Teaching with Letter of week creation facts is fun

In my preschool classroom, we use letter-of-the-week items. I try to include many real creation facts in the week. This has had an amazing result on the students. Many parents are surprised at the new thing their kids are interested in.

One example is the letter O for octopus.

Octopus lives in the ocean, has 8 arms, and squits ink. Cool right!

I have grouped together a book, counting cards, and few playdough activities, and a coloring sheet.

The book Oliver the Octopus

Using olives, onions, on, off, odd, oval, opal, and open, all of these words are better than using the word orange. Yes, the words do start with the letter o. The phonemic sound is actually the r-controlled sound “or” and the letter g is softened to the soft “j” sound by the silent e. These can be confusing concepts for emergent readers. Now that I have started using easy-to-decode words with my students, my results have improved.

I save the word orange for lessons about r-controlled words and reasons for silent e.

Christian Valentines from Teacher to Students

In the Christian classroom we try to always bring every holiday back to God is the reason for the season.

During my first year teaching in a Christian preschool, I was caught off guard by Valentine’s day. The stores did not have any Valentine’s that I wanted to give to my students.

There were some very creative moms in my class and they inspired me to make up my own Christian Valentines for my students. Using the shape and size of a standard Hershey bar, I created a wrapper that said, “HE IS LOVE.”

The kids loved it. One precious little boy lit up with excitement, ” A big candy bar, all for me!” He was overwhelmed by the large size of it in his small hand.

His wonderful mom said, he needed to eat lunch first and it might be nice to share that big candy bar.

School policy says we only celebrate Christian holidays in the classrooms. We always bring every holiday back to God and the reason for the season. Valentine’s Day is no different. One of our memory verses is:

God is Love.

1 John 4:16.

So the phrase “He is Love, ” makes sense, for his holiday gift.

I put other verses on the back and left a space for me to write their names. The original master copy is signed by me, which saves me time each year.

I have put this item on Tpt, if you’re interested in this download printable check it out HERE!

Blessings.

Be sure to check out: Answers in Genesis website. It has lots of free videos for kids and adults. It is a valuable resource for parents and teachers. My family loves it.

Ed Said, “d, id, t.” Suffix Game

Avocado Seed Growing from Seed

Avocado seed finally

Finally got one avocado seed to grow. We now have a tree that is over 3 feet high. This is a huge success after years of trying and only getting mold.

As a teacher, growing things in the classroom is super fun. The kids love it. They measure & image fast results. We grow beans, flower bulbs & try avocado seeds every year. Most years the avocado seed is forgotten about cause is does not grow.

During circle time, I present the large fruit and ask them if they can guess with their hands: How big is the seed inside? Some kids know it is huge. It is fun to have an apple there too & cutting both open to compare the size of the seed inside is a fun lesson.

Toothpick method

Every year, we clean the seed off, stick 4 toothpicks in, balance it over a cup of water & set it in the sunny window. We usually grow only mold.

The outer layer of skin

This year we peeled off the outer layer of the skin on the avocado. The Seedcoat.

The Seed coat should peel off easily, if you let it dry out for a few hours.

Put the toothpicks in and balance over a cup of water with rounded bottom down & pointed end up.

The water was also replaced with clean water every few days. The only other difference was possible a warmer room & more sunny maybe. I really think that peeling the skin off helped the most.

Root growth

Root growth felt like a huge success, the tap-root grew a few inches before it branched out and looked more root like. It took months before the top finally spilt open and this tender little branch popped out.

Tree growth

We waited for this large amount of growth before we planted it in the dirt. Four leaves and a healthy steam to support the tree. It worked, and the tree looks healthy after almost a year.

We did plant one in the dirt too soon. The root had branched a little but the top branch never popped out.

Try this easy Guacamole recipe!

Sound Wall frame . Letter g Pure Joy Teaching

Sensory bags for Hand Writing without Tears

Easy to make this sensory bag with any cream and a few colors sealed in a zip lock-style bag.

Hand Writing with Color Mixing FUN

This is a simple and fun way to change up the Hand writing without tears style of teaching. It is a ziplock bag, sealed with extra layers of clear packing tape to help avoid puncture. Special care was taken on the weak points of the bag, the top, and the seams.

Make sure to press out all the air before sealing.

This bag was filled with cheap dollar-store hair conditioner, blue & red liquid watercolor. Notice the letter cards are secured together with a simple ring after hole punched. It is hard to see, but under the bag is a yellow holographic piece of card stock.

Double Layer the Bags

Funny thing: We like to recycle in our classroom, but there is a limit. The first time we tried this, it was older zipper-lock bag that we had reused for odds and ends. I only taped the zipper end shut. I did not want to waste a new bag. Ha ha! The joke was on me, it gave way and I was cleaning up this clever project. So tape, or double on bags.

Happy Hand Writting!

Have Pure Joy Teaching

Kids still love books

Kids still love books. It is the cutest thing to see young children sitting together looking at a book. In this day and age with all our wonderful electronic gadgets, I find it amazing that kids still love books. Yes, more and more I see our youth & adults huddled together over a glowing electronic screen, but when I see them gathered together over a book now, I stop to take notice.

Kids will mimic what is modeled

The first time this really stood out to me was with my own kids. The house was quite, I was cooking dinner and I went looking for my two boys. To my surprise, I found them each quietly sitting in their own beds in their shared room, flipping through the pages of book. How could this be? They can’t read. These two little guys could barely talk. Of course they were only looking at the pictures, but they could have done that in the living room. The fact that they took the books to the bedroom and sat up right in their beds to flip through the pages could only be because modeling. Their dad is huge reader. He always has been. After a few years of watching him always reading in bed, they started to do it too. I thought it was the cutest thing.

Kids are like sponges

It was a great reminder to me that kids are sponges and they will pick up what they see and hear even when we don’t notice that they are soaking it in. This was also a big push for me to start taking them to the library for books. Most libraries are free, just watch out for those overdue fees. Luckily they send me emails to remind me my books are almost due back, and I can renew the book online if need be. I found myself picking more books up and reading too. It was good for the whole family.

I still see it in the classroom today, kids love to sit together are look at books. If they can get an adult to read to them, they all pile around for it. It is a beautiful thing. Having parent helper in the classroom to read with the kids is a huge blessing. There are so many great books to read.

One of my favorite things to do is to let my puppet friend bring a book to class. I hid the book and the puppet in a special place and when it is time for the story, I ask the puppet what kind of book he has brought for us today. I always thank the puppet for sharing the book. He can be a great tool for modeling polite conversation and love of reading. The kids look forward to seeing the puppet & the book that he brings is special to them.