Smiles...

We learned about the Dentist and our teeth at the end of last week. We read Little Critter Going to the Dentist, by Mercer Mayer. We then painted a yellow tooth white to make it sparkle like our own clean teeth after we brush or go to the dentist and get our teeth cleaned.

Then we showed off our great big beautiful smiles. I think I am going to take the photos and make a bulletin board of my smiley kids.

Look at those sparkly teeth!!

Friday and the Tooth Fairy

The Tooth Fairy... for preschoolers it is a legend only second to Santa Claus. I mean you lose a tooth and you get money under your pillow. Even though they have no real concept of money and it's monetary value, it doesn't matter, they know money is IMPORTANT. It seems so unbelievable to a preschooler. Especially one that doesn't have an older sibling who has already encounter this amazing turn of events. For those who have older siblings, the wait can almost be to much to bear. My own preschooler asks many times a month, "Will MY teeth ever fall out??!!" in that famous whine only a preschooler can do. So, I thought a great way to end our Dental Health week was with a book about Tooth Fairy's.

We read the story "Twas the Night Before the Tooth Fairy" by Natasha Wing. It was a cute book about a boy who has a loose tooth and can't wait for it to come out. His Parent's come up with some idea's on how to get it out, but it finally comes out when his dog knocks him over. He then puts in under his pillow for the Tooth Fairy, who comes in the night. He happens to be awake :) and peeks out of one eye at the Tooth Fairy, who flutters around the room. When she leaves he peeks under his pillow... and there, to his surprise and delight is a Spanking New Dollar!! It is a very cute book, with the cadence of "Twas the Night Before Christmas" to it.

When we were through reading the book, twice, we went off to Quiet Work. In the Centers were... Sand Studio, Rice Table, I put out a peg/number work, blocks, and some emergent reader work (which is a one on one time with me). At the Art Center the kids got to make Tooth Fairy Boxes. We talked about all the different ways that people hide their teeth for the Tooth Fairy. On Monday we will add special jewels, since the paint didn't dry quick enough today.

Thinking about how short this month is and all we were worried about fitting in, I can't believe I got most of it in. Plus some :) The visit to the elementary school was great and not really planned at the beginning of the month. Now, on to March... Dr. Seuss's Birthday, 2 Preschoolers turn 5, St. Patricks Day, and the lead up to Easter. Another busy month a head. I better get planning.

For lunch today we had pretzels, PB&J, Fresh Strawberries, and Milk. Yum!!!

Funny Mouth Wednesday

We finished our Mouth/Teeth project today. We are still waiting for it to dry, but it was a fun craft. We took the play dough we made yesterday and rolled out 2 snakes. It was interesting to see some of the kids have difficulty with this task. But, by the end of the morning we were all rolling out some splendid snakes. We then glued them onto the mini paper plate we painted yesterday, for the gums of our mouth. We then talked about what we read at Circle Time, about how many teeth a child has (10 on top, 10 on bottom). We picked out 10 navy beans and put them into the top "gum," then picked out 10 more and put them into the bottom "gum."

The craft had a lot of playful, fun learning going on. We counted, used our pincher grasp getting those beans into the play dough, used our fine motor skills rolling out the play dough, and problem solved when our play dough moved on the plate (if we put to much glue on).

We now just have to wait for the glue to dry and fold them over, and there you have it... a mouth, a funny mouth :) (I don't know about you, but I kinda thought they looked a little creepy wide open like that. I am hoping when they fold over it won't look so weird :) )

Here we have little hands playing with the beans and play dough. The Toddlers LOVED sticking the beans in the play dough (with supervision of course). They played with this for at least 10 minutes, an eternity to a Toddler.

Little Miss M hard at work on her teeth.

We also took out the trains today. I have had them put up for a while now, so we decided as a group that they should come out of hibernation a little early. This brought All New Life to the Block Area.

The girls couldn't wait to get their hands on the extra play dough. The play dough I used was a Cornstarch one. I liked the rubbery feel to it and thought it would be better for the pretend gums.

It was: 2 cups baking soda

1 1/2 cups water (which I tinted pink for the gums)

1 cup cornstarch

I mixed the 2 dry ingredients together first in a bowl, then I added the dry ingredients to the water a little at a time so it wasn't to lumpy. When all the dry ingredients were in, I mixed CONSTANTLY so it wouldn't stick to the bottom. You continue to mix until it boils and then all of a sudden it gets real thick. I continue mixing on low heat until it doesn't seem wet anymore. Then I put it on a plate (not wax paper, it melts) and wait for it to cool a little. Then the kids and I knead it until it is perfect. You can add some cornstarch/baking soda mix while your kneading it, if it is to sticky. I found the recipe here.

