Wednesday, January 25, 2012

Letter Recognition + Fine Motor

photo of: Bulletin board of Names and letter recognition, M is for Mosaic, Art projects for name recognition
"M is for Mosaic" Preschoool Art Project: 'tiles' of color glued to names
We are back in the car, on the road, traveling "home" ........which in my vagabond life is more of a concept than a destination. (Is that kinda profound? Or maybe I'm just getting a tad slap-happy and can't tell the difference between philosophical and silly.) 'Home is when I'm with my honey.'  We are so fortunate that we have made the opportunity to support one another in our endeavors. We are still in the first half of our 7 week road-life, vagabond. Send no snail mail. LOL.

The conference in Baton Rouge was A-MAZ-ING!!!!!! Despite a technological challenge in each of my presentations -- I had a blast!!!!!! Reading through my evaluations -- so did those in attendance. Happy participants can apparently forgive a CD that skips in one presentation and a laptop that 'stops' in another...... as long as there is lots of engagement. Ah, technology. Special thanks to my tech-angels who came to my rescue -- in the nick of time. Many thanks to Pat in real life who had a magic wand, and Pat in heaven who orchestrates nonsense just to see if I'm paying attention. Life is seldom perfect, keep smiling and carry on!

photo of: Preschool name projects, letters in preschool, art project for names in preschool

These are collages I've assembled from my recent "music-lady, author/illustrator" school visit last week. These are from my second VPK in Florida -- which is "Voluntary" Pre-Kindergarten. Little ones. Little wonders.

I LUV the name MOSAIC pictured up top.
M is for MOSAIC!!! 
Isn't that a brilliant idea? They were big, bigger, and biggest -- depending on the name of the child and that would have been a lesson within the lesson. Glued bits of precut paper squares to letters from construction paper on paper roll lengths. Got it?

They were glorious decorating the room!!!!!!!!

Now, I have to plan to arrive early enough, that before I set up the space for our concert time together, I allow for enough time to go dashing through a building to snap up as many pictures as I possibly can to share here and on through Pinterest. I am so glad to give you an opportunity to look over my shoulder on these amazing visits!

photo of: Letter recognition, letters and sensory presentation, M is for Macaroni
Letter M traced with Macaroni pasta for sensory integration + letter recognition!!

And I don't believe I've seen letter "M" as a study of macaroni previously? Not even on Pinterest?? This may not be the very first place on earth to trace M in appropriate pasta, but the first for me to see it..... and truth be told? It made me giggle. ENJOY!!!

The Letter M studies remind me of the recent Letter Q's I saw at my first VPK visit -- before the holidays. Click here to go see those in all of their glory and to see how I used the word 'quixotic' in a post. You know I work at these little snippets, right? LUV the sensory exploration for these children as they get acquainted with letters.


*******As to other bits of trivia that entertain me on L-O-N-G road trips? I have indeed surpassed the 100,000 page view threshold!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Party in the clubhouse!!!! Shaking PomPoms!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Yeah Teaching Blog Traffic School!!!!!!!!!!!! At some point I need to go back and see how many page views I had in the first 3 years versus the most recent 6 months. You would be astounded -- I know I am!



Edible Snowman Science at PreK+K
 Today over at PreK+K Sharing, Laura has such a clever round-up of all things snowman. It's worth clicking over -- just to see her oh-so-cute, melting snowman, edible science experiment!!! Such fun!!!

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18 comments:

  1. I heard you were GREAT!!! My little birdie told me:)

    xxooxxoo
    Coonie

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    1. GREAT GOOGALA-MOOGALA........I LUV your little birdie!!!! Hugging her was almost as good as hugging you, my Coonie-est. Sending you joy and delight....... you must be so proud, mamaCoon!

      xx00xx00xx00xx

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  2. Great use for a mosaic!!! They are so pretty!

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    1. Yes. Thanks for leaving your kind comment, Rebekah. I LUV'd them as soon as I walked into their classroom. They were so bright and cheery and I LUV sharing them here for inspiration.

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  3. My, nice idea and visuals! Thanks for the ideas. The mosaics are beautiful, ad using macaroni that way is great fun. THANK YOU! Carolyn

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    1. Ahhhhhh, Carolyn. Thanks so much! I know you recognize a happy project when you see it. Thanks for stopping through! It's always great to see you.

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  4. Debbie, I have done similar things that you did there with that M when I taught Kindergarten. I tried to come up with something for every letter that I could! I actually did P for pretzels and the kids glued them on when I subbed one day. They LOVED it and I swear they learn their letters so much quicker!

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    1. P for Pretzels would be so much fun!!! I can just envision it!!! Food does have a way of motivating, doesn't it? Thanks for popping through.

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  5. Replies
    1. Hey sweetie!!! Thanks for coming over. I told ya they were cute!

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  6. I am your newest follower. Cute ideas. I've never thought of M for mosaic. Thanks for sharing. I am also hosting a bloghop where bloggers can share their fun, frugal, kid-friendly ideas. Please consider linking up. www.funfrugalmommy.blogspot.com

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    1. Thanks so much for stopping through -- with a personal linky invite!!! I'm still learning my way around the linky fun, but I realize how helpful it is. I'll get this linked up just as soon as I finish a couple of other things on the list. Nice to meet ya!

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  7. I love your activities! The snowman is soo cute!

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    1. Thanks so much for popping through! So kind of you to leave a comment. It's Laura that gets all of the credit for the melting snowman idea, but I'm sure happy to lead you over to her thoughts + resources!

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  8. Debbie, I love the mosaic letters!! What a fun and creative way to work on letter recognition! Thanks for sharing at Thrifty Thursday! hope to see you again this week!

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    1. Yup! Katie. They really were glorious. Such a simple idea. Yet so clever!!! I can think of a dozen variations that would be awesome.

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  9. Thank you for sharing this post with me on KBN. I featured it in my round up on letter learning today!
    http://readysetread2me.blogspot.com/2012/03/14-ways-to-explore-letters-in-your.html

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    1. Thanks so much Jackie!!! I just LUV this idea and am grateful for the opportunity of others seeing the example. I'm so fortunate to see such impressive work on my visits to schools.

      Debbie

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