Alaska

We started this week with sitting in a circle while Mrs. Gould took things out of a box and put them in the center of the circle.  She put out a polar bear, an igloo, Inuit figurines, a dog sled, some dogs, a puffin, and a wolf.  We tried to figure out what they all had in common...eventually we figured out that all of those things are found in Alaska!  We weren't sure where Alaska was so we looked at a globe and found Grafton (where we all go to school) then we discovered where Alaska is located!  (We also talked a little bit about states and the United States and found Hawaii...our island state too)

All of the things Mrs. Gould brought in are now in our snow tub so we can create an Alaskan landscape!

We watched a video on the northern lights that all the kids loved!  I promised I'd send the link home.

northern lights in Alaska

Naomi was our Maple Leaf of the Week. We all loved the homemade chocolate covered strawberries that she brought in for a treat! We had enough to eat them on Wednesday and Thursday...yum!

  On Tuesday, her dad came in and read two of her favorite stories to us, Green Eggs and Ham and Pigeon Eats a Hot Dog. 

Wednesday she shared her poster about herself and brought in a yummy homemade treat of chocolate covered strawberries that she helped make!  Thursday Naomi shared what was in the Mystery Bag during circle time and later in the morning her mom came and told us about how Naomi's Grandpa is a bee keeper and makes his own honey.  Then we got to try some of his honey on some bread...it was delicious!!  Thanks Naomi for helping make our week so special!

Naomi's mom read us a special story about bees too!

 

We went outside on Thursday and pretended to climb mountains and glaciers.  The kids had a lot of fun playing in the snow!  Then some of us went home while others stayed for lunch and extended day.  During extended day we made an igloo out of a styrofoam bowl and marshmallows!  The kids had fun eating the marshmallows (ice blocks) while they were working!

We learned a new song this week called Baby Beluga.  Here's the video we watched to help us learn the song!  Baby Beluga video

Snowmen

On Tuesday we heard the book Snowballs by Lois Ehlert.  It is about a snow person family.  There is a snow mom and a snow dad as well as a snow boy, snow girl, snow dog, and snow cat!

After we heard the story it was time for us to try and create our own snowman.

We have such great artists in our class!!  The kids had so much creating their own snowman.  While we were working on them we fit in concepts like small, medium and large as well as counting and fine motor work!  We learned the song

"I'm a little snowman short and fat, 

here is my pipe and here is my hat. 

When the sun comes out I like to play

then I slowly melt away!' 

See if your child can sing it at home and make sure to ask them to show you the actions that go with it!  (It's sung to the tune of  I'm a Little Teapot)

We planted an amaryllis in class today.  It will be fun to watch it grow over the next few weeks.

Tannar was our "Maple Leaf" this week.  On Tuesday he brought in the poster about himself and shared it with us.  He also was line leader, calendar helper and frog feeder!  On Wednesday his mom came in and shared a really cool story with us.  It was an interactive book about color called "Mix it Up".  The kids loved using their hands to help create coloring mixing magic in the book!  In case anyone is interested...here is a link to the book Mix it Up https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a-jPNqQzc2Q by Tullet

After we heard the story it was time for us to mix our own colors.  Tannar's mom brought in marbles and tin pans so we could marble paint.  The kids loved this....it kept their attention for a really long time!

Doing just one painting wasn't enough...most of the kids made 2 or 3 marble paintings!

Thursday was pajama day and Tannar's birthday!  Everyone looked so comfy in their pj's! During circle time,Tannar gave us clues to guess what was in The Mystery Bag.  Then, we had a special snack of homemade banana-chocolate chip-strawberry bread with hot chocolate and marshmallows. YUM!!!

  We sang Happy Birthday to Tannar!

Thanks for the delicious birthday treat Tannar.  Happy 4th birthday!

Happy New Year

It was so great to see the kids back with all their smiles and enthusiasm!  It was fun watching them reconnect with their friends after a two week break.  Joan and I also noticed how grown up they all seem now!

This week we talked about snow.  We read several books about snow, listened to a song called Snowflakes and pretended to be snowflakes while the music played in the background.  We have white snow (potato flakes) in our sensory tub and white, peppermint scented, glittery homemade play dough that we can use to make our own snowmen! We also have lots of new books in our classroom library on winter!

On Tuesday the kids were so excited to share their favorite Christmas gifts.  During activity time some of them wanted to play with their gifts.

Mrs. Jenkins had the kids up and moving doing the Hokey Pokey as well as learning some new songs during music time.

We worked on our fine motor skills this week by using glitter glue and jewels to make snowflakes which we then put in our Maple Tree by the door.  We also developed strenth in our hands by uising punchers to make snowflakes and circles.  Some of the circles turned out to be crescents, and half circles. The kids enjoyed expanding their vocabulary with these new shape words.

We used coffee filters to make snowflakes on Wednesday.  Besides being fun, using the scissors was developing our fine motor skills and hand/eye coordination.  The best part was opening the filters to see what our snowflakes looked like!

 We also had a special snack of snowflake pretzels and oranges.

Zoefii was "Maple Leaf of the Week" .  On Tuesday she had fun wearing her Maple Leaf crown, on Wednesday she brought in her poster and shared it with all her friends and on Thursday she brought in a special treat to celebrate her birthday with the class.  It was delicious...homemade chocolate chip bars....yum!!  (Thanks Zoefii!!) Happy 4th birthday!!

 Another highlight on  Thursday was when Zoefii's mom and dad  came in to teach us about space.  Zoefii loves learning about space and she wanted to share a special space project with her friends at school. First we heard a story about space that Zoefii's dad read to us.  We even got to hold real space rocks!

Then we used acrylic paints and painted on black canvas to create out own outer space scenes.

Happy 2016!!