Community Helpers Theme

Community Helpers are something that students are often interested in so they are often one of the themes that we participate in during the school year. We usually take a field trip or two during this theme also and there are so many places to visit for a Community Helper theme. Think Fire Station, Police Station, local restaurant or grocery store, bakery, hair salon, library, Post Office or even a different classroom. There are so many activities that will interest students as they are introduced to their community and the many helpers in it. Place different uniforms in the Dramatic Play Center. Place tools or vehicles in the Block Center. I collect many different tools and then we sort the tools by which helper would use them. We do this together at Circle Time and then it can also be used in the Science Center. I use Community Helper puzzles and games in the Math Center. There are many fun books that can be read together as a class and also placed in the Reading Center. Some of those books include:
*"Librarians Help"
*"Teachers Help"
*"Police Officers Help"
*"Firefighters Help"
*"Firehouse"
*"Dentists Help"
*"Doctors Help"
*"Whose Tools Are These?"
*"Whose Hat is This?"
In the Writing and Literacy Centers students can draw and write about what they want to be when they grow up. Word cards of Community Helpers can be posted for students to copy. The Fine Motor/Sensory Center can have tools for children to use. Place a bucket of nuts and bolts for students to put together and take apart. A hammer and golf tees can also be placed there and students can hammer the tees into Styrofoam or cardboard. Papers can be fringed by the teacher and then students can practice cutting the fringe as if they are a hairdresser or barber. This also lends itself to whole class or group baking and cooking activities. Parents are invited to come in and share their job with us.

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Pumpkin Theme

Every October we learn about pumpkins. Mini pumpkins are brought into the Science Center for every child and we investigate them with magnifying lenses and our senses. We also cut the top off of a large pumpkin and scoop the seeds out to investigate as well. I allow every child who is interested, a turn scooping seeds out. I never require the students to help if they are not interested. In the Literacy Center, we use mini pumpkin erasers to trace around letters. Pumpkin stickers can also be used. We take a field trip to a local pumpkin patch where every child is allowed to pick a pumpkin to take home. In the Fine Motor/Sensory Center, we make pumpkin pie with orange playdough and rolling pins. We also count and make patterns in the Math Center with pumpkin erasers or manipulatives. In the Pumpkin STEAM box, I include mini pumpkins, leaves, acorns, magnifying lenses and orange slices of pool noodles that the children can play and e...

Back to School

The first week of school each year, I spend a lot of time practicing routines with my students. I make it a goal of mine to make every child in my class feel loved and safe so those first few weeks are so important in setting the atmosphere. I introduce one or two centers a day until all of the centers are open and running smoothly. I take pictures of areas around our classroom and make routine books that we read and reread throughout the first couple of weeks. I create Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, Math boxes that I place at our Science Center, along with magnifying lenses and a scale. The STEAM boxes match whatever theme we are covering. I separate our blocks by color and store them in matching colored boxes so that children are easily able to replace the blocks when they are done playing. These are stored in our Block Center. I label our toy cubbies with pictures so that children know where each toy is stored and they are easily able to find ...

All About Me/Feelings Themes

The first week of school, we spend practicing our routine and getting comfortable with coming to school. The next couple of weeks, we spend getting to know ourselves and each other. We do an All About Me Theme followed by a Feelings Theme. We create cutouts of ourselves and display them to show our differences and connectedness. I love how each cutout looks different. We talk a lot about how we are each special and unique. We compare eye colors and hair colors. We talk about our families and who is in each family. We draw pictures of ourselves and our families including any pets we have. We do name activities where we count how many letters are in our names and then we use letter tiles to make our names. We compare each child's name to the other names in the class and look at beginning letters and syllables. We also graph some of our favorites, such as colors, animals, foods, or sports. We draw pictures of our friends and copy our friends' names....

Engaged Early Learning

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