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!

Dental Week in Preschool

We had a prospective donor coming to our program so we spiced up our dental activities.  We began by talking about things that keep our teeth healthy.  We gave all of out students floss and got to practice what it was like to use it.  We had this tray to practice as well.  The students had green play dough to use as food stuck in between our teeth and then plastic lanyard to use as floss.  Our mega blocks were the teeth.

We made my favorite art project too!  The pink play dough and white Lima beans for the teeth is quick to set up and funny to photograph!  We let each student make it and then take their picture next to their art.  I left out this student's face but we created a book of our funny faces with teeth!

I have recently been trying to find new things to do with my easel.  It is hard to use it for painting with so many things going on in the room.  It usually takes an adult to monitor it.  So her dis what I have come up with of this week.  We made it a math station.  The picture cards are lamina tined and have magnets on the back.  There are dry erase markers and each student comes, counts the objects on the cards, and writes the answer.  Then we photograph them so that we have it for their file and we even send it to their parent over my cell phone.  I had great responses from the parents who received the picture of their child's accomplishments.  They were very proud.  

We also jazzed up our tooth brushing table but we had trouble taking a picture that made it look as good as it does in person.  The kids love it.  As they come out they have picture cards of foods that are good and bad for teeth.  They place their food card on this table and then sit down to brush!

 We are trying hard to make our students learn as much as they can about teeth care!  I think they love going out to our fun table so I know we are making an impact.  They get to brush now to music thanks to one of our co-workers.  I know they love that!

Apples, Apples, Apples!

This month we focus a lot of science and things that tie into anything having to do with FALL!!!  Last week we finished up our apple unit and we had tons of fun!  We began by cutting up apples and talking about our observations.  We had fun looking at the seeds and the "star" in the center of the apple.

We used these apples and added some popsicle sticks to them and went straight into apple printing.  Unfortunately I did not get a photo of this because painting is something we all get really into and we needed all hands on deck!  It was busy!  While apple printing was going on at the art table, I was in charge of the great APPLE VOTE!  Three students at a time came to taste green, red, and red and yellow apples.  Then they took a voting ballot and colored the apple they liked the best.  They folded up their ballot and waiting to see what apple was the winner.

 At circle time we unfolded the votes one at a time and my students took turns tallying the votes.  

 At the end, we counted them up and the GALA apple won!

Around the room we had apples everywhere!  My awesome student teacher set up the writing table.  Everyone enjoyed making apple books and reading Ten Apples Up On Top!

We had a math game for one to one correspondence and pom pom for apples!  These were loved and even thrown around the room!

 At the writing spot we found these great letter hunt pages on TpT!  We set it up with bingo markers.  When done if all the A's are found, the green markers form the letter "A."  I actually did not even know this was going to happen!  It was a cool surprise even for me!  You can find this great product by clicking here:  Teaching Products

In the end it looks like this...  I did this one of course for you to see!

We also did a very cool sensory bin that was just for two people to use at a time.  I wish it could have been in the sensory table, but the beans were pricey!  I got them in the international isle at our grocery.   These beans were everywhere but they are getting some serious play time!  Next week there will be spiders and rocks and some fake flowers and webs!

Our apple pie play dough was also a hot station.  Our play dough trays had traditional cooked play dough with cinnamon, all spice, and cloves blended in.  It smelled good enough to eat and I know some did get gobbled!  Each day we had a little less on our tray when we began our day!  Unfortunately I took the photo without the play dough in the container but I am sure you get the idea!

We had an apple farm in our dramatic play and we finished off the week measuring our bodies with apples.  It was a great unit!  We covered many of our Ohio Early Learning and Development Standards and we had fun doing it!

My kids loved wearing the apple aprons and bandanas!  They were $.99 at Hobby Lobby!  Just a simple bandana and they were off to being apple farmers!

Apple measurement with our student teacher was very exciting  We set up in our extended learning area and they could not wait to head out and do the counting with her!

Our last math game was inspired by Ten Apples Up On Top.  My pictures of the kids were not cropped like I would have liked but all of my kids loved putting the "apples"(beads) up on top of their photo in the frames!

I think this could be one of my longest posts on my blog yet!  Hope that you get inspired to do apples too!  We had a great time!  Now off to plan for our skeleton unit!  I will add that post soon!

Starting Off With Pete the Cat! Freebie Included!!

