Here’s our new and expanded ZOO PRESCHOOL UNIT!!  We’ve added a few new printables which are all available in one easy download.

Just click the image above to download a single zip file of all the printables. (Can’t unzip it. Try Hamster Free Zip Archiver approved by Amber’s husband. Remember to download carefully.)

You will need to be able to view pop-ups to download the unit, as it will appear in a pop up window from our site! Last year’s printables are also included in this download.

Here are some of the printables that MAY BE included in this unit:

• Patterns (ABAB and AABB)
• Roll & Graph
• Letter Sort
• Writing Maze
• Beginning Writing/Cutting Practice
• Size Sort
• Number Order Puzzle (1-10 and 11-20)
• Spelling Puzzle
• Count & Clip
   

Products We Use with Our Units

Amazon.com Widgets

Tot Pack

Looking for some ideas for a younger tot? Check out our Zoo Tot Pack. (Tot Packs inspired by 1+1+1=1.) Here are the printables included in this pack: 

• Animal Match  
• Count the Animals
• Zoo Animal Colors (mini book)
• ABCs at the Zoo (mini book)
• Size Sequencing
• Heads & Tails Match
• Zoo Puzzle

Looking for more ideas?

• Devotional & Memory Verse Helps
• Zoo Center Ideas
• Zoo Count & Color Books
• Recommended Books 
• Field Trip to a Zoo

There are also more ideas, units, printables and crafts available on our Pinterest Board!

We hope you enjoy these printables and please let us know if you have any issues with downloading or using the items provided. 

Special Thanks to Just So Scrappy for the graphics.

Please do not sell or host these files anywhere else. You MAY link people here. When leading others to these printables, please link to THIS page, not to the file page.  Thanks! (See TOU)

To get you started, I’ve have some fabulous resources that can be use in independent centers. 

Magnet Pages

Another set of magnet pages for you.  Includes several zoo animals that are included in our unit this week.

Click to Download 6 magnet pages.

You can use several different things with your magnet pages. Do-a-Dot Paints work great, but then you’ll only get one use out of them.  I recommend laminating the pages and using Bingo Chips, Power Magnets or homemade pom-pom magnets with them.

Pretend Play

We are loving our miniatures that we found at Hobby Lobby.  Make sure and use the 40% one item coupon that they usually send twice a month to their email subscribers.  You can also purchase them through Amazon.

You can use them in a variety of ways, such as in a sensory bin or even as a counting manipulative.  My son just loves to play with them and if I only pull them out at a specific time it keeps him well entertained.

Stamping

Work on letter recognition with our Stamping Strips.  To do this activity you will need uppercase or lowercase stamps and an ink pad.

Stamping Strips: Zoo

Hope you have fun with these wild animals.

My grandmother had a lot of sayings.  “Use it up, wear it out, make it do, or do without.”  “Do not throw upon the floor the food you cannot eat, for many a starving children would think it quite a treat.”

And when my husband asked if I was OK dating him at 10 years my senior, Grandma’s words jumped right out: “Better to be an old man’s darling than a young man’s slave.”  (Though my then-suitor didn’t exactly appreciate the “old man” reference at the tender age of 34.)

But apparently there was one I had forgotten about until my mom used it the other day:

“You can’t put a big head on little shoulders.”

It’s a quick reminder, in Grandma’s style, that you can’t expect a small child to think as an adult.  You can’t expect a child to act as an adult.  Children are, after all, children.

And yet we do it from time to time.

We expect them to wait patiently without giving them something to do.  (And then get upset when they find something to do.)  We say things like, “the baby’s sleeping” but leave out the real message, “it’s time to be quiet”, and assume they’ll fill in the blanks.  And we expect them to ignore that wriggling worm on the sidewalk because we are in a hurry.

Too often we project our understanding, our perspectives, and our priorities onto the children we love and teach.  Developmentally, children are supposed to be ego-centric.  What’s our excuse as adults?

Monitor your expectations and the words you use with young children, and beware of trying to put big heads on little shoulders.  Slow down now and then and see things from their view.  (You were there once, remember?)  Keep expectations appropriate to their abilities, and instructions clear for their understanding.

Be patient when kids act like…well, kids.

Image Source

Today I wanted to share one of my favorite ways to introduce numbers and numeracy concepts with young children.  It’s a mix between show and tell and math time.  I figured the best way to show you what I mean would be to make a video.  Here I’ll show a lot of different options for using the number bag or math bag.  You DON’T need to do them all in one sitting, I just wanted you to see all the different concepts you can teach with one type of activity.

