My Big World: September

We're so happy because My Big World magazine for September is here!!!

These two magazines we received were so spot on for out first weeks of school! We dedicate the first three weeks to teach expectations and procedures. We teach how to play with our materials, how we use the playground equipment and how our behavior should be like in the classroom, among other important topics. We also focus on building positive relationships with students, parents and peers.

This month, I loved the How to Make School Friends Big Issue. My students refer to the Big Issue every time they encounter a challenge or need visual support.

The Big Issue is located in our social emotional area and it has been a great addition. I'm thinking of leaving the poster up all year! It's that good!

Our next magazine was all about apples! Perfect for September! We incorporated science and math with the magazine.

In our apple lesson we explore different types of apples and graphed which apples were our favorites.

Before cutting the apples, we estimated how many apple seeds it would have. We counted the seeds and determined how close we were to our estimations.

We learned about the parts of the apples and how they grow.

The best part about this lesson was testing all of the apples!

These magazines have been a great addition to our curriculum and expansion on our students interests. My students did the activities on the magazines. They counted seeds, sang songs, and continued the learning at home with the magazines.

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Pompom Number Toss

Hello there!

Wish your new student would develop a love for math? Play this fun number competition to help! Players toss pompoms into an empty ice tray with numbers in each compartment, then identify the number of the compartments their pompoms landed in. It's a fun way for your child to learn numbers, how to count, and perhaps even get a head start on addition!

What You Need:

• Old ice tray
• Sharpie markers
• Pompoms (about 1/2" in diameter)
• Paper and pencil

What You Do:

For preschoolers and kindergarteners:

1. Use a sharpie to write the numbers 0 through 10 randomly in the bottom of each compartment of the ice tray. It's okay if some numbers show up more than once, as long as every compartment has a number at the bottom.
2. Select two players and help each player count out 5 pompoms, this should be enough for five rounds.
3. Have the first player toss one pompom into the tray. Remove the pompom and have her identify the number underneath; encourage her to memorize the number.
4. Then the next player goes and does the same thing. Then have both players figure out which number is the higher number by counting to ten.
5. The player with the higher number is the winner of the round! Play for five rounds, and whoever wins the most rounds is the winner of the game. There's no need to stop playing after round five if kids are having a fun time! Keep continue playing for as long as they want! This game helps with number recognition, which will be an important skill in kindergarten.
6. Your child can also play this game by herself for practice counting and identifying numbers.

For first and second graders:

1. Select at least two players and give each a pencil, a piece of paper, and 6 pompoms.
2. The first player tosses two pompoms into the tray. Then, have her take the pompoms out of the compartments and identify each number.
3. Have her write down the first number on the piece of paper in an equation format. For example, if the two numbers that her pompoms landed on are 2 and 6, she would write down 6 + 2 =_. Encourage her to add the numbers together and write down her answer.
4. Have the next player go and do the same.
5. Invite players to identify the higher number. Have the player with the larger number put a star or checkmark on her piece of paper.
6. Do this for three rounds, and the person with the most stars or checkmarks is the winner! This game can also be played with subtraction and multiplication!

This blog post was in collaboration with Education.com

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QulyBox and GIVEAWAY!

Hello there!

A few weeks ago I came across this wonderful teacher box. QulyBox thinks we deserve a quality subscription box with innovative products at a very affordable cost every month. Teachers will receive 5 specialty items in their QulyBox. 
These items can be used in the classroom and will help teachers with their daily life. That sounds amazing, isn't it?!

Products like tea and coffee samples, stress relief patches, classroom scents from distinguished brands, pens, and lesson tools are just some of the things you'll see in your QulyBox each month!

QulyBox sent me two boxes for me and a teacher friend to try out and these are our findings!

Once I received the box I immediately opened it. I couldn't believe how many great things were in that cute little box!

The first thing that caught me eye was the wonderful pencil pouch. My teacher friend and I will definitely be using it to carry all of our flair pens! #staffmeeting not so much. But #staffmeeting on a pencil pouch, we love!

Agenda and planner stickers are always great to have. A teacher can never have too many planner stickers. The stylus pen was just amazing! It is a high quality pen, perfect for planning and writing progress reports.

The teas and energy patch were also very convenient. I used the teas right away, the energy patch I'm saving it for assessment period :)

The drawer sticks, I love! I immediately placed one in my desk drawer, another one by my morning meeting area and once by the kids' cubbies.

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Getting Ready for School

Hi there,

As a teacher, we know what we need to do to get ready for school. Even new teachers have some idea on how they can prep over the summer and get as ready as they can. But, how parents get ready for school?

On a sumer day, I started talking with some moms and the school topic came about. One of the moms was extremely worried about her child going to kindergarten. That made me think of things we can do to get ready for school, as parents.

I have come up with three easy thing we all can do to get as ready as we can for school, either you've been in the education field for a long time, a new educator, a first time parent, a school director, a day care provider or a nanny.

Being involved in your child's education is truly necessary for their success and for developing a love for learning. Volunteering is a great way to be involved, learn about all of the school happenings, and helps familiarize with school staff and other parents on school campus. Volunteering can happen on school grounds, the classroom, and even from home. I love sending work home for parents to cut, put together, laminate, sort, file, etc.

Find your tribe! That's the best advice I can offer you. Regardless of your role, you need to mingle and find your tribe. Either you would find it online, on your school campus, with neighbors, at a playdate club, or even at your neighborhood park, having a support group is critical. 

I have definitely found my tribe with wonderful moms, teacher friends, and on social media! Just do an effort and connect with people who share the same interests as you.

