National Geographic FREEBIE

When I taught I used to use Scholastic News in the classroom. The kids and I both loved it, but it was a little pricey. So I was thrilled when I ran across this website. National Geographic has their past issues online that you can read online. This would make a great listening center/computer center with a science theme - I'm just sayin'!  :)  Besides having the issue online, there is a link to it for teachers to have a study guide and print off worksheets and such...for FREE!! 

I ran across this while studying Insects with my preschooler. He loved listening to the insect stories that were in a few of the issues.

Be sure to check out this great resource! Below is a screen shot of the website. Enjoy!!

On a side note, I do have a Facebook page now, so "like" that for more updates and freebies of what is going on in my "country world".

Back to School - Insects in PreSchool

Today my oldest went to 1st grade which left me with my Preschooler. We did not do much as far as pencil paper learning this summer, so I was ready to go today. I had everything printed, cut out, and ready.

Even my normally obstinate preschool was ready to learn. He even wanted to do MORE. All I kept thinking was ok, and who is this child!?!? (He's very smart, but won't let on...stinker!!)

This is the unit we began today. He had a great time, especially since he knew the 3 parts of an insect (head, thorax, abdomen) and his older brother didn't.  Nothing like a little sibling rivalry to boost his learning desire!

 Click here to see this unit at Teachers Pay Teachers.

We have done almost all the alphabet letters so we will be finishing those off our list first. After that, I'm not sure what we will do. I guess I better get cracking on what to do next.

Here are a bunch of the books I pulled for us to use with this unit.

Here is my favorite link for drawing your own bug and also coloring pages. Click HERE. It's free! This was his favorite activity we did together. He designed his own insect using the download from the website above.

Below is another activity we did. My son was REALLY into cutting this week, so I had him cut some little marks on a green strip of paper. We then used that strip of green to make an outdoor insect scene. Thankfully, I had some insects stickers on hand to embellish it!

 

And one more activity.

Magnetic Letter Organization

Here is a little teacher tip to organize your magnetic letters. I used to use these in the classroom for guided reading or other lessons. Instead of a jar and dumping them out each time to find the letters I needed, I did this. All this is a fishing tackle box from Walmart. You can adjust the compartments sizes as needed and it will help you to save precious seconds and minutes searching for the right letter.