This week for tot school we learned all about penguins and other winter animals.
Circle Time
The girls are continuing to love circle time. They are so eager to help with the calendar each day. I am still experimenting with different ways to use the board so a post on that is still to come, but I realized that I forgot to post a picture last week so here you go.
The Mitten by Jan Brett
The Little Penguin by A J Wood
A Penguin Story by Antoinette Portis
Songs/ Poems:
Peter, Peter Penguin
Peter, Peter Penguin, marching by,
Toes turned out and head held high (Stand very tall with legs together and toes pointing out)
A long black coat (Sketch coat down back)
And a clean white vest (Pretend to hold edges of vest in hands)
Peter, Peter Penguin, you're the best! (Waddle like a penguin)
Music and Movement
"Going On a Bear Hunt" was still a much requested song for this week, but we also branched out and tried a little something new. I found these great kid's yoga videos online and thought we could give them a try for something different.
I wasn't quite sure what the girls would think of them because they're a little slower paced, but they absolutely LOVED them. The videos have a cute story line that helps to keep their attention and gives purpose to the yoga poses. The girls have requested these videos multiple times this week and tell me that they LOVE yoga! I just wish I wasn't busy making lunch at this time so I could join in too!
Sensory Play
Snow Dough - We brought our snow dough back out from a couple of weeks ago. It is so incredibly messy, but so incredibly fun! It cleans up easily so it is a win in my book!
Salt Trays - The kiddos had fun drawing, writing, and playing in salt trays this week. The babies had salt in a bin to confine their mess a bit more. This activity is fun, but I have two notes 1) don't use trays with holes in the sides like mine. The sand spills right out when the shake it around to erase their design 2) don't use salt trays directly on a wood surface. I discovered later that the little bits of salt that spilled onto the table acted like sand paper each time they slid the tray around on the table to erase. Thank goodness my table has already seen better days! We'll be putting towels on the table next time we do this though!
Arts and Crafts
Penguin Craft - The big girls made this adorable toilet paper tube penguin craft while the babies made their own simplified version.
Arctic Animal Spray Pain - The big girls were given cutouts of different arctic animals ( polar bear, penguin, rabbit, and seal) to use as stencils as they "spray painted" their paper by flicking their brush. The animal shapes didn't exactly turn out because they kept lifting them up to check on them, but they absolutely loved this method of painting!
The little ones created their own snowy scene using these fun foam bushes!
Snowflake Painting - The babies had fun painting with these plastic tinsely snowflakes that I picked up at the dollar store last year. They loved the feeling of them covered in paint!
Penguin Waddle Race - We all had fun burning off some steam at the end of the day with this fun penguin race game. We put a balloon in between our legs and raced from one end of the room to the other, waddling like a penguin. Little man was right in there racing with the big girls, although he didn't need a balloon to help him waddle :) The person who reached the finish line first got to be the one to say "ready, set, go..." next. We have just recently started playing games with a "winner" and it has been interesting to watch the competitive side of the kids come out. We have had some talks about what it means to be a good sport, an important lesson to learn!
Animal Walk - For a fun way to get the kids moving, I made a die out of a recycled box and drew pictures of diffent winter animals on each side. The kids took turns throwing the dice and they all moved around the room like the animal that it landed on!
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