A while back I posted about how fun it would be to have one of those "Free Little Libraries".  My son, who is graduating in construction management, secretly made one for me and surprised me at our family gathering for Christmas last year!  He made it with left over "stuff" from his construction sites.   I have it on the front porch of our preschool, Ready-Set-Grow, and it has been so much fun for the parents and kids!  

Preschool Classroom Designs

I've decided to teach Preschool this summer at Ready-Set-Grow, our Preschool and Childcare Center.  We have over 75 students, but only about 25 preschoolers.  Sooooo. I have been looking at preschool classroom designs and ran into these.  I have a huge room and so I want to put a large reading center (book nook) in an area.  These classroom designs are brought to us at the Modern Architecture Decorating Ideas Directory Blog:

Cheerful Preschool Room interior design ideas -
Classroom Design

How to Teach the Alphabet with Lego Duplo Blocks

March 17, 2014 by Vanessa Levin 

 

How to Teach the Alphabet with Lego Duplo Blocks

Do your kids love Lego Duplo blocks? I’ve never met a preschool or kindergarten child who didn’t! So why not leverage this interest and use this classic toy as a vehicle to teach the alphabet?
When you use high interest materials such as Lego Duplo blocks to teach an academic skill it motivates and engages young children. And better yet, research has proven that when children are motivated and engaged they learn more. This fantastic quote from Alfred Mercier says it all, “What we learn with pleasure we never forget.”

Materials Needed

• Permanent marker
• Lego Duplo blocks
• Printable recording sheet {see freebie below}
• Pencils or crayons

Preparation
First, write the letters on the Lego Duplo blocks with your permanent marker. I wrote the uppercase letters on 26 blocks and did the same for the lowercase. Next, I placed the blocks in my alphabet center along with some crayons and copies of the recording sheet.

How Students Use the Lego Duplo Blocks

Students are invited to find the matching upper and lowercase blocks, connect them and then place them on their recording sheet. If they are able, they can write the letters on the sheet using the crayons.


Click on the image above to download your free letter matching recording sheet.
Differentiation
For students who are not ready for the challenge of matching upper to lowercase letters, create two sets of uppercase letters and invite them to match upper to uppercase.
Extensions
You can place the recording sheet in a sheet protector or make your own dry erase sleeves to save paper. You could also invite your students to wear hard hats while participating in this activity to show they are busy “working.” Plastic hard hats can usually be found at the dollar store.
When children play with Lego Duplo blocks they are also developing fine motor skills and hand-eye coordination as they grasp, put together, and take apart the blocks.
Shopping Tips
Spring is almost here and spring means garage sales. At garage sales you can find plenty of Lego Duplo blocks on the cheap! You can also try your local thrift stores. I found a large set of blocks called Mega Blocks at my local Wal-Mart; they are inexpensive but very similar to Lego Duplo blocks and work just as well.

Some Great Books about Starting School

Best Children's Picture Books About Starting School
Kids' Books About Preschool, Kindergarten, First Grade

By Elizabeth Kennedy, About.com Guide

I Am Too Absolutely Small for School

Young children worried about starting preschool or kindergarten will be reassured when you read the picture book I Am Too Absolutely Small for School by Lauren Child to them. Lola is sure she is "too absolutely small for school," but Charlie, her older brother, humorously and patiently convinces she's not. Charlie gives Lola all kinds of funny reasons that stretch the imagination about why she needs to go to school. Child's mixed media artwork definitely adds to the fun. (Candlewick, 2004. ISBN: 9780763628871)

First Day Jitters

This is an excellent book for the child who is worried about changing schools. The author is Julie Danneberg and the colorful and comic illustrations in ink and watercolor are by Judy Love. It’s the first day of school and Sarah Jane Hartwell does not want to go. She will be going to a new school and she is scared. This is a funny book, with a surprise ending that will cause the reader to laugh out loud and then go back and read the entire story again. (Charlesbridge, 2000. ISBN: 158089061X)

The Kissing Hand

Transitions, like starting school, can be very worrying for young children. Audrey Penn's The Kissing Hand provides comfort and reassurance to children 3 to 8. Chester Raccoon is scared about starting kindergarten, so his mother tells him a family secret - the story of the kissing hand. Knowing her love will always be with him is a great comfort to Chester, and the story may provide similar comfort to your apprehensive little ones. (Tanglewood Press, 2006. ISBN: 9781933718002)

 

Sam and Gram and the First Day of School

This picture book was written by Dianne Blomberg and has engaging watercolor illustrations by George Ulrich. The American Psychological Association published Sam and Gram and the First Day of School under its auspices. The book was written specifically to help parents prepare children for kindergarten or first grade. In addition to the story about Sam and his experiences on the first day of school, there are two sections of information for parents. (Magination Press, 1999. ISBN: 1557985626)

Wow! School!

