I'm enclosing in this post an Earth Day sample project I did tonight while I was watching The Real Housewives of Orange County (guilty pleasure). It's a cute project because it's made from recycled cardboard and old magazines, but I'm not sure how great it is on the "cuteness scale!" Maybe the message of recycling overrides the lack of cuteness? I haven't decided. Feel free to comment and let me know what you think! I'm probably going to continue surfing Pinterest for more cute Earth Day Projects.
sorting, seed mosaics, and a Tiny Seed project I created last year that's super cute (I'll take a picture of it and post it tomorrow to share). However, I didn't want to plant the seeds until we came back from Spring Break because I didn't want them to die from lack of water while we were away. The children loved planting! I bought these cute little cardboard seed pots on Amazon.com for just a few dollars. I bought two packages and that was enough for each child to have his/her own pot. Also, I planted extra seeds in an egg carton. With the egg carton seeds I will dig up a seed each day and compare differences with the children. We made our first comparison today with the seed that hadn't been planted. The children observed it had a curve to it, and that it was like a pebble. Hopefully tomorrow when I dig the seed up they will be able to see that it swelled due to taking in water. We also made a list on chart paper of what seeds need to grow. Now that it is April the prekinders can write out simple words like "water" and "sunlight" if I spell it out for them. I love seeing their handwriting on the chart paper as opposed to my own!
This week I also started Math Journals. I got this idea from another blogger. Visit her site! http://www.mrswillskindergarten.com/ You can buy her math journal prompts for just a few dollars and they are great! Plus, they build on one another each day which is nice :) So far, the children are doing well with the journals, and it's a great way to assess their knowledge! For example, today I noticed that a few of my prekinders still cannot draw triangles. As a result, I had to make an executive decision and stray from my very strict lesson plans! At the end of the day I brought the kiddies back to the circle time area and we practiced drawing triangles on dry erase boards. We also went over the characteristics of a triangle.
During our end of the day circle time I also give out stickers. The children have an opportunity to get two stickers. I use the traffic light behavior system, so if their clothespin with their name on it isn't on the red light, they get a sticker. The second sticker is based on knowledge. Normally, I would hold up a letter or number and if they say the correct answer they get their second sticker (caller outters immediately lose their behavior sticker, is that strict lol?) However, with the new math journals they are doing, I check their work when they're done with the writing in the journal. Anyone who did the journal correctly earns a sticker. I like this because my students cannot read yet, so part of the journal experience is me reading the prompt, and they must LISTEN and FOLLOW DIRECTIONS (such biggies in pre-k). Anyways, the math journals are going great and I like the new system of earning that second sticker :) 5 stickers=prize. The prize is a lollipop; however some lollipops have a blue tip on the bottom end of the stick. If the child gets a blue tipped lollipop stick then they get to pick out an extra prize from our classroom treasure chest. This idea I got from Katie Mense at Little Warriors. Check out her page to see her lollipop system, so you can get a better idea of what I'm talking about. http://littlekinderwarriors.blogspot.com/2012_03_01_archive.html. She has such great ideas! Anyways, bedtime for me. Night bloggers!
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