It's starting to look like spring...

Our hall is beginning to look like spring! We did 3 leaf clovers in honor of St. Pat's Day and cupcake liner flowers with Easter grass. My K kids have been telling me all about the spring changes they are observing at home. Aren't we glad that the earth wakes up in spring?!

3 Leaf Clovers

We had a clover pattern that the kiddos traced on green cardstock.
They used the paint roller again to put on glitter green paint from Lakeshore. Love the glitter!! ;)

Cupcake Liner Flowers

I had to hunt for pastel liners! Finally found them in the wedding/party section at Walmart. I had a copy of the stems and leaves. Just glue the liners and Easter grass on. Last year I used paper grass, but found the slick grass at $ Tree. It worked too.

The picture of all the cute little sock feet is from Footloose and Fancy Free Friday! We had a lot of fun running around in our fun socks. ;) Just another nod to Dr. Seuss!


Happy spring!

Spring Cleaning

With Dr. Jean's help, I've found some great ways to organize papers and hang all my poems and songs!

To organize your pages and curriculum I do a days of the week drawer. My aide tears out the papers for the week and puts them in the drawer for the day we will do them. You can also put teaching tools in them. It is a great help, especially when you have a sub. ;)

Another sub idea, burn several daily songs on one c.d. Dr. Jean tells you to do that on her website. I have it marked sub c.d. and put it in my sub folder. That way they don't have to go through all my various c.d.s to find certain songs. This is also a good idea for each month. I started the year with an Aug./Sept. c.d. I had all the beginning of school songs together. You could do that with all your holiday and seasonal songs for the year. I have yet to do the spring songs, but plan on it this summer! ;)


If you are like me, you have LOTS of poems and songs on chart paper. Last year I had trouble finding a way to hang all these and organize them. Dr. Jean to the rescue again!! On her website she said to hang posters and charts from clothes hangers. I bought a large hook and I can hang all my charts for the month from it. After I'm done, I hang them in the closet with a wreath hanger. They stay nice and smooth and organized!!

I think I've mentioned my "clothes line" on the chalk board before, but here it is again. It's so great for drying pictures we've painted and other crafts. I found it at Lakeshore. I don't have tons of table top space for drying so this helps so much! It's also another good way to hang charts on the board for teaching.

I'm into saving space! When you have 22 K kids it's important! I found the wire curtain hanger on my memo board at IKEA. I use small clips to hang notes and updates for the parents outside my door. It's cute and useful!;)


Well, here are just a few of my organizational things! If you have any organizing ideas leave a comment!:)

Happy spring cleaning!!

Happy Birthday Dr. Seuss

What a fun filled Seuss day! The kiddos really went all out in their fun outfits. We read some books had pink ink to drink and watched the Sneeches.

Pink Ink that the Yink drinks~ From One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish

I didn't use the recipe from the Green Eggs and Ham cookbook, I made this one up myself! :)

1/2 Gallon of Bluebell Strawberry Ice Cream

Strawberry Syurp

2 liter Sprite or 7-Up

Blend ice cream and a little Sprite. Add Strawberry syurp as desired for pink color. Keep blending ice cream with Sprite. The more Sprite you add the thinner the drink will be.

Serve in a clear glass with a straw. I put umbrellas in for added fun! ;) My recipe served 22 kiddos.

It was VERY yummy. You could also just add Strawberry syurp to Sprite and stir for the same pink look.

Coming soon~ Footloose and Fancy Free Friday~ We'll wear crazy socks to honor The Foot Book and Fox in Socks.

Also, Wacky Wednesday... More info. on that soon! It's the month of Seuss!!

March!

M-A-R-C-H marching into spring!!

