Rain and Rainbows

 To start the conversation about rain, I drew a cloud on the white board and rain drops coming from it. I asked the students if they knew what the picture was, they all knew it was rain. We talked about how rain is wet and can be cold rain or a warm rain depending on what time of year it happens. We did an experiment to represent rain going through a cloud the day after only because we ran out of time. These giant rain clouds are cottons balls glue to paper and stapled to a hanger with 6 raindrops hanging from it.
    After talking about rain, we had to talk about a rainbow. The fruit loop activity was a great review of colors and color sorting. It also helped the students work on their fine motor skills having to pick up and place each fruit loop in the right place.

Black and White Week; End of Color Unit

Our finished color hunt board! Thanks to iPads...

Another big accomplishment this week (Halloween week, 3 days of school M, T, F, parent-teacher conferences). The students finished up the color board and I think it looks awesome! They love looking that the pictures and it a great look at just our room from a kid's eye view. I love the pictures and have posted some of them in the previous weeks but they are great. 

 I really only had one day to work on black and white. I started with the color white and talking about teeth. You'll notice our lovely set of marshmallow dentures to the left (cameo appearances from eggplant and cotton candy, purple and pink week). In light of Halloween, I briefly talked about dental health and brushing our little teeth and keeping candy off of the teeth. The students really loved making these fake mouths which was great because I literally tossed out a ghost activity 15 minutes before they got there.
     The next picture is a half finished spider, which was something I started and they took a picture of for our color hunt. The ones that the students did I had traced out circles that they painted with a brush after I had painted their fingers that they pressed on the paper for the legs. Once it was dry, I randomly hole punched around the spider and the students threaded white yarn through each hole. We put 8 eyes on our spider and counted all 8 legs. They wouldn't even let me hang them up they all shoved them in their bags to take home. (Sorry I do not have a finished picture of this, it was really cute).

Brown and Gray Week

 This week we focused on the colors brown and gray. This was the last week (Pre-Halloween Week) of activities for our House for Hermit Crab board. This week we simple added 7 gray pebbles (7 was the focus number this week) and brown crusty coral. To make the gray pebbles, we first need to make gray paint. We talked about how gray was a shade of black or white depending on your view of colors. When researching things/facts about the color gray. Someone (not remembering the person or site) claimed that gray was not a color because it could not be made with light. I thought that was interesting. Well, we just mixed black and white paint to make gray The students needed to independently create ovals (focus shape) to represent the pebbles. They were very good at this but we need to help them cut them out to make them smooth.
     For the brown crusty coral we actually used the tube of wrapping paper cut up into 4-5 inch chunks. We had pre-cut strips of brown paper that the students folder or tried to in a back and forth fashion to create that rippled effect. We had seven strips of paper that we stapled to the paper tube to create the coral. We tried to scotch tape it but the tape wouldn't stick well and one of the students suggested using the stapler. So that's how we did it.

 

This is our finished board! We did other activities this week but this was a big accomplishment for all of us. Here is a quick review of the board.

Green - Seaweed

Red - Hermit Crab

Yellow - Starfish

Blue - Lanternfish

Purple - Sea Urchin

Orange - Sea Anemone 

Pink - Snail 

Brown - Coral

Gray - Pebbles 

We will most likely revisit this book at the end of the year when I say see you next year as they go onto Kindergarten. 

Purple and Pink Week

I'm a few weeks behind but three weeks ago we studied two colors, Purple and Pink. We were starting to run out of time and had cancelled days due to parent teacher conferences and staff professional development.

This week we added two colored creatures to our Hermit Crab shells, a purple sea urchin and a pink snail. The purple sea urchin is made out of a Styrofoam ball that we painted. Then the student pushed pipe cleaners into once they were dry. The pink snails were tricky. They ended up being a barely air-filled balloon and one section of an egg carton. The balloons were a nice fit into the cartons then the students made the swirl of the shell with a permanent marker. The way the snail came out was awesome, at least I thought so because we were going to use pink cotton balls and white construction paper. After some snooping around the craft supplies I found the other materials.

We did our usual color hunts for both colors. Each week, we are wowed at how many things the students find of each color in the room. We were almost certain that there wouldn't be enough of either color but the student continue to amaze, finding more than enough pictures for the 11 x 18 coordinating color construction paper (unintended tongue twister).

We also did some cut and paste activities with an eggplant, using construction paper and cotton candy using the pink cotton balls I found, glue and construction paper. These are hanging over their cubbies and the students love seeing their work around the room.

We also conducted a 5 senses activity with purple grapes and pink grapefruit. It was a unanimous vote for loving grapes and hating grapefruit. I have some great shots of little sour faces.

We learned how crayons were made from a How It's made Video and a Scholastic Reader. The student have the 8 pack of crayons which doesn't include pink so this was a great time to use those two activities. We also read a book about how crayons are made.

