Northpole Breakfast 2012

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It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas….everywhere you go!  {be VERY glad you cannot actually hear me singing!!}  It especially feels like the Holidays are in the air since we just had our 2nd Annual Northpole Breakfast!

Just like last year, this was an event that my childcare kiddos and my own kiddos took part in.  This year at our breakfast table we had 2 four-year-olds and 3 one-year-olds.  I used much the same set up as last year and even reused the décor and printables.
  My little R         My girl C
But, who really was stealing the show during this Northpole Breakfast??  Why, the elf of course!  The kidlets named him Jingle and seriously buy into the no touching him thing.  We actually have a Christopher Pop-In-Kins, it comes with a story as well.  But, it is generally the same thing as the Elf on the Shelf (but cheaper :)
Here is the FREE Northpole Breakfast Printables that I created last year and used this year too.

I also created a Holiday Elf unit to bring the Elf and learning together.  Check it out here!


Do you have a Northpole Breakfast at your house?
Stay tuned for a GIVEAWAY tomorrow!

It’s Giveaway Time!

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  The tree is up, the stocking are hung and I have a Christmas movie on!  Sounds to me like the perfect time to giveaway some goodies to my favorite blogging buddies!

Today I will be giving away….

   

{Click on the pictures above to learn more about each product}

Enter the Rafflecopter Below!  Good Luck and HAPPY HOLIDAYS!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

 

ALSO!  There is a 12 Days of Goodies, called ‘Sleigh Full of Goodies’ happening over at Thinking of Teaching.  Today is the first day!  Head on over by clicking the button below!

 

December Songs- FaLaLaLaLa!

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Does Christmas music get you in the Holiday spirit?  I know it does me!  I love bringing music and songs into my classroom.  I may not have the best singing voices, but luckily… my preschool kiddos don’t care!
Here are the song charts I have in my classroom and that we use during circle time.
(these songs are a re-post)

   

I also created some song printables (also a re-post, but printables are now available on Google Docs).

 5 Little Stockings         
Two Little Candy Canes            

Do you sing in your early childhood classroom or at home with the kids?

Gift Bows- not just for gift wrap!

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These sparkly gift bows can be seen on many Christmas presents under trees, but have you used them in your preschool classroom or home?
I found these mini bows at Wal-Mart and I LOVE the size of them.  At the time they were 97 cents- I am not sure how much they are now.

In the past we used these bows to…
-sort by color
-1 to 1 correspondence (in the picture below- filling each spot in the egg carton with a bow)
-patterning (also can be done in the egg carton, like pictured below)
-counting
-game pieces to play a homemade game, such as All Gone Game (you could even make a special holiday game board!)
-as a sensory tub filler


This year we also used these bows for painting after seeing this post on Teach Preschool.  I decided to use the mini bows, as they fit great on the kid’s fingers.  I just took off the backing and stuck them right to their finger!  My toddler friends really thought this was fun!
 
Do you have a way to use gift bows you would like to share?

January Homework Packet- GIVEAWAY!

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Snow is in our forecast!  I love snow, especially since we only had ONE lonely snow day last year here in our little part of Missouri!

With January quickly approaching, I have completed the January Homework Packet!  So, why not give one away!

   

{Click HERE to learn more about the January Homework Packet or to buy it!}

 

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Collaborative Pinterest Boards

I have added 3 new collaborative boards to my Pinterest page.  If you are interested in joining the 1 or all 3 of the collaborative boards, please see in the info below!  New boards: Pint-sized Pre-K (all about pre-k), Childcare Collaboration (for great ideas and products for childcare providers) and Infants & Toddlers Collaborative Board (ideas, info and activities for infants and toddlers).

Click the link next to the board you are wanting to join.  Fill out the VERY short form and I will add you!  Please NO spam, inappropriate material or all self-promotion.

Pint-Sized Pre-K:  http://bit.ly/U3LuUk

Childcare Collaborative:  http://bit.ly/WTHSF9

Infants & Toddlers Collab:  http://bit.ly/X7MfQY

Righty or Lefty?

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  Hello all!  I hope you had a good day today.  The thoughts of 20 children are still in my mind for the majority of the day, as I am sure they are on yours as well.  It is hard focus on daily life sometimes, when such a tragedy occurred.  But, I feel a sense of normalcy is good, yet I know I will never forget those beautiful faces.  I was once a first grade teacher…they are just babies.

In honor of those sweet little lives, I wanted to piggy back on the “What’s in a name"?” series.  When I think of first graders, I think back to how amazing it was to see their writing progress.  It truly is amazing.

So, today I wanted share what I have learned about hand domination.  Many parents want to know if their child will be a lefty or a righty.  All in all it does depend on where you might need to sit at the dinner table, so your not bumping elbows with each other! 

source: Discovery Education

According to Marianne Gibbs from Write Out of the Box, children generally develop hand dominance between the ages of 4 and a half to 6 years of age. 

So, this means that some of our Pre-K students may have not developed hand dominance yet.  Each student is different and it is important to embrace the differences.

As parents or teachers it is important that we do not force our hand dominance onto children.  Is the world a little easier for right-handed people (considering we are the majority)?  Yes, I suppose it is.  But, it is not appropriate to force or train your child’s hand to fit in with the majority.  We need to make sure to remember to hand children objects at their midline, or the belly button.  Even when our kids our infants and we are handing them toys, try not to show a preference my handing the object to their right or left hand.

Can you imagine how frustrating it would be writing with your non-dominant hand, all because someone thought you should be right handed, when your left is where it’s at? 

