Posted by Teacher Ria in Lesson Plans, Teaching Resources, The Library, Tips and Tricks | 2 Comments

Green Eggs and Ham Day!

The other day after our discussion about birds, I finally did one of my all time favorite story stretchers…

Green Eggs and Spam!!! Yey!!! For today I decided to have them color the eggs green first and place them on a nest just for kicks

It was a joy to see the kids try to figure out how to hold the eggs and navigate through the shape without cracking or squeezing too hard. Some of them were even brave enough to venture designs in their eggshells

Before the actual cooking activity, we went through the book, Green Eggs and Ham then we went on to experimenting on how to make our own version of the dish

Since most of my kids are readers already, I also let them take turns reading through the book. To further up the academic difficulty of the task, we also listed down the ingredients and procedure we did, then we went on to charting how many kids liked or did not like our little experiment.

As a finishing touch, we also answered some word problems about it

Posted by Teacher Ria in Tips and Tricks, Toys and Playthings | 0 Comments

Dust Mites, Allergies and Toys

A few days ago I had this discussion with a friend about toys we used to play with as kids. I realized that even if I did have toys as a child, these were mostly Barbies and video games. Haha. What a weird combination I know. My point is I never really got into the whole stuffed animal thing, mainly because my little sister was always allergic to anything and everything!!! Hehe.

Because of that, I try to make sure to be careful about the toys I let my kids play with in school. Not only that, I try very hard to keep it clean, sanitary and hygienic. Here are some things I do to make sure I can keep the kids as safe as possible:

• Plush/stuffed animals or toys are only allowed in school during show and tell days
• Toys are stored in covered containers so as to avoid any creepy crawlies leaving germs behind
• Weekly clean-ups and disinfecting sessions for the toys
• After play, I make sure the kids wash their hands thoroughly

Any other suggestions?

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Posted by Teacher Ria in Arts and Crafts, Teaching Resources, Tips and Tricks | 1 Comment

Unexpected Crafts

I think I have written about this in the past, but today, I came across a photo in Flicker that I fell in love with. Lookie:

Photo: “Star's Fault: Cigar Box #1” by Eileen Terwilliger, c/o Flickr. Some Rights Reserved

So cute right! I think this is one of those boxes you get when you buy wholesale cigars or something like that, rather than by the piece. I remember we used to have a whole bunch of them lying around the house (alongside a whole lot of wine bottles) then for some reason, just when I get into my whole mosaic mode (so much so that I created Project Sunshine as a mural on my wall), it disappeared. Wouldn’t handmade boxes and unexpected crafts like this make such wonderful Christmas gifts??? Sigh.

Anyway, for next weeks class, I asked my kids to bring old shoeboxes and I hope we get to do something kinda like this for the holidays. Other favorite craft materials for me include toilet paper rolls, big match boxes and plastic containers. Yep, I like boxes and cardboard a whoooole lot teeeheeeheee.

So, in preparation for Christmas (be it for decoration or for presents) I am getting ready to get into the artsy-fartsy mode once again. Wish me luck

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Posted by Teacher Ria in Arts and Crafts, Classroom Escapades, Lesson Plans, Outside the Classroom, Preschool, Teacher's Corner, Tips and Tricks, Toys and Playthings | 0 Comments

The Alphabet Project

...taking reading out of just books...l

Contrary to what would be assumed, given that I am a teacher who teaches preschoolers after all, learning to read did not come easy for me. For those who have been reading my blog for quite some time now, you probably are familiar with the fact that I was diagnosed with a mild form of dyslexia as a child.  Yes, early on, I couldn’t read. Lucky for me, I had a teacher who noticed the red flags very, very early on and thus I was able to receive interventions very early on.

Back then, I couldn’t learn my letters very well, much less put them together to form words. As I understand (this is based on stories told to me by my mom and people around me, because I don’t really remember first hand anymore what it was like in the beginning), I would write my letters in mirror image and I couldn’t identify them properly. As I grew up, I loved reading but in hindsight, I realize I never was really good at it. I tended to skip words and make them up as I’d go along. It helped, however, that I had a good grasp of the English language and I enjoyed playing word games that allowed me to make up the right words as I went along.