If you are looking for a reassuring book about starting school (preschool or kindergarten) that will give you lots to talk about with your child, I recommend Wow! School! by Robert Robert Neubecker. This almost wordless picture book features big, bold and bright illustrations. It's Izzy's first day of school and there's so much for the little red-haired girl to see and do. Each of the book's double-page spreads has a Wow! caption and a very detailed colorful and childlike illustration of some aspect of classroom and school activities.
The first spread, Wow! Classroom, shows the entire room, including all the centers and bulletin boards, as well as the children playing and the teacher welcoming Izzy. Other illustrations include: Wow! Teacher!, Wow! Art!, Wow! Books!, Wow! Lunch!, Wow! Playground! and Wow! Music! This is such a positive book and gives such a detailed look at what to expect that it should be a big hit with children ages 3 to 6. (Disney, Hyperion Books, 2007, 2011 Paperback. ISBN: 9781423138549)

 

A back-to-school favorite
Wemberly worried about spilling her juice, about shrinking in the bathtub, even about snakes in the radiator. She worried morning, noon, and night. "Worry, worry, worry," her family said. "Too much worry." And Wemberly worried about one thing most of all: her first day of school. But when she meets a fellow worrywart in her class, Wemberly realizes that school is too much fun to waste time worrying!

Story Time at Ready-Set-Grow Preschool and Child Care

My husband and I have owned a wonderful child care center for almost 10 years in Bountiful, Utah.  I've spent many, many hours there teaching preschool at the beginning when we first owned it, and this summer I am taking a couple of hours a week to do story time, music and an art project.  I thought some of you preschool/Pre-K would benefit from what I have been up to.  So here goes:

At the beginning of the summer we just oriented the kids to the summer "way of doing things".

June 17th was Transportation Week:  Here is what I did.

Stories:  "Freight Train" by Donald Crew, "The Wheels on the Bus" by Raffi and "Trucks" by Donald Crew

Songs:  "Down by the Station Early in the Morning", "The Wheels on the Bus", (we moved the chairs so the kids felt like they were sitting on a bus), "Hurry, Hurry Drive the Fire Truck".  (Just google any of these titles and I'm sure a you tube video will pop up to teach you how to sing them."  I played the guitar on some of then and gave a triangle, the instrument, to a student for the ding, ding, ding, ding, ding part of the last song.  Next time I'll give one to all the kids.  We used a spoon to hit the triangle with.

The lyrics to the first song go like this:
Down by the station early in the morning
See the little pufferbellies all in a row.
See the station master turn the little handle.
Puff, puff, toot, toot, off we go.

AIR, LAND, OR SEA:  Then I gave a different vehicle to each child and drew on a while board 3 simple lines to divide the air, land and sea from each other.  Each child came up and named their vehicle and put it in the correct place.

Art:  Last of all we made trains using squares, rectangles and triangles cut from construction paper.  We used cotton for the clouds, straight pretzel sticks for the "Logs" each car was hauling and uncooked "wagon wheel" pasta for the wheels.  They turned out darling.

June 24th:  Today, the theme was "On the Farm"

Stories:  "Pigs" by Robert Munsch; "Ruby in Her Own Time" by Jonathan Emmett; and "To Market, To Market" by Anne Miranda






 I chose 2 to read and then we sang these songs:
Songs:  "Old McDonald" and "Down by Grandpa's Farm".
I changed the words to Down by Grandpa's Farm to say:

Down by grandpa's farm there is a big fat pig, (repeat)
The pig, he spells his name like this: P-I-G  (repeat)
Oh, we're on our way, we're on our way, on our way to grandpa's farm. 
We're on our way, we're on our way, on our way to Grandpa's farm. 
(We practiced spelling the words and I had this paper up.)

 

The kids were able to read it, sing it and follow my modeling.  This is a great literacy activity.  As you can see, we also graphed everyone's favorite farm animal, which is a great math visual.  The kids could clearly see which animal won the highest number of votes. 

 

Craft Activity:  We make clothes pin horses using a body of a horse, without the legs, copied onto cardstock.  The legs are the clothes pins, which make the horse stand up.  Go to busybeekidscrafts.com to get a copy of the horse. 

 

The kids colored the horses, cut them out, added the legs and yarn for the mane and tail.  They turned out really cute and the kids loved them.  Sorry, no finished copy to show you.