Tis the Season 12/16/09

T

Thank-you Mrs. Smith for bringing in all

the yummy candies for our ice cream cone

trees.

Addi's mom came in to help us the day before the Christmas holidays. Here she teaches us how to make a stable with popsicle sticks.



Jingle bells, jingle bells, but our version
goes like this, "Friends are here, friends
are here, friends are here at school."


If we added glitter to our reindeer food,
Rudolph could find our house more easily.



We're not sure what was more fun, rolling
out the gingerbread dough, or eating our
gingerbread person. One thing is for certain,
we all knew the story of the" Gingerbread Man."


We cut out pictures from the newspaper
to stuff in our stockings of what we
wanted for Christmas.


Each child individualized their stocking
to hang on our mantle in hopes that Santa
would visit our classroom.

Thanks for giving 12/2/09

Thanksgiving is a time for sharing and that's what we did as each of us got the opportunity to tell our friends what we were grateful for. Izzy even brought in her real dog to share. LAP parents were very generous in their donations to the children in Romania. Sharing was a part of our Thanksgiving celebration. We put on our Pilgrim and Indian hats and each of us brought in a piece of fruit. We made a fruit salad and sang our turkey songs.

The Christmas season is a special magical time for children. Trees, glittter, sparkle, lights all add to the excitement of the little ones. We try to channel that energy into activities that spark their imagination and creativity. We encourage the children to visit the other classrooms on days when we are unable to go outside. We call this "neighborghood time" and they look forward to it. By doing this, they make new friends, and experience different toys.

WITH A GOBBLE GOBBLE HERE AND A CORN KERNEL THERE

Our last two weeks experiences have centered around turkeys and corn. These are two very important foods included in the first Thanksgiving feast which leads us into next week. Many of our activities gave the children hands on opportunities to discover and learn about these items. Handprint turkeys were a favorite and something the children can do at home. Clipping clothespin tailfeathers improved our counting and fine motor skills. We did the" Turkey Hokey Pokey" and learned several new Thanksgiving songs. We didn't let the rainy day spoil our fun as we gobbled gobbled through our net tunnel.

Corn turned out to be much more than just for eating. There are so many products made from corn like the playdough we made from cornmeal and the Indian corn for decorations. The corn in the sensory table was used for scooping and measuring. Then there's the corn at the science table to inspect with a magnifying glass and the corn kernels in art to form our first initials. Not to mention painting with a corn cob and of course, making and eating popcorn. WOW! Corn week was really fun!!

APPLE EXPERIENCES 11/2/09

Our smiling faces and full bellies after sampling red, yellow, and green apples.

Fingerpainting is such a sensory experience that everyone enjoyed.

We discovered a star inside the apple after Ms Angela told

a story about a red house with no doors and no windows.

The most fun was eating the apples!!!!!!!!

Apples grow on trees in an orchard so we had to make

lots of apples on trees, and on the ground.

Fine motor skills are developed through this activity of crinkling tissue paper.

Children match the wooden blocks with the cooresponding letters.

Imagination and creativity are sparked through building

with any kind of blocks. Maybe she'll be an architect

because she's designing a mall.

Playing with magnetic puzzles promotes eyehand coordination.