A simple and effective fine motor acitivity for young kids involves a really affordable manipulative... clothespins! During Easter clearance last year I purchased some large decorative felt eggs which have patterns cut out. The second I saw them I knew they would be perfect for placing small poms on them. Upon arrival to class students picked a felt egg and began pinching clothespins and placing poms on the Eggs. This activity helps them work both their fine motor skills and patterning skills!
Dr. Seuss Week (aka “Read Across America” week) is here! Below you will find some fun crafts and activities to go along with this week.
My New Year’s resolution this year is to be more organized. One of the messiest areas that needs organized is the trunk of my car! It is always stuffed full of classroom supplies, papers, games, manipulatives, etc.
While I can usually find everything I need, I knew I still needed to find a better system. Well, I just installed a great new space saving backseat organizer which keeps my essentials at hand!
With Big Ant trunk organizer, all your essentials can be put away clearly with handy to access when needed. The organizer features 8-pockets, two envelope pocket-style with Velcro closure, two open pocket style, and four mesh pockets on the bottom. The back features a thick strip of Velcro to secure to carpeted seat backs and three adjustable straps that attach to head rests for extra support when needed. It is made high quality Oxford fabric that resistant to water and wear.
I love this organizer, it was simple to install, keeps what I need most right at hand, blends in with my car’s interior, and I can tell will last a long time. If you’d like to purchase or learn more Visit this link: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B078V4H7LZ. Based on my quality reviews, I did receive this product to try in exchange for my unbiased and honest review. All opinions expressed in this review are my own based on my personal observations and experience with the product. We have a fun new addition to our free choice art center for December, gingerbread men stencils! The stencils are from Oriental Trading and come in a pack of 12, featuring four different designs to make a gingerbread man or woman a lots of accent options. I love that the set comes with 12 stencils, which is plenty for my students to share! They are made of a thin, bendable plastic, but so far my students have been careful with them and they’ve held up well. These items were provided complimentary as part of the Oriental Trading Brand Ambassador program. The pendants can be found at OrientalTrading.com. All ideas and opinions are strictly my own.
Today’s new center focused on 1:1 counting with Christmas light charms. Students picked a tree mat and placed the appropriate number of lights on the tree. This activity practices 1:1 correspondence, number recognition, and fine motor pincher grips. The Christmas tree mats can be downloaded here and the Christmas light charms are from Oriental Trading. They work perfectly because they are flat on the back, colorful, and shiny. These items were provided complimentary as part of the Oriental Trading Brand Ambassador program. The pendants can be found at OrientalTrading.com. All ideas and opinions are strictly my own.
Everyday as students arrive we have different arrival activities. Usually it’s a question of the day, or a partner activity. Today’s activity used partners and counting! After students hung up their backpacks they picked a partner and took turns counting from the ground how many gingerbread men tall they were. Then they had to take their name tags to our Question of the Day chart and “sign-in” for the name by placing their tag next to the appropriate number. This is a great activity to promote working together, rote counting, name and number recognition. But most of all it’s fun!! The gingerbread men are from a foam sticker “Legend of the Gingerbread Man” kit from Oriental Trading. The kit includes 12 foam gingerbread-men, tags explaining the legend, and foam stickers for icing, gum drops, and peppermints (plus extra pieces!!). They make the cutest gingerbread men, but I’m actually using the stickers for our gingerbreadman counting stew later this month! These items were provided complimentary as part of the Oriental Trading Brand Ambassador program. Items can be found at Oriental Trading. All ideas and opinions are strictly my own.
