3 Bears, New Toys!, and Fairy tales

For our winter unit in January the theme was The Mitten which transitioned to The Three Bears..and then this week we are starting our Fairy Tales and Nursery Rhymes unit.  The Mitten was super fun (see prev. post) and tied it quite nicely to The Three Bears..where we focused on size ordering..small, medium, large, big, bigger, biggest, small, smaller, smallest, etc. This is a photo of a corner of our reading area. It has the 3 bears felt board with sm. med. large labels, puppets, The Mitten masks, and vocab from here http://www.pre-kpages.com/goldilocks-mini-word-wall/

Pretend Center: "Three Bears Cottage" ...small, med. large, cookies, bowls, spoons, stuffed animals, can of oats, winter dress up clothes, and The Three Bears storybook. To go along with The Three Bears story we taste tested "porridge" made in my crock pot and watched The Three Bears movie on Friday. Here's the video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iYP8p-10TGA

The Mitten and The Three Bears led us into winter weather, bears, and hibernations.  This is a photo of our science table  where we have winter vocabulary, weather books, hibernation stories, and a new weather puzzle!

After we did our mitten temperature experiment I left the therm. and mitten in science center as an activity.

Thank you to my wonderful asst. who drank all the water bottles and made our new color sensory bottles! She put in things like pom poms, colored pencils, erasers, beads, tissue paper, etc.  This is a photo from our science center that holds discovery and nature baskets, science tools, and two new games from Lakeshore.

This is a seasons Lakeshore game.  Underneath the winter mat is the spring mat. Students are learning the order and characteristics of the seasons during calendar and weather circle time. I love this game and they have been very occupied by it. It comes with little items that they match and sort to the pictures. I thought I would add in the spring mat and then when it's spring, I'll take out the winter mat and put in the summer mat. 

This new game is also in science, we have been talking about animals that live in snow and then forest animals. The game comes will all the animals needed for different habitats. The mat underneath is forest animals.  

Have I mentioned how awesome my storage shelves are?! The brown totes hold pretend center thing..the totes are from Target.  The teal baskets and other plastic tubs are from the dollar store.  The zebra bins are from Hobby Lobby. I  received my order for new manipulatives and supplies this week.. In the center book shelves we have new Lakeshore counting boxes and 4 tubs of manipulatives!

These are awesome!!!! I have two of these boards that just arrived...one for writing letters in ABC center and one for writing numbers in Math center... they are very popular right now with the students.  The heat from your fingers/hand activates the board and creates a rainbow effect.

New counting boxes/games and manipulatives for morning tubs and math center. 

Current ABC center:  book basket (baskets on sale now at Hobby Lobby! lime green, pink, teal), abc puzzles, letter punches and twist up crayons, wiki sticks and letter cards, ABC lower case and upper case foam letter match

Here is an example of two of the counting boxes I ordered. I set up Friday afternoon for our Fairy Tale unit.  I have the frog game in math center for Princess and the Frog... and the treasure chest/coins I will put in the math center for the following week.  Excited about Fairy Tale and Nursery Rhyme unit...so many options of stories and activities! 

Check out my pocket chart in books center!  Is it strange to be excited about pocket charts? I ordered five and they just came in. I've been using removable stick on hooks to hang them in centers. Actually, the vocab pocket chart in reading is held onto the door with clip magnets.  The frogs and crocodile are for blocks center..the prince frog is at Target currently in the toy section for around $4.

Here are some other little fairy tale friends to join blocks center! 

Getting ready for Valentine's day with some vday vocab!