Messy is Nice

The kids did a great job on "Days of the Week" today! They're starting to recognize the words in print too!

I read the story "Messy is Nice" to the kids today. It's a story about a girl who always makes a mess in the house, and her mom tells her that she won't clean up after her. The girl asks all her friends to come over, and the house became total chaos, and her puppy got lost under the toys!

I asked the kids if they're messy or not, and all of them said that they're neat haha~ They said that they'd clean up after playing with toys, and sometimes their siblings or parents help them. I asked them a lot of guiding questions throughout the story, and they were all very interested in the pictures and what's happening~ I told them that this story reminds me of the end of the day, after all of them went home, me and the other teacher would stay behind to clean up. I asked them who they think we're cleaning up after, and they all said, "us!!"

After the read-aloud, I taught them the "Clean Up Song":

Clean up, clean up, everybody get some toys!
Clean up, clean up, all the little girls and boys!
Clean up, clean up, everybody do your share!
Clean up, clean up, everybody everywhere~

I find that kids love repetition in melody and lyrics, because they find it easy to follow and remember. Some of the songs that I taught them aren't as repetitive, but I'm proud that as we're singing them over and over again, day after day, the kids are getting better and better!

I gave each of the kids half a piece of construction paper, and asked them to think of the toys that they have at home. I told them that we're going to make a puzzle of those toys~ At first, I thought they could divide the page into pieces, using a marker, but it was too hard for some of them, so I went around to help them. Then I asked them to draw the toys on the page with crayons. The last step is to cut out the pieces. After cutting them out and putting the puzzle back together, I asked the students to trade their puzzle with someone else~

Puzzle by Anna:


Puzzle by Babak:


I assigned Babak to be the rainmaker, and he did a fabulous job! He didn't have any behaviour issues today, and he was so into his "job" when others started being noisy. So well done~~~ ^^

I'm going to try including read-aloud, singing and arts and crafts in my lessons, using a single theme to join them, like what I did today. This way, I'm incorporating literacy, music and the use of fine motor skills in a single lesson~ It'll help retain their attention because we're shifting gears, but in the same time focusing on a particular topic. I'll try my best so my kids will get the most out of every lesson! ^-^