Sneaking in the Learning! (Freebie)

I wanted to share with you how I sneak in learning during our free choice center time. Of course I set my centers up so that students are learning something at each one - whether it's developing fine motor skills at play-dough center or learning about symmetry and engineering concepts at our Lego table, each center is about so much more than "just play". But, sometimes a student needs practice on a  specific skill - something that requires 1 on 1 or small group intervention. The best way I've found to do this is by sneaking that skill into a center!

Sometimes this means going to Lego table and talking about letter names and sounds as I build the letters from Legos. The student invariably wants to see what teacher is building and we have a fun conversation as I reinforce a few letters via the blocks. Soon they're building their own letters - and brainstorming words that start with it!

Sometimes I might have to head over to the Pipe Builders and encourage some sorting and patterning - or even number building! 

Sometimes I get to indulge in some play-dough therapy while we create a pattern or count out how many "cookies" they have made me (thank goodness pretend cookies don't have calories!)

I try to meet the student at the center they've chosen, and just work a little extra learning into what they're already doing. Depending on the student it might be 5-10 minutes and then I move on. Sometimes they continue the activity after I leave, sometimes they've had their fill and they go back to their original play.

Sometimes though, I need a student in a specific center to practice an activity. I have a few little ones who are working on making sets. Rather than go to different centers and try to incorporate that skill into Home Living, Sand & Water Table AND whatever other center they choose, I create an activity that will be fun and engaging and set it up at Math or Letter Center. Generally, when I introduce something new, everyone wants to try it. So of course I maneuver it so that the students who need that particular skill the most get to choose their center first. The majority of the time they self-select the activity I wanted them to!
 
So today I introduced my Making Sets Snowmen - complete with sparkly star "buttons" (they're actually beads from Oriental Trading!). 

The object of the activity is to place the correct amount of buttons on each snowman, based on the number on their hat. This little friend gave the activity a big "thumbs up"!

All 3 of my "targets" voluntarily chose the center, as well as a handful of other kiddos. This is perfectly fine - it won't hurt them to reinforce the skill, and sometimes they can challenge themselves, like this little guy who created a pattern as he was making his set!

  If you want to grab these cuties, click here to download them for FREE! And then check out other Friday Freebies over at Teaching Blog Addict!

We also started doing a "Crash 'Em Up!" game at our Block Center. I have a few boys who really love that center and they could all use extra reinforcement with letters/sounds. So I created a fun activity with some simple wooden cubes I had lying around from who-knows-what-project. I wrote letters on them with a Sharpie and brought them to the Block Center is a little cup. I had the boys help me set up our trains on two hills and had them stack up 3 blocks at the bottom of each hill. Then I call out a letter, my boys point it out and then they get to send the correct train down its hill to crash into the letters! I caught it on video today:

The beauty of this activity is that I can change it depending on which kiddo comes to the center. For some that are still working on identification, I call out a letter name. For other kiddos I call out the letter sound, and with still other kiddos I can make cvc word towers and have them crash the train into the correct word.

Every time I do this, I'm reminded of those recipes that try to "sneak" veggies in so kids don't notice them - like pureeing carrots into spaghetti sauce! What's your favorite way to "sneak" in the learning?

Penguin Footprints

We made the cutest Footprint Penguins this week, and I had to share :)
I've seen them all over the place, but it took me a bit to figure out how to do them - I saw tons of pictures of finished products, but none of the actual process! I'm not sure if this is the way you're supposed to do it, but I found that if I actually painted the white on my students' feet, it wouldn't transfer to the paper unless they were exceptionally flat-footed.

We ended up painting the outside edges and toes of each child's foot and adding the white middle by hand.

The "flippers" are fingerprints!

We added "snow" by mixing shaving cream and glue. I either got the proportions wrong or using $1 Store shaving cream was a no-no because it didn't puff up as much as I remember it doing last year. (Yes, I've done shaving cream snow before and yes, I have no clue how I did it...my brain willfully withholds these kind of fun facts from me, just to watch me fumble I think.)

