Beginning of the Year: Centers and Morning Work

Beginning of the year centers and morning work.

 This is currently unavailable, but you can read about it.

These are in out centers.

These are from Target. This is a morning bin choice.

Family counters in our morning bins, which are really drawers lol

Snapcubes

Snap Cube Cards

morning work

Chains

Option 1

Option 2

Centers

A close match for teddy bears.

Centers

Centers and morning work

Centers puzzles

 think they are from Carson Dellosa about a million years ago.

I have these frogs!

I bought them years and years ago.

There are three sizes of frogs.

Many colors and logs that the small frogs can sit on.

There are cards, too, so the kids can follow the patterns

They start in morning bins and move to centers.

🐸Here are some of the centers we are doing at the beginning of the year🐸

 🐸Here are some of the centers we are doing at the beginning of the year🐸

I picked things that would require little cleanup.

We were so busy, that we didn't

even use any during the first week of school.

During the first week of school, 

I use Jackie of Pocket of Preschool's

First Ten Days of school's plan.

I turn them into the first 11 because it 

covers the first few weeks of school.

We learn how to play in the pretend area 

after we read Pip Pretends.

We read Pip Builds and head to the block area.

Pip in the library and head to our library loft.

We try to get Pip certified for each area.

Since it is the beginning of the year,

it is more guided and the kids stay in one area for a time.

We play, I mean work in that area all together.

I split the class into half;

half went to blocks, and the other half went to the loft.

We play and then switch.

No time for our cube shelves.

I usually have small groups during this time.

It works out perfectly!

It was the end of the third week before we even used the cube shelves.

I added things that are big for easy pick-up.

After small groups and morning bins,

those items go into those shelves.

First Week of School Morning Work

 The first week of school is always so much work, you are teaching so many procedures and rules. So I start with things that they typically have used before or that don't need much explanation.

Check your classroom for toys that will work. I have used snap cubes, pattern blocks, chain links, Unifix cubes, and teddy bears, this is all super low prep, find and put inside a drawer.

In week two, I add something to the drawer. Check back next week for our week two centers.

Beginning of the year centers

 I do a gradual release of our centers. Most of them start in our morning bins, which is free explore then continues with adding "something".  

Hop over here to check out our morning bins.

See the play dough sign in the white bin?

That is the same bin that I use to 

collect the play dough at my open house!

I used mini erasers in a bucket from Dollar Tree 

The cards came from here.

These are those large puzzle blocks from Target.

I don't add anything to these (yet)

After we have a small group to get Pip certified

we can explore at centers time.

Grab  mats  here.

Learning Resources Houses

Learning Resources people

t-shirts from here.

This is another small group.

We roll the number cubes and add that many chips

to the shirts. Check out her post here for the shirts.

counting bears

They are 50% off now!!! This is a better deal!!

Target puzzles from our morning bins.

Counting bears 

with sorting cups and a color dice

large buttons- I just let them explore.

You could have them sort by color or shape though!

These centers last about two weeks of school.

September Learning

 Here are our centers this week:

Here's Pip the Pup holding the mini erasers.

They use their fingers to place the mini erasers on the line.

Grab the cards HERE.

How they fit in my bins:

Hashtag puzzles from Target

Playdough mats from HERE. 

We have these cool family counters and homes.

They are from Learning Resources.

People houses

Groovy Buttons Game

Hunny Pot Bears

Target Puzzles

Counting Bears and Cups

We sorted these buttons as a transition activity.

The students chose one button and matched it with another one,

Either by the same color or the same shape.

How we store them:

Circle Time Area- UPDATE

 Circle time area- update

We got a SmartBoard, so we had to move around our room a bit.

The ABC line was from Target. 

Birthday Signs- I add them as we get to them :)

Some how the cube shelves fit perfectly between the wall and the SmartBoard!

To encourage my students to do centers, 

I made those "Frog Challenge" cards.

I fill in the blank with the title of the center.

When the kids finish/ work on that center,

I write their names on the cards with dry erase markers.

My students really like doing calendar.

I started the linear calendar this year, and they love it even more!

Check out more here to find the cards I use.

On the walls:

alphabet chart- from Dollar Tree

above the letters, I have name cards for everyone in my room, teachers included. I got them for free from HERE. I print a whole page per child, some are in uppercase and some are capital letters to begin, and the rest lowercase for the second semester.  I have two alphabets (my room is split into two parts lol) so I hang them up twice.  One full set for our journals. One for our writing center. One is for our birthday board, sort of lol They move their name when they turn 5 :) 

Our number charts are from HERE.

Red and Green choices from HERE.

Voice levels HERE.

Calendar companion from HERE.

Days of the week from HERE.

Months of the year from HERE.

Days in school HERE

Schedule HERE.

Ways to sit posters HERE.

How to posters HERE.  These are at several centers in the room.

The Give Me Five poster came with my room :) But get a set HERE.

How it began:

A look back from two years ago.

Here was my post from last year.

Pip the Pup

 I am a veteran teacher- like over 20+ years.

These are life changing.

I read the book about an area or the tool and then we practice.

I have signs up all over the room that says Pip Certified. 

I write their names on the sheet with a dry erase marker. 

They also get a badge. I attach it with making tape and they wear it :)

Read more about Pip the Pup here.

I printed off the Pip catalog and cut them apart.

Here are the books that I use during the first week of school.

Let's Play is about dramatic play.

Let's Read is about the library.

Let's Build is about the blocks area. 

I split my class in half and another teacher teaches blocks and I teach about the library.

Read about that here.

Some I read during our group time, and other books are 

read during our social-emotional lessons too.

The very first small group lesson is on dry-erase markers.

We trace our names with them daily, so I have to use it the very first week.

Lessons:

*Pencil we literally read the book and use the pencil correctly. 

*Let's draw markers drawing and capping markers.

*Connecting Cubes- we explore and then I give them some sort of mat to build with them.**

*Let's Color- all about crayons so we use our brand new crayons.

*Pattern Blocks~ we explore and then use mats to play on.** 

**These are also the very first things we have in our morning bins.

*Mini counters- I use mini erasers and name printables to spell their names.

For the cutting fun- it's about scissor skills. 

We practice cutting 1 inch paper strips.

Then we attach those pieces to a body outline.

For rainbow write, we read the book and then we practice on scrap paper.

Here are my sand writing trays.

The trays are from Target and held lacers.

The sand came from Dollar Tree.

Johnny Appleseed day is Sept 26th 

I use several books during our Social Emotional lessons.

I also use her Tom and Tabby lessons. Find them here$

I will write more about those lessons soon :)

October is fire safety month.

Coming back to school in January is usually pretty difficult.

Several choices here for re-freshing procedures. 

February brings the groundhogs, dental health, and Valentine's Day.

The 100th and 101st days of school usually fall in this month as well.

Spring starts, St Patty's day

I usually do a small weather unit

Earth Day is April 22nd,

I usually do a garden theme in my science area.

I wait all year to introduce glue bottles and glue sticks. 
We use glue sponges for the year.

We do alphabet books $ in small groups- one of the pages we do watercoloring :)

These could also guide your small groups :)

More ideas for small groups.

Shapes- I read one page per day along with our

number board. Read more about that HERE.

Why did I do this?

Because I totally forgot to read several books this year grrrrr! lol

To get your own Pip the pup books here.