100th Day of School

Hip, hip hooray! Thursday was our 100th day of school! We've been counting the days since school began. Each day we add a circle to our Counting Caterpillar. This year, we made a new AB color pattern every tenth day. We used a star to commemorate the 100th day. We've already decided to continue to add to the caterpillar each day to see how long it will be by the end of school. On Monday, we'll decide how we'll proceed with adding to him. I'll let them vote to see if the want to add colors randomly or if the wish to try a more complex pattern.

I asked each student to do a little "homework". We decided to make a 100th Day Trail Mix so they were asked to find one hundred edible items and count them with a family member to bring in to share. We put everything together and had the trail mix for snack. This year, we had an overabundance of small candies, and very little filler, so we had to add a little filler.

Eventually, it looked like this:

Our Morning Message was about our Hundredth Day. The students took turns circling or writing an "H" on the whiteboard.

We made these cute headbands from Making Learning Fun for the 100th Day celebration. In the background, you can see more of the patterning of the Counting Caterpillar.

We made a collage of 100 small items glued to the number 100 on construction paper.

Our Show and Tell Challenge this week was to bring in 10 of a small item that we could count together. I love the creativity of some of the "shares"!

Personalize your own free picture slideshow

We illustrated what we thought we'd look like when we are 100 years old. One of my friends drew "peg legs" because "when you get old, your legs sometimes don't work no more. You have to get pegs like the pirates!" and another included a cane and eyeglasses. (The pictures were drawn in colored pencils and were too light to show up in the photos. ;(  )We read the poem "100 Days of School" by Songs 4 Teachers. It's available on the abcteach website, but you can download it from here.

Here are some of our favorite 100th Day books:






















Our "grand finale" was a pizza party. It always surprises me how much pizza 20 pre-k kids can eat!

I'd love for you to comment or leave a link showing how you celebrate the 100th day!

MLK Day...a few more things

Due to unexpected snow days and the need to revamp our lesson plans, our MLK unit was extended a few days. Since we extended our unit, I wanted to share a few more of our MLK Day activities.

One of the puzzles in our puzzle center is of Martin Luther King, Jr. It is one of our tougher wooden puzzles, apparently so tough, that a teacher long before me traced the puzzle piece shapes to aid in solving.

When one of my friends had some difficulty, a few friends came over to offer a little help and encouragement. As he finished, the helpers all congratulated him, offered praise for a job well done and a high five.

We've talked a lot about treating others with equality and respect. Honestly, my students were dumbfounded that there was actually a time that segregation and inequality was the norm. I'm so glad that they will never live the injustices that occurred here in our beloved South not so long ago.  It's hard for the friends to conceptualize MLK's "Dream", since that is not a reality they live.

We talked a good bit about King's "Dream" and how that is different from the dreams we experience while sleeping. I tried really hard to put those concepts into terms they could understand, but while they got the gist of what King stood for, when I asked them to dictate and illustrate THEIR dream for the future, it was clear that the responses were clearly those of  preschool children. I gave them pre-cut cloud shapes to record their "dreams". We put their name and the dictated responses on one side and the illustrations on the other and hung the completed projects on a string from the ceiling.

And the dreams.....
  "I have a dream.....
   **that all families can all get along and be friends.
   **for Martin Luther King to write books about dinosaurs.
   **for the friends to hold hands.
   **that we can all be friends.
   **for the apples to grow and the sun to come up.
   **that we will all be together.
   **that we could have a snowman.
   **that everybody can be friends.
   **for me and Tegan to put on a party for my mommy.
   **we have a Batman to save the day.
   **for Batman and the Joker to do something. The Joker got exploded.
   **to have flowers for my sister and my mommy.
   **everyone should play in the snow.
   **I wish everyone in my family could be butterflies in the world.
   **for an alien snowman.
   **that everyone gets to make a snowman.
   **for everyone to be a fairy.
   **we can all be friends.
   **for everyone to be together.
   **everyone should make snowmen. "

We also read a few more books about Dr. King. I especially like the books we've read in the "Let's Read About" series by Scholastic. The books have beautiful illustrations and very easy text for little ones to comprehend. Lets Read About-- Martin Luther King, Jr (Scholastic First Biographies) has already become a favorite.



We also read Happy Birthday, Martin Luther King Jr. (Scholastic Bookshelf).

MLK DAY

When I first held up a picture of Martin Luther King, Jr., I asked the kids if anyone knew who was pictured. Several of the students called out "Obama"! (I got the same response last year, as well.) Once I said, "This is Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.", several of the kids made comments like, "Oh, yeah". (Yeah, right, they knew it all the time! :) We talked about how not so long ago, people were treated very differently, depending on their skin color.

I pulled out a brown paper lunch sack and decorative gift bag. Each bag had a little pony figure from one of our centers, exactly the same. We talked about which package they would like to receive and why. I then had students discover items are the same inside. I explained that just because the bags on the outside are different, the important thing is what's in the bag. After I mixed the items up, the students couldn't determine which item came in which bag, 

I then asked students to pair up with someone who looks different than themselves. After they were paired, I asked them to talk with their partner and find out ways the are similar (likes, dislikes, age, number of siblings,etc.) After a few minutes with partners, I asked student pairs to share findings with the rest of the group. I asked the students how they would feel if they couldn't play with their friends, just because they were different on the outside.


