Rainy Day Practice!

Today it is FREEZING!  Since there was no falling precipitation we actually SHOULD have went outside but I have been dying to check out out rainy day gross motor skills box to see how it worked . We did and the kids had a blast !  Check out all the fun!

A new President!

I was out yesterday in a meeting. Going to meetings can't be all that bad . I won a door prize! It is an MP3 player that is in a stuffed bear for the kids. BUT, while I was meeting - the kids had a great day and they got to watch our new President get sworn in. In circle time Terri talked about how important it is that he was the first African American President.

The Hat

The rest of this week we are doing a 'study" of Jan Brett books.
The one we did today is called " The Hat" It is a funny story about a little girl that is getting ready for winter and takes out all her
" woolens" to hang them on the line. We had a little discussion about "hanging things on the line." I think for most people that is a thing of the past , but a few of the kids had a grandma that uses a clothesline ! I told the kids when I was a little girl a LONG time ago, that my mom mainly used the clothesline. Can I just say... Thank God for dryers!

Ok, back to the story. She drops one stocking on the ground and a curious hedgehog crawls in and it gets stuck on his head. As he greets all his animal friends they laugh at him. He explains it is to keep his head warm or dry. The "stocking cap" becomes all the rage as the animals raid the clothes line to get a hat for themselves.



The story gave us the opportunity to talk about the words curious and embaressing. This afternoon we will rhyme words with hat !

I put a clothesline up in the playroom and a basket of " woolens" for the kids to clothes pin. They LOVED it!








You should see the awesome plane that Elliot made .. he has been working on it for days. Ever once in a while he lets the other kids join him to create. The box of new toys at the top of the page is our new "rainy day box". This box contains equipment for the kids to enjoy while they work 9 gross motor skills! The kids are excited for a rainy day to come! Some examples are: a crawl through tunnel, a bean bag toss, a carry the egg game, monster feet ( like small stilts ) , a balance beam, a bowling game , a hop scotch game... I know.... you didnt think I had to give a lot of thought to the toys I put out. Sometimes, I wish it was that simple!

A new friend started today. Her name is Sharae and she will be here for this year and next!

Half Day

No, we aren't getting out half a day today but only HALF our kiddos are here!   I guess many decided to stay home and celebrate MLK day with the families.    As you know, we opted to not take as many days off as the school so we can be off by May 15th and start traveling and singing again!

Days that are out of the norm, like today are interesting. Children play with children they might not otherwise have played with.  There is a peace .  I don't know how to explain it. They are still doing the same things they usually do .  I guess it just seemed peaceful  since there are not so many doing it!  

One thing happened today that I want to note:

The girls come running in the "quiet room" saying you have to come see what Elliot has done! Immediately , I say " Is it good or bad?"  They say good... so I don't RUN!    As I went down the stairs he and Gavin had large pieces of cardboard that I had put in the art center to encourage some 3D art on the floor.  " Ms Debbie, we are trying to paint this airplane that we made but we got paint on the floor."  ( I am guessing the girls didn't see this!)  My head is swirling.  Do I praise the genius attitude and creativity ? Do I have a fit about the paint all over the floor?  So, right or wrong this is how I handled it.  I noted how wonderful their creation was and asked did they think there was a more appropriate place to make it.  Perhaps the art center that is already covered with paint?  No, they said it wasn't big enough.  ( Hmm more good thinking on their part .)  What about the table? It is washable. " Well , maybe..." the boys replied.  So, we talked about next time asking if they THINK  they may need help making a better choice and  be responsible in our  room.  I gave the boys a rag to help clean up their messy paint on the floor. MOST of it came out!  Then, the boys proceeded to finish their spectacular planes on the table.  

All in a days work.

rabbits need fur

Today we continued to talk about how COLD it is outside and what that means for animals. The kids did a cute little craft of a white bunny . They pulled cotton to cover it. The bunny's fur not only keeps him warm in the winter but it helps him hide from larger animals that might like to eat him!  :)    You will see more of these little teacher directed crafts during days so cold we cant get outside. We have to find something to do to settle us down a little and well..I prefer this over TV!  :)

Stay warm this weekend!  

Snow!

Today started out a little dreary.  I had to get up at 4 am to take Addam and Geneviette to the airport.  Addam has been home for about 6 weeks and it is time for him to go back to Honolulu  to work.  I was  holding back the tears this morning as he explained to Geneviette again that he was going to his house in Hawaii and she would say " Me too ! Me too! "  It breaks my heart. The combination of being sad for Addam , very little sleep and a SNOW day.. inside had me dreading the day.  UNTIL!

Look Ms Debbie, farmers eat hay like this!

Squirrels make nest to stay warm in for the winter...

Pattern practicing !

Look at me!

I'm the daddy!

: Ms Debbie..."

Blue icy water in the water table

Fun Puppet Shows!

Beautiful music

Our arctic animals on ice

One of our new indoor gross motor toys for bad weather days

And wonderful block cities...

Made me smile and remember I love my job... even on bad days!

Randy is back

Randy is back.  While he was gone  I got in two new puppets that we ordered .This one is his. The kids were mesmerized.     The loved it!  Randy is excellent with the puppets!

Too Cold for Outdoor Learning!

Today the wind chill was 1 degrees. It was too cold to go outside. Some of the fun things we did inside were:

We read Polar Bear Polar Bear, What do you hear?

After reading that we made polar bear puppets. The children practiced their cutting skills and then we used the bears to practice our " position" words. The Polar Bear is UNDER the table, beside my chair, on top of my head...etc...

