PreK Family and Home Craft
For my PreK Family and Home Theme I pulled out some ideas I have used in the past as well as adding some new ideas. I am pleased with this mash up idea for building a home with the people (and pets) who live with my students. Be sure to read through the entire post to get a copy of the glyph for your class.
Since it is still the first month of school, I wanted to do a craft that worked on reviewing colors and gluing skills. This allows me to have a conversation with each student about who is in their families. I cut strips of paper in various colors as well as making a roof to finish off the house to prep this craft.
Family and Letter Ff
This year’s students have been active in using my easel on both sides. Some years I find that students forget that one side of the easel exists. Part of this may be due to the arrangement of the room this year.
For my PreK Family and Home theme I pulled out the family members that I had laminated and placed magnets on to allow students to create family groupings. The other side of the easel has foam pattern blocks with sticky side out contact paper so that students can build the puzzles for fish and letter F. My students are much more successful with pattern block puzzles when I set them up this way. The pieces will not slide around while students are trying to add the next piece.
The family cards are found here with an additional idea for using them in a sensory bin. The pattern blocks pages can be found here and here.
Math Ideas
On my math table I used the family counters and gumball magnet counting for my Prek Home and Family Theme. This table is the space in my room that sometimes gets forgotten so partway through the week I added colorful laminated houses that stand up to draw attention to them.
The printable sorting pages for the family counters can be found here. You can find the counters through the Amazon affiliate link below.
Play Dough Faces
With fewer spaces to work since we have fewer students this year, play dough is not out every week. Since we did not use it during All About Me week I pulled it out for the PreK Family and Home Theme. I change the faces out each day so there are different options to build on. Students sometimes take the idea from the mat and sometimes just use the mat to be their space to build.
The play dough face mats can be found at Sparklebox.
Washing the Baby Sensory Bin
Definitely one of the favorites this week is the washing baby sensory bin. My director found these baby dolls that are easy to take apart to ensure that they are completely clean and dry when finished using them. I will admit that occasionally it can be difficult to get them back together. Just a little water and detergent each day is all that is needed for this bin.
PreK Family and Home Theme Writing Center
The PreK Family and Home Theme writing center continues to have the student name practice cards as well as the letters we have focused on so far this year. In addition, I added family words and family themed paper to the center. Since we have individual supplies this year I added a laminated card that indicates a need for markers to write with for this center.
The family words and themed paper are from Pocket of Preschool.
Block Area House with Furniture and Family
For the block area, I added the house and furniture that I purchased at Lidl a few years ago. Lidl has wooden toys in late fall. I have also purchased a wooden barn for my farm theme there.
Circle Time Activities for Family and Letter F
The pocket chart in my circle area looks pretty full for the PreK Family and Home Theme. I hand my students the photos of families and ask them to name the different family members they see as well as counting how many are in each picture. The poem is our poem of the week that goes along with our letter F letter focus. We read it as well as look for letter f in the poem throughout the week. I also have a small pocket chart with cards that have items that start with our letter focus.
The family photos are from Pocket of Preschool. The letter F word cards are from my Alphabet Bundle.
Apple Orchard Pretend Play
Although the apple theme does not start yet, I put up the Apple Orchard in my pretend play area because I generally have a pretend play theme up for two to three weeks so that students all have plenty of opportunity to play. I added a new sign this year, which involves printing on several sheets of paper and then piecing together. When I take it down I will probably trim the white off around the edges before putting it away to use the next year.
The apples are ball pit balls with velcro attached. The tops of the trees are cardboard painted green. I attached them to the bottom of the bulletin board with strips of velcro because large push pins were not enough.
The apple orchard cards help students practice counting while in the orchard. I also have students wear an apple picker name tag, which helps when there are disputes about who is supposed to be in the center if there are too many. This year I only allow two in the center at a time.
Looking for Printables?
You can find the Apple Orchard cards and name tags in my Teachers Pay Teachers shop.
If you would like to have your students make a family house you can click on the picture below of the glyph for this craft. I printed it full size for my bulletin board and then four to a page to glue on the back of student art projects for when I sent them home.
You can also download my lesson plan for this week, which includes book ideas as well. Be sure to open in Adobe Acrobat so that you can ctrl-click the links to find the resources you need.
You will notice there are more than one idea for some sections of the room. This is due to my plans being shared with the new teacher on our staff as we collaborate on planning.
You can find other freebies on my Freebies for PreK Teachers page.