We touch on how to make the color pink during the crayon making process but for our lava lamp activity. I showed them that red and white could make pink but I didn't have a white food coloring to make the water pink and that I was going to use Kool-aid mix.  I was in the process of making purple which we learned during our color mixing experiment (orange week) when I had put the tiniest drop of red into the vile. It turned out to look pinker than I could have make with the lemonade mix. I did explain to my students that pink was a lighter shade of red and to make red lighter we could add white (like we had done with the paint before we started) or we could just add less red food coloring. I love teachable moments when I learn something too! The third picture are all of our lava lamps that we made with colored water and vegetable oil. The kids can play with them tilting the container from side to side and the colored water will stay separated (unless the container is shaken the container a little too much)

We did an activity with jellybeans and the colors orange, pink and purple. The students had a pre made graph where they placed all of their jellybeans. Once they were done the colored every box that had a jellybean in it. We also use purple and pink play-dough which I made from the same recipe as I had before and this time they turned out awesome. For a special snack we had purple and orange jello. It turned out just as cool as the blue and yellow Jello from blue week.

Orange Week

This week we focused on the color orange. We did lots of fun things this week too! The first thing we did was add orange to our Hermit Crab shells in the orange form. The sea anemones were orange and we made these with green and orange pipe cleaners. We counted out 5 orange pipe cleaners and tied them with 1 green one. Once those were secure we twisted the orange halves with our little fingers. This was really good practice following instructions and improving listening skills.

This picture of the number two was from our orange color hunt. It was my favorite of this weeks kids pics.

At my school we don't "teach" Halloween specifically but we do talk about pumpkins because they are orange. This week we did several pumpkin activities and once was carving a pumpkin and describing the different textures of the pumpkin. After we were done examining the pumpkin we filled it with dirt and some of the seeds to see if we could start a new pumpkin plant, a great activity I found from another blog called Growing in Pre-K.

I did some more research on pumpkin activities and saw a counting book, The 5 Little Pumpkins. It was great but it did talk about Halloween so I changed it into a pumpkin counting activity. Students were given sheets that had pumpkins grouped from 1-5. They had to cut, count and glue these onto a paper. Then write the number next to the group of pumpkins. The other picture is of our life cycle of a pumpkin. We sequenced the the stages after reading the book, Pumpkin, Pumpkin. 

This week for our 5 senses activity we examined an orange, how it looked, tasted, smelled, felt and sounded. Lots of our 5 senses activities don't make noise thankfully. We always save tasting for last and this time we all made faces with our orange slices.

Another activity we did was mixing colors! Finally, I had waited for this day for weeks. I wanted students to see that in a food coloring box we only have green, blue, red and yellow. Well this week when we made our "lava lamp" (colored water and oil mixture, an experiment we did during green week) that we didn't have an orange food coloring. They suggested I go buy orange food coloring but I told them I couldn't get it from grocery store but I may be able to find it from cake making store. I told them we could mix the colors, so we used Mrs. McCoy's magic color mixing machine which was two funnels, 1/2 inch pvc pipes, joints and plastic cups.

They loved it and were great little scientist.

Blue Week

The fourth color (and final primary color!) was blue. This week was another easy addition for the shell because there were two blue things in the story. We decided to keep the lanternfish blue and made him out of construction paper and foil. I had the students draw the details on him since cutting out a fish would have frustrated them too easily at this point in the year.

We only had a four day week but we managed to pack a lot in. I read a story about cookie monster, who blue so we created him out of construction paper and hung those up on our cabinets. We also focused on the number three and a triangle because a triangle has three sides. (In hindsight I should have saved circle for this week) We also made cookies that we tried to only put three blue m&m's on but it was hard not to load up one cookie full of blue.

We read One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish and recreated the cover of the book with swedish fish and blue sharks. When I planned this activity, I could have sworn that they made blue swedish fish. The people I asked didn't know and I searched three stores and the bulk section at Wegman's.





We did make blue and yellow Jell-o. This was tricky. I had forgot to make the Jell-o for yellow week (another cheap weekly activity). So we made the yellow Jell-o Tuesday and put it in the fridge to set. I made the blue Jell-o Wednesday and let it get to room temperature before putting it on top of the yellow or it would have melted it back into a liquid. The picture is hard to see but it is a week old at this point.

And we read Mixed Up Chameleon then created our own chameleons to hang in the door. We traced the cover of the book onto a blank transparency and had the students use tempera paints to color him in. They make lovely window decorations.

Yellow Week

The third week of our color unit was center around the color yellow. This was another tricky one for the shell because nothing was yellow. We did notice that two things were blue and that it would be okay if we changed the color for our project. I did do some research and yellow starfish do exist. For this addition to our shell, we precut felt star fish and the students used liquid Elmer's glue to make a design on it. Once that was done, the students pinched and sprinkled glitter over the glue. That took a lot longer than I thought it would but it was good fine motor work for them.

