Activities for Wednesday, January 27, 2010

Willow Room: MWF class

We read "Chicka Chicka Boom Boom" by Bill Martin Jr. today. Our question today was "Do you have any pockets?"

We also did some pizza rhymes.
We did blot painting using eye droppers and paint onto a mitten shape. We used lack paper and white chalk at the easels.

We had a pizza game out, a mice shape sorting game, some alphabet beads for stringing and a letter "E" puzzle. We also had out a magnetic game of our story, chicka chicka boom boom. and we had a mitten match game where the children find the matching mittens and hang them on the clothesline using clothespins.

We used rhythm sticks and sang a weather song. We also sang "Face the facts".

Maple Room:

We read "How do dinosaurs go to school? by Jane Yolen and Mark Teague

We used a mixture of shaving cream and glue to make 3D dinosaur shapes.

We had dinosaur shapes with dinosaur foot print stampers.

We sang 5 little dinosaurs, I'm a little dinosaur, and used scarves to dance to Dancing scarf Blues, and Shadow dancing.

We are learning about the letter "K", we did some dinosaur rhymes and songs .

We also had some dinosaurs frozen in ice and we used salt to melt the ice to free the dinosaurs.

Oak Room:

We read "What will I do without you?" by Sally Grindley

We drew "Q" words in our journals today.

We sang five green and speckled frogs today and each of the children had their own frogs, log and pond. We sang the song and counted down as each frog jumped from the log into the pond, we were worked on counting down, following directions, and singing the song too.

We read a second story, Happy Birthday Moon.

We had out some perfection games today for shape matching and we measured our snowflake to see if it got any bigger.

Activities for Tuesday, January 26, 2010

Willow room: T/TH class

We read "The pizza that we made" by Joan Holub.

Our question today was "Do you have on the color green today?"

We made pretend paper pizzas by gluing on paper pizza toppings in a collage.

We had yellow and blue paint at the easel to make green.

We had a wooden pizza puzzle, some shape matching boards, a puzzle book, and a color link game out today. The children are enjoying our pizza restaurant in our dramatic corner.

We sang "The tempo marches on", "Pass the bean bag", and "little fish".

We did a flannel board about the kitten who lost her color mittens today.

Oak Room:

We read "The very cranky Bear"

We painted with stampers on wax paper and then added it to a hat shape.

We used music instruments for music today and used them to the songs, "deep in the jungle" and "Old McDonald had a band"

We are talking about the letter "Q".

Activities for Monday, January 25, 2010

Willow Room- MWF class

We read "The pizza that we made" by Joan Holub. We did a 5 little snowman and their hats rhyme, when the sun comes out they melt away and we cunt down how many are left.

Our question was "Do you have the letter "E" in your name?"

We made paper pizza's today for art. The children used paper cut outs to create their own pizza. We had painting at the easel.

we had a pizza game out at the table, some shape matching activities, a car puzzle with a magnet tow truck to remove the pieces.

We have our pizza shop in the dramatic corner, the children put on aprons and get busy taking orders for pizza or being the customer who wants a pizza.

We sang "The cool bear hunt", a letter song called " Pepperoni Pizza" and the "Tempo marches on."

Maple Room:

We have been talking about dinosaurs since the children have shown interest in them lately. We will do some dinosaur activities the rest of this week before we change things over to a post office.

Our story today was "Dinosaurs! Strange and wonderful" by Laurence Pringle

We made "shoe a saurus" today. We traced the children's shoes and then they glued collage materials on it to create their own personal "shoe- a- saur".

We are doing letter "K" activities this week.

For music today we sang "Jump Jim Joe", "Put your little foot", "Alligator chant", "Tiny Tim Turtle", "Can you jump like a frog?" and a matching game.

Oak room:

We read "Good night, Baby Bear"

We made paper snow globes- we cut a circle and sprinkled glitter on top of the circle; then added a snow picture. We topped it with some clear paper to make it look like a snow globe. They are decorating our hallway.

We did a mitten count from 1-19 game, Herman the worm, and a bear story.

We are talking about the letter "Q". For a science experiment we are growing a snowflake in water. You put a sponge type snowflake in the water and each day it gets bigger and bigger. We make guesses about what we think will happen, then we check it each day to see what happens. We will measure it each day to see how big it grows.

Activities for Friday, January 22, 2010

We were in the gym all week with all of our classes.

Willow Room- MWF class

We read the story of "The mitten" by Jan Brett, it is about some animals who are cold in the winter and they find a mitten that they all crawl into for warmth and shelter. We used a magnet board version instead of a book today.

