January 28, 2018
Sunday, January 28, 2018
Hello!
Over the last few weeks I’ve given extra attention to photo and calendar sharing, to our daily activities, and to some annual paperwork that needed completing. It was great to work on all of those things, but today I’m excited to get to share a bit with you about our last 15 days or so of activities! I have a lot of partially written notes from those days and may use a few excerpts from them as I update you today!
Thanks for reading, and have a wonderful day!
Anine : )
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December 19th, 20th and 21st…
The last few days before Christmas the kids enjoyed getting to share Christmas traditions with two more friends. They also enjoyed a Christmas-themed song and story time.
One friend shared a tradition of making homemade Christmas tree ornaments, and a tradition of making Hot Chocolate. The kids had so much fun making their own ornaments from kits our friend shared, fun with “Dramatic Play: Hot Cocoa Store”, and fun drinking real hot chocolate with marshmallows!
Here is an excerpt from the note I started that day:
(Thank you to our friend’s mom), who shared:
“Homemade Ornaments: Each year my husband puts up the Christmas tree. Our preschool daughter and her 3 sisters put all the ornaments on the tree. Many of the ornaments are handmade by the girls. The sisters take turns putting the star on top of the tree each year.”
Today we set up a craft station at the blue table in the living room. Each of the kids got to make their own snowflake ornament to take home, (Thank you to our friend and her family, for providing the craft kits!). If the kids wanted to, there were supplies available to make a second or a third ornament, too. The kids got to place their ornaments on a tiny Christmas tree, just for today, and then take them home at the end of the day.
“Hot Cocoa: Our daughter and her sisters love to make hot cocoa over Christmas break. They warm up the water in the microwave and pour in the hot cocoa mix. They also count out how many marshmallows each sister gets so that they all have the same amount.”
Today we set up a “Hot Cocoa Store” in the living room. The kids had a “Hot Cocoa” banner to use, a cash register, pretend money, real (to-go-style) coffee cups with lids, brown felt shapes to represent the hot chocolate in the cups, white pom-poms to represent the marshmallows, a menu in a frame, paper Order Sheets, paper “Cookies”, and more.
Some of the kids’ favorite things about today were * “Playing Hot Chocolate – helping to put the straws in!” * “The “Hot Cocoa” sign”, * “Playing in the Blocks area.” * “Everything about the hot chocolate store”
Another friend also shared two traditions on her special day. A tradition of making a certain pretzel treat, and a tradition of playing a fun game with her cousin at her grandparents’ house.
The kids loved playing a “Hide the Ornament” game (a German tradition using an ornament that looks like a pickle!) and loved getting to dip pretzels into melted almond bark and then getting to add – and sample - Christmas candy sprinkles!
During our Hide the Ornament game, the kids all started by sitting around the kitchen table, covering their eyes, and counting to ten. I hid the ornament somewhere upstairs for them to find, and then each friend had a turn to hunt for the ornament on their own while everyone else cheered them on. After each friend found the ornament, they came back to the kitchen table and got to open a gift bag with a present inside.
During our pretzel-making project, each friend got to team up one-on-one with me, take a giant pretzel rod out of the bag, dip it into melted white almond bark, and then set it on parchment paper and add Christmas candy sprinkles. After the pretzels set, we packaged them up in cute little bags and each friend got to take two pretzels home.
The kids said some of their favorite things today were * Pretzels * Making pretzels * Hunting for the ornament * Playing with Little People * Playing the ornament game * Playing Little People with a friend * Playing the Pickle game and opening the cookie sack
Thank you to our friend and her family for sharing traditions; for the fun game, the gifts for the kids, the recipe, and the pretzel making supplies!
And thank you again to each of you for helping make our “Sharing Christmas Traditions” theme so much fun for the kids this year!
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January 8th-12th, 2018…
The first week back after Winter Break was a lot of fun for the kids. They were so excited to see each other - they were giving each other hugs off and on all day long that Monday; and they were excited to see what was new in our classroom space. This month we are learning about Polar Animals, and we started on some of those activities, too.
Monday, January 8 was a day full of reconnecting with friends, discovering what was new in our classroom space, telling about the fun things that happened on everyone’s “stay home” days, working on a birthday card for a friend, working on some “homework” and reading about Polar Animals during a story time.
In our classroom space the kids discovered new “Imaginext” castles (that have been in storage all semester), a new pirate ship, new Hot Wheels tracks and cars, new puzzles, new storage for our Brio trains and tracks, and new storage for our Fisher Price Little People and accessories. The kids completed a group birthday card, too, for a friend’s little brother, who turned one over the break.
