November Centers

 Playdough cards

full-sized (since the computer crash, I can't find where I got these :( ) 

half sheet

Stew

Flannel board

Leapfrog fridge

Noodle Game

Potato Heads

Cupcakes

Pancake pile up!

Here are more that we used and then I swapped from last week:

The wooden skewers were from Target.

The wok and food are from Learning Resources.

Pointers- mostly from Dollar Tree

they were pens, I took out the pen part.

Yeti in Spaghetti 

Pop the Pig

Learning Resource pie 

Cookie Letters

Muffin counting

One bookshelf

How amazing are these books?!?!?

We made a book.

I found some clipart, and we listed foods from the food groups.

Our writing center

cards from HERE.

Morning Work: October

 

Play dough cards from Tara West.

It's part of this BUNDLE

Family Counters and their houses

We are working on our tearing fine motor skills.

They can choose their own colors.

They need about half a sheet of construction 9x12 paper.

These are a staple for morning bins.

Just grab the bundle, you won't regret it!

Here are these though.

What it looks like when changing out morning bins.

An old box that holds most things we need.

The family counters and their homes don't stay in the box

 because I use them at other times.

Play Dough Small Group

 I don't do small groups like I do in kindergarten. In my room, we go to school 4 days a week.  We have small groups three days. I try not to have them on Monday's.  I am usually introducing centers or adding something that takes time, so I want to get them moving on to centers quickly.

I wish that I could share my small group plans, but my computer crashed and I can't access those plans. :(

I do think that I printed out a hardcopy though lol maybe I can find that ASAP to share :)

The break down, after the first month our schedule is math/science, ELA, and fine motor/art.

The first 26 weeks for fine motor/art is easy as we use Pocket of Preschool's Letter Book.

Now back to the first month of school.  We have a small group to cover all the school supplies.  Some of my students have never held a pencil before.  We get Pip certified as well.

I read the Pip Play dough book as a whole group.  We practice what Pip does in the book.  Then we use these cards from Tara West. Yes, I make them too.  I let them use my smelly play dough during this center.  When we get Pip certified (which we can show that we can make the cards, clean up our messes, and put the lid back on) I put out their individual play dough containers.   I got these smelly dough from Dollar Tree.

Read about how we get Pip certified here.

Grab the cards HERE.

I do have an order but I don't know what that is now lol

I think we pinch first, maybe lol

I show them the card and we do it together.  
While they are working, I have them try to make at least their age. 

Making sure that everyone has at least made one.

Then when everyone has some, we stack them.

We take one off at a time and 

then we press our fingers in them.

Now we make logs.

Then we roll those logs into snakes.

Finally we cut them up.

You can use plastic knives, 

I used some long handled stampers as my knife.

Then we make a big bolder with the dough.

Sometimes, all of it is too much for their little hands.

Then we use rolling pins.

I borrow so I can have enough 

rollers for everyone to try.

We have many rollers but some have patterns and

I want these to be plain because what's next is

Time to use cookie cutters!

I try to grab everyone's initial.

When we're done,

I have them make a boulder and 

turn it into a cylinder to fit back

inside the container.

I remind them not to shove the dough

into the container because then it is difficult to get out.

I do teach them how to get it out with

that long handled stamp though.

Then we practice putting the lid on tight and

getting it open as well.

I put those cards on the ring in the play dough bin.

The following weeks, I add 

these cards from HERE.

Read all about Pip here!!!!

  

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.

April Morning Bins

 Here are this week's morning bins:

Tracing egg lines came from here.

Play dough cards from here.

Carrot tracing

Here are my bookshelves: