Lesson Planning with Me

Hello! I teach an integrated preschool classroom, which means I am responsible for students ages three to five with special needs of all types as well as typical developing students. My students range in ability from a toddler to a typical kindergartener. Therefore, my activities must be able to reach a wide range and be easily adjusted for multiple ability levels.

I created this blog as a way to keep track of the fantastic ideas I have gathered over the years. Because I just randomly add activities to the blog, use the search, standard list, or theme list on the left side to find the activities you are after!

I also create and sell resources that can be found at TeachersPayTeachers and Teacher's Notebook.

Sunday, December 16, 2012

Christmas Tree Number Assessment

From Making Learning Fun

templates

Christmas Science

I found this at PreKinders.

Density Experiment

[Science]
For this activity, you will need four small water bottles, four bowls, funnel, water, clear shampoo, clear hair gel, corn syrup, glitter in Christmas colors, and paper towels. Place water, clear shampoo, clear hair gel, and corn syrup in the four bowls. First, show children the bowl of water and allow each child to dip one finger in and gently stir the water. Give each child a paper towel for drying off their finger. Pour the water into one of the bottles using the funnel, add a pinch or two of Christmas glitter, and attach the lid. Ask the children to predict whether the glitter will move fast or slow in the water when you shake the bottle. Shake the bottle and set it on the table so everyone can watch the glitter move. Repeat this process with the shampoo, corn syrup, and hair gel. You can also have the children move their bodies as fast or slow as they see the glitter move in each substance. These bottles can be added to the science center for further exploration (add masking tape around the lid or hot-glue the lids closed).

Christmas Action Cards

Actions include:

Run like a gingerbread man.
Twist like a candy cane.
Prance like a reindeer.
Twirl like a snowflake.
Roll like an ornament.
Chuckle like Santa Claus.
Twinkle like a star.
March like a nutcracker.
Fly like an angel.
Spread your branches like a Christmas tree.
Sneak like an elf.
Melt like a snowman.


The Mitten

  This week, I started lesson planning using The Mitten by Jan Brett.  I love lesson planning around books.  The kids enjoy listening to the same story several times and then "reading" the story on their own later.  There are lots and lots of resources online, but I also made a packet for Teacher's Notebook that you can get here.  A few freebies are below:


Skills
Speech and Language
·        Increase vocabulary
·        Retell a familiar story
·        Story map
·        Rhyming words
·        Positional/location terms
·        Answer “who,” “what,” and “where,” and “why” questions

Math
·        Shape naming/matching
·        Big/little sorting
·        Size sequencing
·        Patterning
·        Numeral/sets matching
·        Order numerals/sets in order
·        Matching sets to numerals

Motor
·        Throw balls of yarn into a basket
·        Shaving cream play
·        Crystal painting
·        Mitten lacing

Cooking
·        Mitten Toast
·        Hot Chocolate Mix

Science
·        Touch and tell mittens






 j

Thursday, December 13, 2012

Wondrous Winter Activities for Kids

http://blog.melissaanddoug.com/2012/12/13/6wondrouswinteractivitiesforkids/

 http://www.icanteachmychild.com/2012/12/gingerbread-party-playdate/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+ICanTeachMyChild+%28I+can+teach+my+child!%29&utm_content=Yahoo!+Mail


Monday, December 10, 2012

Rudolph! Rudolph!

  This little booklet is much loved by my class.  I made it into a felt board activity and we enjoy it each day in the weeks leading up to Christmas.  After we complete the poem, we also listen to Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer adding our own motions to it.

  You can find the booklet here...

Friday, November 30, 2012

If You Take a Mouse to the Movies

I just completed this unit.  It is available on the Teachers Pay Teachers site hereThe activities included are:

 Circle Time
-Microphones to use while singing Christmas carols

Literacy
-2 story sequencing activities
-comprehension questions
-writing prompt
-writing your own circular story
-stringing popcorn (alphabetical order)
-blank popcorn pieces (sight words or CVC words)

Math
-stringing popcorn (numerical order)
-blank popcorn pieces for you to customize own counting
activities (count by 2s, 5s, 10s; addition or subtraction
sentences)
-Making sets (1-10 ornaments on trees; 11-20 popcorn in
buckets)
-Addition mat with ten frame
-Patterns
-Size sequencing
-Memory game (matching pieces of popcorn to numeral)

Fine Motor
-Create own ornaments (could be given as gifts to parents)
-Popcorn stringing
-Fort building

Science
-Popping popcorn - using five senses

Cooking
-Different popcorn toppings (predicting, voting, analyzing graph)
-Edible snowman



Sunday, November 4, 2012

Lots of Dino Ideas!

The following activities were found here.


Here are some of the activities you may want to consider in your preschool dinosaur unit (links will follow as detailed activities are added):
Dinosaur Mural (Creative, Social)
Five Silly Dinosaurs  (Music, Math, Language)
Crayon Melting, Dino Style (Creative, Science)
Dinosaur Erosion Table (Sensory, Science)
Fossil Imprints (Science)
Frozen in Time (Sensory, Science)
Preschool Paleontologists  (Science)
Rhyme-A-Saurus(Language, Pre-Reading)
Dinosaur, Dinosaur, What Time is it? (Social, Large Motor)
A Visit to the Museum (Science, Social, Language & Literacy)
Dino Scales (Fine Motor, Creative, Science)
The Classic Volcano (Science)
Hot Lava Hop (Large Motor)
We are the Dinosaurs (Music and Movement, Language)
How Big is a Dino?  (Math)
Dinos Invade the Block Area (Math, Science, Language)
Best Dino Books  (Language)

Saturday, September 29, 2012

Environmental Print Resources

The first link gives you a resource including reasons to include environmental print in the curriculum, as well as several ideas for activities and organization.

The second link is a class book with some of the letters pre-filled.

Wednesday, August 22, 2012

Alphabet Actions


A
act like an airplane
B
blink
C
crawl
D
dance
E
exercise
F
fly
G
growl
H
hop
I
itch
J
jump
K
kick
L
leap
M
march
N
nod
O
over
P
push ups
Q
quack
R
run
S
sit
T
twist
U
under
V
visit
W
wiggle
X
xylophone
Y
yawn
Z
zip

Alphabet Class Book


Our Class Alphabet
1.          Cut construction paper in half.
2.          Use one half page for each child.
3.          On each page glue the photograph of an individual child.
4.          Under the picture print the first letter of the child’s name.
5.          Under the first letter print the child’s first name.
6.          Repeat for each child in the class.
7.          Arrange the pages in alphabetical order.  It is all right to have a number of children with the same first letter in their names.
8.          Determine which letters are missing.
9.          Use the magazine or toy catalog to find colored pictures of objects that start with the missing letters and make a page for each letter, so that each letter of the alphabet has at least one page with either a photograph of a child or a picture of an object that starts with that letter.
10.      Read the children their “Class Alphabet Book” during circle time.  Encourage the children to “read” the book aloud: “A is for Allison, B is for Bill, etc.”  Make the book available for them to look at during playtime.