I've "Moved"!

I've moved.....my blog for TEACHERS! If there are any fellow educators that our out there following my blog, I've moved. I really wanted to keep Planet Preschool for my students and their families, and yet I wanted to expand and grow with the educational world of blogging.....so in order to avoid a hybrid blog that was not as flexible as I wanted, I've created a *NEW* one!

Follow me on The Sweet Life of Teaching! Go ahead....hop on over there and grab some FREEBIES!

I'm still working on by code for my button (why does it have to be SO hard?!)....so hang in there and check back soon!

~Keri

Michigan Association for Early Childhood Education!

WISH ME LUCK! 

Mrs. O and I are presenting tomorrow at the MiAEYC conference. Here's a sneak peek into our conference. We hope our fellow educators across the State benefit from our helpful tips and resources for organizing their classrooms!

http://prezi.com/mpovgvuggqpc/file-cabinet-rebellion/

I've been REALLY busy preparing for this conference....so pictures to come a little later about what our students have been up to this week, and our big finale to March is Reading Month!! Check back over Spring Break!! Have a safe, fun, and restful vacation. See you all April 9th!!

~ Keri

New Stuff on the Blog!

Hey everyone! Please note that I have added *NEW* items and pages on our classroom blog! At the top, you will see pages for "Teacher Stuff", "A Blog for Teachers", and "FREEBIES for parents and teachers". You may be particularly interested in the Freebies tab! This is where you will find quality educational games that I have used in the classroom with my students. These are games that I have created and am sharing them with YOU! Each game comes with directions so that you can easily print and use at home with your child. 


Please feel free to share these links with your day care providers as well. They may benefit from using educational materials with your child while they are not in school! Reinforcement at home, school, and in a child care setting gives your child extra opportunities to master certain concepts that are taught at school, therefore increasing their school and Kindegarten readiness success! These games may be just the ticket for summer FUN learning! 


I only have a few items available at this time, but hope to be adding more - especially over the summer. So, continue to check back often! You may also visit my new shop on Teacher's Notebook. That's where the links will take you - and you will find more great items. See the icon to the left of the blog on the main page. 


ENJOY! 
~Keri 

Is is really March in Northern Michigan?!

The weather this week has been A-mazing!!! I couldn't help but want to take our classroom outdoors....so, I did! I mean, why not!?! The weather was in the 70's and 80's, the sun was bright, and everyone wanted to be out there anyway.

I think the children enjoyed learning outside as much as I loved teaching outside! Most of the furniture in our classroom is light, on wheels, and fits through our back door....so I just hauled it all out. We are SO VERY LUCKY to be in a newer building, and my classroom has a back door that opens up to our very spacious playground. We certainly utilized all our spaces this week. Check out what we did!! 

Here, Ethan R. is working on 'Write Around the Room'....and he's finding words/letters as close to the outdoors as he can! 

We took music and movement outside! How cool are we to have an electrical outlet right outside our door? Might as well use it! 

Look how focused and on task we are! The children are not a bit distracted---they are so enjoying learning in the great outdoors! 

Have water table on wheels, will travel! 

These friends are fishing for magnetic letters, and looking for numbers on our floating number ducks. 

Clara decides that Free Choice time outdoors might be nice! 

She heads outside to play some ball with a few classmates! 

Some children opted to stay inside for Free Choice.

Another benefit of having two teachers - we can keep an eye on indoor and outdoor activities!

These friends are using manipulatives from the math center to count, sort, and make pictures with pattern blocks! I think Matt might need some shades---the sun is so bright!

This week we've been working on Goldilocks and the Three Bears.

Zaeanna loves to re-tell the story using the story props in our large group area!

Have sand table on wheels, will travel!

Scoop, dig, bury, build, pour, dump out, talk----lots of discovery going on here! 

Make-Over Sunday

Today was Make-Over Sunday for a 1st grade teacher friend of mine, Mrs. Jennings! She had won an Ambush Makeover from myself and my good Kindergarten teacher friend, Mrs. Ouwinga!

Mrs. Jennings is a VERY organized, fun, hands-on teacher. She certainly has fun in First! But, like all of us, the days are BUSY working with our littles ones who need so much of our time. And the end of the day - it's time to switch gears and go home to our own families. Mrs. Jennings is also a wife, a mother, a grandmother, and a talented quilter. Time is definitely limited! Like so many of us, Mrs. Jennings uses her desk to toss things on her way to the next lesson, activity, specials class, meeting, or working with students. It piles up, and sometimes it's hard to dig out! So-----Mrs. O and I put our heads together and wanted to help her out!

Mrs. O and I are preparing to present in a couple of weeks at the Michigan Association for Early Childhood Education (MiAEYC). Our session is called: File Cabinet Rebellion - Get your Classroom Organized! The other day, while we were getting organized for our conference, Mrs. Jennings happened to mention that her desk need an overhaul. We decided to ambush her - and she was a really good sport about it! Check out the video....

I hope Mrs. Jennings likes her new make-over. I can hardly believe she refrained from coming in to check on me today. She gave me full reign of her teacher space----I can only imagine how hard that must be! I'm honored she put her trust in me - and in return she gets a fun, tidy area---and I get to show other teachers how easy it is to spiffy up their space! 

Here's some before and afters....

Mrs. Jennings' desk (before)

Teacher closets (behind Mrs. Jennings' desk - before)

Under her desk (before)...

Desk drawer 1 - before

Desk drawer 2 - before

Desk drawer 3 - before

What we need are...

1. storage containers/bins

2. Lots of sorting

3. A couple hours of time 

That's it!

