Spring Units Now Uploaded!

I have uploaded NEW SPRING UNITS!

You can download them for FREE here!

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No More TPT!

I have decided to remove all of my units from TPT.  I will now be offering them all to you for FREE!  This is my small way of trying to give back to the profession and to make planning lessons a little bit easier for preschool and pre-k teachers and homeschooling families.

If you know anyone that could use my units, please feel free to share this with them!

Please note ~ It may take me a little while to get them all uploaded to Google Drive, so please check back to see what I have added.

WINTER UNITS 

*How to Build a Snowman and Your Personal Penguin

*Polar Bear, Polar Bear, What Do You Hear? and Sam's Winter Hat

*President's Day, Seven Little Postmen, Knuffle Bunny Too: A Case of Mistaken Identity, Peter's Chair

*Froggy Gets Dressed, The Three Little Kittens, The Boy and the Quilt, Shoes from Grandpa

*The Best Thing About Valentines, Mouse Paint, The Night Before the Tooth Fairy, I Went Walking

SPRING UNITS
*Green Eggs and Ham, One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish, It Looks Like Spilt Milk,  Moon Bear's Shadow

*Little White Duck and The Tale of Peter Rabbit

*Benny's Pennies and Caps for Sale and The Bears' Vacation and How I Spent My Summer Vacation

*Humpty Dumpty, Mary Had a Little Lamb, The Three Billy Goats Gruff, The Teeny, Tiny Woman

*Blueberries for Sal, The Little Mouse, the Red Ripe Strawberry, Seeds! Seeds! Seeds!, The Sunflower House

*The Grouchy Ladybug, The Very Hungry Caterpillar, Bugs! Bugs! Bugs!, Mrs. Spider's Tea Party

*The Little Red Hen, The Wind Blew, The Mushroom in the Rain, Over in the Meadow

In the Moment

The other night Gracen began reading all of my old blog posts.   I sat down with her and we read through all of them together.  We had so much fun remembering all of the fun things we had done.  As were laughing over all of the old pictures, Gracen remembered that she still had an old flip camera.  She went and got it, and we began the mission of figuring how to upload them to my computer.  We were able to find and download a program that helped us convert the flip camera files to Quicktime Player.  For the next few hours, Gracen, Sam, and I converted all of the files, watched the videos, and laughed until we cried.

There were many tears of laughter that night,  but mine were also tears of joy.  I realized, in that moment, that what I was experiencing was a  memory that I will always treasure.  Both of my daughters and I laughing, talking, loving.  My heart was so grateful.

Here is one of the videos we found.  This is Gracen (3rd grade) practicing the morning school announcements.  😂

The New Girl

When Samantha and Gracen were younger they LOVED the American Girl dolls.   Each year for Christmas they would ask for a new doll or doll accessories. They also enjoyed reading the books and watching the movies.  One year, while we were living in Philadelphia, I was able to take the girls to the American Girl store in NYC.  It was a fantastic day.  If you have a daughter or special girl in your life, I highly recommend the trip.  You can read more about our experience here.

I always appreciated the the American Girl company because everything they release is age appropriate.  The clothes for the girls (and dolls) are tasteful and the movies and books they release are family-friendly.  The company promotes little girls being little girls.

American Girl has just released their 2019 Girl of the Year.  Her name is Blaire.  She is "an aspiring chef who enjoys bringing people together at her family's upstate New York farm and bed-and-breakfast".  Blaire's story, which will touch on finding balance in the digital world, will unfold through a series of chapter books.  Such a timely and important topic!

Here is the link to Blaire's page.  It is all SO cute!

NOW

Have you ever thought, “I’ll be so happy when ____”?    
I have.  In fact, I find myself having that thought quite a lot lately.

I’ll be so happy when school is out for Christmas Break!

I’ll be so happy when I get my car paid off!

I’ll be so happy when I get into shape!

I’ll be so happy when we can go on a family vacation!

I thought about this as I was reading a friend’s FB post today.  She wrote about how she is choosing to find joy in whatever each day may bring.  As I thought more about this, I realized that If my current thinking is “I’ll be happy when …”, I am not finding joy in the present.  

For 2019, I am choosing to be happy NOW.

So, that is my word for 2019.  Now.  

In the spirit of "Now", here is Gracen and I
walking the Arthur Ravenel Jr. Bridge today.
We were enjoying "now-ness".  

Is Early School Enrollment Dangerous?

Kerry McDonald, author of Unschooled: Raising Curious, Well-Educated Children Outside the Conventional Classroom, believes that "Parents should push back against this alarming trend by holding onto their kids longer or opting out of forced schooling altogether."

Unfortunately, this is not always an option for children with parents who work outside of the home.

Perhaps a better solution is to revamp the expectations and standards that are being established for Early Childhood Programs.

What are your thoughts?

Harvard Study Shows the Dangers of Early School Enrollment

https://fee.org/articles/harvard-study-shows-the-dangers-of-early-school-enrollment/?fbclid=IwAR3NRa9mIihjkW1le_rfuCK8jKphp4nvNN58T9T620UYr2H8ilUqu5IDkJg#0

M is for Mittens

This was an extra special Christmas because my oldest daughter, Samantha, turned 18 on Christmas Eve, AND she finished high school!  Next semester she will be taking classes at our community college, so that she will be a little ahead when she heads to college in the Fall.  As proud as I am of her, I am also a little sad. I plan to enjoy this last semester with her at home!

My children are spending the next few days with their Dad, so I am taking advantage of the quiet to get ahead on my planning for January.  I love The Mitten by Jan Brett, and I normally do a unit on it.  This January, though, I am going to use the Three Little Kittens as my focus book.

Here is the unit I wrote.  It is currently for FREE, so go download it!

https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Winter-Literature-based-Units-Froggy-Gets-Dressed-The-Three-Little-Kittens--456808#show-price-update

Here is a cute felt story set that can be used for retelling. This download also has a cut and paste rhyming word activity sheet and some mittens that can be used for a matching game or a "lost and found" game.

https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/FreeDownload/Felt-Story-Set-Three-Little-Kittens-559634

We have been working on number recognition, so I would like to do this as a small group (or center) activity.

http://www.stirthewonder.com/mitten-math-snowflake-counting-preschoolers/

Many of our students continue to have trouble with cutting, so I plan to do this activity and have the children cut out the mittens.

There are some great ideas for the sensory table here. I am not sure which I will do because I really like them all!

https://earlylearningideas.com/sensory-table-ideas-winter/?utm_medium=social&utm_source=pinterest&utm_campaign=tailwind_smartloop&utm_content=smartloop&utm_term=2937562

Lots of great block ideas here!

https://www.prekinders.com/winter-block-center-play-ideas-preschool/

What are some fun activities that you plan to do in January?