Snow and Ice

We had a COLD and fun week at preschool learning around the theme of "snow and ice"!

The kids practiced their cutting skills by making snowflakes from coffee filters!

We looked at lots of pictures of snowflakes in circle time. They were able to look at these pictures when they made their own snowflakes in the art center.

They loved painting buttons on their snowmen! Together we matched the color of buttons to the same color scarf and hat on each snowman. Not only did this activity help with color recognition, but it was great for fine motor development. They did awesome!

They enjoyed making more snowballs this week on the mitten play-dough mats!

Our letter of the week was I for igloo. The kids enjoyed using dotter markers and stickers to practice their I's and decorate their igloos.

They finished their cute owls this week with handprints. Adorable!

At one of our morning work stations the kids enjoyed matching paint and stickers to the correct written color.

Sensory fun with ICE!! :)

Thank you, Evan, for the icy blue play-dough! The kids loved making snowflakes and riding cars on the "ice" at the play-dough center.

Here we are reading "The Snowman". At the end of the book, the sun comes out and the snowman melts. We talked about how water freezes and becomes ice when it's sooo cold outside. Then we discussed how snow and ice melt when it gets warm. We tied this book into a fun little science experiment.

We put a little water into a container....

....added some food coloring to make it a little more fun :) ...

...and took it outside. We talked about how COLD it was out there, and they made guesses about what would happen to the water.

They were so excited! They all went straight to the window to see if anything had changed yet! HA!

Our "smallest to largest" snowflake chart!

Karsen with her baby! :)

Mrs. Beth made each of the kids 8 snowflakes out of glue. They counted together these snowflakes, and then they each got to shake the glitter onto their papers!! Of course they loved it!

Ha:) He's so excited that he found the matching number!

The class was adorable during music time this week! Their favorite was dancing to the song "Freeze" and then freezing when the music stopped! They got to "FREEZE like ice!!" :)

Towards the end of our preschool day, we checked on our science experiment. The water was almost frozen! The kids all got to feel it and were so excited. (Next week we will observe this same ice and see what happens when we keep it INSIDE this time. Fun stuff;)

Below are some pics from Lunch Bunch this week too...

The kids loved story time with Mrs. Kelly.

They had so much fun making snowmen with their friends! They used toilet paper and dress up items to build their snowmen. HA!

They also had a great time making snow and snowmen with all kinds of fun materials... like toothbrushes, spindles, and marshmallows!

Hope you enjoyed a glimpse of your child's week at school. :) Looking forward to seeing all of them Thursday!

Winter Animals

We had such a GREAT week at preschool learning around the fun theme of "Winter Animals".

One of the favorites from the week was our extra sensory table. It had frozen water balloons (colored from food coloring) in it!

They also really enjoyed the play-dough center. They made "snowballs" on the penguins and mittens! They especially loved making animal tracks in the white "snow" (play-dough).

We made houses for the animals in the block center...

It is so cute to see these little ones pretend play! Here is Karsen busy at the grocery store. She was so excited to buy those eggs. :)

Now Mady Kate is shopping away... purse on her arm and everything!

The class loves this new play McDonald's in our classroom. They use the "cash register" and play money. A couple of the kids asked, "How may I help you?" So cute!

At our sensory center, they loved finding winter animals in the snow (cotton) and playing with them. They also were excited to see their names in there again this week!

They were so excited to find their own!

Their names are on the carpet for circle time. For the past two weeks, they have done a great job finding them! (of course it does help that their pictures are on them too. ;)

Our number of the week was seven. The class used dotter markers to count the seven circles on their papers. We then used a cute little saying to help us remember what the number 7 looks like: "Line across and down from Heaven, that's the way we make a seven!"

They did an awesome job counting seven penguins and gluing them to their papers!

These penguin footprint crafts turned out so adorable! They will go in the portfolios, but I thought you'd like to see them now too!

Wyatt getting his foot painted! :)

So cute! Mrs. Beth always does such a wonderful job with these crafts! Below Karsen is being her big helper. She wanted to put the eyes on too. :)

We talked a lot this week about what keeps winter animals warm when it is SO COLD outside. The kids mentioned that the animals' fur and feathers keep them warm, but we also learned about "blubber" (the layer of fat under the animals' skin). We did a fun experiment to see how the blubber helps keep the winter animals warm!!

First, we put Crisco, "like blubber", on their fists....

Then we wrapped their hands in paper towels, put plastic gloves over them, and dipped them in the water!

Without the "blubber", the water is FREEZING. With it, the water feels "normal" or "warm", as the kids said.

Shaving cream is of course always a hit, but this week it was especially fun. They pretended it was snow and even played with winter animals in it!!

cutting and coloring...

waddling like penguins!! :)

Our letter of the week was W. We sang our letter song and made the w sound. We talked about how Wyatt and William both have names that start with W and how the color white starts with W. They had fun painting their W with white paint and making "snowballs".

The kids enjoyed gluing lots of feathers to their owl projects!

We will be finishing these up next week to send home. Pretty cute so far :)

Eden had a fun idea and pretended to be the teacher. She was reading a book to us. :)

Some of the other girls wanted a turn too!

Evan is so excited about his polar bear handprint. :)

Karsen with hers... They are so proud. :)

Now she's in the salon working... giving Eden a beautiful style :)

Mrs. Beth and I get so many laughs and smiles each Thursday and Friday working with your sweet kids. It is truly such a joy to be their teachers. We had a couple out this week and missed them! I told the class they can see these pictures on the computer with their mommies and daddies and tell them all about their week at school. Hope you enjoy! :) Have a great weekend.