Another week of winter fun!

I love teaching things to the kids are are realistic. Things they can touch, feel, and experience. That is so important with preschoolers. They need to be able to experience things, like WINTER. Ya hear me Mother Nature? I LOVE the January temps in the 60's and all but, seriously? I was hopeful that with two weeks in our winter study we could maybe have a little winter experience. No dice. But, I can't say we didn't try our best to dive in a learn all we could about winter.

We had the snow out again in the beginning of the week. This time I added more water than was called for. It made it "slushy". Slushy is what snow becomes when it starts to melt!

We made snowflakes with marshmallows! Yummy! We learned that all snowflakes that fall from the sky are different, no two are the same. Ours all turned out differently, too. Then we ate them! :)

Paizley made a whole snow family!

Marcello really enjoys making structures to put the animals in. He spends LOTS of time in the block center. He has a plan and knows what he wants to build and how he wants it to look, and will stay there for as long as it takes to make it happen. Future engineer...Or zookeeper?

The kids have really begun to enjoy wiping the tables for some reason after breakfast. I'll take all the help I can get!

Gabriel likes triangles. Especially the triangle in the music center. He made this triangle out of the builders and said "It looks like the triangle!"

Who says you can't go ice skating? Inside? When it's 50 degrees? We had so much fun skating on wax paper after reading a book called Shiny Skates. You should have heard the shrieks and giggles!

Board games...matching letters and sounds

We played the Penguin Picnic game in small group today. Excellent practice for counting, fine motor skills, waiting for taking our turn, number and color recognition and matching! We played three at a time, and then played with a friend or two on our own!

I caught Junior cleaning up the game all on his own without being asked or reminded. I gave him lots and lots of praise, so I'll bet he will clean up on his own again really soon. (Good habits start young...)




On Tuesday we had our Mad Science night. This was so much fun! The scientist taught us lots of cool science facts, and it was hands on, just the way we like it! It was a full house, but we all enjoyed it. Thanks for taking time out of your busy evenings to bring your kids to learn and have fun!

Showing us some very bubbly concoction

Tornado tube races!

A mitten match game for colors

Name writing practice

Joshua, Lexi & Gabriel made a MUSIC TRAIN!

Today we also practiced cutting snowflakes. Cutting skills are so important. It's all about the process, not the product, but they turned out really good! We will do this again next week.

Woohoo!!! We played outside! We NEED our time outside. The kids ask for it! When it was raining earlier this week, they were trying to convince me that they could go out "just for a little while".

Next week we will focus on bears and arctic animals. (Do not refer to the first paragraph of this blog...) Anybody got a polar bear or penguin that they can bring to visit us? ;)