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 :)

The Sniffles, Play Doh & Sharing

I have finally succumbed to the sniffles. I have been wiping runny noses, been sneezed on and reminding little ones to "catch" their germs for the last few weeks and I was happy to be staying healthy. I wash hands, sterilize toys and try to keep the germs at bay... they have finally caught up with me. So, our day was less structured and more open, free play than usual. I think the kids enjoyed it.

Little Miss M brought in her Play Doh Cupcake Maker and shared with her friends today. Since the D-Man was out today, the 3 girls had a lot of fun playing house, creating the best and yummiest cupcakes ever and being the best Mommies to their babies I have ever seen. It was also the best sharing I have seen in a long time :)

Friday Fun

I was thinking today how our "theme" weeks never technically end sometimes. We have been talking about Winter, Winter/Arctic Animals, Ice, and anything we can find that fits under that theme. I felt like we should be "wrapping things up" today, but there is so much more we want to explore. The kids are sooooo not done with ice... they love it and have been putting water in almost anything they can find and putting that in my freezer. The problem with that is that my 5 yr old son, who is at school all day now, comes home, finds it, and plays with it. I find him in the bathroom sink with 2 or 3 interesting ice creations, that I just know was some preschoolers absolute bestest ice creation in the world (as they have been saying as they put them in the freezer). So, he and I have been trying to replace them, and sometimes we can pass it off as the original, sometimes not. Ahhh, we always have another day. Thankfully my kids are pretty flexible.

Today we read some more books about Snow, Snowmen, Snowballs, and Winter Wear. We had to read the book The Mitten, by Jan Brett. An absolute favorite every year. Our preschoolers then took numbered mittens and glued them in order to make a mitten crown. Then a mitten walk (parade) was in order. We got all dressed in our Winter Wear and out we went, to bad it is getting warmer here and there is no snow on the ground. The ice in the planter out front even melted. Oh Well :)

Cheese!!

The Alphabet was also on the agenda today... we played some games while reviewing our ABC's, earning some M&M's while we were at it. It was a lot of fun watching them get their M&M's... they were so helpful to each other, never making someone feel bad if they didn't know a letter... to cute. They each were eager to help each other. Those are the best skills that I can send them off with... compassion, confidence, problem solving (if they don't know the answer, how can they figure it out??) and the ability to make friendships. I pray everyday that I am doing that, and the other stuff... icing on the cake :)

Have a Great Weekend!!!

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...

Winter, Friends, Flour

We were busy beavers today... continuing our exploration of Winter and Winter Animals. At circle time Little Miss M helped us sing our weather song and then successfully named and sorted all the winter clothing she (or her friends) might wear outside on a cold day (like today).

We also talked about what animals wear outside on cold days... Humm...

Princess: "Sadie wears her fur!"
D-Man: "My dogs wear gloves... hee, hee, hee"
Mylo: "Shea wears her fur too!!"

I asked if they thought that any other animals were outside in the cold, other than dogs :) We came up with Birds, Cats, and LIONS!! (We are beginning to learn about he letter Ll this week).

I know the photo below has nothing to do with winter or winter animals, but I only have so many little animal figures... so communtiy helper people were brought out!! Remember, we are a flexible bunch here :)

The girls here were talking to each other. They decided (by eaves dropping on their friends at the sensory table) that their people would be animal trainers and the play dough the animals. To cute!!

Sprout is very intent on stacking these blocks like she saw one of the preschoolers do...

She did a really good job and was very proud of herself when she was down. She turned to me with the biggest and widest grin!! Completion of a task is wonderful in itself, but to stack all the blocks... well, that took determination!!! Great Job Sprout!!

Sprout was a busy girl today... She loved finding more community helper people in the lock box we have. She played here for 15 minutes, just talking to the little people, moving them in and out of the boxes. She finally left only when she locked one of the doors and couldn't get it open. She didn't get mad or frustrated, just kinda shrugged her shoulders and left.

The Princess worked on this homemade 100's board. We took penny's and covered each number, counting as we went. I wish I could remember what she would call the 30, 40, and 50 before she finally asked me for the correct way to say the number... something like 30 ten, I could tell she knew what she was saying was wrong, but I waited for her to self correct or ask... she finally asked and slapped her little forehead and laughed... again, too cute!!!

We also talked about the penny, what it's worth, and how many 100 is worth... she was amazed it was the same as a dollar bill.

The sensory table was a hot spot today. I put flour (snow), wintry animals, and glass gems/beads (ice)... the kids loved it!! They loved the texture of the flour, having the animals run and play, and creating landscapes for them to live in. Yet, I think the favorite thing to do was get the whole arm in the tub and get as much flour on themselves as possible. That and seeing how much they could get on their face...

This is actually a tame photo... Princess would end up with flour on her cheeks, chin and arms.

Sprout absolutely LOVED this sensory table!! The sensory table usually is a favorite of hers, but this one just appealed to her. She was laughing, giggling, touching, calling me over to check this or that out, and just reveled in the experience!! And as you can tell, she gets quite annoyed with me when I make her stop to say, "Cheese!!"

Numbers, Letters, Names

Today we reviewed our letters, names and numbers. No time to take photos though. The kids weren't 100% today... so my hands were usually holding a baby or toddler and not free to take a picture :).

We took all the sandpaper letters we have done so far this year and traced them, named them, made their sound, and then put them in ABC order. We then came up with words to go with each letter, and if the word was an animal we did something that animal did... Kk, kangaroo, hop... Cc, cow, Moo, etc... This was a fun activity.

For numbers 1 to 10, we counted, clapped, put them in order, found the correct number of items for each number and made patterns with some of the items we found. The toddlers loved finding the items and setting them under the numbers (mostly finding the items).

Then we clapped out our names, sang silly songs using the letters of our names and pointed to our names around the room. Next week I am going to make some name puzzles and put them on the light table for them to put together and tell me which name belongs to who. Princess loves to pair up with Sprout and Little Miss M and help them, and I think I might put the toddlers photo on it, they will like that :)

We also did a lot of make believe ice cream shop, building with blocks, show-n-tell, and just having fun with friends... isn't that what childhood is all about!!!
Have a Great Weekend!!!