Have you tried out games made by Peaceable Kingdom? I was recently lucky enough to be sent three of their games and I am now in LOVE with this game company! Their games are high quality, the parts are organized, instructions are detailed, and of course the games are tons of fun for kids!! From a Mom's PerspectiveBefore I go into details about the games I want to tell you all the things I love about these games from a mom's perspective. First of all, these games focus of cooperative play, which as a mom of competitive boys I appreciate anything that teaches them to work together!! In addition to cooperation the games introduce them to concept of strategy and how being analytical before a move benefits the game. Because I'm organizational freak what I LOVE most about their games is the high-quality box they come in, the envelopes for storing all the game pieces, and my favorite part.... the instructions are printed on the inside of the box!! I'm known for essentially laminating instructions to game boxes with clear packing tape so I shrieked with excitement when I saw this. For most people this won't be as exciting of a feature but I love that we won't lose instructions. Speaking of losing items, one of the best features of Peaceable Kingdom games is that the company offers free replacement pieces. The games are also 100% green inside! Peaceable Kingdom is 100% committed to creating products that are safe for families and the environment. The paper and boards in the games are made with FSC papers and printed with soy-based inks. The plastic parts in games are made using a corn-based plastic, which is phthalate and BPA-free. Now on to the games.... Race to the TreasureThis was by far the favorite game amongst my PreK students and my own children. The object of the game is to build a path along a grid from a starting point to the end while collecting three keys and attempting to beating the Ogre to the treasure. This game is best for kids 5+, 2-4 players, and takes 20 minutes to play. You start by rolling two dice to determine where four keys and an ogre snack get placed. Then with the shuffled placing cards face down the first player picks a card and begins the path on the starting square. The second player picks a card and continues the path next to the first card. The path cards include straight paths, corner paths, and "T" paths. This game in particular encourages kids to work together to analyze and determine the best route to a key, calling all future engineers!! If a player picks an ogre card they have to place it along a vertical red column, which is the Ogre's straight path to the treasure. The only chance to slow down the Ogre is plan your path to include grabbing the Ogre's snack. Once you get the Ogre's snack you can remove one Ogre card. The game gets tricky towards the bottom because depending on your path you need specific pieces to get to the finish and you may have to add onto other points on your path if you're stuck at the end of a row without a corner piece. If you make it to the treasure with all three keys before the Ogre does, then you win! Hoot Owl Hoot!The object of this game is get all the owls to their nest before the sun rises. You can vary the difficulty of the game by using fewer or more owls (up to six). Each player receives three cards with a colored circle and they chose which owl to move to a colored spot. Again, this game encourages strategy because they need to look at all the owl's placements and see which owl will move closest to the nest. After a player chooses a color card they discard and pick a new card for their next turn. If a player picks a sun card they have to play that first, which moves a small sun piece closer to the morning section at the top of the board. The sun piece starts at a nighttime section of the board and each time a sun card is picked it moves over one space closer to morning. If the sun reaches morning before all the owls are in the nest then the game is over. Sunny and Stormy DayThis is a great game to teach children about the emotions they feel and how to share them. It is very open-ended and allows parents and children to play it several different ways. Although the book, game, and sharing support one another you don't need to do all three activities at once. The game is designed for ages 3+ and includes a full-color picture book, 24 game tiles, 1 puzzle, heart pouch with 3 sharing token, and instructions. These instructions are not on the inner lid because it's a booklet since there are so many playing options. << Storybook >>First, the game includes a storybook where we learn all the different emotions that Max the Hedgehog experiences throughout his day. << Memory Game >>The second part of the game challenges players to find all the matching pairs before the moon puzzle is complete. This game is for 2-4 players, takes 10-15 minutes, and has three difficulty level options. To introduce this part of the game to your child, start by laying out a few matching pairs from the tile deck and your child that a "sunny" moment and a "stormy" moment from the same scene match. Level 1 is a simple memory matching game with only the picture tiles facing up. Level 2 is a moderate matching game with only the pictures tiles facing down. Level 3 is a cooperative memory matching game. You mix up picture tiles and moon tiles and place them face down in a 6x4 grid. Take turns flipping over two tiles. You are looking for tiles that show a "sunny" and "stormy" part of Max's day. If a player makes a match they collect the pair. If it's not a match they turn the tiles back over. If they pick a moon tile they have to add one moon puzzle pieces to the puzzle and flip the moon tile back over in the grid. Try to remember where the moon tiles are so they don't get picked again! The goal is to collect all 10 matching picture pairs before the moon puzzle is complete. << Sharing Tradition >>And last, players can reach inside a cute pouch and pull out circle pictures to prompt feelings questions. Pull out a sun and talk about what made you happy today. Pull out a storm cloud, talk about what made you sad. Pull out the rainbow card, talk about what you're looking forward to. Where to BuyRace to the Treasure and Hoot Owl Hoot! are available from Mindware.com and Sunny and Stormy Day is exclusive to Target. DisclaimerThese #cooperativegames were provided to me from Peaceable Kingdoms and #Tryazon for the purpose of review and promotion. I received no other compensation and all opinions are honest and my own.
Here is another great center using letter beads and neon shot glasses from Oriental Trading. Using a permanent marker, label each cup with a letter. Depending on your differienated learning levels the letters you write can be all uppercase for simple matching or add a challenge and write them lowercase for kids to work on lower/uppercase matching. Put out letter beads for kids to sort and match. You can do this activity on a regular table, but I like the added appeal of placing it on our light table. This activity is also great for fine motor work focusing on pinching the beads for sorting.
The translucent neon glasses and letters beads (plus tons of other goodies) can be found at Learn365 from OrientalTrading.com! http://www.learn365.orientaltrading.com/curriculum/math-a1-555425.fltr These items were provided complimentary as part of the Oriental Trading Brand Ambassador program. All ideas and opinions are strictly my own. |
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