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!  :-)

Heart Math

So since it's Valentine's Day...we're a digressing and doing a bit more with hearts.  :-)  We are also doing most of our activities "together" to encourage sharing and conversation about friendship.

A few of our math activities we did today...

Number Line Addition/Subtraction

I believe I've already posted a similar activity we did recently.  There was some changes I wanted to do with it to make it more helpful to the children so we did it again and yes, it was more helpful.  One of the changes was to put them on the same side of a number line (instead of having them face each other).  Today we shared a number line because we did quite a few "sharing" activities today as it was Valentine's Day.

The sharing led to "closer quarters" and I love this picture!  We had done a few addition and subtraction facts together and I had stepped back out of the conversation to see if they really understood what we were doing.  Here they were discussing what number they needed to start with.  :-)

Odd/Even Number Exploration

I like to provide various ways of looking at concepts.  Truthfully, my students have already picked up odd and even number concept by our daily calendar activity using craft sticks. 

One child passes out the craft sticks (ie: today is the 14th so they are passing sticks to the rest of us and then add as many as they need to get to 14), we set them out in front of us in a row and then buddy them up.  They know that if all their sticks have a buddy than it's even, but if one is left without a buddy it's an odd number.   We also take the time to talk about who has more/less or equal number of sticks and K. has been in the habit of counting her sticks by two's when she has quite a few at the end of the month.

Today, we just simply used heart beads and pipe cleaners to show that connection. 

A closer up of one of the children's numerals.

The extra fine motor component of putting small beads on small pipe cleaners is a plus also!

Pattern Crowns

:-) I love K.'s expression...she had just dropped her purple play doh on the floor. 

Hard to see their actual patterns so...

H. is a young 4 yet and so he was encouraged to an ABAB pattern.  I wouldn't say it's mastered completely yet but he did do this ABAB mostly on his own once he got started.  I say that it's not mastered yet because he can copy and extend but he doesn't truly recognize a pattern on it's own and usually he needs help in getting a pattern started.  K. is 5 yrs. now and I told her she could create any pattern but it could NOT be an ABAB pattern.  It's hard to see her's but she did an ABBC pattern! 

Our pattern pieces are simply cut from  Valentine gift wrap from the dollar store!  I love these cheap veggie/dip containers.  I have a bunch but use the black one the most because it's more appealing visually.  Allows for the children to see all their materials in a somewhat organized fashion.  Actually, I find that they use more of a variety when offered like this vs. all sorts of materials mixed together (which, yes, I've seen some teachers do-goes along with my toy box philosophy!  :-D). 

Hope you all are having a great week.  This week looks like it's going to be a short week again.  Was hoping to get I and J together in one week but since we had Valentine's day, Friday is a day off of school, and both preschool children have appointments this week.  So we'll change up our plans.  :-D

C is for..

C is for cars!

Oh what fun today!  This odd-even number activity was a hit! 

I set up the stage by making a parking lot full of cars (to the left) with numbers 1-10 on them, gas pumps, and a ramp.  They drove a car out, used the pom poms to find out if that number was odd or even.  Then they went to the appropriate gas pump (glub, glub, glub) and then they sent them on their way down that ramp.  The little yellow slips of paper had the words odd and even and a set of dots with buddies on the even and a set of dots with buddies and one without a buddy on the odd.  I was certain to make the ramp go in the direction that the cars could go uninterrupted.  Loved hearing their descriptions of the cars and how far they went, etc.  Also, I loved that even though they couldn't always state the numeral name right off, they would sing the number formation verse that goes along with it!  Then at the end they drove the cars back into a parking space (1:1).  You could even have them put the cars in numerical order if you wanted.  I expect that I'll see a similar set up in blocks during the next few days.  Love how they take something and extend on it. 

Odd and Even

If you are an even number

You always have a pair

So if you look around

Your buddy will always be there.

But...

If you are an odd number

There's always a lonely one.

He looks around to find his buddy

But he's the only one.

Marg Wadsworth

We do odd and even at the calendar every day using the number of the date and craft sticks.  A child passes out the craft sticks to each child as they are counting and then we each count our set and find out if it is equal/more/less comparing each others and then we pair up the sticks to see if we have an "odd one out" or if they all have buddies.  They pick it up quickly!

Sensory: Shaving Cream

 

We read the book Things That Go by Richard Scarry, so we incorporated other vehicles besides cars today during sensory and art. 

Art: Painting With Vehicles

 This is always a fun, open-ended activity.  Can't see it with the end product but one child was actually making letters with the car tracks.  Cool!  Goes to prove that the process is more important than the end product.  Observe them while they work, you'll see alot!

Shape Matching

Pulled out a few of our highway shapes that we used a bit ago.  We worked together to put the shape labels on first, then they matched their shape car (www.childcareland.com) to the shape highway.  Also provided car counters so they could drive around the shape also.  Reminder, for those that may be interested, http://www.makinglearningfun.com/ also has highway letters and numbers as well.

Beginning Letter Sound Parking Lot

www.kidssoup.com

I loved hearing them "vroom" around and park in the right spot.  Now on these mats they had p, b, and d.  If you have a beginner---a child that hasn't explored these letters---consider making your own mat so these three letters are not together.  Better to introduce them all separately.  They fall in the category of "easily confused letters".  :-)  Also, this picture reminds me to remind you to go through the pictures first instead of assuming they know what each of the pictures are.  She was asking me what this picture was.  She thought it was a "van" but there wasn't a v on the mat.  It was actually a bus...but wasn't a school bus so she was confused. 

Number Matching Cards

www.childcareland.com (I'm pretty sure I got them there...I've had these for awhile)

When I made this set I laminated two sets each with the cars on one side and number on the other side.  That way they can match sets, either car set to car set or number to number or number to car set.  Today, I provided beads that they could put on each car.  This helps them remember which ones they counted already.

Anyway, that's some of what we did.  You can do so much with vehicles and the children really get into that type of thing!