Coins, Bats, and Pigeon Books

It was President's Day on Monday, so on Tuesday we read a book called President's Day by Anne Rockwell.  it talked about Mount Rushmore and the 4 presidents who are carved on the mountain.  

After we read the book we talked about how president's pictures are on our coins.  We sorted through a bunch of coins and put them in piles.  We talked about the names of the coins and that each coin has 2 sides, heads and tails.  We played a game where we threw the coin up in the air and had  the kids guess whether it would land on heads or tails.  The kids really liked doing this!

Naomi was our "Maple Leaf of the Week", so during circle time she shared her poster board with us.   We had V8 Fusion to drink and a special snack that was a "Batman Boomerang" made out of Cocoa Krispies. Yum!!

 Using markers, clothespins, construction paper and google eyes, Heidi came in and helped all of us make a bat project.  So much fun!!

After our project, Heidi read us the picture book Stellaluna.  Jake stopped by to visit and read us a couple of Pigeon Books by Mo Williams, He used silly voices for the different characters and had all the kids laughing!  Thanks Naomi, Jake and Heidi, for helping us have such a great day!!

Later in the week we did a science experiment where we cleaned pennies.  We used vinegar, salt, water and a toothbrush to make the pennies shine!

The kids watched how the experiment worked and now they're each getting a turn to clean 8 coins!  This might be something fun to do at home!

Mrs. Chyko has been working with the kids as they make their own Piggy Bank. Each child cut out paper coins and glued them down.  Mrs. Chyko helped them add up how much money they had in their bank!  Next week we're going to use our clean, shiny coins to play a matching game with our Piggy Banks!

Not only was Naomi "Maple Leaf" this week but it was also her birthday week.  We  celebrated  on Thursday with a delicious treat of banana chocolate chip muffins and pretzels!  Happy 4th Birthday, Naomi!!

We enjoyed using wikki stix this week!  Most of the kids had never used them before.  We used them to trace over cards, create our own designs, and make a rainbow coin rubbing!

Some of the other things we did this week included playing with our kinetic sand, building with blocks, playing with cars, working in our kitchen, building our marble run, singing songs, playing movement games, using stencils, coloring, cutting, and reading!!

If you look on the counter by the globe you can see our Amaryllis.  It has really been growing!  We observed that is was bending towards the sun so we turned it around so it can bend back and straighten up.  It has 2 big blooms on top, hopefully they will bloom next week!!

Friendship and Hearts

Happy Valentine's Day!  We had a great week at school celebrating friendship.  We heard several really good books about Clifford the Big Red Dog and Valentine's Day.  We also heard a book called Our Peaceful Classroom about a Montisorri School with illustrations all done by children.  We heard several books about Care Bears.  Aftter we read those we listed all the Care Bears we could remember on the white board.  Then we reread the story to check back for any Bears we may have forgotten.  The kids thought this was fun and it was teaching them the reading comprehension skills of recall as well as how to skim through a book to recheck for information when needed.  

Carter told the class that each Care Bear has a special superpower which has to do with it's name.  So we decided that each of us should pick a name of a Care Bear and have that super power too! We wrote it down on special heart necklaces.  

Parker was Share Bear because he likes to share things with people.  Knox was Grumpy Bear because he likes to do nice things for people to take their "Grumpies" away.  Charlie was Sunshine Bear because he likes to make people happy.  Carter was Share Bear because he is so good at sharing things with his friends. Zoefii was Love a Lot Bear...that name says it all.  Emma was Moon Bear and she likes to help people fall asleep and bring them good dreams. Tori was Rainbow Bear because she draws rainbows and makes people feel happy.  Brooke was Rainbow Bear because rainbows make people happy!

We had music on Wednesday and Mrs. Jenkins had us up and dancing to some dinosaur songs!!  Thursday was our Valentine's Day Party.  We made our Valentine Bags earlier in the week so they were all set out when we arrived.  We each had fun passing out our valentines to our friends. We had morning activity time, circle time and then it was party time!

Our room moms, organized everything.  Thanks so much...the room looked so pretty and the kids had so much fun.  Thanks to all the parents for sending in the treats and other supplies to make the party a success!

We frosted our sugar cookies and put pink sprinkles on top.  We had popcorn and apple juice too!  Then it was time for our relay game!  Heidi put 2 raisins on a spoon and handed it to the first person in line who had to walk around a giant square of tape without dropping the raisins and then put the raisins into the next person's spoon.  Meanwhile the kids were all cheering for each other.  So much fun!

