Humor in Education :)

I saw this on pinterest the other day and had to share!! I found it hilarious because it's so true! I hate time out!! So this is so fitting! :)

School's [Almost] In Session!

Pre school is starting this week and with 110+ kids I knew I'd need a way to remember them all and a FUN way to get to know them. So I hit the dollar store for inspiration. I found some ping pong balls...what 3-4 year old doesnt love a ball. :) I decided to write getting to know you questions on the ball and get going with this bingo style.
We're going to be going over class rules and housekeeping items and then have a review. When the kids get an answer right, they get to draw a ball out of the bowl. "its so simple." (I had a weak moment of speaking in my Boston accent quoting Jim gaffigan...forgive me)
Anyway...just wanted to share the idea. I hope it really keeps their attention. :) new 3's always get restless in the beginning. But I am do ready for this new year. All the minuscule tidbits are taken care of and I am so ready to teach! :)
Hope this helps if anyone's running short on ideas!!

Happy teaching!!

Ms. Kyli

Gone...But Haven't Forgotten

my intentions this summer were to get this blog updated with all of the fun things i had done during the school year...well...turns out that the joke was on me when i thought id have more time during the summer. turns out i dont. but...i am sitting here at a slow (summer job) car dealership...not having any phone calls and already got my nightly tasks done..so i figured tonight was the time!

a few weeks before school ended, we ordered a fun little movement game...well, i got bored with the way it was instructed...so like i often do, i made up something else. i like this game better anyway because you guys at home can make your own rendition!

all you need are a bunch of multi colored floor dots. (i have foam ones.,...but laminated ones or temporary paper ones work too.) i have about 5 colors with 6 dots in each color...
and you need a die that doesn't have anything on it...probably a wood block would suffice.

on the die, you're going to put the colors of dots on five separate sides. then on the one empty side, you're going to put all five of the colors.

put your floor dots scattered all over. turn on music and let the kids dance all around the dots. when the music stops, count backward from five...once you're at 1, the kids should have found a dot to stand on. if  not, they are out. then roll the die. if the die lands on red...anyone standing on red is out. if it lands on purple, anyone standing on purple is out. and so on and so forth. now, if it lands on the side with all the colors, everyone who was out, gets to get back in. after you roll the once, restart the music and keep going. my kids love this game and its a great way to teach colors through movement. :)




here is an example of how the floor looks and their little toes while we're dancing! :) 










i feel like i struggled explaining this game. if you want to try it out, just shoot me an e mail or leave a comment and i can give you more details. :)

try it! it really is a fun, learning game!



Happy teaching!

ms. kyli

I is For BORING....Unless it Involves ICE CREAM!

i had a REALLY hard time on Tuesday getting the kids interested in the letter "I." i don't know if it was my sluggish approach from returning from spring break or just a lack of crafty ideas. HOWEVER, i was determined to revamp mine and the children's love for school.
luckily when i was 14 i was FORCED into taking chemistry. (cry me a river, i didn't like my wood class so i don't know how to build a bridge...therefor i will NEVER get over it.) despite my evident dislike for the class, there was one thing that stuck with me....THE DAY WE MADE ICE CREAM.
something something about chemical reactions and junk plus a cup o this and a cup o that...toss it around for a while and VIOLA...somehow through all that "blah blah blah blah..." we made ice cream from two bags!
luckily for me, i wasn't SO ignorant in high school that i learned how to use Google and found the recipe, minus the snooze status chemistry lesson, and hit the grocery store!
because i have been lazy in the past and didn't take the time to iron out the kinks, if you will, of some of my previous projects, i decided that my husband got to be the guinea pig to my ice cream experiment. cause heaven knows i would have no idea if the chemical reaction worked or not!

here's what you need:
2TBS sugar
1 Cup half and half
1/2 t vanilla
1/2 c salt (the original recipe called for the chunky salt..but at 5 times the price, i say forget it. my table salt worked just fine!!)
and enough ice to fill a gallon sized bag about half way.
(gallon and pint sized bags)

sugar





                             and this stuff














                                                             
                           



< ---------------------equals

here's how we do!
put the vanilla, half and half and sugar in the pint sized bag. SEAL-ER up. set aside.
then put the salt and ice in the gallon sized bag.
put the pint sized bag in with the salt and ice. seal the gallon bag and shake it all up. it will take about 5 minutes until it sets up. but once it does, remove the pint sized bag and enjoy!!
my "pwe-schoolers" are going to have so much fun tomorrow! i can FEEL it!
i, myself, am quite excited.
oh, and heres a shout out to the husband for being my taste tester. :) he's great!


happy teaching!

