Hanging with Almond

 During our Thursday Atelier time this week we had a Chanukah Celebration with our friends from the Fig classroom! We made dinosaur snow tracks, Chanukah sensory bottles, a family Chanukah sign with our handprints and we did fun videos with our friends! Chanukah is such a fun time to get to spend time with our friends who've turned into our family. We had our Menorah with all eight candles on and our favorite big dreidel in our videos. It's always good to have collaboration with other classes because our kiddos get to form a bond with friends, they often pass in the hall but don't spend a lot of time with.  We are so Thankful for our Fig Friends and Teachers!   And we are so thankful for you! Have the Happiest of Chanukah's! - The Almond Class Indiana Learning Foundations: SW4.1: Demonstrate relationship skills, APL4.1: Demonstrate development of social interactions during play, CA3.2: Demonstrate creative expression through visual art production and p...

"It's a yucky day so we need our rainsuits." "It's not raining but it is super wet!" "It's so muddy!" This week was filled with yucky days for rainsuits and of course, boots. Something that never surprises me is the amount of joy the kids get from the play sets being wet and using the mud kitchen when it is in fact muddy. Some particular kiddos are so enthralled with going down the slide when it's wet to see how far away they land or how big of a sound they can make when they land on the ground. Others love having water in their pots and pans so they can make soup instead of pasta with their mulch.  Though they love it, we still have some uh oh's and a few injuries here and there, but they do very well reminding each other to be safe on the balance beam when it's wet, to hold on to the swings and not let go and even hold each other's hand when going up the steps of the slide so they do not slip. The way they protect each other a...

 On Wednesday, we got out our favorite kind of paint in the Almond room! Watercolor has been a running favorite lately and what better way to slowly start closing the week out than with the thing they like so much! We printed out some papers with menorah's on it and let the kiddos paint until it looks like it's going to tear. 😂 This is one activity that we use as a small group focusing our attention on our friends fine motor skills and memorization.  Indiana Learning Foundations: SW1.1: Demonstrate self awareness and confidence, APL3.1: Demonstrate development of sustained attention and persistence, CA3.1: Demonstrate creative expression through the visual art process or experience

 Chanukah is in full swing in our classroom and what better way to start it off than by spinning dreidels… in paint! It was a particularly cold/frigid day Thursday so we were able to go to the art atelier earlier than we usually do and a lot of our friends got to do more art with us before heading out for the day! The tables in the art atelier were set in different stations one for dreidel spinning, one for making classroom stars and the other was a fun transitional stamping activity.      The kiddos joined Ms Hannah at the dreidel table and were given directions and away they went. They took whichever dreidel they wanted and dipped it into blue, red or gold metallic paint and tried to spin on the paper. Some friends picked it up quickly and began to laugh at how much of mess they found it made. A few other friends decided they didn’t want to spin and used it to make dots with the point of the dreidel. I love how often the kids will take directions and then explore a...

One of the biggest things our kiddos love the most in our room is paint “projects”. They flock to tables if they see a paint bottle or glitter and lately…. that’s what we do the most in our room. Their faces fill with smiles and their minds are filled with questions about what they are making, and how they can relate them to their lives.   On Wednesday during our free choice the table was lined with white paint, cotton balls and blue paper. The kids were talking about how when it gets cold outside sometimes snow will fall and then it melts. We talked a little more about what color snow was, how it feels and if they thought snow should stay forever. Thankfully they vetoed snow forever. After our morning conversation, I asked if our friends could make their own snow on their blue paper, and as quickly as I said it, they had already begun. Some friends used the cotton balls to make snowballs, some made snowmen, and others said they made snow storms. We also did a dreidel scratch ...

 On Tuesday this week, we closed out our Ocean Exploration by scraping and brushing a clay mold filled with an ocean fossil! The kids used the scraper from the kit after a teacher demonstrated to them to use their big muscles to scratch hard and then brush away the dust to see better. They all did really well with taking turns with each other and sliding the tray across the table each time it was time to switch. After a little impatience with the clay, Miss Hannah grabbed our hammer from our tool set and the kiddos smashed it to find the animal bones inside. It was a Megalodon skeleton! After finding all the pieces, we put the pieces together (the best we could with the pieces still having clay in them) and put him in a safe place to rest so he wouldn't break again. This was such a fun way to tie up our short Ocean unit and hopefully keeps the doors open for us to continue it another time this year!  Pure curiosity   Inquiring friends :) Cleaning off the dust I love this ...