We also had the children think of words that start with the letter D today.

We painted using the letter "D" today. We made prints using red and yellow paint which mix to make orange.

We have our pizza shop and we made cheese pizzas today with the children and ate them at snack time.

We had some magnetic letters out, a shape sorter, and our wooden pizza puzzle.

We sang stinky cake- which is a fun song the children love, it is about mixing a cake and putting odd funny things in the cake that are stinky. We also sang "Sticky bubble gum" and "hands are for clapping".

Maple Room:

We read "Sadie and the snowman" by Allen Morgan

We also do our calendar, days of the week and weather activities each day.

We did a snowman cutting project today and we had snowman shapes and sponge paint at the easels.

Our music today was favorite songs the children picked to sing.

We brought some dinosaur creatures into the room last week and the children have been very excited about them. We added several dinosaur books to our library. We also used some baked clay to make "dinosaur fossils" and dinosaur eggs. We hid the fossils in the sensory table and the children had fun exploring them.

Oak Room:

"The three snow bears" by Jan Brett was the book we read today. We drew pictures in our three bears books. The children have really had fun with our three bears unit, they have loved acting out the story and using the special props to reenact the story.

We had primary colors of paint at the easel and used them to experiment with mixing colors.

We had a letter match truck activity out, the children have to find the matching upper and the picture of the word that started with that letter sound.

We asked the question today " Do you have a letter "P" in your name?

We spent extra time on our books today, so we had a short music time .

We sang "Toe leg toe by Jim Gill

We also had a sorting activity out to sort objects that are hard and soft.

Activities for Thursday, Jan. 21, 2010

Willow room- T/TH room

We read "A color of his own" by Leo Lionni

Our question today was "are you wearing the color orange and can you find something orange in the room?

We painted with roller brushes today using red and yellow paint. We asked the children what happens when you mix red and yellow? You get orange!

We had sorting activities out, magnetic building pieces , puzzles, and some matching games.

We sang stinky cake, hands are for clapping, and sticky bubble gum.

We made cheese pizza with the children today.

Oak Room:

We read "Tackylocks and the 3 bears" by Helen Lester.

We pained with frozen paint ice cubes today.

We had number picture puzzles out, sorting activities, legos, and we acted out the three bears story using props.

We sang and marched with instruments, We sang"I met a bear" "Chant song" and did a hot and cold picture activity.

Activities for Wednesday, Jan. 20

Willow room- MWF class

We read Ice Cream Bear by Jez ALborough and our question today was Do you have a letter D in your name?

We rolled prickle balls in a box to paint our pictures today. We used puffy paint.

We had magnet shapes and board, a pizza game, and a mitten match activity out today.

We sang "Take the bean bag, a direction game, and Put your finger on song.

We have a pizza shop set up in our dramatic corner now.

Maple Room:

We read "Geraldine's Big Snow" by Holly Keller

We painted with spools today to make our own "Big snow pictures" and at the easel we had snowman shapes with textured sponges and paint.

We sang pirate ship song today.

We did some special snowman activities 10 little snowman and a snowflake game using number recognition to find the hiding snowflake. The children take turns calling out a numbered snowflake and we look behind it to see if the the snowman is hiding behind that one.

Oak room

We did the 3 bears again today, using flannel board characters. We worked in our journals on the letter "P" and also had the children dictate the three bears story to use for our books.

We acted out the 3 bears story today during choice time using props, and puppets.

Activities for Tuesday, January 19, 2010

Willow Room;- T/TH class

We read Ice Cream Bear by Jez Alborough. Our question today was Are you wearing the color yellow? and we added the yellow car to our color train.

We did a kitten flannel board rhyme too.
We painted with prickle balls by dipping them in yellow paint and rolling them in boxes.

We had some shape and size sorting activities out, a number cars magnet puzzle and our white playdough out too.

We sang "Take that beanbag"( which helps learn to following directions) and "Put your finger on"

We have the foam pieces in the sensory table and we set up a pizza shop in our dramatic play area.

Oak Room:

We read "The three bears" by Paul Galdone

We worked on making the covers for our 3 bears books. We used potato mashers and paint to decorate them. We will add the pages to the book later int eh week.

We sang "One bear went out to play", and going on a bear hunt.

We are talking about the letter "P" and we are dictating books.

