A Little Different Post

The years are going by so fast. Every year that passes more and more things happen and technology grows. I'm 27 years old and I can even remember when gas was still not over 2 dollars and days were a lot simpler. And god forbid If I watch the news at night. Even though I still try to stop each day and think about what god has given us. I posted this video. A little change from my usual posts. I really love this song. And can relate to it a lot.

My boxes arrived

I received my free boxes that I ordered from the USPS site. The kids had so much fun. We made cars,a town village, and even a big mail box. My class zoomed around the room and played red light green light.

We used paper plates for wheels and coke caps for headlights. Then I tied a string for the kids to be able to wear their cars.

Here is our mail box. nothing fancy but they played for hours. I added small envelopes and they colored index cards to put in them.

Of course I can not leave out our little village. I even made roads out of electrical tape. The tape peels right off. If I new they like it so much I would of put it on our bigger fold up table.

Last but not least. I had to add my new reading center couch. I made it out of two crates. I sewed a pillow for top and two bandanna pillows. I added ribbon to tie pillow top to crates. I think it came out cute. I just need to buy matching buckets for the toys at the bottom.

The alphabet letters I had made out of scrapbook paper. I think this is all the updating I am going to do. Maybe.... Unless I see something cute on pinterest.

New circle time spots

Well we are updating our lesson plans. I been searching the web looking for new things. Seems like I'm always searching the web for new things. I'm writing lesson plans and gathering new projects for our themes like the kissing hand and All about me. So I been pretty busy. I still have time but I hate waiting until the last minute. I'm the kinda person that has to have it ready I can't run around with my head chopped off. I want to be able to sit down and relax with my class instead of worrying if I forgot something or what I'm missing. So just to let you know I might not be updating my blog as much. Until August that is. We will be starting our new school year off on August 27th. Yay!! Can't wait. Every Friday I will post what we did that week. But until then I am just doing classroom redecorating and organizing. I will post pictures or ideas that I come up with.

Here is one thing I always had trouble with. Circle Time spots. I have done everything. Used the white sticker labels with their names. Which all ways got sucked up by the vacuum, torn, or just messy looking. So then I started tapeing cute laminated pictures with their names on them. They lasted longer, but still got messed up due to traffic flow. My classroom is connected to the entrance door so basically when dropping off in the morning you have to walk through my classroom. So I kept thinking and thinking. I needed something that I can throw down when It was time. Then can pick up after. So I came up with this.

Small pillows. Perfect and cheep. Instead of buying fabric I bought Bandannas (So many different colors). I was able to make two out of one bandanna. So for 11 kids I only needed 6. Which made one extra. So total cost was 5.94. They can be cheaper if found at hobby lobby on sale. Fabric would be more expensive. Then I would have to figure out how many yard I would need. So I went the easy way. Just fold a bandanna in half long ways and cut. Now you have 4 pieces that makes two pillows. I lightly stuffed them to keep then thin but still fluffy. Now I can throw them down and have circle time. Not bad for almost 6 bucks. Beats the headache of changing stickers every two weeks and the almost 400 dollar circle time rugs. Another great idea if you want a rug. Sew together the square bandannas to make one.

Check back during the week I will post a picture of my new reading center. I made a bench out of crates and used bandannas and ribbon for some very cute pillows.

August Here I come

August is my favorite month. That means updated classroom, new lesson plans, and new kids to teach. The year has gone so fast. I will miss all the little rugrats I have now that's moving up to the prek class. I still get to see them everyday of course, because Prek is next door to me with big sliding windows. Every year within that first week of moving up I can see their eyes peeping over the windows looking into my class. Mad at me, because now there are new kids playing with their old toys. But after that week the eyes vanish, cause they found new and better things.

So I am changing up my class finding new ways to put things. Thanks to Pinterest. Gosh I love that site. To who ever made that site. I love you. You are my new best friend. I have made a new lesson plan sheet. Instead of me flipping and crumpling paper in a lesson plan book. I made one that helps me out a lot. I even put my own twist on it and made little circles. I gotta add my own cuteness to it.

Now I just printed it on card stock. The thicker paper. (Another one of my new best friends) Added it in a page protector and stuck it in my binder. I put everything in binders. I find it is the best thing that works for me. Let say this week we are on the letter A. I pull out my alphabet binder, Open to the A tab and there it is. I even stick project examples in there also. The assistant director and prek teacher always laughs at me when I buy a new binder. No name mentioned in case they read this, but they know who they are. If you are reading this, because of my binders, I can take out anything faster than you can. Yes I'm sticking my tongue out at you right now. Now who's laughing. Anyway

Here is an example of my abc binder. Nothing fancy.

Here I cut old folders I was not using in half, and punched holes for a divider. Of course I added a label with little circles.

Here I place my lesson plan in page protectors. Even all my worksheets and projects in one

Again nothing fancy but simple and organized. This is easier for me to take out than flip through folders in a file cabinet. Also everything stays clean and crumple free. But like I always say what might work for someone else might not work for you. Find something that works for you and stick with it.

