Happy Thanksgiving!
We had a short morning but we still had fun. The children enjoyed center time, making a trail mix to bring to our feast, play dough and painting! For the Feast, each class was asked to bring something to contribute. Our class decided to bring some Friendship Trail Mix. The boys and girls enjoyed scooping out the various ingredients and mixing it all together. We even sampled some along the way. During our play dough time the children enjoyed adding some fall farm animals, acorns, and leaves. Before heading to the feast we took a few minutes to work on some fine motor letter work. The children we asked to fill the dots, which formed letters, with paint on the tip of a Q-tip. This took some control and concentration. With much anticipation, the Feast was ready to begin. Thank you to all who helped set up and serve, decorate, and make the food. The children sampled a wide variety of things. In the end I bet they would all agree the cookies were their favorites. Cutest Turkeys at the feast! Love each and every one of them! I hope you all have a blessed Thanksgiving break. Rest up so we all return strong and healthy! I plan to do the same. Safe travels to those celebrating out of town. God Bless each of your families.
Happy Thanksgiving! My voice is still not quite up to par. I sure hope I'm feeling back to normal by Friday. We enjoyed centers, chapel time, making bracelets, sticker fun, and another birthday today! Enjoy the pictures of everything we did! The Feast will be here before you know it! Gobble, Gobble! I can't wait to see all my little turkeys! Lunch will be provided Friday so you'll only need a water bottle. Feast is at 11am in the West Auditorium. All parents are invited to attend. Text or email if you have any questions. Thank you all for your patience with the late blog. I was the coordinator for the school/parish festival at my kids school this weekend and I have been out straight. Thankfully it was a wonderful day and the weather couldn't have been more perfect. Now that I can sit down for the first time in two days I have some time to make a post about Friday. The children are also beginning to play with each other more purposefully. They are calling each other by name and seeking out friends to interact with. It is interesting to watch as they grow into the next developmental stage. Moving away from solitary play and more into associate play. Associate play is characterized by the children beginning to interact with others during play but not necessarily much cooperation required. For example, the children may all be in puzzles together but working on their own puzzle or all in the block area building separate structures. This stage presents many opportunities to work on sharing and what words we can use when we would like to use something another friend is playing with. All such wonderful opportunities to learn how to be good friends. We enjoyed some chapel time and began working on our turkey headbands for the feast next Friday. Back in the room we took out our favorite paint sticks and whipped up some colorful artwork. The children have been loving the play dough we have been working with and as I set it up today they asked me for the really hard one. Took me a minute but I figured out they wanted the Theraputty again. So I grabbed it instead and we pulled and pulled and worked out muscles. Several kids pulled it into little strings and pretended they were making spaghetti! Love their budding imaginations! Next week we will be discussing Turkeys and Thanksgiving. We will be making some trail mix together to contribute to the feast as well.
I am looking forward to celebrating our Thanksgiving Feast next Friday at 11am. All parents are invited to join us. Bring a camera to take pictures of the cutest little owls, or should I say turkeys, the feast has ever seen! We had another fun filled day complete with a science experiment, new playdough, a visit from the Tobin Art Center, and another birthday! After about 20 minutes in the room the children began to notice that the side wall was full of new pictures. I had printed out several of the million photos I take and put them up over the weekend. They loved searching the wall to find themselves. There were shouts of "There I am!", "Look, it's me!", "Mrs. Kristen, I found my picture!" Extras that didn't make it on the wall were in totes today for you to keep. During Science we did a fun little experiment called "Dancing Corn" More of an observation really but exciting none the less. We used a large clear bottle, corn kernels, baking soda and vinegar. Before we began we discussed the experiment we did a few weeks ago when we blew up balloons with a chemical reaction. We remembered that the reaction of the baking soda and vinegar caused a lot of bubbles which inflated our balloons. Today we put the corn kernels in the bottom of the bottle and then added baking soda. Once the kernels were well coated we poured in the vinegar. There was an instant reaction which filled the bottle with bubbles that poured out the top. As the reaction settled down we noticed that the corn kernels were covered in tiny bubbles that were able to lift the corn up to the top of the vinegar. When the bubbles popped the corn sunk. The cycle repeated over and over. We were so excited to see what seemed like magic we were crawling on the table to get a closer look. This reaction lasted for about 15 minutes. After our experiment we headed upstairs for another visit from the Tobin Arts Center. Today we met "Vinny the Violin" and his handler. We learned that violins have 4 strings. And a violin can make music that can be happy, mad, sad, or sleepy. As the violin played we acted out the way it made us feel. Our favorite was the happy music because it made us want to dance! What a blessing to have this pilot program in our school. The children are really loving it! Back in the room we made some leaf ornaments, played with new brown play dough and enjoyed more center time. We concluded our day with lunch and another birthday celebration! Friday will be another fun filled day! Thank you to those who have brought their t-shirts in. Please don't stress over the color. They will be adorable no matter what color their t-shirt is!
