We just finished a theme on Apples and The Five Senses/body parts in our preschool special education class. There was definitely some learning experiences (i.e. the popcorn machine ended up being broken and we didn't get to have freshly pop popcorn in front of us). We did a lot of exploring with apples with touching, painting and even tasted a few different types. We did taste testing with Granny Smith apples, Red Delicious and Golden Delicious. We also made Apple Pizza and a No Bake Apple pie. Even our pickiest eaters loved our No Bake Apple Pie. (Get freebie visual recipe by clicking the links) We did some sensory painting with cinnamon and red paint onto paper plates to make apples. The whole class smelled great! We also created place mats and art work from apple prints with paint. We touched and felt the seeds and apples. With students with disabilities or autism, a lot of times these children are very picky or reluctant to try new foods. The more they do activities with these foods and become used to having them even the classroom, or their space in front of them, the more likely they are to try these foods or give them a 'kiss'. We read some books to go along with our apple theme and sang some songs or did felt board activities like: A-P-P-L-E- this is to the tune of BINGO, Apples Falling- and we would throw apples into the air and pick them up after singing this song, Wiggly Worm- felt board activity with hiding the worm under what apple color? (get the freebies to these songs with the links in the titles) We also did a lot of activities with apples like sorting colors, sorting pom poms on top of each apple according to its colors red, yellow or green, alphabet matching, shape sorting and some more crafts. We did a lot of file folder activities that can be found below. Here are some links to some academic apple activities: -Apple puzzles (colors, shapes, numbers and letters) -Size Sorting (Small, medium and large) - Apple & Leaf Counting mats -Apple Tree counting Emergent Reader Book - Apple Counting emergent reader book -Apple name song freebie - Apple Matching (colors, letters, numbers, shapes & patterns) - Apple color emergent reader book Some other crafts we did included marble painting- placing paper into a low cardboard box (we used one like you'd get from Togo at an Italian restaurant) or a low tin foil that you'd bake a casserole in. Tape down and then let children squeeze a little drops of paint in. We did only red, green and yellow. Then drop in marbles and let the children roll it around. After they dried, we cut out a apple shape from it and added a stem and leaf. We also did a craft with coffee filters, coloring markers on top and then 'painting' with water. After they dried we added a little shape to it, added a die-cut worm to it. We did some activties to go along with "Ten Apples Up On Top!" by Dr. Seuss. The students loved reading it! It is a longer book and we did have to break it up between two Story Times though. We also created "Apple Tree" art with hands and created number bushels with our students finger prints. I created a graph using yellow, green and red die-cut apples to have students place their name under which apple they liked best after trying different apples and if they liked the different recipes we tried. Unfortunately, due to time constraints (i.e. fire drills) or other beginning of the year issues, we did not get to complete these graphs. But I can't wait to try them next year! Apples tied in very nicely with working on Body Parts and The Five Senses. I had these plastic body parts (a plastic mouth, ears and nose) that had string to attach to your face if you wanted. It made a good object to pass around when introducing different body parts. We learned through a lot of songs like "Head Shoulders, Knees & Toes" and "Tony Chestnut". We taught the students "Five Senses" song. It was a easy song for my students to learn. After reviewing body parts, we played a game with Mr. Potato Head. I got the idea and free spinner at this site. I also got a lot of ideas for The Five Senses theme activities here. The site gave a lot of visuals and ideas. I used their idea to create a Five Senses book after learning about each sense with an activity to go along with it. Next year I will take photos of our books we create. Intro activity- Mr. Potato Head Activity Seeing- We looked at color of items and also used mirrors to look at ourselves and the color of our eyes. Hearing- activity with easter eggs. Then creating a page for book with an ear made of construction paper Tasting- Apple tasting & page for the book with a mouth on it. Touching- Touchy feely bags with brown bags. See website for more ideas. & then we created a page for our book. We also did an activity with touching during small groups with making a hand and items you can feel which we used as our page for our book. Smelling- Jars or old spice jars or a jar with a cotton ball in it with liquid squeezed onto it like vanilla. I used cinnamon, lemon, vanilla, and some other scents they would recognize. I got the idea from this site with their baggies but just tweaked it to what I had in my apartment and classroom. Then we created a page for our book with a nose and things you can smell like a flower on it with dotters. Closing activity- Popcorn activity with making homemade popcorn and this freebie popcorn book. and this interactive board- I laminated and put velco on it. But also made a copy for my students to cut and glue. Students that needed a challenge, they were able to glue all of the options onto the board. Students that needed more time to complete, were given less. I wish I took more photos during the book making process and the activities we did. Hopefully I'll remember next year to. I'm so thankful to the other people that blog about their ideas that I was able to use in my classroom this year. I hope that my ideas will be helpful to other teachers or parents as well. I also have to send a HUGE thank you to my amazing team that is the true glue that keeps are classroom running, the paraprofessionals in my classroom and the speech therapist. I can't take credit for all the amazing activities in my class because they have made so many and have came up with a lot, especially the cute art activities. They also are amazing for baring with me these last few months while I've been getting settled in the new classroom and helping me out above and beyond what is required. They are so sweet for letting me take photos of some of their crafts to share with everyone on here. So thank you ladies! Thanks for reading and happy teaching!
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The beginning of a new school year is always hectic. Add beginning of a new school district on top of that and it becomes doubly hectic. September is always a fresh start. New students, new pencils, new clothes, new behaviors, new everything. It is always exciting. I always find myself losing sleep with nerves and excitement prior to the first days of school. I always want everything to be perfect for the beginning of the school year.
School years always start with meetings, reviewing procedures of the school and introducing new ones. This year mine started with New Hire Orientation. Thankfully, I was able to start working during Extended School Year in July- August for six weeks. This was a great transition to meet some of my new co-workers, get to know some of my students, learning how to get around the building, some of the program, start unpacking materials, familiarizing myself with what was in the classroom already, organizing, and setting up the classroom with how I want it to be set up. This is always a tough process, especially when taking over an already established classroom. I'm so happy I was able to transition over the summer. If I didn't, I would have been so lost come September and beyond overwhelmed. Instead, I was able to start September slightly overwhelmed. After six years of teaching, I feel like a first year teacher already. I'm trying to set up materials for the program they use, VBMAPP. As I am learning the program, I think it is really good. In order to work on generalization, I need to create extra materials to go with each section. This took over a lot of my time in September. With a new classroom and new students in a special education classroom, there are always different abilities to plan for. I have several students that have very limited language or are non-verbal. I had visuals in my old Preschool Disabled (PSD) classroom, but some do not work with this program. Now I need to create new visuals or materials to assist in my classroom. All of this is very time consuming. I became a bit of a workaholic during September trying to set up everything for this new classroom. Some visuals I set up- home & school sign in board, chart for "picking a song", visuals for some songs (free printables here- wheels on the bus, Itsy Bitsy Spider & Bear Hunt), visual to go along with shirt song for circle, time, class visual schedule, weather bear and items to go along with our weather activity, visual necklaces(freebie link) for myself, speech teacher and the paraprofessionals in my class and visuals for work schedules. Although it has been extremely hectic during September, it has been a very rewarding month. The class is great and the school has been very welcoming. I am very happy to be in this new position. I am starting to get into a rhythm and I am setting some new goals for the upcoming months. October my goal is to try to find a little more balance with my work/home life. Upcoming soon, I will be sharing some of the activities we have been doing for Septembers Apple theme, Five Senses and Fall themes. Thanks for reading! Ms. Pre-K |
AuthorMy name is Ms. Pre- K. I am new to blogging but not new to the education world. I will be going into my sixth year of teaching special education this September. Archives
March 2017
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