Activities & Charts

These are some of the learning activities that I'm doing with the kids as well as charts that have been enforced in my classroom.

I collected a few toilet paper rolls and some paper towel rolls to cut them up like shown here. I wrote each one of the letters in their name front and back to help them recognize the different/same letters in their names. I hope that by the end of this year they'll all be able to put their name in order and also they'll be able to write their name out. I have about three kids who can successfully put their name in order.

These are letter templates I print out off of the DTLK-Kids website because they come up with good ideas for these kinds of templates. For the letter "K" as you can see we glued kernels on it because kernels start with the letter "K". The letter "G" we did green glitter and so on.

This is a fun thing I do each month for each one of my kids. Each month a new child gets to be the star student of the month. I bought the green star student decoration at Wal-Mart or Target. The border was already available for me here at the daycare but I believe I also bought the surrounding stars because it came with a space package with planets and rockets that I decorated in another part of the room. I ask the parents to bring pictures of their child to display on the bulletin and I will also put worksheets and projects up on it because it helps them to see that they are special with their work being displayed.

This is a chore chart that I use everyday. I like it because it's a dry erase format so it's easy enough just to erase the names and write new ones up. It helps the kids to know each one has to take turns on having a job. On Thursdays I add a "bag carrier" job for when we walk down the block to the local library for storytime.

This is my discipline chart. I used to have stars but I felt it would be better for them to really see what their behavior looks like by using colored circles. This circle discipline chart is a lot easier to manage than the old star chart I had. By their names I keep track throughout the week on what color of circles they've received and if they have more green circles than yellow and red they get a treasure from my treasure box every Friday. The group of kids I have now a pretty well disciplined. I don't have many issues to deal with, which is really nice. But I think in the future this will be good for harder classes.

At the top I made a visual of what each color circle means. Obviously, red is not good. Yellow is fair. Green is good. These kids are three and four so the easiest way to put it so they'll understand, the better I think. It also helps parents to understand too.

October, November, December Holiday Crafts & Decorations

October:

October Bulletin Board

I try to decorate something above their coat hangers to help distinguish the Big 3's class from other surrounding classrooms.

Egg carton spiders

This idea I got from Pinterest. It's a Jack-O-Lantern bean bag toss. I used it for their Halloween party and they enjoyed it. Next time if I make it I'll make sure to color in the Jack-O-Lantern's eyes and nose and really distinguish the different sizes of each pumpkin from small to big.

Here is the Pinterest version.

November:

Simple teepees. Brown construction paper and drinking straws.

These took some time. I had each child bring an empty Kleenex box and I covered it with brown construction paper. Then helped them put the covered part on. They put the wheels and cactus on. I made sure to explain why we made covered wagons and why they were used.

December:

Foam snowflakes with added glitter above their coat hangers. Another decoration that can stay up through the months of December and January.

They are suppose to be Christmas lights hanging by clothes hangers and red ribbon though they have been mistaken for Christmas ornaments. Each light as their name written in glitter. The kids like to find their own.

Our own little Christmas tree for the classroom. I got the small ornaments at Target in the dollar section so couldn't pass it up.

The picture is not facing right but it's suppose to be a train engine made from a Styrofoam plate. A craft stick is glued on the wheels. The kids and I were learning about trains for a couple days.

 This one we made a railway track and it's just made out of drinking straws.

We just made these holiday bells today. The kids really liked them because they made noise of course. After we finished making them I had them walk down the hallway and back singing to Jingle Bells with their bells. It's made from a plastic dixie cup and I poked a hole through the bottom. The green part is a pipe cleaner that I hooked the bell on. Then just gave them stickers to decorate it. 

This isn't the greatest picture but I'm trying to show how the bell is hooked on the pipe cleaner. It's kind of nice that it's made from a dixie cup because the bell isn't very loud but it's loud enough to make a sound. You are welcome parents. :)

Door Decorations

These are door decorations I've done so far this year with my new Big 3's class:

I did the Frankenstein door decoration for Halloween. He was my first attempt at a full door decoration and I would have to say he was my best one so far. The kids just called him a monster :)

This one I made for the month of November. I saved and used the falling leaves and the leaves on the bottom from the bulletin board I had to do for October (Picture to come). The "leaves" on the branches are made from the kid's hands. Then I asked each child what they were thankful for. I got a lot of thankful's for mommy's and daddy's but also for toys as well :) I wish my tree would have been a little bit taller and I think it looks bad that you can still see part of the wooden door on the bottom. So if this is to be re-created, I will make sure I cover the whole door. I think I was afraid of putting the leaves too close to the bottom and then they would fall off every time the door was moved.

This one I just made earlier this week. I picked a snowman for the door decoration because it can stay up there the month of December as well as the month of January. The cut out for the door handle isn't the best. Originally his hat is suppose to be taped on the outside of the door frame but I already made a "Merry Christmas" sign outside my door frame. It doesn't look bad though. I wish I would have taken more time with his red scarf but overall I'm pleased with the snowman. The kids like him too :)