Work Trays

This whole school year we've been using the tray approach to help me stay a bit more organized with T., who is my only preschooler this year.  And, really, when he's in Kindergarten, I still will probably use the tray approach if we continue to choose schooling at home.  (That blog can be found here.) 

I don't always get a chance to snap pictures of T. working and very seldom do I have time to take a picture of the tray.  I should get in a habit of it...but it is BUSY around here.  So here are a few snapshots of things we've done recently.

Fish Craft

A take on the tried and true paper plate fish.  :-)

Painting the Alphabet

This particular morning all the school-age kids were finishing up some sort of art project...and all required paint.  :-D  So I grabbed this paper and gave him a set of water colors.  He actually attempted to trace the letters this time instead of just painting over the whole paper.  Growth!  He was concentrating just like that for all 26 letters.  :-)

File Folder Games!  

He loves them!  I love them!

 

So simple, usually takes less than 5 minutes to complete one but easily reinforces Language Arts concepts.  We've been checking them out from our local library.  However, I do plan to work on some over summer break for next school year.  :-)  A great, QUICK, concept reinforcement for Kindergarten and 1st grade, also!

Shamrock Number Matching

www.childcareland.com

 Even though some of these are done on the floor...they all started out on a tray.  :-)  We had to move to the living room to give ourselves more space.  First he took one set of shamrocks and put them in order from left to right and top to bottom.  We worked with number to 23.  He could do up to 14 on his own.  Then he took the other set and clipped the matching numbers together with a clothespin.  Great fine motor.  Reinforced the numbers multiple times.  :-)

Animal ABC: Scissors

As mentioned in the last post, we are working through the alphabet making simple animal letter crafts.  We've gotten our ideas by googling them.  :-)  I simply print out the block letter and he cuts them out.  Then we add features.  Here are some ones he has been working on recently...

I actually got this pattern from Get 'er Done, Mama.  However, though I liked the extra faces, etc, I found that they were a bit small for T.  So we went back to a simple block letter from Print Shop and making our own simple features . But, she has several patterns if you are interested in them for yourself.  And, really, as a preschool teacher, I don't like to use a giraffe with the letter G.  I'd rather use an animal that starts with the hard g sound, like goat.  But T. being T....we did a giraffe.  :-D

 H is for horse.  I is for iguana.

I've found that T., against my nature completely, loves "worksheets". :-D So I found some iguana ones at 1+1+1=1: Animal ABC's.  He loved tracing his shapes and numbers, etc.  And he gets a kick out of it when I let him go put it in the school-ager's basket.  :-D

 

He's getting a bit more confident with cutting but it also had led him to be more sloppy.  :-/ Not all that unusual...just needs reminders now to slow down and try to stay on the line.  :-)

J is for jaguar. 

 

Bean Sorting: Math/Fine Motor

He's losing interest in these types of sorting activities...and that's okay.  He's been doing them for a long time.  :-)  They make for a great math and fine motor activity though!

Eraser Bowling

Saw in passing on Pinterest.

He loved this!  Of course I couldn't get a picture fast enough.  He'd flick that marble and have all the eraser down.  :-)  Another great fine motor activity---flicking the marble (we used a big one) and setting up the erasers to do it again!

 

Zebra Painting

T. had it in his head he wanted to make a zebra for school so this is what we come up with.

 

 We tried the yarn fold and paint technique where you fold the paper in half and slide the yarn through but it didn't work well for him.  So we ended up just sliding the yarn across the paper, but that didn't work well for him either because the probability of getting the paint on his hands was high.  Ha!  Anyway, then he cut out a zebra shape.  Simple.  Made him happy.

 

 Penguin Paper Plate Craft

Another animal he "just had to make" was a penguin.  So we came up with this activity.  :-)  Perfect for working with circles.  He didn't really like the process of the circle making but he liked his end outcome.  Guess there is a lesson in that! 

