Playdough, Glitter and all things winter

The past two days we have been exploring more of our winter themes. We even had the children help set up a new sensory table for the class. We got some white rice and used 1 out of the 3 bags to dye the rice blue. The children scooped some rice in a Ziplock bag and then added blue watercolor to give it an icy edge to it. Then we went ahead and added cups, bears, clear blue Jenga blocks and some fine motor tongs to pick up rice. The children seem to have a lot more fun when we include them in changing something old to something new.  

Today we made some glitter playdough with the children. I went ahead and let the children who wanted to get messy help and take turns putting the playdough together. I know the class plays with it a lot, but it is the one thing they all seem to be interested in. It's even better when we get to make our own.

After making the playdough our orange friends made some snowmen, using poms, googly eyes and pipe cleaners. 

"My snowman is a dinosaur snowman with lots of eyes." - L

As we try and accommodate every child's interest, thought of a neat way to paint but also include the cold. We froze some paint into cups topped off with a spoon, so the children would be able to enjoy painting with ice.

Some friends noticed that if they rubbed the icy paint on their hands, it would start to melt and make the ice more useful to paint with. 

Along with having fun in the classroom, we have also started to help the children be more independent by assigning daily jobs that change each day.  One thing that they all seem to love is using a disinfectant wipe to clean their lunch area and chair. 

  

Indiana Early Learning Standards

ELA 1.1 Demonstrate Receptive Communication

M5.1: Understand the concept of time

M5.2 Understand measurement through description and comparison

SC2.1: Recognize seasonal and weather related changes

 SC6.1 Demonstrate decomposition of larger tasks into smaller steps

SS2.1: Demonstrate awareness of chronological thinking 

SW1.1: Demonstrate self-awareness and confidence 

SW2.1: Demonstrate self control

Snow, snow and more snow fun

As the chilling temperatures keep us inside, the kids have been doing some sensory seeking activities. Some of them loved playing with our melting snow man experiment. We used one cup of cornstarch with half a cup of water till we got a good Oobleck texture. Once it was good enough to play with, we added, googly eyes, a nose, poms and pipe cleaners for arm. 

Our Friend really like the feeling and texture of the melting snowman 

"It's wet and sticky Miss. Maria !" - E

It's like Olaf when he wanted summer! - J

We have noticed some of the children have really taken an interest in the alphabet so I thought it would be really cool for Ms. Michaela and I to make a giant snowflake with the letters placed in random areas. Once we got it going, we dropped some magnet letters and told the children if they recognized or could match the letters.

More indoor FUN 

I make a bridge to climb. - E

On Friday we got to bake some challah for Shabbat 

  Our Abba and Ima for the week. Shabbat Shalom