Aftter our class relay we broke into small groups.  Betsy had a valentine craft for us to do, Heidi had a bean bag toss going, Joan had a coloring activity, and I had playdough with cookie cutters, a mini play dough oven and a play dough grill.  At the very end of the party we played a game called "Valentine, Valentine, Where's Your Heart?"  I wonder if the kids could tell you how we played it?

We heard the book called My Heart is a Zoo on Friday.  We took the idea from the book and each child picked an animal they'd like to make out of hearts.  Then we practiced cutting and glueing and put together different animals.  Zoefii made a frog, Jayme made a bear, and Charlie made a coyote. 

Could be a fun activity to do at home on a cold day too! We also used model magic, paint, and beads to create a really special heart.  

Play Dough and Nursery Rhymes

It's been a great week.  The kids had so much fun saying and singing nursery rhymes.  Joan and I would sing or say a few and as soon as we finished the kids would say to us "Do more!" They especially liked Hickory, Dickory, Dock because it involved "Mousie" running up a clock.  We wanted to find Mousie as we read the rhyme but he was missing!  We went on a mouse hunt to try and find him but we couldn't.  Finally at the end of the day he appeared.  The kids were so glad to find him!!  

We made a mouse out of shapes today.  We had it set up as an art activity but it was also a math activity.

Knox was our "Maple Leaf" this week.  On Tuesday he brought in his pictures and told us about some of his adventures.  We heard about his trips Mexico and Utah.  He also brought in a snack bags of oreos, vanilla wafers and chocolate chips cookies to share with us....yum!!  Thanks Knox!

Wednesday his Mom and Dad and little brother, Krew,  came to school and made play dough with us.  We all got our own bowl and put in about 1 part hair conditioner to 2 parts corn starch.  The kids mixed it up with spoons and their hands and had so much fun playing with it.  Corn Starch was all over the table and the floor which made it even better!!  It smelled so nice and felt so silky.  

We've also been really busy using pearler beads to make different shapes.  What a great activity to develop those fine motor skills....so important for cutting and writing!

The marble run is one of the kids favorite activities!

Friday was Humpty Dumpty Day.  We learned the nursery rhyme and then watched a video of nursery rhymes on the ipad.  We made Humpty Dumpty and had to put a band aid on him since he hurt himself falling off the wall!  We also had scrambled eggs for snack.  Each of the kids had a chance to crack an egg and put it in the bowl.  

Not all of the eggs made it in the bowl.  One of the eggs even looked like Mousie!!

We mixed the eggs, and cooked them...yum!

If you want to find out why Nursery Rhymes are so important for young children here's a link to a great article on this topic!

http://www.kbyutv.org/kidsandfamily/readytolearn/file.axd?file=2011%2F3%2F2+Rhymers+are+Readers-Why+Important.pdf

Peace, Smoothies and Dinosaurs

We talked about Martin Luther King Jr. this week.  We talked about the dream he had for everyone to get along with each other.  We learned the dove and the olive branch are symbols for peace.  We put all of this together and made a dove holding an olive branch and then we wrote the word Peace.  We learned a finger play about Martin Luther King Jr. and a few songs about peace.

We planted an amaryllis bulb because it stands for determination.  We talked about how determination means to work really hard for something to happen.  Martin Luther King Jr. had determination to try to make his dream come true. We'll be observing our amaryllis over the next few weeks.

On Thursday we went outside and looked at our tree.  We talked about how it's sleeping for the winter but will wake up again in spring.

Emma is our Maple Leaf of the Week.  Tuesday Emma's dad came in to class and made smoothies with us.  We each had a cup filled with blueberries, blackberries, and bananas.  We dumped our cup into the vitamix.  

Then we added water, ice, apple slices, and some fresh spinach.  We blended it and had our own smoothie to drink as part of our snack.  Yum...delicious!!  Thanks so much Emma, what a fun treat!!

Later in the morning Emma's Grandma came in to show us how much Emma's kitten, Halloween, has grown.  She also read us a Pete the Cat book while Halloween played with us!  What a great day!

We started our unit on dinosaurs this week.  So far we've heard the books Daniel's Dinosaurs, Dinosaurs, Dinosaurs, and Curious George Visits the Dinosaur Museum.  During activity time we could choose to work on a large floor puzzle of dinosaurs, use play dough and try to make dinosaur fossils, play in the sand with mini dinosaurs, or build a dinosaur world with blocks and larger sized dinosaurs.  Mrs. Chyko had a dinosaur to trace and color and Mrs. Gould started a dinosaur art project.  We also have learned several dinosaur movement rhymes, we're especially good at roaring stomping, and thumping like dinosaurs!!  We had dinosaur fruit snacks for snacktime.  We tried to identify the dinosaurs before we ate them.  Ask your child at home what he/she knows about dinorsuars?  