Speaking of word games, this was really how I learned to read. In many ways, I would have to say I was really lucky that my mom is not a very traditional mom, so she really went out of her way to find ways to make learning more interesting and fun for someone like me. One way she taught me the alphabet was through the use of shells and corals in the beaches we often would frequent when I was a child. It helped a lot, I would like to say, because looking for these letters allowed me to work on my perceptual reasoning skills and helped me be able to see how letters really look like. To this day, whenever I am in a beach, I go and collect these shells to spell out stuff, just like these:

So today, I was inspired to start a new project. I want to take my alphabet project outside of just the beach and be able to find letters all around me and take photos of them. Here are a few examples:

Let’s see what I can find! Do feel free to take photos and send them to me via my Facebook Page so I can add them up

To keep tabs on the project, please check out my Alphabet Project Flickr Set

Posted by Teacher Ria in Teaching Resources, Tips and Tricks | 0 Comments

Family Recycling Fun!

For our Family Day Celebration in Playschool this year, we decided to have a little recycling competition. We asked each family to make a hat out of any recycled material and it was so much fun to see how creative our parents could get. Here were some of the finalists:

The top prize went to the 2nd hat on the top row, which was made from an old ice cream container and straws CUTIE!!!

Posted by Teacher Ria in Tips and Tricks | 0 Comments

Field Trip Reminders!

One of the kids’ favorite activities EVER are field trips. I don’t think this ever goes away…even my college kids ask me to take them on little field trips all the time! However, for the teachers, field trips can be a logistical nightmare. Sometimes it can get difficult to iron out the kinks of any trip, but somehow it always works out. Some tips to keep in mind, however are as follows:

• Make sure all teachers are given copies of all lists needed (bus assignments, special considerations, etc.). That way everyone is on the same page.
• Keep a list of parents numbers handy, just in case of emergency
• Stock up the first aid kit. Be ready for anything.
• Bring extra water, clothes, barf bags, cleaning aides and the like. With kids, anything can go wrong at any moment!
• Check on the policies of the places you are visiting, so you can prepare for these. For example, if you do a theater activity, do note that snacks are not allowed, therefore the kids, their nannies and parents should be reminded to leave these in the bus instead, especially since checking them in to the counter can take a long time.
• Try to get travel and0 emergency insurance quotes included in your tour packages, even if this may up the rates a little bit. It’s better to be prepared than to be sorry, right?

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Posted by Teacher Ria in Multimedia Center, Teacher's Corner, Tips and Tricks | 0 Comments

Clearing the Cache and Public Internet Portals

I am lucky that I get to do a lot of my online work in my own computer and that no one else uses it besides me. It’s not that I don’t like to share, but I guess there are some drawbacks to using public portals. For example, when I get too lazy to bring my lappy to school, I end up using the PC in the library and when I type in certain things in the browser bar of Firefox (or Chrome for that matter!), previously visited sites are listed below. Because I’m not used to clearing the recent search history and cache before I disconnect, I guess I leave a bit of my self on those computers, right? At least now I remember to log out of my accounts hehe.

Seriously, though, there are times when this behavior can either be dangerous or embarrassing, especially when you are browsing things that you shouldn’t be browsing. I remember once, in an internet cafe nearby, there was this young kid (she must have been about 8 or 9) who accidentally ended up in an adult site because of the previous user. Of course the mother was livid! But after looking at the history (which actually included sites like www.testosteroneboosters.org, fora on reproductive dysfunctions and reproductive health as well as family planning) and explaining that it was an accident, the mother calmed down. From then on, I always made sure to clear whatever history there would be after I use a computer.

To be fair, I don’t think anyone would ever get into trouble if they accidentally browse my browsing history hehe!

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Posted by Teacher Ria in Multimedia Center, Teacher's Corner, Teaching Resources, Tips and Tricks | 0 Comments

Kids and Internet Safety

A few months ago, I wrote an article about keeping kids safe online. Entitled “A Keystroke Away from Danger“, the article talked about the many, many dangers lurking online, especially for children. From cyberbullying to falling prey to sexual offenders, children and adolescents, and even some adults, may find themselves in the throes of danger if they are not careful. This is why, as a teacher, I make sure to highlight the importance of being vigilant and aware about the  potential risks and dangers modern technology post. For example, when I talk to my little preschoolers (yes, they do know how to use the internet! and believe it or not, some of them even have their own Facebook pages), I tell them to stay only on the sites that their parents allow them to be on and to not just simply follow those pop-up ads or links that say “click here“.

