Mortar and Pestle and Santa Claus

I love Montessori and try to bring it into our daily routine.  Although I haven't figured a way to introduce our trays, mats, and work to this group yet, I am still working on it.  So, in the mean time, I try to bring in special materials or equipment to get the children to practice the different goals I have for them.  Today we brought out the mortar and pestle.  I brought it to the table with some potpourri for a craft we were doing.  I really wanted the big girls to use it and grind the potpourri up, but, although they enjoyed touching it, using it, and learning about it, they didn't enjoy it as much as I thought they would.  That doesn't meant it wasn't enjoyed though, the little ones absolutely LOVED this activity.  I had a very hard time getting them to put it away and Scamp wanted nothing to to do with a morning nap after she got her hands on the mortar and pestle.  It was very cute.

Smelling the potpourri was part of the fun... and Little Man couldn't stop smelling it and saying...

"EEWWWWWW!!!!"

Making sure his friends got a sniff!!

"Huh, look at that."

The pestle was  heavy and I think they liked the feel of it.  

I only have one, so as patience is not something we have had a lot of practice with, some of us had a hard time waiting for our turn.  They did pretty good though, considering :)

Little Man was in charge of the mortar at this point and wanted EVERYONE to take a whiff... they would say, "Yum" and he would say, "EEWWW!!!"

"What do you think??"

"How 'bout you??"

We then took the ground up potpourri and made it into a yummy smelling hanging ornament....  well, hopefully it will turn out that way ;)

I have been talking with the kids about Christmas.  With this group, only Sprout and Roo really have any idea that Christmas is something more than just another day and they talk a lot about Santa and presents.  So, in addition to talking about how Christmas is the day Jesus was born, we have been, of course, reading and talking about Santa.  Today we read, Where Oh Where is Santa Claus?? by Lisa Wheeler.  It is such a great toddler book for the holiday.  Not to many words, great illustrations, and a reoccurring phrase, "Santa, Santa, Where are You!!?"  The phrase changes every other page, but it's pretty much the same thing, just a little different words, so we just kept saying the same phrase and the kids LOVED it!!  They loved the animals, they loved moving their heads around to see if they could see him, and we even tried to guess where he might have gone.... we never thought he would get stuck in the snow and have to be pulled out!!  It was a cute, silly book that kept even Scamp interested and laughing.

"Its Santa!!"

I Love the month of December... even if it's not December yet :)

Learn, Practice, Work & Patience

This week has been one of learning and practicing. Working and patience. Over last weekend I moved the classroom around, making 2 separate spaces. I took many things off our shelves so we could work on putting the items that were out, back on the shelves correctly. I took time to really teach and practice the art of clean up with our 2's. That those toys don't miraculously put themselves away, is always a surprise to the 2's and early 3's ;)

It was definitely a week of patience. Whether it was the kids being patient with each other, or Shell being patient about clean up (I learned it will probably take longer than I expect and I should allow for that). We practiced using our words... when we played games, interacting with Little Man, cleaning up, and especially while we played "make believe." "Make Believe" is a concept the 2's are just starting to understand, especially as it pertains to playing with the preschoolers. They don't understand that Princess wants them to move to the closet, and they want to move to under the table. Words worked well in conveying that concept. We practiced and role played a lot this week.

Also, our practical life shelf has only 2 things on it this week. I had more on it before, but it seemed to be ignored for the most part for more imaginative play. When I took most of the work off the shelf, the kids seemed to gravitate to it more. Maybe I had to much and they couldn't see past what was on the shelf to pick something?? Not sure, but next week I will add 2 more things to the shelf and see how it goes.

The brooms, dust pans, and rags have been a big hit this week. Between the play dough and rice from the mini rice tub, the kids have been busy working on those clean up skills. Oh, yeah the whole patience thing comes in handy here too :)

One of the children that used to come to my home for child care, donated a cup cake maker to Kozy Kids!! (Thanks Guys!!) We decided that a Friday was a great day to try it out. Basically with this one, you microwave the cupcake, and then use the frosting machine to frost it. Well, we knew it would take to long to microwave all the cupcakes we would need, so Princess and her Mom bought us some great Valentine's Day cake mix!! Yum, Yum!!!

Teamwork!! We made those cupcakes and they are waiting patiently to be frosted!! I will try to post photos tomorrow. I can't wait to see them with this frosting machine. To cute.

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...

Party Time

Today we had a party, playing, and fun filled morning!!! Believe it or not we did not fill up on to many sweets. Oh, they wanted to eat all their special chocolates, lollipops, & sugar filled treats, but when actually given the chance they each picked one and went on their way. I couldn't believe that no one made a fuss to have more candy. We did have special Krispy Kreme Valentine doughnuts (Thanks Kathy!!) but again, they were happy with one doughnut.

We had a grand time Freeze Dancing!!

What Valentines Day is all about... Friendship!!!

Handing out all our Valentines... we set up their bags/mailboxes around the playroom on chairs and they delivered their mail to each person. We practiced name recognition and problem solved on how to get SO MANY Valentines to the bags without dropping them. (We decided we weren't in a rush so we could just take 1 or 2 at a time)

We played "Pass the Heart." Our variation was we passed a chocolate filled candy box heart, and when the music stopped, the one holding the heart got to open it and take out a candy. Well, the heart box kept opening as they passed it, so we decided that whoever was holding the heart when the music stopped got to get up a pick a lollipop or chocolate out of a special bowl (Thanks Julie!!)

Here Little Miss M!!!

We then moved on to our Tossing Game... we play this game a lot when it rains or for party's, but today we decided to add another element to the game. I was reading a post from Ms Debbie, over at Once Upon a Time in Preschool, and when she played a tossing game like this she had the kids make Tally Marks for the amount of bean bags they got in. I thought what a great way to introduce Tally Marks. So, we did just that today. The kids loved making their own marks, and counting them all at the end.

Ry decided that he liked the Tally Marks so much he continued to play the toss game and make his marks at Free Play time. Very Cute!!

I can do this!!!

Yeah!!! I did it!!!
As hard as it is to sometimes include a Toddler into the play, Little Miss M loves it and wants to try everything the big kids do. She waits her turn, claps for the other kids, and even helped make her Tally Mark!! The Big Kids are so cute too, they were so excited for Little Miss M to get a bean bag in the basket, they were the ones to suggest that she stand closer to the basket, instead of standing off the carpet like they had to do :) They make me proud!!!

We also continued to trace and cut today!! I think I will make sure I have other shapes out next week for them. Maybe a tooth or something to do with Chinese New Year.

Little Miss M practicing her fine motor and problem solving skills. She teases me when I sit with her by putting yellow ring on the blue peg, then laughs and says... Nooooooo, and moves it to another peg. When she gets it on the right one she laughs and claps.... Cuteness!!

We had nice yummy Florida strawberries today. The kids helps wash and cut them up for lunch. It was a great quieting down activity before lunch.

Syd turned 3 just a short time ago and is doing such a great job!!! I am so proud of her and how she is growing so big!!!

We have had a wonderful day. I look forward to the weekend and the time to sort through our plans for next week. I wish all a Happy Valentines Day and a wonderful weekend!!!