Arctic Animals

We had fun learning about Penguins on Tuesday.  We read a book filled with penguin facts and real pictures as well as a fictional book about a penguin named Tacky who just didn't quite fit in with the other penguins but saved the day in the end!

Then we had fun making our own penguins during activity time!

Tuesday was an extended day so after lunch we went into the media room and watched the video Happy Feet and ate popcorn!

Zoefii was Maple Leaf this week.  She also had her birthday over break so we celebrated today.  She brought in teddy grahams and fruit cups for our snack. 

Then her mom and dad came for a visit.  They shared their love of music with us and brought in some drums for us to play.

We had so much fun listening to Zoefii's Dad as he showed us how each one worked and then we had even more fun when Zoefii's Mom passed out the drum sticks and gave each of us our own set to use!  We created a drum circle and had a chance to try out each of the drums.  It was so cool!!  We learned that some drums use sticks and other drums use our hands to make the sound.  We also discovered that the sound is made through vibrations on the drum and that the snare drum can be turned on and off!  After we tried all of the drums we had a yummy sugar cookie!  Thanks Zoefii for helping to make our day so special. Happy 3rd Birthday!!

Thursday was polar bear day.  We learned that there are 2 poles, North and South, and Polar Bears live at the the North Pole (or Arctic circle) while penguins live at the South Pole (Antarctic circle).  We heard a book called The Three Snow Bears by Jan Brett.  It's a take off on Goldilocks and the 3 bears but in a different setting. 

During art we started making a polar bear by sponge painting with white paint on dark blue paper.  We also finished making our Mittens.

We had music with Mrs. Jenkins on Thursday and started learning a song about the months of the year.  On  Friday, we put on our snow clothes and went outside and played in the snow.  

We had fun running around and making snow angels.  We also found deer prints in the snow and followed the tracks to see where the deer went.  They went into the trees on the side of the church!

Welcome Back

Happy 2015!  It was so good to see all the kids again and see how happy they were to see each other!!  During circle time on Tuesday we sat in a circle and shared some of the things we did over break as well as sharing a favorite gift we received!  

Liam was our Maple Leaf this week.  He shared a poster he made with lots of pictures of him and his family, then his mom and his little brother, Henry, came in and taught us about volcanos.  

Liam made a volcano with his Mom out of paper machie and a bottle.  It was so cool, Mrs. Stowers made it erupt, 3 times!!  She put in vinegar (which smelled really bad), some jello to make it red, and baking soda.  Then  all the "lava" started to come out of the top.  The kids loved doing this!!  On Wednesday, we celebrated Liam's birthday and he brought in ice cream sandwiches for our treat.  Thanks Liam, for helping to make this week so fun!!

After our science experiment, we introduced new centers.  Our rice tub has now been converted to a polar region complete with snow (potato flakes), polar animals, igloos, dog sleds and dogs!  We  have peppermint scented play dough, a new wooden marble run and at the art center we made a winter blizzard with white crayons and glitter glue and now we're working on learning to lace as we make a mitten.

Our unit this week was winter and the weather sure cooperated!!  On Wednesday, we read one of my favorite winter stories, The Mitten, by Jan Brett.  To get ready to read it, we each said something that we know about mittens and then listed the ideas on the white board.  Once the ideas were listed, we went back and read what we wrote together.  Corduroy helped us with this!  

To help with reading comprehension, after we read the story, we tried to remember all the animals that crawled into the mitten.  Then we each got the name of an animal we remembered on a word card and we acted the story out!  We pretended a tunnel and a blanket were the mitten as we all crawled in and tried to stay warm, just like the animals in the story!  

Thursday was pajama day and Mika's half birthday.  Her mom and little brother, Wren, came in to help celebrate.  They brought in blueberry muffins, grapes and juice for snack.  We made birthday crowns out of paper plates too!

Thanks Mika for helping make our day so terrific!!  

Mrs. Jenkins and Mrs. Chyko were our teachers on Thursday, because Mrs. Gould had to drive her son back to college.  Mrs. Chyko read us the story Bear Snores On and Baby Beluga.  After celebrating Mika's half birthday, we had music time with Mrs. Jenkins.  We learned a new song, "You Are My Sunshine".

On Friday, we read the Jan Brett story The Hat.  Then we made our own hats.

We also had lots of fun playing with the marble run together!

We also had fun learning to sing the song Baby Beluga. What a busy week!!