Polar Express

We had a great time this morning in tot school.  We read the book "The Polar Express" and had a pajama day.

I had the sensory table set up with cotton ball and plush snowballs and encouraged the sweetest little snowball fight ever.

We learned a new math game today.  It's called a "Grid Game".  I made a die that had dots for the numbers 1, 2, and 3 (twice each) out of a cube wooden block.  We rolled the die and counted the dots, then we got that many counters and covered the same number of trains on our game board.  When we covered all ten trains we were the winners!  It's a simple game to play at home that makes a big difference in early understanding of quantity.   

 We worked on our super secret holiday gifts after a snack time of hot chocolate and animal crackers. 

Some story time and playing with trains finished up our time together today.  It was a blast!

the Polar Express

We had so much fun with the Polar Express today! We started the day working on puzzles this morning.  The kids worked really well together putting all the pieces where they go.  We had a great time reading the story out loud and then watching the audio book video that reads the story aloud with visual clips from the movie.  We narrated the story and completed a sequencing chart about it.  I was so impressed with the cutting in this class.  It appears that some great strides in ability have happened lately.  We also drew pictures of what we would like to ask for from Santa.  

 Our math was tons of fun as we worked together to graph images from the Polar Express.  I think we've got the basic concept of graphing down!

 In the afternoon we used a bunch of large boxes to make our own Polar Express in the classroom.  After reading the story they climbed into their train cars and watched the audio book video.  We worked on the sorting sheet while sitting in our train cars, how fun!

 We continued our day with regular reading lessons followed by art.  We drew what we would ask Santa for just like the morning class.  This afternoon though, I challenged the kids to write what it was that they drew.  It was the first time I've asked them to sound it out and figure out what letters to write down and they all did a fantastic job.  I'm impressed with their writing and we'll be doing lots more of it in the future.  The important part of this stage of writing is to accept anything that they write down as correct.  They will not hear many vowel sounds in words and are unable to utilize advanced phonics at this point.  However, they are successful writers.  Great work!

Preschool Polar Express

We had such a delightful time learning all about the Polar Express.  The kids loved watching the movie (a YouTube video with visual clips from the film as the book is read out loud).  We also sorted images according to syllables, practiced rhythm with our rhythm sticks and reviewed the letter F sound.  LittleA in the bottom left picture is signing "cold" and making the /f-f-f/ sound.

 We practiced reading bells with word family words, explored graphing some more and continued to make sets for "Guess My Secret Rule."  It was such a fantastic day of learning.  Find these activities and more in our Polar Express Preschool Pack.

Polar Express

We enjoyed pajama day today talking about the letter F and the Polar Express.  The kids love when I pull out the box of wood trains and they get to build all over the floor!

 We also played with fake snow and little blue beads in our sensory bin.   It was a big hit and they were making it "snow" on each other.  So, if you find little gel pieces in their hair that's what it's from.  They'll disolve in water.

 We also got to play with liquid glue and glitter today making paper snowflakes sparkle to decorate our classroom.  Boy that was fun!

 We loved playing with the Polar Express Tot Pack after watching the video/audio book on the SmartBoard.  We still have the snowflakes hanging from our ceiling from yesterday's preschool lesson about snow and the girls were so cute making one snowflake swing back and forth.

What a fantastic day!

December Tot Packs

Find the year long theme calendar {here} and follow along with us! This post gives details and pictures of all December Toddler Packs. Be sure to scroll down to see all of them.

Tot Packs 16-19 Tot packs are about 20 pages in length. They each have 2 pages of activity ideas, book suggestions, and links to the materials I use. You can certainly use all or part of the lesson plans.  The printable pages include songs, matching games, drawing games and other activities. Tot packs are designed to be a first introduction to math concepts, letters, shapes and colors. They are not meant to obtain mastery in any subject. Let them be a guide for educational play between you and your child.

December
{Download all 4 December Tot Packs}

16. Gingerbread Friends {Download}
I love teaching the Gingerbread Friends theme.  It is full of fun smells, textures and tastes!

  Printables in this pack include:

• Gingerbread Body Parts
• Letter Review M T A S B H C I L P

Sequencing the Gingerbread Man

Matching Gingerbread Men

Lacing Gingerbread Men

Gingerbread Man Puzzle

Gingerbread Cutting

Gingerbread Girl and Boy Sorting

• Comparing Gingerbread Kids (attribute opposites)

17. Polar Express {Download}

Printables in this pack:

• Letter Bell Spinner
• Sorting People and Bells
• Graphing Christmas Bells

• Shadow Matching (You can also use the pieces to retell the story.)

• Snowflake Capital and Lowercase Letters

• Letter F

• Pre-Writing

• Polar Express Grid Game

18. Winter Holidays {Download}
The winter holidays tot pack is designed to give an introduction to Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, Winter Solstice, and New Year.  There is a page of informtion about the origins of each holiday as well as activities for all the holidays.  Books are listed according to each holiday as well.

Printables in this pack include:

• Menorah Lighting

Letter J

Kwanzaa

Christmas

Natvitiy Character Matching

New Year's Prewriting

New Year's Earth Rotation

19. Thank You Notes {Download}
Help your child understand about thankfulness by writing thank you notes.  This pack contains ideas for writing thank you notes, books that match the theme and a few thank you games to play.

Polar Express and Christmas Pack

http://www.teachersnotebook.com/product/LittleAdventuresPreschool/polar-express-preschool-pack

This pack has been a labor of love.  I debated about the graphics for a long time and then struggled with the formatting, but it's done now!  I wanted it done by the end of last week, but done by the end of the weekend works too (10PM on Sunday night - whew!).  Please enjoy this pack and leave a comment if you download!  Let me know what you like and what you'd like more of so my packs can continue to interest you.  Happy playing!

In this Pack:

You'll explore:

·         Patterns

·         Measurement – Standard and non-standard

·         Tally Marks

·         Count the Objects

·         Short Path Game

·         Pattern Blocks

·         Word Family Bells

·         Beginning Sound clip cards or hot dot readers

·         Comparison Words clip cards or hot dot readers

·         Sight Word Matching Trains

·         Do-A-Dot Color Matching Train

·         Geometric Solids

You'll need:

·         A die - I made one from a block and drew 1-3 dots (twice) on the sides since that's our level of math understanding in our home

·         Printer and scissors

·         Glue or Velcro (for the geometric solids)

·         Counters - the more interesting to your kid the more involved they'll be!

·         Scissors and glue

·         Writing tools

·         Small brads

·         Clothes pins or hot dot pen and hot dots

Do-A-Dot Markers

Enjoy playing with the Polar Express and Christmas Pack, and as always - please let me know if there are any typos.  To download: just click on the image of the pack above.  Please leave a comment here if you download, I'd love to know who's using it! And, if you blog about the pack let me know!  I'll add a link to your blog under the printables section of mine.