Daily Five- Preschool Edition

Back in my traditional classroom teaching days, I loved the Daily Five.  Daily Five is a literacy block rotation where students go to five different stations while the teacher meets with students in small groups. It works well in teaching children to be independent in their learning while giving the teacher much needed time to work with students. There are five components: Read to Self, Read to Someone, Listen to Reading, Work on Writing, and Word Work. (If you want more info on it, just Google it, you will find no less than 8 gazillion articles, posts, books, and ideas on the subject. It's been around for awhile and you will be set for life with information.)

So since Hollis still naps in the afternoon and Marin doesn't (insert eye roll here), I have decided to try the Daily Five with little Miss No Nap because, well, Momma needs a break. I am still trying to figure out my set up for it exactly but I've got some general ideas.

Read to Self/Read to Someone:
Clearly, she is going to read. Marin LOVES reading right now so she can "read" from a selection of easy readers or books we have read a million times so she can retell/read the story.  And if she so wants, she can line up all her favorite stuffed animals or her Wizard of Oz characters (Oh my gosh. Obsessed.) and read them a good book.

Listen to Reading:
I have a ton of these handy dandy QR Code listening centers in my shop. You can find them {here}. I print them and put them in a cheap photo album. I used to laminate, hole punch, and put on a ring. But I skipped all those steps and just throw them in a Dollar Tree album. Easy Peasy. But Marin will flip through, pick a book, scan the code, and listen the story. Fun, huh??

 

You can grab the Fall QR Code Listening Centers by clicking on the picture below!

Work on Writing:
For Marin this will be name writing and letter/number writing.  She can use dry erase markers and her notebook (more to come on the notebook). Also, there are a TON of apps on the iPad for writing practice. I want to make a "cheat sheet" with a picture of all the apps she can play during each of these times.

Word Work:
Again, the iPad has great apps for this one. But we have word puzzles, letter stamps, letter tiles, stickers, Wiki sticks /ABC cards, and games I will be making to go along with themes. She will be mostly working on sight words and theme words. Lots of manipulatives on this one!

There is still quite a bit to do and we will learn a new 'station' each week......building up to do all the rotations in one "quiet rest time'.  But to start things off, I have made an Apples: Daily 5 packet to use! I like having themes. Themes are cute. It has all the components with activities centered around apples for each rotation. I love it and can't wait to get it started.  Here is a little preview of a word work activity.........worm word families!

You can grab your copy of Daily 5: Apples by clicking on the picture. 

Baby steps but it is all coming together and I can't wait to get going!

Where did that week go?

So this week was a bust. School happened in random, unorganized spurts throughout the day because it quickly became an "off" week. Hollis was/is sick for most of the week which included a doctor's visit and lots, and lots of Kleenex. Holy snot balls. She is full of snot....and other good stuff. But sickness and crabbiness and overall aches and pains prevented a lot of "school" from happening. Plus we were supposed to travel this week but because of the snots, we have decided to bunker down at home and get our heads clear.

So with all that being said, I really just picked up last week's plans and finished up some activities we didn't get to. But if all gets well (fingers crossed) next week is a fun filled planned week of school goodies. More to come on that....

I really didn't pull out my camera that much this week. But as I was thinking about next week's plans and what interests the girls the most, play doh and paint were at the top of the list. So I finally got around to making some play doh mats. There are only a million out there and I picked about 20 of my favorites. I really only wanted 10 or so but they all were just so dang cute. The girls LOVED them! We have played play doh every. single. day of our snotties.

 The happy girl with her happy face.

 This one was a favorite. Marin made carrots for the bunny. I'm pretty sure I found it and the faces {here}.

 Uh, yeah, that bunny is going to be full.

 Hollis woke up from her sick coma and joined in on the fun and decorated a chocolate cake.

 Seriously, how sweet is that face. Hate it when she's sick.

 Uh, yeah. That's a booger (or more like a clump of snot) she's handing me. :o) I love being a mom. I love being a mom. I love being a mom....

Actually. Snot, boogers, brown poop, green poop, runny poop, pee, already chewed up food spit out in my hand because she didn't like it....all seems kinda normal.

Painting. These girls (especially Hollis) could paint or color all day. And these paint pens (or Dot Markers) are awesome! They get to 'paint' without all the fuss. So we painted the letter Aa with our dot markers. I love these dot sheets.  It is way too easy for Marin but she didn't mind at all. Still had fun dotting but she went super fast and was done. Hollis, well, she likes a good mess and did an awesome job taking her time to hit the dots with her marker. **Must include more of these activities in their day.***

 So proud of their work but so not loving the bright flash on the camera. Squinty eyes.

Probably their favorite "on the fly" lesson this week was watching the fallen popsicle melt under hot water. Seriously. It dropped on the floor and instead of trashing it, we ran it under hot water and watched it disappear.
MESMERIZED.
I performed the greatest magic trick of all time.

