The Planets

Here we are again with an amazing little song.  I can't take credit for this because I learned this from Mrs. Margie, who taught it to my son Emerson, many years ago.  (Mrs. Margie teaches one of the three year old classes downstairs.)  It is the best little tune for remembering the planets in our solar system and has come in handy with my oldest son, as well.  He taught it to his middle school friends just before a science test and they all remembered the planets in order.  So get ready to be amazed by these little ones.  I know I am!  They are so excited about learning about space and all that could be out there.  You may notice that we are wearing our "alien" headbands.



Today was our "alien" day and we had lots of fun speculating about these "extra-terrestrial" beings.  This concept can be a little bit scary, but we decided that we like aliens.  We read a fun book called, Aliens Love Underpants by Claire Freedman & Ben Cort.  We all agreed that aliens would be nice because God made everything so they must be nice too.  This would be a great book to check out from our class or the library.  The children couldn't stop laughing and asked to read it over and over.  Happy Alien Day 2012!

Off Into Space

This is one of the best themes in our class....space! It is one of my favorites and the the children love it too! We start by talking about how you even make it to space in the first place to take a look around and work our way around the galaxy. I am not sure if you have heard your child singing our fun "planets" song, but beware...it is really catchy. Here are some pictures of our friends working and playing. Our friend above is making a shape rocket to hang in our room as we travel from planet to planet. We also have friends putting together a huge floor puzzle of the solar system.
Some of us even demonstrated what a "space nap" might look like. Funny how it looks like just like an "Earth" nap...but it would probably be so much more exciting.
We also used our imaginations with the Lego sets and building blocks to build rockets and space stations. Keep watching for more of our journey into space. It is so much fun to watch the children get excited about learning. I think the most favorite thing so far is Pluto...the planet that isn't a planet anymore.

More From Chinese New Year

Here are more pictures from our Chinese New Year Celebration. One friend brought in some great books that her grandmother got when she visited China. She also wore a beautiful, traditional style Chinese dress. We also got a visit from a really cool dragon kite. It was huge and did a great job bringing good luck to our classroom!

Happy Chinese New Year!

Our classroom loves to learn about friends from around the world. We continued this today by celebrating the Chinese New Year! It was lots of fun as we learned about the animals of the Chinese calendar and enjoyed a fun fortune cookie snack. Our class has 5 dogs and 7 pigs. Dog people are "loyal and can always keep a secret. They sometimes worry too much." Pigs or Boars are said to be "very good students and are honest and brave. They are said to always finish a project or assignment." The children had lots of fun hearing about traits associated with the animals of the Chinese Horoscope and even asked to take copies home to share with their mom and dad. Everyone was surprised to learn about the tradition of the Dragon Parade and that dragons actually mean good luck. So of course we had to make a dragon of our own. We even welcomed this new year with a fun dragon parade in our classroom. Here are our lucky dragon masks and beautiful red lanterns to welcome the Year of the Dragon.

Penguin Parade

Last week we concluded our unit on polar habitats and winter. To celebrate we made these awesome little penguin friends. They were so cute. Every time that I make these with a class they make me laugh because the expression on their face just screams "where are we?" It could be that they are in a much warmer climate and are just trying to find their way back home. You know I never really thought of a penguin as "mischievous" but some of these little guys or girls just look like they might be up to something sneaky. Our friends in class couldn't wait to take them home and introduce them to their snow friend from the previous week. (Please note that we spent lots of time talking about how to keep our little penguins safe by not playing too rough and spilling all of the flour that is inside that makes them fluffy and white.)

Polar Fun

As we learned about polar habitats, we made several fun art projects. Here are our polar bears and Eskimo friends. They are displayed just outside of our door. Since we haven't seen any snow, it has been really fun to pretend we live in really cold and snowy climates. I'm pretty sure that we haven't missed the icy roads and losing power, but it would be nice to see some fluffy white flakes for just a few hours. (You won't be surprised to know that one of us prays for snow during our circle time each day. Not much... just enough to make a baby snowman.)

A Sunny Day

After all of the cold, rainy days in recent weeks, we finally got to go out to the playground!!!! Yeah!! It wasn't too cold, just a little wet but we had a great time. There is a lot to be said for free play. The children were so excited to have time to play with children from other classes and just get to have fun. Thank you God for a sunny day!

