Spriiiiing!

The handprint trees are back for the new season, and here's how they're looking...

Step 1: We practice using a sissors by snipping up a piece of paper.
Step 2: Draw the outline of each child's hand on brown paper. Draw a circle around the hand.
Step 3: The kids cut out the circle. I cut out the hands. (Too pernickity for little people)
Step 4: Kids glue their hands onto a piece of yellow paper. Then they cut out a strip of brown paper and glue it underneath their hand.
Step 5: Fun part, the fingerpainting! The kids dot on little buds on the branches, and some grass on the ground.

Our Spring Poem goes like this:

I can see it's Springtime,

It's Springtime,

It's Springtime,

And I am so glad.

With green grass

and flowers

and sunshine

and showers,

I can see it's Springtime

and I am so glad!

I've also been working on a little craft for Mother's Day.
I cut out a big speech bubble out of card, and took a picture of each child holding it beside their head. They thought this was absolutely hilarious, and they loved looking back through the photos.
Here's mine:

Yep, I made one too, and my Mom loved it, ha!

I cut frames out of card, and the kids painted them in bright colours. Then my collegue gave me some lovely little foam hearts, and the kids stuck them around their pictures.
I printed off the photos and stuck them in the frames, and then made little envelopes to pop them into. At least then there was some chance the Moms wouldn't see the little presents until Mothering Sunday!

We're doing a little project on planting and growing at the moment, and I'll do a quick run through on that next time! Bye!

New Year, New Room!

Happy New Year everybody! I hope it's great so far, I know it is here at pre-school!

So, alrighty, I never did that second post about the Christmas projects like I said I would. Everything got rather busy around Christmastime as you can imagine, and I never found the time. It feels silly to write it now so I'll give it a skip. Basically it was a little book we made about the story of the First Christmas. I drew 5 scenes from the tale, and if anybody would like the free printables please just leave a comment and I'll email them on to you :)

So, new beginnings! (Although I realise it is now February...) I was evaluating all I've done over the last term and decided there were a few areas I wanted to pay more attention to. I've been doing a lot of crafts and art and table work, and it had become a focus. I thought that maybe this wasn't fair. I do it because it's something I'm good at and something I love, but that's not the case with every child in the pre-school. So! Time to proivde lots more opportunities for different types of play and exploration.
I'm lucky enough to have my own room, and so this is what I did...


The Book Corner
I wanted to create a space where the kids could be cosy and comfortable; a space to chill out, get some head-space, read a book, share a story.
I loved the idea of a permanent blanket fort, and started practicing. This is how it turned out:

I like it, it's cosy and gives opportunities for quiet time, personal space and reflection. But it feels like it could be better! Suggestions are welcome!

The next area I wanted to tackle was pretend play. So I made a home corner! I was just working with what I have (which is quite a lot thanks to my generous boss!), but I really like how it came together:

 There's a little bench made up to look like a bed. (Since I took this photo I also have a little basket for a crib, with a cute doll inside), a kitchen table, and some storage for clothes.

One of the girls I work with offered me a loan of her gorgeous fabric food. They have proved a huge success! There's a basket of fruit, a basket of vegetables, a birthday cake, ice-creams, some knitted buns, and a bread board with sandwich making things! They're ridiculously cute, and are constantly in use. I also made little games with a felt board and some sticky-back velcro, in which we sort our fruit and veg!

 

I went to the local second-hand shop and bough some little plates, cups, a tea-pot and a pot. They're all 'real', i.e. ceramic, and this offers a really nice alternative to plastic. It's great to offer children miniatures or actual objects, rather than pretend things ALL the time. Kids love to imitate the adults in their lives, and so let's give them opportunities to make it more real.

 This is the dressing up corner. Since I took this picture it has quadroupled in size! I managed to find loads of really gorgeous things in the second-hand shop; fairy costumes, tiny tuxes, a dinosaur tail; straw hats; little graduation robes, and loads of little bits and pieces. A girl at work found a bunch of gorgeous hallowe'en costumes in a bargain bin, and bought them for us. So now there's lions, flowers, dinosaurs and dragons roaming about! Soon I hope to get a little rail to hang them on. Putting things back on their hangers will be learning a little life-skill in itself!

This is our little art table. It's always accesible to the kids, and readily stocked with pencils, crayons, chalk and different types of paper. I hang their art on the wall beside the table, for inspiration!

I lay out a soft mat on one part of the room, and keep different types of blocks and construction toys next to it. They also make floor jigsaws in this area. It's a designated space for this type of play, so that other children strolling around the room won't accidentally knock over a tower or step on a jigsaw.

