Winter Animals

This week we talked about winter animals and hibernation.  We had a lot of fun talking about the letter "W", the number 8, and the color black.  We also squeezed in a short lesson on the inauguration and The White House.  Hope you guys have a great weekend, and I'll see you next week! :)

We tore apart cotton balls and glued them on our polar bear shadows.

We used various winter stickers to put on our letter "W" papers.

We glued on our penguins and penguin poems, and then we used squares to make an igloo around them.  This was a great fine motor activity with gluing things to the paper, and it was a great use of our shape of the week (square).

We talked a little bit about Inauguration Day on Friday, and we talked about where the president lives.  I gave them a lot of interesting facts about the White House that they found surprising like the fact that it has tennis courts, an indoor swimming pool, an outdoor swimming pool, 28 fireplaces, 32 bathrooms, and 132 rooms!

They colored their White House sheet with white crayons, and I wrote "W"s on their papers with white crayons also.  Then, I taught them a little "magic trick" by using watercolor paint to paint over their picture to help see all of their white crayon marks suddenly appear.  ;)

We did a little science experiment with blubber.  I made a "blubber glove" out of shortening and ziploc bags.  They dipped their hand in the ice water, and then put on the glove to compare how blubber protects their body from cold temperatures.  Cool!

 

 Snack Time Fun

The Birthday Boy (Cooper) brought in some special treats for us on Friday!

We shared our Snowmen Projects that were turned in this week.  They turned out super cute, and I displayed them in the back of our room by the mirrors. :)

So much fun playing together this week!

 Have a great weekend!

Feelings

It was so great to see all our kiddos back this week for both days!  We enjoyed some fun activities, and I was able to finish up assessments on these little smarties.  :)  We were even able to squeeze in some time to play outside on Thursday during a break in the rain on an unseasonably warm day.  We had to take advantage of it!  Hope you enjoy the pics from this week!  I've also included a few fun videos we saw this week as well.

We read a book about a mouse called, "Wemberly Worried", and then we wrote about the things Wemberly and we worry about.  These are hanging outside on the wall.  So sweet to hear some of the things these little ones worry about.😟

 Letter U Song (ABC Mouse)

 We used our color of the week (yellow) to talk about our letter of the week ("U") when we made umbrellas.  We also had 7 raindrops to it to practice our number of the week.

We talked about some of the qualities that make us "U"nique in one of our crafts this week.  This is a little "All About Me" flag that will go on our door to our room.  

This little guy is thinking long and hard before he answers my question on his assessment.  So proud of how hard these kiddos worked and listened when they did their assessments this week! 🤔

Using number stamps to make some sweet cards. :)

For our Bible Lesson this week we talked about the different fruits of the spirit and how we need to show these to others because we love God.  The fun song and video below was a great way to learn about them. 🙏

 Fruit of the Spirit Song

We did a little science activity that involved comparing the textures of cotton balls and sandpaper.  The soft, smooth cotton balls are much nicer to touch like soft, kind words other people say.  The harsh, scratchy sandpaper is not nearly as comforting, just like mean, harsh words other people say.  We've been talking about how to communicate our feelings appropriately when we're upset and ways that we can calm ourselves down when we're angry.😡

Katelyn wanted to make sure Lorelai had a chance to feel the cotton balls too.  Such sweet and gentle friendship choice, just like the soft cotton! ;)

Fun times playing in the classroom

I love to see all the creative things these kiddos build with our new magna tiles.  Makes me want to build with them too!

Guess who discovered the dress-up clothes.  So precious. :)

These playdough works of art are such awesome ways to exercise the muscles in these little hands and such great teamwork too!

Friends looking at books in the tent.

We got out our light table to look at all kinds of cool designs and x-rays of animals.  So cool!

Getting some exercise in our Minds in Motion room.

Here are a few pics from our playtime outside as well.

Health/Nutrition and New Year's Resolutions

Happy New Year to all of you!  Hope you had a blessed Christmas and enjoyed some family time over break.  Hope you were also able to enjoy your snow day on Thursday as well.  It was great to see your kiddos this week, even though it was only for one day.  Things were super busy, and we sure did try to squeeze in a lot in a short time.  There aren't too many pics for the blog this time since we only had one day of school, but I hope you enjoy the few pics I took!

We made New Year's Resolutions and decorated them with cute little faces, party hats, and little noise makers.  They came up with some cute ideas for things they want to learn this year as part of their resolutions.  They're on display in the hallway.  You'll have to check them out!

We talked a lot about healthy foods and what "nutritious" means.  We sorted foods that were healthy and foods that were treats.  Most of our kiddos had a good understanding of this, but it's always good to continue to have these conversations at home about what healthy foods and healthy choices are.  We also got to do some fun and silly exercises as well in our game of "Simon Says" and our song "Head and Shoulders, Knees, and Toes."  So much fun getting wiggles out!

 One of the videos I shared with the class had a great song called, "I Can Eat a Rainbow".  We talked about eating a variety of nutritious colorful foods to stay healthy and strong.

I Can Eat a Rainbow Song and Video

We welcomed the new year by dotting our "2017" papers.

Play time with friends and trains. :)

We talked a lot about washing our hands and getting rid of germs.  We sang a little song and watched a video about washing our hands as well.  Finally, we did a little science activity at the end of the day with "frozen hands" in gloves.  I froze the gloves with water in them, drew "germs" on them with washable markers, and then we used warm soapy water and droppers to clean off our germy hands. 

Wash Your Hands Song and Video

Washing Hands Experiment