I think the most important part of internet safety is being educated about it. In this day and age, there’s really no going around the fact that modern technology and the World Wide Web. It will and always be an integral part of our lives so all we can do is arm ourselves with the know-how to navigate safely in this world.

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Posted by Teacher Ria in Lesson Plans, Preschool, Teaching Resources, Tips and Tricks | 1 Comment

Teacher Made Resources: Alphabet Dress Up Cards

I was able to dig up one of my old teacher made materials just in time for our class discussion on clothing. I made this probably five or six years ago and I was amazed that it still existed!

When I first made this, what I had in mind was integrating academic concepts to a “fun” game. As such, I created a paper doll, a farmer to be exact. The goal was to dress up the farmer with articles of clothing that matched based on the letter seen on his hat. I guess you can see what I mean in the photo

Cute, don’t you think? hmmm….maybe I should patent this right about now hahaha!

Posted by Teacher Ria in Arts and Crafts, Teacher's Corner, The Library, Tips and Tricks | 2 Comments

My Concept Wall

It’s been over a month since classes started and I realized I still have not posted what my classroom concept wall looks like. With no further ado, here it is!
The caterpillar is actually a recycled one from my Toddlers days but I love it so much I decided to keep it, even if my students don’t really need it. For the calendar, I decided to up the ante by having the kids master the concepts of yesterday, today and tomorrow.

My favorite feature, however, is the reading train. My co-teacher painted that over the summer There are a series of pockets which currently hold our various word lists. An alternative I was thinking of is tracking titles of books we read throughout the month. Fun idea, huh?

Join in and jump aboard the reading train!

Posted by Teacher Ria in Teaching Resources, Tips and Tricks, Toys and Playthings | 0 Comments

Homemade Face Paint

Whenever I host or help out in kiddie parties, I notice that the activities that gain the most attention are face painting and tattooing. While finding affordable temporary tattoos that are hypoallergenic and of good quality is relatively easy, finding the face paint is not as easy.

I’ve tried several homemade recipes for face paint. Some are quite simple to make and use common household ingredients such as night cream, corn starch, corn syrup and food coloring. So far, however, I can’t find one that offers the same consistency as that of store bought face paint. Plus the food coloring seems to stain the skin and clothing.

Do you have a good homemade face paint recipe you can share? If so, please leave me a comment

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Posted by Teacher Ria in Teacher's Corner, Tips and Tricks | 0 Comments

Prepping the School Emergency Kit

Among the many things we have to do in preparing for a new school year is to check up on all the emergency supplies our school has. This includes updating insurance policies, refilling the fire extinguisher and checking on the contests of our emergency kit. We make sure that the medicines and ointments are not yet expired and that we have the necessary first aid equipment.

Here are some things we try to keep on hand in the emergency cabinet:

• Betadine or other antiseptic ointments
• Alcohol
• Cotton and cotton buds
• Band-aids
• Over-the counter medicines including paracetamol
• Tweezers for splinters
• Hydrogen Peroxide

We also try to make sure we have first-aid medical equipment such as an ambu bag and a  wristech blood pressure monitor in case one of the teachers, nannies, parents or whoever suddenly experiences a hypertensive attack. Also, we coordinate with the local emergency service because there are some emergencies that really are beyond our capability of dealing with. I remember one time we had a major medical emergency which involved one of our staff members who suffered a miscarriage. Since then, we have made sure that we are equipped to handle any emergency that comes our way. It’s also great that there’s a new hospital that opened about 5 minutes away from our school. This sure helps us make sure we are ready for anything that may happen. Of course, more than having this, we try to make sure we provide the kids with a safe environment that will ensure their well-being always.

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Posted by Teacher Ria in Arts and Crafts, Tips and Tricks, Toys and Playthings | 0 Comments

Learning from scraps and household items

During the summer, it is customary in the preschool I work in to do a general cleaning where we get rid of all the old junk and make room for the new stuff that will come in for the upcoming school year. However, every year we seem to find more and more bits and pieces of scraps that we teachers can’t seem to let go off because we transform them into learning materials. We have a shelf-full of all sorts of odds and ends, from toilet paper rolls to old party hats, scraps of cloths and buttons, as well as all kinds of things you wouldn’t really think of keeping! Even old office papers find a home in our school. See that tall stack of white papers just waiting to become artworks?

