Preschool Activities to Accompany Mrs. Mc Nosh Hangs Up Her Wash

I love picture books that rhyme!
  
I find them particularly fun to read and the pace and length of them is generally a good fit for my more "wiggly" students.  

One of my favourite rhyming books for springtime is Mrs. Mc Nosh Hangs Up Her Wash by Sarah Weeks.  

It's silly and it's humorous and it's always a big hit with the kids.

I read the book to the class at circle time first.    

Then later in the same circle OR in my next circle, I present it using images on a magnet board.  

I give each child an image from the story.  Then I read the story from a typed page of the text that I keep on my lap. 

I could also read from the book on my lap, but I find it easier to use my typed out version.  Then I don't have to flip any pages.  

Each child places his image on the magnet board when it comes up in the story.  

There are 20 images required for the story and I have 20 kids in my class.  

If my class was larger, I would print multiple copies of certain images so that I would have one for everybody.  

As you can see in the photo, I just drew two clotheslines on my magnet board with a wipeable marker to set things up.  Quick and easy!  

I glued a button magnet to the back of each image and wrote the number corresponding to when the image appears in the story, as well.  

This time, I used a glue gun to attach the magnets. 

Even better glue for attaching magnets though is E6000. Especially if the kids are going to be able to play with them!

After reading the book, I put out the following activities to match the theme: 

*Ordering the Mrs. Mc Nosh Story Images from #1-20
Students can hang the images in order as I did when presenting the story.
They can do this on a magnet board or on a yarn "clothesline" tied between two chairs.

I provide a number line like the one below for those who need it for reference.  (Note - My new number line goes up to 20.)

* Sock Matching and Hanging on a Clothesline
I have a set of 9 different pairs of large striped sock images that students match and hang "to dry." 
Here's a sample of what one of the pairs looks like.

Count and Clip Cards
We use these cards for counting practise.  Students attach a clothespin to the number that corresponds with the images.

Sock Pattern Cards
Which sock comes next?  I added magnets to this activity to add to the fun! 

There's a variety of patterns including ABAB, AABB, and ABC to keep things interesting! 

*Cut and Paste 
I use these printables for students to colour and cut out pictures of things Mrs. Mc Nosh hung on the clothesline.  
They are also encouraged to use their imagination and draw their own items on the line!

If you'd like a set of these activities to go with the story Mrs. Mc Nosh Hangs Up Her Wash, take a peek at it in my shop HERE!  
It might become one of your favourite go-to Spring books, as well!

Catchin' Frogs and Learnin' Numbers - A fun activity for Center Time!

As a kid I always loved pretending to "fish" at the annual school fair.  

Do you remember those fishing booths at the fair? 

There'd be a big wall that you'd have to cast your fishing line over and then someone on the other side of the wall would attach a prize for you to "reel" in.   

I always found that station so exciting!

My enjoyment of this activity as a kid spurs me to set up at least one fishing game for my class every spring.  

Last year, the activity ended up being fishing for frogs in a pond.

I created the station by flipping one of our tables on its side and then decorating it to look like a pond.  

 A blue tablecloth would have been preferable, but I thought I'd work with what I hand on hand!

The fishing ROD is created from a paint stir stick.  
The fishing LINE was created by twisting a series of pipe cleaners together.  (Long ago I learned the perils of using a string or yarn fishing line.  You spend most of the class trying to untangle it!)     

At the end of the fishing line, I looped the pipe cleaner through a clothespin to form the HOOK.  

Here's a photo of the clothespin "hook."
  Sorry I don't have a better photo of the full rod, but I'm sure you get the idea!

To play the game, students cast their fishing line over the table.

The children on the other side of the table attach the clothespin to one of the frogs.  

When the frog is attached, the children behind the table tug on the line to let the fisher boy or girl know it's time to reel in their catch. 

The "caught frog" is then placed on the lily pad that has the matching number of flies!  

