Showing posts with label Teaching. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Teaching. Show all posts

Friday, April 22, 2016

Himig's Sensory Table Experience


 Hello :)

How's your summer so far? Himig and I are enjoying our time together for 3 weeks now. 3 more weeks before I officially go back to work again so I'm making sure we spend meaningful time together. I guess that is always every working mom's dilemma.  The feeling of guilt that we never get to spend enough time with our babies. Time is always of the essence. As Himig grows up, I learned that she enjoys the toys not because they are new or expensive. She enjoys them because we play with them together.  So here I am, scouting for more learning and play activities for us to enjoy.

She's 2. A terrific two, who loves to explore and use her senses. Therefore, sensory bins are perfect!

I looked for an affordable sensory table for her. The cheapest I found is around 2000php. Thinking she'll just outgrow it, I searched for DIY solutions. The costing of wooden ones are around 1500-1800, close enough for the store bought one. Till I found out PVC pipes can act as stand too.  YEY!

So after a couple of measurements, here's our DIY sensory table, after spray painting.
Total cost: 400++ :)

Judging by her reaction, this sensory table activity is a success. 
Bubbles+Water+Food Color+Extra Pipes + Funnels = Eye-Hand coordination galore!







Since she enjoyed the water so much, we tried the "Rainbow Rice" bin after a couple of days.


Quiet hesitant to use rice for this project cause I dont want to imply that we are playing with food when other people are getting hungry. But this is the easiest to dye and the texture is amazing. Justifying that, unlike water, this sensory bin can be use over and over (I used food coloring and vinegar for longer shelf life) for about 6 mos. So my 32php 1kilo rice is worth it :) 

I added plastic letters and invited "Peppa and George" for some rainbow bath time.
We invited each letter as we played




 Nothing but pure FUN!






   
                                See that smile? Weee! My Teacher-Nanay hear is so happy :) 




Looking forward to more learning and fun times with my tot :)

Thursday, April 25, 2013

My Favorite Preschool Activities

What I learned from taking up FLCD (Family Life and Child Development) is that learning should come in forms of experiences-meaningful experiences that make the lesson stick to the children, not just for one day but for a life time. After all, you need your ABC's and 123's all your life, right? :)

I can't remember the moment that I learned how to read and write during my preschool days. What I do remember is how I learned about the color yellow. You see, my teacher asked us to bring a yellow fruit for Show and Tell. My mom wanted me to bring something different so she let me bring a "chesa" fruit straight from my lolo's tree. It's a small yellow fruit that tastes like "papaya" which is too slimy for me. As it turned out, we were supposed to eat the fruit that we brought in school. I sat there, jealous of my classmates who were eating mangoes and bananas. So much for bringing something different. hehehe At least, I really did learn about the color yellow :p And I can still picture that classroom moment until now.

So as I started teaching, I try to make each and every activity as experiential as possible. As hands-on, as fun and as interesting as that of Dora and all the other cartoons out there.
Si Dora may Boots, ako anong meron ako para maging interesado ang mga bata sa akin?

So this post is just a roundup of my favorite preschool activities that I think my students enjoyed. Some of which, I had fun doing as much if not more than they did. :)

I got some of these ideas in Pinterest. I am addicted to that site and so thankful to the hardworking and generous teachers around the world who shared their activities and even their printables. Seryoso, para akong batang in awe, everytime I see super nice teaching blogs. Ang effort lang nila!  To think that some of them are moms already. I hope I can also juggle work and being a mom in the future. :)

From now on, I'll try to document all my classroom activities so that somehow, I can give back to the teachers aroud the world. Much like giving world peace. haha! :)

So here they are, my favorite preschool activities (in random order)

1. We made crafts using the shape of the letter and called it "Alpha-friends" :) We used foam sheets, googly eyes and cotton for this letter R-abbit craft. I'll share with you all the crafts for the whole alphabet in a different post, SOON :)


2. During Nutririon Week, we made (and ate) fruit salad in class...


3 ... and used cut-out  real life vegetables to make these fabulous veggie prints. My favorite is the cabbage, which when cut near the stalk, makes flower-like patterns.


 4. K for K-ite :) Our kites were made of Japanese paper, straws, and painted ribbon pasta (my favorite! :))



 5. We pretended that we were cooking alphabet soup and spelled our names using bottle caps "macaroni" :)



 6. "Painted" and enjoyed these marshmallows using food coloring. We learned about "feelings" too :)



7. Printed out this Paper City from one creative daddy's blog (www.madebyjoel.com). Yes, you read it right, the blog belongs to a daddy who made this printable for his son to play with.  It comes with a Nativity set, Paris set and even a Sydney Opera House set :) Now, that's one creative daddy. :)


8. Learned about all the vitamins and minerals that we can get from eating a banana. We also did a little experiment where we wrote our names using toothpick in an unpeeled banana. We left it inside the classroom when we went out for outdoor play. Our names became clearer when we came back. I love their faces when they saw their bananas. (Teacher!!! may magic! :)


9. Of course, we read the "Chicka Chicka Boom Boom" book when we reviewed the alphabet. :) 
Look at our Chicka-Chicka Boom Boom Tree made out of tissue rolls and foam sheets leaves and letters :) 

10.  Can you guess what farm animals are these? Made them using our handprints, stamped in different positions. :)


11. More farm animal craft. This time, we made a chicken craft using a cut-out of our handprints, some paper plates and construction paper. :)


12. Recycled our old boxes and CD's by making these oh so adorable robots :)


13. W day is w-ater fun day! I attached laminated w-word-picture at the bottom of some rubber duckies for the kids to be familiar with them while they play. 


