Guest Blogger and a Freebie!

Today I am a guest blogger for Nicki from Mrs. Thigpen's Kindergarten.  Welcome, if you are coming over from her blog!   Your freebie is at the end of my post.  :)  Here is my guest post on Nicki's blog:
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Hi! It’s Lola from Preschool Wonders.  I am so excited to be a guest blogger for Nicki today.  I teach Early Childhood Special Education/Title 1.  My morning class is comprised of 3 and 4 year olds.  My afternoon class is made up of 4 and 5 year olds who will be going to kindergarten the following year.  I try to get my little learners as ready as I can for kindergarten.  I refer to CCSS for kindergarten often so I can at least try to expose my learners to what they will be expected to know the next year. As you can imagine (and probably not any different than a regular ed. class) my sweeties are all over the map with skill level.  I have one favorite activity that I do on the first day of school.  It’s pretty simple, and depending on what you want to add it can be useful for the remainder of the school year.  I have my students decorate placemats that are pulled out during snack time.  If you don’t have a snack time, you could pull it out just as a learning/personal reference sheet.  I do this first thing, since my kids don't get to school at the same time on the first day (busses run late, etc) I have my little ones them while we are waiting for everyone to arrive. I give them a piece of construction paper with their name and birthday on it and lots of fun stuff to glue on (like tissue paper squares, construction paper pieces. shape stickers, number stickers, etc). I laminate them and use them at snack time throughout the year. While they are eating snack I can do a quick assessment of one or two kids a day on shape, color, letters in name, etc. I encourage them to trace their names with their fingers while they are waiting for their snack or they are waiting for their friends to finish.  This year I am going to add little dots and arrows to help them know where to start the letter and what direction to go while tracing. They love the art activity on the first day of school and it keeps them busy while I am helping late arrivers get settled in. I then can use them the rest of the year. :).
Here is a picture of one I just put together as an example.

I like to have my sweeties tear the tissue/construction paper to add a fine motor element, as well {not an easy feat for most!} I made some items that you can give your learners to decorate their learning/placemats.

Click HERE or on the pictures if you would like a copy.

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Thanks and have a great day!