This month our author of the month is Dr. Seuss. His birthday is March 2nd. To remember this crazy author, we are going to dress up as our favorite Seuss character. I'll post pictures on Tues. I also found a great book on-line that I'm going to get at Barnes and Noble~ The Green Eggs and Ham Cookbook. One of the recipes I saw was Pink Ink Drink. You'll remember the Yink from One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish. He liked to drink pink ink. :) Maybe we'll have to have pink ink to drink!! Our journal center is a rhyming center this month. I found some cute Dr. Seuss hats at Mardels and my aide wrote short vowel rhyming words on them. The kiddos can write some more rhymes or write a rhyming story. Our housekeeping center is going to become the Green Eggs And Ham Breakfast Cafe, and our dress up center is going to have Seuss stuffed animals and hats to act out Seuss books. One of my favorite Seuss quotes is, "I like nonsense, it wakes up the brain cells!" What fun to have some nonsense and silliness to make learning fun!

More to come soon!

February Holidays

F-E-B-R-U-A-R-Y
Shortest month of all!!

Wow to be so short, we sure do cram a lot of fun holidays in it!

We made little groundhogs for Groundhogs Day, Abraham Lincoln log cabins for Lincoln's b-day on Feb. 12, and George Washingtons on his b-day Feb.22. Oh, and how could I forget Valentine's Day!! We made some very cute heart wreaths for Valentine's Day!

Little Groundhog

It was made out of hearts. I think it would have been easier to have patterns for the eyes and nose, so I will next year. I let them free hand their hearts for certain parts. An older group wouldn't have as much trouble. We used pipe cleaners for the whiskers.

Abraham Lincoln Log Cabins

I let the kiddos free hand their cabins and then fill in with logs (pretzles). Some of them made large cabins and then had trouble filling it all in. They were fun and took on each child's personality!;)

Valentine Wreaths

Use a normal size paper plate as the base. Cut out the center. My aide cuts out the center of each plate. It's a good idea to have pre cut hearts so they will all be the same size. We used some really fun patterned paint rollers to paint our hearts. I got them at Lakeshore. We painted one day and then glued the next. Very cute!!

George Washington

The kiddos traced a round face pattern and then a tri-cornered hat pattern. Glue the hat to the head before you glue the cotton balls or draw the face. Our kids each got 4 cotton balls. They could pull them apart a bit to make the white wig.

On top of all these fun crafts, we featured Laura Numeroff as our author of the month. Oh, how the kids love her books!! We even wrote our own story. "If You Give A Bull Some Popcorn." We are getting ready to illustrate it, so I'll try to post pics of that. :)

I hope you enjoyed this month as much as I did. ;) I'm looking forward to March and spring! March 2 is Dr. Seuss's birthday. We'll be dressing up as our favorite Seuss character. I'll post pics of that after our fun day!

The 100th day of School 2010 Pictures

We made it!! Whew, it felt like the 100th day would never come. Here are the pictures of our festivities!!

Enjoy!

100th day postponed again!

Okay,

We've had quite a snow/ice storm this year! So, the 100th day of school has been moved another day. I've had some extra planning time this year. :)

I figured out a new song to sing when we finally celebrate. It's to the tune of "Happy Birthday".

The 100th Day
It's the 100th day of school
It's the 100th day of school.
We've learned a lot
We're 100 days smarter!
It's the 100th day of school!
Hooray! ( Just yell this at the end.)

I also went to a party store and got a giant 100 dollar bill and a big 100. So, when we finally celebrate it will be a GREAT party!!

I'll post pics when we finally have our day!

The other thing we'll need to celebrate is Groundhog day. Boy I sure hope he isn't scared by his shadow!! Here are some fun songs for Groundhog's day.

Mr. Groundhog (sung to Mr. Sandman)
Mr. Groundhog, bring me a spring.
Make it the nicest that I've ever seen.
Please don't let your shadow be seen!
Mr. Groundhog bring me a spring!

Little Groundhog (frere jacque)
Little Groundhog, little shadow,
Where are you? Where are you?
Winter time is here.
Spring will be here soon.
Wake up you! Wake up you!