Well my year is off to a great start!  We began with 10 returning preschoolers and ten new ones and we have a great group of kids.  We set up a two day Pete art project at the creation station and every Pete we made is unique!  Day one we cut out the cat.  I am re-posting these instructions for those who missed it last year. This is by far one of my most read blog posts!

On day one we gave each child a folded piece of blue paper.  On it draw the lines as we have here.  We have the child cut the bigger line first and then the small one.  Those create the cat parts!  The child will end up with two pieces for the head and tail.  We have our students put the extras in the middle.  We use those for the kids who are not the best cutters!  Those are our extras which we always need!  This year we used three different blue papers too which added some variety in the cats!

The class really got into putting on all of their parts on their Pete!  All of them turned out unique!  We have read two of our Pete the Cat books and already the students have learned the songs and love the books.  Next up is Pete the Cat and His Groovy Buttons! 

This was my Pete!  He sits at the parent sign in book and starts a lot of great book conversations in the morning with my students and their moms!  They have all been asking who Pete is!  

We made a matching shoe color game and we have been playing traditional memory with it.  This week we are using these same color cards to pair up the kids to have a partner to sit with a t lunch!  This helps my class get to know each other and they love walking with partners in the hall.  Usually we walk down the hall in a traditional line, but on partner days we walk two by two!  The colored Converse shoe cards are a fun way to practice color matching and also a good way to pair up new friends!  I have it here if you would like to try them too!  I print on heavy card stock and laminate!

Click here for : Free Colored Shoe Memory Game

Photos of our favorite projects from the month of March!

Even though there was not much snow...we painted like there was!  This art lasted three days!  The first day we finger painted.  The second day was cutting out parts and the third day they stamped snowflakes with a snowflake sponge!

I Am Back!

I have been working really hard getting my certification for Lead Teacher.  Basically it give me a little more opportunity to make some extra money with extra duties!  It has been a tough road but the first part is over.  I completed my comprehensive with a perfect score on observations and on my collection of evidence!  I was so happy.  Now I am onto the 14 page paper that I have to compose about myself!  It is not easy and I am getting a very slow start!

This month we had a lot of great activities in the classroom.  Our pirate unit really took off and all of the students loved riding on our pirate ship!  

We also used all of the games from my tpt store and it was great.  Their favorite part by far was the Walk the Plank Game!"  I got into full Pirate Character and wore a pirate bandanna all day.  I did my best pirate voice and the balance beam from our gym!  We had so much fun!  Each time I showed them a letter card, if they got it right, they "WALKED THE PLANK!!"  I will be using this game for a long time to come!  They also really enjoyed the hand prints and making their own pirates with construction paper.  Each center game provided lots of practice in counting-especially with our clip game!  I hope you get time to stop by and check out my first product!  I had no idea how much fun I would have making the games and centers!  It is very time consuming but fun!  I am still learning but I think this summer, I will have more time to create!  Below are a few of the photos of our pirate unit!  It was a great one to do in the winter!

Pirate Unit Ready To Purchase on TpT

I am finally done getting my TpT (www.teacherspayteachers.com) store up and running!  I have the hang of it and I hope that all of you will enjoy the things I am making to put in your classroom.  I worked a long time practicing and getting all of my ideas together.  My students love the games already!  I think they will never get tired of the clothes pins and clipping the right number on the counting cards!  Thanks Erin!   I use that idea all around my classroom and they never get tired of it!  Below is the link to my gigantic pirate unit of fun!  Check it out!

                                         

                                                Here is my link to my TpT store and first unit!

Pizza Math

 This summer we did a pizza project.  I incorporated listening skills with color and number concepts.  We also worked on basic writing skills with the children who were ready to copy letters and write simple words.  The pictures above are of the activity.  I gave instructions and watched to see if each child could follow simple instructions.  We also worked on number recognition and listened to hear each child count out loud as they put pepperoni bingo marks on their pizza.  We had a lot of fun filling up the pizzas!  We had plans to actually have pizza and count real pepperoni but we never got to that.  I plan to next time I try this activity.  It was good learning for all levels.  Can't wait to do it again!

Body Awareness

We were so excited this week to teach and talk about the body and bones in our body!  Skeletons have always fascinated my classes and this year was no different.  As soon as our full sized plastic skeleton was hung the chatter began.  "Is it Halloween?"  They were so curious!  We did this great lesson where we touched and talked about what bones we could feel. Then we connected and created our own skeleton.  They loved this and had fun while they were practicing their bone knowledge.  We gave them cups of glue so that they could dip the cotton part of the cotton swab.  They look great all displayed in the hallway.   Try it with your class.  I am trying out writing all of the new "soon to be out" Common Core for preschool and we did it a little deeper than point to your nose.  The inside of the body is more fun than that, right!!!