Meanwhile, outside in the hall, I set up a Parent's Library! We all put out a couple of books we've picked up over the years. A check-out book sits on the far end of the shelf, and parents write in their name, the book they're borrowing, and the date.

All the books are related to children and childcare, and range from curricular guides, such as Aistear, and child development and pyschology books, to fun things to do with your kids and silly joke books about parenting.

So that's all for now!
My next post won't take two months, hopefully, and I'll update you on our Spring Things!

Christmas Crafts!

I know it's a wee bit early to be getting excited about Christmas, but when you're surrounded by kids who are constantly chatting about Santa and BabyJesus (yep, they run the two words into each other, such is their enthusiasm!), Christmas trees and the hope of snow, it's impossible not be feel so merry!
So here's our Chistmas Crafts!

Snowman Jars

My original plan had been to replicate an project I did when I had some work experience in a Steiner school. We made very similar jars, but instead of doing snowmen, we made a leaf pattern. The snowmen were too sweet to pass up, after I saw the little face here.

Step 1: Organisation!
I put up a poster asking parents to bring in used, clean jam jars. We were soon up to our ears in them, it was great! Then I got some silicone paper. It's just like baking paper, but it's practically clear, not brown. I cut it into strips wide enough to wrap around the jars.
I cut out some orange triangles for noses, and punched a LOT of holes in black paper for 'coal' for the eyes and smiles (the kids could probably do that last step themselves, but I was stuck to time constraints on this one).

Step 2: The kids each took a strip of silicone paper and covered one side in pva glue. Then they arranged little faces using the shapes I cut out. This part was fun, and sticky! All their little fingers were covered in glue and neatly making faces was a challenge! They did a good job though!

Step 3: Wrap the glue-y side of the silicone paper around the jars, and pop a tea-light inside. They're so pretty! I'm making a whole bunch myself, for Christmas decorations!

Christmas Trees

This project takes mere minutes and has great results.

Step 1: Cut out semi-circles from green card.
Step 2: The children decorate the card with markers and stickers.
Step 3: Bend the card into a cone shape and tape together.
Step 4: Stick a paper star on top and a kitchen paper tube on the bottom and voila! Christmas trees!

Gingerbread Men

My Dad is a baker (I know, heaven), and he gave me a big box of undecorated gingerbread men he made. I bought some icing pens, sprinkles and mini Smarties and let the kids go loopy! They really enjoyed this one, probably cos I let them nibble away as we worked. We tried to save some to send home, but I don't know how successful we were. Here's one before he met his untimely end...

We're doing one more Christmas Craft, but I'll post about that one next time. It's time consuming, I'll tell you that much! Feels only right I should devote a whole post to it!

Hope you're enjoying all the Christmas buzz! :)

Winter Fun!

November was a busy month, I didn't get a chance to sit down and write once! We started preparation for our Christmas Play. Early, I know, and the songs are on constant repeat in my head now, but still fun!
I split my sides laughing at the kids dancing away and getting really serious about the whole business.

Here's an update on November's Crafts.

We did some more handprint trees. I think I'm going to do these every season now, and put them together in one big sheet for the kids to take home at the end of the year. It'll be a lovely momento of their time in pre-school!
This time, instead of doing outlines of their hands in crayon, we did handprints with brown paint. The snow flakes came in the form of white finger prints, and we tore up some crepe paper to make the frosty ground. Here's everything you'll need:

And here's how they look when it all comes together!

Another sweet winter project we did was make cloud mobiles. I found this lovely craft on another blog, and altered it slightly. You can find the original here.

We painted cardboard clouds in blue, grey and white, then waited for them to dry.

I cut out a bunch of mittens from felt, in all different colours. It would have been nice for the kids to do this themselves but felt is tricky, and their cutting skills aren't up to it yet.
They did however do the next part themselves, which was to cut twine, (I tied it to the mittens then) and sellotape the twine to the back of the clouds. The final piece was a little copy of our winter poem. I photocopied it on coloured paper and gave them out. Here's the finished things!

I think they look brilliant! Our Winter poem goes like this:

The Winter wind blows,

The Winter wind blows.

Icy fingers, icy toes!

Bright red cheeks and a bright red nose!

It gives me the shivers!

From my head to my toes.

In November, we also learned about shape. I played a game called Hunt the Shape.
Step 1: Present the children with a large paper shape. Name it.
Step 2: Tell the children to close their eyes, then you hide it somewhere in the room (somewhere pretty obvious, like stuck to the wall)
Step 3: Ask one of the children to 'Find the ______', and name the shape again.
Step 4: When the child finds it and brings it back, ask 'Is this a _____ (shape)?', and when the children confirm it is, burst into a round of applause!
Step 5: Repeat with all the children.

