Posted by Teacher Ria in Classroom Escapades, Preschool | 0 Comments

Got Milk?

A few days ago my kids and I got into a discussion about drinking from a bottle. One of my four-year olds said he still drinks from a bottle at night, and I said that maybe he could try drinking in a glass instead. He said it was just for bedtime because he still drinks milk before sleeping. Over the course of our discussion, we began talking about why bottle feeding at their age should not be done anymore, but I was not too forceful with the issue, especially since as a psychologist, I know that this is really a stage of oral development and making too much of an issue of it can cause problems in the future. Anyway, at the end he goes, Okay, Teacher, I’ll drink my milk before I brush my teeth instead. Yay!

Since we were talking about milk already, I decided to spin off the lesson to talk about other sources of milk products, especially since one of the other kids said she doesn’t like milk. We talked about how ice cream, for example, could be a good source of milk for them. We talked about why it was important for them and how it is a rich source of calcium which is important for building strong bones in their bodies. I told them that they should make it a point to have some milk (and other calcium rich food) daily because this will ensure their health in the future. I told them that even I had to take in some of these things so I can continue to be strong and healthy and so I could still carry them around and horse around like we do in class, but that sometimes,  grown-ups take their “milk”  in the form of calcium supplements, which in turn led to a whole new discussion on vitamins and other medications they find in their homes and how they should not take them unless their parents give it to them.

I enjoyed our Circle Time a lot that day and even though it threw off my entire lesson plan for the day, seeing the discussion that ensued made it all so worthwhile

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Posted by Teacher Ria in Multimedia Center, Teaching Resources | 0 Comments

Story Stretchers: The Very Hungry Caterpillar

One of my favorite stories for class is The Very Hungry Caterpillar. As I shared in a past post, I once was lucky enough to come across a real caterpillar about the same time we were discussing the story, thus we were able to use it as one great story stretcher. I also was able to use the story as an inspiration for my classroom decoration.

One other story stretcher that you can add to your collection is a video such as this:

For sure, the kids will love this!

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Posted by Teacher Ria in Arts and Crafts, Classroom Escapades, Lesson Plans, Preschool | 2 Comments

The Seniors Tie Dye Project

For our discussion on clothing (as part of how we take care of our body) and colors, I decided to let the kids experiment on tie dying this week I started out the week with a discussion on primary and secondary colors, particularly how primary colors can mix together to make a new color. Since then my kids have been calling red, blue and yellow “magic colors” because they can become something else when mixed.

We also discussed the different types of clothing we wear and for what purpose (i.e. raincoats, aprons, gloves, socks, costumes and so on and so forth )

For a culminating activity, we made rainbow shirts!

The kids had a blast! So did teacher I was a bit worried at first about how this would have turned out, mainly because my past experiences with these activities were not very good. Luckily, my partner, Teacher Joy, had experience in this and did great in mixing the dye. I usually put too much water and I used to use vinegar instead of salt in the mixture. Plus I used to “cook” the shirts. Apparently, that was wrong! Haha!

This time, what we did was to prepare the different colors of dye then tie up the shirt and dye it section by section. Plus I squeezed out the excess dye before moving to the next color. Success! For the shirts that kinda had extra white spaces on it, we decided to use the stampers to add some flair

Again, the kids exclaimed “this was the bestest day ever, Teacher!”

We did the shirts yesterday and today, before heading home, we tried it on!

Posted by Teacher Ria in The Library | 1 Comment

Lessons from the Rainbow Fish

Authors note: I am still amazed at the statement “reading books and novels are not educational“. To prove that statement wrong, I will be doing a series of book reviews to show how through these supposed non-educational materials, we can learn what is truly essential.

One of my favorite childrens books is Marcus Pfister’s Rainbow Fish. It is a very simple tale of a fish living in the ocean but it’s message runs deep. Often times kids are initially attracted to the beautiful colors and sparkly scales this little fish has on the cover of the book but once the story is read to them, they learn very important lessons ranging from being nice, to sharing, and even to loving once self in spite and despite of things around them.I love using this story whenever I talk about the themes “self” and “friendship” in my preschool classes. Believe it or not, even my toddlers (around two-and-a-half to three years old) remember the lessons rainbow shares very well.

The story revolves around a very beautiful and sparkly fish. Rainbow is undoubtedly the most beautiful fish in the ocean. However, because she is boastful and proud, she belittles and is mean to those who are not as pretty as her. She also refused to share her sparkly scales with a little fish who asks for one. Because of her attitude, she has no friends and is lonely. With the guidance of Mr. Octopus, Rainbow realizes that it doesn’t matter if you are the prettiest one of them all if you have no friends at all.

After I read this story to my kids, I overhear them telling each other things like “remember Rainbow said to share” or “Do you want to be like Rainbow and have no friends?”. Granted the toddlers may not use as well-crafted a sentence or two, the essence is there. For my older kids, the story shows them how beauty is more than just skin-deep and that inner beauty is what really counts.

Another bonus to having storybooks as springboards for lessons in the classroom is that it extends to so many different subject areas. For example, with the story of Rainbow Fish, I am able to teach math. How? As a follow-up, after the story I do an arts and crafts activity where the kids make their own rainbow fishes. They have free-range to place the scales of Rainbow. Then I use this to practice simple math equations like if Rainbow Fish has 10 scales and she gives away 3 to her friends, how many are left?. There are so many more variations to this depending on the characteristics of the scales we use in class. So tell me now that story books are not educational!

This book is definitely a must-have in any school or home library. I personally have 3 copies of it Click on the photo above to be redirected to Amazon.com and add this to your shopping cart!

Stay tuned for updates on my book review series.