Community Helpers

We recently read the book Trashy Town.  In Trashy Town the garbage man goes around the town to a variety of community locations. The book has a pattern that students love to repeat.  After reading we used shapes we know to create trash trucks.  They are so adorable!

Over Due

Wow, this year has been flying by.  I am sorry I have not been posting regularly.  As I mentioned, we moved.  Moving and working and having your child go to school full day for the first time and homework  was a lot to handle.  Life is finally starting to settle down a bit and so I thought I would share some of the wonderful, fun, exciting things we have done this year.

Many of my students enter the year not recognizing their name so the first several months we do a lot of name work in pre-k.  Below are just a few examples of things we have done.

At first we wanted them just to recognize the first letter of their name.  We have a resource center available to us in my county that has this 8 in letter cut outs, so I ordered enough to have the first letter of all the students in my classroom and then a few extra of each letter, just in case.  Then I would call students over during small groups 2 or 3 at a time with 5 or 6 letters on the table.  I would ask them to find the first letter of their name and then we would trace the letter, say the letter, and say their name.  Next they got to decorate the letter with dot paint.  The kids were very proud of their letters and started to see it everywhere; declaring that is the letter in MY name.

During the week we learned about R, we made rockets with our names spelled on them.  Some students wrote the letters themselves, some traced the letters, and some just put the letters of their name in order depending on where they were in knowing their name.

To address STEM when we read about The Three Billy Goats Gruff we made a bridge that would hold 3 billy goats.  Students worked in groups with a variety of materials.  the bridge had to hold all 3 billy goats and allow a toy car to pass under.  Here is a picture of one group working on their bridge...

This last picture was a surprise.  During free play in centers I am walking around making notes and observing what children are up to and I came across a this picture below, look at it and see if you can see why I was so impressed...

On their own they decided to sort the magnets by color!  I love it!  They worked together, talked it out and were just going to town on their project.  It has to be one of my favorite moments this year.  You should have seen their proud faces when they realized I was interested in their work.  These are the moments we live for people!