When they have the hang of this, present a few shapes at a time, and hide them all together. Then say "Can you find the circle?" I think this one really helps them to identify their shapes, and the praise from the other children really spurs them on!

We also did Shape Collages, matching shapes to their friends. Just some matching and sticking in this activity, but they really enjoyed it.

Then, at the end of the project we coloured in a picture of a Shape Robot. We said "Let's colour in all his squares first" and "Next let's do his triangles!". At the end, we named the robots, just for the craic. There were some gems, like Zia, Buzz and Sean.

So, November was a busy month! And December is looking much the same! We're doing a couple of sweet Christmassy Crafts, and we are having so much fun. I love being a pre-school teacher, the magic of Christmas will never go away!

The Bird Project

So far this year, the Bird Project has been my favourite thing. I had lots of fun planning it, and the kids got really into it. Since doing the project, I have become fascinated by birds! I always knew they were beautiful creatures, but I never truly appreciated why they’re so flippin great!

I decided to do the bird project as my boss was covering hibernation, and usually she does a little on migration too. I took migration and claimed it as my own, and completely took it over for 3 weeks. Don’t worry, my boss was happy out with that! The children must have picked up on how passionate I grew about the topic, because one little boy said to me: “Migration? Or YOURgration?” which I thought was pretty funny.

Circle Time

We started the topic of migration and birds at circle time. We sat on a mat together and I took out some pictures of different birds I had printed off online and laminated. We discussed what we knew about hibernation and then wondered how birds cope with the cold weather and little food. I introduced the topic of migration, and we focussed on two birds- the swallow and the cuckoo. We had a look at this fantastic book:

I found it in my local library and it became the backbone of the project. It’s really neat, ‘cos you can look at these beautiful photographs of the birds and then listen to their songs! The kids loved matching the birds to their songs.

Bird Feeders

After discussing birds that migrate, we had a little look at some birds who stick around at Winter. We had a look at the robin in particular. Then we talked about the importance of feeding the birds at Winter. This inevitably lead to making bird feeders! We did extremely simple ones- just a pipe cleaner with Cheerios threaded on. The kids had a good time, and they were working on their fine motor skills, unbeknown to them!

Paper Birds

Next, we made our own bird decorations. I used a tutorial on Pretty Pointless Things’ blog, the birds were so pretty and they fit into our project perfectly. Here’s the tutorial:

http://pointlessprettythings.blogspot.ie/2011/10/diy-paper-birds.html

And here’s ours!
We added googly eyes and the kids painted them instead of using patterned paper; made them a little more pre-school-y. They hung in our room a little while, and then after the 3 weeks the kids took them home.

Headbands

The next part of our project was devoted to feathers. We discussed birds’ feathers, and how they can keep them dry and help them fly. Then we decided we wanted to do some flying of our own! This was the simplest project, as all we did was glue feathers onto strips of card and tie elastic to the back to keep them on our heads. Here’s mine:

Attractive, right? I wore mine all week; at the shopping centre, in the library, in the restaurant having dinner with my boyfriend... I kid. But I did love it.

Flying!

Once we had our fabulous headbands on, we went to the Big Hall for some excercises. As birds, of course. Here’s our warm-up excercise:

We start off as a little egg, sitting in our nest.

(Sit, curled up small on the mat)

Then- CRACK!- we hatch out, baby birds!

(Burst out of the curled-up-ball, but stay sitting down)

Oh what a long time we’ve spent in that egg, let’s stretch!

(Sit down and stretch out arms and legs)

We can’t fly down to the ground to get some tasty worms, so we’ll have to ask our Mommas to get us some...

(Bounce on haunches, say ‘cheep cheep!’)

Now that we’re big and strong, let’s stretch these wings of ours.

(Stand up and stretch arms. Slowly flap them)

Ooh, they work quite nicely, let’s go for a little fly!

(Start walking around the room, slowly flapping arms up and down)

Wow, this is fun! Let’s see how fast we can fly!

(Run around, flapping arms!)

Now it’s time to make our own nest and lay our own eggs!  

(Return to mat, curl up in an egg shape again)

And finally, a bit of drawing...

When it came to free-time, the kids really enjoyed reading the Birdsong book together, and even took out my laminated photos to draw the birds! I hung their efforts on our wall:

 

I love the blackbird, what a face!

And that’s our bird project! We had so much fun, I hope you enjoyed our project too! :)

My Home Project!

So finally I've gotten around to writing about the My Home project. It's so simple, but My Goodness, the kids absolutely loved it.

