Spring in February

We had a little spring fever this week!  We had music and a long recess on Tuesday and then lunch.  After lunch we walked to the park and played.  It was so nice to be outside again!!  Wednesday the warm weather continued and so did our outdoor plans!  We had quiet playtime, circle time, and snack and then off to the park again!  We also celebrated Grace and Wren's birthday with delicious mini cupcakes....so delicious!!

Celebrating Grace and Wren's birthday!

Our Tuesday "lunch bunch".  

Our Wednesday walk to the park.  Our birthday kids are leading the group!

Friendship and Valentine's Day

We had fun celebrating friendship, being kind, and caring for one another this week.  We started the week with our Valentine's Party.  Thank you so much parents for all you did to make this day so special for the kids and the teachers!!  We truly appreciate it and feel so blessed to have such great people and families who attend Maple Leaf!!

As the saying goes.... "A picture is worth a thousand words..."

What great decorations!!  Thank you Betsy Whitcomb for  transforming our classroom into a Valentine Wonderland!!

Last week we made our "Mailboxes".  The kids were so excited to take them home and see what was inside from their friends!!

The party started with healthy treats including fruit and string cheese! The kids look so great all dressed in pink and red!

Then it was time for desert and decorating our heart shaped cookies with frosting, sprinkles, and candy hearts!  Of course we had to have red juice.

Our stations included...using paper plates and paint sticks to toss balloons...

Throwing arrows and bean bags at paper plate hearts....

a Valentine matching game....

Punching a hole into a cup and taking out the prizes inside...

Stacking candy hearts and making a stained glass heart to hang in our windows.

Thanks for making our day so special.  Happy Valentine's Day!

Hearts!

This week we talked a lot about hearts, love, and how to be kind.  We heard several Valentine's Day stories including Mousie's First Valentine.  Our puppet, Mousie, helped us read this one!
We decorated our Valentine Bags at art center this week.  The kids used scissors to cut out a heart shape, wrote their name on the heart, glued it on the bag and then decorated the bag with lots of heart stickers. (Some kids did it all on their own, some needed a little guidance.)

Other activities during activity time included making fossils with Mrs. Swietlik, working on puzzles and card games with Mrs. Chyko, playing with the snow tub, cars, kitchen center, magnetic letters, stencils, blocks and airplanes.

One of the fossils we made using shells and toy dinosaur footprints!

We had Music with Mrs. Jenkins on Wednesday and at the end of the day G.G., Hadley's Grandma, came in to read some stories to us about Valentines Day.  We love listening to her read stories to us...we can tell she was an actress!!

The kids are very excited about the Valentine's Party we're having at school on Tuesday...looking forward to it!!

A few of the fireworks we made last week....

G.G.reading to us!

We had some type of bug going around our class last week, 5 of us were absent on Wednesday!!  

Chinese New Year

We heard  stories and songs about Chinese New Year this week.  We watched several videos too.  One of the kids favorite was the story of the Chinese zodiac.  Here's the link in case they want to watch it again at home: The Chinese New Year

We learned how to say Happy New Year in Chinese (Gung Hay Fat Chee), found China on the globe, learned that the festival is 15 days long and a family holiday where red envelopes with money (lucky money) are given to children by their elders.  In our class, each child got their own red envelope with their name written in Chinese characters.  The kids were fascinated that China uses symbols instead of letters.  Here is the website for the "Chinese Alphabet" that we used to write their names.Chinese Alphabet

Our version of a Dragon Dance.

We pretended to have a traditional family dinner and ate mandarin oranges and long noodles (ramen noodles) for snack.  The kids had fun trying to eat the verrry long noodles!  During Chinese New Year long noodles are served to represent a long life and oranges represent good luck.

Long noodles for long life and mandarin oranges for good luck and happiness.

At art center we used glue and glitter on black paper to represent all of the fireworks that are set off during this celebration!  We talked about how people all over the world like to watch fireworks and spend time with their family!

Grace was our "Maple Leaf" this week.  Her mom and dad came in on Tuesday with Grace's new kitten!  The kitten walked around our room and everyone had a chance to pet her. The kids also liked watching her walk back into her carrying case when she felt a little overwhelmed...and then she would peek her head out and come out again.   Wednesday Grace brought in some delicious homemade chocolate cupcakes...boy were they good.  Thanks Grace for helping make our week so special!

Grace, her mom, dad and  kitten!

Mrs. Chyko worked with us on floor puzzles during activity time.  Here's one we put together!