Pizza Party!

 P is for Pizza!  We finished up our two week theme with our Taylor Academy Pizza Parlor!  As the last day activity we make a class pizza.  It was a lot of fun!  Each child was given a triangle and a brown paper bag that they covered the triangle up and then decorated.  Our class was trying for perfect attendance and was in competition to win a pizza party.  (We were not even close on this as they counted tardiness!)   Although we did not win, we made this cool class pizza and talked about things people order and then focused on the shapes.  As you can see in the picture below, it was messy and fun.  We are still working to get everyone using glue sticks appropriately!  Our students were digging and dumping toppings out everywhere trying to get just what they needed for their piece on our group pizza.  The best part of the day was watching them search for their piece when they went home.  We placed the pieces in a real pizza box and on this silver pizza pan.  One parent wanted to know when the real party was and I had to let her know we did not win.  So to our surprise  she said she would bring all the kids pizza to go along with our project!  They are going to get really excited when I tell them tomorrow!  

It is almost back-to-school time!

Most teachers are getting ready to head back and get ready to set up!  I am already teaching in a special kindergarten prep pilot program.  We have of curse been reading Pete the Cat and talking about him, colors, and of course the rooms in the building-the lunchroom, playground, etc.  We made my Pet out of paper and were practicing listening and following directions.  After we finished, we put the cats in the hallway.  Many of my students were upset that their cats did not have shoes.   I told them we would add them the following week.  I had some very distressed artist who felt they needed shoes on the cats.  So on Friday we got out paper and practiced cutting just circles to add to the feet of our Petes!  Some of the kids really were not happy with our basic shoe shape and they made adjustments.  But then came Joe (name is changed of course)!  Joe loves art and wanted to make the shoes for all 4 feet, draw laces, and the backpack, AND then the LUNCHBOX!!!!  I just had to post it.  It was so detailed!  And I almost forget the GUITAR! 

Mini "pretend" Cakes-Recycling Project

My whole class displayed the cakes to dry while we went to lunch.

Alright, I have found the perfect recycling and re-purposing project for bottle lids and play dough that is about ready to be thrown away!  Here is is:  mini stacked layer cakes!  The was fun and easy and engaged all of the students that came to the table.  We gave out a cardboard base from a leftover packaging box, a muffin paper, and then they went to work.  We allowed the students to start off by choosing 3 lids that were all varying sizes and asked them to find the biggest lid for the bottom.  Then, they were off, adding all sorts of colors and lids they created these wonderful mini cakes above.  We got rid of lots of old play dough and did not have to throw it away.  Below you can see the added materials we used to create our cakes:old play dough, muffin papers, sequins, bottle lids from all types of bottles, and seed beads.  We gave each child a cardboard base to put the cake on.  This too was recycled from the cafeteria.  

finished cakes on cardboard base covered with a muffin paper

supplies used for the project

   

Crayon Melt Art

We had to try this Pinterest crayon melt idea.  It was one of the first things I saw as I signed up to Pinterest.  What a fun project!  Everyone had so much fun getting to use the hairdryer.  I heard so  many stories about how they had seen blow dryers at home but that they did not get to use them!  We are not yet done.  The picture on the right will be up next week after we melt it.  We plan to do each pair of crayons on the black board and then turn the canvas.  All you need to try this is a canvas, a hot glue gun, plenty of crayons and some kids who like to hold their arm in the air a while to watch the solid crayon turn to liquid.  We plan to use this in our school lobby.  The kids are really proud of it.

Bubble Art

We all had fun today using our breath to make art!  Each child blew bubbles in a dish of water, tempera paint and dish soap to make bubbles.  Everyone enjoyed watching as the bubbles rose out of the bowl above the bowls.  They put a piece of white paper over the top and made beautiful bubble prints!  It was easy and very entertaining!

CIRCLES, CIRCLES, CIRCLES!

Today we worked on drawing circles.  We are starting a new art unit about circles.  We challenged the children to draw as many circles in their big circle as they could.  Then we asked them to count them all up and write the number they drew.  They were so different and each drawing was unique!  This was a fun way to do some pre-writing and get some one to one counting in at the same time.  Many of my students can count much higher than I thought too which was great!