The Learning Bin

For any teacher or parent who has been involved in PTO projects you'll know all about the good, the bad, and the ugly. This holiday season we has some of each. The school fundraiser happen in conjunction with a thanksgiving banquet. I was so pleased with how our PK cut paper mural turned out. I'll put that in the good category. The Christmas play and party followed closely behind the Thanksgiving party, which I'll put in the ugly category. The kids all did wonderful work, but the level of exhaustion was so obvious. My dearest wish and big piece of advice is to space out big celebration events for the sanity of both kids and parents. But as a smart person I know often says "done is good." And so it is. Happy holiday season to all, and to all (teachers) a nice rest!

This H House went along perfectly with our community project. As we move forward I'm planning on integrating more cutting for half of the group. Fine motor skills are coming along nicely.

Moving right along with our capital I, iguanas. The kids are loving this center and easily making the choice to do their collage pieces without any reminders. Hooray!

This scene took place outside of my house last night and I dreamed about what the tarantula was thinking. I thought this photo would make a great writing prompt.

Moving right along, we made our G Globes last week. I thought it was adorable that most of the kiddos observed our real globe and added the stand to their collage page.

Our fondly referred to "Nemos" were a big success. Each child really customized their fish with different stripes, water, and seaweed all around. As the weeks go by, I'm very pleased with our collages. I'm noticing much better fine motor control and the kiddos are so happy to choose the alphabet center.

This weekend's marketing made me think of seeds! Pumpkins and melons are in season here, and we discovered white fleshed passion fruits. Since I think just about every early childhood program I've ever worked with has had a seed study, I thought I'd post my fruit and veg prep pictures. As a side note I roasted my pumpkin seeds with garlic powder, mustard powder, a bit of cayenne pepper, and salt. They turned out wonderfully!

Our E Elephants were not as big of a hit as the other letters so far. The kiddos didn't find it interesting. I think perhaps it might be the color choice? Ideas for future use: read Elmer stories and do a patchwork E Elephant instead. This way I can use the same templates and have the kids to torn or cut paper squares into the elephant.

In my adult life I have probably used several million paper muffin cups. When I taught in Detroit I would bring healthy muffins once or twice a week for the kiddos. At that point I had big numbers of kids who either didn't or couldn't bring snacks with them to school. When I taught in Macau I was part of the social committee and we had a Wednesday treat routine as a fund raiser. You get the picture, muffin liners bought in bulk for many years. Then a simple shift happened. I bought silicone muffin liners and never looked back. So much less wasteful! And I deeply dislike waste. I'll take this opportunity to post a recipe that I use weekly for the hubs and I to have healthy easy to grab snacks: Protein Muffins 3/4 cup flour 1/4 cup oats 60 grams of protein powder (we use chocolate but any would work) 2 whole eggs 100 grams Greek yogurt 1 tsp baking soda 1/2 tsp baking powder 1/2-1 cup veg (amount depend on how liquidity it is. I've used zucchini, roast pumpkin, squash, be...

This year PK is VERY girl heavy. But lucky for me, a tomboy at heart, there are so many different interests in the group that I barely notice the skewed numbers. In an effort to get the Frozen songs out of my head, this week's letter collage is all about dinosaurs! Now that we're 4 letters in, the actual collage books are looking adorable. Each kid's personality and style are shining through.

Overwhelmed by shelves gone wild? Have you ever reached a point when your home or classroom shelves begin to explode? I really never thought I would, but here I am with this: My kiddos have basically stopped using this area because the shelves have become too overwhelming. Now don't get me wrong, I love having so many beautiful resources, but too much is too much! So I turned my shelf to utilize the space better and simplified. Two days later the literacy area is one of the go to spots in the class. I think this is an easy fix, simplify and they will come. As my very smart dad is fond of saying "keep it simple stupid!" A reminder that has served my kiddos well this week.

Have you been contemplating ways to bring in extra money? I would highly recommend taking a look at Teachers Pay Teachers. I've bought loads of great stuff and also managed to sell a fair amount. I'm still navigating the waters of how to bring in an actual income using the site, but slowly and surely things are growing. If you are considering signing up as a selling please use this link: https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Signup/referral:msmoss (Using the referral doesn't effect your income at all.) I have found that the more I create, the more thoughtful I am about aligning to common core (which my school doesn't use) and building creative and dynamic lessons. I also focus on creating things that I actually use in the classroom. Two birds, one stone! This way all of the planning hours that I put into my classroom have a small side benefit too.

Meow! Cats were a natural choice for our C collage page since the entire PK class LOVES cats. Playing kitty and drawing kitties has been an ongoing free choice activity and the kiddos had a blast making their C Cats. This is the link for my teachers pay teachers item that includes the black line masters and examples for the entire alphabet A-Z plus scaffolded handwriting labels for each piece too! www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Alphabet-Collage-Book-Upper-Case-1535454

I always have my eye open for writing or story prompts. This past weekend when the hubs and I were doing our marketing we came across a new restaurant's grand opening. In our part of Indonesia when there is cause for celebration people and businesses send each other big signs made of fabric flowers to say congratulations. I thought it would be so neat to have a writing activity where kids can do their own celebration sign using tissue paper or fake flowers. Fun fact: the language that is used in this sign is Bahasa Indonesian.

Moving right along with out butterfly Bs. The kids are feeling a bit more freedom to decorate their work which is lovely! I'm really excited about a few of my student who have barely picked up a pencil this year. The butterflies inspired them and every kid added embellishments to their page, hooray!

This year in my class I have a group of kiddos who love the arts and crafts area, and also struggle with letter recognition and phonics. From this was born the idea of our alphabet collage books. This gives the crafty kids a chance to reinforce language skills and kids who struggle with fine motor skills to practice. I created templates for every uppercase letter and have one letter available in the art area every few days. I give children of all different development levels a chance to be successful by providing the templates for kids who can trace and cut, to pre made pieces for those who are still unable to trace and cut. Our first letter was a great success, next I just need to encourage the kiddos to embellish and personalize their work even more!

Every teacher and every person for that matter has a bin or tool box of skills, experiences, thoughts, feeling, and so much more. As people we apply these pieces of ourselves to our professions, relationships, and daily lives. I am a teacher, a wife, a traveler, a thinker. The neat thing about all of that is that my students, my kiddos each year get to learn and benefit in life experience from what I bring to the table. My bin of skills. Some days I scrape the bottom of the bin for ideas and inspiration. Other days I dip into my alphabin, mathbin, and many others for neat things to dust off and try again with a new group of children. This blog serves as a log of all these ideas swirling around. It is my nod to the 21st century, putting away the binders of black-line masters and joining the digital age. This is for the love of learning, to support teachers and parents in their journey, and to keep myself sanely organised.