All Sugared up!

What a whirlwind week! The kids are so excited about Christmas - their spirit is so contagious! Because we learned a little bit about the winter holidays last week, this week was spent on the fun of the holidays and winter.

On Monday the dragonflies made an igloo out of stale marshmallows (they are left over from last year)... nobody even attempted to eat one once I told them this little tidbit of information! The stale ones are easier to glue and a lot less sticky! We talked a little bit about the Inuit people (or Eskimos) who live in igloo homes. I think igloos are fascinating - the way they are built and how they are heated. I'm not really a cold weather girl, so I don't think I could ever live in one, but I am definitely curious about them. The dragonflies also worked on pre-math skills.
On Tuesday the butterflies and caterpillars used a mixture of shaving cream and glue to paint a snowman. Most of them ended up looking like a snowman in a Colorado blizzard! The kids had fun painting with this sticky paint and I told them that when it dried it would be puffy like the snowman I have hanging in the hallway. We had fun talking about all the things you can do in the snow and how the snow so far this year hasn't been the best for building snowmen.

Wednesday I read the Polar Express in anticipation of our Polar Express party on Friday. The kids were so funny when I was reading because I had to shout a couple times, once when the conductor says "all aboard" and then again at the end when the conductor shouts "Merry Christmas" so they would raise their hands and remind me to use my inside voice. Little cuties - these kids truly make my heart sing! For craft we made jingle bell bracelets, each child got nine jingle bells that they had string onto a pipe cleaner. This is great for their fine motor and can really test their patience... the pipe cleaners can bend and go inside the bell, so the trick is to keep it straight or straighten it back out before you try to pull it through. Nobody lost their patience and they all had a good time getting the bells into place. When everybody was done, we sat on the carpet and sang jingle bells while we shoot our bracelets. The kids had such a good time, they asked if the parents could come in and watch and listen to them sing - so we had an impromptu recital - what fun!!

Thursday was PJ and gym day for butterflies and caterpillars. We had so much fun playing basketball in our pajamas! One little cutie came up to me in the gym and said "Ms. Lisa, I've never played basketball in my pajamas before. That's silly." I hadn't really thought about it, but you know what? It really is kind of silly and super fun!
The butterflies also decorated sugar cookies, I'm not sure if there was more frosting and sprinkles on the cookies or on the kids! We had a great time making a HUGE mess! Life is good.

Today, the dragonflies had their Polar Express party. This is probably my favorite party in Funtime. We wear our PJ's, watch the Polar Express movie, drink hot chocolate, eat popcorn and have a wonderful time! We danced, we laughed, and we cheered - a good time was had by all.

I want to thank you all for sharing your pre-schoolers with me. I enjoy each and every one of them and feel truly blessed to have all you wonderful families in my life. Coming to work each day is truly a joy because I know you all will be bringing these wonderful little people to share the day with me. I look forward to their fun stories and the cooky conversations we have. It makes me so proud when they call me out on something I've done that breaks our rules... and they never cease to bring a smile to my face. Thank you! Have a wonderful holiday and I can't wait to see you all in 2012!

Butterfly class on PJ day

Funny face picture, first try

Funny face picture

Let the sugar overload begin!

Butterfly teamwork!

So proud of these kids and their teamwork - the whole class helped carry the hoop!

Dragonfly PJ day - girls and their barbies

Polar Express party and PJ day - happy faces

Silly faces

More silly faces

watching the Polar Express

Christmas gifts and a bell for each munchkin. "The first gift of Christmas." ~Santa from the Polar Express

This week in Funtime

I don't know what it is about the Holiday season, but time just seems to go all that much faster during this time of year! This week just flew by.

We had a lot of fun learning about Hanukkah and Christmas. We talked about the differences and similarities between the 2 holidays and what each holiday stands for or means. It was really cute to hear all their different versions of what Christmas 'meant' - I love it!

On Monday & Tuesday, we made a Menorah out of paper. We talked about how Hanukkah is celebrated for 8 days and each night the Jewish people light a candle. There are 9 spaces for candles on the Menorah because one candle (the leader candle) stays lit for all 8 days and is used to light the other 8. I told the kiddos that if they wanted to, they can color a flame onto their candles each night for 8 nights beginning December 21st - this is the first day of Hanukkah 2011. This is not expected by any means, just a neat way to learn about how other people celebrate.
The dragonflies worked on math by tracing and matching shapes.

On Wednesday and Thursday the dragonfly and butterfly classes made Santa's beard white by gluing cotton balls onto a construction paper cutout of Santa. The caterpillar class and the butterfly class also had gym day on Thursday, we played soccer. The kids had fun kicking the ball all around the gym and then kicking it into the net and scoring. They would put their hands up in the air and say "score!" - just adorable! :-)

The dragonflies also played soccer in the gym on Friday. We separated into teams and learned about the rules and different positions. We had a lot of fun, Ms. Lisa scored a goal for each team, so the score was tied! :-) The kids really seemed to enjoy working together to get the ball down the 'field' and defend their goals. They were very encouraging to each other, I'm so proud of them! They really show good character & sportsmanship when we play sports. We ran and played hard, I hope they slept good for you on Friday night! 

Here are some pictures from the Dragonfly class - thank you to the Ryan family for donating princess shoes and dresses... the girls are in heaven!!

Have a great weekend!

New session

Welcome to the last session of 2011. This year (and especially this semester) has gone by so fast!
This week we read Jan Brett's The Mitten, this is one of my favorite stories and one of my favorite authors. In her books, she usually has a small illustration on the right hand page to show what is coming next. The Dragonflies (MWF 9:30am) had fun looking at this picture and predicting what would come next.
To go along with the story, each class made a mitten craft. The Caterpillars (T,TH 9am) used animal and flower stamps to decorate their mitten. The Butterflies (T,TH 10:15am) glued the mitten and the animals from the story onto a larger piece of paper and the Dragonflies first laced their mitten and then glued a pocket on the back to put the animals into.  All the classes had fun trying to predict whether or not all those animals would fit into the tiny white mitten.

On Wednesday the Dragonflies also worked on pre-writing by tracing different lines, horizontal, vertical and diagonal. In January we will start learning to write our letters.

Thursday and Friday were gym days. A few of the Caterpillars asked if we could get out the "really, really big balls", so that's what we did. They rolled over them, kicked them, threw them and chased them. Because they were already out in the gym when the Butterflies came in, they also requested we play with them... next week we will play a sport with these classes. The Dragonflies played tee ball. We had a lot of fun taking turns batting and catching. They did a great job waiting their turn and were very encouraging to each other. I was impressed with their sportsmanship!

The theme for this week will be Winter Holidays (Hanukkah & Christmas)

Thanksgiving feast

The time has gotten away from me... I'm just now getting around to posting some photos from the Thanksgiving feast. Thank you all for coming and celebrating Thanksgiving with the Funtime family!