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!!

More Holiday Fun

Tuesday was a day of celebrations and food!  It was Emma's 5th birthday and Charlie was The Maple Leaf this week. The morning started off with Charlie coming to school with a super cool rocket ship that he wanted to share with his friends.  Everyone had a chance to go inside and push the buttons that made it light up inside.

Then for snack we had rocket ship cupcakes...so yummy, thanks Charlie!!

We practiced for our holiday sing, heard some holiday stories and had activity time.  Then it was time for extended day and lunch at school!! After we ate, we looked at books for awhile.  Next we got together to make Emma's special birthday treat. 

We whipped cream together, added vanilla and sugar to make it sweet, cut up pumpkin bread as well as red, yellow, green, and orange peppers and had a wonderful afternoon snack...YUM!!

Happy 5th Birthday, Emma!!

Then it was time for baking cookies!  We used pretzel O's, peppermint Hershey Kisses and red and green m and m's.  We broke into small groups of 2 or 3 and each had our own cookie sheet.  We put pretzels on parchment paper, took off the hershey kiss wrappers, put them in the center of the pretzels and baked that in the oven at 200 degrees for about 2 minutes, or until they squished down when we put an m and m on top!!  Then we put them in the freezer for about 15 minutes to harden.  It was time to go home before we got a chance to eat them, but for snack tomorrow....

We decided today should have really been called "Eat, Stay, and Eat!!"  What a day!!

Wednesday we "visited" Mexico. We learned about a holiday tradition called Las Posadas.  Mrs. Chyko told us that las posadas means shelter.  We  found Mexico on the globe and on  a large world map and then settled down to hear The Night of Las Posadas by Tomie De Paola.  We  discovered that this event lasts for 9 days and is a parade with people dressed up as Mary and Joseph, sometimes Mary rides on a donkey.  Each night there is a parade of people dressed up as figures in the nativity story who visit houses, ask if they can come inside and when someones lets them in they sing Christmas Carols, break a pinata, and have hot chocolate and cookies.  We talked a little bit about nativity scenes that are set up around our town and several of the children talked about nativity sets they have at home.

We  walked in a parade to wash our hands and for snack we had hot chocolate and the cookies we made yesterday.  

Charlie loves sea creatures so his dad came in towards the end of the day and talked to us about snorkeling and the sea.  He  put on a snorkel mask, breathing tube, and fins and showed us a book filled with sea creatures!  Then we made our very own shark and added fins and teeth and colored it in! So cool... 

During circle time on Thursday we had another special guest.  Charlie's "Grandma G.G" came to visit.  She read us a book with no pictures and had all of us rolling with laughter.  When it was over the kids wanted her to read the book again, so at the end of the day she read it one more time and made it even sillier....everyone loved it!!

  



When G.G. isn't busy being Charlie's grandma she's an author.  She told the kids that books are just stories written down.  She brought in her tape recorder so the kids could all tell her a story.  Watching the kids reaction to a tape recorder was hilarious; they had never seen anything like it before...

In case anyone wants to visit G.G. here is her web site:  http://lesleykagen.com

Friday morning we had another special guest.  Charlie's mom came to create a winter art project with us. We painted on canvas, sprinkled on glitter, made a foam snowman, glued it to the canvas, and added foam stickers to complete the project. 

 Beautiful!!!  Thanks for helping us make this!!!

We had a chance to get outside for a little while and then we came inside and played with home made peppermint play dough.  We also heard some good stories and had activity time!

Hope you're all having a great week-end!

Christmas Around the World and And Firemen

We started our unit on Holidays around the world.  Using a globe we located the United States, then Wisconsin, then found where our school is located in Grafton.  We talked about how a lot of people like to decorate Christmas tree's to help celebrate Christmas.  The kids were very excited about Christmas trees and they all wanted to share whether or not they had their tree set up yet and what they put on their tree.  Then we heard a story titled, A Wish to be a Christmas Tree.  

At our art center,  we began making and decorating Christmas trees.  We used foam stickers, pom poms and glitter glue, then attached them to a toilet paper tube so the trees had a trunk and could stand up.  We learned the word "conifer" means trees with cones.  While we were outside, Mika found part of a pine branch on the ground and it had a little cone growing inside of it, so we all passed it around and made the connection with the word conifer.  Mika also happened to find something else under a giant conifer at the bottom of the hill.  When she brought it up it looked like a frozen birds nest, or a frisbee...it turned out to be her missing hat...frozen solid with needles, leaves, pine cones, and twigs all mixed in!!  

Caden was our "Maple Leaf" this week.  He brought in a great display of pictures and yummy rice krispie treats for snack on Tuesday.  On Thursday his mom and dad came to visit the class.  Caden's mom read us a really good story about fires and firemen and then Caden's dad told us he is in training to be a volunteer fireman for Cedarburg.  He showed us all his gear and put it on for us.  He put on fire boots, fire jacket, fire gloves, a breathing mask, and a fire hat.  (I hope I didn't miss anything!!)  Then he gave each of us our own fire hat, badge and coloring books.  Caden's mom made badges we could wear around our necks.  Boy did we have fun!! Thanks Caden!!

We visited the country of Sweeden and learned a little about Santa Lucia day and how children 

wear crowns of lights and eat special rolls to help celebrate the holiday.  We made our own Santa Lucia crown at the art center!

http://www.amazon.com/Disney-Small-World-Christmas-Around/dp/1423162323/ref=sr_1_4?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1417894292&sr=1-4&keywords=christmas+around+the+world

On Friday, we visited The Netherlands and talked about Sinterklass.  We heard a really good story about Saint Nicholas and how he visited a dutch baker in the town of Albany, New York.  The story is called The Baker's Dozen.  During activity time, we each made a Sinterklass puppet. Here is a link to the book we read.  

http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http%3A%2F%2Fecx.images-amazon.com%2Fimages%2FI%2F61JZt387aPL._BO2%2C204%2C203%2C200_PIsitb-sticker-v3-big%2CTopRight%2C0%2C-55_SX278_SY278_PIkin4%2CBottomRight%2C1%2C22_AA300_SH20_OU01_.jpg&imgrefurl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.amazon.com%2FThe-Bakers-Dozen-Saint-Nicholas-ebook%2Fdp%2FB00FI7KORE&h=300&w=300&tbnid=nhL-_B0hhnD6vM%3A&zoom=1&docid=s5JCa2KMvR8vaM&hl=en-US&ei=q1eDVI35MdH2yQTFwYLIDQ&tbm=isch&ved=0CEQQMygcMBw&iact=rc&uact=3&page=2&start=22&ndsp=22