Activities for Friday, January 15, 2010

Willow Room, MWF class

We read "Snowy's special secret" by Guido Van Genechten

We had two questions today "What are some things that are hot?" and "What are some things that are cold?" We made a list comparing. We are also talking about textures.

We painted pine cones with white glitter paint, (pine cones are rough textured, paint is wet) We had dab a dot painters at the easels.

We had out some alphabet beads for stringing and learning the alphabet. We had a sorting game with circles, squares, and triangles. We also had out a shape button sorting game. WE have packing peanuts in our sensory table.

We sang "Late last night and cool bear hunt.

Maple Room- MWF class

We read "Tacky the penguin" by Helen Lester

For art we did a cutting project to help the children practice cutting. They cut out squares and then used dab a dot painters to paint them. We will turn their painting into a cute penguin to decorate our hallways.
We had hat shapes and stampers at the easel.

We sang the January song, and we did the bear hunt with instruments. They children really enjoyed using the instruments.

We also practiced writing some letters on the dry erase boards.

Oak Room:

We read "One wintry night" by Claire Freedman and Simon Mendez

We did one of our favorite projects today. The children cut out three circles and glue them onto dark blue paper to look like a snowman. Once they have done that, they use white paint to dab dots of paint onto the blue paper to look like snow. They also use markers to make a face on the snowman. It is great to see their creativity in making their snowman and the cutting practice with the scissors is wonderful for fine motor skills.

We had out some of the rhyming word houses we used with thechildren in our small groups the other day; they could use them to play the rhyming game alone or with a friend.

We did some snowman rhymes and songs at music time and we did shake your sillies out.

We have rice in our sensory table.

Activities for Thursday, January 14, 2010

Willow Room; T/TH class

We read Snowy's special secret by Guido Van Genechten

We are talking about the color blue today and our questions today was "Do you have the color blue on today?"

We painted with spools using white and silver paint to look like a snowflake.

We did dot painting at the easel.

We had a food sort activity , a snowman matching game and a mice shape matching game. We had an alphabet floor puzzle out too.

We sang "Ring the bells- it's wintertime, everybody has a face, and the couch potato pokey.

We have packing materials and scoops in our sensory table.

Maple Room- Thursday class:

We read "The biggest best snowman " by Margaret Cuyler

We did sponge painting onto a snowman shape.

We did "kid picks songs today" so we sang Tap your toe and follow me, this is the way, Months of the year song, Going on a bear hunt, and Jump Jim Joe.

Oak Room:

We read "Bear feel scared"by Karma Wilson and Jane Chapman

We did a fun project where we mix shaving cream and glue and then the children add small colorful objects.

We had some color match puzzles and an alphabet maze.

We sang Tap your toe and follow me.

We played red rover in the gym.

We have rice in sensory table with scoops and cups.

Activities for Wednesday, January 13, 2010

Willow room: MWF class

We read "Sam the snowman" by Susan Wig

Our questions was "Do you have the letter "C" in your name? We looked a things that start with the letter "C" at our second circle time.

We painted using spools to make a print that looks like snowflakes.

We had stencils and colored pencils at the easel.

We had some food to sort by color out, mouse count, sorting by shapes, colors adn sizes. ans some ABC puzzles out. We had a floor puzzle ABC out that the children enjoyed today.

We sang walking shoes, Everybody has a face and ring the bells it's wintertime. all from Carole Peterson's CD's.

We had Styrofoam pieces and containers in our sensory table.


Maple Room- MWF class

We read "The hat" by Jan Brett

We painted on textured shelf liner paper and made a print of our painting. we will use them to make hats. At the easel we had hat shapes with textured stampers and paint.

We sang the January song, the winter song, and did the snowman pokey. We also did 5 little snowman rhyme and kitten mitten. We have mittens and clothespins for the children to find the pairs and put them on the clothesiline.

Oak Room

We read "Bear snores on" by Karma Wilson and Jane Chapman and we read "the magic schol bus sleeps for the winter"

We made letter O' pictures in our journals. we took the children out in small groups to play some games, today was rhyming houses, and Bingo- a sorting game

We did hibernation rhymes and "I met a bear"

We had snow in containers and scooped using spoons and cups.

Activities for Tuesday, January 12, 2010

Willow Room- T/th class

We read "My crayons talk" by Patricia Hubbard

We talked about the color red and our question today was "Are you wearing something red?"

We used potato mashers to make really cool prints on waxed paper. We will hang them on our windows to make our room look bright.

We had magnetic beads and letter, magnadoodle, a number peg board, pizza puzzle, wooden shapes and some puzzles out.

