Month of May Flower Theme Ideas for Inspiration as Kindergarten Year Ends

 Welcome to Becca's Early Childhood Education blog! I was a bit surprised that a kindergarten teacher posted in a Facebook group that her and her students were bored, that class days had been dreadful. Shock! I was sure that all kindergarten teachers and kiddos would be wrapped up in a whirlwind of activities. 

So with May starting this weekend my response was to create an alphabet review based on flowers. Yes, make sure to chant "April Showers Bring May Flowers" or even use as the title for a wall display. Can't you just picture a huge basket overflowing with flower cut-outs that each feature a letter of the alphabet?

Build your basket as you progress or reverse it--start with a full basket and work backwards to make A on your last day or close to it. Whether you start with Aster or Zinnia, there are many choices for each letter. 

Several websites have lists with or without photos to help you plan. This is one site:

https://florgeous.com/types-of-flowers/

Also use technology with the students like a virtual tour of Keukenhof Gardens in Lisse, Netherlands that have hundreds of tulip varieties along with grape hyacinths, jonquils, daffodils, and more. Very beautiful!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pLg3YuPBps8

This next link will put you in the middle of a spectacular slide show from the area around Brenham Texas known for the amazing Bluebonnets:

https://visitbrenhamtexas.com/wildflower-watch/wildflower-photos/

These are a few clipart images to help get your May Alphabet Flowers Theme Unit started:

Years ago as a daycare lead teacher with preschool age children in February and a few days in early March, I liked to present the alphabet as LOVE LETTERS. I had 26 red hearts that each had an alphabet letter on them and I presented them in order. As our love letters, there were several activities within the day that started with that day's featured letter rather than staying focused on a flower theme. So on "D" day we had dads invited for morning doughnuts, we had some dancing, dinosaurs were added to the sensory table, dot art with bingo daubers, and several more. 

Lots of preschool and kindergarten teachers do an alphabet reversal in May and early June, but either way, reviewing the alphabet can be fun and engaging. 

Unifix cubes arranged in different floral shapes would be a good table time activity. 

Early word work cards in a variety of formats with help students find what works for them:

a. photo of flower matched to starting letter

b. photo of flower matched to its word

c. photo of flower with starting letter matched to the remaining letters

d. starting letter card matched to remaining letters on card

Examples for suggestion 'd'=

A   =>  ster

B   =>  luebonnets

C   =>  arnation

D   =>  aisy

and continue on or separate into 5 or more sets so that children don't get overwhelmed. 

Set up a garden and/or flower shop dramatic play center. Have some small silk flower arrangements for your students to interchange on the kitchen table in your housekeeping center. Placemats with flowers would be another way to reinforce the theme. 

Make new cubby tags with floral shapes.

Put the children' photos on flower die-cuts for an easy bulletin board for the hallway. 

File folder games for easy addition problems can be easily made using flower stickers. 

Place a vase with cut flowers in the science center for children to smell and examine closely with magnifying lens. 

Make sure to buy some white carnations and have colored water in 2 or 3 hues for the children to see the vascular tubes work in transforming the white petals to whatever color(s) you selected. And let the children see the carnations going into the water so that they remembered that the flower(s) started as white. 

Have fun in the merry month of May. Hopefully these ideas will inspire you to brighten your teaching time in the crazy hectic last weeks of the school year. 

And 1 more idea...do you know that celery bundle will closely resemble a full open rose? Shown in the photo is the bottom section of celery kept together and stamped on a red ink pad and then onto white paper. The vascular tubule structures in each celery stalk help absorb the ink and add details to the 'rose' image. Kids think this is a magic act! They will love seeing the transformations! Children can draw green leaves next to their inked stamped blooms to add to a hint of realism. Having real or silk roses nearby in the science/discovery table will also help you and the students on "R" day: 

With a love for learning and making teaching fun and engaging,

Becca S

M. Ed. in Elem Ed with ECE emphasis

Certified in Illinois:

*Birth to Grade 3

*FACS grades 6-12

*general science grades 5-8 (short-term approval)

Insect Picture Strips Are Multipurpose for Science and Math and Fine Motor Growth

Welcome to Becca's Heart for Early Childhood Education blog! Insects are one of my favorite science concepts to teach with preschool and primary age children. Did you know that 75% of all animals are arthropods? Arthropods include 4 kinds: centipedes and millipedes, crustaceans (crabs), arachnids (spiders), and insects.

