Thursday, March 3, 2011

March in Room 4

I don't know if I'll be doing this that often but I'm on a kick so either enjoy...or just skip it. These are my March Practical Life Shelves. For the first 2 weeks we are doing St. Patrick's Day and Rainbows. I haven't decided for sure what I'll be doing between Spring Break (yeah!) and Easter. My children really need the shelves changed every 2 weeks or so..I wish they would last longer...but they don't. I always know when I let it go a little too long - they get a little crazy. (I usually try to blame it on the weather or something but usually it's all my fault).

Top: (from L to R) clover spooning, coin tonging, clover tonging (this one is tricky because they have to hold the tongs farther up in order to grasp the clovers in the jar).
Middle: Tree lacing, ball stringing, Dr. Suess match and lace
Bottom: Rainbow weaving, Rainbow Buttoning

Top: St. Patrick pouring, Share Pouring, Pouring and spooning
Middle: water bottle squirting (They LOVE this one - the goal is to fill the bowl with water from the squirt bottle...it's actually really challenging...even for the adults). Straining with a hand strainer, straining with a colander.
Bottom: Barrel of Monkeys, spring puzzle, building box (connector pieces are inside)

Some closeups:
Rainbow weaving. The rack is from the $.99 store and the ribbon is just hot glued (I singed the ends with a match so they wouldn't get gross.)

I made this buttoning pillow. Felt, ribbon, buttons, and a little fluff. The red one is sewed with the ribbon on the front of the flower to show that it goes first.

One of my student's doing the Barrel of Monkeys. I've done this in the past the traditional way (pour in out on to the table (we poured them onto our tray) and pick up the monkeys from there) but for my age group it's a little too challenging and frustrating. The bowl solves all the problems. First they hang the monkeys on the side of the bowl then collect them one by one to see how long they can make their chain. He's doing a pretty good job, right!?

I wish I had gotten a better picture of my sensorial bowl...but this is the best I've got. The children love digging under all the pipe cleaners for the rocks and gems. There are 10 Celtic shapes to collect. But most of the time they spend scooping the rocks out of the bottom.

In case you're wondering what's in the bowl:
white, gold, and green pom poms
green and gold pipe cleaners
2 different kinds of green gems
Celtic shapes
Shamrock confetti

Happy March Everyone!

5 comments:

Heidi said...

i love the buttoning pillow. i need to make one for luke to practice, and the zipper monster from last time too.

Michelle said...

I love that you post this! It makes me so motivated to do something like this for my kiddos. You are awesome!

Jared and Tara said...

ahhhhh! i so want to be a little kid again and come play at your school! seriously, you're amazing. i spent a solid 10 minutes studying the pictures and exclaiming "cool!" after each one.

Megan Tenney said...

How old are your students? The activities look awesome; you do a great job! The OCD side of me just starts freaking out about all the ones that have a ton of small pieces to them. How do you not spend your whole day running around the room, making sure the right pieces are with the right activities?!

Elyse said...

Megan,
I have a mixed age group; 3 to 6 year old's. I'm always surprised at how responsible they are. For the most part they take charge and if they find something is mixed up then they fix it. Or if something is missing, they find it. I do come home with objects in my pockets a lot and I have moms who come to me with baggy filled with objects (I have a few clepto's) But it's never a big issue. I guess it's all in how I present the works to them - that every object is important. The children (for the most part) respect that.