We started introducing shapes with the color red the week before. During red week we worked on circles because I picked it up about half way through the week and I knew the students all had an understanding of a circle. During yellow week, we focused on the star shape and the number 5 because a star has 5 points.

We read/watched a reading of The Sneetches (because I lost my voice during the reading) and talked about what it was like to excluded people that were different. We also noticed the yellow sneetches and the stars on their bellies.

We did a 5 senses compare and contrast activity with a green, red and yellow apple (I will add a picture tomorrow). For this activity I drew an apple on 18x11 colored construction paper, respectively. We examined all apples with our eyes and described what we saw. We did the same thing for the last 4 senses and the students came up with some amazing responses. The students really liked this activity.

The last thing we did was really the first yellow/color activity we do after adding to our shells, the color hunt. I had let the kids have the camera to take their own pictures own this piece of work. It is easily the best thing we do each week. The is only one of the pictures that was taken but I loved it.

Red Week

The second week in the color unit, we focused on the color red. Red was an easy addition to our shells because the Hermit Crab is red in the story. We did note that the hermit crabs we have in the classroom are purple, orange and red. They are called purple pinchers because their larger claw is a purplish color.
For this activity, we painted one hand of each students and pressed it onto a paper. I saw many different of how to make a crab and this one made the most sense. For the creation of these crab shells, I am trying to expose the students to many different types of textures and materials.

This week we also read The Grouchy Ladybug by Eric Carle and made a set of ladybugs wings for each student. We had a fire drill this day that took away the time that they would have had to do some dramatic play, pairing up and acting out the first and last scene of this story. I would have kept them to do that activity the next day but they all really wanted to take the wings home. We did have a chance to talk about the symmetry of ladybug wings and they all did a great job make the wings look "the same" on both sides.

Our big math sorting activity this week was with m&m's. Instead of making a bar graph like the goldfish activity. I drew out colored circles for each m&m color and the students sorted them accordingly. Once they were sorted, they had to count each group of m&m's. I would write them on the paper then the students would have use their finger tips to make a dot for each m&m. This was the tricky part for them. They really had to follow directions or they would have mixed colors accidentally. They did a really good job. I am fortunate that I have a small number of students and a teaching assistant so my students get a lot of one on one attention.

Green Week

The first unit we are working on in Pre-K is color and we started with the color green. I run a very structured schedule for my students. We do similar activities each week but we will always change the color and how we do them. The first week of school was very short. We did many get to know you activities and read A House for Hermit Crab. After reading the story, we all made our own shells. Each week we read the story on Monday and add something of our focus color to our shell.

The first week was tricky because Hermit Crab does not have anything green that he picks up and puts on his shell. There is green sea weed in the story so we added that to our board. 

From there we made play dough with cool aid with a recipe that I get from a recipe. I have made it four different times now and each time it comes out different. I used all of the same ingredients (small bag of flour, etc...) but I found that there is too much water! Just use one cup if you use this one. I also use two packets of kool-aid to make it smell better.

We go on a color hunt in the room where I give the camera over to the students. Then I print all of the pictures and put them on like-colored construction paper which we hang to decorate our room. Each week we had lots of things to our room to make it our own and this activity really helps them to do just that.

For one math center this week we sorted the multicolored goldfishes. Each student counted their fish, counted out the same number of colored paper squares and added them to a graph. After it was finished we talked about which color fish had more, which had less and if any of them had the same number. They really enjoyed this activity, the only difficult part was to not eat the fish until they were counted.

Our class pet

I wanted the room to have a pet. I did not want a fish or a fuzzy little critter. After nixing those choices, I didn't have much to choose from...

I wanted this pet to be more than something we had to feed, water and change the bedding for. I wanted this pet to be a part of our everyday learning and activities.

The idea for this pet started before I was the pre-k teacher. I wanted to do a lesson on the Eric Carle book, A House for Hermit Crab because of the connection you can make with a year in a classroom and "having a new shell". It needed to be a long term lesson, not something you could do in a twenty minute interview.

Over the summer, the other pre-k teacher and I decided to teach color as one of our "common units"(as required through our APPR plan because we are not responsible for an SLO). I still really wanted to use this book and connect it to our room. I read it twice the first week and we made the shell and the crab/handprint. Each Monday we read A House for Hermit Crab and added something of our weekly color to our shell. The kids enjoy adding to our room/shell as we go. When the school year started, I left the room very empty so the students could make it their own, like the hermit crab in the story.

I read Welcome to the Aquarium-A Year in the Life of Children, the teacher in this story, Julie Diamond had spent 13 years in Kindergarten. She explained that she leaves her room very "empty" in the beginning of the school year so that her students can decorate it with their work. She claimed that owned the room because it was their work, everywhere. I really liked that idea and wanted to create that same feeling in my room.

I ended up getting a hermit crab for the room but while at the pet store, the sales associate explained to me that hermit crabs really shouldn't be "alone", so I got two hermit crabs for my room. I am proud to admit that they are still alive and that no one has been pinched yet.