January Sensory Bins

January Sensory Bins

This year I am working with three year olds.  So I am searching and creating more social

and early literacy activities.  One of the things I have found is that the little ones really like

Sensory Bins.  Sensory Bins can be almost anything and I have found the simplest things

are the best. 

The boys are very interested in construction trucks, firetrucks and pretty much any type of

trucks.  So I decided to create a snowy village for the sensory table. I picked up the snow,

trucks, and town all on Amazon. But I'm sure you can use anything you have.   

We have lots of imaginative play going on.  I love how they drive to the restaurant to get hot

dogs.  They drive to the gas station to get donuts. They drive to school to pick up their pick

up their sister.  Then they go home to mommy. It is so adorable. 

  

The second bin I created is a penguin bin.  I used water beads for the first time and plastic

penguins.    I also added some spoons and containers.  But to be honest the kids just love

the beads, containers and spoons.  They don’t really play with the penguins. However, they

are having fun.  I use containers left over from applesauce, pudding and the cover to my Tide
bottle.

Another fun activity the kids are playing is patterning with penguins and icebergs. 

They are working on counting, AB patterning and colors depending on each child needs.  

  

I Love Penguins!

This is one of my all-time favorite art projects.  I have been doing this project for several years now and the children just smile when they see the penguins go on the sunsets.  

And our favorite penguin books this year.......

Penguin Journals

I know I am a little late with this post but I wanted to share my little ones' penguins journals with you.  They worked so hard on them.  All the penguins are unique and special.

My little ones wrote their sentences from our graphic organizer we made in class after reading many penguin books.

Here are some sample student pages:

I encourage the children to use post its as sound out sheets.

For example if a child brings the paper above I will look at it and say:

Wow that is awesome!  In the word live you already spelled three of the letters you can hear correctly.   I will then rewrite it on the bottom of the paper as I say...you wrote the l-i-v correctly but you are missing the silent e.  

  

For the words in and have I will draw a star next them because the child already spelled the words correctly.  

That's say the child came up with the sound out sheet and had the word have spelled hv,  I would say to the child great job you heard two sounds in the word have.  I would rewrite the word like this on the paper:

h____ve

 then I would sound out the word and say to the child listen carefully for the missing sound. 

The children seem to like this method.  It encourages my little ones to sound out especially the reluctant ones who are afraid to make mistakes in their journals. 

Five Little Penguins

Over the years I have gone to many kindergarten workshops and classes.  I have read more magazines, books and now blogs than I can remember.  So I apologize that I do not remember where I found this wonderful idea but it is another one of those "old" ideas that I LOVE!

I have been creating this book for maybe ten years now.  This year I made it part of my January math stations.  At station number one, the children had to draw one mommy penguin and three baby chicks.  I had several sheets in the bucket to give the children an idea of how to draw penguins. 

Then when everyone finished all the stations.  I collected all the penguins and cut them out and put them together into a class book called, Five Little Penguins.  

I read the book, Antarctica to the children.  We discussed sunsets and then I let the children get to work on water coloring sunsets. 

BEAUTIFUL

If you would like a copy of Five Little Penguins Click Here :)

Penguin Parade

It's almost time to wrap up the penguin unit but before I do I want to share one of the students' favorite math activities.

 I like to call it the Penguin Parade!  It is a sorting and counting activity.

Click Here if you would like a copy of the Penguin Parade Worksheet.

In order to do this activity you need a lot of penguins.  You could even have the children bring in a penguin from home.  

These are our penguins.  

Here are some penguins with black beaks.

Here are some penguins wearing a scarf.  

 Penguin from Thistle Girl Designs

Cuddly Dudley

Today in class we read the story, Cuddly Dudley.  The children loved the story.  Cuddly Dudley reminded me of the cute penguins Jennifer posted on her blog, First Grade Blue Skies  a few weeks ago.

The children had already made a penguin project similar to this penguin already but I wanted to add something else to the project to make it different.  

UMMM.....

A Background.............that would be great and easy.

  We talked about the background pictures in the book and the beautiful colors.  Then I let the children create their own backgrounds with crayons and watercolors.  

Absolutely adorable

Good Penguin Stories

Great Penguin Stories

There are so many great penguin stories out there....here are just a few of my favorites that I am reading this week.  What are penguin books would you recommend?

Here is a link to the penguin resources I set up for the teachers at my school to find sites on the web..... if you have more suggestions please let me know.

Penny the Penguin

I want my little ones counting and touching pennies this month.  So I created a math activity for one of my math stations where they will get an opportunity to handle pennies.

My math station will be call Penny the Penguin...... here are the directions for the station.

I will have plastic pennies for the children to use to cover up the pennies on the game boards. 

You will have to create your own spinner but here is a template to get started.....

Happy Birthday to the Teacher

Today is my birthday and the first day back at school with children.  It happens every year....so I decided to make it into a celebration day.

We read my favorite story:

We make penguins......

For my birthday treat I made penguin cupcakes for the children.

I had to make one special cookie penguin for a little one who is allergic to eggs and nuts.

Do you do anything special on your birthday??

January Math Stations

I am still not happy with how my math stations are working.....

I am doing a couple of new things this month in hopes of improving how things work:

1.  I made a Math Centers Chart to help visualize where each child is working.

2.  I made each child a January Work Station Bingo Grid so they can see what they need to complete.

Station 1:  We will be creating a class book with penguins.  Each child needs to draw four baby chicks and one mother penguin for the book.  I will have these pages from Pinterest I found to help guide them in their illustrations.  (I will post more about this next week.)

The next three images are from Nothing but Penguins

Station 2:  Save The Snowman   Free at Heathers First Grade Heart  

I created a recording sheet for my students for this game.....I like them to hand something in to me.

Station 3:  Skip Count by 10's with the Penguins  Free at Oh the Places We'll Go

Station 4:  Roll the Penguin  Free at  Rowdy in First Grade

Station 5:  Skip Count the Penguins by 5's  Free at Oh The Places We'll Go

Station 6:  Winter Tally  Free at Heathers First Grade Heart

Station 7:  Pennies for Penguins  ( I am working on this now!)

Station 8:  Computer Game....Fun for the Brain...Peabody the Penguin Addition

Station 9:  Computer ....Counting Penguin Story