Youtube in the classroom!

Since Summer is in full swing and quickly winding down, I am finally getting some energy to start really preparing for next school year. As a Head Start teacher, I always say I'm going to be more prepared "next year" but next year always brings surprises and I always seem to find newer and cooler things to add to my classroom throughout the school year.

Last year was the first year I really used Youtube videos to my advantage and the children learned SO MUCH from them that I could not teach them from a book or photos. I try not to use videos as babysitters or to teach things that I can teach hands-on but the children get very engaged when I pull up a video of something new and interesting. Here is a list of my top ten Youtube videos for my classroom (please share your favorites in the comments so I can check them out and pin them!):

Songs for Circle Time:


 Hip Hop Humpty- The children love this song and especially love trying to imitate the hand movements


Goodbye song- we would sing this everyday before going home. They loved it with or without the video

Books:


Pout Pout Fish Puppet Show- we didn't have a copy of the book and I just happened to show this video when we were discussing ocean animals and it became one of the most requested videos in our class!


Firetruck- Not sure if I should list this as a song or book but it is SO CUTE! I was singing it throughout the day along with the children! It has a catchy tune and is also informative.

Informative:


Caterpillar to Butterfly- Hosted by two little boys and shows the complete metamorphosis process


BBC Hermit Crab- Another gem we found while learning about the ocean. The children loved watching the little crabs running around in the ocean.


These videos are neat because even our young three year olds learned how to spell the words after learning the songs on these videos


How a pumpkin grows

Other:


These just dance clips are great for indoor recess and using during center time for movement. Our class especially liked the Mario one!


Nocturnal Animal Noises- our children loved identifying animals by sound!

Oh, and I have a preschool Youtube video pinterest board too! Click over and check out all 168 of them!

Preparing...

It has been forever since I posted on this blog! I had huge plans to post everything from last school year as it happened and slacked off quite a bit. This year I am beginning with new resolve! I am hoping to have everything planned better so that I can easily share all of the fun stuff we do on this blog!

Well, since it is summer, I've started looking around for some materials to use next school year. After contacting about 20 companies, I realized that they are not going to help me so instead I turned to thrift shopping! I wanted to hit yard sales but we found out my dad has cancer and now he's in the hospital so I've been busy helping my mom with all that.

Today I went with my mom to a thrift store on the other side of town. I hadn't been there in a while and didn't realize that she has much more merchandise than last time I was there! It was mind-boggling! Anyway, I bought $15 worth of stuff there, some to go together and some to go with books I already owned. Here are some pictures of what I matched up:

This is everything I bought today for $15- My favorite is that viewmaster projector in the back! I can't wait to use it in the classroom!

Little Feet Like... (Giggle and Grow) (Giggle & Grow)
 and Looney Tunes 12" Tweety plush Doll
 I thought tweety looked like the little bird on the cover!

vhs "The Fabulous Safety Game and Rhyme in Time" and The Care Bears Book of ABC's
 and a mini plush and Funshine Bear Board Book

Barney's Five Senses and I Love You Barney Plush

Firefly
 and The Very Lonely Firefly[ THE VERY LONELY FIREFLY ] by Carle, Eric (Author) Jun-01-95[ Hardcover ]

Bear Plush
 and Don't Worry Bear

What do you think? I am trying to match all of my theme books with a corresponding plush. I think these turned out pretty good. What do you do to connect literacy with your young students?

All links in this post are affiliate links to help me afford to buy all these cool toys and activities for my students!

Chicka Chicka Boom Boom Headbands!

Last week we did a unit on the book, "Chicka Chicka Boom Boom". I have TONS of pins on my Chicka Chicka Boom Boom Pinterest board and used them for inspiration.

We made headbands-

First the children glued the letters to the headbands. We have young three year olds so this was more one-to-one correspondence of matching the letter tile to the dot of glue while the teacher named the letter but older children can create the names themselves.

Then I traced the children's hands and cut out five of each, using two different shades of green construction paper.

I stapled the headbands together and stapled the hand cutouts to form the leaves. The children wore them home proudly!

Making Plans...

Hello! I just wanted to post an update and let my readers know that I will be posting more often this school year. my assistant teacher and I have decided that we are going to document our school year and I thought my blog would be a great landing place for the photos and ideas that we come up with! I am looking forward to another fun year!

FREE Printable Kissing Hand Class Book

It's been about a year since I have been on here posting and I apologize. So much happened last school year that I didn't get a chance to create things that I planned to create. I am preparing for this school year (starting Tuesday!) and I am making this adorable class book for the first week of school. I thought this would be something others would be interested in, too. I got the idea from Chalk Talk via Pinterest.

Enjoy!!