For Lunch today we had homemade Meatloaf (with a little added grated veggies) Oranges, Apples, Crackers and Milk or Water. They didn't even know there was the grated veggies in there. I put tomato sauce on my Meatloaf and it kinda masks the meatloaf itself when it is served. So, they didn't suspect there could be the dreaded vegetable in there :) Everyone ate it and asked for seconds. Though the apples and oranges where the star of the show, as always.

Here is a cute photo for today... Little Miss M took her booster off her chair and kept belting herself in. She would then yell for me, "Shelw, wook" When I would peek around the island to see her, she would smile or giggle in all her glory. To be young and entertained by such simple things. You wonder when life got so difficult :)

Wow, We Did All That??

We are continuing with our Dental Health theme this whole week. We reread The ABC Dentist... Healthy Teeth from A to Z, by Harriet Ziefert, you can go to the Dental Health Week post to read more about it. Then we introduced Doctor De Soto, by William Steig. It was a funny book about a Mouse Dentist and his Assistant (his wife) who have decided to accept a Fox as a patient, against their better judgement. Well, they work on his sore tooth, which they had to pull out. They tell him to come back for a new tooth the next day, but they can't seem to get to sleep worrying about that Fox, who intends to eat them up after he gets his new tooth. Well, they are two very smart mice and they devise a plan to keep that Fox from eating them. I won't give the ending away... those of you who haven't read it, go get it from the library, it is very cute and funny. The kids loved the ending :)

After doing our calendar and reading our books, we broke off for Quiet Work. During that time I set out the red paint on the art table. We started a 2 day project. We are making a mouth, I got the idea here. You take a paper plate and fold it in half. You paint the inside red or pink and then glue packing peanutsor mini marshmallows on for the teeth. I loved the idea. We learned from the ABC Dentist book that little kids had 20 teeth, 10 up and 10 down. I thought it would be a great way to incorporate math with crafts!!! Then while I was popping around different blogs this weekend I found someone who took pink play dough, rolled it in a snake and glued it to the mouth. Then they stuck white navy beans in the play dough for teeth. So.... I decided to kind of mix the two. Today we started with a mini paper plate and painted it red. Tomorrow we will get the pink play dough out (we made that today also... photos to come tomorrow) and glue it on the the paper plate and push the 20 little "teeth" in to the dough. When it is all dry, we will fold it in half. I let you know how it goes.

We also changed the Oats out of the Sensory Table. I put in red rice, cups, sivs, and some sand toys... but the kids took it all out and played with their cars, monster trucks and just moved it around with their hands. HUH??

I also put out this Melissa & Doug shape pattern set. It is always a hit.

Some of our friends came to play and here is Nick playing in the sand table. I always try to have sand available to the kids. I think it can be a soothing kind of play. I can always find a child there throughout the day.

The Easel has been a huge hit and I have so many beautiful creations hanging on the dryer. We haven't gotten to the stage of actually painting pictures though, just a lot of combining of colors. It will come I'm sure. When they're ready :) For now I will just have lots of paper and a never ending supply of paint.

The girls had fun in the block corner today. They were able to build by themselves for quite awhile before the boys came and retook it over. Sorry girls. The boys get very loud in the block corner and the girls will gradually move away to another area where they can play house or kitty's in peace. I have tried to make the block area more appealing to the girls by placing some dolls from the doll house, My Pretty Pony's, and small Kitty's. It seems to have worked, they are gravitating to that area more often.

This is just a glimpse of our morning... we also danced to a song I found by accident on one of my CD's. It was all about brushing your teeth... it was in both English and Spanish!!! Loved it!! We danced around pretending to brush our teeth for, what seemed like to me, a VERY long time :) I will find out the name and post it, the CD is blank on the front, so I will have to look in the storage for a case.

Lunch today was Pizza (not homemade yet, but next week we plan on making the dough ourselves and creating an original Kozy Kids Pizza!! Can't wait.) We also had raw carrots with dip, bananas and grapes. Yum!!

