I was pretty excited to reach 2600 followers this week! I can’t believe how much my page has grown in less than a year, and I love sharing ideas with teachers from all over the world. It’s such a great way to showcase all the amazing things that are happening in our classrooms, and to get inspiration! I hope to keep sharing some of my favourite classroom activities, and I hope you join me over there!

Color Word Emergent Readers

Our students are always drawn to coloring centers in our classroom. We just have one of those classes that love to use crayons, markers, pencil crayons, or anything to color! So we keep using these color word books and they are never bored of them. At this point, most of our JK (year 1) students know all their color words, and can complete this book independently. I love how confident our students are getting with their work at this time of the year, they are more willing to take chances and try on their own! If you would like to use these books in your classroom, they are available here:

Valentine’s Day Sensory Bin

I am totally in love with this sensory bin, and I am going to be sad when we have to put it away. The base is pink rice, with heart gems and artificial rose petals. We added a labeling activity to bring a literacy component to this center, and I can’t believe how popular it has become! Our students love finding each of the labels, and writing them in the right box. They play with the items in the bin at the same time, and it is a great activity for them. If you would like to use this activity, it can be found in this pack:

Roll and Fill the Heart Cups

We set up this invitation this past week to work on counting skills and fine motor skills. We added the extra challenge of having students estimate how  many pompoms were in the filled cup, then they counted how many were actually in it. Our students had a really great time with this activity, and we had a lot of great  math discussions while playing.

Play Dough Invitation to Create

Our play dough center this week was all about Valentine’s Day! Students picked a card, then tried to make the object using the loose parts. They had a great time using the different materials and coming up with creative ways to use them. I love how play dough works on fine motor skills while students are playing, it is such a great way to improve their skills! You can get the task cards in my store by clicking on the image below:

Heart Paintings

My teaching partner set up this great painting activity this week. Each student got a heart cutout on white paper, and they used pompoms (with clothespins attached for easy dabbing) to paint their heart. They did a beautiful job making each of their hearts unique and I love how they look displayed on black paper.