Christmas Art Creation Stations and Candy Cane Science (part 1)

Developing small motor skills is important to ensure strong handwriting skills.  This week, we had a lot of opportunities to work on our small motor skills in our Christmas Art Creation Stations.  I raided the craft shelf and last years Christmas decoration leftovers.  By simply setting out an "invitation" to create, the kiddos explored the materials, practiced their small motor skills and used their imagination to express themselves.

Making collages is always a favorite.  I keep a collage box at all times and add bits of this and that so we can make collages at any time.  Our Christmas collage was done on a star and our ornaments needed A LOT of glitter to make them sparkle.

Another invitation to create included sparkle pipe cleaners and beads.  My original intention was to make an ornament for the tree, but the kiddos decided to make bracelets.

By cutting out green triangles and punching holes around them, the kiddos decorated them with stars and laced ribbon through the holes.  What beautiful Christmas trees they made!

We began our Christmas book "This is the Stable" writing project and will finish up next week.

We ended the week with Candy Cane Science.  I had it all planned...I prepared plates with baking soda and candy canes.  I added the peppermint extract and red food coloring to the vinegar (vinament as Mrs. K calls it).  Everyone was seated at the table with their materials and eyedroppers ready to begin our experiment.

A minute passed and Mrs. L and I noticed that nothing was happening!!!!  I looked over at the supply table and realized that I put cornstarch, not baking soda on the plates!!!!  We let it play through and before you knew it, we made candy cane slime.

Thus, our candy cane science will continue next week.  We talked about how the slime felt, what it looked like and recorded our observations.  We will repeat our experiment using baking soda and record our observations so that we can compare and contrast the results.  As any teacher knows, some of the most meaningful learning that takes place in the classroom is not in the plan!

Kinders in Action

                Our Thanksgiving Program was success!  I am so proud of all the kids.

I had a relaxing Thanksgiving break with my family but was so happy to come back to the kiddos.  We used the first week of December to study forest animals and how they prepare for winter.  We also worked on some Christmas art for our classroom.

        We made some very beautiful owls with cinnamon pine cones so our classroom smells delicious!

                I placed eggshells and feathers in the Science area along with bird identification cards and books.

                 We practiced our small motor and creativity skills using push pins to make designs.  

The kids love the inventor's box that is full of loose parts.  They are able to make their own creations.

     Our Christmas Tree art was also a math lesson.  We practiced ordering from longest to shortest.

                 As we began learning about the birth of Jesus, we made angels to decorate our door.

I enjoy playing music softly in the background during learning centers.  I often provide books or other items that go with the music.  This week we listened to the Nutcracker and the kiddos liked to find the hidden nutcracker in our eye spy book.

Pumpkin and Farm Play

We had a very productive fall in Kinder-land. My 4's and 5's have been very busy exploring, playing and growing!  During our field trip to the pumpkin farm, we went out into the patch in a hay wagon and picked some great pumpkins for our science center and our pumpkin project.  The project was a success and the kids had a ton of fun with the hands on exploration.

 To practice our math skills, we used the balance scale to weigh our pumpkins and measured their height with unifix cubes.  After we measured the circumference of the pumpkins with yarn, we measured how tall we were using pumpkins.

After cutting our pumpkins open and scooping out the "guts" we discussed what we found in our pumpkin and wrote about it.

When our pumpkin project was over, we put it outside.  A month later we brought it in and used magnifying glasses to study what happened to the pumpkin.  We found mold and bugs.  The kiddos mentioned more than once that it was "gross" but couldn't pull themselves away.

We added a few chunks of the rotting pumpkin to our Forest Floor Terrarium that already housed the leaves, twigs, moss, worms, crickets and toad that we found during family nature scavenger hunts and trips to the forest out back.

Where does our food come from?  The kiddos learned about the hard work that farmer's do.  They especially enjoyed the book "Farmer Duck" by Martin Waddell.  We acted out the entire story to music!

Little farm animals became a welcome addition to the block area and our dramatic play area became a grocery store.

We finished the unit with turkeys of course and are so excited for our program and feast tomorrow!  I can't wait to see all the kiddos on stage with turkey hats thanking Jesus for all of his blessings.  I'll post pictures soon :-)