If you'd like to play this froggy fishing game in your class, I am currently offering the brand new updated version of all the frogs and lily pads you need for this activity in my Teachers Pay Teachers shop. 

It includes frogs and lily pads numbered from 1-12, as well as a set of frogs with numbers 1-12 represented in various forms (i.e., with tally marks, ten frames, and dice).

I should also mention, that the set includes directions for making this an easy to set-up table top activity.  

Some days, simpler is better!

The kids get to fish either way, and practice counting, numeral recognition, and subitizing at the same time!

Find this Froggy Fishing Set HERE!

Pre-K Five for Friday: 5 Ideas from My Week!

I am joining the Five for Friday party this week sponsored by Doodle Bugs Teaching.  

After you check out the 5 ideas or "happenings" from my week, you may want to link up and see what other Pre-K - Grade One(ish) teachers have been up to!

Here's my five!

 We began practicing one of our songs for our preschool graduation ceremony.  It's a long one, but so awesome that we decided we'd go for it and just practice it like crazy.

The song is "What I Am" by Will i am.

I'll post the You Tube video below, but in case it doesn't show through this link, you can just click {here} to get to it. 

 We took our class to the water park!  

Everyone wore red pinnies so that they were easy to spot amongst the other kids.

  Some kids delighted in drenching themselves, others were quite happy to just get their feet wet.   

Here's the park before our troops descended!

We played the game, "Alphabet Soup."  

To play this game, set up chairs in a circle - one for each student.

  

Each child gets a letter and then sits on a chair.  The teacher calls out a letter (i.e., "a") and holds it up.  

All the children who have that letter must quickly stand up and switch chairs with someone else who has that letter.  

When the teacher says "Alphabet Soup!" ALL students must stand up and find a new chair.  

Lots of fun and a great way to practice letters!

 Our students practiced recognizing and ordering numbers by using the flower props below.  

I found the piece of wood on the beach last year and then drilled holes in it that would be just big enough to hold a popsicle stick securely.

I battled my cat all week who loves to bother me while I'm working on my computer.    

She's actually lying on my hand right now as I'm trying to type.  

And of course she's meowing at regular intervals.  Ah, pets!

Enjoy your weekend!

Click {here} or the image below if you'd like to see what others have been up to this week.

Afraid to Incorporate Instruments into your Center Time Activities? Try this idea!

Like many preschools, we have a big box of instruments in our collection of toys and resources.

The kids love to "make music" and we often pull out our class set of rhythm sticks and shakers for directed use at circle time. 

But what about letting the kids play instruments at center time?  On their own?

  Do we frequently encourage that?  

Hmmm....not so much!  

Quite frankly, the noise of free-for-all preschool music can be a little hard to take!

But we do put out instruments for free play time on occasion.  

The kids love having some freedom to play their own thing and as hardy preschool teachers we are willing to put up with a bit of extra noise to support their learning. :)

Like this week, for instance.

We created a music station with glasses filled with coloured water at varying levels. 

For mallets we set out a variety of items that we had on hand - real wooden mallets, rhythm sticks, and even the odd pencil or two.  

The sets of glasses were each labelled from #1 - 4 so that in addition to random tapping, the children could try to play a song that we had included at the center.  

 I worked out a rendition of "Mary Had a Little Lamb" on the jars beforehand and then recorded the song using the numbers on the jars.

 My final version of the song looked something like this :

3     2    1    2   333

222    333

3212    333 

 22   3  2 1

The preschoolers had the option of trying to play this song as well as playing their own random music.  

To encourage the children to record their own original songs using numbers, I laid out white boards and erasable markers.   

It was great to see how this simple activity encouraged even the children who don't like writing to eagerly sit down to record a series of numbers.

They didn't know they were getting practice holding a pen, they didn't know they were learning how to write a "4," or that they were going to basically "read" their writing later...

All they knew was that they were creating a song and as one boy eloquently stated, they were going to "rock out."

The beauty of learning through play!

  

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Snow Much Fun - Snowman Art, Number Games, Stories and More!

