Thinking "Inside" the Box

 

 

     Last week, we read some new books in Preschool and tried a few new activities. One day we read the book Press Here by Herve Tullet and did a number of activities with just a few packs of Dollar Tree dot stickers. You can find all of the activities on my blog post about the book from last year. We also read the book The Dot by Peter H. Reynolds about a child who learns to have confidence in her abilities to draw if she just starts. Using some white dots, we asked the children to draw a picture starting with the dot. We got some beautiful colorful pictures that the children were really proud of. My favorite of the new books by far, however, was Not A Box by Antoinette Portis. This is a simply drawn book about a cardboard box that is NOT box.

 

 I provided 10 cardboard boxes of various sizes. The only rules were that the largest box needed to be shared with anyone who wanted to get inside of it. After all, it was a perfect place for hide and seek. Also they couldn't dump all the other classroom toys into the boxes. Otherwise, they could use their imaginations and whatever supplies we had on hand in the classroom to make them into whatever they wanted.

 

They used crayons, markers, magazines and tape (lots of tape). This kept the entire group quiet for a full 15 minutes as they turned the boxes into new creations. What did they make?

It's a place to hide in or....

a place to hide under!

It's a hat!

It's a race car!

It's a baby bath!

They are bumper cars! Um...okay.

It's a lego holder. Clearly someone did not hear the rules!

We offered the children the opportunity to draw pictures like the ones in the book but only a couple of the girls took us up on the offer.

 

It's a girl using a stack of boxes to climb up the mountain! Why, yes, it is!

 

Each child was allowed to take home a box if they wanted to. Everyone wanted to and no one really cared which box they took. As they got into their cars after school with A BOX most parents said something along the lines of  "Oh, I see you have a box!" and the answer was "No, it's a ____________." One wise parent asked "What did you make?" The answer, "It's a Not A Box!" Of course!



 

 

 

 

One Person's Trash...

Happy New Year! It has been quite a while since I posted. My last few attempts ended in disaster with my old laptop crashing twice and considerable time in between for repairs and finally replacement. I'm back for good now, I hope!

We have all heard the saying "One man's trash is another man's treasure!" When you are a preschool teacher, that saying is particularly true. I will take fabric scraps, plastic containers, previously used bulletin board decorations, or just about anything else you can imagine. Last week, in my director's office, I found several boxes of empty cardboard examination table paper rolls and a bag of rubber balls that someone probably ordered from Oriental Trading once and found that they didn't need. As it turned out, I had found a gold mine, a real treasure, an entire rainy week's worth of entertainment for a room full of busy boys and girls.

I brought in one box of the cardboard rolls and about a dozen rubber balls. I placed them in the center of the rug to see what they would do with them. Immediately, they started to try to build ball runs and see if they could get the balls to go through several tubes laid end to end. If they continued to quickly roll balls in, some would eventually be pushed out the other end. They were sort of losing interest by that time, so I suggested that they see what would happen if they used some blocks. Voila! Someone discovered that by raising the first tube up on a stack of blocks, the balls would roll faster and harder through the tubes. Sometimes the tubes would roll off the blocks or out of line. Someone else found that  you could make trays or railings for the tubes with more blocks. By then, they were hooked! For the entire week, we built new and different tracks and played with them nonstop. For this week, at least, the other toys were just props and filler to make the ball runs more interesting.

By the end of the week, some children got even more creative with the tubes or tired of building the runs. A few tried using them as weapons, but when threatened with losing the tubes entirely, found more "educational" ways of using them. One little boy put several balls into a tube, using sort of like a rainstick. A few others turned some of the tubes into instruments such as horns and drums and made some music for their classmates to dance to.  

As of Friday, they had not yet tired of these new "toys" so I will bring them out again this week and see what happens. When the newness wears off, I'll have to decide whether to find a place to store them until a later date or dispose of them altogether. My teacher/hoarder mentality thinks that would be a shame. For now, we will just enjoy this treasure.

Hooray for the Red, White and Blue!

This week in Preschool, we celebrated American Heroes! We had a visit from a local police officer, we made Flat Stanley letters to send to soldiers and had an American Heroes Parade with some real American Heroes, dads and grandpas who are or have been soldiers! We made Yankee Doodle hats complete with feathers and tambourines from paper plates. In honor of our country, we even did a red, white and blue science experiment. I found this experiment on the internet at www.brighthub.com/education/k-12/articles/35948.aspx. 

 

 We created a density stack by pouring liquids of different densities together to see if they would mix. What we got was a red, blue and whitish (ok, it was yellow) stack. 

For this experiment, you will need:

 A clear jar or vase. I used a Dollar Tree vase. 

1 cup of light or clear corn syrup mixed with red food coloring.

1 cup of vegetable oil

1/2 cup of water mixed with blue food coloring

1/2 cup of bleach

 First I showed the children how thick the corn syrup was and then poured it in the vase. Next I added the vegetable oil. As you can see, it stayed on top of the corn syrup. Next, I poured in the blue water.

It went through the oil but still stayed on top of the corn syrup. There we had our density stack. To take our experiment a step further, we then poured in the bleach to see what would happen. We discussed that bleach is something that the children should never touch and that it would make you sick if you drank it and takes color out of things.

The children watched in awe as the bleach went through the oil and the color disappeared from the water but the red corn syrup didn't change.

 Next, one of the teachers asked what would happen if we put blue food coloring in the vegetable oil instead of the water. I hadn't thought of that and wasn't sure what would happen so we tried it. I put a small amount of vegetable oil in a cup and added a few drops of blue food coloring. The food coloring did not mix with the oil even when we stirred it. Then I poured it on top of the density stack we had already made.

