this link:

My Pizza play dough game on TPT

  This game is a math game.  You pull a topping and a number card and then get your toppings made.  

Out last activity was Pizza Smack!  We made numbers on little pizzas and strategically placed them on the large pizza mat we made and gave each child a fly swatter.  The teacher and then later a child would call a number and then the group had to find it first and smack it!  This is a great game.  Sometimes we have more than one of each number and sometimes you have to be quick to get the number smacked first!

We ended our week with this book we I love.  Our final activity was organized by my teaching partner, we made candy pizza cookies and used frosting, candy, and coconut for the cheese!  Hope you will have fun trying these!  

Holiday Math Activities

Just found this very old blog post I never posted, but a cute activity so here is the post!  

Christmas in JULY right?!...

We have had so much fun this month learning numbers.  My studetns ahve been given multiple activities and opportunities to use dice and also tally marks.  They ahve learned so much and I am proud to say that almost all of my 4's and 5's know numbers 1-10 by site!  They are so excited to tell people too!  In our district, often an administrator may walk in and say what are you learning today, and preschoolers don't always know.  But this week is different, mine actually do!

WIth just a simple set of cute numners and erasers from teh Dollar Tree we made this math activity and my students love it.   They are really liking coutning and also sorting the erasers.  12 erasers come in a pack and they are cute and very colorful.

This little girl wanted to be the first one to show me she could lay this out all by herself.  She is moving onto her teen numbers next week!  

I Am Back!

I have not bloggd or posted for a very, very long time and I am working hard this summer to ge the things I have done this past school year posted and up for you to enjoy and find inspiration from!  Please pin this blog now because you won't want to miss all my activity posts coming!  I am currently creating a new dramatic play area this summer at our summer retreat on the Greenbrier River.  Because this area of the country was devistated by floods in June, we are unable to swim, fish, tube, or kayak with the kids.  That means more crafting time for me!  Stay tuned...I am taking pictures right now to upload.  Check back soon!

Back to School and Loving it!

We are back to school and my classroom has had a transformation.  Over the summer by principal wanted our walls cleaned so everything came down.  Of course I was unhappy about it, but I am thanking him now.  I redid my color themes and I am almost done!  I have worked very hard to make everything tie together.  I will give you a taste....here's a peek!
Above is my book corner.  We have added book buddies to read to and the kids love it.  Below is my new alphabet with barn wood paper background.  We love how our alphabet matches our chevron/chalkboard boarders.  We tied in black polka dots too.

We also made some valences to warm up the place.  We always have tons of great plants for our room too and they have been gradually returning from my assistants home.  

We are working on a "compliment collection" too as incentive for our class to all bring in their supplies, walk quietly in the hallway, use kind words with their classmates, etc.  Each time we receive a compliment, we put a baby Hawk in our nest.  When we get ten, we get a special treat.  The first treat will be popsicles.  

The Hawk is our school mascot and they even make a real Hawk sound when you squeeze them.  I love them!  

I also created new place mats for my art center with yards of black vinyl.  It was so easy and was on sale for $5.99 a yard.  I used this cool white Sharpie I found that was like an old school grease pencil but when dry it is totally permanent.  It gave the appearance of chalk on the black.  I made squiggles that matched the wall boarder.  

Lastly, we spray painted all of the black paper trays in the room which all now are bright!  I will post some activities soon to share!  Hope your rooms are coming along too!  Happy new school year!

I Am Back with Holiday Cheer!

Well, it has been a busy school year and I have been unable to blog!  So sad!  The things they are having us do now have just had me booked up when I would normally blog!  I want to thank everyone who has purchased some of my new products on Teachers Pay Teachers.  If you have not had a chance to head there I will leave a link!  I am creating things that I use in my room and that have direct link to learning and fun!  My students are really learning a lot from the things I have created.  I hope you will find them fun too!
This month I am featuring holiday fun!  Most of the units incorporate math.  I am finding my little ones really know their numbers by site now and I can move them onto counting things!  SO much fun!
Had over and grab my new math counting game for numbers 1-10.  It is so cute thanks to Krista Walden at Creative Clips!  She is amazing.  I also created a mini math unit that is easy to get ready!  So what are you waiting for- go grab something fun and new for your students for this holiday season!

Here is a little sneak peek!

Click here to visit my store!

New Activities to go with Pete the Cat!