Back to school can be very exciting but also can bring some nervousness and jitters to the most veteran teacher or parent. There's tools available to have your child up to speed in their development and keep their minds active and engaged.

This app Preto3 will make your life easier! This FREE app has valuable information and its designed for preschools, day cares and also parents.

Join Nitin Kake, Preto3 Business Developer on a Facebook Live on August 14, as he goes over all that it has to offer and answer questions of teachers, caregivers, directors, and parents. Click on the picture for more information!

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PreK Curriculum Map

Hello!

When you are headed somewhere and you find yourself lost, what do you do? Besides reaching for your GPS, you probably need a map!

In our field we also use a map, a curriculum map or pacing guide to let us know which way should we go.




 A curriculum map is the process of collecting and recording curriculum-related
data that identifies core skills and content to be taught, the teaching strategies, and the assessment to be implemented. It emphasizes the collaboratively planned learning.

Curriculum maps are usually created by school districts and in more detailed by same grade level teachers. After collecting everything that needs to be covered throughout the school year, small groups, core content, and modifications and arrangements will take place.

As teachers we must know where our students are going, why they are going there, and what is required of them to get there.

 A curriculum map should include every core content lessons to be taught during the school year. Language arts, math concepts, social studies and science, social emotional development and everything related to your grade level.

The mapping can be arranged by quarters, by theme, by season, or chronologically.

Also, the order of the content is important. The map should show progression os skills and development. Holidays and fun events can also be incorporated into thump, as well as school-wide celebrations like Reading Across America for example.



Although the curriculum map order is important it can be altered and modified, it includes the WHAT, the WHEN, and the WHY. The WHEN its important, but it can be modified and tailored to your students needs.

Some of the benefits of curriculum map are: it allows teachers to review the curriculum to check for inconsistencies, misalignments, weaknesses, and gaps in the content. It helps documents the relationships between the curriculum content and the intended student learning outcomes, as well provides a way to self assess our teaching strategies, identify what worked, what didn't work and how and where we can improve.

Click on the picture to download your own curriculum map and an editable format to create your own.

This blog post was created in collaboration with Learning Genie.

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June & Professional Development Readings

Hello!

Is that time again! Monthly Readings....but this time there's a bonus!

Summer is finally here, and half of us are on summer vacation, and the other half work through the summer. I love to spend my summers close to a body of water (natural or artificial). My daughters and I love the beach, pool, water parks and anything water-related.

The best way for us to end a great summer day is to get together as a family and roast some marshmallows and make s'mores....yummm!

I have a nice compilation of amazing titles ideal for the season and all the activities we do when the weather is warm, we're around water, and the sun is bright!

Here's the bonus! Although we do our very best to unplug and relax during our summer break, teachers love to do a bit of professional development as well. So get your favorite drink and get your reading on!

I know many people like to hold and smell the real book, but personally, I love to have my books on my iPad - just for convenience and practicality.

My professional development books for this summer are mostly about STEM. I really want to incorporate more STEM activities into my learning centers and small groups activities. I also want to sharpen my observation skills. In this field it is critical we know how to do objective and meaningful observations, and that's another goal for the following school year.

In the meantime, I will lay by the pool with my iPad and read, read, read!

This blog post was created in collaboration with Learning Genie.

Keep reading and learning!

Fine Motor ABC

Hello there!

A quick Google search will lead to endless possible activities to build fine motor skills. Pinterest is full of imaginative activities to get kids creating with their hands.  In this digital world, there is definitely no lack of ideas of WHAT to do.  However, in the focus on the WHAT, it can be easy to lose the WHY. Fine motor activities done without knowing the WHY behind them are still beneficial for the child, after all, their fingers and hands are still being challenged and their brains are working to integrate the new experience. However, when the adult leading the charge isn’t quite sure why the activity matters or why it should done a certain way, it is much harder for them to place value on the task and be encouraged to continue to provide the child opportunities to further develop skills.

It is said that knowledge is power. It is time to give power to the parents, power to the teachers, and power to the therapists looking for an easy and effective way to communicate with families about fine motor skills and home programs.  All this power will lead to empowerment, with adults having a comprehensive picture of not only what to do to help kids develop fine motor skills, but how to do it, and why it is important.

But let’s be honest. Most people don’t have time to research each activity to learn the foundational components that are being addressed. What is needed is a quick and easy reference that pairs skill-building tasks for children with straightforward and understandable parent education.  That combination has come together in Fine Motor ABC, an easy-to-implement resource with 26 targeted activities to develop foundational and functional fine motor skills.

Fine Motor ABC from Skill Builder Books  engages children with the WHAT and adults with the WHY while including an alphabet focus to facilitate literacy development, sign language to support kinesthetic learning, and rhyming words to reinforce cognitive development.

Fine Motor ABC is available in both print and ebook formats 
and answers questions like:

Why are animal walks important and why bother doing 

them before a fine motor activity?

Besides the wonderful alphabet activities this book offers, I truly enjoyed the incorporation of American Sign Language. This is very beneficial for my students who have speech and language delay.

This activity is my favorite!

The question is, how many of your littles need 

help with proper pencil grasp? Most of them I bet!

Even for the students who doesn't need pencil grasp help can 

truly benefit from this activity.

Parents, teachers, and therapists will benefit from this interactive and informative book that highlights the WHY behind the activities. More importantly, children will benefit because they will be guided by adults who see more than a fun craft or cute project. The adults will see, and understand, the true benefit behind each task. Why ask why – because it’s important!

Who wants a free eBook???

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