I allowed each kiddo to choose their own "beak" and googly eyes from a variety of shapes and sizes. I try to give them as much ownership as possible in these kind of projects so that we don't end up with 20 carbon copies.

They also got to paint as much "snow" as they wanted...some chose the straight line effect.....

Other penguins were experiencing blizzard-like conditions...

This sweet girl went for symmetry...exactly 5 snowflakes on either side of the penguin...

And this penguin is experiencing very localized weather...

And, as a warning, not all children are going to be thrilled about having their foot painted. Be prepared with an alternate version for those sweeties. This little guy thought I was completely nuts to want to put paint on his foot, but he was tickled to get his hand painted instead!

These sweet penguins are cheering up our hallway now, and everyone loves them. I can't wait to add our snowmen to them next week!

Bright Ideas!

I'm joining up with the Bright Ideas Blog Hop again today! I have two ideas to share with you today!

First up - getting the paper off of crayons! If your class is anything like mine, at this time of year the crayons are looking pretty sad - teeth marks, broken shafts and missing tips are par for the course...particularly at some tables. Not that I'm pointing fingers (blue table!)

There are all kinds of things you can do with those broken crayons. Like those lovely melted crayons projects. I'd show you one, but mine turned out to be more along the lines of Pinterest Fail than a piece of art. But, if you feel that melted crayons are in your future for whatever reason, you're going to have to nakify the crayons first.

Heck, even if you're out of new crayons and your students are going to have to make do with what they have until the last bit of scribble is choked out of each crayon nub, you're probably going to want to nakify your crayons anyways, just to cut down on the annoying scraps of paper that will litter your room as the children painstakingly peel each miniscule crumb of crayon. Sure you could probably get away with having your students tear the paper off all of the crayons as a "fine motor skill activity" but just in case you want a faster, neater way of doing it, here goes:

Yes, I sacrificed nice crayons for this. Yes, it hurt my teacher heart, but I actually ditched all of my yucky crayons before Christmas Break (although you really can't tell by looking in blue table's caddy).

Put your crayons in some type of watertight container. This gives you the added benefit of being able to clean out whatever container usually holds your crayons so you can find those odd manipulatives or game pieces that have been missing for weeks, not to mention the odd tissue or bandaid that didn't find it's way to the trash. Pour in enough water to cover the crayons completely and let them soak.
Soak for a while - the water has to have a chance to get through all of the layers of paper. I actually let mine sit for a while so that I could try to slide the paper sleeves right off the crayons:

Yes, they did multiply...what did you expect when you left naked crayons in a container by themselves?!

I'm planning to reuse them as "invisible" crayons on April 1st...

Now I just have a few random tidbits:

"I'm your teacher, not a dj." This is my mantra. At first I have to explain the concept of a dj, and how you can call in to request a song on the radio, and I have to repeat the mantra over and over in the beginning. But, eventually they learn that the best way to get me to NOT play their favorite Brain Break is by yelling it out at carpet. Quiet hands get their choice of song...unless I just feel like doing Pop See Ko again and exercise my prerogative as the Keeper of the Keyboard.

Vaseline & Q-tips - Do your kiddos have clown lips? You know, that ring of chapped skin around their mouths that is reminiscent of PennyWise from Steven King's "It". Or those tiny cracks in their hands from frequent flu-season hand washing? Banish the tubes of chapstick that they either a) eat or b) fiddle with constantly or c) lose every 5 minutes, causing them to panic. Get a tub of Vaseline (generic works as well) and some q-tips! If a child has chapped lips, dip a q-tip in the Vaseline and when they're done with it they dispose of it, keeping the Vaseline germ-free. A smidgeon of Vaseline on their little hands soothes dry skin without the sting of fragranced lotions. Also, the Vaseline doesn't taste good so they generally don't ask for it unless they really need it, unlike flavored lip balms which sometimes exacerbate the problem because they lick the taste off their lips so much! I keep mine in a basket along with some extra gloves for recess time.

Those are my tips for January! If you enjoyed this Bright Idea, please consider joining me on Facebook or TPT for more great ideas. For more Bright Ideas from a variety of other bloggers, please browse through the link-up below and choose a topic/grade level that interests you! 

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