Snow Day!

Well no school today because the roads are icy, but snowy front yards make perfect playgrounds! Here are some pictures of little snow bunnies.

J for Candy Cane?

That's right - J for candy cane. Just turn it over and what do you have? A beautiful J to hang a baby Jesus on. The kids made these cute little tree ornaments after reading the story of the first Christmas.



Matching letters by placing the correct colored tiles on the tree.

After practicing AB patterns with foam beads we made our own patterns with rubber Christmas stamps. (These beads are the best and can be used for so many things - threading, sorting, learning colors or shapes....)

We made chocolate pudding and topped it with peppermint that they crushed themselves. (They had a little too much fun pounding on the candies with wooden blocks!)

Little Miss M

Little Miss M isn't always here on school days, so I thought I'd just add some 'too busy to say cheese :)' pictures of her playing at Mrs. Mandy's house.

g is for gingerbread

Last week was all about gingerbread! We practiced the letter G, read the old tale of The Gingerbread Man (ours was written by Carol North), made our own Playdough versions, and even made a gingerbread house! In math we are learning AB patterns using colored foam beads. This Christmas, I'd like the kids to learn that it is more important to give than to receive and that we can help others even though we are little. They each drew a picture for my elderly neighbor who has been feeling under the weather. We put them together in a card and delivered it. Each child explained his or her picture and saw how their thoughtfulness made another person feel better. She was delighted.





After reading Gingerbread Mouse, by Katy Braton, We made 'square' gingerbread houses with 'triangle' roofs! The kids had a blast and showed great self control by not eating the icing or candy until we were all finished (minus a licked finger or two :) Here they are, each showing off his or her very special creation.





Well, most showed self control! The candy never made it to A's house :)

And I see two empty spots on E's house that were filled with gummy bears at one time :)





We also read The Mitten, by Jan Brett. Then we used cotton balls and paper scraps to make our own.