Ms. Kyli!

Movement & Acting Exercise!

i primarily teach the performing arts at Stepping Stones...this has been a COMPLETELY new concept for me considering i have never taught this specialty before. SO, since i have a love thing with popsicle sticks, this is a popsicle stick activity. :) all i did was write different animals, people, materials etc that the kids can act out and put them in a cup

 i turned the music  on and kept pulling out sticks and calling out what the kids had to act. :)

 they had a lot of fun!

and its so simple!!!

Happy teaching!

Ms. Kyli

K is for Key Chain

many of you read about my struggle to come up with things that had to do with the letter K. once my kaleidoscopic failed, i decided to try something simpler. all i did was go to the store and buy some key chains, drew some pictures of things that started with K (i.e. kites, kittens, keys etc.) and had the kids color and cut them out. they then we laminated them. (with my wonderful laminator my husband bought me for valentines...best valentine ever!)

then we just hole punched them and hooked them on our key chains. we then had an entire key chain of K's. :)

happy teaching!

Ms. Kyli

Mini Easter Baskets

i remember being a kid and SAVING my Popsicle sticks because i wanted to make a popsicle stick basket. little did i know that my mom had an ENTIRE giant box of non salivated sticks in our basement. many years later i am am now teaching pre-school and wanting a project that my chitlens will love. it is sad to me that i am still young enough to get my pre-school inspirations off of what i remember loving to do. :S whatever works, right?
so these baskets are sooo simple! all you need is

•  a HIGH TEMP glue gun and;
•  popsicle sticks...lots of them. 

i say a high temp glue gun because i started with my low temp and the sticks did not stick the way they were supposed to. once i yanked out my high temp, they fused like a charm.

you start off just lining up popsicle sticks...FOOL PROOF!

excuse my add...i didnt want it sticking to my table so i laid this down JIC. :)

then take another stick and put glue on the ENTIRE thing and lay it across the other sticks about 1/4 way down. about 1 inch away from that one, repeat the step with another stick. then, in a tic tac toe kinda form, lay two other sticks on those ones. 

after you've done that, that is all you're going to do the rest of the time...except every time you criss cross them you are going to slowly start to get farther out each time. 

once you cannot stack the sticks on top of one another and stack out at the same time...you are DONE piece of cake! 

notice how i went to the VERY end. you cant see the ends of the under lapped sticks. :)

after that, i just slid some pastel pipe cleaner through two slats, filled it with a TINY bit of basket grass and put some fake eggs in it. im going to have my chitlens paint them on Tuesday and decorate them...but until then, im just showing the basic steps in case you want to make them with your kids before next weekend!!. :) 

happy teaching!!

<3 Ms. Kyli

K is for Kaleidoscope

this week we are learning the letter K. i think as a child i put up a mental block on all things that started with "K" because all that mattered was K is for Kyli. :) so now that i am a 20 something year old teaching pre-school with my tongue hanging out of my mouth going "duuuhh.." i am struggling. SO google helped me out with my egocentric "K" issues and i decided i wanted them to learn the word kaleidoscope. :)

this art project that i [pre] made is a little rough because i didn't take the time to paint it, color it or wrap it up with actual cutsie paper, stamps or stickers. forgive me... i somehow don't have the time and luxuries of a four year old. couldn't be that blogging is taking up my time, could it? ;)

so, i started with a [unrolled] roll of toilet paper.
[note: i don't actually use toilet paper rolls in class...i feel like that is kind of not sanitary on multiple accounts...and if i cant bring in my own baked goods from my CLEAN kitchen, they sure aren't getting my old brown rolls from my bathroom...blek!]

next,  you'll cut a circle from plain or cardstock paper. 

for the sake of time and sanity, i just used regular paper. 

the circle is going to be about a 1/2 inch bigger than your "cardboard" tube.

after your circle is cut, you are going to trim it so that there are little tabs...for the sake of confusion, i will post the picture and you can take away what you may. :) you just kind of chisel away at it until it looks something like that! 

