Bucket Color Sorting

I ordered the buckets I used for the Behavior Management from Oriental Trading by the dozen. I ordered an extra dozen just to use around the classroom….to hold manipulatives and to really carry through with the theme.

For this instance, I labelled each bucket with a color word, and with the visual print in that color. On the tray, I placed a ton of colorful and fuzzy manipulatives (pom pomps, feathers, small beads) and left them out for the children to sort.

Shapes

Matisse worked with some organic and free hand shapes, but also some concrete ones. As one of my focus materials, I used a hammer/cork activity I hadn’t brought out yet.

You can get the product (or a similar one) here

Letter Tiles

Along with all the Matisse going on in the classroom, we did some Mouse Paint (which was the inspiration for Day 1 of my sensory table..when they looked at me curiously that there were no “brushes” i told them to make their fingers like the mice!)

This focus material in the language/writing area is inspired by the book. I found the basis for this letter tile somewhere (i thought it was www.makinglearningfun.com, but I can’t find it anymore!). Each has a color word on the page and a mouse printed over it. I added black and white clip art over top every page with a paint brush, and also a palette and colored them as a visual cue for each color.

As always, I count out the letter tiles to fit each one and mix in some challenging letters and let em have it! 

Math Snack

Since working with food items is frowned upon, we use this as a small group snack activity, so that the children can nom up their M&Ms right after they’re done.

Sanitize your work surface as well, before and after each child!

At the link on the bottom of the page from www.makinglearningfun.com, there are two types of organizational charts available for M&M sorting. I print 3 of each because I like to have materials available for varying abilities. Also some children just need a visual to organize the M&Ms before they graph them, while others are just working on sorting, and others still can work on graphing and charting and discuss number patterns.

Print and laminate for shared use (we don’t use work sheets or printables at our center either…so they’ll just use it for discussion and share).

It’s up to the teacher to facilitate much of this discussion and is largely up to you how much the children take from it! So ask lots of questions and keep them interested and engaged before they nosh on their chocolates!

http://makinglearningfun.com/themepages/BrownBearMMsorting.htm

Language Center Material

This week, instead of a Beginning Letter Sound Grid, we work with letter tiles to spell out color words in relation to the book Brown Bear, Brown Bear by Eric Carle. 

We supplement our Hibernation theme with this book because it’s classic and easy fun for the kids. Therefore many of my focus materials in the learning centers reflect this easy to follow theme for the kiddos. 

These letter tile mats show each animal from the book and provide space to match tiles for each letter of the colors. These can be printed on cardstock and laminated for best use strait from www.makinglearningfun.com. In their themes section, they have a whole area for Brown Bear, Brown Bear where many of these things come from!