Learning Station - Alphabits!

When I was home in Kansas (this last week) I found Alphabit cereal in my sister's pantry!  I got so excited!  I've been looking for these everywhere!  So I promptly went to her grocery store and bought two boxes to squish into my suitcase. Ha!
I had the kiddos spell their name and then a word or two.   It was great to munch and work and munch some more.

 

A Week on the Olympics!

Welcome to our week on the Olympics!


Journal Time - I pulled out the globe to show the kiddos where Sochi, Russia is.

Olympic Ring Paper Plates - We talked about how all the colors of the rings, including the white background represent the colors of the different country's flags who are participating in the Olympic games.

Snack - During snack (olympic ring bagels) we watched some clips of various Olympic sports.  Also for snack we enjoyed eating "gold medals" - golden oreos!  Yum!  We also made edible torches this week (cones and cheetos).

Gold Medals - Gold paint, card stock and yarn.

Ice Skating - A favorite Olympic sport.  We used wax paper for our skates...

Olympic Tp Torch Relay - After we made our torches, we had to do the torch relay...

Figure Skating Again - The kiddos got to skate some toys around this mini rink.  They also skated their fingers a bit, but that was cold!

Down Hill Skiing - Like our slope?  The kiddos sent all sorts of toys skiing down it.

I just used some hot pocket boxes I had in the freezer and the preschool chairs.  The kids had a blast.  Instead of tossing our slope in the recycle bin, I think I'll keep it for a rainy day.

 

Learning Station - O is for Olympics!

Yummers!  The kiddos glued fruit loops onto the letter "O" and then they got to munch them (not the ones with glue silly!).

 I got the idea and the free printable on this blog.

Friday - Toddlers - Valentines

Valentine Bags - When the kiddos arrived, we set right to work decorating our valentine bags so we could deliver our valentines.

Tracing - I traced each kiddo's hand to create their Valentine for home.  Makenzie had me trace her hand several more times.  Ha!  Jordan was interested in having his airplanes traced.

 

Art Table - Valentine Making Items - The kiddos had a great time gluing and sticking hearts.

 

 Heart Critter - So cute!  The kiddos glued on the parts, I helped them fold the limbs. 

Learning Station - Graphing With Candy Hearts

The kiddos got to sort the candy hearts by color into the graph.  We were able to quickly see how many of each they had.  I asked them about the color with the "most" and the "least". - Least seemed like a new word for most of them, so we chatted about it meaning the smallest amount.  They were very excited to eat their "graph" when they were done!

 I got the graph as a free download on this blog.

A bit more on valentines

Sun Catcher Hearts - Even though we haven't seen the sun in a while, these hearts should look fabulous taped in the window!  We called our project "sticky hearts" because the kiddos kept getting stuck on the contact paper.

Tape Resist Hearts - Day 2 - I peeled the tape off and taa daa!  We had fabulous hearts!

Valentine Party Goodies - I have each kiddo bring something to share, then i provide a few things.  The kiddos loved the bread stick bones we did last week for dinosaurs, so I made them again, but turned them into hearts.

I also made a love mix...

  

Delivering Valentines - The first thing we did this morning was deliver our valentines into each other's boxes.  We didn't even get coats off of everybody yet!  Ha!

Play Dough - The much anticipated event of our party day.  I promised I would make homemade play dough.

Tissue Paper Hearts - I love this style of craft!  I cut hearts from cereal boxes and then the kiddos scrunched small pieces of tissue paper and glued them on.  So cute, so easy.

Ms. Sara's Valentine - I decided to make a valentine ball with goodies inside.  I just did paper mache over a balloon, then painted them when they were dry.  I chose to use big (12" or so) balloons so I could shove the goodies inside before I did the paper mache.

Here are the goodies I gathered (dollar store, party store, Michael's dollar bin).  In the picture you'll see the small 8" balloons, those totally didn't work for pre-stuffing.

Here I am in the midst of doing paper mache.  Messy, but fun.  I did the flour and water paste.  It got gloopier the cooler in temperature it got.

Finished product.  On the opposite side of the tag, I told them they needed to crack open their ball to find their valentine goodies.

A week of love and friendship - Valentines

Happy Love Week!  This week as we work on Valentines, we will focus on showing love and kindness for others.

Heart-Attacked Preschool - I stuck hearts all over the preschool this morning.  The kiddos had a blast running around finding them all.  Perhaps tomorrow I'll move a few to tricky spots, like under the table and inside toy cubbies.  Hmmm... Oh the possibilities!

Circle Time - Drawing Hearts - I wanted to teach the kiddos how to draw hearts, so they could do so on their valentines this week.  I told them to draw a letter "m" then a letter "v" below it.  Taa daa!

Valentine Mailbox - For the kiddos mailboxes, I simply covered cereal boxes with white butcher paper and let the kiddos decorate them.

Valentines - I set out a bunch of supplies and let the kiddos get to work.  They loved creating cards for each other and putting them in their mailboxes.

Tape Resist Hearts - Ms. Sara taped a heart shape on the kiddo's papers, then they painted all over it.  Once they dry, we'll peel the tape off and hopefully they'll have fabulous hearts hidden there. 

Tree Hearts - I had pre-cut hearts, the kiddos helped me cut a few slits in the middle (by folding them in half) then we hopped outside to poke them onto our "tree" (bush).  They look pretty festive!

 

Outdoor Snowman Experiment Continued - While playing outside in the slush (we've had some rain on our snow) we found our snowman!  He had been covered by new snow and we forgot about him.  Crazy he's still around!  Here is a link to the original post about our experiment.