you're going to take your little chiseled tabs and fold them over your toilet paper roll so that it has a nice tight-ish, but not too tight-ish fit over...it doesnt need to be perfect. remember, art is about the process, not the product! :) 

now, in the other end, you are going to fill your kaleidoscope with whatever...i got little fluffy pom poms so they wouldnt fall out (if you were really material savvy i imagine you could put a layer of plastic wrap in between the tube and the eye hole...but i was just not that smart til now...whoops) but do as you wish with whatever you wish! [process not the product whatever helps me sleep at night]

last but not least, you are going to get some wax paper and close off the open end. i chose wax paper because its not clear, but it will let light through...and it reminded me of the texture of the real kaleidoscopes. :)  i just cut a square off of my bad boy roll and wrapped it around and taped it off. i was even thinking you could put a rubber band around it and change out the innards if you decided you hated the pom poms like i do. :) 

when doing this with the kids i am going to have them glue a colored strip of paper over the taped mess so that it looks some what artsy and not so ghetto. but for the blog, you crafters, teachers, parents and friends will have to use your little imaginations and alter my interesting procedure to fit your personal style.

i hope you enjoyed this!! :) 

happy teaching!

Ms. Kyli (remember, K is for Kyli!)

Lenny The Leprechaun

we celebrated st. patty's day early due to it being today, saturday, and us not holding class. so, what i did was get those gold chocolate coins, put them in a painted pot and send my kiddies on a scavenger hunt.



i had a bunch of different brown bags filled with different colored gummy bears.







at each scene, there were leprechaun foot prints...all you do for these is paint the part of your hand by the pinky, curl it up in a fist and stamp it. then you just use your fingers to make the toes. super simple and the kids thought it was hilarious...and believed it.












once we gathered all of our clues and all of our colors, we were led to the last clue which was a giant poster board. the poster board had colored dots on it that spelled out "stage." this was where the gold was hidden.

once they found the board we then had to take our "rainbow" candies out and match them with the dots on the board. once all the candies were placed, i helped them sound it out and they ran for the stage when Lenny left their treasure. :)

it was so fun seeing how almost freaked out they were at the idea that a leprechaun was in their school. :) i love holidays...minus the sugar rushes. :) but so well worth it!



happy teaching!

Ms. Kyli

Makeover Madness

there is nothing i love more than re-doing a room...okay, lets be honest...there is a lot more i love than re-doing a room...but little compares! that is why i was was stoked when they approved some of the designs i had when it came to re-doing my classroom at school. the teacher that was there before me had some rather...(how to put it delicately)...eye irritating decorations on the walls. (was that delicate enough?) so, after a good therapy session of TEARING IT DOWN, i got to work. it is going to be a work in progress because i dont want to overwhelm the budget, but i am loving the changes THUS far. :)
background info: i am kicking myself for not taking before and after pictures cause you really cant appreciate the difference now...but seriously, they're different! and i, in my little OCD mind, am happy so YOU can be happy for me, right? ...right?
my main class (the one i am in the most) has a stage! i know, right? the stage has a back wall curtain and stairs and a microphone and a  little "sound system" that the kids all think is the coolest thing ever because its secretly a kareoke machine, so if its hooked up to a TV they can see themselves...ANYWAY, all you see when you are facing this stage is a lot of black and white. so, i painted behind the curtain... a burgundy that i am falling in love with more and more the more i stare at it. :) can you tell why?  i love the richness of the color with the contrast of the black...the kids have adored it too. so we are all around a happy classroom. :)

NEEEEXT...i have this really awesome piano in my room that the kids think is so funny to dance to when i pluck out the few songs i actually have memorized...but next to the piano was a WHOLE lot of nothing. each class period, i have the kids silent read for about ten minutes. this has really helped to focus them and get them  more into the stories i have them act out. so, since our first-class seating at pre-school are old church benches, i wanted to create a cozy corner for the kids to do their silent reading in. so, luckily my mother had a BUNCH of fabric she ever so graciously wanted to donate to my cause. and other than what fabric WOULD have costed me, this was sooooo easy and CHEAP!!

