We made fold-over trees on Monday, using strings dipped in paint to create swirls of metallic color. Children put the strings in place, folded the trees and pressed them carefully. Then they opened them, pulled the strings out and added sparkly decorations. These are on display so come in and see them!
Also on display are beautiful hand print wreaths that they made on Friday. We helped them cover one hand in paint and use it to stamp around a circle. Then they used a finger to add red berries, sprinkled it with green glitter and added a big red bow.
We suspect their favorite project this week was the one they brought home on Friday - their tealight lanterns! On Wednesday they covered glass jars (thank you for those!) with blue and purple tissue paper, gluing over it to create a shiny collage.
Other parent-led activities this week were adding November items to memory boxes and making jingle bell bracelets. Children each chose a fall leaf to put in their boxes and a sticker for their sticker books. Some of their favorite memories of the month were making stone soup, going on a nature walk and having apple pie in a cup!
We're having fun with our jingle bell bracelets during our music time with a song about shaking them up, down, and all around! We will also use them during our winter program and then everyone can take them home.
Around the classroom there were other signs of the season. The texture table is filled with rice and lots of different Christmas/winter toys and trinkets. Children can use the magnet wands to discover which ones are magnetic and which ones aren't.
At the water tub children enjoyed filling huge water jugs with red and green water or making tea with the fancy gems. Of course, the best part of filling those gigantic jugs is dumping them out!
At the light table there were clear ornaments to stuff full of ribbon, bells, pom poms and pipe cleaners. Once they were filled, there were tweezers for extracting all of the items so they could be filled again.
Our play dough table is always busy, and the children love to mix the different colors for their cookies, snowmen and other imaginative projects.
At the creation station there were trees, bears, and all sorts of holiday materials to glue on them.
There are holiday aprons and cookies in our dramatic play area - as well as Santa and elf hats which are lots of fun!
Oh look! There's Santa and his reindeer now!
A scene from the North Pole on our building table provided lots of imaginative play and enthusiastic snow scattering :)
Here are a few other photos of the kids during their free play time this week:
We are practicing songs for our program and are also learning a few new ones. We learned one about planting seeds of love, joy and peace, and a very fun and silly song about a funky chicken! We are excited to sing them all for you soon :).
Some of the stories we read were Mouse's Christmas, The Littlest Elf, Turkey Claus, and Teacher Sheri told a funny story about a Pete the Cat gingerbread cookie.
We continue to practice our Christmas yoga series and are also doing some independent breathing exercises (where the children can choose any breath to begin their practice).
Friday we had our Friendship Circle and as we passed the love rock, we each shared something that we are good at. These circle times are always very sweet and we look forward to them every week.
It's a little colder and wetter outside, but that doesn't stop these kids!
Next week we will learn about Hannukah, read stories about the Gingerbread Man and continue celebrating the joy of the season. Thanks for sharing your sweet kiddos with us!
Until next time...
Lisa and Sheri
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