Celebrating the Holidays! (December 9-13)

MONDAY:

Welcoming Monday with some Christmas art; Paige, Colette, Tristan and Ivy all working on their Winter Wonderland. While Miss Lizzie set up a poster board, and showed Jasper and Wren how to make snow flakes, using coffee filters and a spray bottle with blue ink! They added some glue, and glitter and loved the way it sparkled! The weather was pretty chilly, as we stayed in for the morning, working in our Dramatic Play and Construction centers. Many friends like to work with the doctor's equipment, especially our friend Paislie :) While other friends have made make shift "tunnels" and car schutes using old paper rolls.
After nap, it was Yoga time!!! Colette made her way to our room, as we split the class, our older sunflowers went with Miss Colette, while our younger sunflowers, sat at the table with Miss Arielle playing a yoga filler game! They chose a block from the table, which had a pose or activity to play. Jasper and Byron enjoyed picking and posing, practicing their tree pose, and Airplane pose. Ivy and Paislie soon got up and joined in. While Colette worked with our older friends on the carpet, practicing and reading books which were filled with different animals, which they would practice doing the pose and learning the name.
Happy Monday!

TUESDAY:
We began this Tuesday with centers and art activities pertaining to our lesson of the month, winter holidays around the world! This week we are focusing on Christmas and the winter solstice!! We decorated our winter wonderland, using cotton balls, glitter, glue, and our imaginations!!! Friends also had the option to decorate using Christmas stickers or decorating penguins! Which we identified, as living in cold weather!
Miss Toni came in with a special treat for primary sunflowers! Toni and I baked vegan cookies for all of GS employees and had a few bits and pieces left over which we wanted to share! She explained how there was no dairy in these "crumbs" of cookies and so our friends Paige and ms Arielle could have one! Everyone was so thankful and excited :) we closed out our morning with some outside time, finally! Which everyone loved, especially seeing the sun out! We transitioned inside before lunch, read, chew chew, gulp then proceeded to eat and nap time.
After nap, we sat quietly in the carpet as ms Arielle read a few books. Miss emilia came for yoga, which everyone was super excited for!! We gathered our yoga mats and made our way to the rug. Emilia started with the routine opening stretches and songs. She then asked our friends which animals move fast and which move slow! Wren said a turtle, a turtle moves slooow! And Ben said a bee! Then giggled. Miss emilia brought up a sloth, which she described as slow moving, with claws. She then got on her back and curled up pretending to be a sloth. Many friends followed, giggling with their feet in the air. We said our goodbyes, got shoes coats and hats on and marched outside!

WEDNESDAY:
We spent the majority of our Wednesday outside, thankful for the beautiful weather! There's been some talk about camping, so Ivy, Miya, and Addie decided to build a "tent" with sheets over the dome climber! Soon everyone joined in adding their own thing to the tent, and we soon talked about making a "bonfire" to stay warm. Dax found some sticks, and a bucket, while Jasper, Asher, and Ben found "leaves" that were the fire! We sat around under the "tent" and looked up at the sky :)
Daphne joined us on the deck, after we had snack, for a lesson in Spanish! She read a pop out book about animals, which she translated from English to Spanish.

THURSDAY:
We started our morning inside due to the cold  weather, but there was definitely no objections as friends found books to read and cars to roll! We broke off into our work centers; Olin found the magnetic counting puzzle, while colette worked with the coins and bank. Addie counted aloud as she counted beads and hung them under their number. and Paige worked on the knobbed cylinders.  Asher worked with the long red rods, as Dax worked on the numbered long rods. placing them in order according to length. Ivy worked with the sound boxes, matching each sound and color to each other. It was a very quiet, calm work time before we cleaned up, and marched outside!
Daphne joined us, after nap and snack, for another lesson in Spanish! introducing new words and pictures, for our friends to look at. She then had them take turns, picking up cards that were turned over to see if they could find the matching one! They had pictures of a farm animals with their spanish translation, so even if they did not find the matching one, they learned the name and pronunciation of both of the animals, which everyone enjoyed, repeating after Miss Daphne, and taking a turn! It was a great day!

FRIDAY:
As usual our Fridays consist of dance party, lately, however we've been rocking Fridays as pajama day, which has quickly become a favorite! Friends arrived showing off their festive, super hero, and princess pjs all excited! We squeezed in some Christmas art before attempting to go outside. The rain shortened our outside time, so we came in and prepared for our special Friday AM snack, vegan waffles!!!! The toddlers joined us, as we introduced ingredients, had each kiddo help out, and poured the batter into Ms Arielle's waffle maker, which her dad so kindly lent us! Each friend sitting patiently as they waited for them to cool, while Mrs Jackie led us in songs! Our first batch was out and a huge success! They loved it! :) the next batch we made with blueberries, and friends were patiently waiting to taste. It was a huge thumbs up, as we enjoyed warm waffles on this cold, rainy morning.
After snack, we worked on our Kwanzaa holiday art, and our awesome "fire place", Ms Arielle drew on big, white paper! It was soon time for lunch, secret sack and nap time!
After nap, mr mike joined us for Our Friday cooking project. Today we learned how to make Latkes! Mr mike explained the story of the latkes, and explained how we make them with potatoes. He sliced a potato for our friends to see, smell, and feel. his special helper for the day was Jasper, who for to help mix the shredded potatoes, flour and water! He was very excited :)


Much Love
Dom