The Lorax

Have you seen "The Lorax" movie yet?  My mom & I took Noah to see it a couple of weeks ago and we all loved it!  I know Dr. Seuss week is way over, but if you need some fun stuff to do at the end of the year  in your classroom or at home with you own kiddo's.  Take a look at these fun ideas...

Lorax Fruit Snack from Kitchen fun with My Three Sons

Lorax lunch idea from Little Nummies

Lorax cupcakes from Hoosier Homemade

Lorax party from Tonya Staab

free fun Lorax unit from 2 Teaching Mommies

I downloaded this unit to do with Noah and he loved it!  He asks every day, "Can we do more Lorax pages today?"  

Here he is doing the Truffula Tree Size Sort!  Notice how he is lining them up in exact straight lines?  Poor little guy, he inherited his Mommy's perfectionist side!  

Just thought I would brag on his name handwriting!  Minus the squiggly line at the front (where he messed up and got pretty upset), it's pretty good, I think!  :)

Have a fun weekend, friends! :)

Today's Spooktober Guest ~ The Moffatt Girls & A Winner

Spookober Greetings to Everyone!

This is Annie Moffatt from The Moffatt Girls Blog!  I feel so honored to be guest posting for the WONDERFUL ladies from Frogs, Bees and Under the Seas!  Thank you so much for asking me:)

As a stay at home Mommy of two little girls (2 and 4 years old), I love to make learning FUN!  Play dough is fun and so easy to make that we usually make it every month!   This month we decided to make some Pumpkin Spice Play Dough for our Fall learning experiences.  Ready to make some yummy smelling Play Dough?

Ingredients: 

* 2 Cups flour  * 2 Cups warm water

* 2 Tbsp. cooking oil * 1 Tbsp. cream of tartar 

 * 1 cup salt  * red + yellow food coloring = orange

* pumpkin spice

Mix the water and the food coloring together.  Add the other ingredients to a pan and mix in water.  Cook on medium to high heat and stir until play dough thickens and forms into a ball.  Kneed for a couple of minutes.  That's it!  You can store in a plastic bag or container and it will last a long time!

Since dramatic play is so important in a child's life, the girls love making pumpkin pie straight from their little kitchens.  Notice the cute little crimping on the edges:)

Little hands can roll the Play Dough into snake like pieces and form the letters needed to make these Fall words.  Click {HERE} to get your free printable!

This Color-by-Number printable is also a fun way to learn Fall words!

I hope you continue to FALL into more Spooktober ideas from Frogs, Bees and Under the Seas!  Thanks again for asking The Moffatt Girls to guest post:)

Wow, Annie!  How trick-or-treat-SWEET of you to offer such fun freebies!  Thank you so much for being our guest today!  Go visit The Moffatt Girls for some awesome ideas (and amazing pre-K curriculum)!  :)


AND...the winner of our LIL' BOO Digital Party Collection is...hlr2482, comment #21!  

Congratulations!!!  Please leave us a comment with your email address & we'll get your prize to you asap! :)

Today's Spooktober Guest: Cache Mama

Hello, I am Lori from Cachey Mama's Classroom. I would like to thank all 3 of the authors at Frogs, Bees and Under the Seas for the opportunity to write a guest post for them! It has been a while since I have actually done much for Halloween with my preschool class. The last 2 years I have worked for Head Start where they don't allow us to celebrate holidays, so I had to think back to some ideas I used to do at my previous center. Here are just a few things I came up with.

GOING BATTY

Here is a bat decoration that I made with a toilet paper roll. This is really easy to do and can be hung up around the room from the ceiling for Halloween parties or gatherings.

TIME TO GET MESSY!

Get some of the tiny little mini pumpkins and cut the tops off. Let the kids sift through the pulp to gather all the seeds. Save the seeds to count and then make a graph of how many seeds we found in each pumpkin.

Use paper cutouts in the shape of a seed to make a picture graph. Lastly, have the children compare the numbers of seeds found in each pumpkin. As an extension, you can measure each pumpkin to get the diameter and see if there is a correlation between the size and the number of seeds it has.

PUMPKIN TOSS

We have done this activity for a few years and it is especially good for parties or other events such as a fall fair where you have stations set up. A Jack-O-Lantern bean bag toss. I just cut this from butcher paper, laminated it and attached it to a cardboard box that I also cut holes in.

You can use any bean bags. Either take some from another game you have or make some festive ones like the ones pictured below from Ms. Carlie's Little Learners. No rules or points, but if you want, you can have some science inquiry questions ready to ask them if they get their beanbag through the hole.

PARTY SNACKS

Here's a tasty, healthy snack that is nice and easy. Little ones will love these eyeballs. I have made these and they are yummy!

Happy Halloween to you and the kiddos in your class!

***Great Halloween-y ideas, Lori!  Thanks so much for being our guest today!  Lori has some awesome ideas for teaching preschoolers on her blog!  Be sure and pay her a visit soon!***  

Friday Freebie {9-11}

This coming Sunday marks the 10th anniversary of the terrorist attacks on 9-11.  I still remember vividly where I was when the attacks happened.  

I was student teaching at the time and my kids were in specials.  I was in the library with my Mentoring Teacher watching the horror unfold on the TV screen.  I was teaching 3rd grade and my mentor said that we weren't going to tell the kids, so I tried to pull it together in a hurry.  Then, just as we had gotten the kids back to their seats, a parent volunteer came storming in and asking us (in a very loud voice) if we knew about the plane crashes.  So much for our plan...we had to tell the kids (a brief version) about what had happened.  We felt like their parents could explain in more detail if they so desired.  


