Tag: Early Years

Mini Beast crafts

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For Busy Preschool Teachers

Teachers never seem to have enough time in the day to plan and create fresh, effective and engaging resources. That’s why Id like to share some of my minibeast craft sheets that my kids have loved painting and creating this week. Iv been so proud seeing them using different techniques to decorate their ladybirds, butterfly’s and caterpillars.

I started off by letting them choose a template of their favourite bug and laying out craft materials, paints and tools to encourage their creative minds to run free!

Each student knew what they wanted to use and I was able to see their own unique way of expressing themselves in their art work!

These simple bug crafts kept my young learners focused for ages and and turned out absolutely brilliant!

Click here to download some FREE Bug templates to use with your kids!

For more activities and resources visit my TPT Store

Counting and Number Recognition 1-5

Bugs Interactive Workbook

Playdough Activity Mats for Autism in Special Education Classrooms

Bug Jars Counting 1-10

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Easter Hunt, Math Ideas for busy Classrooms

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I’m always looking for ways to keep my Math lessons exciting and interesting, so when holiday events come around I don’t miss the opportunity to get creative! Easter hunts are always motivating! so this activity was an easy way to introduce basic math skills such as counting to tell the number of objects and recording the amounts.

I started with Easter craft materials that I’d bought from the cheap store and made activity mats to correspond with the items. A magnify glass was a handy tool that helped them hunt through the basket, find the items on the list and matching them to the picture!

I encouraged my students to count the objects they found and say the number in order for them to understand the relationship between numbers and quantities. They were able to count and record the amounts by using the plastic number to correspond.

This activity gave my young learners a lot of fun and the chance to explore, Count and record the number of Easter items. I loved the way it kept them motivated enough to practice these skills without realising!

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Spring Math Ideas for Pre-K

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Spring Math ideas for my Pre-K Classroom

I’m bring Bugs to my independent Math centre! I’ve added creepy crawlers to an interactive selection of pages that cover some basic math skills that my young learners can practice and enjoy!

I’ve laminated these boards and popped them in a binder for my Kido’s to practice over and over again. For other students I print them out so they can use them as a cut and paste activities while my high level can write the answers using dry wipe markers.

These games are quick and easy to make up, simply laminate and Velcro and pop in a binder or printout for worksheets.

Matching numbers to 5 with the ladybugs

Match numbers to 5 with the caterpillar

Count and Match numbers to 5 with the bees

Ordering numbers to 5

Order numbers to 5

Find the missing number to 5

Counting to 5

Sequencing bugs

plus more games and matching pieces

Visuals for Communication in the Classroom

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Setting up Visuals

I started jotting down what visuals my students needed to help with frustration and classwork until I realised what a big task!   So I decided to cut down my list to a manageable workload and think about what things they wanted and needed the most.    Here are the categories I thought would be good to start off with –

  1. Things in the class,  2.Tasks in class,  3. I’m feeling, 4. fidget toys,  what I need

 1. Classroom Things

I wanted some visuals to include basic everyday class things so they could point out what they needed or having trouble finding.

2. Tasks

I wanted visuals of the tasks available so my students could indicate a choice and find things they liked doing.

3. Feelings

These are important visuals to understand, practice and use to communicate how they are feeling.

4. Fidgets

A selection of fidget toys could also be used as motivators to regulate themselves, calm down emotions, which I’ve found very handy.

5. Me

Things for themselves, such as their bag, the toilet, a tissue, time to relax and reduce some of their frustration using these visuals to support stress and anxiety.