Our First Week- 2014-2015

Here is a little sample of some of the activities we did for our first week! We got most of the "plans" done but some activities may need to roll over into next week.

We talked about the color blue this week. Hollis is trying to recognize it and Marin is trying to learn the color word. But they painted the objects blue on their paper. So. Very. Simple. Yet it captivated their attention for a good half hour.

Hollis LOVES to paint! And to wear her headband on her forehead. :o)

We played Pete's Shoe Showdown from my Colors unit. It was hit! "It's all good!"

They colored in their shoes a different color.

Then covered the shoe with a button when the color was called.

This week Hollis worked on sorting colors. Marin sorted by color and shape then made patterns. Patterns is a new concept for her but she got it quickly.

 

We went on a color hunt with our magnifying glasses. Going on a color hunt and we going to find something..............blue! 

Our "Picture" Dictionary

We have done all the alphabet crafts we can possibly do over the past two years. Although Hollis still enjoys a good paint and glue project, we all need a break from the crafty activities for a bit. So, we are making a picture dictionary using photo props to illustrate each letter of the alphabet. I am hoping to get the complete alphabet done soon but I may have to do it week by week.

 I found these little books in the Dollar Spot section at Target. They came in packs of 3. Printed and glued out the cute cover for each book.

Inside the book, they will put a sticker and their picture for the letter. This week they took two pictures because I couldn't decide between the apple and alligator, we did BOTH. Cute, cute.

A is for apple. A is for alligator.

Stay tuned for more letter props. Next week will be a giant bow!

Math About Me

This week we have been completing our little Math About Me book. By far, this has been the girls favorite thing to do in school this week. Here is a little sneak peek of their hard work. 

 

 Here is the cover of their books. They will get to paint it at the end but Hollis got started with markers. 

 First page was our name! They used stickers to spell out their names and then counted the number of letters in it.

Next, BIRTHDAYS!!! They mixed red and white paint to make pink "icing" for their cupcake. We added some sprinkles and they counted out the number of candles for their cake.

 Mixing the paint was Marin's favorite part. She mixed for a good 15 minutes. We are still working on learning their birthdays.

 There is a cupcake under all that "icing'. Actually, this is how they prefer their real cakes as well.

The next page was the numbers that show their weight and height. I didn't get any good pictures of this one. But they really enjoyed this page. Standing on the scale is always fun for them and using the measuring tape "tickled" so it was a hit. But once we got their measurement, we used yarn to show how tall they were and they glued the yarn onto their page.

FYI, they weigh the exact same (EXACTLY) and are the same height. :o) No, (for the 12th time today) they are not twins. 13 months apart.

 

The family page was next. They named and counted how many members they have in their family. 

Then they drew a picture of each of us. I was pretty impressed with both of their little drawings.

 We apparently turned African American for this page. Love, love it.

Hollis just drew our "faces".......kinda.

We have one more page left to do and they will be completed. You can grab this pack in my shop by clicking {HERE}.

Book Talk: Going on a Bear Hunt

Last week we read the good ol' classic, We're Going on a Bear Hunt! Marin loves the story and she loves acting it out. So for our little project to go with story, we colored each of the settings and placed it on a long strip of paper. Then she got her little people and acted out the story. She LOVED it.

Here are some pictures and then a link for you to get a copy of this free activity!

We decided to glue googly eyes in our bear cave just for the dramatic effect. Cute, cute.

 Here is our completed story map........we used a long piece of paper but a sentence strip could be easily used for this activity.

And now it is time to go on a bear hunt!

And you can get a copy of this activity for free! Just click on the picture below. 

Our Learning Board

So here is a little more about our learning board and a link to grab all the printables to make your own learning board!! And for a short time it will all be FREE! So grab it while you can.

But our learning board (still need a new fun name) is a foam board that is lightweight and easy to hang on the wall. I just used the velcro used to hang pictures. But each banner and clothespin is hot glued onto the board. Then I just change out each card once we have mastered that skill. Easy Peasy.

 

You can get your own copy by clicking on the picture below! Enjoy! 

Peek at My Week: Week 1

Here is a little peek at some of the activities we will do each day for our little preschool. I have 5 activities planned for each day. Some days we will do more than planned and, of course, other days we will do less. Our goal is to complete 5 activities a day. We will do calendar and read our learning board daily. You can a read a little about our calendar activities {here}. I will mention the learning board in just a minute.

Letter: Aa
Number: 1
Shape: Circle
Color: Blue
Sight Word: see

 You can find all the units shown in my TpT store........just click on "My Products" up above.

                                                    

Here is our learning board. It may get a new cute name later but for now it's just our boring, old learning board. It has a label and clothespin glued to a fancy foam board that I had out in the garage for a different project that never got done....but now it's our "learning board" (blah, name).

 

There you have it. Our spectacular week of plans! 

I am linking up with Mrs. Wills' blog to share our week! 

Have a great one!