Tuesday, January 9th the kids and I practiced a tornado drill. Since we had to go sit under the stairs for that for a moment, the kids also got to see what was new in our toy storage areas. They were excited to see everything that had changed, and to request that we bring out other fun toys; either that day, or another day soon.
The kids worked on a group birthday card on Tuesday. They each took a turn sitting with me at the computer and choosing some “free clip art” to place on their own personal page of a group birthday card. The kids chose cute pictures of birthday cakes, cats, and super heroes, and then colored them before we put them all together. Happy Birthday to our friend’s Mommy, who had a birthday in mid-January!
Wednesday, January 10th the kids enjoyed looking at books on their own for a little bit; and hearing me read books aloud, including “Tacky the Penguin”.
Everyone practiced our ABC Chant together (the beginning sounds of each letter of the alphabet), we played Alphabet games, the kids enjoyed sharing areas in our classroom space, the kids practiced cutting with scissors, and some friends worked on their own individual “homework” too.
Thursday, January 11th we read about Puffins, and read other fun books having to do with Polar Animals. The kids enjoyed trying out some Mazes and some Tracing Activities, too on little worksheets we printed. Four of our younger friends enjoyed practicing cutting with scissors again, and four of our older friends were especially interested in building multiple creations with items from our Blocks Area.
Friday, January 12th was a super fun day for the kids. We brought all kinds of games out of the game cupboard and the kids had a blast with those.
Some of the games the kids tried out included * Candy Land * Blokus * a Lakeshore Tweezer Tongs Color Sorting Set * Connect Four * Lakeshore Ladybug Number Match * Boggle Jr. Letters * Scrabble Junior * Lakeshore Early Math Activity Jars * and a number of puzzles.
Our two youngest friends did most of their game playing in the afternoon, with older friends’ help. During the morning our youngest friends especially enjoyed a “Batman” themed area that we set up for them. It included a Batman castle, Batman action figures, a Hot Wheels loop for each friend, a brand-new Batman Hot Wheel for each friend to use, and a Fisher Price Little People “Batman”, “Robin” and “Joker.”
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Monday, January 15th and Tuesday, January 16th there was no school.
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Wednesday, January 17th we read a fun book called Ten on the Sled. That book can be read, or it can be sung, and it makes the kids laugh quite a bit. I sent you a brief note via email after lunch that day:
Hello!
Our morning is going well! We read/sang two fun books about Polar Animals, the kids looked at books on their own, we spent time in the classroom space, four friends have worked on “homework” so far, and everyone worked on a group birthday card together, too.
Two quick FYIs for you –
* 2017 Tax Statements are in your child’s cubby basket today. We went through them twice, and I believe we have everything correct, but of course please let me know if you come up with something different! Thank you!
* Over the weekend my oldest son and I worked on photos quite a bit. I finished selecting/editing our first semester photos and my son loaded almost all of them onto our Facebook page for us. He hopes to stop by tonight and load the last of the December photos for us.
Today’s Meals…
Breakfast was Original Cheerios, bananas, Pepperidge Farm Whole Wheat Raisin-Cinnamon toast/butter, and milk.
Lunch was hamburger pizza, Chicken Alfredo, steamed broccoli, fresh blackberries and blueberries, and milk.
Thanks for reading, and have a wonderful afternoon!
Anine : )
Wednesday the kids also had fun listening to the “Batman” theme song played by “Alexa” via an Amazon Echo. That made them laugh – and so did watching “Alexa” respond to requests to turn the living room lamp on and off!
The kids worked on a little bit of “homework” and played some letter identification games with me, they played with the Batman castles, and we also had our surprise annual inspection that day. Our new representative from Health and Human Services stopped by at about 1:30 and everything went well. He walked through the whole house, he was nice, and he commented positively about how things were organized.
Thursday, January 18th we read a book called “The Top and Bottom of the World”. We found the North Pole, the South Pole, and the Arctic Circle on a globe, and we read other books, including * Ten on the Sled * Antarctica * National Geographic: Penguins * Arctic Animals * In Arctic Waters * Blue Whale Babies.
Each friend worked on some kind of special “homework” that day. One friend finished her special green homework book, worked on identifying letters out of order, and practiced with scissors. Three friends played an ABC game – identifying letters, one friend worked on the letter “L” and the letter “E” in her special homework book, one friend did some extra practicing cutting with scissors, etc.
