Just a simple idea that I thought that I would share my ideas about! I picked up these pumpkin candies at Walmart for $1.99 last weekend and decided to incorporate them into my pumpkin unit. (They've been around forever! And you can also get a small bag of the 'harvest mix' that includes Indian and candy corn in it for $1 at the Dollar Tree) and they're a pretty good representation of a pumpkin!
I put the entire bag in a small container and made a simple classroom graph on my dry erase board. Each day my students looked at and analyzed the container and 'estimated' and 'guessed' how many pumpkins they thought were inside. On Friday we counted them as a class. (There were exactly 75 candies in the bag! I couldn't believe it!) My preschoolers loved counting that high with me! And to my surprise (and luck) two of the pumpkins were 'different'. One was smashed and melted looking and one was a great replica of a pumpkin but didn't contain the green coloring at the top for the leaves and stem. It worked out wonderful because my students were able to look at the entire bag placed on a large cookie sheet and find the ones that were different. It turned out to be a good lesson about identifying and recognizing differences. Students were also able to point out a pattern based on how the candies were laid out! (Unintentional of course but it made the lesson even better!)
You could definitely incorporate these candies in a number of activities! I saved half of the bag and we used them to weigh and see if 4 pumpkins weighed more than 5, etc. It turned out to be a worthwhile lesson for my students. We kept it somewhat simple as I had a lot of other activities planned for the week - but now my mind is spinning for next year! :) Just thought that I would share!
After rearranging my classroom and getting rid of a lot of old materials that were 'left' for me last year when I started, I couldn't help but think that my student's need more concrete activities to help stimulate their minds. Since I teach a multi-disability, integrated preschool class - I feel as though it is very important to create activities and manipulatives that can be used for teacher-directed or student-directed activities. I've read other blogs and found ideas on Pinterest that I am currently working on (One being a light table! I can't wait to get it 'up and running'!! So expect a blog about that in the near future! :)) Anyways... Last week I found a HUGE unopened box of chalk way in the back of my closet. As always, my mind was spinning with ideas! I knew that I wanted to make some sort of chalk board table for the kids so I searched on Craigslist (You can find some great buys in your area!) , Garage Sales, Walmart, Target, etc. Then when I was searching on the web, I found a cheap kids table from Ikea for only $19.99. There is only one Ikea store in Ohio and it's about 3 1/2 hours from where I live so I searched the web some more to see if I could find it somewhere else for a cheaper price (Amazon) and while doing so found images of the table being turned into exactly what I wanted... A chalk board table!! Great minds must think alike! ;)
Anyways - I didn't end up finding the table anywhere else for a better price so I purchased it online from Ikea and paid and extra $10 to ship. Honestly a kids sized table WITH two chairs for only $32 (included were shipping costs and tax) was a pretty good deal in my eyes! So here is what the table looks like:
Before I put it together I spray painted all of the pieces and used a chalk board spray paint for the table top itself. I found 2 cans of Green Apple spray paint at Pat Catan's for $5 and the Chalk Board spray paint was $6 (I looked at a lot of other stores and this was the cheapest that I found it!) You'll need to do at least 2-3 coats of the chalk board paint - it helps the overall finish look better and the chalk shows up better.
And here is a picture after I spray painted everything and put it together. (Don't mind all of the imperfections! I've since discovered that I am a HORRIBLE spray painter! :P Also, my porch area desperately needed cleaned before this picture, but that just didn't happen! :))
I've since made small cushions that tie around the chairs that have given it a more 'finished' look. The table itself is pretty durable. Its very light weight but is perfect for this use and the kids love the little chairs that are perfect to sit and draw.