What I love most about this activity is that it gets the kids to see numbers and math concepts as they relate to real objects they have a real interest in.  Suddenly, math isn’t something you do just with the math manipulatives, but with everything around you!

Here’s the Number Bag Information Sheet you would want to include in your folder inside the bag.  Along with it, you’ll want some number cards.  If you don’t already have some, the easiest way to create these is to get some index cards, write the number on one side and then attach the corresponding number of dot stickers (from the office supply aisle) on the other side.  Ta-da!  You have a set of number cards for about $1 and 5 minutes.

As a review, here are some of the concepts you can cover with this activity:

Numeral Recognition (Written representation)

Numbers (Names we use for them)

Rote Counting  (Counting in order)

One-to-One Counting (Counting one number for each object)

Comparing – Greater than/Less than (Which is greater/less?  By how much?)

Categorizing and Sorting by Changing Qualifiers (Sorting the same group by big and little, then by hard and soft)

Adding

Patterning

What else could you do with the Number Bag?

I had a lot of Swedish Fish left over from our “candy fish swimming in blue jello” snack, and came up with this idea to use them as an End of Year gift for the children. I put the Swedish Fish in a snack size zip lock bag, printed out the bag topper, folded it over, and stapled it to the top of the bag. This gift could also be made with Goldfish crackers.

To make these, feel free to use the printables I made below. Since my students are going to a new school next year, I made a printable that says “Congratulations! You’ll soon be swimming in a new school because you are O-FISH-ALLY a Kindergarten kid!”. Since some of you may not be sending your students to a new school, I also made one that only says “Congratulations! You are O-FISH-ALLY a Kindergarten kid!” Click the links below to download the printable you need.

DOWNLOAD: Swedish Fish Bag Topper 1

DOWNLOAD: Swedish Fish Bag Topper 2

Our paraprofessional and I bought sand buckets for every child, and she is painting their names on them with paint pens. We will put the Swedish Fish inside the buckets along with any other goodie bags or gifts the kids bring in for their friends.

You might also want to check out my End of Year Gift Idea from a previous year.

This printable uses graphics licensed by Scrappin Doodles.

Introducing Preschool Spot

Vanessa Levin of Pre-K Pages, Deborah Stewart of Teach Preschool, and I are teaming up to create a new site called Preschool Spot. Preschool Spot is a place where you will find resources and printables for your home, preschool, and pre-k classrooms. We are currently posting some great freebies on the site, and we will eventually each have our own “shop”.

This is a collaboration between the three of us, but our individual sites will remain the same.

I have two free printable pocket chart sets posted on Preschool Spot:

• 5 Little Monkeys
• 5 Green Speckled Frogs

There will be more to come, and there are also freebies by Vanessa and Deborah, so be sure to check those out, too.

Hope you will join us at PreschoolSpot!

Where to Find PreschoolSpot

• Subscribe to PreschoolSpot blog updates
• Follow PreschoolSpot on Facebook
• Follow PreschoolSpot on Twitter
• Follow PreschoolSpot on Pinterest

There was a ton of amazing homemade food at the wedding in the woods we just got back from and one of the salads was an apple fennel slaw. I think I blogged about a similar slaw last year, but here it is again in a different form. I made this variation with what I had and then added some more to it.

The basic slaw is:

• sliced fennel, apple and a ton of lemon juice (the mandoline slicer is key)

To this I added:

• a drizzle of olive oil, grated Parmesan, salt, pepper, blueberries, avocado and butter lettuce

It's delicious.

unrelated:

• I am loving the beauty and cleverness of these magnets made from gemstones over at Leif.

• I am reading A Visit from the Goon Squad and I really like it so far. The non-linear form requires a lot of attention and I am laughing at how hard this is for me at times. wait, what? which character is talking? who is she? what year is it? I thought they were dead?

I am going to make a photo book of all this, including a bit of text documenting what we saw (armadillos and fireflies!) and listing all the various minor injuries. The girls have all helped take notes so we wouldn't forget. I would have never thought we'd go through so many band-aids. The kids were just wonderful. They are already 100% back in action. We adults are incredibly tired, but they seem to not notice the jet lag at all. I am spending Mother's Day outside trying not to do laundry all day. I also plan to eat the chocolate I received and read magazines.* I was almost in tears thinking we would come home to rain, but not so. The best weather in May ever! Vitamin D party!

*And I will also ship out all the orders tomorrow, thank you for your patience.