Winter Fun

Happy weekend! Man-oh-man is it windy here!  

We started this week by finishing up some gingerbread activities that we didn't have time for last week.  During table time, we played with play-dough and some of my little cuties even made gingerbread boys!  

We also worked on tearing and body parts when we made our "One Yummy Gingerbread Boy" book.  They loved seeing the gingerbread boy disappear as we progressed through the book!

The last gingerbread activity we did was a positional words book that I created.  After they finished the book, they loved reading it to us!

Our big project for the week was making a snowman looking up.  I pinned the idea from We Heart Art a while ago and I've been looking forward to making them.  We started by cutting out the head, body, and carrot nose.  I'm so happy with the improvements I'm seeing in their cutting skills!  

 After they glued the snowman together, we let them choose two colors to pattern for the snowman's scarf.  They patterned the pieces first and then glued them down.  

Then, they added the mouth, arms, and any other details they wanted.  We really talked through the idea that their snowmen didn't need eyes because they were looking up and you couldn't see their eyes, but some couldn't resist adding eyes.  :)

The last step was using a Q-tip dipped in white paint to add snowflakes.  See, I told you it was a big project! 

Are they not adorable?!  I love seeing each of my little darling's personalities shining through in their artwork! 

We knew that we needed to show these off to the whole school!  Ms. Mary did a great job displaying them on our bulletin board in the hallway.

On Tuesday, Ms. Mary B. joined us for a language group.  She had mittens with patterns on them and she placed mittens around the cube chairs.  When she called on one of my cuties, she'd tell them where to find the mitten's match.  For example, "This mitten's match is under the green chair."  Then, they were able to hide the mittens and describe to her where to find them. 

Each day at circle time, I read them the Disappearing Snowman story.  For the story, you have a sheet of paper that you cut into a snowman shape and each day the snowman gets smaller and smaller.  They loved seeing the snowman disappear and putting the scraps into size order!

 We also worked on building a snowman and following directions.  We placed the pieces for the snowman into the sensory box and the kids had to figure out what part of the snowman they had before looking at it.

They loved it so much, that we also used the pieces that came with the box and each cutie turned over a card and had to find the item pictured on their card.  

We also worked on identifying letters to make snowflakes.  The popsicle sticks had a letter on each end.  Each child identified the letter, matched it to the corresponding card, and then built a snowflake.

This little cutie was such a great calendar helper!  I love hearing them say the days of the week and months of the year independently!  

This little one celebrated her birthday this week!

Thanks for stopping by!

~Beth

The Gingerbread Man!

Happy 2014!  This week our theme was The Gingerbread Man and it's always a favorite!  We started the week by reading The Gingerbread Boy.  It always surprises me how much they love this story.  They were all listening and focused while I read.  This year, we also read a new version of the story called The Gingerbread Bear.

We ended the week reading the e-book version of The Gingerbread Man.  I was excited to try out a new program they installed on my computer that would display my iPad onto the Teamboard.  There were a few hiccups, but overall it worked pretty well.   

We started the week by cutting out a large gingerbread man shape and then decorating it.  This was a great activity to ease everyone back into attending to task, cutting, gluing, and writing!  

We ended the week by acting out the story.  In this picture the Gingerbread Boy is telling the old woman, "Run, run, run, as fast as you can!" 

Here the fox is telling the Gingerbread Boy to jump on his nose.  

And then, what gingerbread unit would be complete without making gingerbread cookies?!  I made the dough ahead of time and then the kids each had a turn to cut out a gingerbread man.  

We are lucky enough to have a toaster oven in our classroom, so we were able to bake the cookies in the room!  Luckily, none of the cookies tried to run away.  :)

And finally, we were able to eat our gingerbread cookies!  Everyone tried their cookie and most of my little cuties liked them.  There were even several kids begging for more cookies.  

During play time this week, these cuties have loved building boats and rocket ships for everyone to play in.  It's so exciting to see them working together and creating play schemes!

And, look how nicely they are looking at books while they wait to transition to circle time!

I hope you've had a great week!

Thanks for stopping by!

~Beth