Welcome back to 2013 and Winter !
Today was a busy day and it has flown by. Randy and I were so happy to see all our little friends come in this morning. Many hit the door talking and havent stopped since ! You can always tell when the kids really miss you . It feels like they stored up all the things they have wanted to tell you and it all falls out of their little mouths in five minutes in one long stream after…. You know what ? ….
Of course, Randy was the same way. He couldnt wait to tell them who he saw at Walmart , about a cat we found upstairs and of naturally more Dooney , Bird and Onion stories.
Today we started talking about winter. Most of our table games we took out were winter themed like match the mittens that Lilly is playing.
Or a sensory box with all white things in it to resemble snow. Joslyn put some of the articles in the box up to her face and said ” Ho Ho Ho.”
We talked about now that all the leaves are off the trees we can see the birds a little easier. I have seen some cardinals in our front yard. I have heard that when you see one cardinal you will always see another one that they travel and in pairs and mate for life. ( I skipped that part with the kids.. you’re welcome. ) The kids tore brown paper to make a tree on their blue paper and then we did red handprints for the cardinal. So pretty. We will finish these up tomorrow.
Randy made slime with the kids from Borax. He put white glitter in it so it would sparkle like snow. The kids were surprised that all the liquid became solid – kinda.
After a while of playing with it I showed them how you can write on it and then wad it up and start again. They loved that !
In circle time today we talked about winter and the letter W. If you are keeping count we have introduced all these letters this year. A B C D F H L M P R S T W and X. Most of the kids know the letters by sight and the sound that it makes. We also read ” The Snowy Day’ by Ezra Keats. It is about a little boy that plays in the snow. He brings a snow ball in to his bed. What happened to the snow ball after he went to sleep ? The kids talked about what probably happened and what he might have done with the snow ball if he wanted to save it. Can we build a snow man outside and bring it inside to the fridge then ? No.. silly ! It’s too small. Lots of higher level thinking going on today. We also have new music and the kids loved the ballet music where they could float like snowflakes.
We did go outside today. It is pretty cold but the wind wasnt blowing so it was bearable. We found a lot of ice. Exploring with ice outside is a natural way to learn about the properties of ice .
Please send heavy coats, gloves or mittens and hats if you have them. We go outside unless there is a weather warning. When it is this cold we dont usually stay outside for the full hour but we usually get atleast 20 minutes in. If we get too cold we snuggle with our friends !
It was a great first day back. It was hard for me to get moving this morning. I got a little lazy over the break but I am so glad we are back !
Love it. Sounds like what I have planned for Monday.