 This time the oil stayed with oil but the food color went through to the water. Ah, but we had previously put bleach in that water, so guess what happened to the blue food coloring again! Yes, it disappeared, too.

We had a great time celebrating the Red, White and Blue and our American Heroes! And our first science experiment of the year was a huge success! Hooray for the Red, White and Blue!

From the "You Can't Make This Stuff Up" file ~ Back to School

We have been back in Preschool seven whole days and what a seven days it has been! Last year, I frequently commented that I had the class of a lifetime. It was not because the children were much different individually from any other 4 year olds. It was just the particular blend of personalities and skills that came together just right. This year I have a NORMAL 4 year old class! We have a wide range of ages. Trust me, when they are four, several months can make a major difference in abilities and maturity. We also have a few that have never been in school before. And then there's the girl who refuses to sit on the chairs because they are "dirty". She just props on the edge. Yep, we have our fair share of challenges this year. Luckily they are REALLY cute!

So... for incidents from THE FILE. On day one I realized that I had made a major error when typing up our daily schedule and we almost missed our assigned playground time. In circle time after playground, when I asked the children if they remembered the teachers' names, one young man spoke up and said "You're [boaf] Idiots." Fortunately, the other children immediately recognized that as one of the words we don't say in preschool and called him out on it. He responded, "Well, Captain Hook said it in Peter Pan and you almost made us miss playground." Can't argue with that!

At lunch the same day, one fellow said "School is way harder this year!" When I asked what we had done that was so much harder than his 3 year old class, he said "Well, it's much harder to poke your friends and not get caught." Hmmm. Maybe I am doing something right!

The rest of week one and most of week two went along fairly smoothly after that rocky beginning. Day seven, however, was another thing altogether! Thankfully, we end an hour earlier on Fridays and today, it was not a minute too soon!

When we first arrive each day, we say a prayer and  the Pledge of Allegiance. I love working in a religious environment! However, one little guy didn't want to stand up. When I asked him what was wrong he said, "My feet feel like flat tires so I can't stand up." Really? I feel that way sometimes at the END of the day but even I can make it through the prayer and pledge. In circle time, the same character piped up and said "I don't want to end the song with cha cha cha. That's for old people. I want to end with "boom boom sshhh". Did I mention that he is a character?

I had a dad stop by to drop something off for his son. He told me that his son answered every question he asked about school with "I don't know." Later, said son is repeating the story we listened to yesterday verbatim so I asked him why he always told his dad he didn't know when dad asked about school. His response, "I don't know!" However a helpful friend said, "I say I don't know to my mom 'cause I don't want to 'splain about it."

When I stepped out of the classroom for a minute to get something copied, my co-teacher heard giggling in the bathroom. When she looked in, there were 3 little boys sharing the toilet. Two got to go home in their extra clothes. One decorated the wall. When I explained the change of clothes to one grandmother, little guy said "It's not my fault. That is a baby toilet and I couldn't hit it. You need to get a bigger toilet by next week!" I think Grandma will be handling that one this afternoon!

On the playground, I walked to up to a sweet little guy who had his fingers in his mouth and said "Those look like really tasty fingers. I think maybe I should eat one, too." He looked at me with great big eyes and said "You will have to chew your own fingernails. I need these for when I woowwy!" (worry) Ewww! Never mind!

Seriously, you really can't make this stuff up! And yes, it's a good thing they're cute! I'm tired and my feet feel like flat tires!

Press Here ~ An All Pinterest Lesson Plan

The end of the school year is drawing near and my lesson plans are starting to feel a little bit stale. Pinterest to the rescue! I was able to put together a lesson plan that may have been one of the most fun days we have had all year!

 At some point a few months ago, I saw a pin on Pinterest from Amazon for the delightful interactive children's book, Press Here by Herve Tullett. The pin mentioned that it contained lesson plans, too. Aha ~ that was right up alley! When I clicked over to check out the book, I discovered that there was a wonderful downloadable lesson plan available including a printable mini version of the book that I printed for each child. I have since learned that there are lesson plan links with many of their children's books. So, I ordered the book. As soon as I opened it, I knew the kids would love it!

http://www.amazon.com/Press-Here-Herve-Tullet/dp/0811879542/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1315664193&sr=1-1

The children loved participating while I read the story. In fact, we read it several times! The last couple of times each child had a large dot to help them participate. There was lots of pressing, shaking, leaning and blowing going on. They were thrilled to have the mini books to take home.

Ah, but Pinterest had many more wonderful ideas to go along with the book. I found some large polka dot tape at Target and with 3 toilet paper tubes,  a shoebox lid and some marbles, I had a little marble maze!

http://creativeconnectionsforkids.com/2011/11/press-here-an-action-story/
As simple as it was, one little boy said, "I could play with this all day!" I guess I should have made more than one! It is a great tool for eye-hand coordination.

And of course, we want to be cross-curricular so I found a really fun math activity using dot painters and dollar store spinners that turned into some pretty art projects too!

http://blog.playdrhutch.com/2012/04/24/dot-dabber-dice-game/comment-page-1/#comment-1744

I used the spinners instead of dice so they could work on number recognition.

 Last but not least, I found a use for that great cardboard box I have been saving forever! Check back at my previous blog http://teachingitswhatido.blogspot.com/2011/11/dont-throw-it-awayit-has-so-much.html. Several pinners had this great activity!

http://www.theseedsnetwork.com/seeding/mad-DOT-challenge

http://www.teachpreschool.org/2012/03/this-is-what-happens-when-you-give-a-set-of-stickers-to-a-set-of-kids/ 

This was just two packs of dot stickers from the Dollar Tree. They had so much fun with it, that I am going to have to go back and get more stickers! Thank you Pinterest for punching up the lesson plans! It was a great day!