A Long Week

This week felt like a long week.  We had a lot of stuff going on, and the kids were very excited.  We have moved onto our farm theme, a theme the kids love.  We started off the week by reading "The Farm Concert" which is a super old book from an old reading series

 

My class likes the tape that goes along with it-- although some of them asked what "it" was (a cassette tape) and what my cassette player was.  I didn't think I was that old!

 

We made a class book to go along with it.  It was super simple.  This class loves making books that they can take home and "read" to their families.

 

Here are some centers around the room:

I put corn in the sensory table.  It's harvest time so the students are already interested.  I put whole cobs or corn in there and the kids love picking it off the cob.  A normally loud center was somewhat quiet- because what kid doesn't like picking at something??

I also put cards with numbers in them where the students would put the corresponding kernels of on there.

 

We made pumpkin spice play doh.  I used a no cook recipe and added extra pumpkin spice.  I found the generic brand for cheap because pumpkin spice is expensive.  You could just use cinnamon and nutmeg or make your own spice mixture.  I got the recipe here (and doubled it) http://dawnypoo.blogspot.com/2009/10/tuesday-tutorial-no-cook-playdough.html#.Ukcb518o7mI

 

 

I had a farm book on tape in my library center, but all the students were obsessed with this old bulletin board set that I put on the front of my desk.

 

 

Here are my apple colors write the room centers at TPT

 

I also put out my first write the room center.  This was a tough one as a first write the room.  I made up baggies with the markers they would need and a pencil.  This helped them to complete the center.

 

Next weeks project:

 

They love the video:

 

http://www.schooltube.com/video/13e5b71bb3663c832b4b/Rosies-Walk

 

 

 

 

Apple Unit

We finished up our apple unit this week.  We had fun with our final "Apple Day" on Friday.  Here are some of the projects we did:

We made apple print and saw the apple stars.  We also made the mosaic apples.

We made a class apple book with my favorite type of apple page

 

Pin the stem on the apple

 

We made croc pot applesauce

 

 

We also made apple juice which the kids were amazed by using my Jack Lalanne Power Juice, which I love!

 

We also played pin the stem on the apple which the students thought was so funny.  We will also play pin the stem on the pumpkin in the fall.

 

Free:

 

free:

 

free:

 

 

only $1.00

 

Graphing what color of apple we brought to school:

 

 

 

 

Numbers

Freebie I just created to numbers 1-10.

Apples

We have an apple theme in the classroom this week.  On Friday we will be having "Apple Day" where student will bring in apples and we will do all kinds of fun activities with apples.  I will post pictures later this week.

Here are a couple of projects we have been working on:

We made these mosaic apples, but they didn't turn out how I wanted.  I made the apples too big and the strips of paper too small.  They didn't have enough time to fill in the whole apple.  These were about 8" wide.  Too big!  Next time I will make about a 5" apple or have larger strips of paper for the kids to rip.

 

This is our Seasons of the Apple Tree book.  With our apple unit we talk about the seasons and what they look and feel like.  We then related it back to what an apple tree would look like and make this book.  There is a poem that goes along with it.

 

 

I stand bare in wintertime, in the cold gray light

 

 And wait for spring to come to me, with bloom of pink and white.

 

 In summertime I wear green leaves, and soak up sunshine's heat.

 

 

 So in the fall my limbs bow low, with apples crisp and sweet.

 

 

 Random:

Here is one my centers this week which is great for names and fine motor.  The students punch out dots using a hole puncher and then glue them into their name outlines.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

New Stuff!

New things in my TPT store!

 

And this FREEBIE!

 

Colors Galore

So I thought I was finished with colors last week, but I still had some projects I wanted to finish up.  This class is loving mixing colors.  Many years I make the Rainbow Stew which is a lot of fun, but this year I opted out because I need to move on.  We have done some fun color mixing projects though.  Today we finished up with the icing mixing.  With one can of icing we mix the three primary colors of icing in plastic bags:

We then mixed the different color combos to form the new colors.  Just clip a hole in the corner of the ziplock back and it's super easy to squeeze the color out.  I used Graham Crackers this year because I had some left from snack.  Many years I use vanilla wafers, or some kind of small cookie.  We used popsicle sticks as a knife to spread, and I'm even so cheap that I gave them half a plate to work on, they really didn't need a whole big plate.

 

This is a great color mixing video I found.  It is Sesame Street and my students loved it.  I liked it too and we have watched it a couple of times now.

 

Odds and Ends:

We worked on the Brown Bear independent reader.  They were excited to take these home and read them to their families:

 

 

You can print the book at:

making learning fun just click here

They also have all kinds of other fun Brown Bear activities.

 

We also graphed our favorite Brown Bear animals on a large class graph.  I made copies of the animals from the book above.  I then let the students choose their favorite animal, color it, and add it to the graph.

 

Other Color centers:

So This maybe the student's favorite color center.  It is also great for fine motor skills as well!

 

 

I put out the 3 primary colors of dyed water.  Then students use the eye dropper so suck up the water and transfer it to their container.  In their containers they can mix and experiment with the different colors.  The eye droppers I ordered from a school supply store, but you can also get them on amazon.  I got the containers from a conference I went to.  You could use any type of sectioned containers- or the cupcake holders that student's bring for birthdays.  You can see I cut apart the cups from the cupcakes and use them for painting or other projects.

 

 

Here's how we graphed our favorite colors.  It was a big hit with the kids.  It really scared me though- looking at how some of these kids write their names still... ugh, we have a lot of work to do still.

 

More Color Fun!

To go along with our color unit, I use these centers at the end of the day. 

These are some of the color centers I am using in the classroom.  I like this first center because it's simple, the kids love it, and it focuses on fine motor which many of my students need this early in the year.  I have found that telling them they get to be "scientists" and sort the colors with the tweezers makes it so much more fun.  All I did was printed some brown bear pictures and glued them into the corner of each construction paper square.  Then I laminated the paper.  I then just throw a bunch of pompoms and cut up pipe cleaners (I didn't have all the colors in pom poms) into a bin and the kids sort.  They love it!

This is my pocket chart center in the dramatic play.  This was from my color cards that I got at the dollar tree.  It looks plain, but I wanted to leave it open ended so the children could sort the pictures how they wanted.  It's been fun to see how different students sort them.

We have been working on cutting and the concept of "dots" of glue.  In this center the students are cutting from magazines pictures of things they like and then glueing them into the right colors.  This is only after a few minutes on day one, I'm always amazed by the finished product. (apartently someone likes Gymboree coupons).

In my sensory table I have colored rice that I dyed (food coloring and rubbing alcohol) and I had letters from Chicka Chicka Boom Boom.  I added bears and color cups for the students to sort by color.  This centers seems to be a favorite this year.

These are our rainbow clouds we will be making today.  We talked about the order of colors in the rainbow.  (Sorry this is mine that has been folded in my files).  We have 2 clouds we cut, staple, and stick some Kleenex inside to make them puffy.  We then hang them from our clips in our classroom.

I will post some more color things we have done later today.