Growing in Pre K

I keep getting great emails from teachers signing up for the Gingerbread Exchange.  Several of you have asked where I got the U.S. map pictured.  It is a fabric piece I purchased at JoAnn's Clothworld years ago.  It was in the area with the ready to sew baby quilts. I have also seen them on ebay and Amazon.com.  Here is a link to one place on Amazon that has one.  I did not check shipping, etc. to find the best deal.  I do love the pictures that relate to the var...

The Gingerbread Exchange is off to a great start!  In one day, we already have over fifty classes participating.  I love hearing from so many of you who read this blog, but are usually very quiet.  I am so excited about how many of you are looking forward to the exchange because your students and families enjoyed it last year.

I just purchased some adorable Thanksgiving clipart from Creative Clips (the same artist who did the cute monster under the bed graphics).  I ...

I am going to organize a Gingerbread Man Exchange again this year.  

Here's how it works:

This exchange is open to Pre-K, preschool, and kindergarten classes only.  (Homeschoolers of the same age group are welcome).

If you want your class to participate email me at [email protected] by midnight Saturday, November 10, 2012.  I will ONLY be including emails that are sen...

GrowinginPreK is having a Lakeshore software giveaway HERE.  Please visit!

Good Luck!

I have had lots of emails about the Gingerbread Exchange.  Yes, I will be organizing it again this year.  I will post all the details on Thursday, November 1.  

I have also had lots of questions about the pumpkin growing project.  I am doing it in my own classroom for the third year in a row.  We have LOTS of sprouts again this year.,  I am going to try planting it in a pot this year.  I don't really have room, but I get so many questions about whether...

Wow - the GrowinginPreK Facebook Page now has 600 Likes!  To celebrate -I have just added some FREE Community Helpers Printables to my Teachers Notebook Shop.

There is an "I have..Who has..." game

and a set of word wall cards.  I plan to use the word wall cards to have the kids play charades during our Community Helper...

One of my favorite Early Childhood Blogs is Mrs. Goff's Pre-K Tales.

Mrs. Goff participated in a fun Pay It Forward activity where she received a package from a blogging teacher and then Mrs. Goff "paid it forward" by sending a package to three more blogging teachers.  The packages contain books and materials relevant to the place where the sender lives.  

Lucky for me....Mrs. Goff lives in Pennsylvania. ...

Here's a FREE printable game to help young learners put the numbers one to twenty in the correct order.  Players take turns choosing a numbered candy corn piece and the first to fill his/her board wins.  There are two different versions of the board depending on whether your students will need to have numbers to match or not.

Just click on the pictures to take you to my Teachers N...

I have added a 69 page printable file to my Teachers Notebook Shop.  It includes loads of cowboy, ranch, or rodeo themed books, songs, games, puzzles, and more to use in your classroom.  

My school purchased this set of letter vests for our classroom this year.

I have been a Shutterfly junkie for years.  Each year I set up a Shutterfly classroom share site for my classroom  families to join.  They choose their own passwords to see pictures that I upload of the students in action.  I am always hearing from grateful parents who tell me that they love this glimse into their childrens' school day adventures.  So much of what we do in Pre-K (science experiments, dramatic play, construction, and on and on...) doesn'...

I used to blog about things that happened in my classroom, ideas that worked...or didn't...  It has been a while since I have written that kind of post...but today was that kind of day...so here goes.

I tried a dice game as a "math station" today.  I found the free printable HERE and my students really enjoyed playing it.  The funny thing that happened was ...

Do your students love the book Rhyming Dust Bunnies as much as mine do?  My class just can't get enough of them.  

Yes, I'm cutting this a little fine....Monday is the first day of October...

I have uploaded FREE printable owl calendar numbers to my Teachers Notebook Shop.  

The owls are in three colors in an ABC pattern.

Have a great weekend!

Here are two free treats (a little early for Halloween):

(1)Treat is offering a free greeting card (for any occasion) to everyone today.

Whether you need a personalized card for a birthday,  anniversary, or for any of the hundreds of occasions on Treat's site...or even just to say hello, you should check out this offer.

...

I do!

Here's a new FREE printable that you can download at my Teachers Notebook Shop.  It is a bingo game to practice recognizing the numbers 1-15.  If you happen to have a 1/2 inch circle paper punch, it will be perfect for cutting out the "pepperoni" pieces. You could also just use the 1/2 inch punch on red construction paper.

Click on any of the pic...

Take away stories like the "The 5 Little Owls" are such a great way to introduce children to the concept of subtraction.  They are having so much fun that they don't realize they are learning.  That's my favorite kind of teaching.... so I have made a printable emergent reader of the 5 Little Owls.  Included in the printable is a Five Frame math mat so each student can manipulate their own five owls as they listen to the story.  There is also a roll and cover dice game and ...

A couple of years ago I added a little soil to a pumpkin pie pumpkin, it sprouted, and lots of you found this website/blog through Pinterest.  Here's the original photo:

  and here are links to that project:

The Original Pumpkin Post

Flowers

We do the "My Family" theme early in the school year.  I have the kids bring in a photo of their families and we graph how many people there are in our families.  Drawing our families can be challenging this early in the school year.  I thought it would be fun to give them stick figures to color to represent the members of their families.  I could not find exactly the clipart I had in mind, so I created my own.  I am pretty pleased with myself right now, since my prev...