I told the students about Ruby Bridges and her long walks to school and her lonely days without classmates. After I read The Story of Ruby Bridges by Robert Coles, I told them how when I was little, I used to wish that I was just a little older so I could have gone to her school and been her friend. I wanted to walk down the street with her, holding her hand, so she wouldn't be afraid all by herself. 

We also read the Scholastic book: "Let's Read About--Ruby Bridges".

We talked about Rosa Parks and how she stood up for her rights. I then read a few books about Martin Luther King, Jr. and discussed how he led people everywhere so the things that Ruby and Rosa endured wouldn't happen again. Two my favorite books to share about MLK are "Martin's Big Words" and "My Brother Martin"


     


I was thrilled one of my students brought in a new book to share for Show and Tell this week: "Ruby Bridges Goes To School: My True Story".

Our unit was fairly short this year --- due to unexpected and very rare snow days, I had to reorganize my lesson plans. I had to omit some lessons and reschedule others. I did not want to cut our plans to celebrate MLK Day and learn about his contributions, but I did have to make it a much shorter unit than planned.  I incorporate a lot of Dr. King's teachings into our day to day activities, as we work on social/emotional skills, so I think that the lessons we did get to do really made an impact.

Pillow Talk

   I admit that when I first heard about the communication strategy known as "Pillow Talk" early last summer, my initial thought was the Doris Day/Rock Hudson movie. (My mom is a big Doris Day fan and we saw all of her movies growing up.)

   “Pillow Talk” is an interaction in which the teacher spends a few quality minutes one on one with each child as they begin to lay down for nap.  This is time for unscripted talk, a time children can choose to share whatever is on their minds.

   NAEYC's Young Children published "Fostering The Emotional and Language Needs of Young Learners" in March 2002 promoting the use of this technique in early childhood classrooms. In the article, authors Soundy and Stout proffer that “[t]alk is a major instrument of learning, a natural activity that underlies and supports literacy development”. They go on to state that “the early preschool years must be devoted to affectionate literacy interactions which children are engaged in, animated by, and cognitively challenged with language”.


    I am a firm believer in fostering language development in my pre-k students. I know that one of my weaknesses is that I tend to let Circle Time go on too long, and that is largely in part to my allowing each student to have his/her say. I feel bad if I have to tell a student we'll come back to them later.  When I first heard about “Pillow Talk” this summer, I decided I would try it in my classroom this year. It has gone very well. I visit each child's mat for just a few minutes, but those minutes are so precious. At the beginning of the year, I had a few new students who were very shy. The few minutes we spent together each day during “Pillow Talk” really helped us form a bond. The time quickly became as important for me as it was for the students. Now, the kids all really look forward to it and will often ask throughout the morning if we are going to have that time together.

   Occasionally, the talk is superficial or just little updates about what is going on in their lives. Sometimes, I am able to get a better picture of the students’ home life. I may not always have the time during arrival or circle time to hear every students’ story, but they KNOW I will have the time to listen, one-on-one, during “Pillow Talk” time. I am sure that I have connected with a couple of students through “Pillow Talk” that may have taken most of the year to make that special connection without it.  I do not use our special time together to talk about any difficult moments through the day, unless the student initiates that portion of the conversation. I feel strongly that this is a special and safe time, not a time for admonitions or rehashing earlier discourtesies.
  
   Soundy and Stout talk in the article about how this practice promotes communication and language building experiences, but I feel it also it gives the children a sense of value and importance. My students know that I value them and really want to hear what it is that they have to say, even when we are in our busiest moments.  I think I will continue to see the benefits of this type of discourse in my classroom and will certainly continue this interaction in my classroom.

Ice is Nice!

We have had some very rare cold weather recently. Snow and ice is a rarity here, and when we do get it, it warms right up and melts. This week, we had 2 1/2 snow days and our roads are still icy a week later. By the time we got back to school, the snow that remained was frozen solid, so we couldn't do some of the fun snow activities I've seen posted, but I did want to take advantage of this as much as possible.

We weren't able to go outside, since the ice was so slick and the temps were so low. This is what our steps from the classroom to the playground looked like on Friday, 6 days after the snow.

We heard lot about crews icing and sanding the roads, so we decided to experiment. We chipped up some of the ice from the back stairs of our classroom. We put the same amount in 2 pans.

We sprinkled table salt on the ice in one pan and marked it with an "S".

Within 20 minutes, the change was noticeable. The pan with salt added was definitely melting faster.

The kids really enjoyed checking on the ice. I found it amusing that the kids would detour their paths through the classroom so they could walk by and check the melting process. Within an hour, both pans were completely melted.

We also checked our steps and found they were still frozen solid. I loved hearing the kids thoughts on the melting process --we had some great conversations about our findings!

Stay warm!