Battleship: Things You Can Do With A Peg Board

This morning, two of the big kids were playing a game of Battleship. Here's the rub---we don't have the game! They improvised a pegboard set, quite ingeniously, I might add! 

Watching them play, it made me reflect back to seeing kids play with the very same manipulatives in a different setting (an elementary school) years ago and hearing the teacher scold the children for using the materials inappropriately. "That is NOT what you are supposed to do with those!" she said sternly. It makes me wonder what those kids may have come up with had they been allowed to explore creatively with the materials. I hope the times have changed and children in that setting are allowed to explore a little more freely. These boys were not playing rough, although they did get a little loud when one of them would exuberantly exclaim "HIT ! ", but that was part of the fun they were having! 

I'm glad that I could bear witness to this burst of creativity before they headed off to school this morning. This was certainly one of the highlights of my day! 


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Valentine Fun in Pre-K

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY!!!!

I wanted to share a few little tidbits from some of our Valentine's activities this week. We celebrate the day with a focus on friendship and family love with a card exchange and a few special treats for snack. 

I asked each family to work together to create a box to serve as a card holder for all those Valentine cards we exchange. Some of the families were VERY creative and came up with some wonderful boxes! 

Valentine Cruise Ship

Rock and Roll Guitar

 Princess Ballerina Box

Valentine Hearts 

 Princess Stickers

 Dirtbike Love

 Ladybug Love

 Mailbox

 Big Mouth Princess

 Pom Pom Collage

 Dora the Explorer Stickers and Smileys

 Glittery Hearts

 Lego Love

 Shark!

 Lots of Hearts

Recycled Soda Bottle Pig

We also had a few really cute homemade Valentine cards.

While I was out one day this week, some of the kids made these cute little love bugs to decorate our classroom door.

My students were VERY generous sharing all sorts of lovely Valentines gifts with me, but this little Valentine heart that one of my students made in art center definitely tugged at my heartstrings! It reads: 

"Dear Mrs. Ayn, You are the best teacher in the whole, wide world.Love, Kaitlyn"

Definitely a keeper for the scrapbook!

Another child drawing in art center made this little picture. "Look Mrs. Ayn, I made a love pattern! It's heart-"I"-heart-"I"-heart-"I"!

We've done a lot of math activities this week with Conversation Hearts. We've sorted, patterned and graphed them. We've read them and practiced reading and writing the conversations. This morning, estimated the number of hearts in a a heart shaped box then counted them out to check our guesses.

Later, we counted the number of letters on our hearts and graphed the results.

We've done a lot of singing and dancing this week. Today, with all the excitement building for the the party, we need to get some serious wiggles out. We put on "Love Shack" and started dancing our hearts out. Several of the kids grabbed a partner and started to do little waltzes. I would have never thought to waltz to "Love Shack", but sometimes, love just happens!

Hope your Valentine's Day was just a special as mine! 


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