Button Math

Okay, there was more to this activity but there is something he enjoys about putting buttons on flash cards and adding the matching tactile number.  Activities like this tend to appeal to the natural tendency for toddlers and preschoolers to be organized.  :-)  Yes, I did notice he went from right to left this time.   :-)  After he did the number 1-9, we continued on to introduce even and odd numbers.  We had done that last week and I'll continue to slip it in every once in awhile.  This morning I heard my 10 year old talking to him about whether a number was even or odd and seeing if the marbles he had in his hand all had buddies.  :-))  We read our odd/even poem (mentioned multiple times in this blog) about when the number is even there is always a buddy.  And we checked to see if we could move make the buttons on that number card each have a buddy.  If not, we put that card, button and number away.  That left the even numbers which we counted out with typical 2, 4, 6, 8...who do we appreciate.  :-)  Just an intro...expands his thinking a bit.  :-)

 

Memory Games

Memory games make great work tray activities!  I picked up this transportation one up at the dollar store the other day.  He took apart all the pieces first and then we laid them down together, reinforcing the left to right/top to bottom motion.  

Since Daddy just played "Memory" with him (because he couldn't hold all the Old Maid cards with only 2 players), this was exciting for him.  He enjoyed it and spent quite a bit of time with this activity.

What's Missing?

Another activity that my very academic preschool loved. 

These are foam shapes that I picked up awhile ago at the Target $1 section.  Any manipulatives could be used.  I created 4 different patterns (AB, ABB, ABC, and AAB) and took one out of each pattern.  He had to find the missing piece.  :-)  I created another tray for him today that actually had two blocks on top of each other, in a pattern.  We didn't get to it today though...too busy doing other stuff!  Ah well, we'll get to it tomorrow.  :-)

Water Transfer 

St. Patty's Day clearance section :-)  Little mugs and an eyedropper.

Not a tray activity...but a field trip.  :-)

Grossology Exhibit at the Midland Center for the Arts

Best part, of course, was the slide through the nose!

 Actually, that probably isn't the truth...

This was probably his favorite spot.  They had quite a few instrument displays at the museum...outside of the exhibit.

 

Another "not a tray" activity, but it could be relatively easily.

Pizza Fractions

Really, he was just playing with his brother.  :-)  The picture made me smile though and it does explain why preschoolers of homeschooling families often have no problem with academics.  Why?  They are being exposed to so many concepts by just being around their school-age siblings and those brain connections are already being started!

Spring is here!  Today was beautiful, the snow is quickly leaving!  Let's hope it stays that way!  I'm ready to be done with snow pants and gloves and so are the kids!  :-)

A is for Animals- Farm

Old MacDonald Had a Farm

Felt set, book, CD from Lakeshore Learning

Review:  The children love this felt set-especially being able to put animals in and out of the barn.  However from an adult perspective, the song on the CD goes very quickly and has a lot of "noise".  :-)  Not really toddler friendly but the preschoolers tend to keep up.  Also, the animal sound words in the book are not what are sung in the song.  Hmmm!  But overall, the materials are relatively high quality and you could always purchase the felt set separate from the book and CD.

Weekly Reader: Baby Animals

After Old MacDonald, we read our Baby Animal Weekly Reader magazine.  Then matched adult animal to baby animal.  Great vocabulary builder for toddlers.  I chose this simple match because I have a toddler here that is getting close to preschool age and sits in with us during group times.  I love the Montessori materials available for animal families though.  Male/Female/Baby.  Here is one link with free cards you can consider.  www.mymontessorimoments.com/2011/01/28/farm-animal-families/.

Farm Animal Rhyming

A very simple way to see if my students truly understand the concept of rhyming.  Like any activity that uses pictures, it's best to go through the pictures with the child so that the correct word is being used.  For example, there is an arrow pointing to the adult horse and the word we used here was mare.  Also, the rhyming word for cow was plow.  Jeep is another one that would be good to review.  For a copy of this printable click here-Farm Rhyming Printable.

Count and Compare

An excellent activity to reinforce math vocabulary, counting and numeral formation.  Feel free to print a copy for yourself. Count and Compare.  The way I created it was so that each numeral from 1-10 was represented.  I used this activity as an assessment, observing for counting with meaning, understanding more/less, and numeral formation.

Farm Animal Pattering Strips

The children love these strips!  The main reason is because they can make noise!  :-)  We use the animal sounds vs. saying just the animal names.  These are relatively easy to create. Would be great for a transitional activity in a larger setting. You may wish to use different animals or different patterns.  However, if you wish for a set to get you started click here-Farm Animal Patterning Strips.

Who Lives by the Barn?

