"Snowy Day" Creations

This Last week at preschool we talked about snow and we read the book "Snowy Day" by Ezra Jack Keats. Then we talked about how the author/illustrator created his pictures by making a collage of different colored papers. On Tuesday we watercolored on paper and then on Thursday (after our paintings had dried) I had the kids rip up their papers into small pieces and put them in a community bowl and then they created pictures using the papers they had all painted. Unfortunately I didn't get any pictures of the final products before they all took them home!

And Happy Birthday Ben! We had fun Celebrating Ben's Birthday this last week. :)

Puzzle Making and Letter Writing

The Kids worked really hard this week practicing their letter writing. On Thursday we practiced writing the letter N. We used our white boards and took turns tracing letters in the rice. During this time we also made our own puzzles! I've found that a lot of kids about this age are able to handle a small jigsaw puzzle (although at least in the case of my daughter they still need a lot of guidance). I've found that it's a great opportunity to practice sorting and reasoning skills, as you talk with them about the "edge pieces" the "corner pieces" and the "middle pieces" and then look for clues about where each piece goes.

Ice Waltzing

On Thursday this last week we had a blast doing some "Indoor Ice-Waltzing". This would be a GREAT activity to try at home. We cut out wax paper close to the size of the children's feet and had them take their socks off so that their feet would stick a little better to the wax paper and then we introduced them to the Waltz (compliments of Baby Einstein Playtime Music Box) and encouraged them to move their bodies to the music as they "skated" around the carpet. I don't know how much "Waltzing" we actually got, but this was a wonderful Gross Motor activity and the kids ate it up since we don't get to go outside these days. And it actually works! Mrs. Charlotte and I were surprised how well the paper worked to help you glide around the room and didn't hesitate to particpate ourselves. :)

Back to school.....ICE

We had our first week of Preschool for the Spring Semester. This month we are studying Winter, and our theme for the week: ICE was very appropriate since this last week was the coldest of the year!!!

On Tuesday we had lots of fun with a Science Experiment studying ice, how we get ice, and what happens when the ice gets warm. We had some of our animal friends who had been frozen inside a block of ice and the kids had to find a way to get them out. They made some great observations and hypotheses. Our first idea was to just bang the ice to get them out. We tried this but it wasn't working too well so then we talked about the snow and the ice and outside and what happens to it when it gets warm outside. Their next idea was to stick our ice block outside, but we soon decided that 3 degree weather outside probably wasn't going to do much so finally we talked about warm things we have inside the house, like the oven, the microwave and finally WARM WATER!!! As the kids started pouring water over the ice block they could see a difference immediately and got SO excited. They took turns pouring the warm water and were just thrilled when they freed their friends.