TOP 10 of 2012

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!!

It's been a wonderful year! I'd like to thank the readers here for taking time to read, comment, share and pin the posts here. I get so many of my classroom ideas from things other teachers share, and little illuminations provides me with a way for me to pay it forward (just a little) by sharing here. I am so thankful to get to know so many wonderful folks via the blogosphere and social media. I was even lucky enough to meet several bloggy buddies this year in person! (note to self: I still need to finish that post about the meet-ups at NAEYC!)

To start the year off, I thought I'd share some of your favorite posts. These are the Top 10 little illuminations posts from 2012!

   10.  Perky Penguins In Pre-K
    9.   Jump Rope For Heart
    8.   All in A Day's Play
    7.   Pet Week Play In Pre-K
    6.   Baby, It's Cold Outside
    5.   A Gift For Dad, A Book and A Bloghop
    4.   Discovery Bottle Inspiration
    3.   Cloudy With A Chance Of Weather
    2.   Making Literacy Connections With Our Names

 And DRUMROLL, please......  the NUMBER 1 post of 2012 is:

    1.   Signing In And Out Of Pre-K

In all honesty, posts about bulletin boards are year-round hits---the number of visits to those posts far outnumber any others. I didn't include them in the list above for that reason. I thought I'd include a list of the TOP 5 Bulletin Board posts of 2012 here:

     5.  Back To School Bulletin Boards...Redux
     4.  Spring Bulletin Boards
     3.  Dr. Seuss Bulletin Boards
     2.  Fabulous Fall Bulletin Boards
     1.  St. Patrick's Day Bulletin Boards

Now, you've seen what was popular on little illuminations. What was YOUR favorite little illuminations post in 2012? Please share it in the comments!


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Special Visitors for Pet Week in Pre-K

We've had some very special visitors in our class for Pet Week. We've been learning about pets and how to take care of them.


We had Alex the Yorkie visit...

And a Yellow Lab, Berkley...

We learned about the tack (or horse supplies) used to take care of a pony...

and got to see and smell the various types of feed that ponies enjoy.

We also met the pony who the tack and feed belonged to! Meet Midknight, the Pony!

Hannah demonstrated how to brush her pony and pick his hooves.

The children each got a turn to come up and pet the pony!

We love our pets! I am so thankful to have wonderful families that took the time to come and share their pets, especially the Marshall family, the Oldham family and the Pace family!


If you's like to read more about our Pet Week activities, check out "Pet Art" and "Pet Week Play in Pre-K"


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Pet Art in Pre-K

We made little puppy heads out of triangles this week.

    

In art center, some of the friends have been drawing their favorite pets.

 

   

Some friends have been very creative drawing pets they MIGHT have one day!

I don't know about you, but I've never met anybody who has a stingray as a pet!

One of the "Afterschool kids" that use my classroom left this little owl for me. 

This is a pet store. The bottle cap "wall" is "glass, because people want to see the fish, but you don't want the water to get out or they would get all wet"! Makes perfect sense to me! 

 If you's like to see more of our exciting pet activities, check out yesterday's post: Pet Week in Pre-K. We also had a special pet "Show and Tell"---look for that post later this week! 

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Pet Week Play in Pre-K

Since we've been learning about pets in our class, we decided to set up a pet shop in our dramatic play center and a veterinarian's office in our science center.

We've had some great play going on in both centers!

The "doctors" are in!

Some of us like to play pretend on a smaller scale.

We have also had a lot of fun with our movement activities, moving like various pets---we even played a partner game in which each partner set was an animal trainer and animal! Seeing these kids doing pet tricks was definitely one of the highlights of my week!

 

 

 

We love the Hap Palmer song, "Sammy", Greg and Steve's "Animal Action" and The Learning Station's "How Much Is That Doggie In The Window?"! 
(Sorry, a link to The Leaning Station's "How Much Is That Doggie In The Window?" was not available on YouTube. I highly recommend checking it out--it includes a variety of pets!)

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