Insects are the largest group amongst the arthropods. Here are just some to get you brainstorming before you challenge your little ones about how many they know:
*grasshoppers
*fleas
*lice
*mosquitos
*flies
*bees
*butterflies
*moths
*praying mantis
*dragonflies
*mayflies
*beetles
*fireflies (lightning bugs)
*wasps
*hornets

Insects' bodies have 3 parts: head, thorax, and abdomen. On the head it is usually one pair of antennae and two compound eyes. They have multiple parts to their mouths which include a pair of mandibles. The thorax has 3 sections or segments and each has 1 pair of legs. If an insect has wings those are attached in the 2nd and/or 3rd segments but there are many insects without wings. Metamorphosis varies among insects with some having incomplete (larvae stage like grasshoppers) and others have complete (transformation from caterpillar to pupa to adult like butterflies).

The worksheet or activity sheet can be used many different ways. The main way that I wanted the children to use this was for their worksheet copy to be cut into the strips/rows. Then each student needs to use the single-hole puncher to punch holes in the first one shown and then any others that match it.

Gripping the hole-puncher helps develop strength in their dominant hand that they use to hold a pencil, crayon, and paintbrush. This is so vital for littles when they are between 3-7 years old. ECE teachers can have children color the insects first before doing the hole-punch matches.

It also might help them cognitively to have them only color the first one of each row and the subsequent ones that match instead of coloring all that are pictured.

This activity sheet took about 45 minutes to 1 hour to create in Google Docs. Maybe less time but definitely use a copy and paste method of placing the clipart images in order to save lots of typing time! There are so many different kinds of insects that you could put a different stack out for the kids every day of your insect unit!

Below is a photo from a recent post I did about setting up a sensory explore station with jumbo tweezers and little containers along with some nature items to give kids a simulated outdoor scene for more insect matching practice that can strengthen their pinching fine motor skills. A copy of the worksheet was cut into the individual boxed insect pics for the children to do the sorting.

Another variation for using the worksheet is a pencil (or colored pencil or crayon or marker) task to review by x-ing out each insect within a row that doesn't match the very first one shown. What doesn't belong is important cognitively. Children need to puzzle or reason out why one image is  correct while a different one isn't.

Good luck helping little ones figure out the world we live in! Also stop and think about other worksheets/activity sheets that you find at the store or online that can be altered and used in a way that builds other concepts or skills in your students. For the insect picture strips recognizing the differences in the 6 insects shown throughout these strips is important for science. One-to-one correspondence (matching) is a math numbering concept. And using a single-hole puncher to grip and punch small dots out of matching insects is a vital writing tool fine motor skill developer.

Having a passion for ECE children and curriculum:
Becca S

Illinois teacher certification endorsements:
Birth to Grade 3
FACS grades 6-12

and approval:
General science grades 5-8

Primary Sensory Station About Insects For Fine Motor Skills and Science

Welcome to Becca's Heart for Early Childhood Education blog! This posting shares my heart's desires for ECE and Science. My main focus is setting up a sensory station for children to explore, learn about identifying and matching different insects with different ways to strengthen their fine motor skills.

Set up a garden or outdoor scene to create a context where children will find insects in nature, their natural setting. Small containers with jumbo tweezers aid for young children to pick up small clipart pics of various insects and to sort, all while developing their cognitive skills essential in math and science and their writing tool gripping.

Small river rocks, flower arranging dried grasses, and butterflies and dragonflies meant for wreaths and floral bouquets are additions to simulate the outdoors. Placemats and/or hand towels with nature designs can anchor the sensory explore station to a set spot on a table or low bookcase.

The worksheet copies will be the focus of their own post. It took about 30-45 minutes to create this worksheet and I formatted it to be multi-purpose to get the most for science, math, and fine motor growth. The primary strategy I thought of was cutting the worksheet apart into the strips/rows and asking children to grip and squeeze the single-hole puncher on the insect(s) that match the very first one in the row. Before they do that you might ask them to color only the ones that are exactly the same as that first pictured insect.

Maybe they need to follow a designated color code? Like purple for a butterfly. Yellow for a bee. Other insects I used include fly, water beetle/bug, and horned beetle.

Add a vase of real flowers if possible or maybe a small silk cluster. A small potted plant would be great addition to the explore station, too.

