Letter C preschool projects...

 Cc is for costumes....

 Cc is for cookie color sort. Students used their cookies to sort by color. Great Assessment tool!

 Cc is for corn with candy corn.

Cc is for a spooky cat made out of recycled pizza cardboard! The students had a blast painting them!

Letter P preschool projects...

Pp is for pumpkins, parachutes, pirates and parties.  We made pumpkin lanterns with modge podge and orange tissue paper. A mom donated pumpkins for the class, so we decorated them with elmers glue, glitter and eyes.  The kids love it! Be careful where you display them though, rain will wash all the glitter off!  We had a Pp party where the students each brought in an item that started with a Pp such as pringles, popcorn, pop tarts, pudding, pickles... The kids went PAZERK in the pirate hats!

Letter S preschool crafts

We did a lot of stamping this week to practice AB patterns. We used the spider hands to put in their learning portfolio for the month of October.  We also created a short formative set of closed sentences for the kids to answer. Which will also go in their learning portfolio.  We asked questions like... My name is_____,  my favorite color is _____,  my favorite food is______, I like to play_____, I like school because_______, For Halloween I want to be a ____, my friends are ________ The answers came out so cute, we decided to start doing them monthly.

letter F preschool crafts

Ff is for fall trees, fishbowl, frankenstein, 5 speckled frogs, fall leaf hunt....

fall leaf hunt

fall leaves

Counting fish bowl

frankenstein

5 Speckled Frogs

Vocabulary Development

Every week when we are introducing a new letter we create a shape that the students can connect with.  Throughout the week we brainstorm words that began with that letter. We try to put a picture next to each word to help with their comprehension and vocabulary development as well. 

We also have expository pictures  to play games with throughout the week.

Bb is for...

Bb is for.....

Baker

Baseballs and bat

Beach

boat

bus

butterfly

Author Eric Carle

This week we focused on the Author Eric Carle. The students loved all of his books! Each student got to create their own caterpillar! They loved it! We also read the Little Cloud and made clouds then wrote about what they could be.... so creative!

The first week of school zoooooommmmeeedd by!  The students are all excited and ready to learn. Everyday gets  smoother and smoother.  We focused on the author David Shannon this week and the students loved NO DAVID! It is a great way to introduce rules of appropriate and inappropriate behavior.  Everyday we did a craft that focused on gluing. The students favorite thing this week was races at recess.

Too Many Toys By Shannon, David (Google Affiliate Ad)Pirates Dont Change Diapers By Long, Melinda/ Shannon, David (Google Affiliate Ad)David Shannon For Libraries card (Google Affiliate Ad)

5x7 Folded Card

Picture In Portrait 5x7 folded card

Make a spooky statement with your Halloween cards.

View the entire collection of cards.

Creative Crayon Welcome Wreath

Here is a great crayon project to try.  

We took a frozen pizza circular card board, cut it out spray painted it. Then we took two boxes of 24 crayons and glued them on with Elmers Glue.  The crayons can be organized by color or randomly placed. It's up to you!  The Welcome can be made or computer printed.

Crayola Crayons, 24-Count, Standard Size (Google Affiliate Ad)Binney & Smith Crayola Crayons - 24 Count - Crayons, Paints & Brushes (Google Affiliate Ad)

Learning/Writing Portfolios

Here is a writing portfolio I am turning into a learning portfolio for my preschool.  Each page is labeled with a  month.  The first day of each month they do a piece of writing without any help from me.  It gets glued into their learning portfolio to give to the parents at the end of the year to keep.  I usually put a pencil di-cut on the front with their picture in it, but this year I think I am going to go with their hand print on the front with their picture inside it....  The very last page I make a collage of pictures of the students throughout the year.  I have glued pictures of each student each month to go with their writing piece in past years or you could glue in a drawing or project on the other side each month.  It's really up to you. At this age, they change so much and it is fun to capture it! Anyone wants the labels already made I have them!!!

Cutting Grass

Moving here from AZ, I am not used to all the yard up keep.  LOTS and LOTS of grass that needs to be cut one or two times a week.  It is so different for me.  I enjoy it, but am still not used to it!  LOL There is always something to be cut or weeded! ADVENTURES!

Crayon Organizer

I made another crayon organizer for my classroom. This time I used an old wooden picture frame from Ikea.   I had a picture frame where the mirror in the middle had fallen out.  So I spray painted the frame white with spray paint from Wal-Mart $1.50.  I applied a clear gloss coat. Then I used small screws left over from when my brother built us a computer and screwed down my small tomato sauce cans.  I also spray painted my cans with a clear gloss coat.  Very fun project!

Now I can't decide which one I prefer.... a square or in a line..... What do you think?

Creative magazine file storage containers

I went to buy magazine file storage containers to organize my teaching curriculum books and realized how expensive they are.  I never paid attention before because at Ikea you can get 5 for $1.99.  Ikea is an hour and half away from Milwaukee so I had to hunt them down elsewhere.  Knowing that I have gotten them for so much less over the past 10 years, it forced me to be creative.  I took extra boxes I had, instead of recycling them, I REUSED them.  I cut them down like a magazine file storage container, then spray painted them the colors I wanted. The final product, was very sturdy but cute Magazine storage containers.

Refurbished 1970's School Table! Reduce, Reuse, Recycle

Our latest project was giving an 1970s school table a face lift. I went to Wal-Mart and got a basic black spray paint, then I opted to go for a hammered charcoal gray spray paint to give the table some texture and modern feel.

 The legs were silver so I covered them up with painters tape.  I liked the silver.  It looks great against the hammered spray paint I picked out.

 This is the table after I did my first coat with the black spray paint.  If I would have gotten enough of the glossy clear coat I would have just kept it a glossy black.

After 3-4 coats of spray paint and 2 coats of clear gloss finish... I got an amazingly modern table that looks great.  I couldn't wait to test out the seats I had just made for the students to sit on.  The table was 6 inches too high... so I borrow a manual metal saw (yes, a lot of work) and sawed off 6 inches to be just the right size. I filed them slightly to make sure no extra metal pieces were hanging on.  Then, I got help pulling out the bottom stops on the old legs (which was harder since they were square) and put some vegetable oil around them and slid them into the new shorten legs with a hammer.  You can't even tell I shorted the table legs.  It looks brand new! A modern work space any student, parent or teacher will enjoy!

Reusing old pieces and turning them into something functional is always the best way.  Sturdy and solid!
REDUCE, REUSE, RECYCLE