Holidays

We've been having so much fun here at Early Childhood for the holidays, that I've been falling behind on posting about it!

First of all, I want to say thank you for allowing me to spend each day with your children. They bring so much happiness to me, and I'm grateful I get to be a part of their lives. Thank you for the gifts you sent, and for the families who were able to send in items for our parties or spend some time with us during them. I want to wish you all the best during the holidays and time away from school. We'll be back in January refreshed and ready to learn!

Now for some pictures!

Here are a few from the day before our Thanksgiving break, making turkeys and eating at our feast.

Here the kids are wearing their "L is for Lion" hats, and working on books about "The Very Hungry Reindeer." They are drawing and using some letters to tell their stories.

We have decorated our doors like gingerbread houses and keep adding more candy! Here some kids are practicing making patterns while they color candy canes.

We even had Santa come and work one day! :-)

We got some fine motor practice, as well as sorting practice, with this M&M activity. The kids sorted their candies by color and then used them to make a Christmas tree. (And finally, eat them!!)

And then, we just got a little silly while making presents for our parents:

All About Me Week

Our theme this week was "All About Me" so we did lots of fun activities learning about ourselves and the things that make us all unique.  We practiced our names in a variety of ways and this always comes with discussion of which of us share the same letters in our names and which names are short or which names are long. We talked about the houses we live in and how everyone's is a bit different, but the thing we all have in common is that we live in Grain Valley. And though we all live in the same town, we each live on different streets. To practice this sort of identifying information, we sang a song to the tune of "Muffin Man." Ask your child to sing it with you and help him or her practice saying the name of your street.

Do you know my friend, _________________
My friend, _________________, my friend, __________________?
Do you know my friend, ____________________
Who lives on _________________________?

Here are pictures from some of our activities this week:

 

Making a "city" using shapes. The kids practiced identifying shapes as they discussed what should be included in their city (houses, roads, schools, stores).

 

 

We practiced fine motor skills as we rolled the playdough into thin strips and used it to form the letters in our names. This was a great sensory activity that helped with letter identification, name recognition, and letter formation.

 

 

 

This was such a fun activity and I loved the way they turned out! The kids sorted Froot Loops by color and then used them to form the letters of their names, matching the color of the cereal to the color the letter was written in. So we got some sorting practice, color practice, and name practice in (as well as some self-control practice as they really wanted to eat the cereal!)

 

 

 

Fall Parties

This week we celebrated our Fall Parties with some fun crafts and games. Here are some of the pictures from them!

Candy Corn Sorting game

 

 

 

Making Shape Jack-o-lanterns

 

 

 

Walking on the Spider Web balance game

 

 

 

Handprint Spiders and weaving webs

 

 

 

No Tricks, just TREATS!