Yesterday & Today

I forgot to post yesterday... actually I didn't forget, I was exhausted for some reason and when all the kids left, I simple sat down and didn't get up again. Closed my eyes (when I should have been cooking dinner) and took a nice little nap. My wonderful husband and children took care of themselves and let me relax... how nice :)

Anyway... yesterday started out with one of my friends taking out a puzzle (with many pieces) and then not wanting to put it back together. So, as a group we painstakingly pieced it back together... with these two finishing it off for us... How proud!!!

We have been reintroducing our Montessori practices... which I have missed!! I reviewed with the kids how to use their mats, and trays. It seems to be helping us define our work space and even putting our work away when we are done, instead of just leaving it and walking away. Not sure how we got away from using them, I guess babies can veer you away from somethings sometimes :)

I was going through some of my drawers, in the garage, and found this lacing apple... I forgot how much they enjoy it. I think it has been used pretty much all day... I just have to remind some of the 2's to use it on their mat and put it back. They have a tendency to walk around with it.

Little Miss M practicing rolling her mat.

For snack yesterday we had Chocolate Fondue... YUMMY!!! Little Miss M & her Mom brought us special organic chocolate chips to make the fondue and we got to dip strawberries, banana's & yummy marshmallows into it. It was a big hit. My son was a great help in combining the milk and chips...

We were going to do the communal fondue pot, but with all the sickness going on and the ages, I thought double dipping was inevitable... so everyone got their own "pot" of chocolate, a fondue stick and their fruit. Lots of sticky faces, clothing and fingers.

Some liked the fruit either way... but as you can tell, the chocolate was a great addition.

Ok, Little Man couldn't have the chocolate, but he had a good time watching us anyway!!


Today...

Sprout is really doing a great job of being independent. She is trying to take her smock off, getting her whole body through the neck hole was tricky... but she did it!!

And hung it up as well... Good Job Sprout!!!

We read the book Snowballs by Lois Ehlert. It is about using "found" materials around the house to make a Snow Family. The illustrations are beautiful and just looking at them makes you want to go outside and build snowmen. Unfortunately our snow is all gone and we had to make do with paint and paper snowmen.

Each child took a silhouette snowman, taped him onto a white piece of paper and sponge painted with blue and white around him. We then took the silhouette off and whala... a perfect snowman in a blizzard :)

Little Miss M wanted to just paint the silhouette snowman... but she finally got the hang of it.

I wish we had the collage material like the book to make more exotic snowmen, but alas... we again had to make due with black paint and the back of a pencil to make the features of our snowmen. The kids didn't seem to mind.

They came out nice I think...

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!!!

Snow Day!!

I have been reading about all the snow and Snow Day's people have been having around the US... We finally got one!!! With REAL snow :)

In this part of NC we don't get a whole lot of snow. We get it, but not often. Ice on the other hand, we do get. But this weekend we got a little of both, and it stayed. We got all this snow and ice on Friday evening into Saturday morning. The area is still getting back to normal. It is Monday :)

I got to go to lunch, go to the store in the middle of the day and still get home before dark. I loved it. Tomorrow the kids have another Snow Day, not me. Most of my families have to go back to work and back to life. I don't mind, I miss the kids and actually look forward to having them back. We have work to do, we need to find out what the Groundhog says tomorrow and figure out if Winter will stay or move out early. I know what I am hoping for :) How 'bout you??

Tuesday Fun

Snow!! OK not really, it was just flour in the sensory table... but for a little while we pretended it was snow :)

These 2 boys played in that table for almost 2 hrs. At 8:30 this morning they started out with the regular sifting, dumping, piling, etc... but it turned into endless possibilities when I told them it was snow.

You see, I was going to make Slime. I told the kids they could play in the flour like it was until our friends came over to play, and they didn't want me to make it wet and slimy... I said, "But it won't be SLIME then." They laughed and said they didn't care... that is when I said, "Well, it must be SNOW!!" "YEAH!!!" Then the animals, cars and little people all came out of hibernation and started playing in the "Snow" Thankfully no one else really wanted a turn at the sensory table because these 2 guys were having none of the sharing thing. :)

This is the start of it all....

