February fun

Ok so things have been busy so here's just one big post of random fun :) This bin is full of big, medium and small pasta tubes, straws, toilet paper tubes, pom poms, felt numbers and scoops. This is great for teaching about size relations, numbers and scooping This shows our shapes, colors, letters and words from our word family of this month our artist calendar Vincent van gogh weather chart.. I will post a link to where I got this from when I remember where it came from. We move the village each day to the sky that matches the sky outside the most And last for now.......

Picasso - blue period crafts

To start our blue period day we made these paintings... I chose this picture as I knew it was a Picasso image the kids were all familiar with.. We used a variety of mediums to color them in, the kids were amazed that the paint just rolled off the crayons

We also talked about how colors can change our emotions... Each of kids did a picture on this...

The kids already knew picassos blue period was started because his best friend died which then brought up a philosophical debate on death.. I stayed back and observed this debate, wanting to allow their ideas to flow freely between each other without adult interruption.. After a lot of talk about nothingness, heaven and death the kids decided they don't want to die yet but they all think they will go to a happy place after... It's amazing the conversations the kids can have, sometimes it does not sound like a group of preschoolers in here!

Picasso - blue period crafts

To start our blue period day we made these paintings... I chose this picture as I knew it was a Picasso image the kids were all familiar with.. We used a variety of mediums to color them in, the kids were amazed that the paint just rolled off the crayons

We also talked about how colors can change our emotions... Each of kids did a picture on this...

The kids already knew picassos blue period was started because his best friend died which then brought up a philosophical debate on death.. I stayed back and observed this debate, wanting to allow their ideas to flow freely between each other without adult interruption.. After a lot of talk about nothingness, heaven and death the kids decided they don't want to die yet but they all think they will go to a happy place after... It's amazing the conversations the kids can have, sometimes it does not sound like a group of preschoolers in here!

Chocolate banana pudding

The boys and i have found our new favorite treat.. Chocolate banana pudding!

To make this we sliced bananas and put them in the freezer for a couple of hours to chill.. Use 3 -4 bananas.. Then add 4 tbsp of cocoa powder, 1/4 cup of milk, 1 tbsp of vanilla and sugar to taste (we used about a tbsp)... Blend it all together and serve immediately... Delicious and the kids are eating healthy treats!

Self portraits #1

We started our artist month out today by making self portraits.. This is our first self portrait of the month, at the end of the month we will make another one to compare the first one to.. I think it will be interesting to see how much their pictures change after studying various artists

R and E's self portraits
R made the green one and E made the orange one.. The entire time they worked they were in front of a mirror.. It was cute watching them staring at themselves trying to get the details right.. Even though they look simple these drawings took half an hour of concentration!

Chinese new year

The kids have been having a great time learning about china and Chinese new year.. To celebrate we started by making fortune cookies

Unfortunetly I think our batter might have been a bit too thick, they just didn't spread quiet right which made them fold funny.. I love the fortunes the kids came up with:
- you come from the future
- you come from the hospital
- I come from home
- there is a fishy in your future
- there is a monkey in your future
- in the future you will go to the wiggly circus

We also made Chinese dancing dragons

I think the kids liked this new year more then our actual new years.. They love the fact that Chiba gets dragons in their new year :)

Groundhog day

I thought I would take advantage of groundhog day to teach the kids about how shadows are made.. So after we finished talking about groundhogs (the kids thought it was hilarious to know groundhogs wake up 2 - 3 times a winter to use the potty) we discussed shadows and I presented this game to the kids..

I found this game through http://www.kidscanhavefun.com

I love that each animal has it's letter with it to teach letter sounds.. I also used that to incorporate a self checker.. The back of each shadow has the letter of it's animal on the back

Now to just hope spring comes early!

February calendars

Every month we try to make a new calendar page using our handprints and/or footprints.. This month we decided to make love swans.. I found this idea through kidssoup (great website for crafts and activities!) and then just googled to find the poem and calendar pieces.. I love doing handprint activities like this, nothing is funnier then a group of kids laughing hysterically trying to paint their hands!

Ok so I need to work on how to turn pictures in this application... Sorry for the awkward view!

Iphone blogging

So I found an application to allow me to write these posts from my phone.. If I can write posts from anywhere I know they will come more often :) And best of all, I can add pictures right off the phone!

Random bits

These past few weeks have been fairly quiet with the holidays going by so heres a post of just some of the random things we've been doing.. more regularly scheduled posts will be coming along now that we are back to our normal days :)

Snowman Shaving Cream Puff Painting

Playdoh monsters

Footprint Penguin calendars for January

Constellation bottles - When you look inside the constelation has been pinpunched into the bottom of the container so the light can shine through and look like little stars

Light Bright to make our own constellations on

Our word wall - The kids worked together to pick 21 jobs they wanted to learn about and these are them

Our calendar with the days of each occupation we are working on

And lastly, our group calendar. This months pattern for the numbers is Astronaut, Artist, Athelete

More to come soon!