Orientation/meet the Teacher Night

Some Ideas for a Meet the Teacher/Orientation Night:

Found this great idea on Pinterest.

Parent Wishes: "As a parent, what is your wish for your child this year?"

Scholastic Book Order Sign Up. To encourage families to sign up and get involved I had an Ipad set up and ready to go for them to register online!

Preschool Graduation: Bug Picnic

For our preschool graduation this year we had a BUG THEME. We set up picnic tables with picnic style tablecloths and set up a food table inspired with bug themed food:

• spider crackers
• dirt cups with worms
• ants on a log
• very hungry caterpillars (grape skewers)

The kiddos sang bug songs:

• Ladybug, Ladybug
• The Buggy Wuggy (hokey pokey inspired song)
• Very Hungry Caterpillar by the Learning Station

We then gave out awards, certificates/diplomas and handed out these cute bug explorer gifts:

Teacher Appreciation

My kiddos and their families are the sweetest! Feeling loved during this special week. Our parent committee has even more planned next week:)

Field Trip to the Big Apple Circus

Today we took the kiddos to the circus: the Big Apple Circus! I love this circus as they are smaller than your typical circus and they are known for their special care of their animals and their commitment to the community!

Before our trip to the show we played a fun math game using plastic peanuts and  dice. They practice rolling the dice and adding and subtracting the peanuts into the boxes.

My kiddos loved the show! 

Make Way For Ducklings

One of my favorite days of the year is going on a field trip to the Public Gardens in our great city of Boston to ride the Swan Boats! I have to say I have the privledge of having my school located in the best city! 

First we read the famous book "Make Way for Ducklings" by Robert McCloskey and discuss the areas around Boston that are featured in the story. On the day of the trip we retrace many of the steps the ducks take in the story. For example, we cross the "Salt and Pepper " bridge on the red line to get into the city and walk down Charles Street just like Mrs. Mallard does with her ducklings in the story.

We were blessed with perfect weather as we rode the Swan Boats and said hi to all the Mr. And Mrs. Mallards along the route and posed for pictures with the bronze statues of Mrs. Mallard with all her ducklings.

We set up this water table full of ducklings and boats to inspire role-plays of the story.

What great views!

Such a great trip! 

Mother's Day activity

We read books about mothers and then drew pictures of "our mommies" using oil pastels and people colors crayons.

Then I asked them why they love their mommies & dictated what they said! We will laminate these and give to the moms later this week. Can't wait to see their faces!

More Dr. Seuss Fun!

Here are some examples of Dr. Seuss activities we did this year: 

After balancing various classroom items on our heads just like the Cat in the Hat we practiced balancing little plastic cats with our balance scale.

For "Reading Across America" a lovely fellow teacher read Dr. Seuss stories dressed up as the Cat in the Hat

We made "Truffula Trees" with playdough, pipecleaners, flowers, and beads

After reading "Horton Hatches the Egg" we played a fun game where children opened eggs filled with different animals and they had to guess if they hatch from eggs or not. 

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After reading "The Foot Book" we measured items in our classroom using our shoes!

Here we made patterns using rainbow colored goldfish. Pattern grids can be found at prekinders.com

We made oobleck after reading "Bartholomew and the Oobleck" 

Check out these great pictures I created of the children that makes them look like Dr. Seuss characters. I took them using an app on my iphone called:Cat Cam. 
So worth the $2 or $3 I spent to buy the app.

we used the silly pictures to create a class book that the children love to look at over and over!

Last but not least we read "There's a Wocket in my Pocket" and created our own version of the characters. We then put them into envelopes to make "pockets"!

Wacky Wednesday & Dr. Seuss Party!

This is a super late post but I really wanted to share one of my favorite days of the year in my classroom: Wacky Wednesday! After reading the story "Wacky Wednesday" by Dr. Seuss we come to school dressed wacky and do many silly activities that day. (Check out my earlier post for more details on this great day). 

We made green eggs and ham and went on a parade around the building! At the end of the day we had a Dr. Seuss Party that families were invited to!

Here's some examples of silly outfits:

Love this little boy's wacky getup his mother made for him!

Love this "wacky scientist" costume too!

My wacky outfit!

we colored under the table

and played with magna-tiles under the table!

A wacky table we set up to surprise the kiddos just like in the story!

We made green eggs and ham using vanilla pudding, green food coloring, vanilla wafers, and sprinkles! Yum!

Later, we had a Dr. Seuss Party in our classroom and invited families:

The table-set up I put together! We used Dr. Seuss's stories as inspiration for our special treats:

One fish, two fish, red fish blue fish crackers

One fish, two fish jello

(blue jello with swedish fish in it)

Thing 1 and Thing 2 cupcakes

The Lorax cookies

Truffula Fruits from The Lorax

10 Apples up on Top!

Hop on Pop Popcorn

Go Dog Go Dogs

The Thing 1 & 2 cupcakes I made. I used cotton candy for the "hair"

Such a great day!