14. And lastly, made cute necklaces out of these painted pasta noodles while practicing our fine motor skills and patterns. :)




Sp that's about it. I hope that someday, my students remember not just these activities but also the fun and the learning that we had while doing it :)

Cheers to loving what you do and doing what you love!

Can you share some of your favorite activities too? Leave the links below and I'll be happy to visit them. :)

Wednesday, August 1, 2012

Hello and Thank You's :)

just trying out blogging from my phone :p Also im thinking of sharing my "Thank You journal" to you through pictures :) starting of with this week's Thank you's :)

colorful veggie prints

coffee plus cinnamon in a cold morning

flowers on my phone :)

college spirit

socks that talk :p


veggie and fruit day in class

my baby no. 7 is back :)

and of course, new rainbow shoes :)


(via instagram :) follow me: @iamdecano)

Hope this made you smile a little too :)

ohhh and one more thing :) I'M GETTING MARRIED :) that and a lot more in my next "kwento" (story) post :)

Sunny side up!

❤iam

Friday, July 6, 2012

And yes I am back!... BACK HOME :)




Hello everyone!


After all the rollercoaster ride, I finally have a little spare time to update this blog. To make the looongg story short, Yes, I am back in preschool :)

I am also back in my morning coffee cutting sessions, colorful weekly plans, and activity marathons. But this time, I am slowly learning to manage my time (as in slowly kasi may pending things to do parin :p) so I wouldn't have as much work to do at home.

It all ended up to what I am really happy to do - That is, to be around kids, be like them for a time and to somehow know how it feels to be a parent- to not just one, but 16 kids, all at the same time.

It's not always easy, in fact, it's not easy at all. For the first time in my whole teaching career, I had an encounter with a parent that wasn't as pleasing as before. Good thing back in Nest , when issues like this happened, we teachers share techniques on how to handle it as gracefully as possible. After a short conversation with the parent, everything's all good now :). I realized that being a parent is like having your heart out of your body. That equates to doing everything in your power to protect your child. It was a learning experience for me not just as a teacher but as a parent ( in the future) as well :)

Then, as I like to always emphasize, there is always a positive side in everything. In my years of teaching, I received quiet a handful of messages from parents that moved me to tears. Makes me feel that I my paycheck is worth a million bucks :)



Dear Teacher Iam,
Thank you Teacher for the weekly update. I have this mixed emotions everytime I open your email... Nervous, "ano nanaman kaya kalokohan ng anak ko?", excited, I always show her your newsletter, kilala ko na yata lahat ng classmates niya and the people who assisted her sa cr sa pagwash ng hands, etc., then proud... kahit super kulit ni P** she makes you and her classmates happy naman pala and that she doesnt get herself into trouble (thinking of the time out e, ngiiiii...) Naku we danced all the songs from the Learning Tree cd.  Kakaaliw that she knows all the actions. Hehehe. She loves you sooo much and her "bebes" in school. Shes very eager to go to school everyday, even on a weekend gusto pa din niya mag school.  Sabi ko na lang, saturday is clean up day and sunday you go to church and rest at home just like me.  Thank you sooo much Teacher for giving P** the best head start in her school adventure.  Now I am secured that she will always love school because of her experience with you.  And thank you too for being a good sample to me.  I felt so secured when I received your 1st note that we can reach you anytime.  I am always hesitant to do that with my parents in C** but now that I know how it feels... Im trying my best to be more connected with them.
Praying for your good health always and continued happiness (yihiii)!😍
Much love,
Mommy C**




----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Hi teacher Iam!
Thanks for these.  We really enjoy reading your newsletters and looking at the pictures of the class. L** definitely looks forward to G******* every weekday and I am glad he is making progress.  Sabi nga niya (more than once ha!) "I looooove g*******!" We'll practice tracing some more!  :)
Thanks again,

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


I know I dont have all the luxuries in life that money can buy. But this kind of "happy heart moments"are rare ones that only a few get to experience.

I am lucky
I am blessed

I am sure you have your own moments like this in your life too. Make an effort to find it everyday. You'll be surprise on how amazing it will make you feel :)

Sunny Side Up!


<3 iam




Wednesday, April 18, 2012

Moving Up, Growing Up

These are all backlog posts @-@

I bid goodbye to my Robins Class last March 16. I prevented myself from crying but deep down I know I will surely miss being tired for these 8 Kiddos. I am proud and honored to be able to experience life through their eyes. I'm pretty sure they will not remember me in the future but as long as they remember the letters, numbers, colors and the fun times that we had, "Sulit na lahat"

My class performed "Sunshine, Lollipops and Rainbows" from the movie Sunny with a Chance of Meatballs. Thus, the colorful outfits.




 











   "Everything is wonderful when we're together, brighter than a lucky penny, when you're here the wrinkles disappear and I feel so fine, just to know that YOU are mine... "