Although it may look like a mess, this is a source of endless fun, adventure and learning, not just for the kids but even myself as their teacher! Teacher-made materials are excellent learning tools because you can design it to cater particular themes or needs your students have. Plus it can come out more cost-effective, especially if you teach in the Philippines where educational toys are quite expensive.

Here are some fun things my students and I have done with scraps and household items we’ve used as learning supplements in class:

Toilet Paper. I use these to measure my kids’ heights by taping to to the wall and counting how many squares tall they are. To further extend the lesson, we compare the number of each student then we put it in order from least to greatest. This teaches them sequencing, comparing greater and less than, and other math concepts

Gumamela flowers to make bubbles or other fallen flowers and leaves for drying or incorporating to handmade paper.  To make our handmade paper, we’ve used old window screens for straining and draining the paper pulp pressed together. Sometimes the paper comes out quite thick so we end up using this to make picture frames or other crafts.

Old water bottles are big favorites for kids! Whether its filling them up with colored water, stones or whatnot, they love shaking it around and are quite fascinated by what goes on inside the bottle! If you’re lucky, you can find those little connectors that allow you to put together two bottles to make one of these tornado bottles It works best though if the water bottle is the thicker kind of PET bottles.

Making Christmas crafts from leftover paper plates and cardboard is also a good way of harnessing a child’s creativity and fine-motor skills.

Wondering what to do with old tires? Make them into playground swings! A word of advise though: be careful when cutting the rubber because there are a lot of steel wires on the inside. We had this done by our school carpenter and he sanded down the wires and we wrapped them up in protective sealants before painting it.

Old egg trays or cartons can also be great ways to teach kids colors, one-to-one correspondence, matching and classification. This also helps stimulate a child’s thinking skills. For older kids, instead of using just colors, you can integrate other concepts to it. Ive also used old egg trays as 3D tic-tac-toe frames

Old newspapers and scratch papers are great for paper maché projects!

These are just a few things I’ve done (and have pictures to show of!) but there are so many other ideas to explore. One of my other favorite household trash items I love to use are toilet paper rolls!!! They’ve become musical instruments, bahay-bahayan toys and even presents made by the kids for mom and dad.

So, whenever you have trash at home, think twice about what can be done with these. Just be crafty!

Posted by Teacher Ria in Life Lessons, Teacher's Corner, Tips and Tricks | 0 Comments

And the Underdog, Kris Allen takes the win!

I have always loved rooting for the underdog, albeit  I may enjoy the popular choice better. This years American Idol finale was no execption. While I enjoyed watching the outlandish and lavish performances by crowd favorite Adam Lambert, I secretly crossed my fingers for an upset.

And an upset we all got!

In the latest idol shocker, Kris Allen, the quiet and understated crooner, won the coveted American Idol title leaving many Lambert fans in shock at the results. Immediately after the win the clamor of the upset filled microblogging sites. However, let me, Teacher Ria, take this moment to savor the win of the underdog.

Posted by Teacher Ria in Tips and Tricks | 2 Comments

The Value of Money.

One thing my mother always tried to teach me is the value of money. I don’t really know if she was successful because up to now, I tend to be an impulsive shopper. However, one thing I know for sure is that she taught me that money does not grow on trees.

From an early age, she never really “gave” me money. I say this because she always taught me that if I wanted money, I have to work for it or at least deserve it.  After all, she would say, hindi lang napupulot ang pera (you can’t just pick money off the streets).

Posted by Teacher Ria in Tips and Tricks | 1 Comment

How My Mom Taught Me To Read in Cool Summer Classrooms

Maybe the words “learning” and “summer” do not make the most appealing combination. I’m sure for most students the idea of learning during the summer is the last thing on their minds. However, just because classes are out does not mean learning has to end. Summertime is a great time to explore other interests, talents and skills. Like I always say, learning should not be confined to the four walls of a classroom!

My favorite outside the classroom “classroom” is the beach.

While most parents opt to enrol their kids in sports, creative arts, or even reading/math enhancement programs, my mom used to take me to the beach for summer. We’d stay for extended periods of time, thus not allowing me to have enough time to enrol in whatever program during the break. However, it wasn’t always fun and games while I was at the beach. It was during these vacations that I learned that learning is indeed cool and fun, even in the summer.