Thinky Linky Thursday: Are you afraid of the dark?

I have been letting the baby play with flashlights and tonight, we were in his playroom and I turned off the lights and realized we could have a little fun as most of his toys light up. He thought it was pretty funny. Anyways, there are so many activities you can do with children in the dark using flashlights and other things that light up. For example, for younger children, even babies, they may not understand that they are controlling the light beam coming from the flashlight. Allowing them to explore and make shadows is a great way to help them understand what light is and how it works. Using different color lights or laser pointers can also be fun and help them identify colors.

You can even talk about prisms and how light splits apart for older kids. Have a campout in a homemade tent to start your adventure and let the discovery begin! And for some gross motor, you might want to add in a game of flashlight tag.

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My 5 Senses

This week we are studying our 5 senses. Here is the post with the books we read and here is the Texture Sequencing Sticks activity that we worked on. We also had the kids do tree bark rubbings, a chart in our science observation notebook about how different items feel and each day we made a list for one of the senses. For example, Wednesday we named something you can hear with your ears. This was used also as a great transition tool as when the child names something, they can choose an area or go wash their hands. We also sang the Peanut Butter and Jelly song and the Make a Pizza song during which we discussed how each flavor tastes and what toppings we would put on our pizzas. During mealtimes we also discussed how different foods tasted. We will most likely be breaking down this topic into individual lessons on some of the senses, especially hearing as the children love to play musical instruments and sing!

And, if that's not enough content for you to begin your 5 senses unit, here is a great resource with TONS of ideas.

Classroom Setup Progress

Been back to work for 2 weeks already, but I feel like I've barely been in the classroom with all the trainings and meetings. But here are some of the things I have gotten done in the room:

So this is one of my big goals from last year upon realizing I did not have nearly as many diverse materials in the classroom as I did diverse children. This social studies center is actually new and it came about after being given a pile of atlases and realizing I had no good place to put the globe. In the middle of the table is a local map that I printed that shows the school, the zoo, and the library and some parks.

Music center. Working on my goal of more interactive classroom, I decided to post some questions that will lead to discussion about the types of sounds different instruments make.

One of my passions! The science/discovery area. It is not finished yet, but here are some of the ways I have tried to make it more interactive. I love the title Exploration Station. It is so descriptive and just makes you want to play with and experiment with what's on the table. Cutie, our class pet the hermit crab will soon be on the table. Since the beginning of last year I have had the dream of having so many plants around the window that it looks like a jungle. Not sure if that is ever going to happen, but I do at least want to get a couple plants in here for the kids to water and take care of. Some other ideas for this area are colored sand to mix, slime to play with, nature items such as pine cones, leaves, twigs, rocks,etc. We will be changing it out at least once a week and we also have trays on the shelf across from this table for kids to do individual sensory activities.

Although it's not something I made, I would like to take credit for the idea of the mirror in the middle so kids can see what their face looks like when talking about feelings. I love this idea!

The start of my circle time area. Word wall all in one place together as opposed to all around the classroom like last year. I want to be able to refer to it easier at circle time and it is very close to writing area. Also, you will see no numbers on our calendar. We decided that concept is too advanced for preschool age and that we will just use the pictures which are photo of the school, home, and other things we might be doing on a random day. And you will see some of my target finds.

Being the good little Head Start employee I am, I incorporated one of their buzz words for the year. This is my Kindergarten Readiness bag. Inside you will find small group activities that deal with letters, sight words, word families, letter tiles, etc. Inside the folder is the Kindergarten Readiness screening that the center coordinator will be doing for all the children who will be entering K next year.

So, those are some things I have gotten done. Can't wait to have a full list of names, so I can start on the name cards for writing area and labeling everything!