Today's a sunny day and it feels like spring, but I know we'll be back to cold weather and icy windshields by tomorrow.   There's still lots of winter left to come!
And lots of time left for some fun SNOWMAN activities.

For art, we made ripped paper snowmen. 

The children could either rip the white paper themselves or use the pre-ripped pieces provided.

We encouraged everyone to first fill in the pre-drawn circle with glue, and then stick on the white "snow" pieces.  It helped make the process a little faster.

For centre time, we put out our Snowman Alphabet Match Game.  

The background sheet with the snowman bodies was taped to a magnet board.

A button magnet was glued onto the back of each snowman's head with a glue gun.

A sheet was provided to help students match the lower and upper case letters, or the correct snowman "head" to the correct snowman "body." 

For students who needed additional help, there was also a coloured stripe on each snowman's hat that was the same colour as the matching snowman's mittens.  The photo below is not too clear, but it will show you what I mean.

At the centre tables, we also put out our Snowman Number Match Game.

I used three sides of the folder when making this game so that I could fit on number lines to match with #1-10.  

Each snowman has a piece of peel and stick velcro on the back and the children get to "stick" it onto its correct place on the number line.  

At the writing table, students completed a mini book about Snowmen called "This is Snowman Big."

The mini book was based on a magnet board song I taught them at circle time.  

On each page of the book, the children could draw a face for the snowman and then colour his hat and scarf.  

Most of these items were part of the Winter Unit
I made over Christmas break.  It was nice to come back to school after the holiday and be ready for January!  

If you're looking for some awesome picture books to accompany the Snowman theme I highly recommend the following:

Sneezy the Snowman by Maureen Wright

And Snowmen at Night by Caroline Buehner

They're both snow much fun!

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3 Center Time Activities to Add to your Repertoire!

We are always creating new center time games to challenge the students and keep them engaged during our free play period. Hopefully you'll find some new ideas here that you may like to try, too!

In the past week, we added shredded paper to our sensory bin and then "hid" our collection of plastic multi-colored buttons underneath.   

The students search for the buttons, and when they find one, they drop it into the canister of the same color.  

There's something so satisfying about dropping items into a slot!  The sound of the item hitting the bottom, the way the item disappears...  
Not to mention the piggy bank connection.  Who doesn't love dropping coins into a piggy bank?!   

If you don't have enough cans for all of your button colors, just double up the colors on one can.   You'll see I did that with red and black on the can in the photo.   
Doubling up also saves on storage space!

If you want to save even more storage space, use a variety of can sizes so that you can stack them one inside another when not in use.  

Another center activity that has been popular with our class is a fine motor activity for which you'll need toothpicks (preferably colored), and a little spice container such as the one in the photo.  

This idea was brought in by my co-teacher.  I believe she purchased the the plastic spice container at the Dollar Store.    

The children pick up the toothpicks and insert them one by one into the tiny holes.  

When all the toothpicks are inside the container, the students can twist off the lid (another great skill to practice!) and dump them back out for the next person.

If you want your students to practice counting, one option could be an activity similar to my Cupcake Candle Count game below.

The children count the candles on the cupcakes and then place them on the plate with the corresponding number. 

When all the cupcakes have been placed in their spot, we often sing the Happy Birthday song and pretend to blow out the candles.   

I added a dot of peel and stick velcro to the back of the cupakes and then to the plate to add to the fun.
It's much more satisfying to play this game when you can stick and unstick the cupcakes with the velcro!  

We have a wooden tray from an old Melissa and Doug puzzle that we use to hold the pieces for games such as these so that they are kept orderly (and from falling off the table!) while playing.

This Cupcake activity is part of my Cupcake Crazy Unit which features a number of colour and number games.  If you like this game and want to save yourself the time of making it, you can check out the unit HERE.  It contains a number of different activities, songs, and felt board stories to teach colors and numbers.

I hope this post gives you some new ideas for your class.  
Have a great week, everyone!

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