materials: whole lotta fabric (it really will vary for how high you want it...so i am not going to be specific)
                closet divider/pole holder (3 dollars and some cents at home depot)
                3 flowers (optional) (1 @ the dollar store for a bunch)
                paint stirrer (free! cause that is what we like to hear!)
                two command strip hooks (3 something? i honestly dont know!?)
                100 twinkle lights (optional)

all you do is fasten the closet divider/horizontal pole holder as high or as low as you want on your wall. drape the fabric over as you desire, place the command strips vertically so the bottom parts of the hooks are facing in (those are what is holding back the fabric) glue the flowers on the command strips because quite frankly, they kill the effect..and if you want to, drape twinkle lights through the fabric and light it up. the kids were so cute when they came in and saw this...they asked me if it was for a wedding. i wish weddings were that simple...but that is just the wonderful example of the world through a childs eyes...and i love it!!

lastly what i have done...this has been the cheapest. :) the dollar store has a VARIETY of frames. i got five black frames in five different sizes and PRINTED (not on photo paper even...) pictures of things that had to do with fame, drama and the performing arts...i de-junked my piano catch all and made use of all of the storage drawers i had and put them on top of my piano. :) the kids didn't really notice...the piano is quite a bit above their eye sight, but i think it makes for a fun accent when parents come to check out the pre-school or are doing tours! and because Broadway is my dream...i absolutely adore it. :) okay, now i am just tooting my own horn. here is the picture! :)

if you haven't read fanny's dream to your kids, i HIGHLY recommend it. what an INSPIRING story!! :)

anyway...those are just a few of the changes i have made thus far...and i will OF course update the changes that i make as i go. i love what i do because i do what i LOVE!

happy teaching!

Ms. Kyli

Spinning Our Wheels

a couple weeks ago we worked on weather. :) we had the basics, our weekly weather, our weather predictions and our weather graph...but i wanted something fun they could take home to talk about the weather with their parents. so i took 20 minutes to design a weather wheel. my pictures aren't the greatest and i honestly just hurried and threw it together so it doesn't even LOOK that good. next year i will be using card stock to print it on and something other than glue sticks to fasten the popsicle sticks on. HOWEVER, all in all...the kids loved it. AND they kept coming to class talking about their weather wheel. :) so it couldn't have been all bad. :)
so, i'd LOVE to actually share the file so that you all could easily print it if you wanted...but lets face it...i dont know how. so, if anyone DOES know how and wants to help a sister out...i'd love you forever and like you for always. anyway, here are the pics just incase you didn't get the visual. :)

Like i said...thrown together and my copies were too light so i had to
hand write a few things...and in my haste, i added the wrong word.
you get the idea. :) 

i just had two different word docs. getting them lined up
so they fit the box in the overlay area was the hardest part.

if you would be interested you can comment or message me on facebook and i can e mail you the documents. :) sorry i am so UN-blog-savvy! i am learning! :)




happy teaching!!

Ms. Kyli

We Didn't Have Two Coins To Rub Together....But We Had A Crayon Rub!

Money Madness! Some days i feel useless to try and teach my pre-schoolers about money because i can almost guarantee all they'll have to do when they are of money earning age is swipe a card and enter a pin. however, just because they don't require kids to write cursive anymore, doesn't meant it isn't still a useful skill...so, i press on.
i have a few money games i have been playing with them to learn the names of the coins. they're REALLY good with knowing what the big bills are, so the coins are what we have been working on. the first day teaching them, i just had a big bag of coins and was pulling random coins out telling them what coin was what. before i knew it, they were twisting around on the floor, staring at the walls and writhing in their skin. it was not effective...however, glue some of those coins on popsicle sticks (aka my little miracles), and viola! you've got a lesson. i was so proud today when they asked to play the money game.
all you do is glue em on sticks, stick them in a cup and have them pull them out and name them. then, i let them pass the stick around the circle, look at it and repeat what coin it is.... repetition, repetition, repetition. :)

sorry my camera is so bad...i had to use my phone on account of my REAL
camera is broken...you get the idea, though. :) 

then for some FUN i glued some coins (heads sides and tails sides) on a laminated cardstock paper and they did a crayon rub over it. it took up fifteen minutes and they were BEGGING To take them home. :)
some days i have very proud moments. when something so simple steals their little hearts...i can remember why i do what i do. :)
i love pre-school!

happy teaching!

