busy bees

My preschoolers were busy bees in our classroom this last week.  As I watch the students interact with various play areas I marveled at how different the classroom was from the previous weeks.  The kiddos were staying longer at learning centers and interacting much more with each other!

Here are some of our centers:

• "B" is for building: At our regular building center I added in a work bench and tools to go with our blocks.  I believe at one point during the week I overheard a group of students singing "Bob the Builder" - it was a hit! 

• "B" Trace & Erase: (I picked up this idea from a pin on Pinterest and morphed it into my own) I created my own tracing pages on publisher and slipped them into page protectors.  The kiddos then used dry erase crayons to "write" on the pages - just erase and reuse.  (Note: to "super" clean the page protectors I used a magic eraser since the dry erase crayons leave behind a little residue)

 

• Bee/Flower Count & Match:  I found this game in a Mailbox Numbers book.  The pictures are photocopied onto card stock & laminated.  The bees are glued onto clothes pins.   The object; count the flowers and pin to the correct, numbered bee.

• Big & Little: We are working on size sorting so I placed "big" and "little" flash cards on two separate trays.  In the middle I placed a container of big and little beans (lima & pinto respectively).  We sorted the beans onto the correct tray. 

• Sorting Fish, Color & Size:  This game was created by a fellow teacher and I have no idea if the game came from her imagination or from a source - but it's great!  She created game cards with squares that go from small to large.  There are fish cards that match the size and color of the game cards - great sorting activity!

•  Butterfly "B's":  We had a great time making this project, just glue 2 letter "B" cut-outs back to back onto a large piece of construction paper, add a circle cut-out for the butterfly's head, draw on a face, tape a piece of pipe cleaner to the back side of the paper for antennae, and decorate (we used dot painters) - "B"eautiful!

Love the lips!