Monday, December 10, 2018

Freddy Sparkleberry

An elf came to visit us for the month of December.  His name is Freddy Sparkleberry.  We've had fun finding where he is every day.  He watches for the good things we do at school and then goes home at night to tell Santa. So far some of the things he's seen include: sharing with our friends, cleaning up, trying our hardest, listening well during storytime, following directions, using good manners, and singing beautifully!!

As an art project/math activity we counted out 8 paper strips and then learned how to make a paper chain.  Some of us even used the paper strips to create patterns!  All of us practiced counting out links once we were done!

Freddy brought us some fun activity sheets to complete. We have a Christmas Countdown, where we trace a number each day as well as A,B,C tracing activity.  One day he even brought us a Christmas puzzle!

We had fun wearing red and green to school on Thursday! 
Our finished gingerbread men!

Lining up after music class!

Oh my goodness, who is sitting near the lamp?  It's an elf!!

What's Freddy doing hanging upside down??  He's a silly elf!

On Wednesday, Freddy brought us a puzzle.  We had fun putting it together during story time.  We each took turns picking a piece and finding where it goes!

Our finished puzzle!

On Thursday we found Freddy near the check in basket!

We've had fun using Christmas stencils in the morning when we first arrive!

Our room is filled with Christmas books.  So fun to look through all the new books after snack!

Monday, December 3, 2018

Gingerbread Week

We had such a fun week!  On Tuesday we read Gingerbread Baby by Jan Brett, on Wednesday we read Gingerbread Friends, also by Jan Brett and on Thursday we read the folktale The Gingerbread Boy.  We also watched a song about the Gingerbread Man and a short video version of the story!

We made Gingerbread play dough together on Thursday and then had a chance to use gingerbread cookie cutters to make gingerbread people.  For our art project we decorated a foam gingerbread boy/girl. Mrs. Chyko helped us practice our letters with an a,b,c, dot to dot.

"Run, run as fast as you can, you can't catch me I'm the gingerbread man!" became a favorite chant to repeat.  Mrs. Willer helped us write write a short story based on this chant. 

We're practicing for our Christmas Show with Mrs. Jenkins.  She even pulled out the hand bells for us to use!

The kids may enjoy watching some of these again at home!

Gingerbread song video

gingerbread fingerplay we learned

story of Gingerbread Baby

Activity time! Such a great way to develop creativity, imagination, and critical thinking skills!

Making play dough.

Adding water, and oil to the dry ingredients.

Playing with our home made play dough!

Learning how to use gingerbread lacing cards.

Creating a giant track for our vehicles with blocks!






Sunday, November 25, 2018

Thanksgiving Fun


We had a lot of fun this week preparing for Thanksgiving!  We learned how to trace our hand (or have someone trace it for us!) and turn it into a turkey!  We sponge painted on canvas and made a background for our peanut shaped turkeys!  We read a lot of books about Thanksgiving including Bear Says Thanks, I Know An Old Lady Who Swallowed a Pie, Thanks For Thanksgiving, Ten Fat Turkeys, Corduroy's Thanksgiving, and What Is Thanksgiving? 

We sang the song Thanks A Lot while Mrs. Gould played the guitar.  We also watched a video of it...then we made up our own words to the song.  I've included a link to the Raffi song and one of the stories we heard this week.  (Maybe your child wants to watch the videos again and sing the song for you at home!!) 

Some of the things the kids said they were thankful for included:   brothers, sisters, mommies, daddies, family, giraffes, unicorns, grapes, juice, butterflies, the sun,the moon, the stars, riding bikes, playing outside, hopscotch and flowers. 

We talked about the food we like to eat on Thanksgiving and then made "friendship butter" out of cream.  We poured the heavy whipping cream into two jars and passed them around in a circle, shaking the jar when it was our turn.  We also rolled the jar back and forth to each other on the floor.  After about 5 minutes it had turned into butter...so cool.  We dipped pretzels in our homemade butter as part of our snack.  Delicious!!




Our Little Red Hens.  We traced our hands for the crowns on top!

Our homemade butter after we finished shaking and rolling the jar.  

Our peanut shaped turkeys...

Such beautiful projects!

The kids were so proud of their artwork!

Happy Thanksgiving!






