January 18, 2019 Note…
Friday, January 18, 2019
Hello!
Here is some info for you about our activities this past week.
Thanks for reading and I hope you have a wonderful weekend!
Anine : )
Indoor Snow…
Monday, we filled eight plates with snow from outside, covered the kitchen table with towels, and used measuring cups and spoons to “play in the snow”. We also sang a song about Arctic animals, played an alphabet game, read stories, and spent time in the classroom space.
Snowball Spell Your Name Game, Homemade Books…
Tuesday the kids had some fun practicing spelling their names with “snowballs” (mini marshmallows). The kids worked on a birthday card together, started on our homemade “snowman” books, enjoyed some free play and read stories.
Snowman Craft, Game Day, and Plumber…
Wednesday the plumber was here from about 10 to 2 so we stayed upstairs. The kids started on a cute snowman craft. They used their fingers to paint white snowflakes on the backgrounds of their pictures and used black finger prints to paint snowman “smiles”. The kids also got to use glue sticks and construction paper. Thank you to Grandma Bente, who spent part of Wednesday morning with us, just to help everything go smoothly on an out-of-the-ordinary day. The kids played bunches of games on Wednesday and just loved that. I made sure there were enough games set up throughout the upstairs so everyone could have one to themselves. The kids chose to share games some of the time, too. Some of our game titles included: * Blokus * Boggle Jr. * Perfection * Operation * Lakeshore “Tweezer Tongs” Color Sorting Kit * Lakeshore Early Math Activity Jars * Zingo * Connect Four.
Homemade Books, Surprise Inspection…
Thursday at about 1:10 there was a knock at the door, and it was our surprise annual inspection from child care licensing. Those can be very detailed and can take a long time, but ours went really well, didn’t take long, and the inspector commented on how organized everything was, so I was happy about that! Thursday the kids and I continued on their homemade books project, and we finished our group birthday card for one of the daddies in our group. Some of the friends wished to practice their scissors “homework” and loved that. We played more games, we read stories, and in the late afternoon we mixed up a batch of fudge brownie cupcakes. I baked the cupcakes after 5:00 pm, and then the kids got to taste them at lunchtime on Friday.
Snowman-Face Snowflake Cookies…
Friday morning the kids got to decorate snowflake-shaped cookies by making white icing with me and then they got to drizzle it all over the tops of our snowflake cookies. We placed the cookies on a cooling rack over a cookie sheet and let all the extra icing fall through the cooling rack to the cookie sheet below. Some of the kids thought that was a neat sight. Later after the white frosting had set, the kids teamed up one at a time with Grandma Bente and “drew” two eyes, a “carrot” nose, and a snowman smile using black and orange gel icings. Friday afternoon the kids had a really nice time in the classroom space.
Books We Read, and Related Fun:
Some of the books we read this week included * That’s Not My Penguin * Polar Bear Night * Bear Can’t Sleep * Bear Snores On * Gingerbread Friends * The Mitten * The Hat * The Snowy Day * Snowmen at Night * Your Personal Penguin * Touch & Feel: Arctic * That’s Not My Polar Bear * Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You Hear? * The Story of Martin Luther King Jr. * If You Give a Moose a Muffin * National Geographic: Penguins * Sadie and the Snowman * National Geographic: Polar Bears * Tacky the Penguin * Blue Whale Babies * Ten on the Sled * In Arctic Waters * Ten Playful Penguins * Snowballs * Little Bea and the Snowy Day * Arctic Animals
Some of our books were meant to be sung, so we had some fun with that. Ten on the Sled is sung to the tune of Ten on the Bed (…and the little one said, “roll over, roll over… so they all rolled over and one fell out!”) Our book “In Arctic Waters” has a lot of fun rhyming and repetition in it, and we add in some humor, too. Brown Bear, Brown Bear can be sung, and “Your Personal Penguin” (by Sandra Boynton) has a fun song to go with it. We found an example of that on YouTube this week and practiced singing that book. We also found a Sandra Boynton song about “Cows” that made the kids laugh. And last, some of our other books gave us the opportunity to talk about hibernation and about camouflage. Some of the kids were excited enough to know about that that they would call out in the middle of reading our story that “Hey! That animal has camouflage!” or call out that another animal hibernates.
Monday Meals…
Breakfast was blueberry waffles, bananas, and milk.
Lunch was chicken cacciatore (chicken breast, peppers, onions, garlic, butter, Prego Three Cheese pasta sauce), Barilla whole grain Rotini pasta, steamed corn, peaches, and milk.
Snack was Multi Grain Cheerios, apple juice and half of a homemade chocolate chip cookie, each (if they wanted).
Tuesday Meals…
Breakfast was cinnamon toast waffles, banana, and milk.
Lunch was cheese pizza, steamed edamame, black beans, mandarin oranges, and milk.
Snack was Wheat Thins crackers, Mozzarella/Cheddar cheese slices, Gourmet pork/beef summer sausage from a really good local smokehouse, apple juice and water.
Wednesday Meals…
Breakfast was chocolate chip waffles, blueberry waffles, red grapes, and milk.
Lunch was slow cooker teriyaki pork tenderloin, steamed peas, peaches, Lundberg whole-grain Organic brown rice, Orowheat Country White bread/butter, and milk.
Snack was Cheez Its and apple juice.
Thursday Meals…
Breakfast was strawberry waffles, diced apple and milk.
Lunch was Taco Soup - broth mostly removed (ground turkey, black beans, kidney beans, pinto beans, corn, edamame, onion, taco seasoning, ranch seasoning, tomato sauce), fresh avocado slices, fresh pineapple, Orowheat Oat Nut bread/butter, and milk.
Snack was whole grain “Cheddar” Goldfish crackers, whole-grain “Pretzel” Goldfish crackers, and apple juice.
Friday Meals…
Breakfast was homestyle waffles, strawberry waffles, bananas and milk.
Lunch was Super Saver Smokehouse gourmet ham slices, steamed peas, diced red grapes, Kraft macaroni & cheese, and milk.
Snack was Club multi grain crackers, gourmet smokehouse pork/beef summer sausage, Kraft Sharp Cheddar cheese slices, Multi Grain Cheerios, and apple juice.
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