Depending on the number of children allowed at the sensory station, another pair of jumbo tweezers might be needed. On the worksheet I had 6 insects to identify but for the station and your usable space that may need to be limited to 3 or 4. Timing allowed to be at the station would be another consideration. Little ones don't like to be frustrated so the explore station shouldn't be too big or have too much to do. Be willing to make adjustments if you find out that they need fewer things to do for the time they have to share the space.

A big passion of mine in ECE is giving science equitable time and space within the classroom space and weekly schedule. Choosing a science theme book for your read out loud time is one way. Lots of science books about inventors, environments, space exploration, and reference in your classroom library are an important way to give science equity in your room. Picking a decorating theme that's about animals, plants, rockets, gears and wheels would be another addition to keep science in your environment.

I've used a general outdoors with a bit of camping broad theme in recent years, but I'm thinking my next classroom space will have a four season combined with birds décor theme to help organize the room. But I'll save those thoughts for a future posting.

Sensory stations like what I've pictured focuses primarily on the tactile, touch. Pinching the jumbo tweezers to pick up the small pictures would be one task for touch. Maybe one of the containers could be for holding the river rocks. That would give the children more pinching or gripping practice.

Using the hole-puncher to identify and match insects could be in a station right next to this one. The hole-puncher involves eye-hand coordination and gripping strength.

Get little ones during their primary years of early learning involved in hands-on approaches like a sensory explore station that develops their small motor skills and cognitive intelligence.

With a passion for ECE,
Becca S

Illinois certification endorsements:
Birth to Grade 3
FACS grades 6-12

and approval:
General science grades 5-8

Preschool Science and Fine Motor Skill Development through Land vs Ocean Sensory Bin

Welcome to Becca's Heart for Early Childhood Education blog! I'm Becca S. This posting will be to share a great science sensory bin idea that can be used for Earth Day or at any time throughout the year when you want your littles to distinguish that the Earth has 2 basic 'parts' to its surface--land and ocean.

The colors blue and green are going to be color codes for this sensory bin:

Above: this photo shows the supplies I'm going to use: purple plastic bin to hold everything; sorting cups for each color/Earth part; and small items to sort out into either bowl; crimped gift bag filler to help fill the bin; blue and green glass beads that are found in the flower arranging/crafting supplies at different stores; and some glitter painted foam 'berries' that are used as well for sorting or not sorting.

I always like to give young children a push or should we call it a puzzler to their young cognitive skills and purposely ask or point or include something that doesn't belong. In this case, it is the lavender/grape colored foam 'berries'. The children shouldn't be putting these into either bowl. Take time for teacher talk and ask the children about 'blue' water. If they haven't been to an ocean, ask about a river that is near where you all live. Maybe your area has a lake that is popular. Same for the 'green' land. Ask if they know the name of their town, street, state, etc. Do they know the name of their country? Do they know that there are other countries?

A globe would be a great asset to have in your science explore station space. If you don't have a globe, maybe you can display a world map image that will show kids the different continents and oceans. Make sure to let them know where their country is and their location within the country on that image. Help them make connections. Earth Day can be about the very basics especially for young children's minds. Keep it simple.

Make sure children have several opportunities throughout a week to use this sensory bin. Older kids could have clip art images to sort of items that represent different waters and land features: pond, lake, river, mountain, hill, meadow, etc.

The children will be strengthening their fine motor skills by pinching the glass beads and blue 'berries' to pick up and place into the appropriate bowl. For the science skill development other than they are getting sensory/tactile/touching development, make sure there is an exchange of dialogue about land and water.

Teaching and learning in the USA heartland,
Becca S

Illinois teaching certifications:
FACS grades 6-12
Birth to grade 3/ECE

approval:
general science grades 5-8

Preschool Science and Motor Development Land vs Ocean Mammals Activity

Welcome to Becca's Heart for Early Childhood Education blog! I'm Becca S. Go to my previous post to learn more about some of my degrees and experiences in teaching. I love being creative and love learning and teaching! This activity involves one of my favorite cognitive areas-science!

In the USA, Earth Day is celebrated on April 22. So I have an animal themed activity that is designed to check whether your little ones understand that animals can live in different environments. Within those environments, their habitats can vary. Birds have nests in trees and bushes. Bears have caves. Bees have hives.

In the previous post I showed a small-ish tarp and this activity also uses a tarp. If you are using a large indoor space, a plastic tablecloth or shower curtain could also serve as your base.

Here's the 5.5' x 7.5' tarp bought for about $2.50 plus tax.