I remembered that I had a little movie ( 30 minutes) called " The Last Polar Bear". We watched that. The kids were excited that we saw penguins which we talked about on Monday.

One of our new challenges with the weather is to figure out 9 gross motor activities that I can put in a rainy day box for bad weather days. Examples would be hop scotch, bean bag toss.. if you have idea, shoot them to me! I can use all the help I can get.

Inside days tends to bring out the worst behavior in the kids and... probably me .. too. Please make sure your child gets plenty of rest .

Randy will be back tonight. I have a training from 5:30 - 8:30 but hopefully he will be here when I get home.

Have a great night everyone...

Randy is gone.

Ok, if that scared you a little, he is only gone for today and tomorrow. He is doing worksampling training in Little Rock. Worksampling is learning better ways to take observation notes on the kids and enter them in the computer for assessment. He called and talked to the kids on speaker phone. The loved that! It is good for him to be able to go do this. Usually it is me.

I got " the call" for my 90 day window for my quality inspection. That means that any time from january 23 - April 23 I can expect them to show up and watch us, listen to us, count every toy that I own and hopefully prove again this year, that we are a quality site!

I like to do "over heards " sometimes. Here are a few:

" My mom said Freak!"

" My daddy cooks hamburger helper"

" You guys are both my buddies."

" Hurry , do it before Ms Debbie sees you."


Then there was this whole conversation:

Ms debbie : I have the hiccups, I think I will hold my breath and count to 10. I have heard that helps make them go away."
Child: How do you count if your mouth is closed? ( GOOD QUESTION!)
Ms Debbie: well..... You now when your mommy tells you to do something and you dont really want to but you know if you say something back you will get in trouble, but in your head where no one can hear you , you say... no, I dont want to!"? It is like that... you count in your head!
Child: Oh.. like this! MM, MM, MM, MM, MM, ( making the M sound with eyes closed and concentrating! )

It was funny....

Lets go to the park!

We had a fun day today. Since the weather was still warm we decided to treat the kids with an impromptu trip to the park. They had a blast ! We played duck , duck , goose. It is funny. Not all the kids really understand how to play. The run the wrong direction and across the middle. The ones that do know dont put up a fuss, so I let them carry on!

This was the funniest part of the day. Elliot has the most active imagination that I have seen on a child his age. The kids were playing hide and go seek at the park. When Gavin started counting he immediately dropped to his knees and said " I am going to be a rock statue so he cant see me" Of course, Gavin ran straight to him. Elliot was a little miffed that Gavin didnt understand that he shouldnt be able to see " Elloit" if he had turned into a rock statue. Hilarious!

Biance got a little boo boo on her chin and Halle was trying to make her feel better. It is great the way these kids love each other.

Friends... " Look Ms Debbie, we are almost there!"

Dont Break the Ice. Great game for a winter unit but I hate putting that thing together!

Matching game I made from snow flake stickers and juice lids!

Counting Game.

Today. Was. Another. Good. Day.
Have a wonderful weekend!

Musical Chairs

Thank you Lord

I NEEEEDDDDED for today to be exactly the way it was. The holidays were so stressful that I needed to have my ROUTINE back. When it is VERY cold outside, our schedule is modified. That means, more time that all 16 children are together instead of small groups. Today is beautiful outside so we stayed on track and got a LOT done!

What might you ask?

We used markers to decorate a colored mitten. We cut it out and then glued decorations on. What are we learning? SO much. The very first step teaches us to make choices as the children decide what color they want. Next the children have to take the markers and a negative space and decide how they want to fill it. This is a very difficult process for most kids. After that we used the scissors to cut out the mitten. I have some children that are master cutters and others that gave me a decorated rectangle. :) The last step was the children using collage materials to glue on. Learning to use glue properly is probably one of the hardest things a child does. It baffles me. Our kiddos use a pitcher at lunch to refill their cup but dont know when to "stop" with the glue. Oh well, it's cheap!

If you want to work on some scissor cutting at home , here are some great practice tips from KidsSoup.

When teaching children to cut, first demonstrate how to hold scissors. The correct scissor position is with the thumb in the upper hole, and your first two fingers (index and middle) in the lower hole. Have the child practice picking up and holding the scissors.

The following cutting skills are arranged in order from simplest to most difficult:

1. Snipping. Prepare strips of construction paper in different colors not wider than 1". Demonstrate how to snip the paper with one cut.You’ll also want to collect all their cuttings in a baggie/envelope. Use them for a art project.

2. Cutting Lines. Hand out construction 1" wide paper with preprinted vertical, horizontal, or diagonal lines.

3. Cutting on Longer Lines. Using strips of construction paper, with curved, jagged, or wiggly lines. Use the cutting to make a crown, a flower artwork or a necklace.

4. Cutting Shapes. Prepare 4" to 5" squares of colored paper, each preprinted with shapes: Square, circle, or triangle. Collect shapes and use to make a shape art project.

5. Cutting Spirals. Cutting spirals is the most difficult skill for children to acquire. Have the children cut a snake spiral and hang them from the ceiling.

Other Fun Scissor Activties.

Cutting junk mail and catalogs. Cutting play dough with scissors. Cutting straws or shredded paper.

We also played with another new game I got over the holidays. Remember how I was a little stressed the day we played card games ? I found one of those dillywhoopers that holds the kids cards for them. So, today we played Go Fish... a LOT! FUN!

Randy has been playing impromptu games of musical chairs with the kids . They are loving it and dont seem to mind it isnt the " everyone is a winner" version. :)

We read the book SNOW. It talked about how the geese fly south for the winter .

Lots of fun today...... I love my job. :)