The Week in Review....

I tried really hard to put a video that I recorded on my phone on here and could not--so here is the link to it...it's our Good Morning Song with dancing, of course.

https://www.facebook.com/AmieReynoldsMorris/videos/1112235745454831/?l=2951365694913598180



So much going on in our classroom--we set up a new water / mud area on our playground, and it's EXTREMELY popular, as you can see.  There is a running riverbed, THREE water tables, and two large bins with drainage to make things happen.  Add to this the mud kitchen and TONS of sand and dirt, and you've got yourself some fun.

 

 

We started our bakery project.  We made a chart of what we already know, and are setting up a lovely bakery in the dramatic play center. 

 



Lots of yummy treats--the pricing is complicated though...cake pops are twenty cents and cookies are ten dollars.  

 

There's a mixing station...

 

 

A decorating station...

 

A baking station....

 

 

Bakers' hats....

 These ladies are reading a cookbook.  With their chef's hats on, of course.

 

We've been reading some of my favorite books, and hopefully, bringing them to life for our friends.  The first one is "The Mitten" by Jan Brett.  After reading the story, we put together a basket with story stones, which is a really cute way for the children to retell the story.  We assign a storyteller, and the stones have each of the animals on them, and there is a "mitten" (side note: Ms. Amie could only find white gloves, so we make do....), and the children use these to reenact the story.

 

 

Another favorite is "My Daddy is a Pretzel", by Baron Baptiste (WONDERFUL book!).  It's yoga positions for children as they relate to parents' occupations.  Of course, we practice the poses right along with the book....

 

 

We celebrated Ethiopian Christmas on January 7th which included a story...

 

 

 

Handbell music and marching around the playground...

 

Fancy clothes....

 

An Ethiopian recipe of tomato-cucumber salad.... (yummy!)

 

 

There's always time for a little technology...

 

 

 

The girls have been dominating the block center these days....

 

 

 

Some sensory fun....

 

 

We had a color hunt in our classroom....

 

 

And what looks like a mess, but is REALLY a lot of math fun.  Sorting, sequencing, measuring, etc...

 

 

 

 

 













 

 





LOTS Going On.....

 So much going on in our classroom!  The weather has been absolutely beautiful--hard to imagine this is what it's like in December, but whatever...we'll just enjoy it while we have it.

We've been taking our class outside for activities each day that we might usually do inside.  Here we are looking at the compost pile.

 

 

We've been exposing children to Loose Parts more and more, which is basically any materials that children can use and manipulate.  Below, our friends are using jewels to make designs and paths.

 

 

 

These friends are engineering  constructions out of corks, straws and wooden craft sticks.  It's always interesting to see what they will do with the stuff.

 

 

Our building skills are improving greatly...we make some really elaborate things now.  

 

 

 

Potion making was a favorite activity this week....

 

 

During a story time, our friends acted out the Three Little Pigs...

 

 

 

We've continued celebrating holidays with our children, for Hanukkah, we read several stories and talked about menorahs (with several examples).

 

 

 

We played a game with dreidels and learned a song about them, using our fine motor skills to spin them....

 



 

 

We had a different sensory experience with Jingle Bell Soup.  It smelled good, sounded good and felt good.  

 

 

 

We made a Santa's Workshop in our dramatic play area, with a tree decorating area, a toy making area, Santa's seat, a snow bin, and a baking area.

 

 

 

We set up a Holiday Smelling Center with all the wonderful smells of the season--oranges, apples, cinnamon, peppermint, evergreen trees, and cloves.

 

 

We painted with bows and worked on ornaments for our tree.

 

 

 

And lastly, of course we decorated our tree with the ornaments that the children made (isn't it gorgeous?), and had a very special visitor...





 

 

We would like to wish everyone a peaceful and safe holiday season (whatever holidays you celebrate!), and New Year....

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

So much has happened since I posted last.  I'll try to catch you up!

Our new and greatly improved Outdoor Classroom has been installed and is being enjoyed by the kids every day.  There are LOTS of centers out there and we are all having a great time.  Let me show you some of our new areas. 

This isn't new but we've added some more blocks and other loose parts to the playground to use with these amazing interlocking wooden blocks--imagine what you could build with these!

 



 

This is the other side of our building area.  There are LOTS of blocks, bricks, wood pieces and other items on the tables and look at that stage!  (Which my husband built...)

This is our science area--there are a lot of things in here to explore.

The climbing area...

Messy materials for large building...

The music area...

 

 

The dirt digging area....

 

 

The nature art area, which includes two large easels, tables with materials to create art with,

 



 

The garden area has child-sized real tools, buckets for watering, and of course, rotting pumpkins.  Our favorite!

 

In addition to these, there are also sand and water areas, balancing areas, and lots of open space to run.