Saturday, December 31, 2016

Festive candles

 
We made festive candles and talked about different holidays that are celebrated. We talked a little bit about the Festival of Lights while making the candles. 
 
 
We also talked about that a new year will also happen. We pointed to the 2016 on the calender and I showed them the 2017 and that is called New Year's Day when the year changes. 

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!! 🎉

Wednesday, December 28, 2016

Holiday hoopla cont....

 
We almost closing out the 2016 theme. Crazy that a whole year has gone by. 


Lydia did a great job matching the ornaments in the tree. 
 

 
The elegant ornament was the creative arts activity. 
We cut the ribbons and glued them on a stick from the shortest to longest to make the shape of a Christmas tree. Of course the  wooden star was must. 
One of my favorite things is homemade ornaments for the trees. 

Monday, December 26, 2016

Welcome winter

It's finally winter and we made a sign to welcome it. 
 

 
 
The topic cards for the 2 weeks are Holly and Garland. 
On one side it's the Spanish word and on the other side it's the English word. 
I showed the garland to the friends and all of them said  they have those in their houses. 

The literacy activity was Genius Gingerbread Man. I hid it different places throughout the room and the friends enjoyed looking for it. 
 

Saturday, December 24, 2016

Letter L

The letter L was the letter of the week. We made a L is for lightbulb picture. 
 

 

The character counts for the next couple weeks is Sabrina the Suppoetove Snail. 
She taught us what being supportive means. We help each other if we need help. 
Showing a friend how to tie their shoe. Encourages a friend to try something even though he/she may not like it. 

We played green light, red light. It took a few minutes for the kids to catch on, but after a few tries, they were having fun. 
In the Funshine express curriculum guide, there is always a gross motor section. It's always a easy game that gets the kids moving. 

 

I just used a red peice of paper and green piece of paper. 

Hope everybody has a Merry Christmas. 

Wednesday, December 21, 2016

Buttermilk chalk art

 

We are gearing up for Christmas around here, but we are finishing up our Kids in the kitchen theme. Today we experimented with buttermilk. We talked about how when at first the buttermilk looks like powder, but after adding water it turns to liquid. A little science with the creative Arts. 
I know I say this a lot, but  funshine express introduces  me to so much. I would have never figured out my own to dip chalk in buttermilk and then draw. 





 

The number 10 was the second number we learned about. I each funshine kit a math number counting card  comes it. It is basic math and can do so much with. I usually like to kee things theme related when skin activities, so for the number 10 the friends w joyed using presents and santa clause erasers to count. 

 

This activity also enforces one to one correspondence. 
Jenna who is not even 2 yet was enjoying the counting too. 
 

Thursday, December 15, 2016

Letter K and chefs

 

Lydia is busy coloring her letter K and then she added keys for K.

The girls are getting so much better with tracing the letters and recognizing. I love to watch them grow just from the beginning of the year to the end. 
I spell the girls names when I write on the paper and everyday they get better telling Me what letter comes next. 

 
Yesterday we made the cutest chef hats. It was simple as stapling and taping paper together. 
The kids enjoyed pretending to cook while wearing their hats . 
I overheard a conversation and they were talking about what kitchen tools they needed for their recipe. "1/2 cup of flour" "milk" "we need a mixer thing" I chimed in and asked if it was whisk and showed her the picture on our work wall. That was it.

 


 
We go over these everyday and spell them out. We are getting to the point where thy know what letter comes next. 



Thursday, December 8, 2016

Gingerbread and torn paper

 
We all know Christmas is near when gingerbread activities are planned. I like it. Yesterday we made cute gingerbread people and sprinkled some cinnamon in them for fun. 
 
The math game for funshine express curriculum for this month is baking cookies.  The kids had to move the top wheel to see what was revealed inside. We talked about which steps came first when baking cookies and them they would match the card to the right step in the window. 

There was this artist a long time ago named Henri Matisse who created art by torn pieces of paper.  This was created using tiny pieces of paper. Not sure I have patience for that! 
 
Today we created our own torn paper collage. 
 

Monday, December 5, 2016

Kids in the kitchen and the letter J

Happy Monday ! Hope everyone had a super weekend. 
Last week we started are kids in the kitchen theme and we are learning about the letter J.

 
I gathered some kitchen tools and at circle time we talked about what each one was and what we use it for 
 
The creative arts activityfor the funshine curriculum  was to paint and make shapes or prints with a kitchen tool. The potato masher was the favorite. The girls enjoyed watching the paint go through the holes. 

 
Every month we learn 3 letters. This month is J,K,L. Today we talked about the letter J and what begins with J. Jeep, Jenna, Jingle Bells. We also learn the sign language of the letter as well.

 
Today we made J is for Jingle bells. The best part was actually jingling the bells. 
 
We will continue our kids in the kitchen theme and have a lot fun stuff planned. 

Thursday, December 1, 2016

Sharing bags and kit details .


Yesterday we finished our manners theme 
We made a sharing snack bag. One of the steps was to take one piece of streamer and figure out how we can share it.  The solution was to rip in half or fourths so everybody had a big peice. 
The next step was to rip the streamer in little and glue it on the paper bag. I put some snack of different kinds on the table and the kids each had to share snack and put each snack in their bag. 


I have posted about the kit in awhile so I thought I would do a refresher. I remember when I was teaching in the classroom and I had to spend hours on prep work and lesson planning. I had time back then, now with 3 kids who are all involved in activities I have very little time to prep. 
So this is where Funshine express comes in. Every month a box arrives in my porch and in that box is a mo the worth of art activities, games,a  book, calendar pieces and so much more. 
Let me tell that Funshine  express has helped with staying more organized and I am able to enjoy my evenings and weekends knowing my week is already planned out. There is little prep and I can get it done in the morning or right after school. 

 
 The art activities all come with supplies wrapped individually and it is dated so I can just grab it and get ready. 

The directions and all other activities are in the curriculum guide. 
 
 
 
The pages are dated and I have my whole day planned out. 
 Today we are starting our kids in the kitchen theme. We are excited about exploring all things in the kitchen .