ABC, Really Easy As 123?

recently at our pre-school, we have expanded MWF classes, and opened T/TH as well. since there are only ten kids on T/TH, i teach all three subjects that our pre-school has to offer. We took these children on at mid year and adapted to their previous teachers curriculum as it was different from ours. When assessing their current knowledge, i discovered that they caught on a LOT quicker to numbers as apposed to learning their letters.
so in an attempt to overcome that, i have been racking my brain to try and figure out what would be the best way to get the alphabet to stick. simply enough, i have decided that kids need repetition through variety.
now that that is clear as mud, i will give an example.
every single one of my kids was able to sing their ABC's...that is GREAT that it is all familiar to them, however...when it came to word recognition, they had no idea what the difference was between Z and U. So, i have devised a few *very* simple activities to help them start to remember.

activity 1:

materials:
       26 popcicle sticks
       Sharpie
       cup, can, jar, decorated or not. :)

excuse the fact that they are backward. :) I'm a lefty so as i wrote, i slid
to the right...hence, a be-jumbled alphabet. :)

all i did was write the alphabet all caps on one side of the stick and in all lowercase on the other side of the stick.

then, i threw them in the cup/jar/vase/ box etc. and we passed it around in a circle.

my munchkins took turns pulling out different the letters, telling the class what letter it was, and then each child would pass around the stick and look at the letters and say it to themselves.

suprisingly, it showed results with such a simple project and they stayed entertained!

Activity 2:

Materials needed:
      26 laminated multi-color papers
      marker
      dancing music

(refer to previous post on instructions...this one kept them busy a LONG TIME)

just a couple of my little twinkle toes playing this letter
recognition game. :) 

these are the only two projects i have come up with thus far...i have only been brain storming for a couple days so when i know, you'll know and i'll post. :) the prep time on these activities did not do justice for the things we learned. who knew it didn't take six up all nights and two migranes later to get the curriculum to stick!

happy teaching!!

Pre-School Power

I am overwhelmed with the blogoshpere and all of its GREAT ideas when it comes to early education. :) i use ideas from blogs all over the country and sometimes those ideas supplement my own. :) HOWEVER i am not a TOTAL mooch, i do have a few ideas of my own. i don't think it would be fair for me to use all of these ingenious ideas without contributing some of my own at the same time. :) it may be a molasses on a winter day kind of process actually adding things...my blonde may be slightly fake, but it does sometimes slow down my thought process. ;)

i work at a pre-school in Pleasant Grove, Ut. it is called Stepping Stones and is a pre-school for the arts. i have never enjoyed working so much in my life! we have three different classes that we teach. Letters and numbers; this prepares the kids for kindergarten and is taught by Ms. Valorie. She's an all star and the kids love her. she has so many great different ways to make letters and numbers entertaining. next we teach an art class. most of you are probably thinking...."art...big whoop. kids paint in pre-school all the time." well, i guarantee kids haven't painted like this. Ms. Jeri, the art teacher, doesn't just paint. she teaches about VanGogh, art in literature, picaso, and much more! these kids are learning things that most kids don't learn about until junior high, but the way Jeri teaches it make it fun and interesting. and lastly, the performing arts class, which is what i teach. :) this includes singing, acting, dancing puppets, musical theory, stage presentation etc. this is different than anything i have ever done when it has come to teaching...but it has been great. :) i have a vast background in performing arts between dance, a few school plays, drama classes, and such...but teaching it is totally different. 

because pre-school is to prep kids for elementary school, i wanted to reiterate what Ms. Valorie teaches in her class while still sticking to a fun, musical back ground. so, without further ado, i creates this music game. 

Musical Alphabet: all this game is, is home made flash cards. there's an upper case on one side and a lower case on the other side. i laminated them and put them VERY scattered on the floor. i turned on the kids favorite songs and let them dance.

when the music stopped, they had to find a letter quickly. i then picked a FEW kids (they lost attention when i tried to ask all of them) what their letter was, which one was capital and which one was lowercase, what color the letter was printed on and what sound it made. i started with just the letter and the sound and when they caught on better, i added all of the others. this kept them entertained for a VERY long tine. i was well pleased that such a little thing made them so happy. :) 

more "little things" to come. :) 

happy teaching!!