The other 2 major supplies for early science are foam puzzle pieces I found at Dollar Tree recently. And because they have a variety of topics I latched onto 2 sets that had land mammals and the other had ocean creatures. What great resources to help little ones build their cognitive knowledge about classes of animals! And the 2 major supplies that are mainly to be used as eye-hand coordination targets are the frisbee discs. 

The cool thing is that these flying discs are going to be your two-fer in this activity. Besides being the targets, their colors are going to serve as codes for green grass/land and blue water/ocean categories.

Land vs Ocean Mammals Activity=

Close-up photos of the puzzle pieces:

Before doing this gross motor underhanded tossing activity please take time to have circle group or table meeting and discuss each animal featured. The land mammals show just the faces but there are distinguishing body parts that you can emphasize: whiskers, snouts, snout, tusks, mane, and more to point out and ask children questions on.

The ocean animals have tentacles, claws, tails, arms, and other characteristics to draw focus about. The gull can be set aside and used as a challenger puzzler mystery identifying question to the preschoolers. It's always good to stoke their curiosity and sense of mystery and wonder!

When you are ready for them to gather around the perimeter of the tarp, randomly go around and distribute the pieces. Before they can toss to "land" or "ocean" target, they have to say out loud what the animal name is and where it lives.

The eye-hand coordination building through this activity will also benefit the children as this skill is vital for writing and reading. Encourage children to toss their puzzle piece to hit the correct target.

For Earth Day let's encourage appreciation for all animals whether they live on land or in water!

Teaching and learning in the USA heartland,
Becca S

IL certification endorsements:
FACS grades 6-12
Birth to grade 3 ECE

and approval:
General science grades 5-8

Preschool Science and Motor Development with Bunny Inspired Activities for Indoor or Outdoor

Welcome to Becca's Heart for ECE blog! This post features a dual purposed activity to support science and motor development.

I'm Becca S, a teacher with both FACS degree/teaching experience as well as Elementary with Early Childhood degree. I have lead teacher daycare experience with 3-5+ year olds and private Christian kindergarten teaching  experience. After all those previous years, this winter and early spring, I applied and received ECE endorsement by ISBE (Illinois). Wahoo!! That's for Birth to Grade 3! I'm super excited about this. I took the professional exam and scored 278 out of 300 so I was stoked about that and then ISBE evaluated my transcripts and approved the endorsement. Yea!! Now that you know a little more about me, let's focus on the springtime idea for science and physical skills.

For the younger ECE children, providing a wide range of activities that can develop both fine and gross motor skills are very important. Fine or small motor are those finger gripping and pinching skills that help with holding a pencil, picking up tiny objects, and moving a paintbrush. Gross motor skills in this activity will mostly be arm movements like underhanded tosses. This activity can be used to let children share what they know about rabbits and bunnies OR the glass beads can be a color code for water and land features of the Earth's surface.

Earth Day option: Blue Beads are tossed at a distance after answering a question about water or oceans. A basic early content in science and particularly for Earth & Space Science is our planet Earth's surface is made of 2 parts: land and water. With older ECE children in 2nd grade and 3rd grade introducing them to the terms of continents and oceans will be cognitively more developmentally appropriate. With younger ECE children in the preschool to 1st grade range the Earth's surface should be referred to in terms of land and water. Each child can share where they've seen water: sink, bathtub/shower, garden hose, puddle, creek, pond, lake, river, and others.

Before sharing more of the educational components let's get this versatile location activity ready=

Set-up for this activity:

Have small tarp...will travel! If you have a large open indoor space you could use a tablecloth or shower curtain instead but a clean tarp could still be used inside.

This 5.5' x 7.5' was only about $2.50 with tax and coupon/sale at Harbor Freight Tools, so this was a great bargain multi-use purchase!

Below: Rabbit tray with green glass beads; read below for 2 options for usage:

Earth Day option: Green glass beads can represent land so before a child tosses a green glass bead she/he must share something found on land, a feature of the land portion of Earth. Children might suggest grass, dirt, hills, mountains, yard, and others.

Fine motor skill focus: As soon as I saw these Easter/spring rabbit deviled egg trays, I wasn't thinking food display but for the egg-shaped divots to hold marbles or glass beads or pom pons. At Dollar Tree was where I purchased these 2 trays and the flower arranging supply of decorative blue glass beads. Children can stand around the perimeter of the tarp. Remember the dimensions are small enough for this to be a good distance for this age group to get some underhanded and overhanded tossing practice (gross or large motor skills).

