Sharing the Love

This week,  our little blogger community has been all a-buzz with the Edublog Award Nominations. It's really great that we have the opportunity to recognize those that inspire early childhood educators to bring the very best ideas, activities, and pedagogy into the classroom each day. It was inevitable that with only a select number of categories that I would not be able to nominate some of the bloggers I felt really deserved recognition. My nominees are: Click here for the full nomination post.


I was wonderfully surprised to be nominated for 2 categories in the 2011 Edublog Awards, or the "2011 Eddies" this year. I consider myself a fairly novice blogger and never really saw this coming! I am humbled and honored beyond measure especially since the nominations come from blogging educators that I highly respect and admire!


Karen, over at PreKinders, nominated me for the "Best Individual Blog" category. Thank you, Karen! 

Laura, over at The Seeds Network, nominated me for the "Best Teacher Blog". Thank you, Laura! 

As if that were not enough to make my week, I got the Sunshine Award from Vanessa, over at Pre-K Pages! This was a wonderful  surprise for two reasons: one, because it came from someone I truly consider the ultimate in sharing early childhood teacher ideas online (Can you believe it? She said I brought cyber-sunshine into her life????? Wowers! :) and two, because this gives me an opportunity to share with and thank some of the other bloggers that inspire me on a daily basis. 


The Rules:
1. Thank the person who gave the award and write a blog post. 
         Thank you, Vanessa! I am honored and humbled to have you share this with me.  I've been a fan forever (far longer than I've been in the blogging community)!


2. Answer the following questions:
       Favorite Color: lime green, hot pink and cobalt blue

       Favorite Animal: dog, currently Max, our "Jackaranian"   

      
       Favorite drink: Southern Sweet Ice Tea 

        Facebook or Twitter?: Facebook!

         
         Favorite flower: Sunflower

         Favorite number: 8!

         Favorite day: Saturday!

3. Pass the award on to 10-12 fabulous bloggers, link to their blogs, and let them know they've been nominated.


I am listing a few more than the number suggested, because each of these are blogs I really felt worthy of recognition for all they share. If you haven't visited any of these, I HIGHLY Recommend heading on over and hitting your "Follow" button! These are the blogs that bring sunshine into MY life:


Child Central Station          How Long Is This Hall?      

                                       


 Casa Maria                       Learning For Life      

      
 

 Flights of Whimsy          Learning Is Child's Play  
                                      

Child Art Retrospective    Males in Early Childhood 

                             








Preschool Daze                  Getting Messy With Ms. Jessi

I'm a teacher, get me OUTSIDE here!   



     
Rainbows Within Reach                hands on: as we grow

                                           



Centers 'n Circles                       

  Let The Children Play

Childhood 101

Quirky Mama

Thank you for bringing sunshine my way!

2011 Edublogs Award Nominations

It's nomination time for the annual Edublog Awards! There are so many wonderful education blogs I follow, that it was really tough to narrow some of the categories down to just one name. In several categories, I would have liked to acknowledge more than one blog or blogger. I am blessed to have found wonderful online communities that promote sharing ideas and fellowship with other early childhood bloggers around the world. Thank you to all who share in the early childhood blogging community--because of you I am more reflective and continually inspired! 


Words (or mere nominations) cannot express my gratitude for all that these bloggers share. My nominations for 2011 are:


Best Individual Blog and Best Individual Tweeter: Deborah Stewart at Teach Preschool. I could nominate Deborah for almost every category in these awards. Her sharing and support to everyone in the online preschool community is, in a word, phenomenal!

Best Group Blog: Irresistible Ideas For Play Based Learning. Sherry and Donna over at Irresistible Ideas share ideas from play based preschools from all over Australia. Their ideas are always innovative, inviting and irresistible!

Best New Blog: Kreative Resources. Leeanne has only been blogging for a couple of months, but has managed to already share a wealth of information and ideas.

Best Ed Tech/ Resource Sharing Blog: Teaching Heart. Teaching Heart shares a variety of ideas and lovely printables for games, activities and teacher resources.

Most Influential Blog Post: Brick by Brick: Teachers and Kids at the Art Table. Scott has an amazing way of reminding me to slow down, listen and learn from my kids. This post in particular, is one of several he has written that prompted me to be a more reflective practitioner.

Best Teacher Blog: PreKinders. PreKinders shares ideas, printables and games. Definitely one of my "go to sites" when I need ideas for a particular theme or unit of study.

Best Free Webtool: The SEEDS Network Idea Search. The SEEDS Network has a wonderful search tool that helps you find ideas. Ideas and activities are presented in a printable format that also denotes the age ranges, supply list and activity description. 

Lifetime Achievement: Vanessa Levin of PreK Pages. Without a doubt. Long before I was a blogger (or ever dreamed I'd be one), I was a surfer. I surfed the web for ideas to implement in my teaching. PreK Pages was one of my "go to" sites for all things preschool.  Back in my "surfing" days, I would have never thought I'd have the opportunity to "meet" such an esteemed colleague, but through the online preschool community, I've found Vanessa to be even more of a resource that I could have ever imagined. Vanessa shares in various online communities and is supportive of other bloggers and educators. She is tirelessly and enthusiastically presents Best Practices to the preschool community. 

