Happy Holiday!

It's here!

The holidays took over last week! After all, we base our lessons around children's interests.

On Friday, we sent home an activity for the parents to work on with their children. We asked them to draw a building in their neighborhood and label it. We were really hoping to get more than two, but at least two is better than nothing. Next time, I'll probably remind the parents.

For our sensory table, we made cinnamon playdough. We used flour, water, and copious amounts of cinnamon, then had the children mix it together. We talked with them about the consistency and encouraged them to add more water or flour as needed. The children loved mixing it together and we were even able to keep the playdough around for a couple of days in our art center. 

The mess was totally worth it!

In Dramatic Play, we set up a Post Office by adding a sign, a few blue shirts, a bag, and our recycled boxes. We paired it with Writing Center and by encouraging the children to write cards and stamp envelopes, then take it to the Post Office to be delivered. The students loved using the Christmas stickers and writing cards for their friends; meanwhile, the students in Dramatic Play loved looking at the packages and sorting them from the envelopes that came in.

        

I love encouraging children to use items from other centers, as long as they put it back in the right spot! 

In Art Center, we incorporated some math by making candy canes. We gave them cutouts and encouraged them to make a pattern using red and white paint. For some, it was also great practice using their prewriting skills as they made short strokes from left to right and up & down. 

Who needs worksheets with fun activities like these?

The highlight of the week was the Polar Express.

My co-teacher worked hard putting down tape to look like a train track, then set up a cardboard box tunnel so the children could crawl through it.

We set up chairs to look like seats on a train, then gave the children tickets that we punched when they got on the train. We served popcorn and hot chocolate, then held up the book as Liam Neeson read it to them with sound effects. 

Whew!  Do you have any holiday traditions in your class?

Whether your break is short or long, I hope you have a fantastic one. Relax, take some time to be happy, and look after yourself. 

Happy Holidays!

--Amy

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Look at our Word Wall!

Hello all!

Christmas break is almost here!

We didn't focus much on curriculum this week, since we had our Winter program on Friday. The children sang a few songs, they had a gift exchange, and they had a blast.

We were able to talk about buildings a little. We read this book:

I snuck in some critical thinking skills. At the end of it, we reviewed the types of jobs mentioned in the books and turned it into a word wall near the writing center.

The kids helped cut out the pictures, which I photocopied from the book. Fair Use is amazing.

The kids did great remembering the vocabulary and it sparked a discussion about construction tools. Then of course we had to get out the tablet and look up machines on YouTube. Isn't technology wonderful? 

One day, our talk turned to Christmas trees during our morning discussion. The children started talking about what their trees look like at home, so I brought out the green paper and they decorated triangles. For some of them, I drew the triangles for them and had them cut out the lines because that's still a skill they're working on.

I love the one on the left! 

I also brought out a grid game from last year so the children could continue working on counting skills. They rolled the die, then added that many bottle caps. Most of our children can do this already, so we extended it by turning it into an adding activity.

The children were helping each other!

Next week is a short week, so we'll probably end up focusing more on holidays than buildings, although the children still love building with tools in Blocks. We'll probably also talk about machines a little, following up from Friday's discussion. We're hoping to turn Dramatic Play into a Post Office, so I'd welcome any ideas you have.

In the meantime, break is almost here! Hang on and until then,

Happy Teaching!

--Amy

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Build it Up, Tear it Down, Build it Up Again

Hello!

I hope you're all taking time for yourself during this busy holiday season. With winter programs and Christmas presents from the class and for your own families, it's easy for the stress to build up. I'm providing some links here to encourage you to take 5 minutes and just breathe. Relax. It's ok. They'll also be on the homepage in my Links section.

This one's fantastic for finding free ways to destress instead of eating your feelings like one teacher I know (hey, I really needed that latte!).
Lifehacker self-care

And here are a few if you feel overwhelmed and need to talk or just want some self-help links:
7CupsofTea is a free chat service with lots of great resources
BetterHelp has some wonderful links and if you feel like you want professional help, you can either set up a chat with a therapist through them or have them find one in your area.

Speaking of building. How often have you started a study based on what the children were doing? We were all set to start Clothing, figuring the cold weather would spark their curiosity about coats and warmer clothing. But then, one child started drawing a house. And then another. And then another. And then one child decided to make a house out of craft sticks.  So my co-teacher and I looked at each other and said, "We need to start a Buildings study!"

So we brought out the hot glue gun and we didn't put it up the whole week, as children were inspired by each other to create their own houses. One child made a rollercoaster house and a few of them worked on their projects over several days.

Look at that gravity-defying chimney! Imagine if we'd just said it couldn't be done.

It was a great opportunity to incorporate other higher functions like planning, as we asked the children to draw what they wanted to build while they were waiting. One child's ended up looking very similar to what he drew and he even made sure to include the round window. Problem-solving, planning, creativity, fine motor skills, this project had it all. And it was entirely child-based! I love those!

By the way, Building is a great way to talk about perseverence with students. Teach them that anything that falls down can be built up again.

We did our usual KWL chart to start the week and gain an idea of children's knowledge. As children asked questions throughout the week, we added to it. To learn more about our process, you can read this post.

In the Blocks center, we added some tools. The children loved building with the blocks and pretending to hammer, sand, and drill.

On Friday, we started reviewing the week and adding to our KWL chart when all of a sudden, we hear, "SNOW!" I know it's not a big deal to northerners, but in NC, we get excited over every inch. This is also earlier than we usually see it, which is about February or March. So we brought out the Snow activities.

The children's favorite was acting out 5 Little Snowmen. They independently continued it this week and passed the snowmen to each other.

For the last verse, we said:
"One little snowman all alone,
One little snowman made of snow."

In the sensory table, we brought out instant snow! If you've never seen it before, it starts out as white powder. Water starts a chemical reaction that makes the snow grow and get cold! We had to make a waitlist for it. More name writing practice!

We also had a great discussion about where the snow came from and what we could build with it. We didn't get quite enough to build our own snowmen, but it was nice while it lasted.

This week we're busy getting the parents' gifts together and hopefully it won't be another 2 months before my next post (sorry!)

Happy Teaching!

--Amy

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