Friday January 19th was one friend’s Daddy’s birthday – Happy Birthday! On Wednesday, and Thursday the kids had worked on a superhero-themed group birthday card for him. They tried out a new set of markers that are supposed to show up extra well on dark paper, and they colored pictures of superheroes, birthday cakes, and “Hello Kitty” characters to add onto the card.
Friday some of our activities included * working on quite a few different wooden and/or cardboard puzzles * practicing cutting with scissors * sharing the Little People Farms, the Little People house, and the Batman castle * building an assortment of creations with supplies from our Blocks area, including foam blocks and magnetic tiles.
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January 22nd there was no school.
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January 23rd – 26th…
This week we continued learning about Polar Animals – and mostly concentrated on animals that live in the Arctic.
Homemade Books… the kids worked each day this week on creating homemade books, titled “Who Lives in the Arctic?” The kids used a variety of art supplies like acrylic paints/Q-tips, “Dot” paints, assorted magic markers, colored pencils, crayons, glue, and tiny bits of yarn as they completed their pages. We talked about the animals on each page; and on Friday, we went through the completed books together and as a group tried to remember one special thing we knew about each animal.
Math Games… the kids enjoyed trying out some simple homemade games this week.
They worked on matching the numbers one through ten when they played a “Penguin Number Match” game.
While playing “Snowman Makes Ten” they used wooden tongs to position ten cotton ball “snowballs” for a fine motor challenge; they worked on matching, and they worked on counting to ten.
Other games the kids enjoyed this week were magnetic “Fishing” for numbered fish, and playing a Disney-themed game of “Sorry.”
“Polar Bear Paws” Game… This was a twist on the game “London Bridge is Falling Down” and the kids enjoyed it. Lots of smiles and laughter. Here are the alternate words:
Little cubs are swimming about,
swimming about,
swimming about.
Little cubs are swimming about.
Polar bear paws!
Take a cub and play with (him/her),
Play with (him/her)
Play with (him/her)!
Take a cub and play with (him/her)!
Polar bear, paws!
Winter Time Trace, Cut and Glue, Other “Homework” … This week the older kids each worked on their own individual “homework” and all of the kids had the option to work on some simple worksheets I printed for them (if they thought that sounded fun).
Snow! Wednesday afternoon the 24th we covered the kitchen table with a big towel after snack time, and I brought in individual plates and a cookie sheet full of snow that I “scooped” for the kids from the deck outside.
The kids had a few plastic spoons etc. to use to dig in their personal piles of snow, we made a couple of tiny snowmen; and later, the kids took turns going out onto the sunny deck and using a kids’ sized shovel to try out scooping snow on their own if they wanted. They got a big kick out of that, and out of just stomping in the remaining piles of snow out there on the deck!
Fire Drill… We practiced a fire drill on Thursday the 25th. We were all sitting at the kitchen table, and since the deck door was the closest, the kids correctly decided it was wisest to head out that way.
Books We Read, National Geographic Photos, YouTube Learning… Some of the books we read this week include * Polar Bear Night * In Arctic Waters * The Hat * National Geographic: Polar Bears * Snowmen at Night, Ten on the Sled * Baby Beluga * Touch & Feel: “Arctic” * National Geographic: Penguins * Polar Bear, Polar Bear, What Do You Hear? * our homemade ABC Chant book * Ten Playful Penguins
We used Google photos and YouTube videos to add to our learning this week. After reading “Polar, Bear, Polar Bear, What Do You Hear?” one day, we looked up videos of * polar bear sounds * lion sounds * hippopotamus sounds * flamingo sounds * zebra sounds * elephant sounds * leopard sounds * peacock sounds * walrus sounds so the kids could hear what those animals sound like in real life.
We looked, too, at National Geographic photos of walruses and polar bears in the wild, when we started our homemade books early in the week.
Classroom Space… The kids were busy and happy during our times in our classroom space. Some of the activities the kids chose this week were * Little People buses * Little People car wash * Batman characters * Little Pet Shop set * Princesses * Robo-Sapien robot * Community Helpers people * Bowling set * Beanbags * Keva planks * Duplos * Magnetic tiles * “Friend” blocks (homemade cylinder blocks with photos of each friend’s face)
Outdoors… It was cold and snowy on Monday, but later in the week we got outside three different afternoons and the kids were able to play on the deck.
Meals…
I will send a message about the kids’ recent meals in a separate email.
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