(sorry the pictures came up in the wrong order... no worries though, I know you can tell what's going on)

These 2 finally got to have a turn... Yes, she is falling off the chair. She knows she wants to be like the big kids and sit in the chair while she plays, she just forgets to push it in. She didn't actually fall, she is pretty quick and got her feet down in time. We moved her chair closer, but then she couldn't reach... what a dilemma.

She finally just stood on her tippy toes and played... she did a great job too, no flour in her mouth :)

We also had the Snake Table going again since we had friends over to play. They wanted a chance to make a Slithery Slimy Squiggly Stinky Snake too!!!

Glue... what fun :)

We also sang a snake song:

1 little, 2 little, 3 little Snakes

4 little, 5 little, 6 little Snakes

7 little, 8 little, 9 little Snakes

*Slithering across the pond, then

*Soaking in the Sun, then

*Sliding down the hill, then

*Smelling Emily's Toes, then

of course Smelling EVERYONE'S Toes!!!

We had loads of fun with that song!!

We also sang a song, One Green Frog Went Hop, Hop, Hop... that Deborah Stewart from Little Fingers That Play & Excellence in Early Childhood Education mentioned that we may like, about Frogs!! It was great and I hope to get it on video so we can show just how much we liked it. It's hard when your a lone, you can't always get the things you want. If our friends come over again hopefully we can get it captured on digital :) THANKS DEBORAH!!!!

We also had Slimy Snakes for lunch (spaghetti w/butter) which is always fun... we had to capture those Slimy Snakes before they Slithered down our backs :)

We had OUTSIDE time today!!! It was warm enough that we actually got to go outside for more than 5 minutes. We ran, swung, slithered like snakes, raced cars, & just ran and played... it was time and we were very happy for the outlet!!!

Another Great Day

Today we didn't get to many photo's... but we had a lot of fun learning about the meaning of Christmas!! We have a great new Advent Calendar that talks and tells the story of Jesus' Birthday and a magnetic board that we can put the special pieces up on as the story is being told.

We read some silly books about Santa and some more touching books about Baby Jesus. The kids enjoyed having the playdoh out to "act" out what we read about, and then we went outside!! We ran, dug in the dirt, chased our friends, built "caves" in the climbing structure, ran some more and then ran even more!! It was such a cool, crisp day... the sun was shining and the kids had a ball.

Being from NY I remember the GRAY winters. Starting in November all the way through February it was gray. The clouds were out most of the time, the snow gray from the salt and dirt, the cars were gray from the salt and dirt, it was just gray. The kids didn't get out as much, and didn't get to bask in the sunlight as much. Here we get cold weather... but the sun seems to be shining so much more and makes you want to be outside even when it's cold. I'll be sometimes wishing for a cold, rainy, snowy day so we can stay in... the kids always want to be outside. I'm glad.

Now... don't get me wrong... I do MISS the snow fall from New England!! We would get 1,2,3 feet sometimes. The kids are missing an experience in that also. The sledding, the snow forts, the snow ball fights, and the ice palaces. We had a lot of fun on those days. We get one "good" (which is relative mind you) snow a year. It snows maybe a foot or so, the schools are closed, the kids all go outside as soon as possible and try to get all the fun in before it melts away. We get the fire burning, the hot chocolate flowing and the gloves and boots out for their once a year ritual. The next day... it's pretty much gone. It's pretty funny in fact. We have been here a little over 3 years... and that's how it has been every winter since we got here. People talk about the time it snowed 5 feet or what not... but not since we have lived here.... I'll keep you posted this winter!!!

We also began working on our songs & finger plays for our Holiday Program... the kids are sweet. They get nervous and excited about it... Thankfully I keep it short and sweet!! All in all I think we had a great morning!!!