Learning the Rules

    Whew!  What a busy week!  Even though it was a short week, I'm ready for the weekend!  This week we worked on learning the rules and routines.  We also learned the consequences for breaking the rules and our traffic light system.  We began learning how to use our school tools and how to treat books properly.  I'm going to try to break it down a little every day over the next few days to see what we've been doing this week!
     I read on Julie Lee's blog about how she used Mr. Potato Head to introduce working together in groups and as a community.  I thought that was a great idea and decided to make use Mr. Potato Head to teach the rules and then make a rule book to go along with it.  I'm going to try to attach it, but I'm having problems uploading everything!

To introduce the rules, I had Mr. Potato Head without any of the pieces.  We discussed how sad Mr. Potato Head was without anything and how he really couldn't do anything because he didn't have any parts!  Then we discussed what could make him better and what he needed to make him be the best potato that he could be!

I introduced each piece individually, and then we completed a page in our book to help us remember each rule.  We will continue to go over the rules everyday for the next couple of weeks.

I am definitely not an artist!  Fortunately I found Mr. Potato Head printables at play to learn printables!  Here is the teacher version that I printed and put on the poster board.  I cannot get the student version to load, and I just don't have the energy tonight, so I will try tomorrow!  Here are some students working on the individual pages.

After we finished each individual piece, we made a cover including all the pieces.

We also played with Mr. Potato Head in groups to help reinforce what we had learned.

I don't know why this is sideways!  This is the cover of our rule book.  This took us several days to complete, but they did a great job and hopefully will know the rules!

Another sideways pictures!  Finally remember to take a picture of the door!  Loved how this turned out!


Now, I am off to relax a little bit with House Hunters and then off to bed!  

New Year, New Room

     I can't believe it is time for a new school year!  I loved meeting all my new friends at Open House!  They are super duper cute, and I can't wait to get started tomorrow.  I forgot to take pictures of several things in the room, so hopefully, I can get those up tomorrow (depending on how exhausted I am!)

I've had the privilege of attending a few of Pat Leonard's seminars.  She is a rock star in the preschool world here in Georgia.  One of the activities that she has up as a free center is a number line.  I decided to do an alphabet and number line on the back of one of my cubbies.  On the pockets are the upper case letter and the lower case letters are on sticks with a Dr. Seuss hat.  I'm planning on changing the letters out thematically.  On the bottom pockets are dots to represent numbers, and on the hats are the numeral.  I'm going to introduce this the first week of school, so that when they are finished with their work they are able to do this.  Eventually, they will also have the option of reading books, but we have to learn how to properly use books! :)

Each student has the opportunity to be the Star Bellied Sneetch of the Week.  They take home a poster that is completed and returned back to school that is then hung up on this wall.  Everyday they have a special activity to do.

The Reading Center-  I did not realize you could see my mess in the background when I took this picture!  I made the red crates last year that they can sit on while reading.  I'll try to get a better angle tomorrow!

Calendar Wall-  I was so excited to actually find a Dr. Seuss calendar at Michael's this year!  

Our Class Wish List-  They take a fish off the wall to donate an item to the classroom.

Can't wait to put up our first craft!  We did the first part at Open House and will finish it up the first week of school.

I do not have room for a Word Wall, so we have a Word Door! :)  

Yikes!  I realized my o fell off the wall!  It should read Horton Hears a Helper

I'm off to finish getting ready for our first day tomorrow!  Can't wait!

Footprints on my Heart

I decided I better wrap up last year because the new school year starts next week!  Hopefully, I will do a better job of blogging after Christmas this year! :)  I am terrible at good byes and I cry ever year because it is just so sad to see these sweet little faces go!  This year was especially hard because several of our family our finished with our preschool and have moved on to bigger and better things.  One thing is for sure they have all left footprints on my heart, and I will never forget them!

100th Day

     On our 100th day of school we dressed up like we were 100 years old.  They were all so cute!  We worked in groups and put together 100 piece puzzles.  We made a 100 piece snack and did 100 exercises!