Tuesday, November 13, 2018

Little Red Hen

We had fun reading The Little Red Hen this week.  We read a book version and then retold the story using felt board pieces.  The next day we watched a video of The Little Red Hen and on Thursday we practiced reading a rebus version of the story.  We painted paper plates red and will  turn them into Little Red Hens next week!

Little Red Hen video

The weather was cooler this week so we had fun using our parachute, balloons, and  balls during movement time!

Retelling the story of The Little Red Hen on the flannel board.  Manipulating letters and shapes on the magnetic board.

Dinosaurs, horses, floor puzzles, tinker toys, fire trucks, were some of our choices during activity time this week!

Our finished bears made during "Bear Week"!

Quiet activity time....Colored shape blocks, Calico Critters, Magna Tiles, miniature airplanes, sand table...


house keeping corner, drawing and writing center. 

Saturday, November 3, 2018

Halloween Fun

The last two weeks of October were filled with lots of fun...from baking pumpkin bread, to our Halloween Costume Party, and "Bring a Stuffed Animal to School Day...we were busy!! We heard lots of stories, sang lots of songs, got outside to play in the fall weather, used apples and dipped them in orange paint to create a pumpkin field, and did some squish painting with brown paint, which we will be turning into bears!  

We used the pumpkin we baked and turned it into pureed pumpkin to use in pumpkin bread!

Adding ingredients to make pumpkin bread.

All the kids had a turn to help stir the batter and then smell the pumpkin seasonings we put in the bread!

The best part was eating our chocolate chip pumpkin bread!
It's so much fun to see all the costumes!!

Our Costume Party was so much fun...we all had a chance to play pin the nose on the pumpkin...

toss bean bags into jack 'o lanterns...

Use beads and model magic to create our own beautiful pumpkin...

and toss balls into jack o lantern buckets!

Our finished artwork!
When we were done with all the activities we went and got a Halloween tattoo!
Our Halloween Parade! 

Our Halloween Treats!

Decorating cookies with frosting...

and sprinkles!

Happy Halloween!




Sunday, October 21, 2018

Pumpkins

We spent the past two weeks learning about farms, farm animals, and pumpkins.  We read several books about farms including The Big Red Barn, and The Perfect Day.  We also read several books and poems about pumpkins including Apples and Pumpkins, and Five Little Pumpkins sitting on a Gate. Below is the link to Five Little Pumpkins in case you want to sing it at home.  The kids love this one!!

Five Little Pumpkins

The kids had fun bringing in show and tell items that were related to farms.  We had various types of farm tractors, pictures of pumpkins in a field, and different types of toy farm animals including horses, pigs, cows, and goats.  We also had several books about farms and farm animals that the kids shared with each other.

We had our first extended day this past week.  Seven students stayed to eat lunch at school and have some extra time to play with their friends both inside and out!

The highlight of the past two weeks was our trip to the Pumpkin Farm!  All of us had an opportunity to go for a very muddy  hayride to the pumpkin patch and choose a pumpkin!  Mrs. Chyko and I picked up a pie pumpkin while we were there and last week we cut it open at school and baked it!

Mrs. Jenkins brought in different instruments to show us during music class including a guitar and a drum!  We each had a chance to play one of the instruments she shared with us.

Mrs. Willer brought in lots of outdoor equipment for us to have an extended outdoor movement time!

During activity time some of the things we've been working with include floor puzzles, aqua doodle mats, creating giant train tracks on the floor with our train sets, playing with play dough, painting on bubble wrap to create textured apples, using our Little People Farm set and tractor, and using our imagination to create things with bunchems.

The Maple Leafers at the Pumpkin Farm!

Trying out some of Mrs. Jenkins instruments.

Activity time, playdough is on the big table, painting at the rainbow table, and various other activities around the room.

On orange day we cut open an orange pumpkin and baked it in the oven!

We saved the seeds to toast and try next week!

Our completed apple art.  The kids painted on bubble wrap and then pressed the apple shape on top.  We used red, yellow and green paint since apples come in those colors.

While the pumpkin was baking we played outside.  It smelled good when we came back inside!

Our baked pumpkins!! Mrs. Gould scooped out the soft part inside and pureed it at home.  We'll be using it to make pumpkin bread next week!

Play dough is one of the kids favorite activities!