Five for Friday September 12

I am linking up with Kacey at Doodle Bugs Teaching for Five for Friday!

We had lots of fun this week- and we used our Fun in Fall Prezi a LOT!  We worked with apples, our monarch changed into a chrysalis, and we watched some back to school videos.  The children loved watching the caterpillar change into a chrysalis.  If you would like this Prezi, I made it one for the United States and one for Canada.  

The Back to School part of the Prezi is FREE at my TPT store. Just click on the picture!

Here are some of the other Prezis that we used this week.  Just click on the picture if you want to go to that Prezi at my TPT store.  It is SUCH a time saver for me to have these up on the board so I can just click to whatever link I want to bring up. The Kindergarten Math is a bundle of 4 Prezis- for all of the math standards.  This week, we used this one- Counting and Cardinality. This one also has Base 10 on it.

I think I am going to do my Five Senses unit in the Fall this year. I usually do it in Spring, but I am thinking Fall or Christmas would be lots of fun, with lots of great senses activities. I could literally sit in a room with a McIntosh Apple Yankee Candle- or any of the Autumn Harvest candles- and use my sense of smell all day long- plus I love to make my scented Play Doh with fall scents.

 

If  you know me, you'll know that this is one of my FAVORITE things to see my children do... play. The learning that happens during playtime is more that I could even write down. This little group had a ball in my housekeeping area, playing and getting to know each other.  I love taking the time during these busy first couple weeks of school to walk around and play WITH the children- talk to them, laugh with them, and just listen to them.  If you want to learn about your children, just listen to the way they play.

 

My friend Susanna from Whimsy Workshop shared this idea that she found somewhere.  I have gone back and cannot find where I saw it- so if it's your idea, I'm sorry I'm not giving you credit- but thank you because I really like it!  I've been having my kids come in, put away their lunchbox and folder, and then find their name and answer a question before they begin their morning work.  This week I asked about a letter in their name.  This was great practice for them to recognize and find their name, and then for us to count how many were in each column.  Plus, we got a little graphing, and more and less work in  already. 

I posted some Pre-Writing Warm Up Activities at PreK and K Sharing this week.

My post also included some of my favorite sensory ideas to use with my children.  This time of year (well, any time of year, actually!) I like to use lots of fine and gross motor activities with the class. 

I made a paper that I send home to parents with some ideas that they can use at home to work on developing fine motor skills.  Lots of times parents want to help, but aren't sure what activities would be best.  Click HERE if you would like a copy. I am sending a copy of this paper home on our Curriculum Night, and then again during our 10 Week Conferences with parents of children who may need some extra fine motor strengthening.

                             

Here are a couple Friday Favorites:
My friend Lorri, who teaches first grade across the hall from me, had this adorable idea for "preserving" summer memories, for her students' first writing activity back to school.

And finally, you know how I made this anchor chart about drawing a person?

Well, we actually had a lesson and everything- a very detailed lesson. I modeled it. I saw lots of nodding.  So, when the kids sat down to draw a picture of themselves for our Class Friends book in the nice little box I had for them, above their picture, this little friend said...

 "Let's just start with addin' my deer horns!"

I'm pretty sure that's not what we started with when I did my drawing lesson...

Have a WONDERFUL weekend!  Thanks for stopping by!