Thursday

     Although the majority of the snow has began to melt away (after 4 weeks!), we have been all about some snowflakes in our classroom today. We started out this morning reading a story, The Jacket I Wear in the Snow written by  Shirley Neitzel and illustrated by Nancy Winslow Parker. In this story, rhyme follows rhyme as layer after layer of winter clothing ("bunchy and hot, wrinkled a lot, stiff in the knee, and too big for me!") is first put on and then taken off to the relief of the child bundled inside.We compared the clothing the children wear in the story to the outerwear we wear to play outside. Your observant children noticed I never wear a hat - I was never a hat girl - but that I always have a coat, scarf, and gloves. The conversation quickly turned into a discussion about snowflakes when one student asked me where they come from. We then did a journal page of where we think snow comes from. I must say, this is one creative group! There were a lot of thought processes that happened with this one, so watch out! From tall buildings to birds, I got all kinds of creative answers. I love the imagination of children at this age. 

     Later this morning, we had buddy time with Betsy's class. Again, the focus was on snowflakes. Their buddies helped them cut out snowflakes and color them with "watercolors". While teaching with Ruth Ann a couple of years ago, we discovered if you dipped old, dried out markers in water they make a beautiful picture, reminiscent of a watercolor painting. The ink on the paper is saturated enough the colors bleed together beautifully. Some of them are still drying and as soon as they're ready, they're going in our window. Snow buddies that are hanging in our window now will soon be coming home to make room for our colorful snowflakes.   

     After buddies, we did some creative movement and went on a bear hunt. We had some extra time, so we worked in some fine motor centers for a little while. The children rotated through different stations, some requiring transferring items using only tweezers(some stations had small items like lima beans and others had large items like cotton balls) and some included strengthening our pincer grip by using clothespins to "clip" things together. We had an awesome and productive morning!

I am still missing a couple conference forms. I need them by tomorrow, January 15th. Please refer to yesterday's post to see if I am waiting on yours. Thank you for the notes and forms sent in today!