FINAL COST: The final cost for this project was around $45. I know, I know - that seems high for a 'budget' project but it really has served for multiple purposes, earning every penny of it's worth. The kids get to use it during free time - for free drawing, I use it for learning to recognize and write letters and numbers, my students use picture cards to begin to form words and much, much more! I have a lot of left over chalk board spray paint and am using that for other classroom projects! So overall I feel like this is totally a budget project! :) If you have any questions, don't hesitate to ask! :)
Tomorrow I am starting my Pumpkin/Halloween Unit with my class! I'm super excited! :) There are so many lessons and activities that I have planned to make learning about pumpkins fun! As always, I continuously am looking for ways to save money or create lessons on a budget. Here is a simple idea for the mini-story/chant: The 5 Little Pumpkins!
One of my co-workers made me these! (Aren't they super cute!?) They are "pumpkins" that you can use to help student's visually see the pumpkins in a fun and creative way! There are only 4 in this picture but she made me 10 in total!
How do you make them?! ---> These are a product of a cut up, orange pool noodle! (creative, huh?!) Add googly eyes and stick on a piece of a green pipe cleaner for the stem and TADA - an instant pumpkin! She added a magnet on the back so that we could use these on our magnet board. PERFECT! To make these even more usable for my classroom, I printed out other photo's that relate to the story of the 5 Little Pumpkins (witches, being late, running, etc.) and laminated them and added magnets - now we can visualize the entire story. Essentially I am using this as a modern day felt board.
So... The total cost you ask?! FREE!!! Since this was a gift from a fellow (very creative) co-worker, I obtained this awesome teaching tool for absolutely nothing. However, if you were to make this yourself you would only need a few bucks! First of all - look around this summer or in the clearance section for an orange pool noodle! (Usually they're pretty cheap!) I'm sure that you have some extra googly eyes laying around somewhere in your classroom but if you don't - check out the Dollar Tree (in the craft section they are $1) and you can get a bag of 20 "Halloween" colored pipe cleaners in the Target Dollar Section for $1 or a pack of just plain green at Pat Catan's for $1.19 - I'm sure any craft store will have them cheap as well! :) If you plan on adding a magnet you can get a roll of "sticky" craft magnets for about $5 and it lasts forever!! Either way, this is a cheap, cheap project that can enhance your entire Pumpkin/Halloween Unit! SO many possibilities! :) :)
Welcome to my Blog! :)
First and foremost, I am completely new to the whole blog world and hope that if any of you are choosing to read this then you will cut me some slack and hang in there while I work on making my blog the best that I can make it!
I'm a Preschool Intervention Specialist, living in a small town in Ohio and working for the County Board of Developmental Disabilities. To say that I love my job is completely an understatement! If I could have pictured/imagined my dream job early in life, this would have PERFECT written all over it! I have wonderful, helpful and very supportive co-workers, great paraprofessionals (I would lose my mind without my assistant!) and work with a good group of parents and fantastic children! Of course I have my bad/stressful days like anyone else - but there isn't a day that goes by that I don't remember how fortunate I am that I've been given this opportunity to help children begin their educational journeys! :)
I've been teaching for the last year and a half and have had the opportunity to read and explore a lot of amazing blogs! I've found a lot of great activities that have benefited my students greatly and would love to have the opportunity to share some of my own creations and finds with other teachers! Like a lot of people I am ALWAYS looking for a good deal and LOVE finding cheap things to use to manipulate learning inside my classroom. I have a knack for re-creating things that I've found online to suite the needs of my children and pride myself of creating simple and easy activity sheets to help jump start the learning process! While in college I always had this preconceived (and definitely unrealistic notion) that all of my worksheets and activities had to be colorful, unique and artsy to entertain my students and be meaningful to the learning process. Boy, was I wrong! Some of the best lessons that I have done have been taught using old materials and easy to navigate worksheets. So what you'll always find from this blog are easy and creative lessons using items that you can find around the house, buy second hand or find in a store for next to nothing! :)
If you have any questions along the way... Contact me! :) I love hearing from other teachers and educators and love picking new brains for ideas! I am far from the perfect teacher but I love learning right along with my students!!!
