We made a lot of SNOW activities this week. Being in a warm climate makes it so our seasonal books don't mean as much to the preschoolers. So we make up for it with our pretend play. We made "snow dough" using 2 parts corn starch, and 1 part white hair conditioner, and just a sprinkle of glitter. The dough was messy to make, but turned out really soft and fun to play with. All the preschoolers brought some home, and if it dries out, you can revive it by adding a tiny bit more conditioner.
I love giving the preschoolers time to have sensory play. I bought some kinetic sand for them to play with and explore. It sticks together when you squeeze it together, but also crumbles apart like regular sand. It's very fun to play with and great for making footprints!
We read TONS of books about snowmen and the preschoolers made these beautiful paintings. They used paintbrushes and their fingers to make their creations. We added the carrot noses and arms and things the second day after the white paint had dried.
The preschoolers each added eyes, noses and arms, and some added smiles or a hat. It was fun to see how different they each made them when given freedom to create. They are so imaginative!
I added a few new bags of sand to the sandbox and turned it into the BEST place to play at recess. Did you know that 7 preschoolers and a toddler can fit in this small sandbox at the same time?! I'm sure they all left with sand in every crevice… Lullaby even had it in her hair that night.
Abby convinced Jared to try out the climbing wall, and he did. He'll only do the wall on the left so far, but is getting really good at it, thanks to the constant cheering from Abby.
The expectant mommies came into the preschool room from the reading room announcing that it was time for their babies to come out and they needed a doctor right away. Jared volunteered for the job and delivered 3 healthy babies.
We tried out this fun activity, a melting snowman! He's made out of silly putty and has hard plastic features for the kids to add. After he's built, he SLOWLY begins melting. We made him at the beginning of our closing circle time.
After 1 book, he looked like this:
After 1 more book and 2 songs, he looked like this:
Then the next morning we checked on him and he was just a puddle!
Jackson and Christian were playing with the Rescue Bots during free choice time and were cracking each other up. They were SO funny.
The preschoolers tried out this princess coloring activity. You have to lay a crayon on it's side to rub the outline of the princess through.
Sofia explored with this new Vtech toy that tells you letters and letter sounds. The preschoolers are getting really good at knowing the sounds for their letters!
Warren was thrilled to see that I put the Color Clix back out again. He made about a million creations.
The preschoolers have been working hard, each day, on writing letters and talking about what sounds they make. This week we covered 'D', 'E', and 'F' along with their corresponding sounds. For 'E' we talked about long and short sounds, but mostly short.
A fun numbers activity that we did was this hot chocolate and marshmallows game. Everyone wanted to play it multiple times. I wrote numbers on the brown "hot chocolate" and then they had to put the corresponding number of marshmallows in each cup. At the end of the game, I let them eat the marshmallows from the cup of their choosing. Not surprisingly, most picked the #5 cup.