What an exciting day! We learned new songs in Chapel, launched rockets, and celebrated another birthday! When Ms. Amanda joined us for science, time we went to the large open space in the lower mall to launch our Alka-Seltzer rockets. This super simple science experiment is like magic to the kids. All you need is a little water, an old film canister, and some Alka-Seltzer tablets. We brought along our dots to sit on to make sure every one was a safe distance from any falling rockets. We also used a large tray to contain the water. Usually I do this experiment outside but it was a little chilly this morning. We loved watching the rockets blast off. The boys and girls all had several opportunities to launch their rocket. They would hold the rocket as I added the water and they would drop in the "power pack" (Alka-Seltzer tablet) and close the lid. Then we put the rocket on the launch pad upside down and ran back to our dots. We counted backwards 5, 4, 3, 2, 1! Blast off! So exciting! We even had several teachers and other church staff watching our launch as they walked by. (This blog software doesn't allow for a video so I will try sending one in the GroupMe chat) Back in the room we began working on our placemats for the Thanksgiving Feast. We painted with watercolors for the first time. I also introduced the children to Mad Matter today. This is another fun and exciting sensory material that is just irresistible! I found these 2 oz containers of Mad Matter on clearance one summer in Target and I bought the entire batch. We began just exploring and feeling the silky material in our hands. Then added a wide variety of Toob Animals to the mix. The children had a great time working with their hands and trading animals with their friends. This kept our interest for nearly 40 minutes! We enjoyed some fresh air and playtime before returning to the room for lunch and a birthday celebration. I hope you all have a wonderful weekend. For our two Owl's celebrating birthday's tomorrow, I hope you have a great day! We will be learning about Fall next week. Enjoy the cooler weather!
The Owl's didn't let a little rain ruin our day together! We had so much fun with a surprise visit from the Bug Lady, Music class, painting our own planets, blasting off in our own class rocket. We turned our kitchen around and transformed the space into a rocket complete with space chairs, headphones to hear Mission Control, and a control panel that kept everyone interested! Not too long into our morning we were able to attend a presentation from The Bug Lady. She brought a lovely display of books and taught us about pollinators. She told us some of the animals that help pollinate plants and flowers are bees, bats, hummingbirds, and butterflies. She demonstrated how the animals move pollen from one plant to another. She also brought a craft for us to do. We made our own butterflies to take home. We even attached a party noise maker to act as the butterfly's proboscis. The Bug Lady also sent us each home with a packet of wild flower seeds. Back in the classroom we were treated to an "out of this world" snack! The class loved it. We had what we called, "pepperoni planets", "Moon" Ritz Crackers, and star shaped cheese! During our art time we were busy designing our own planets. We also enjoyed some fine motor sticker work and play dough time! Once the rain started we were mesmerized at the window watching the rain pour off the roof. One little owl thought it looked like a waterfall. Hopefully the weather will improve for Friday because we are hoping to launch Alka-Seltzer rockets! It is sure to be an exciting day!
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Why Blog?Here you will find little snippets of our days together. When my children were in preschool and would come home I would always ask, "So, what did you do today?". All they ever said was, "Played." That didn't tell me much. I hope this blog will be a place to share what we have done and help you ask more directed questions of your child. You will see first hand just what we do after you kiss your little one goodbye in the morning. It will also be a great place to visit and see just how much your child has grown and learned throughout the year. Archives
March 2024
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