Sunday, January 20, 2019

Snowy fun in the YC! - Teacher Christine

This week we continued our celebration of winter with a look at what animals do in winter. We had "snow" in our water tub, and fun with penguin art and songs!

On Tuesday the kids painted with frozen water colors. We froze liquid water colors in ice cube trays, added popsicle sticks for handles and let them explore painting with ice cubes. It was fun to see how the colors mixed and how the texture changed as the ice cube began to melt. Many of them came back to paint several times.








In art on Thursday the kids made the sweetest penguin paintings. Looking at the sample and at the mini penguin figure we had out for them, they used sponge brushes to create their own interpretation of a penguin. These are displayed outside of the classroom -- take a peek!







We had a wooden boat on the carpet this week and for our second activity on Tuesday, the kids enjoyed shape fishing. Using wooden rods with a magnet, they caught a few different fish and worked to identify the shape drawn on each fish. It was such a fun way to practice shape identification, turn taking, and sharing space in our little boat.











The kids had fun on Thursday playing a counting game with penguins and goldfish crackers. They took turns drawing a penguin card, counted the dots on the card, and then counted out the right number of goldfish crackers to put on the penguin's belly! 



They love doing puzzles and games!






Our alpha bots are a HUGE hit with many of the kids and a great way to work on letter identification and fine motor skills. 


Here's a peek at some more focused puzzle fun!



We added polar bears and giant "ice cubes" to our texture table this week.




The kids always love our play dough and spend so much time sculpting and creating. They loved using the paper cupcake wrappers to make cakes all week long.




We added insta snow to our water table this week. This inspired the creation of lots of delicious flavors of milkshakes. :) The kids loved the feel of this snow and spent a lot of time scooping and filling up the various bowls and cups we had placed in the tub.








Baby Mabel is so loved and received lots of affection this week.






The kids were thrilled with the marble run that we had out at the building table this week! They loved building all kinds of different runs and it was fun to see them work out their designs by trial and error. 






Dress up is always a blast!




The boat was available all week for the kids to play in at the carpet.



We have noticed even more collaborative play happening during free play time! 


During circle time this week we read books about snowmen.



We danced and played along to the music with fruit and vegetable shakers.


Teacher Meghan read us a book about a sweet penguin and a pine cone.


We also sang a HILARIOUS song about a penguins going to tea -- they march, flap their wings, stomp their feet, and bob their heads all at the same time! 


We celebrated a special birthday!


We also had fun with snow themed yoga. The kids are getting so good at observing and remembering each pose!


We learned a fun song about animals who hibernate and we read a non-fiction book about hibernation. In addition to bears, we learned that snakes, ladybugs, bees, and bats also hibernate! We also read Bear Snores On to go along with the hibernation theme.


We also sang a silly song about a walrus who washes his winter coat and read a funny book about a walrus, too!

Our winter weather continues in full force, but luckily we haven't had too much rain and recess continues to be a wonderful time to run, play, swing, and tag friends and teachers. :)

















Next week we will have dinosaurs out at the texture table and water tub. We will also make pine cone bird feeders and play a fun snowflake matching game. 

As always, we enjoy each day that we get to spend with your wonderful children.

Warmly,
Christine and Meghan

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