Sights and Sounds of Winter

Such a fun and busy month! Mother Goose Time fun has had so many wonderful engaging activities to choose from this month it was hard to fit them all in. Because this is a short month for our class with Christmas and me taking a family vacation, I chose what I wanted to do with the kids at school and then I put together "homework bags" for the children to do at home. I hate hate for any thing to go to waste. 

We had fun getting out the paint to make bells. My favorite part of this craft is that when finished, they would make a great christmas ornament to hang on the tree for years to come. 

      

This was a fun and easy activity. Paint and assemble. The fine motor movement required to put the pipe cleaner and bell on was tricky for everyone so I had to help out with that part.

We have continued our focus on math this month. Each month MGT sends two new math cards that we use to practice recognizing numbers, counting, and to play games with. We used the bells to count and play some easy addition and subtraction games. 

 Just counting is pretty basic for these guys, so I like to come up with some ways to challenge them.

I found these holiday shaped pretzels at the store and had to have them for preschool snack time. I had the kids sort the shapes and count how many of each they had. They talked with their table neighbors and figured out who had more of each shape. There are always ways to add math into our everyday activities. And I always love when I can sneak math in and they don't even know they are learning.

Another activity from our Sights and Sounds of Winter Theme was making candles. I chose to use hot glue to assemble the candles but the kids were still able to attach the flame. 

We talked about the different parts of a candle and identified the wax, wick, and flame. 

We then learned the poem "Jack Be Nimble" and we each got a turn to jump over the candle stick. We tried to measure who had the highest jump.                             

Another great week with MGT!  We were learning and developing in so many ways! I feel like it was great week for all areas of development... fine and gross motor movements, numbers, letters, imagination, dramatic play, social and emotional… the whole shabang! 

Christmas fun coming up next week! I can't wait!