I have finally finished some great colored shoe theme, math, language and art activities.  I think everyone is going to like them!  I got great high top converse looking shoe clip art from Ashley Hughes!  She is awesome if you have not checked her out.  You can find here on TPT too!

Here are a few samples of what you will get if you buy my activity bundle.   Since the author of the blue cat book (we all know which book that is by now I hope!) does not want us to use his book name, I will refrain!  I titled my games, "FOLLOW MY FEET!"  That way no one gets upset.  Personally I would be happy if teachers all over were reading my books and making activities to go with them!  At least we have Pinterest to share them right!  I have a huge Pete board there if you would like to stop by and grab some inspiration.

                                                    

Click here for: Pete the Cat PINTEREST Boards

So back to my games included in the Follow My Feet Games...I created a very basic game that will expose your young students to how to match and how to play a clothes pin clip game.  If you feel they are not read for that you can use a math counter or chip to mark the correct color match answer.  

I am going to cut these cards apart, laminate and then use clothes pins.  I like my students to start getting their fingers strong for writing.  This game can be used for color assessment too.  After completion, we ask the student to rains their hand or come find a teacher to show.  They practice naming the colors and then I can easily see if they can identify colors, match colors, or even if they can name color words at all.  It gives us a good sense of what a child knows coming into our class for the first time.  It is also a good way to teach following directions with our materials.  This activity will be out when we begin school.  I am looking forward to seeing how they do with it!  I have included a blank card that is all black line so you can print it 3 times and color it yourself to save on ink!  Trying to think of everyone!

This activity is for my returning students who already have mastered colors, can name some letters, and are ready to work on basic sounds.  This activity is to be used with clips and in clear plastic sleeves with dry erase markers.  I think having it in two places gives more students a chance to work on letter sounds.  Both activities with these cards will give fine motor strength too.  I have found these sleeves to be pricey at Lakeshore and Amazon, but I have also used regular, clear page protectors and they work great too!.

The counting clip game is going to be on my math shelf.  Our classroom has shelves with activities that we use on small rugs on the floor.  I have gone from 1-12 for this activity to extend it for kids who already know 1-10.  I have found preschoolers sometimes have a hard time going higher all at once so we work on 11 and 12 for a while and then add the teen numbers in other ways.  This game too could be in a plastic sleeve with a dry erase marker,  or cut apart with clothes pins.

My new favorite game is having my students up and looking for things, whether it be a letter or number hunt, science finds, or in this case hunting for colors.  I have created cards with the color words on them for your students to find and record in two different ways.  On the recording sheet, younger students can make and "X" or a tally mark and then color the shoe to match the color they find.  Older students who are writing, can find the shoe, and write the color word on the line and color the shoe.  I know kindergartners have to read color words very early on in my district to participate in worksheets and homework activities.  this will help them on their way and get them a little fun writing practice!  These get cut apart and hidden in the room!  I have included one page that just has black line to save you on colored ink.  I got that great idea from many hours of researching what types of thing I wanted to create for other teachers!  Have a parent take them home and color them in for you!

I saw the last activity on my Pinterest hunts and I cannot remember who to link it to.  I loved it so I make shoes for your students to design.  After that, Take photos of your class with their legs spread apart about a foot individually.  Print them on a full sheet and add the shoes to them to make a funny picture, or up in the hallway as meet my class!  It is funny to see them in huge high top shoes!  

I hope this gets you wanting to stop over and buy some of my new products on Teachers Pay Teachers!  If you have never gone to the site...WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR?!!  Go and grab some easy centers or activities to start your year off right!

New Activities and Centers for Your Classroom

New activities are now ready!  I have stayed up many late nights and I am now getting better at saving, down loading and creating fun things for us all to use with our students!   My Photo Find games are much like the very popular Write-the Room.  My games are based on basic science for now.  I am in a school where animals are not something people teach their kids.  It is very sad.  I created these games to get my students started learning right away!  These also tie in nicely if you are a Montessori 3-6 teacher.  I am currently finishing up some more of these and all of the continents will be represented.  Much more exciting than just coloring the animals from Asia in the old-school animal books.    Give these a whirl!  You won't be sorry.  They are designed to help those students who need to be moving and learning!

Click here to see all of the Photo Find games!

I have also created a few fun units and a bunch of very exciting play dough math games.  Be sure to hit those too!  And please send me some feedback!  Happy shopping!