Bunnies, Chicks, and Eggs!

It's time to link up with Doodle Bugs Teaching for the weekly Five for Friday link party!

Bunnies, chicks and eggs were all a part of our learning activities during this week before Easter.

Plastic eggs were used for a language game.  Each egg contained a multi-step direction or a 'wh' question.  The learners chose an egg from a basket, and then either answered the question or followed the directions given.  

Other learning activities included matching shape bunnies to shape carrots, and

 matching egg halves to find sets of rhyming words.

After reading 'There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Chick', I put the EQ on the team board from my 'Old Lady Chick' pack.  

Each little learner had a copy on a clipboard and colored or circled the answer.  

It was a great way to assess comprehension of the story.

We also used fuzzy baby chicks to practice sorting and patterning.

After using the chicks to make a pattern, the pattern was colored in on paper.

For my learners who had difficulty extending the patterns on their own, I used the baby chicks to follow the pattern on the paper.  It seemed to really help them pick up the concept with the hands on practice.

Something new I tried this year ended up being a favorite during center/free choice time.  The sweet ones took turns hiding eggs for each other, and then finding them.  There wasn't even anything in the eggs, but they didn't care!  They had just as much fun hiding the eggs as finding them.  I will do this again, for sure.

Of course, we did have a real hunt!  By that time, they were real pros.  :)

I finally finished my 'Pirate' pack and put it in my TPT store.  You can find it HERE.

Look for my Bunnies, Chicks, and Eggs pack to be available soon.

I'm officially on Spring Break!  Woo, hoo!  I'm sure next week will fly by, but I'm super excited about not having to wake up to an alarm for a few days anyway. 

Leprechaun Shenanigans!

 Irish blessings to all!  St. Patrick's Day is one of my favorite 'holidays'.  My little ones are at a perfect age to do so many fun things with.  This week we were all about green, shamrocks, and leprechauns! 
I'm linking up with Doodle Bugs Teaching to share our shenanigans.  :)

 Our learning included sorting shamrocks by color for the younger lads, reading color words, and identifying the letters in color words for my older leprechauns.

 For math, we counted coins, and after adding magnetic tape to the back,

we used them in this 10 frame fun…….

  Rainbows were cut apart and matched according to upper and lowercase letters.  We even matched up partners for additional activities by the friend with the corresponding letter of the alphabet.

We made leprechaun hats by bingo dotting orange the outside of a paper plate.

Then we attached a hat and sentence strip.  Isn't this little sweetie adorable?!?!

 After reading 'The Night Before St. Patrick's Day', my sweetie pies decided to make their own leprechaun traps.  I was super impressed with their planning of the traps.  They added gold coins to entice the leprechaun.

 Some chose legos, while others used blocks, and….

 Magna Tiles (a class favorite)

 Well, imagine their surprise {and excitement!} when the next morning the traps were destroyed, the gold was gone, and a leprechaun had not been caught!

After deciding the leprechaun was a wee tiny thing, they got serious with their traps!

They even created special glasses to help see him!

 {Kinda like super spy glasses that magnify everything and give you x-ray vision!}

 The traps became more elaborate.

 And, guards and reinforcements were brought in!

Well, darn the luck, the sneaky leprechaun was never caught, but he did provide lots of clues for us to follow.

Where he left use a special treat of rainbow licorice and gold wrapped candies.

Maybe next year we will have better luck!

What did you do to celebrate St. Patricks's Day?  

Arrrrr You Ready for Some Pirate Fun?

Pirates is an all time favorite theme in preschool {for both teacher and students alike}!  Our week was filled with plenty of fun and meaningful learning activities.  I'm linking up with Doodle Bugs Teaching to highlight our week.

What's pirate play without a ship?  

These little buccaneers LOVED the pretend pirate play.

Both sensory tables were converted into an opportunity to dig for gold and buried treasure.  Pouring and dumping is a great way to build strength and dexterity in the wrist and hands.

Letter stampers were also added to add a little alphabet play.

 To reinforce the concept of color matching with a fine motor twist, these treasure chests were backed with magnetic tape and used on cookie sheets.

The little mateys picked  up gems with bug catcher tongs and matched by colors.

Another activity was using the magnetic tape to back these shape treasure chests and jewels and then place them on our large magnetic divider.  I love using this divider during whole group instruction.  It makes it easier for everyone to see.

We counted using treasure chest ten frames and jewels,

as well as gold coins, and

small treasure chests.

Two littles played at a time.  They took turns rolling dice, and placing counters on the ten frames.  They compared numbers, decided how many more were needed to make ten, as well as who had the greater number.

For some alphabet practice, upper/lowercase letters were matched to letter sounds on a treasure map.  There's always something about drawing from a treasure chest that makes it a little more exciting.

The little hearties also practiced ordinal numbers by coloring pirate ship flags according to directions.

We made these adorable pirates to showcase our drawing and writing after reading 'How I Became a Pirate'.  They are totally getting the concept of adding text to illustrations, which helps with their bookmaking.

To help with the difficult task of following multi-step directions, we made these treasure maps.

Each little pirate decorated their own hat and looking glass…..

to take along as we went searching for some hidden treasure.

There were clues around the school,

which lead us right back to our room,

where everyone enjoyed their loot!

He's not a pirate, but we were super excited to have Mr. Matt {Glover} visit our room this week.  He's a treasure all his own!  I love all the lessons he teaches in such a non-threatening way.  This week, he taught the littles how to think through their drawings and to make them intentional.

He had this audience captured!

Now, a surprise for you!  Sunday {March 13th} is a special #SPEDDollarDeals sale on TPT!

I will have four of my products listed for $1.00, plus the rest of my store will be 20% off.  Lots of fabulous sellers will also have items for $1.00.  Be sure to check it out!!!

Thanks for reading!  Have a great day.  :)