Happy Green Groundhog Day!!!

Whats a Provider to do when she has taken 175 photos in one morning??  I can't put them all in the post, but I want to ;)  So, I chose the ones that most represented our day...

We celebrated our GREEN day by making some no-cook play dough.  I used a recipe I found on the internet (not sure where), but when I added the alum, it became like elastic, kinda like silly putty.  Maybe I didn't add it in the right order, who knows, after we kneaded it for a while, you couldn't even tell.

Tutu's always make art more fun!!!

Making sure it wasn't sticky was a little tricky ;)
We used a lot of flour to make sure it was a good consistency...

When the consistency was just right, we started added fun stuff to create all sorts of things...
When asked what he was making, Little Man said, "ARGH!!!"
A Dinosaur maybe??

Lil Bit loves anything ART related... this was no exception.
She spent most of her morning in her tutu at the art table... to cute!!!

This was real serious creating for Sprout...
She loved when we put sequins out and she took her time making sure they were just right.

After the kids began wandering off to other things, Lil Bit would walk around the table gathering all the sticks up and "using" them for her creation... I'm not sure what it was, but she sure knew exactly what she wanted to do :)

Picking up all the sticks became a coveted job... everyone wanted a chance to put them in the plastic bag
(I'm telling you, you don't have to spend a lot on toys, some wooden sticks and a container, your good to go!!)

It was a little hard to hear that Punxsutawney Phil saw his shadow and we may be in for another 6 weeks of winter, but then the kids and I went outside and we found that we could probably deal with it if it stayed this nice for the next 6 weeks :)  It was 65 degrees out today... It was beautiful!!  We put on our mud boots and ventured outside to find some shadows, puddles, and fun!!!

"Ring Around the Rosie, Pocket Full of Posies...
Ashes, Ashes...
We All Stomp Our Feet, In the Puddle!!!"

Oh Yes, this was a favorite!!
I got a little dizzy after awhile, and man, I know I'm getting old because my back was KILLING me after  5 minutes of bending over and going in circle :)

Finding our shadows... just like Phil

"Look, here's mine!!"

She soooo didn't care ;)

Even the trees made shadows!!!

And nothing could top off our GREEN day better than...

Lil Bit's Gorgeous GREEN toes!!!
You just want to eat them up!!!

Groundhog Day

Will you look at Sprout's Shadow... I am glad Punxsetawny Phil didn't see his this morning!! I am ready for Spring to get here, fast!!

We went on a walk today, enjoying the beautiful weather. On the way we found a tree "growing" out of a sewer. The kids were intrigued and excited by this find. They discussed how a seed may have gotten down there, and how fast it must have grown (because it wasn't there the last time we went on a walk).

I put out some more mitten activities this week. The light table has become a favorite, they enjoy how the light shines through the paper. I put Uppercase on one side of the mitten, and lowercase on the other and the kids have to put them in order, or find the letter(s) of their name. I was disappointed because the permanent marker showed through the yellow and orange ones. They spent most of their time looking and sorting the ones you could see through. Oh, well.

The clothes line mitten activity was great for all the age groups. The 2's didn't have to put the numbers in order, they just clipped them up there, which is great for their fine motor skills. Getting those fingers and hands strong for writing. The preschoolers had fun counting, clipping, and indentifying each mitten. Princess did it first by herself, then included the D-Man to do it with her.

We have a couple Doctor Kits and they are an absolute favorite!! I never put them away because they are used Every Single Day!!!

We have been talking about Groundhogs, Groundhog Day, and especially Punxsetawny Phil this week. We did a cute little Groundhog craft where the kids got to make their Groundhog pop out of his/her den. It had a little to much teacher directed influences... but they had fun. Miss M is getting soooooo good with those scissors!! She stayed close to the line and even knew to stop where I asked her to stop. Way to go Little Miss M!!!!

They got to use the hot glue gun though today, which is always a fun thing to use. I let the preschoolers use it themselves (with me right there of course) and the 2's hold it with me. They loved that... So Big they are!!

Watching Punxsetawny Phil was great fun... they got a kick out of how they pretend that he talks to them and whispers if he saw his shadow. We also found an interview with Phil's handlers, the kids really enjoyed that. Busy Day!!

Photo Montage

Our Day in Photo's

The most fun we had today was making shadows with our flashlights!! They had a blast... all the other stuff we explored... icing on the cake :)

Happy Groundhog Day!!

We have spent a lot of time learning about the Groundhog. We learned about animals that hibernate, migrate, burrow underground or live in caves. Today it all culminated in learning if the Groundhog saw his shadow. We follow Punxsutawney Phil, from Gobblers Knob, in Punxsutawney PA. Here is what he had to say...

"Greetings from Punxsutawney!
Phil Says Six More Weeks!
Phil's official forecast as read February 2nd, 2009 at sunrise at Gobbler's Knob:
Hear Ye Hear Ye Hear Ye
On Gobbler's Knob on this glorious Groundhog Day, February 2nd, 2010, Punxsutawney Phil, Seer of Seers, Prognosticator of all Prognosticators awoke to the call of President Bill Deeley and greeted his handlers, John Griffiths and Ben Hughes.
After casting a joyful eye towards thousands of his faithful followers, Phil proclaimed, "If you want to know next, you must read my text. As the sky shines bright above me, my shadow I see beside me. So six more weeks of winter it will be.""

If you want to see his website go here...

Now, if Phil had been here in NC he definitely WOULD NOT have seen his shadow!! So, we decided as a class, we are not sure what will happen here in NC. We are hoping that Spring will come soon... that is our consensus.

These are the books we have been reading... we love the story about Mrs. Conner's class (who renamed Miss Michelle's Class and renamed all the kids to our names... laughs were had by all!)

We began work on our Groundhog book. It was a little more work than I had wanted to do in one day. Our Snow Day yesterday cut out some work time that we would have spent doing our book, we had to fit it in all today.

Here is our finished book... it has a Weather Puppet that goes in the back and you can switch it to a sunny day or cloudy day. We choose cloudy. Then there is a little Groundhog attached to a string that you manipulate while reading the book.

He can stand beside a tree, under a bush, behind a rock, or in a hole. It is a very cute book, a little more Teacher Directed and Product over Process, but it was fun. They had fun reading and moving the little Groundhog around.

We brought some snow in from outside today for our sensory table. It was cold. The kids predicted it wouldn't last until lunch time... they were right. They had fun while it lasted and now it is a water table.

We added some plastic and metal (to see what got colder faster... metal). Plus, we added some vehicles, since we will be learning about them tomorrow.

Here is all our snow!!! Yup, they closed school again today because of all that snow :)


At Circle Time we introduced the Letter Oo, the Number 9 and the Month of February. Tomorrow we will begin our unit on Construction/Transportation. I will include Valentines Day, Dental Health, & President's Day in there too!!!