Work & Play

Just some random snapshots of our day. It is busy and sometimes loud, but so much fun! We learn through work and play and are growing so much. The children move independently through centers and work tables. Some of us read at the book center or play with blocks and Lego's. It is hard to believe that it is the middle of January, it truly feels like yesterday was our first day of school. My how times flies when you are having fun!

Rainbow Art

Since Monday was a holiday for us, we spent some time on Tuesday learning about Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. This is one of those topics that is really difficult for little people to learn because they cannot comprehend what "prejudice" means. They have no idea what it means to not like someone because of what they look like because we all know that God made us the same in our hearts. So we talked about all of the things that God made and how they are all special and good. We talked about the colors of the rainbow and why God made so many different colors if only one was His favorite, so for fun we did a "rainbow" art project. They are displayed as you come up the stairs to our classroom. I did not give any specific instructions for this project except to say that needed to use each color. I think they turned out just perfect. God loves us all, no matter what color our hair is, how tall we are, or what our favorite food is...He just accepts us right where we are!

Snow Boys and Snow Girls

Meet our snow friends. We have been having fun this week making these special sock snowmen. The children helped fill the socks with rice and did the decorating, They are so excited to have a permanent snow friend to keep at home. (Rice doesn't melt like real snow...so these snowmen will last as long as they don't get a hole.) It is amazing how much personality these snow friends actually have when they are done. I love the expression on their faces and can only imagine what they would do if they were real. Imagination is a wonderful thing and your children are going to love bringing these little friends home this week. (PS - We did talk about being careful with our friends because one little hole could make big mess. So we did talk about safe ways to play with our snow friends.)

X-Ray

Our letter of the week is "x." It is one of those letters that doesn't really have to much to offer with snacks, books or art projects; so we had some fun the concept of the "x-ray." Now since getting an x-ray can be scary, we had a good time putting together an x-ray puzzle. The children enjoyed this child sized skeleton puzzle and it inspired some very thoughtful conversation during our circle time. They were amazed by the way the bones all work together. This was the first time most of them had seen an entire skeleton and they had fun laying beside it and looking at where the bones would be in their own body. We also talked about ways to keep our body healthy and how to make our bones strong. What a great way to start 2012...being healthy!

Snow Cream

This is winter, right? We have been learning about this since we returned from the holidays, but it hasn't really felt very cold. Usually during this time of year we get a small "snow blessing" to help us really identify with this season, but so far we have had no luck. Well to help us get in the spirit, we had a delicious snack reminiscent of my childhood...snow cream. Yes you can buy this in the store next to the ice cream. It is simply called "snow cream" and the children loved it. Now in the "olden days" of my childhood my nanny would make this frozen treat for me when God blessed Lexington with a snow shower. She carefully gathered the snow, mixed it with milk, sugar and vanilla flavoring and then tenderly stirred this together to make a creamy snow ice cream. (When making snow cream, you have to be careful when mixing it together. If you stir too much you can make the snow melt and then just have sweet vanilla milk.) So this was a happy snack for the week and I am glad the children loved it so much. If you have never tried this, I am quite sure your little one would not be disappointed to have some of this sweet treat to enjoy at home. Maybe when you get to the "do a funny snow dance" homework assignment, you could use this as a celebration. Anyway, happy winter and thanks for letting me share my childhood memories with you.

Don't Forget Your Homework

If you are participating in our homework program, don't get worried if you miss a day or two. You can make them up and do them at your convenience. Just make sure that your child colors each day that an assignment is completed. At the end of the month, have your child bring their completed calendar in to our classroom and exchange it for a treat from our prize bucket. (Please make sure that they write their name on their calendar, because some of us are so excited when they bring them in and they can't remember which one belongs to them.) This little program is designed to encourage excitement about learning and build self confidence. My children always loved these little homework calendars because the daily assignment was easy and fun. I hope that you are enjoying this at home. (and who knows, you might learn something too.)

Fruits of the Spirit

Just a little update from chapel. Pastor Jay is doing an awesome job with us. He has been teaching us some great songs along with lessons from the Bible. Before we left for Christmas vacation he taught us all about the Christmas story and the birth of Baby Jesus. On Wednesday, we started learning about the "fruits of the spirit" and he helped us understand "love" just a little bit better. His message to the children was about how easy it is to love fun things, but God expects us to love things that are also "not so fun." We need to love others even when they might hurt our feelings or make us sad. So if your little one shares this with you, it is a lesson from chapel. Oh... and we started learning a super fun song to help us remember this story. Thanks Pastor Jay for helping us learn God's word.