Fairy Tale Week

On Monday we read the "Princess and the Pea" story. The version I have is a little silly consisting of a moterbike and a date-a-princess agency, but the kids got the general idea. :) The kids did a great job of finding all the hidden pictures in the "Princess and the Pea" paper. The kids loved making princess and prince crowns. They decorated them with crayons, markers and even a few jewles.

They also enjoyed building a block castle around the sleeping princess.

Wednesdays story was "Jack and the Beanstalk." The kids made their own little book while working on the story sequence. We had a "real" beanstalk grow from some magic beans. We also played a counting game with "magic" beans. :)

On Friday, we read the story of "The 3 Little Pigs" (one of my favorites). The kids loved helping "blow" the houses down. They also did a great job of making the different houses of the pigs (straw, wood, brick). We also talked about why the 3rd pig was smarter and less lazy than the other 2 pigs.

Solar System

On Tuesday we learned about the solar system. We learned that there are 8 planets in our solar system. (which was really hard to do- since I grew up with 9 planets!) The kids enjoyed making their own solar systems and decorating the planets and the sun.

We also learned that the sun never moves. We took turns acting as planets and "revolving" around the sun.

The kids had a fun time painting on Wednesday! (it has been awhile) We talked about telescopes and what they are used for. The kids were each able to make their own "telescope" to take home.
Thursday was our "STAR" day. We made a star paper with glow-in-the-dark stars. The kids LOVED this! They were so excited to see the stars glowing after holding them up to the light.

In the Light...

 In the Dark...

We also played a number game to try and help the astronauts to get back to Earth safely.

Next week we will start on our Fairy Tale unit.
Have a great weekend!!!

Camping

This week was a blast talking about picnics and camping!

On Monday we played a fun game called "Hungry Bear." We were having a picnic and got really tired and decide to take a nap. After we fell asleep, a "hungry bear" came and stole some food. After we wake up we have to figure out what the bear took.

On Wednesday we talked about things that you take camping with you and things you might see while camping. We did a camping shadows activity that was a little too easy for them, but still fun.

On Friday the kids had a great time "camping!" We made bird feeders to hang on the trees, we read one of my favorite camping books, "Just me and my dad," we made a pretend campfire, we ate smores, (yum!) we did some bird watching with our homemade binoculars and we did a camping puzzle!  What a great week!!!

Valentine's Day

On Monday we had our Valentine's Day Party! It was a lot of fun!
First, we decorated our hearts with stickers, crayons and glitter.

Then we played a fun Valentine counting game. Roll the dice then put that number of hearts in the correct cup.

Then we passed out our Valentines.



On Wednesday we played a few different color games and activities.

Each child had a number of popsicle sicks with a different color on each one. When a picture of something was shown, the kids had to hold out the correct color for that object.

The kids each had a turn picking out a color of paper and then telling us something that is that color.

Our last color activity on Wednesday was recognizing shades of colors. They each had a turn to choose a clothes pin, each with a different shade on it. Then they had to match it to the same shade of color. 



On Friday we did some more color activities.

We had colored ice cubes and picked 2 different colors to put together in a bag. Then we waited for them to melt. It was fun to see the different colors appear.

The kids were able to color with chalk outside, always fun.

The kids had a great time making our craft. We separated fruit loops by color,

then smashed them up!

Then we sprinkled the crumbs onto paper to make different pictures.

 

Hearts

On Monday we colored our heart papers- Pink, Red, Purple.
The kids worked on their number recognition while matching up broken hearts. We had a dice that we would roll and then we had to find the 2 matching pieces of the heart for that number. One half had a number on it, the other half of the heart had the corresponding number of dots.

On Wednesday we did heart rubbings. The kids really enjoyed watching the hearts appear while coloring their paper.

Valentine's Day is getting closer so on Friday the kids made their Valentine/candy holders. They will bring them home on Monday after the party. They were able to use markers to decorate so that was exciting. We only use makers on special occasions.  :)

Letter Q

This week was our letter Q week.

On Monday the kids worked on following directions while coloring their papers. Coloring is a favorite thing for the kids to do, but not being able to choose their own colors was not their favorite. But they did a great job! Capital Q- Blue, Lower case q- Yellow. (or was it the other way around??)

Wednesday we reviewed all the letters that we have worked on so far. A-P. We did some fun letter activities and games, along with some alphabet flashcards.

The kids really enjoyed finding the matching letter and picture with these cards.

Letter Factory Game.  The game piece that tells you what to do was broken (just found out that morning) so we played our own version! :)

 More matching letters and pictures.

We also had a race to see how fast we could put the ABC's in the right order.

On Friday the kids made a letter Q craft out of Q-tips! They made a few different pictures and then decided on their favorite one and glued the Q-tips on their paper. I saw a few houses, a truck, snowflakes, a birthday cake and some other creative things.