Upcoming Lesson Plan - Season of Fall

Next week we are talking about Fall! Fall is my favorite season, so I'm super excited! I have so many ideas for activities so the problem this week was trying to narrow them down to the ones I'm actually going to use (and I STILL think I've kept a busy lesson plan).

Here it is!
MONDAY
Circle Time - Welcome Fall! We will talk about the Change of Weather, how it is getting cooler outside and how the days are getting shorter and nights are getting longer. We will also talk about clothes that we start wearing in Fall (jackets, sweaters, boots, etc). We will also touch on the leaves changing color.

Our letters this week are going to be F AND L (F is for fall and L is for Leaves).

Art - Egg Carton Fall Trees - paint project (I got this idea from pinterest from another blog, here's the link: Egg Carton Painting Fall Trees).

Fine Motor - Fall Leaf Match (another idea from pinterest). Basically you use craft foam and punch it with a leaf shaped cookie cutter, and then half each leaf to make it a puzzle. Use all fall colors!

Here's the website I got the idea from: Fall Leaf Match

Math - Leaf Color Graph (the kids will find leaves outside and then once inside, we will tape them to a LARGE chart based on their colors. It'll hopefully look something like this:

Outside Activities - Look for Leaves!!

TUESDAY
Circle Time - Fall Colors! (brown, red, orange, yellow, and green)

Then we'll do a color game. Basically I took some pictures of fall things (a rake, pumpkin, squirrel, nuts, etc) and pasted them to a piece of construction paper of the above colors. I'll pass out the cards and then when I call out a color, each kid who has that color will stand up and tell us what the picture is on their card.

"What's your Favorite Fall Color" Graph

Review letters F and L.

Art - Finger paint with Fall Colors

Fine Motor - Fall Color sort

Sand Table - Add Leaves!!!

Writing - Letter L is for Leaves! We'll glue leaves to the letter L. I modeled the idea after this one:

....but using a letter L and leaf cutouts :)

Outside Activities - Find Fall Colors on the Playground!

Ride Bicycles (AND practice using the pedals!)

WEDNESDAY

Circle Time - Fall Activities! (football, raking leaves, hayrides, carving pumpkins, corn mazes, apple picking, etc)

"What's your favorite Fall Activity?"

Art - Fall Collage (with different fall items, like leaves, acorns, pictures of pumpkins, footballs, etc)

Blocks - Build a Corn Maze, Apple Orchard, or Pumpkin Patch!

Outside Activities - Throwing and Catching

THURSDAY

Circle Time - Fall Foods! (pumpkins, corn, caramel apples, turkey, sweet potatoes, cranberry sauce, squash, etc.)

"What's your favorite food?" Graph

Letter F and L Sort

Fine Motor - Macaroni Necklaces (I'm going to paint the pasta fall colors in advance so that they'll be festive!)

Dramatic Play - Make a Fall Feast!

Writing - Letter F is for Fall (colors)

We'll color letter F with Fall colors (markers or crayons)

Outside Activities - Taking Turns on the Swings, and PUMPING OUR LEGS

FRIDAY

Circle Time - Fall Animals! (owls, squirrels, bats, raccoons, and spiders!)

"What's Your Favorite Fall Animal?" Graph

Art - Draw a picture of Fall!

Math - Fall Flashcards (I found some here: Fall Flashcards)

Reading - Read a Fall Book (We don't have many books in our classroom, so I'll ask the kids to bring in a fall themed book from home).

Outside Activities - Look for Fall Animals!

Well there you go!

Easy Hair Do's for Second Day Hair

I was pinteresting and stumbled upon this video. She has some really great and EASY hair do's to share.
I especially like number 5. :)

Song of the Day 9/15/13

I heard this song on the radio on the way to work this morning. It's an old one, and one that I have always liked, but I really connected with it this morning.
It's one of those songs that you never really get tired of hearing.

Wherever You Will Go - The Calling

Song of the Day

I've been watching The Vampire Diaries on netflix...and now I am addicted. But the show has REALLY good music in it. So I've heard a few songs and attempted to find them online.

This song is called "All I Need" by Within Temptation.

I LOVE it, so I had to share. :)

Music and Me

I have always loved music. I was in band in middle school and high school, Chorus in high school and college, and in a great acapella group in college (ASU's Lost in Sound). I was the music director for several years for Lost in Sound and LOVED arranging for and singing with some of my best friends from college and my lifetime.
So now, a year after graduating, I miss it. And several of my friends from acapella miss it too. So we are planning on starting a post-collegiate acapella group. I'm excited about it, even if it just creates an excuse to get together and hang out and sing with a few friends, I am stoked.
I'm planning on starting to arrange in the next day or so, and I think the first song I am going to tackle is Royals by Lorde. It is a GREAT song and will be AMAZING acapella.
Take a listen:

Also, if you want to check out my college group on YouTube, you can find ASU Lost in Sound's videos right here.

I am also excited about starting this blog to post some wonderful music that I LOVE and excited to share it with others too!

That's all for now!

-The Curly Twirly Teacher

A GORGEOUS Rainbow Cake

I will occasionally be posting really awesome cooking recipes, photos, and reviews on my blog as well. One of the more recent baking recipes I have tried was a TieDye Rainbow cake for my friend's birthday. She LOVES bright colors, and so I decided to bake the most colorful cake EVER. I found the Rainbow Tie Dye Cake recipe online and found it was INCREDIBLY EASY to make. I changed the recipe from this site slightly. I didn't do the icing the same because I was cheap and didn't want to buy all the food gels.

