Winter Wonders

We continue with our Winter themed art work, and it snowed this week so we had a real life example of snow! The children bundled up to get outside to check a new installation on our playground, two tunnels which were found to be a LOT of fun!

"pinata helpers"

Here is the "before" picture of getting ready to go outside. Every child moves at their own pace and there are a lot of backwards moves, but everyone persists, and slowly but surely we get to sit under the windows, ready except for a few revisits to get mittens .....

"after" picture-impressive!

 The new tunnel!

 And there's a smaller tunnel, like a "dog house", to go with the playhouse.

Until Next Time,

Michele

Making Way for Winter!

Our week zoomed by with winter colors, play dough being made, and a pinata under construction. We tell the story of the pinata every day, as we touch it we wonder "is there candy inside yet?" and we begin to list all of the steps that have to be made before we have a pinata. The concept of time, today, tomorrow, yesterday-is unclear at this age to children-everything is just NOW. When we talk about the pinata the children ask every time if the party is TODAY, even though the pinata is a brown globe right now. We repeatedly tell them that they will know and be ready for the pinata party when it happens!  

We made "candle" holders with colored tissue and battery candles for our lovely lunch times. 

 There's an "igloo" in our classroom that's available for quiet reading. As you can imagine it's quite popular! Having a high interest spot like this in the classroom gives the children a challenge-how to wait, how to get a turn (we often suggest making a list, which gives another challenge!)

The pinata started with a big balloon. 

 It's a messy business with paper and glue to make a pinata.

Igloo fun! 

Writing, cutting with scissors, markers, and stencils are important in our classroom. If you're unsure about cutting something out, you can always ask a friend!

Until Next Time,

                                                                          Michele

Winter is a Comin' In!

In the PreK classroom, the beginning of cold weather and flakes of snow say WINTER (even though, officially, the first day of winter is a few days into December). We have a tradition of changing our color palette from fall earth tones to winter tones of purple and blue, white and pink, and black, to reflect the added darkness to our days and the tones of snow. We also add light, in the form of a light table, a little bit of glitter, and stories of coziness and kindness. We learn about animals in the winter, and our sensory table smells like lavender. We've also begun our kindness circles, and the children are volunteering kind words to the classroom which we write on their snowball shape.

 On Fridays, we recycle with the middle school students. The prek's take this responsibility very seriously, as you can see by their expressions. One of the 4's referred to this Friday morning activity as "garbage buddies" which might be a nickname that will stick.

 Until Next Time,
Michele