Snowmen!

Today was a BUSY day back after a holiday!  The kids had so much to talk about with the quick snow on Sunday!  Everyone was telling where they were, what they did, and how it looked at their house.

We started the day with plastic fruits in the Touch and Feel pool.  The kids were sorting and naming and talking about attributes of each fruit.  And....there was a lot of "I like this" and "I don't like that"!

Ms. Michelle was here to day with SLEDDING just as she promised last week!  The children took turns writing a letter, first T and then L, using correct formation, before moving across the room to Ms. Michelle and the sled like an animal beginning with that letter.....pouncing like a tiger for T and crawling like a ladybug for L.  Then...the highlight of the activity.....Ms. Michelle took everyone for  turn on the "sled".  The special job of the children was to use the muscles in the stomach (or core) and hold themselves upright.  Some could....and some choose not to....because how fun is it to fall off??  Finger fun today was lacing Cheerios on a stick that we stuck in Play-dough.  I don't think Ms. Michelle realized how tiny those Cheerio holes were....because her non-messy Finger Fun turned into a bunch of broken cereal on the floor!  A good exercise in patience and being gentle!

Our book today was The Biggest Snowman Ever by Steven Kroll.  When the mayor of Mouseville announces the town snowman contest, Clayton and Desmond claim that they will each make the biggest snowman ever.  But, building a huge snowman alone is hard work!  They work and work, but their snowmen just aren't big enough.  Soon they have an idea.  As the day of the contest approaches, Clayton and Desmond join forces to build the biggest snowman ever....and win the contest!

During our language activity, we made a chart of all the things that are needed to build a snowman.  You need three snowballs....all different sizes.....and two button eyes....and one carrot nose....and two sticks for arms.....and LOTS of other things too!  The children did really well using complete descriptive sentences to tell us about snowmen!

For art today we made snowman masks.  The children had to follow directions in order to get all their snowman parts and complete the mask.  Everyone had fun pretending to be snowmen.  

A Pair of Mittens!

Today we had "snowballs" inside the Touch and Feel Pool. The kids used clothes pins to pick them up and move them around. During morning circle, the kids shared their favorite winter clothing item.

Today's book was One Mitten by Kristine O'Connell George.  What can you do with only one mitten?   The little girl only has one....and so she uses her imagination to pretend all the things she can do, be, and play with a single mitten.  And when she finally finds the other mitten, hidden under the cat, she realizes there is a whole bunch of other things that she can do with two mittens!!

For language circle, we discussed the differences between gloves and mittens. We also learned that mittens come in pairs...or a set of two. We thought of other things that come in pairs. At the end of the circle, the kids helped identify the different clothing items and where they belong on our body to keep us warm.   The kids talked about what body parts we wear each item....and some things even have different names that we can call them.  

For art the kids decorated a mitten. The mitten had a raised texture and the kids loved using different colors. We reviewed the difference between gloves and mittens before cleaning up for lunch.

Boots!

We started the day with geometric shapes in the Pool.  The kids were making patterns, identifying shapes, and using the different colors to "mix" colors and make new colors.

Today Ms. Laura came to have music with us.  We sang our hello song, and then played the bells, shakers, and drums.  We learned about staying on the beat, and Ms. Laura asked us what clothes we wear in winter to keep us warm, then we shouted those things while playing the beat of the syllables on our instruments.  Next, we each got a pair of different colored mittens, and Ms. Laura sang "If Your Mittens are Blue, say YAHOO!", "If Your Mittens are Red, say I LOVE TO SLED", and "If Your Mittens are Yellow, say MARSHMELLOW!".  It was super fun.  Then we closed our eyes and Ms. Laura handed out a surprise - colored scarves.  We danced to "Let It Go" from Frozen, and flew around the room, spun, and waved the scarves over our head.  We then sang about a song in our tummies, our heads, our noses, our bones, and our hearts, and what those body parts would sound like.  Ms. Laura then helped us learn the words to the "Bright Light" song.  It's about how we are all bright lights, perfect just the way we are!

Our book today was Boots by Anne Schreiber.  This is a short story about a little girl who is putting on all her winter clothes to go outside at school and play.  She puts on her boots, her sweater, her hat, her coat, her mittens, her scarf....and then we she's finally all ready.....the teacher says it's time to come back inside!

For language circle we made a list of all the different winter clothes that we could think of.....some from the book, and some that we just thought of on our own.

During art, we took snow boots and colored them.  Once they were glued on a red paper, we added some "snow".  We mixed shaving cream and glue to make a fluffy white mixture that looks a lot like snow.

Everyone is hoping for some snow soon!!  All this talk about it, hopefully we will see some this winter!

Mittens vs. Gloves!

We started the day with Wiki Stix in the Touch and Feel Pool.  The kids were making all kinds of things....sleds, snowflakes, shapes, and even some letters!  Very creative ways to start the morning!

Ms. Michelle was here today.  She brought the parachute for some listening and following directions games.  First, we listened and moved the parachute how Ms. Michelle asked us to do it.   Sometimes slow, other times fast, sometimes high, other times low.  We marched in a circle and then turned and marched the other way.  Then we did some popcorn games with balls and scarfs.  In honor of the winter theme....we ended with some cotton balls which made it look like it was snowing all over the place.  There was so much laughter and excitement....it was clearly the most fun ever!  Finger fun today was another "snow" recipe.  Cornstarch and shaving cream....which we got EVERYWHERE!  Sorry if your child's clothes are a little messy, but when they got started mixing the concoction and building and finding hidden objects....it was super hard to keep them clean!

Our book today was The Blue Mittens by Rachel Mann.  Rose is super excited when she receives a package from Grandma.  Inside she finds blue mittens that were her father's when he was young.  They arrive just in time for the snow....but what will dad where?  No worries, grandma shows up with another pair, in dad's perfect size!

For language circle we compared and contrasted mittens and gloves.  They are a lot alike....both keeping our hands warm, and both coming in pairs (which we learned means a set of two).  But, they have some important differences....especially when you look at the fingers!

For art we made our own handprints inside of blue mittens.  The kids glued the mitten onto a yellow piece of paper....and then after painting our hands white.....we carefully.....with our fingers close together and our thumbs out.....put our hands in the mitten.  By far the trickiest part was figuring out which hand was the right hand for the way that the mitten was glued down.  Everyone did it different....but the finished product was super cute!