Basically all you need is

• a store bought white cake mix (I used Pillsbury because it was on sale, but you can use any brand, or make your own)
• Food Coloring
• Icing
• Rainbow Sprinkles
• 2-8" round cake pans

You make the cake mix like the box says, but you split the batter into 6 equal amounts in 6 separate bowls. I just guesstimated, but if you want it to be exact, then you could measure it.
Then you dye each bowl of batter a different color of the rainbow (red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple), mixing red and yellow for orange and red and blue for purple. I found that I needed about 20 drops or so to get a bright color.

Then you pour 3/4 of the batter of the first color (either red or purple depending on which side of the rainbow you wish to start with, I used red) and then slightly less of the following color and ending with 1/4 of the last color (which was purple for me). When you pour the batter in, just pour it in the center of the pan. When you add more colors it will gradually spread out.
Then in the second pan you start with the last color (which was purple for me) and add the remaining batter. Continue with each color (blue, green, yellow, orange, red).

Then just bake the cake like the box says.

For the icing, I used plain white icing and then COVERED the cake with Rainbow sprinkles.

I'll have to add some pictures of the cake I made. My camera was broken at the time, so I don't have any. However, my friend took some, so I post them when i see them.

This is the cake from the link I posted above, to give you an idea of what the cake would look like on the inside.

-The Curly Twirly Teacher

Playing With Hair

As a child, I always loved doing hair. I loved doing updo's, wearing it all down, half up, headbands, barrettes, braids, and so much more. Now that I'm all grown up, I still love styling hair. I am partial to braids and curls because that's what my hair likes to do. I dye my hair pretty often, which is probably not great for my hair, but I just love changing it up.

I just dyed my hair about a week and a half ago. I used the John Frieda hair dye in the brown/black color and it turned out great. :) Usually, I have to get a really cool color (most of the time I like using Loreal Preference one of the ash brown or ash blonde colors) because I have LOTS of red undertones in my hair. But this time it turned out well anyway. You can definitely tell that there is some hint of red, but I like it.

I'll post some pictures as soon as I get my camera working.

I also cut my own hair. My hair is curly, so I decided a few years ago that I probably wouldn't mess it up anymore than the hair dressers at Super Cuts do, so I tried it. I watched numerous YouTube tutorials before I tried anything. This is the video that I watched that inspired me cutting my own hair:

It seemed silly when I first did it, but my hair turned out GREAT afterwards. I will say that I tend to move the hair tie over to line up with my part. I have a part on the left side and when the hair tie was centered with my part the layers turned out much nicer.

ANYWAY, I will be using this page to post pictures, maybe some tutorials periodically, and updates on hair care and cool things I try.

-The Curly Twirly Teacher

Upcoming Lesson Plan - Our Families

Today, I've been working on my lesson plans for next week. Our theme next week is "Families". I plan on talking about family members (including extended family, grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, ect), Family Homes, and Family Activities.




Our activities for Monday will be:
Circle Time - Discussing Families (Moms, Dads, Sisters, Brothers). Who is in your family?
                  - Letter F, "F is for family"
Art - We will be making a family collage - I will cut out pictures from magazines and/or pictures from google images and the students will pick out the pictures they like and glue them to a large piece of construction paper.

Our Tuesday Activities:
Circle Time - Discuss Extended Family. Do you see your extended family often?
                  - Letter F Sort
Art - Kids will get to draw a picture of their own family.

Our Wednesday Activities:
Circle Time - Discuss our homes. Where do you live? Do you have a yard or playground? Who lives with you?
Art - Mosaic Houses. I have prepared Strips of construction paper for each child and a house cut out (basically a large brown pentagon made of contruction paper) for each child. The kids will get to practice their cutting skills by cutting the strips of paper into small pieces and then they will glue their pieces to their houses.

Our Thursday Activities:
Circle Time - Discuss Activities we do with our families (Family vacations...beach, camping, visiting family....playing games, going to the pool, ect.) Do a Family Activities Matching Game. 
Art - Paint a picture of your favorite family vacation.

Our Friday Activities:
Circle Time - What do you like about your family? ( I will transcribe answers for each child, it is important for young children to give answers and their answers be recorded on paper. It helps to build a connection between spoken word and written word.)
Art - FREE EXPRESSION!

Week Long Activities and Centers:
Dramatic Play - Call family members on the phone and have a conversation. OR play house with your friends.
Blocks Center - Build a house, apartment building, or other type of home.
Math - "Count the Family Members" (if I figure out how to put an attachment in here, I'll add it. :))
Table Toys Center - "Family Matching Game" (I'll see if I can add this one later too)
Week Long Art Project - We will be making Family Trees. Monday we will color apples. Tuesday we will think of our family members as I write each family member on a different apple. Wednesday we will paint our tree. And Thursday we will glue our apples on our trees. I'll be sure to post some pictures after we finish these.
HOMEWORK - Bring in family photos to hang in our room!

Here's a Little Bit About Me

I am a teacher. I've seen so many wonderful and inspiring teaching blogs out there and have decided to create my own. As of now, I am a preschool teacher with a wonderful new group of young 3 year olds. I love working with this age group and ALL age groups of children. I love being apart of their learning and love creating fun and exciting ways for students to learn.

I plan on using this blog to share my most creative ideas and adventures of the classroom. I also plan on sharing other creative and exciting things I do as hobbies. My interests are mostly of the artistic sway, but I like to dabble in some other stuff too.

I will most likely be sharing my adventures in cooking (old and new recipes), music revelations (as I love listening, sharing, and creating music of almost any genre), organizational tips (because I LOVE to organize), crafts and decorative ideas (especially with the changing seasons), and perhaps I will post some things related to travel. I love traveling and visiting new places, but seldom get the chance to travel.

I am excited about creating my own blog and sharing great ideas with anyone and everyone who is interested. Happy Blogging!

- The Curly Twirly Teacher