Free Boxes

Who said you could not get anything for free. I just found out at USPS.com (United States Postal Service) You can order free boxes even shipping is free. They have all kinds and different shapes. I just ordered some for my class. We can paint or draw on them. Even stack them like blocks and make big towers. Can stuff them with newspaper to keep as blocks for the block center. I can't wait until I receive them. Yay!! Hour of fun for free. You bet I am going to take it.

Ways you can use boxes for fun.

1. Paint or drawing for the art center.
2. Smaller boxes can be stuff with noise makers. Beans, Etc.
3. Make drums with string attached for a marching band.
4. Make a car out of them. cut out top and let kids wear it for a race around the room.
5. Stack them and make a huge tower. Then let kids throw bean bags at them.
6. Stuff them with newspaper and keep them in block center
7. Color a house, store,trees, etc. Make a cool village theme for cars.
8. Have a drive in movie.

There are so many things you can make.

Picture found at declutterorganizerepurpose.wordpress.com

So always look around you are bound to get free things that you can reuse.

Solar System

This week we learned about space. The kids favorite of course was the rocket ship.

Monday we learned about the sun. One kid had to be a smarty pants. I asked what is big and yellow in the sky. One kid just had to scream out DINOSAURS!!!!! Then it took almost 5 minutes to calm all the kids down and stop talking about dinosaurs in space. So finally we got back on track. We learned about the sun and sun rays. For our project we took simple paper plates and colored them yellow. We also had a race to see who can color it all yellow first. Then we glued yellow triangles that I pre cut out of construction paper. Last but not least two googly eyes. They always make a project complete. Again as I mentioned before I dislike this camera.

Tuesday we learned the only way into space is on a rocket ship. So of course learning about space is not fun until we make rockets. We glued scrap construction paper pieces (Finally I was able to use them) on white construction paper then turned it over and glued cut tissue paper on the bottom. So when you roll it up the tissue is hanging down. For the top we used ice cream cone type paper cups. In our class we always fine new ways to use our left overs from other crafts. We ran out of time to paint the cups. So we decided to leave it that way. After dried the kids had a blast flying around the room.

This was a little messy craft with the paper. As you can see this is what our floor looked like afterwords. We did not stress out though. I told the kids we are going to have a pick up paper party. The after we are going to have a sucker. It only took 1 minute. I never saw my class move that fast before.

Wednesday- We learned about some of the planets and how they are different sizes. for our project we made earth mobiles. The planets we did might not be in order or right, but they are three year olds. They tried.

Thursday- We learned about astronauts, and how they wear spacesuits and space helmets. We made space helmets. The kids liked this project also. We just cut the paper plates. Colored them and then glued saran wrap on the back. (We were on a paper plate kick this week)

Fridays we have a review and free day. Usually they watch a movie while I clean and dust the classroom. Then Playtime and games.

My New Sensory and Art Center

Well I put my center together and the kids are loving it. Here are the pictures of my finished center. Just don't mind the photo quality and the wrong date. I don't like this camera.

It's nothing fancy, but it will work. Yesterday I put dry beans in the sensory table. Today I put Shredded paper. On the easel they colored with dry erase markers and stamps. At lunch time I noticed how much they liked the stamps. I saw stamps all over their arms. The little sneaks. Then I gave them chalk to draw on the black board side. Again they had a blast. Tomorrow I will try buttons and rice in the sensory table. Thursday I might freeze some ice cubes.

Friday I will post what we did during the week. We are on the solar system.

Shopping for Sensory and Art Center

This year I want more hands on and sensory learning. So what better way than to start with my art center. It is a plain center with a table and a shelf loaded with colors and other little hands on toys. So instead of just an art center I turned it into Sensory and Art.

I was walking through Walgreen's for an art easel, but found a small sensory table. I snatched it up of course, because it had a 15 dollar tag on it. It was suppose to be for 20.00. Sorry your fault Walgreen's. Yay!! Also it matched my chair I painted a month ago. Now my touch of ocd was kicking in. Awesome!!!

Of course I tested it out with the class I have now and they had a blast.

Also at a different Walgreen's I found an art easel and it was the last one.. The colors almost matched. It was marked for 20.00 this time. Ha could not be that lucky again. It did not have a clip to hold paper so I added a clip. Very easy. I just can't wait until I can put my new improved center together. I added two buckets for chalk and markers.

Always look around your daycare or school for things no one is using. You can find things to reuse in a different way. I found an old small dusty chalk board in the attic. So of course I snatched it up. I gave it some love and painted it matching colors. I can't wait to add it in my center. Also I got a sponge type mat to put under my sensory table from the baby teacher.

So far I have not broke my budget.

Sensory Table $15.00 (Thanks to Walgreen's mistake)

Matching chair $2.00 (Garage sale and repainted)

Sponge Mat Free (Thanks Ms. A in the baby room)

Dusty Chalk board Free (Thanks to who ever stashed in attic.)

3 year old's staying busy Priceless

I will put everything together Monday at work. Check back for the final picture.