Step 1: Preparation

I cut out house shapes on A3 card, and each child was given a Home for their own.
Next, I gave the parents of every child a note, which said something along the lines of:

Dear Parent/ Guardian,
In the coming weeks here at __________, we will be doing a project about our homes. It would be great if you could bring in some family photos for the project. These photos could include parents, grandparents, siblings, extended family, the child themself or even pets! Anyone who is important to your child could be included. One or two photos would be great, but please bring in as many as you like! If it is awkward to bring in photos then please email me some photos at __________, or bring them in on a USB and I will print them off. OR we could take a quick snap of you and your child one morning!
Thanks very much,
Rebecca

Step 2:

The kids painted and decorated their Homes as they wanted.

Step 3:

After the Homes had dried (we pegged ours on the indoor washing line overnight), the children and I chose photos from the selections their parents had brought in. The kids stuck their photos on with pritt-stick, and I made little lables with their names on, which they also stuck on.

Step 4: 

That evening I lamenated each Home. I would really recommend this, even though it wasn't in my original plan. The Homes were much more robust, and they surely needed to be after all the use they've had with us! I cut out the lamenated sheets around the Home, to keep their shape.

Step 5:

The next day we had a circle time session. Each child had their Home in their hands, and we went around the circle introducing our families and having a chat about similarities and differences. When each child had finished I said "Let's give a round of applause for ______'s family!" which encouraged the kids to praise each other and feel happy for each other's acomplishments and individuality.


Here's a picture of my finished Home. Yep, I made one too, and I did it step-by-step with the kids. It was fun, and the kids loved the idea of me having a life outside pre-school!

For the time being I'm keeping all the Homes in pre-school. This way, the children can access their Homes and pictures of their families whenever they like. It's been great to see the kids showing each other their families and asking to hear about each others' families. The parents have also taken a real interest in the project and have popped in to see the project as we moved through it.

My next post will be all about the Bird/ Migration Project- a Ma-hoo-sive success!
Bye for now!

Woo-hoo! First cycle down, new plans!

So, all done with my first 3-week-cycle! Let's see if I met the goals of my 4 learning areas...

My Home

Unfortunately, I only got started on the project this week. Which means that I'll be following this little activity on through the next 2 weeks. But that's okay! The thing with the My Home project is that I needed photographs from each kid, so that took a little while to gather. But fair enough! It's a busy time for parents, September, and I understood that and didn't get all pushy and "OH MY GOD, I'm TRYING to educate your children here, just print off a load of photgraphs, will you?!" as I have seen in other places...
I'll post some pictures and a whole lesson plan for the project next time.

Physical Activities

I covered this in my last post, so as you know, this was a complete success! I mentioned that this activity was carried on into circle time, so let's cover that bit now!

Circle Time

After P.E. in the Hall, we came back to our room and sat in a circle. As I said before, the kids thought of their favourite things during meditation time. In our circle, we got out crayons, paint and paper and made pictures of our favourite things. Here are a few!

"Painting with her friends"

"Playing a Thomas the Tank Engine Game"

"Peppa Pig"

They really dug this, and had fun sharing with the group what their favourite things were. Aside from the 'favourite things' activity, we also did a little bit of 'hibernation', autumn songs, counting as a group at roll time, and our Name Song, which goes like this:

Look at ________, sitting in her chair,

Doesn't she look happy there?

Everybody give a cheer ("Yahoo!")

Just for _______, sitting in her chair.

It's sung to the tune of Twinkle Twinkle. At first the kids were really shy about this song, especially when it came to their turn to put in their name, but now they all ask to sing it in the mornings. 

The My Home project is also completed with a circle time activity, but I'll go into that in detail in the lesson plan.

Autumn

We did our Autumn handprint trees (which are now hanging outside the door of our room, so parents have been admiring them!), which I posted pictures of. One of the other teachers did free-painting using Autumn colours, which turned out really nice.
My boss is also covering hibernation with the kids, which we've been doing at circle time/roll call at the start of the day. Here's a picture of our hedgehog who comes out to visit from the nature table, and tell us what he eats and where he goes at winter.

We also went on a little nature walk this week! We just went out to a nearby chestnut tree, to gather conkers and leaves and have a look at all the Autumn colours. The kids loved it. I wish I could post pictures, but obviously, due to privacy and child protection issues, I won't be posting pictures of (or naming) any of the great kids I work with. Here's our collection anyway, which we sorted out when we got back.

And now I'm all ready for my next 3-week-cycle!
I'm going to continue work on the My Home project, and I'm starting our Bird project! I'm really excited about this one! I have activities planned in arts & crafts, circle time and P.E. If anyone has any suggestions I'd love to hear them! It would be great to have a poem or song about birds, or maybe another little nature walk... Any ideas, I'd love to hear them!
Bye for now!