Bonus benefit: What is another HUGE important skill for writing and reading is the eye-hand coordination that the children will build when they are eyeing which tray to toss to and which divot might hold their glass bead!!! I LOVE a two-fer!!!

Animal focus: Science-wise, the teacher can guide questions not only about distance and range of motions but could have children take turns tossing AFTER they answer a science content question about rabbits. That would mean this would have to be a follow-up activity AFTER story time book(s) about bunnies. (Rabbits' babies are called bunnies. Rabbits can hop.)

Give each child in your group 5-10 opportunities before things get too wild or boring. When the trays and beads are collected back, have 1 final gross motor skill practice but this time for their legs by leading a bunny hop around the perimeter of the tarp!!!!

Oh what fun learning and acting like rabbits!  Be creative and resourceful. Look at household items differently and see how they can be used to help your little ones build physically and cognitively.

Teaching and learning in the USA heartland,
Becca S

BS Secondary w/ Home Economics proficiency
M. Ed. Elementary w/ ECE emphasis
IL endorsements: FACS grades 6-12, Birth to Grade 3/ECE
IL approval: General science grades 5-8

Constructivist science activities on ECE level with water concepts and nature table

photo from www.teachpreschool.org; retrieved online 5/4/2019


"Research and practice suggest that children have a much greater potential to learn than previously thought, and therefore early childhood settings should provide richer and more challenging environments for learning. In these environments, guided by skillful teachers, children’s experiences in the early years can have significant impact on their later learning. In addition, science may be a particularly important domain in early childhood, serving not only to build a basis for future scientific understanding but also to build important skills and attitudes for learning." from Karen Worth's article Fall 2010 "Science in Early Childhood Classrooms: Content and Process"

Science activities that allow children to explore and build their knowledge and skills is the premise for this post:

Examples:

1.  image from The Mailbox--2nd and 3rd grade level electronic newsletter--water depth and pressure experiment; place a soda 2 liter bottle with 2 holes taped over then filled with water and sealed into a tub kind of bin or pan; remove tapes at same time while asking the children to guess where the water will come from first; and ask them why it happened where it did

2. image from The Mailbox--2nd and 3rd grade level electronic newsletter--condensation phase of water cycle experiment; add water to the fill line on the cup; seal tight in the plastic bag; place in a window that gets good sunlight (solar heat); when will evaporation (and later--how much evaporates) take place...can children see the condensation?

3. the water station exploration activities photo is from www.nstacommunities.org; retrieved online 5/4/2019; children can explore gravity and flow; volume with different sizes of containers and funnels; even a sponge can be saturated and see how much can be squeezed out and measured

4. this next example is not to shame the website Education.com but to show how a worksheet can be the inspiration or springboard for a teacher to guide her/his children's curiosity 

Cut apart the images, laminate or place inside sealed clear plastic bags and display on a wall or tabletop where children can do sink and float comparisons. A bowling ball (pink item with 3 holes) is not practical for an indoor classroom environment so make that one a button; same for the log--impractical but a twig would be ideal; a small apple; a rubber duckie; key; and horseshoe magnet complete the list of items.

 A large clear storage tote filled about 1/3 with water should be enough to either suspend or not these objects.

 Place a large beach towel or shower liner underneath in case a child or two are exuberant with putting items into the water.

 Extend the exploratory time during the next couple of sessions by asking children for suggested classroom items to try. (crayon, pencil, wooden spool vs plastic spool; paper clips of different sizes; plastic lids; etc.)

My understanding and application of the constructivist theories in cognitive development is to allow children opportunities to explore and experiment with the teacher guiding and providing materials first. Then as youngsters are asking questions and showing desire to change, inspect, and analyze, vocabulary, facts, data, and skills can be shared later. For the above sink or float activity, gravity and buoyancy are large words for little ones. How can those be defined in basic terms?

Are daycare centers, preschools, and primary elementary grade classrooms still allowing exploratory learning?

Or has this disappeared under the 'umbrella' of testing and assessment?

Let me know in the comments on how early childhood science is approached.

From the USA heartland,

Becca S

Constructivist theory in ECE classrooms and is it still being used today

Recently I learned that the teacher education program at Ohio Christian University in Circleville, Ohio promotes Constructivist theory and practices. I was very excited to learn this because I really enjoyed researching about Jean Piaget and Les Vygotsky while getting certified for FACS and working on my master's degree that has an emphasis in early childhood education.