We had our white playdough out today too.

We sang over the deep blue sea, tap you toe and follow me, and 2 little black birds.

We brought in snow from outside, put on mittens and played in the snow.


Oak Room:

We read The Hat by Jan Brett

We drew snow pictures with white crayons on black paper. After we finished we painted over the picture with Epsom salt water to make it look snowy.

We passed a pretend snowball around the circle to music, we listened to Big Bear Can- a book on tape. We sang the January song.

We were talking about hibernation and what animals hibernate. We made a list of words with the letter "O".

activities for Monday, January 11, 2010

Willow Room: MWF class

We read an alphabet book called "A was once an apple pie" by Edward Lear

We played find the letter B. We talked about the letter B today.

We painted with potato mashers on wax paper. They will look great on our windows to brighten up the winter days.

We had letter beads, magnetic foam shapes, chain of colors, puzzles, sorting color objects out on the tables today.

We sang "Little fish, over the deep blue sea, tap your toe and follow me.

Maple Room:

We read "One winter's Day" by M. Christina Butler

We made Icicle paintings and are talking about the letter J

We sang The January song, freeze dance, button factory, farmer in the dell and a snowman song.

Oak Room:

We read "The Mitten" by Jan Brett

We cut out mitten shapes and used eye droppers to drip paint onto the mitten shape. We then pressed another mitten shape on top to create a pair of matching mittens.

We sang " Come and buy a mitten", match the mittens, and counting mittens
We dripped water colors onto snow.
We are talking about the letter "O". We have objects in a bag that start with the letter O and the children have to follow clues to guess what is in the bag.

We drew footprints on brown paper and the children cut them out and attached them to the floor to make animal tracks in the snow leading to our "cave".

Willow room activities for Friday, Jan. 8, 2010

Willow room: MWF class

Our story was " I am snow" by Jean Marzollo


Our question today was "Do you have a letter "B" in your name?"

We did the days of the week and weather at our 2nd circle time.

We made texture collages by gluing various objects with different textures onto paper.

We had letters at the easel

We had out a number peg game for counting and fine motor skills
giant pegs- colors and fine motor skills
pizza game making pretend pizzas
button sorting by shape

We sang a snowflake song, and a snowman song, we also did a song called "put your finger on"

We brought snow in from outside and we used eye droppers with watercolors to color the snow and make rainbow snow.

We also have our white "snowy" playdough.

Activities for Friday, Jan 8, 2010

Maple Room- MWF class

We read "Polar Bear, Polar Bear, What do you hear?" by Bill Martin

We did string painting and the children will tell us what they think their picture looks like. We are also creating our own Polar Bear book.

We measured our growing snowman and we had mittens at our sensory table with packing peanuts that looks like snow.

We sang The January song, and we did some bean bag song- bean bag exercise, bean bag boogie. We also did some "Kid pick songs- itsy bitsy spider, twinkle twinkle, wheels on the bus, and chubby snowman.

Each of the children had their own dry erase board and we practiced drawing letters with dry erase markers. They did a great job.

Oak Room:

We read "Don't wake the Bear!" by Marjorie Dennis Murray and we talked about the letter "N", what words start with the letter "N".

We wrote the children's names on paper, and the children used various art materials and glued them on the outline of their names.

We had some animal sorting bowls, and the "N" puzzle.

We did a snowman int he yard rhyme, and there was an old lady who swallowed some snow.

We brought snow into the room and played in it wearing mittens.

Activities for Thursday, January 7, 2010

Willow Room: T/TH class

We read "Snow" by Roy McKie and P.D. Eastman
Our question today was "Are you wearing the color red?"

We used glue mixed with shaving cream to paint a snowman shape. Then we added buttons. Wait until you see what happens to the shaving cream when the snowman dries.

We had magnetic shapes, a number puzzle 1-20, some puzzles, a wooden matching game, and stringing alphabet beads.

We sang snowman-hum, brown bear, teddy bear, and 2 little black birds.

We brought in snow from outside and used watercolors to make the snow change colors.

Oak Room:

We read "Tracks in the snow" by Wong Herbert Lee

We cut out cave shapes and glued on cotton balls to look like snow. We used stampers to make footprints leading to the cave.

We had some snowman matching games.

We did "I met a bear" chant song.

We brought in snow from outside and wore gloves to play in the snow in the room.

Activities for Wednesday, January 6, 2010

All classes played in the gym today with scooters and other large motor toys.

