Mom's Morning Out - Toddlers

Here's what we were up to today!

Train Track - I love it when the kiddos get this out.  There is always a chorus of  "Choo-choo!".

  
Race Track - Another class favorite!  Today one of the kiddos discovered a circle.  She was watching her car spiral down the track and said, "circle!".  Yahoo!

 

 Cotton Ball Santas - These were fun to create today.  The kiddos enjoyed gluing on the cotton balls!

 Here's how they turned out...

"Fridge Phonics" by Leap Frog - I don't know if they still sell these, but they're the best.  It sings the alphabet as well as the letter and its sound(s) and it's all magnetic.  The kiddos love it.  I also use it in circle time with my older kiddos to reinforce the letters we've learned.

Christmas Gifts - Spoiler Alert!

I just added it all up and this years total per present (drum roll please) was $1.58!  Most of it was found on clearance at Micheal's.  Yahoo!

Bucket - on clearance at Michael's for $0.25 each (in Oct.)

Book - Scholastic bonus points

Truck – on clearance at Michael’s for $0.39 each (in Aug) – everyone

Watering Can - on clearance at Michael’s for $0.39 each (in Aug) – just the girls

Shovels - on clearance at Michael’s for $0.19 each (in Aug) - everyone

Crazy Straw – dollar store in a 6 pack

Airplane kits – Old Navy $0.50 – just they boys

Glue Stick – Walmart $0.25 back to school sales

Ball - on clearance at Michael’s for $0.10 each

A Smidge More of Week 2 on Christmas

Salt Dough Hand Prints - The kiddos made these last week.  I had them paint them...

Once the paint dried I added glitter glue just to their hand print, then I coated them with modge podge.  Unfortunately I forgot to get a final picture and I sent them all home today.  Drat!

Snow! - We are being blessed with another fabulous snow storm.  The kiddos and I played outside in it for about an hour.  I love how it warms up in order to snow!

The snow just kept coming and coming!  This picture is just the beginning of it all!  Yahoo!

Merry Christmas!

Learning Station - Christmas Pasta Lacing

Keeping it simple on this last day of preschool.  We made patterned with colored pasta.  I also pulled out the left over jingle bells for kiddos to add to their lacing if they wanted.

Week 2 on Christmas

Stacking Reindeer - I think this is a new favorite project of mine!  So very cute!  We talked about small, medium and large.  Or as the kiddos put it:  me, mom, and dad!

 

Candy Cane Play Dough - I LOVE homemade play dough.  Today I just made two batches, one with red food coloring and red glitter and the other batch with opaque glitter and peppermint extract.  Smells yummy! 

 

Our Class Tree - Here it is, all decked out before everything starts going home!

Curly Bearded Santa - I love this activity!  Here's how this year's batch turned o

 

I was taking a picture of each of their kiddos with their Santa, this kiddo insisted on keeping it in front of her face.  She said she wanted to BE Santa!  Ha!  I also loved her cotton ball eyes!

C is for Cookie - This week we learned with the letter C.  I dug out my old Sesame Street videos and found cookie monster singing, "C is for cookie that's good enough for me..."


Snack - The kiddos got to enjoy some cookies and we tried to munch them just right so as to create a C.

Snow Cave - My hubby created this in our front yard.  It has just been a mound for the last week or so.  Yesterday my hubby carved it out and the kiddos who have been waiting were soooo very excited to play in it.

Learning Station - Tree Dot Count

The kiddos got to roll a dice, count the dots and then create that many dots on their tree with a bingo paint dotter.

Learning Station - Punched Christmas Trees

I had punched out all these trees with no real intention.  So today I scattered them, as well as the negative space of them, on the table with glue sticks and glitter glue and let the kiddos create a collage.  I love how some kiddos put trees back into the negative space.

 

Games!

I love playing games with my preschoolers.  There is so much to learn from them.  Turn taking, cheering on your classmates, counting, shapes, colors, letters, numbers, words, fine motor skills....

Here are a few of our favorites....

 Up Words - The kiddos love stacking the letters and finding their name.

Connect Four and Sorry

 

Don't Break the Ice - The letters and names are still on this game from a learning station I did with it.

Candy Land - An oldy but a goody.

Staying Alive - A marble game where you try and drop in each other's marbles by using lever.

Learning Station - Initial Ornament

Today the kiddos got to paint and decorate their first initial for an ornament or maybe a door hanging.  I did cut them pretty big.  

I cut the letters out of cereal boxes.

Friday - Mom's Morning Out - Toddlers

Christmas Tree Collage - The kiddos were excited to glue trees and sequins in a beautiful collage.  Well, one kiddo loved the sequins, the other was happy with just trees.  Ha!

Peoples - I love Fischer Price Peoples, so I love it even more when the kiddos enjoy them too.  The kiddos were cute about carefully putting people in chairs and cars.  They also enjoyed putting goldfish crackers in the wagon.

Q-Tip Painted Candy Canes - The kiddos carefully painted their candy cane.  I added a bit of glitter to the paint, they thought that was cool.  One of the kiddos decided to paint a bit with her fingers as well.  The other was happy to stick to the Q-tip.

Some More on Week 1 of Christmas

Sibling Gifts - I love for the kiddos to be able to make gifts for their family and friends.  I want them to feel that thrill of giving a gift that you made yourself.  So for sibling gifts (and anyone else they want to make one for) this year we are making jingle necklaces. 

I tied a jingle bell (they choose the color) on a piece of festive twine ...

... and then they get to string on beads to decorate.  

 Then we slipped each necklace in an envelope for easier wrapping.

Then we wrapped each one and tucked them under our class tree.  They will take all their presents (and ornaments) home on the last day of class.

Doesn't our class tree look great with presents under it!

Reindeer Thumbprints - We made reindeer prints today.

 I showed the kiddos what we would be doing (above) and some of them created a herd!

More Parent Gift Plates - I always love seeing what the kiddos choose to draw....
This kiddo drew roller coasters.

This kiddos drew spiders (I labeled each one for him).

 This kiddos drew a snowman and a gingerbread man.

This kiddo drew a picture of his mom and dad holding hands.

Scented Pine Cone Ornaments - 

The Great Candy Cane Experiment - We wanted to discovered what happens to a candy cane as you eat it.  We put candy canes in bowls of water and watched them dissolve.  It took about fourty-five minutes to do so for them to fully disappear.  A much longer time than it took the kiddos to devour their candy canes.  Ha!

This is probably waaaay more pictures than you want.  But the process was so cool, so here ya go...

The kiddos were super excited when they finally dissolved.  They of course wanted to taste the water, ha.  They said it tasted good.

Santa Masks - These were so very cute especially when the kiddos poked their faces through!