To start my research, I found an article that is a general overview about constructivist practice in the classroom:

https://classroom.synonym.com/childcentered-approach-early-childhood-education-8614207.html

From 2017, I have found a response article about an argument within constructivist theories pitting Dewey versus Freire, but the author favors using both:

https://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/learning_deeply/2017/07/dewey_and_freire_need_each_other_to_fight_a_greater_enemy_conventional_schooling.html


From 2011, this is another basic overview of how and why constructivism should be used in ECE classrooms. An important phrase that stood out for me as a good reminder of this theory was "trial and error":

https://www.funderstanding.com/theory/child-development/constructivism-and-the-developing-child/

Some blogs by teachers that I've enjoyed reading and following are:
a. Prekinders
b. Pre-K Pages
c. Skilled in Second
d. Not So Wimpy Teacher
e. Tara West's Little Minds at Work
f.  Preschool Plan It

*disclaimer: I'm not saying these all support constructivist theory however in the areas of science, math, social studies/community helpers, building, dramatic play, centers and tinkering trays, you will find great ideas. They also have electronic newsletter for updates and often have freebies

Another great teacher/classroom source for ideas come from The Mailbox. They have free electronic grade level newsletters; currently I'm signed up for the preschool age group and grades 2-3.

From Facebook, STEM Teacher Tribe is a great community to join. The grade levels vary but many K-4 and 5-9 as well as math specialists and science specialists, even some technology specialist teachers.

To fully follow constructivism, the teacher needs to be a facilitator and guide, the provider of a huge array of materials that children can explore, build, and collaborate with their peers whether it is putting together a tower, fort, bridge, ramp for cars, etc. Concepts and skills 'accountability' comes through conversations, before and after type KWL charts with either whole group or small groups of children that are interested in a certain topic, etc.

Educators: give me some feedback on your successes and failures with constructivism especially in today's divided school culture between heavy testing and objective stressing versus flexible individualism.

Still in love with all things ECE-related,
Becca S

ECE Food Crafting Experiences for preschool children to enjoy

Snakes?

Cars?

Spooky houses?

Sure! Sounds fun! 

What about to eat? huh? oh, no!!!!

Have a conversation with your group about frosting, candy, plastic knives, etc. are your tools for the activity and they are not to lick their fingers or knives while assembling your food creation. As one who did food experiences exactly like these with 3s, 4s, and 5s and also as a certified grades 6-12 FACS/home economics teacher with 9 years experience teaching culinary arts, please make sure to find ways to involve each child and have all supplies available and near the work area before beginning. Those little ones will be bouncing up and down in their chairs!!! They will be so excited!

These photos are not from my experiences with preschool but have been gleaned from the internet and look more professionally done than what finished food crafting with little ones will look like. Don't fret, however. In their eyes, they've helped create a masterpiece and they will also just as quickly will want to eat and destroy it. 

That's half the fun, I think. The other half is the playful learning and building of skills that will be occurring. Fine motor skills will be strengthened when using plastic knives to frost or cut and when placing candy or cookie particles in different places. Safety concepts and skills will be reinforced when setting up and proceeding through the food crafting experience. Make sure to state real world science safety and observation skills connections while children are working. While eating, take time to question the children about sizes of different food pieces that were used for more math skills besides any measuring or counting while assembling.

Isn't this snake almost too cute to eat?!?!?! My four-year-olds did a snake or caterpillar looking creation using Twinkies for sections with green-tinted vanilla frosting to cover the outsides of each Twinkie. So each child got to unwrap one, frost it, and place it on the display tray.

Way back when working with three-year-olds for a pre-Father's Day activity, we crafted a car using a purchased pound cake for our base with a little bit of carving out, a blue-frosted graham cracker became the front windshield, and we also had chocolate-covered mini doughnuts for tires. Our car's exterior was red-tinted frosting. And I think we had black string licorice pieces to resemble wipers for our front windshield!

This is a yummy chocolate-y haunted house! Working with a group of 3 1/2 year olds, our spooky dilapidated house was made with a purchased pound cake, Swiss Cake Rolls or Ho-Hos for corner type rounded towers, crumbled Shredded Wheat cereal for dried grass, malted milk balls served as decorative stone pieces to top the corner towers, and a chocolate frosted sugar wafer cookies for the front door.

Remember with this type of food crafting of desserts, frosting is the "glue" to hold all your bits and pieces together...well, at least long enough hopefully to snap a picture and hear the oohs and ahs from the children!!!