Willow Room- MWF class

We read "Snow" by P.D. Eastman and Roy McKie

For art today we made a mixture of shaving cream and glue and the children used it to paint onto a paper shaped like a snowman. It will be our very own indoor snowman.

We had magnetic letters and shapes out, a connect and build with shapes toy, white play dough with snowman shapes cutters, puzzles.

We brought tubs of snow into our room and we used liquid water colors to color the snow.

For music we sang Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear, 2 little black birds, Brown bear, brown bear, and I'm a little snowman. We also did "The sneezing song" and talked about how germs spread easily from one person to the next.

We looked for the letter "A" in our room.

Maple Room-MWF class:

We read "The snowy day" by Ezra Jack Keats

We did Ice cube painting with dry tempra paint. At the easel we had Pom Pom's and corks in paint with snowflake shapes.

We sang the January song, winter song, list of dances, Today is Monday, and Pass the snowball (like hot potato)

We did the estimating jar of "How many snowflakes?" we also are doing a science experiment called "Grow a snowman" where you put a tiny snowman in a jar of water and watch as it grows bigger and bigger each day.

Oak Room:

We read "The first day of winter" by Denise Fleming

We worked in our journals today on the letter "N". We also take the children out of the room in small groups to play games that help them build on their math or language skills.

We had frozen blocks of ice with something hidden in the ice. The children used salt to help melt the ice to discover what was hidden in the ice.

We sang the cool bear hunt, snowman pokey and did a melted snowball story.

Activities for Tuesday, January 5, 2010

All classes played in the gym today with trikes, alligator rocker, tunnel, balls and basketball hoop.

Willow Room-T/TH class

We have white playdough with snowman shape cutters.

Our story today was "A silly snowy day" by Michael Coleman

We painted with forks and white paint onto evergreen shapes. This made it look like snow on the trees. At the easel we had magnetic shapes.


We had a shape magnadoodle out, a latch puzzle and a color dot matching game.

We sang Head shoulders knees and toes, and an ABC sound song.

We had two new children join our class today.

Oak Room:

We read "One snowy night" by M. Christina MacNaughton

We made bird/squirrel feeders out of crescent rolls and corn and bird seed. They get baked and it is a nice treat for the birds in the winter to help keep them fed.

We sang The cool bear hunt, snowman pokey, and a song making different color snowmen.

We have been doing some ice activities, today we brought in water frozen in tubs and the children used eye droppers to drip colored water onto the ice to make designs and melt the ice.

Yesterday, we put some water outside and asked the children if they thought it would freeze before school was over. some said yes, ad some said no- they were all right- it froze on the top, but the bottom was still liquid.

Activities for Monday, January 4, 2010

Welcome back and Happy New Year to everyone. The children were all happy to be back and the classrooms were filled with fun activities today. We will be staying inside for gym for the foreseeable future with this very cold weather; but we fun inside too.

Today we had the trikes, balls, hula hoops, and the rocking alligator out for the children.

Willow room: MWF class

We read "A silly snowy Day" by Michael Coleman and we are going to be talking about winter weather, snow, ice, cold.

We are also talking about the alphabet and we are starting with the letter "A". Our question today was "Do you have the letter "A" in your first name? At our second circle time we talked about the weather, days of the week and we played a game of finding the letter "A" in our room.

For art today, we had evergreen shapes and the children used fork to paint white paint on the trees that looked like snow.

At the easels, we had blue glitter paint and later we will cut the finished pictures into snowflakes shapes to decorate our room.

Some of our table activities out today were counting chains, a fine motor color match game, a shape box for sorting and matching shapes, and some number pegs.

We had playdough today.

We sang "Head, shoulders, knees and toes", the snowflake song with pretend snowflakes, and an ABC sound song.

Maple Room- MWF class


.We read "A little bit of winter" by Paul Stewart and we are talking about winter, animals, snow, cold, ice.

We did cotton ball painting at the tables today and at the easels we had toothbrush painting.

As a special activity today, we had blocks of ice with eye droppers and water colors. The children could put salt on the ice too to see the effect of salt on ice. Then they dripped the watercolors onto the ice to combine colors and make designs.

We sang the January song, months of the year song and did letter sounds. We are talking about the letter "I".

Oak Room:

We read "A little bit of winter" by Paul Stewart. We are talking about winter and about bears.
We made bears out of paper plates to make our bulletin board about bears.

We sang "Ten in the meadow" and "Going on a bear hunt".

We are talking about he letter "A".