How do I know when my child’s hand dominance has emerged?  Well, observe them.  Do they cross their midline with a particular hand to grab something?  For example: if I were right handed and I reached to grab the salt and pepper that was to the left of me, using my right hand, I cross my midline to get the s&p.  If you see this repeatedly, chances are that the hand that is crossing the midline is their dominant hand.

What hand do you use??

 

Messy Moments

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  Being an early childhood educator, I come in contact with a lot of sticky situations.  From wearing snot on my sleeve to toddlers with pudding from head to toe during a pudding painting session, I know messy.  Getting messy is part of providing meaningful learning invitations to even the youngest of learners.

  But, don’t get me wrong…I like to control the mess as much as possible!  For instance, we lay out a large vinyl tablecloth when using our sensory tub.  Especially when it is full of real snow (still waiting to do that this year, come on snow) or beans and rice.

I have also found that by using contact paper, rather than gluesticks, with my toddlers saves me some serious mess!  Can you imagine… glue on the table, chairs, floor, walls and most likely clothing and hair- AHH!  Instead of dealing with that mess, I provide cut outs, ribbons, tissue paper or anything else I can think of to stick to the contact paper.  Works perfectly for young learners!

Or, when doing playdough, give each child a tray to work on.  When finished playing, put the playdough away and dump the small dried up pieces in the trash.  Tada…clean table (well hopefully)!

Wet Ones Antibacterial Wipes is giving us a chance to share the sticky situations that we have found ourselves in and ways to deal with it through their Facebook page!

I just submitted my entry, it was easy… head over to the Wet Ones Facebook Page now!

By sharing your story and tips, you can be entered to win an iPad Mini or Six Flag Tickets!

   

 

I participated in a campaign on behalf of Mom Central Consulting for Wet Ones. I received a promotional item to thank me for participating.

Gratitude {freebie included}

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  I was thinking recently of how to help my almost 5 year old to understand the meaning of presents and why we give/get them.  Children seem to have a natural way of wanting it all.  I myself cannot stand when I give a gift to a child and it is thrown to the side because it is clothes, something they already own, or simply it is just not as cool as the X-box they wanted.  Our children now seem to think that if they want it, it will come.  While I totally agree with telling our children to be all they can be, I don’t believe they should get everything they want. 
  I myself feel it is extremely important to acknowledge each gift that is given to my children.  While young kiddos (infants to 2) cannot express this kind of gratitude, I choose to express the gratitude for them.  But, as in the case of my 4 year old, it is important she express her thanks.  Recently we have been talking about the gifts that Jesus gave us.  Also, the gifts the Wise Kings brought to the Baby Jesus.  Simply- we give gifts to people we love to tell them: YOU are special and I LOVE you.  We don’t give gifts to get gifts.  We simply give because we love the person we are gifting.  So, when someone gives you a gift it is because they were thinking of you and spent their money to buy you this gift.  It is special even if it isn’t something you thought you wanted.  You can look back at that gift and think- wow, my Nana must love me, she picked this out just for me!
We do A LOT of reminding the days that we are scheduled to celebrate Christmas with all of our family.    I also require that my kids tell the person, who thinks they are special and took the time to buy them something, thank you in person (with a hug!).  Also, this year since my oldest is really getting into writing, we are going to write our own thank you notes to family, as another way of showing gratitude.  To make this a little bit easier of a task, I have created some postcard style letters ready to be filled in by younger children.  They are in black and white so that they may color as well!  Please note, I will not ask my almost 5 year old to sit and write everything on the card.  Nor, will I ask her to complete all the cards in one night.  It is just too much and I don’t want this to seem like a burden.  ** I also included Birthday Thank You Notes!**

     

  In other news… this is the one week anniversary of the tragedy at Sandy Hook.  I am wearing my green and white and thinking of all those babies, their parents and their school family.




I recently found a wonderful idea at Little Miss Glamour Goes to Kindergarten.  She is organizing a way for all of us to give to Sandy Hook Elementary- check out her site!  I will be participating!

Getting it Organized!

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  Hello!  I hope everyone had a fantastic Christmas!  We are so blessed for the wonderful family we have, it was another great Holiday!

  Well, with about a week off, I am working behind the scenes here at Me & Marie Learning to ORGANIZE!  All my freebies were here and there…. so, I tackled that problem!

  If you click on the link above that says “Freebies” you will find a much more organized look…whew!  I hope this helps to make finding the freebies I have created a little bit easier.  I used InLinkz – Link Manager to help me out.  It was a little time consuming, but not difficult.  I love the new set-up.  The Childcare freebies are also organized like this (just click ‘Childcare’).  What is even better??  All the freebies are hosted at Google Docs- no more Scribd!

So, what do you think?

Top 12 in 2012

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  This year has been another great one!  As 2013 is coming closer, I wanted to share my top 12 posts of 2012.  Just in case you missed one :)

#12     What’s in a Name? Part 1 

               

#11      Lookin’ Ahead

                  

#10      Toddler Portfolios

                     

#9       Sleigh Full of Goodies

                       

#8       I found it! I found it!

                    

#7       Using School Supplies- Preschool Lesson Plan

                     

#6       EEK Spiders (and the Letter T)

              

#5       Community Helpers Freebie

                    

#4       Stop Drop and Roll

                  

#3       Schedules, Special Days and Toddler Reports… oh my!

                    

#2       Calendar Folders in Pre-K

             

#1:       All About Me Lesson Plans

              

 

Thank you all for following Me & Marie Learning and allowing me to share with you!  Here’s to another great year!