I will NEVER forget the looks on their 8-year-old faces (confusion, fright, sadness).  I knew what I was feeling and it had to be quadrupled for them!  Anyway, I asked my mentor if I could plan a lesson/craft based on what had happened for the next day.  We were all going to remember this and I felt like we needed to help the kids understand.


So,  I made a huge flag out of butcher paper to hang in the hallway.  Then, I asked the kids to draw something about the events of 9-11 on white paper and also to write one word about the day on a star.  This is how it turned out. (I apologize for the terrible quality of these pics ~ camera technology sure has come a long way in 10 years.)

The next year, when I had my very first class of Kinders, we made a hand-print flag out of a sheet that I will forever cherish and display proudly in my classroom!

For today's freebie, I saw an awesome idea for a 9-11 family project at What the Teacher Wants.  It may be better for older kids, but I'm sure you could adapt it for those little ones!

I am so grateful today for all the heroes of that terrible day...firefighters, police, & the people of NYC!  I'm also grateful for the soldiers who fight daily to protect our country from anything ever happening like this again!  Please say a prayer for those out there directly impacted by that day, who lost loved ones, and still miss them beyond measure.  WE WILL NEVER FORGET!!!   

Just so I don't leave you feeling depressed (like I am right now after writing that), I do have some good news today!  My APPLE FUN UNIT is done and ready for purchase in our Teacher's Notebook Shop.  It is 26 pages for Pre-K, K, & 1st and includes...

As usual, we are having an introductory sale (15% off) from today (9-9) till next Friday (9-15).  Hurry...you don't want to miss all the apple-y fun!    Click HERE to view!  :)  Ta-ta for now! 

Blogiversary Giveaway Winner & My Home Preschool Room

WOW!!!  Thank you so much to all of you who sent us well wishes congratulating us on ONE YEAR of blogging & left us so many sweet comments!  We love sharing our teaching journey with all of you!  


So, the winner of my Back to School Unit and Chicka Chicka Boom Boom Unit is...

Congratulations, Mrs. Richling, check your email for your prize!!!

Both the Darling Dolphin and Queen Bee are busy getting ready for their kindergarten kiddos to come into their classrooms this week. Yesterday was my very first day of "Flight Preschool" with my little one!  I have spent countless hours transforming my playroom into a make-shift school room and I am very pleased with the outcome!


I woke up, however, with a severe migraine on our first "school day," and Noah came bouncing in our bedroom bright and early yelling, "Mommy, I'm ready for school!"  It warmed my heart!  If only my heart could have cured my head! ;)


I braved my aching head & had so much fun (along with a few challenges...he's only 3 after all) teaching my sunshine!


I thought I would share the pictures of our school room with you.  ***Warning: you are about to be overloaded with pictures...sorry, but I just had so much to share!***


Our Sight Word Caterpillar: we will add a new word each week.  If you want a caterpillar for your very own, it's available HERE in our shop!

My new ABC & number posters look great on the wall!

I found these shapes and colors posters at Dollar Tree.

our Raising Rock Stars focus board

I made this F.L.Y (Filled with Learning for You) notebook for Noah.  I'm using it to hold all the pages from my units in sheet protectors.

Then, Noah can use dry-erase markers to write on the pages.  That way he can do them more than once and I can keep them at the end of our study.

I had to show you a pic of my cute lesson plan notebook...I hadn't made one of these in a long time!

On this shelf, I used my Dollar tree fabric boxes to store all of my manipulatives for each month.  I've been collecting things for a year!

I labelled each box with the month name.

Each week, Noah will have three Tot Trays with activities to do that match our theme (right now it is Back to School).  

I put up a short rain gutter bookshelf outside Noah's room for our seasonal and theme books.  He LOVES it!  :)

Our Morning Board is actually the door to Noah's Play/School Room.  We do weather and calendar here every morning.

I found this magnet board with a border of cork at Target & I love it.  I make a magnet board activity each week for Noah to enjoy!  This one is in my Back to School Unit.

Here's my desk.  It used to be my Assistan't desk in my classroom, but I have always loved it because the colors make me happy! :)  The chair was a flea market find, complete with feathers, glitter, and beads (oh my)!  

These stacked sliding trays are from Ikea and I'm using them to store the pages that need to be laminated or assembled.  On the top tray, I made folders for each day of the week.  I downloaded the cute labels from Lesson Plan SOS that I attached with clear contact paper.

This cabinet holds all of my craft supplies and teacher materials.  

The side door is made for cassette tapes (I know, I know, I'm old,  right?!?)  I found small plastic baskets at Dollar Tree that fit perfectly to store my collection of ribbon.  

My Cricut and Laminator live on top of the cabinet, along with a wooden organizer I found at Michaels about 2 years ago for 50% off.  

I'm keeping Noah's extra school supplies in the organizer right now.

Here's Noah's Raising Rock Stars Notebook, which I love because it also doubles as a Memory Book for his first year of preschool!

Whew, ok...I think that's all for now!  I wish all of you the best as you start the new school year, with a room full of bright-eyed little ones, ready to learn and excited about having YOU as their teacher!  Good luck, my sweet friends!  :)