Here is a little clip of Syd, who just turned 3, singing The Days of the Week Song... She was belting the song out but when she say me with the camera she got a little shy. So turn up your speakers if you want to hear her :) She has taken to spending a lot of time at the Circle Time Area pretending to be me, it is very cute and I am very honored :)

Make a Smilebox digital slideshow

Dental Health Week

Monday's can be hard enough just by being a Monday, but after the weekend we had, it was especially hard. After 2 full days of 60 degree weather, we woke to a dark, rainy sky. How hard it was to pull myself out of bed. Then I remembered that this is the week we will be exploring Dental Health. It is always a fun theme to explore with the kids. There is so much mystery about going to the Dentist. Some may never have been there and others may have been, but just once or twice. Those Brave Kids are the experts and have much to say on the subject. Whether it is about the "Sunglasses" they got to wear, the yummy paste they got to use, and for the boys, the spitting into the "whirly" drain (as someone aptly named it).

So, today we began with the book ABC Dentist...Healthy Teeth from A to Z, by Harriet Ziefert. A book that was graciously given to us to borrow from Ms Tracy!! Thank You Ms Tracy!!! (She got this book from the Scholastic Book Club in paperback, the hardcover is much more expensive, so look for it in Scholastic!!) It is an ABC book that does a great job taking the children from A... Appointment to Z... Having teeth that are a Zillion times cleaner then when they began. It isn't a story book, but it gives facts that the kids can understand, for instance, it talks about P... Plaque "is an almost invisible white, sticky coating on teeth that is caused by eating sugar and sticky foods." This led into a discussion on why we have to brush, floss AND see a Dentist to make sure no "invisible white, sticky" stuff is on our teeth. It is a great book and we will go over it each day at Circle Time this week, but not so in depth as today. We will accompany it with more Story Book about going to the Dentist.

We then went off into Quiet Work time. At the Art Center I had a craft set up where they had to cut out a Yellow "tooth." Then we painted it with white paint mixed with corn syrup to make it shiny (like a healthy tooth). We have done this craft before, but I have always used white paper, but I found this idea on the Internet, and thought it would be interesting to talk about the "dirty" tooth getting clean by the Dentist (the kids). We had some great conversation and the stickiness of the paint caught some of the kids by surprise. (Only a few choose to help make it, so some didn't realize that it had corn syrup in it.) I found it kind of ironic that I was using the Corn Syrup to make the tooth "healthy" again... haha, oh well, that won't be a fact I point out :)

Working on our Healthy Teeth

Ms Syd spent a lot of time on her tooth. She was captivated by the paint and just kept putting more and more on. Her tooth will definitely have a nice enamel on it when it dries :)

Friends painting together... the conversation between these two was quite interesting. Syd would tell Little Miss M "You brush your teeth" and Little Miss M would try to brush her teeth with the paint brush. Then Syd would laugh and say, "No M!!" and Little Miss M would laugh a big belly laugh. It was very cute to see these two little talkers holding a conversation.

Opps... out of order, but this is Our Princess cutting her tooth out.

Little Miss M in one of her favorite activities... helping Shell clean the table. Any table, window, or bookshelf is not safe from Little Miss M when she has a cleaning rag in her hand. This is the age where Toddlers really want to help out around the house. That is where I love Montessori, I set her up with a work and teach her how to do it and she can do the work pretty independently after that. I have to supervise (usually by working along side her) but if I need to help another child, she is able to continue without making to huge of a mess. The Toddler Stage is so exciting, so much happens in such a short amount of time.

We have had the Easel out as a Center last week and again this week. Little Miss M loves it!!! If she walks by and sees a blank paper, she HAS got to put a mark on it. Sometimes it is just a quick stroke of red, other times it is full on painting. It is a "Free" center, where I leave the paints out all day for who ever would like to use it, so I have to always be alert to when Little Miss M has a full on painting urge so I can get her smock on. She still likes to paint herself :)

We had homemade Veggie Noodle Soup today, with Cucumber Salad, and Strawberries. It was hit or miss. Some loved the soup, others the cucumber salad. I loved that almost everything they ate was homemade and/or fresh. Those that choose to help me cook seemed to like certain things more. We will be trying some new recipes this week and if the kids really seem to like something I will post the recipe and hopefully some pictures. But I don't always get to click them when I am in the kitchen. Someone always needs help or my hands are dirty and then before I realize it we are done and no photos have been taken, but I will try!! Have a Great Monday!!!!!