We created an "In Box" - everyone needs somewhere to drop notes, paperwork, homework, etc.
At the end of the day - take 10 minutes to file it! It will be nice to see a clean box each morning - ready for the day! 

When working for someone else to make their spaces and places happier, I always take into consideration their wants/needs. Mrs. Jennings requested that her AR (Accelerated Reader) jar must stay on her desk. So, we just cute-sied it up a bit! :) 

Bright colors and lots of labels give every item a rightful place! 

A small box for lost and found game pieces is a huge classroom helper! We have lots of games and activities out each day of the week - with dice, cards, counting chips, etc. It's easy for little pieces to not get put away, and then several children bring stray pieces to you the rest of the day. Have a spot where kids can put those pieces---and at the end of the day...take a few moments to get them back where they really belong! 

All of the papers that were taped to the front of the teacher closets have found a place in this binder. These are daily things Mrs. Jennings might like to refer to---progress monitoring forms, classroom library checkout system, forms for central office, things to be mailed, etc. 

A little re-arranging and there is ample space under the desk now! 

Here, regular kitchen containers were used to store like items. A little chalkboard label keeps everything labeled nicely, and can be erased when the contents are changed. No more scrubbing off sticky labels when you want to re-name the contents of a box!! Brilliant! 

Drawer 3 (after). Don't mind the upside down photo! 

No more paper covered closet doors! Just a little decorative paper to please the eyes! Under the cabinets?
Well, maybe another day! 

Sort, sort, sort---sort like items and put in containers!!

In the end, when working on someone else's space/belongings, there are always items that cannot be placed. A medium sized box was left with items that need to go some where other than this newly re-organized space!

We hope you enjoy your new space, Mrs. Jennings! 

You've been RAK'd! 

(That's a Random Act of Kindness)---go try it out on someone! :) 

The Napping House

Our focus story this week was a great story called The Napping House, by Dan and Audrey Wood. It's a delightful story about a family and their pets that all end up in bed on a rainy night - only to be woken up in a very startling manner all because of a little flea! 

We also used this story to talk about characters in a book, and using pictures to help tell the story. We took a "picture walk" (browsing through the book without reading) to figure out where the story took place (setting), and when the story took place (at night, and in the morning). We also used the pictures to predict what was going to happen next. The illustrator gave us hints with his foreshadowing technique. The illustrations are very detailed and beautiful! Our preschoolers are getting very good at using picture clues for information! 

This story has many repetitive phrases that allowed the children to join in and read along. What great readers we have! Be sure to ask your child about our story this week, and feel free to check out the video that goes along with the book! It's a great one! 

On the Loose with Dr. Seuss

This week was Seuss-tastic!

We spent a lot of time studying and EnJoYiNg the works of the famous author, Dr. Suess!

We learned that Dr. Suess was wise beyond his years - and that many of his words still offer advice that is relevant and meaningful still today!

He also makes up a lot of silly words, and loves to rhyme! We love to rhyme as well!

Here's peek into our very fun, very busy,  Suess-filled week!



We read the story The Cat in the Hat, and made our own hats!
We noticed that the Cat's hat was red, white, red, white....HEY! That's an AB pattern.



We also played a Dr. Suess grid game. Grid games are great for our number concept skills! Each child rolls the die (or 2 dice for students who are ready for larger numbers), count the dots (or add the dots from the 2 dice) and place that many counters (glass stones) on the game mat. Each child has their own game mat, and takes turns until someone fills up their card first! This is also great for teaching children to play a game without an adult and be responsible enough to play correctly (no cheating!), and take turns with their friends. We have played a lot of grid games at school!

We also played an uppercase and lowecase letter match game! We are at that time of year when most of our students know enough about the alphabet to be able to match upper/lower. Our students were very resourceful and used the ABC charts in our room to check their work or find matches if they weren't quite sure! We are also learning that our peers are a great resource, too!

Friends helping friends is always a nice thing to see!



Ava doesn't monkey around; she's found 2 pairs right away!



Delaney found a very important letter match - D for Delaney!!



Brody found Yy - and he knows it's the last letter in his name!



Madison found Ss - they look very similar, one is just bigger than the other!



We decked out our library center this week, too! We have a forest of Truffula Trees (from The Lorax), many Dr. Suess books, and a Dr. Suess related vocabulary cards!

One of our many books this week was The Lorax. Lots of our students had gone to see the movie, but few knew it was a book by Dr. Suess! Well, little friends, let me introduce you to the written work!



Ethan especially loved this story and movie!



We made Lorax hats!
(These are Mrs. Reamer's Truffula trees in the background. We stopped for a photo op. Cute, cute, cute!)

Ms. Schneider read Green Eggs and Ham....

And then we ATE green eggs and ham! YUMMY!

We played 'Pin the Hat on the Cat'!

Zoe snapped a picture of Mrs. Powell's unsuccessful attempt to pin the hat on the cat!

Ms. Schneider also made Grickle Grass Salad (The Lorax), and Oobleck Dip w/ Chips (Bartholomew and the Oobleck. We love when snack time and story time merge!

We also worked on the letters Uu this week. We had an un-believeably fun time with that, too!



We hung UPSDIE down in our chairs!



 We enjoyed snack at the Upside Down diner!

We ate UNDER the table, and our food was upside down!

We made playdoh letters for Uu, and other letters, too!

All in all, I think we all had a ball! And so, I will leave you with a famous quote from the Lorax. I especially love this quote because it is so fitting for a variety of things. As parents and teachers, we try to teach our children to care, be kind, and do what is right and good. And while the Lorax may speak for the trees, WE speak for the little children in our lives.......