Another tip is don't be a perfectionist when food crafting with early childhood learners. This is a playful learning opportunity for them to build fine motor, math, and science skills.

ECE weather symbols and name alliterations

Social-emotional development= check

Sounds and letters with alliterations= check

Weather unit for early science learning= check

Another idea from my daycare employment years about 17-21 years ago that is still brilliant and super easy to implement. I did this with 4s and this simple idea was such a treat for them that they spent the rest of day wanting to be re-introduced to everyone with their new names! So here were a few weather symbols that were creatively used:

Lightning Lucas

Sunny Sara

Windy Will

and then for me

Rainy Rebecca

There were more children in the group, so more weather symbols to adopt and name tags to make. Self-images and confidence blossomed right before my eyes. The children's chatter centered around weather terms and symbols led to interesting discussions and expanding the theme for a few extra days due to their enthusiasm. Hurray for science! Reviewing some of the alphabet through the first letters of each child's name plus mine was cleverly achieved with the alliteration. Win. Win. Win. 

ECE Food Experience for Jams and Jellies

J is for jam. J is for jelly.

Yum! A delicious activity that combine early math and science concepts of graphing and evaluating through taste.

peach preserves = orange construction paper

grape jelly = purple construction paper

strawberry jelly = red construction paper

apple jelly = yellow or amber construction paper

These are the 4 choices I have used that get great participation from all the students. It also helps to have 4 so that their slice of toast or fresh white bread can have a teaspoon of a different one in each corner.

Supplies:

*simple graphing worksheet

or large easel paper and marker to create a large class graph (if so, student name should be on their paper squares)

*1 construction paper square of each color of jam/jelly for each child

*adhesive (glue stick or tape)

*plastic spoons (4)

*plastic knives (# of children in your group)

*1 jar peach preserves

*1 jar grape jelly

*1 jar strawberry jelly

*1 jar apple jelly

*paper plates to help contain crumbs and sticky mess (# of children in your group)

*container of wipes to also help with sticky messes

*toaster, unless your kitchen cook is able to toast bread for your group (safety-wise, remember if used in classroom, it should be placed high on a counter away from where the children are sitting)

*white bread slices (# = # of children in your group)

I think that's it. I've done this with 4 year olds and I've even done a variation with 7th graders in an introductory FACS class.

New ECE classroom to get ready for 2017-2018 school year

Hired 4 days ago!!! very small Christian elementary school as PK3-PK4-K5 room teacher!!! I've been teaching FACS to middle school and high school level students for most of the last 9 years; however with a M. Ed. in Elementary Education degree with an ECE emphasis and previous teaching and work experience in daycare preschool age classrooms and a Christian school kindergarten classroom about 20-25 years, this is a refreshing change!

Yes!, so far total enrollment is 7 possibly an 8th child and the options will keep me busy keeping lesson plans and their curriculum organized. I have one 3 yr. old coming on Monday A.M., two 4 yr. olds coming all five A.M.s, one 4 yr. old coming 2 days per week on Monday A.M. and Wednesday A.M. and so far three 5 yr. olds coming all full 5 days per week (possibly one more kindergartner that the office is aware of). Crazy!!!

In order not to go super wacko in the next 3 weeks, I decided to keep the bulletin board décor that was already up. It would not have been my pick, but I'm going to make it work and also see what I can find in storage to fit the "animal"/jungle theme. I've found a frog theme weather chart kit in the closet. A lion! Lots of dinosaurs. Monkey cut-outs and a monkey piñata. Zebra print and jungle leaf bulletin board paper backing. And bulletin borders in cheetah, leopard, leaf, and African print.

I've worked in the classroom on Monday which was mostly assessing the room's contents and today/Wednesday with my husband to use his brawn to move furniture around and some of the wall décor items. I'm going to do my best to show similar sections of the room with the 'before' photo and the 'after' photo. Keep in mind this is still a work in progress:

Area 1: across from entrance door, looking at coat hooks and teacher desk area=

before (I felt the coat hook/backpack area was too crowded)

before (also I believe the ABC rug needs to be moved to the alphabet/writing/pre-reading area; AND the 2 tables right in front of the teacher's desk--ugh!)

after (cleaner look already! hubby moved big blocks and the covered up Lego table to a new spot and the games and puzzles on the light blue bookcase got moved into the storage closet with the bookcase getting a new location...and this section already looks more accessible--yea!!!)

