Circle Time (Jobs Part 1)

Everyone does circle time a little different but if you're like me it is one of your favorite times of the day.  There are opportunities for the children to lead and to follow, to encourage one another with applause and to help one another when an answer is elusive.  Circle time is a community meeting where everyone belongs and has a say.

This is my helper chart.  The blue pocket chart cost $1.00 at the dollar store and has 12 pockets.  I have 11 jobs that I made headings for.  We start at the top during morning circle and work our way down.  I use clothespins with each child's name written on them.  They move clockwise every day.  The children who do not have jobs (right now that is 2 because I have 13 students) are in what we call the waiting place (hanging at the bottom of the chart).  Because the jobs cycle every day then that means each child has a job 11 days in a row and then is in the waiting place for 2 days and then the cycle starts again. They all know the routine and are happy when it is their turn.  Some jobs are more coveted than others.

We start with the flag holder. The flag holder holds the flag straight and tall while the other children stand at attention.  When everyone is ready with hand on heart then the flag holder says "Ready Salute!" and leads the class in saying the Pledge of Allegiance and singing My Country Tis of Thee.

The second job every morning is song leader.  That child comes up and chooses the first two songs out of the song pouch.  She/he then chooses which of the two songs they will help lead the class in.  They stand at the front of the room while the rest of the boys and girls remain seated unless it is a stand up type song. During December all the songs are replaced with holiday songs.  As we learn the songs I am able to add new ones that go with whatever theme we are learning.

I make the song cards myself by using cardstock and printing an appropriate picture on the front and the words to the song on the back and then laminate them.  That way anyone subbing for me always has many songs (right there on the circle time wall) and if the children ask for one specifically they can show the sub and she has the words right there.

The next job is the Elephant Question person.  That person gets to come up and pick the first Elephant Question.  The whole class helps me do a drum roll on their legs and then I announce (very dramatically)"The elephant question for today is..." and read whatever the question is.  The question might be something like "What did you have for breakfast?" or for instance, after we had fire prevention week the questions I added were "What do you do if you catch on fire?", "What number do you call if there is an emergency? What is an emergency?".  The children LOVE getting the elephant question.  I explain to them at the beginning of the year that elephants are supposed to have really good brains for remembering things and we are going to use our brains to remember things too.  The elephant question job is probably one of those most coveted jobs I spoke of.  Every child will have different ideas and everyone can be right.  his is also very encouraging because it encourages those shy, quiet children to speaks in front of their peers. 

Those are the first four jobs we do every morning (after our morning exercise). Look forward to how we incorporate more jobs tomorrow...

 I would love to hear about your circle time activities.

More Dental Health Fun

Here are just a few other things to share this week regarding dental health.

We painted with a toothbrush.  The children took a yellow tooth shape and painted it at the easel using a toothbrush and white paint.  You can add a few drops of mint extract to the paint to make it smell like toothpaste.  It makes the whole classroom smell good and the children get even more of a sensory experience.

Of course there are also so many great books to read. Here are a few of the books we read this week.

I Know Why I Brush My Teeth is a book for older children in pre-k and is a discussion between a mother and her son while he is getting ready for bed.  It talks about the parts of a tooth, the names of the different teeth, what makes plaque, going to the dentist and cavities.  It's very educational and my class was very attentive and receptive.

Tooth Trouble by Jane Clark is another book the class really enjoyed reading.  I have that book in big book form and somehow that always captures their attention too.  This story is about a little walrus who has a toothache. The little walrus can't do anything that walrus' are good at because they use their teeth for almost everything but he refuses to go to the dentist.  His mind is changed when he visits his grandpa and sees the old walrus' broken tusks and finds out that grandpa never wanted to go to the dentist either. 

The other books in th photo are good too and explore different aspects of seeing the dentist.  Reading books is a great way to relieve a child's fear of the unknown. 

I'd love to hear about your dental health ideas.

Two Toothy Eggsperiments

I love science in the classroom and always take every opportunity to do fun experiments with the children.  Today's 2 experiments have to do with our teeth and how the things we eat and drink affect them.  Below are the items we are using for the experiments.

We'll be using eggs for this experiment.  4 boiled eggs and one raw egg should do the trick.  Take two boiled eggs and put them in a small clear cups and cover them with a dark soda, coke or pepsi will suffice.  We will cover the other two with coffee or tea, your choice.  The eggs will sit in these drinks all day and then overnight and the children can check on them periodically. 

For the raw egg we also put it in a clear cup but poured vinegar over it and let it sit overnight. 

As for discussion we talk about what the drinks and the vinegar might do to the hard white shell of the eggs.  The eggs were stained within 5 minutes but had a much deeper stain the next morning. The initial thought of the children were that the drinks were going to somehow crack the eggs.  I guess we shall see.

Here's what happened to the eggs in the soft drink. The took on a deep yellow brown colored stain.  The eggs in coffee were not quite as brown but still had a nice deep yellow stain.  We talked about how soft drinks and coffee and tea affected the egg shell and how they can affect our teeth.

We used toothbrushes and toothpaste to clean the eggs by using the following at our sensory table.  The children couldn't wait to get their turn!

As for the raw egg in the vinegar.  The vinegar dissolved the whole shell over night and here's what it looked like.  The kids were amazed!

It was very soft and squishy (the kids words) and almost transparent.

We all took turns squishing it gently to feel the difference between the hard shelled egg we put in yesterday and the shellless egg we took out of the vinegar today. 

The egg also expanded in size compared to the two boiled eggs that spent the night in the coffee and soft drink.  Very Interesting.

So all of that and what did we actually learn?

• Coffee and softs drinks stained egg shells and they will also stain our teeth.
• Brushing with toothpaste can help remove stains from eggshells (teeth).
• Boys and girls should not drink soda (that came from the children after the experiment)
• Taking care of our teeth is important so they don't get soft and mushy with cavities (again, this is the kids words).
• Coffee and soda make your teeth turn yellow (kids again)

As far as the egg in vinegar we discussed that if we do not brush our teeth that the pieces of food that stay in our mouths mix with bacteria and make a slimy stuff called plaque.  Plaque will build up on our teeth and start eating away at them like the vinegar ate the egg shell.  We will get cavities, which are little holes in our teeth. 

The children know we can protect our teeth by flossing (we practiced that), brushing and eating healthy foods and drinks and going to the dentist regularly.