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!  

Celebrating 83,000 Views of My BLOG!

Thanks to all of you who have read and followed my blog.  I have thoroughly enjoyed doing it and love sharing my work with all of you!  I have not had as many followers as I thought I would have by now (hint, hint!), but still happy!  I encourage you to follow me through Bloglovin' or by email.  It is a great way to keep updated when I make new posts.  I am trying to post at least 3 activities I create in my room to share with you each month this upcoming school year.  That is my goal anyway!

I have just finished creating some great number play dough mats.  I am working on the letter version to go with the GUM BALL theme!  Many of my other play dough mats are rolling "worm" shapes, so for my latest game I used the ball shape.  I made a few at my table tonight.   My twin girls were asleep, so I could not try it out on them yet!  They love all of my other play dough games so I know they will try it out when they wake up!

Here is a preview and I hope you enjoy.  This set comes with games to use with play dough and pompom "gum balls" too!  It can also be laminated and used with dry erase makers.  

Click here to view my TPT store!

As summer comes to and end, get out and enjoy your last days!  I know I will.  Heading back to our house on the Greenbrier River!  More to come so check back or follow me to stay updated!  

Play Dough Mats for Preschool

I have worked all year long and never got the time to get my activities up on TPT!  I have tweaked and researched and I am finally ready to share my stuff!!!  I make things that I want to use and that I know other preschool/kindergarten teachers will use.  I love all of the cute things I that I have seen and I thought to myself, you know, I can do this too!!!  I have included a preview of the product with some pictures of my students using them.

I began the year by making play dough activities.  I wanted to change up my play dough and make it a bit more educational and meaningful.  I had kids in my class who were using their creativity, and they were strengthening their fine motor, but seemed to need more.  I started with the play dough mats.  Here you can see how much fun these can be!

My students love rolling out the "worms" for the numbers and then using a real plastic knife and cutting off cylinders for the marshmallows in the mugs!  I have also had fun using these during teacher evaluations.  My bosses love that I can sit and assess as they are learning!  Shocking, right?!

Here is a sneak peak into my other great play dough mats...

                                                         Flower Play Dough Counting Mats

This game is my favorite one... Play Dough Pizza Math Mats!!!  I found the greatest clip art from the 3A.M. Teacher!  It was calling my name.  I have not used this one yet but I cannot wait to try it.  I am going to print it and try it out with my twin girls!  I know they will love it!

                                                       Play Dough Pizza Math Mats

 I hope you love these.  I know your students will!  Enjoy!

Fun Winter Counting Activities-Come Enjoy Them Now on TPT!

I have worked hard on these winter activities and they were a big hit in my class.  I finally have an entire winter unit on TPT for you to use!  Come on over and check it out!

Click here to come and get this fun activity pack for winter.

My latest obsession is making new games for my students.  I have worked hard on  my winter math games and I want to share them with you.  I have tried to make something for every level student I have.  This first group of pictures is from the lowest level math game which is one to one correspondence up to 5.  I found these supplies at Michael's and made the rest on my computer.  I went to KPM Doodles for the adorable clip art!

I made many levels of math fun, including these that I used cute Dollar Store green and purple containers to hold them.  I added very easy and basic classroom supplies to put these together.  

                                      

My favorite new activity is to make mats for learning with play dough!  This month we made the number in play dough and then added that many marshmallows to the hot chocolate.  This was very popular. You can buy the Play Dough Hot Chocolate Mats by themselves or in the Winter Activity Bundle.  Use the ink at the top of this blog entry.

We recently purchased these dry erase clear plastic sleeves.  They are a new center for our tables.  We put various papers in them.  This one seen here is count, tally, and write numbers.  It was great counting practice!  It had many levels and all of my students could practice.  We have been using this style of activity for letter and number formation practice.  I have 17 students who will be going onto kindergarten and they seem to love using dry erase markers so why not!

 We are also working on putting numbers in order.  This link game is easy and we partner two students up to use it.  This game goes up to 12.  Below I made a snowman match.  Students had to use a magnifying glass to find the matching snowman.  This game was quick but fun!