after (the easel used to be at the other end near the alphabet/writing/reading zone and the kidney table was over in front of the "math" board; I'm going to use the easel to place a morning greeting but it will be used by children throughout the day and the kidney table is covered with stack of items that need to be laminated and others that need a home. The big brown item is wood grain contact paper on the side of a filing cabinet that used to be just inside the entrance. It is now topped with dinosaurs and a globe.

before (these desks were close to the teacher's desk and will be moved about 2+ feet to the right as shown; notice opposite up on the metal there are shape cut-outs and color crayon cut-outs! These are getting moved to the math/calendar zone.) Oh! We found out about a free couch with 3 toss pillows that had to be moved out of someone's garage, so my husband asked for it to be used as a new student reading spot!!! Hubby and one of his buddies loaded it up last night and we cleaned it up and moved it into the classroom today!!!!

after (Here's the couch! Doesn't fit the jungle animal theme but the unstuffed lion pillow 'pet' was found folded up and got a new home. Maybe one of these days I will buy a tan throw or piece of fake fur to put under the lion to cover up more of the blue plaid. And notice the new home for the light blue bookcase that use to be over by the student coat hooks. I've already put science theme books on it like "I Spy", Eric Carle's "The Grouchy Ladybug", "The Very Quiet Cricket" and "The Hungry Caterpillar".)

before (alphabet zone in background will get a new look--yellow tables get moved to the math/calendar zone and the kidney shaped table in the foreground got moved near the teacher desk. Notice the corner of a student desk because remember those are getting shifted over more to allow room for that free sofa!)

after--sorry, I just realized that I didn't take a better placement photo of the 4 student desks or the new home of the ABC rug. I will have to take those photos on Friday and make it the next blog post. OKAY--this divider was originally about 2 feet perpendicular from this location and had nothing on either side. I found more of the jungle leaf bulletin board paper in the storage closet along with 4 new packages of borders and recruited my husband for additional help today to use his staple gun and get this new created bulletin board to cover about 70% of this side of the divider. Student desks are in groups of two perpendicular to the divider and then also to the sofa.

Now we will shift to the other side of the divider and some of the before and after:

before (alphabet zone on left; Bible zone on right; behind the easel is a cabinet filled with writing supplies like student size dry erase boards, erasers, pencils, glue, and more as well as phonics charts; there is also a big book rack behind or to the right of it. Remember the easel gets a new home down by the teacher's desk and those yellow tables are going to shift about 4-10 feet away in front of the math/calendar/science wall.)

before (panning more to the right of the Bible area--the rug gets moved by the new kidney table and easel area by the teacher desk; the black corner chair and lion get moved to the free sofa area in order to move the overhead cart [not shown yet] to the corner and the sensory table [also not shown yet] gets a new home in front of the science/calendar board areas)

after (science/calendar/math boards are on the right with the sensory table, 2 yellow tables, and 1 of 2 tables that had it's old home in front of the teacher desk! Now I can have all 7-8 children in this area or options to have all 7-8 on the ABC rug or grouped within the student desks, sofa, and black curved chair area. Lots of options! Even the kidney table isn't that far from the student desks, so I can work individually or with a pair while the others are engaged nearby!)

The blue pocket chart is getting moved. The magnet board only moved about a foot from where it was. (to the left of the edge of the blue pocket chart and sort of hidden behind stacked chairs).

after (I'm not thrilled with this arrangement yet, but I wanted to get the shapes and colors moved over to what's going to be the calendar/math section of this wall. Items on table have to find new homes. Again, still a work in progress. Oh! I was excited to find in the teacher desk labeled photographs for the AM  schedule. I placed them in order across the bottom of the board. The previous teacher had magnets on the back of  all these items so relocating them was very easy!!!)

Next will be the last photo showing the new location from the Lego and plastic blocks:

after (this area by the entrance used to have a filing cabinet and sensory table; now it is a building center!)

The birthdays are still posted with last year's group, so that will have to be updated before August 16. The wall space to the right is vertically narrow with the storage closet door just to the right of what's the photo edge. I would like to put some inspirational photos of monuments, towers, bridges, etc. on that space and change them every 2 weeks or so to keep the students' interest fresh for this aspect of STEM.

Hope you didn't get bored with this super long post about my new home away from home! It's already exciting for me to see this over-full room and closet find new invigoration and creativity in use of the physical environment. I still have lots to do--lots to sort, organize, maybe toss, maybe recycle, etc.!

Teaching in the heartland of America,  Becca