This was one of our scissors activities.  The student cut out the barn only.  Having the animal squares precut helped the activity move along in a more timely manner.  After cutting out the barn, the student says the farm animal name, says the beginning sound, states and then write the letter on the blank.  So, for example....horse, /h/ /h/, h, and then writes H or h. Side note:  I encourage them to draw a picture of themselves as the farmer on the barn door (there is a square in the pdf. file that can be used for the pattern of the barn door).  K. had a sad face on her's.  So I asked her why and wrote her reason on the back of the barn door.  Farmer K. was sad because a cow had hit her.  :-P  For your copy click here-Who lives by the barn?

Farm Scene Dictation

Digital cameras are a lovely addition to a educational setting!  Here we simply took a picture of her finished felt board farm scene and she dictated a "story".  :-)

Had more planned to share of the things we did this week but I lost the majority of the blog somehow or another and had to go back and retype and upload the pictures/links again.  So all I have time for today.  Hope you find something useful!  Reminder that these printables provided are for personal or classroom use only.  Thanks.

A is for Animals

Interesting morning!  Goes to prove that, as a teacher, we must be flexible!  We didn't even touch one activity we had planned but we did activities that weren't planned today because that's just how the interest and conversation went.  So though we didn't do everything...it was still a profitable morning!  Maybe even more profitable that if we had just done what was planned.  :-)

A few activities we enjoyed:

Cloud Dough Exploration

This was something I had come across on Pinterest.  The original website was

http://www.jugglingwithkids.com/2011/11/cloud-dough.html

8 C. of flour to 1 C. of baby oil.  Mix well with your hands.

My thoughts toward Cloud Dough...

*  Something we'd do again, yes.

*  Messy, yes.  But a clean messy.  Meaning, the flour gets all over but it cleans up easily.  I think playing with it in a sensory table vs. at the floor level would lead to a little less mess.  But if I was large center based, I would encourage the use of smocks!  We changed clothing for the two youngest. 

*  Makes your room smell lovely and your hands soft.

*  We used one batch with two people but really, I'd probably use one batch for one person next time. 

*  Next time, we'll play with it using spoons, cups, and other kitchen supplies.  The safari animals are always fun in sensory material but doesn't lead to the molding that could be done. 

*  All age groups would enjoy.

Our focus letter this week is A.  These past few weeks have been I, J and now A.  All three of these letters begin in the center vs. in the upper left hand corner. 

This was a very simple activity that they loved!  Remember that it's not necessary to always have "new" activities and sometimes the simpler, the better!  I did have a capital A lightly drawn on the page.  We talked about how it started in the center and that's where they put their first sticker.  They then put stickers on as they would write the letter.  Great conversation with the variety of animal stickers that were available!  (The white A was T.'s-2.5 years old. Shows a bit of his personality.  Very orderly.  He loved this activity.  However, keep in mind that many 2 year olds would just put the stickers anywhere on the page, and that is okay.)

There Was an Old Lady is always a favorite . So many variations out there now also!

This CD, book, and flannel set came from Lakeshore Learning.  Stories like these lead to retellings pretty easily. 

They had noticed with There Was an Old Lady that those animals we would find at the farm. This led directly into creating a venn diagram about farm and zoo animals.  I should have started with those flannel pieces because we did talk about how we'd find a fly, spider, and bird at the zoo...not just at the farm.  :-)

When doing Venn Diagrams...remember to think from their perspective and what their experiences might be.  They put a horse and chicken in the middle of the two circles.  Why?  Because our local zoo has those.  :-)  I'm surprised they didn't put a cow there also since our local zoo have cows also.  It's more on the petting zoo type of zoo.   The bottom right picture shows a bit of disorganization.  That is because this was not a planned activity.  :-D  They handled the disorganization fine but it's not how I would have done the activity if I had planned it.  We got talking about where those zoo animals would have lived if they weren't at the zoo...which leads to conversation about habitats which leads to Ms. Amber scrounging for a visual of habitats which leads to them getting all excited and wanting to match the pictures to the habitats.  LOL  So instead of their normal World World segment as I get lunch together...they worked with habitats and animals.  :-P  Can't complain!

And...we even got a good 30+ minutes outside today.  Been an interesting winter and there have been more than desired days that we were inside for whatever the reason.