If you aren't singing Destiny's Child in your head right now then I don't know if we can be friends. I'm lucky I'm home alone right now, because I may or may not be belting it at the top of my lungs. Sidenote: Can we talk about my girl Beyonce? Orange leather bra top and what the heck is happening with your hair, girl? I guess we all had our moments in 2000.
This is only our fourth week of pre-K, so everything has been all about names. In addition to the
name routine and puzzles that I do every year, I decided to spice it up a bit.
Of course I had to kick things off with Chicka Chicka Boom Boom. We read the book,
Sang the song,
Played the game,
and acted out the book!
But the kids' favorite was definitely our coconut tree art project.
Because it was the first week of school, I pre-cut the pieces and simply had them glue. Although I do prefer to have the children practice scissor skills, this project helped me to get a quick snapshot of my little ones' skills, and also gave me the opportunity to sit and chat with them as they glued. I just eyeballed the trunk and palm leaves, and used a 3/4 inch circular punch for the coconuts. Easy peasy!
For the names we used puffy, glittery stickers that I got at Michael's (love their sales!).
I loved that it also gave me an idea of who knew how to spell their names and who didn't. They also made great {and very colorful} decor for Open House. The kids loved grabbing their parents by the hand and dragging them over to our display to guess which tree was theirs. Love it!
Next up is my new absolutely, positively favorite thing ever... Friend Bingo! I found this amazing inspiration on Pinterest, then used Powerpoint to make my own.
Fun, right? There are five different gameboards with different combinations of my 21 little sweeties' faces.
I set out my favorite new tray with cubes and cards with my little ones' on them in the middle. I modeled how to choose a card without looking, say the friend's name, and put the card aside. We practiced placing a cube on top of the child's face, and the first person who had all eight pictures won. Pretty soon they didn't need me any more, and they were fighting over who would be the "teacher." The best part to me is how they are getting some great exposure to letters and names while having so much fun!
This is the Itso bin I used... I love me some Target!
Last but not least we did some old fashioned name writing practice with a new twist (also Pinterest inspired!). I love how this method of name writing scaffolds kids to write one letter at a time, limiting their frustration.
The best part is how excited and proud they were... even the babies who
struggled a lot with letter formation were not frustrated.
From a teaching standpoint I love that it gives me a great piece of assessment to help me figure out where each little friend is, and what they need next. I will definitely be hanging on to these puppies to document their improvement!
And {
HERE} is a freebie for you! The font shown in my photos is Jessica Stanford's KinderPrint. I changed it to Century Gothic in the freebie so that it works for everyone.
Snap on the paint cup lids and you are all set!