 Out math/art project was making a mug of hot chocolate.  We added real mini marshmallows and then counted them and wrote the number of marshmallows on the mug.  Here you can see number cards for the students who needed a model to look at used.  We drizzled hot chocolate powder on it when we were done to make it like a scratch n' sniff!  We hung these in the main hallway of the school and let's just say everyone enjoyed them and some a little too much.  They did not come down with the same amount of marshmallows they went up with!

My last math game was a snowman counting game.  I made this game woo and used these great Dollar Store items.  These we used on a rug on the floor and we counted up to 10 with these.

I hope your month finds lots of fun winter math happening and that these ideas inspire you to make something fun too!  

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!

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!

I am now on Teachers Pay Teachers!!!

I am finally starting a store on TpT after a long winter of research on the types of activities I wanted to create for preschool teachers!  I am not too far along but you have to start somewhere.  I am posting my first game for cheap!!!  I want to create things that are instant learning centers.  My goal is to have things that you can laminate and use right away!  I hope you enjoy my first one!  I have many students who love the counting clip games that my friend over at Creating and Teaching makes but I have so many students that they are too hard for still.  I wanted the same type of game but easier so that my youngest students could practice with clothes pins and counting too, even if they could not recognize the number.  I switched around that idea so that they could participate too.  I hope you can use it in your classroom too!

Dental Health Counting Clip Game-FREEBIE

Free Thanksgiving Clip Card Game

I have been busy creating and playing around with my new fall clip art!  I have loved using clothes pins with my students.  They all have enjoyed many counting games that incorporate them.  I hope you do too!  All you need to enjoy this game is card stock and a little lamination!  Grab some clothes pins and you have an instant station!
                                       
                                        Thanksgiving Counting Clip Cards

Number Smack Math Game

This past summer I had the opportunity to work in a great summer program designed to give kids who did not go to preschool, a jump start before they got to kindergarten.  It was a short program but we got the opportunity to do a lot of fun things with our class.  The activities we did were really hands on and incorporated very active learning.  This game below was designed to get the kids moving and working to identify numbers in various ways.  We began by reviewing the numbers 1-20 for our upper group and 1-10 with my lower group.  Then I would take a piece out of our number puzzle and say the name of the number.  Once I called the number, the students could run around the big table that had the number smack poster and find the number I called out.  When they found it, they had to smack it and hold their hand on it.   Then I yelled out, "Peek!"  The students lifted their hand but kept it right next to it so that I could check and chart the students who got it and who did not.  We made it harder for the children who already could recognize numbers and just yelled out the name.  I have repeated this activity in my preschool classroom and used fly swatters from the Dollar General.  This gave my students something extra to make the game interesting.  I used a rectangular table with chairs all pushed in so that the students could run around to find the numbers.   Next week we are going to draw shapes all over our poster to review shapes.  I think getting my students up and moving to learn makes them work harder and gets some of their energy out too!  It is a win, win!  

Free Spider Math Grid Game

Grid games are popular in preschool math.  I have a student teacher right now getting ready to use one in my class as a project she is doing at the University of Cincinnati.   I thought I might create one too!  I have made many in the past, but sometimes I feel like my students are only ready to use these with a teacher helping.  Since most of the activities in my room students can do on their own, I usually do not have many grid games.  This year I am trying to create things to get ready for Teacherspayteachers.com. Here is another freebie for you to enjoy!  I have not put anything up there yet!  Still creating my store!  I have already printed it one out on card stock and it is ready to go for my students this week!  

We are in full HALLOWEEN mode and the kids are so exited about the decorations and the colors switching to orange in black in many of my centers.  I am getting it all ready to photograph and post too!  In math this week, here is what we will be doing....a grid game!  I hope you can try printing it out and enjoying it too!  I do have one tip for printing anything that you want to make: Print directly onto card stock.  Then all you have to do is laminate!  Also, card stock in 110 pound weight works best for me.  It is heaviest and strongest and will go through a regular printer. I have used it at school too and the copier in my building can handle it. If you do not have a printer at home, print it and it comes out great in black and white too!  Kids will like it better in color I would guess, but I know that is not always possible.  Colored ink can get expensive.  I have one other tip too:  Card stock is cheap at Sam's Club.  Highly recommend staying away from Expensive office stores!  I paid double at one!  Sam's club has a package for $7.89.  Pretty cheap!  

Click Here to enjoy another Freebie from me!