I'd like to personally thank the bloggers listed above for his or her contribution to the online preschool community. Each of these bloggers are fabulous and I encourage to to vote for them when the nominations are tallied and the voting begins.


I'd also like to thank all the wonderful bloggers who are not listed. I just couldn't list you all. Whether you realize it or not, I value your input and expertise. I feel I'm a far better teacher having met and shared with you all. 

Pre-K Turkey Cooking Tips 2011

How To Cook A Turkey: Thanksgiving Tips from Pre-K

Kelan: We eat chicken—my daddy gets it at the farm and he cooks it. There’s an old farm in the woods and it has chicks. He takes a long, long, long time for him to cook it on the grill. We grill outside together when it’s late. You have to put the fire on it. The fire will be burning down like a house. Sometimes you have to put water on it.

Anna: Mama helps me make a turkey. She gets it at the hospital. She cooks it with the animals and the dinosaurs.

Shelby: We don’t ever have turkey. My parents don’t like turkey. Sometimes it’s pork chops or boston butt and in the morning we have bacon. Usually, it’s boston butt!

Hannah: There is something stinky in the bottom to make the turkey----peeeee uuuuuuu! Then it cooks and mommy puts on the frosting. Don’t forget the cinnamon!

Katie: My mom doesn’t cook turkey. I don’t know why she cooks ham. She get is from Food Lion and cooks it for 5. Then she cuts it and bakes the cuts.

Kennedi: Mom cooks it with a spatula and puts it in the stove. Dad cooks it with a spoon then a fork for 30 minutes. He eats it and puts the bones in the trash can.

Maddy: She gets it from the grocery store and puts ham in it. She cooks it at home in the kitchen for 3 hours. Then we take it out and eat it!

Christian: Mommy gets it from the store. We walk there. She fills it with turkey and gets a pumpkin. She cooks it on the kitchen and I sleep. I wake up and Mama says, “It’s done!”

Kate: I get mine from the store and my daddy cooks it. He puts it in a pot for like 5 minutes then my brother and me eat it.

Will: Mommy shoots the turkey and puts it in the oven as hot as it’s supposed to be for 9 minutes. It’s a really long time! She leaves it like it is. That’s it---we just eat it up!

Aadam: We eat chicken. Mommy buys it and makes it. She puts a little bit of sugar on it. She puts it in the pot on the stove for 5 minutes until it gets warm. Then we eat it.

Drew: I buy it from the grocery store. My daddy and mommy cook it. They have a stove to cook on for stuff like that. They have to put meat on it---it’s sorta like hamburger meat. They cook it just like they are supposed to for like, 5 minutes, or something. We bring it to Granny’s and eat it on Thanksgiving Day.

Merry Martha: You get one at the turkey store and Mom and Dad cook it. They cook it in the pan and put salt in the pan. They cook it for 5 minutes in the oven for this many (shows an inch with fingers) hots! Then we eat it at Aunt Lynn’s.

Grace: We didn’t eat turkey for Thanksgiving. We eat regular food from our house. Mommy and Daddy cook it.

Lucas: Mommy and Daddy both cook it. They get stuff like salt and squirt it in there. Put it in the oven for 30 minutes on 45 heat. Then you put hot sauce on it and flatten it out. You can blow on it and eat it. If you eat it all, you will get ice cream and go to sleep. After the rest, you can go to the birthday party at Jump City.

Max: My dad cooks the turkey. He buys it at the store—it’s Food Lion, I think. It gets so, so hot!!! You have to cook it for 37 minutes. We don’t put spices on it because my mom’s on a diet and she wants to eat it, too!

Conner: We don’t have Thanksgiving---we just eat our dinner!

Vaughan: We eat turkey from the store. She cooks it on the stove for 30 minutes.

Halloween Hangover

Yes, I know Halloween was so last week, but we've been so busy that I've not had time to post the fun we've had. In the interest of full disclosure, I should say that Halloween is not my favorite holiday or time of the year, but I do try to make it enjoyable for the kids.  

Our dairy farm/pumpkin patch field trip earlier in the month was postponed due to weather and was rescheduled for Oct. 31. Our Halloween Happenings all took place the week before the actual holiday, so we would be free for two major field trips. I thought I would share some of the "Best of" Halloween at our school. Maybe it will help me be more in the spirit next year when I come back to see what we did.

Our class dressed up in costumes for the morning.

We watched as the younger kids paraded through our room to show off their costumes.

My co-worker's husband designed this awesome robot costume for their son, using common household items. Definitely the best handmade costume I saw this year.....

Here's some of the best treats I saw....

Our favorite party game...."Wrap the Mummy!". 

We divided the class into teams, with each team wrapping one member, but it was so much fun, eventually the rest decided to wrap themselves, too!

Since our field trip to pick pumpkins to fill our pumpkin patch in dramatic play had been postponed, we made our own pumpkins to fill our pumpkin patch out of brown paper lunch sacks and paint.

Many of our classrooms went all out decorating their rooms, but this decoration was my favorite! 

And my favorite bulletin board was done by some of our infants. We've had a major baby boom with our staff recently, so this was an especially special "Bumkin Patch"! 

I'll post soon about our wonderful trips to the dairy farm/ pumpkin patch and to the fire station!