What's happening in my classroom?

This month's theme in my classroom has been Zoo Animals. We've had a lot of fun singing cool songs about "Going to the Zoo" (yay Raffi!!), playing with our zoo animals, making lots of animal sounds and working on cute projects.

One week was dedicated to pre-math concepts. That week, we counted animals, made AB patterns with zebra stripes and read the fabulous Discovery Toys product:

Counting with Animals!

This one little book is jam PACKED with educational concepts! Let's take a look:
Introduction to numbers- on the left side of each page, the numbers 1-5 are shown (one at a time as you turn the pages!). The coolest thing about this is the numbers look like Touch Math**! There are a number of dots on the numbers that correspond with the amount the number represents, which really helps those kinesthetic learners as they move their fingers to count. **disclaimer--it's not TouchMath--it just reminds me of this fabulous way of teaching numbers and math.

Introduction to shapes and colors- on the right side of each page, there are peek through holes that are in some of the basic shapes, like squares, circles, triangles. Oh!! And, the amount of holes corresponds to the number shown! And, guess what?! The peek-a-boo shapes show off colors that are on the secret "Lift and Learn" flap!

Lots and lots of opportunities for counting-inside the flaps, there are oodles of animals to count and, you guessed it, the amount of each animal corresponds to the featured number on the previous page!

Lots and lots of opportunities to see the numbers- while you and your child are reading, the book asks your child to find certain animals. This gives your child many chances to see the number in print.

Language and speech concepts!!
Vocabulary-I know I've mentioned it before, but, presenting new words within categories is the best way to teach vocabulary and add words to that "filing cabinet" in the right place.

Articulation- Hooray for a multitude of multisyllabic words!! Many of my students leave off those pesky unstressed syllables when they are talking (so, "elephant" becomes "ephant"). Well, Counting with Animals has oodles and oodles of animals with lots of syllables!!
Elephants, butterflies, caterpillars, oh my!

And, as a person who works with preschoolers, I certainly appreciate the quality of Counting with Animals!! The book is very sturdy and strong to resist those busy hands who might get a little rough and accidentally rip the book. Also, the pages are laminated, which is so fabulous because, well, 3- and 4-year olds get kinda snotty!! Little sneezing kiddos are no problem with Counting with Animals!!-- Wipes off so easily!

Oh, and did I mention how affordable it is? $13.50 is a great price for such a high quality book!! Please checkout my website and get your own copy of Counting with Animals!!