Run, Run, As Fast As You Can

Dear Parents,

We began our week picking up where we left off. We read three versions of The Gingerbread Man and acted it out. Everyone got to choose which character they wanted to be. We had one little old lady, one mower, five gingerbread men, and three foxes. We ran, ran, as fast as we could, around and around the big room.

In two of the books, the gingerbread man got eaten in four bites. We made a paper gingerbread man and cut him into quarters to show how four quarters make one whole.

On Tuesday we mixed dry and wet ingredients to make our gingerbread dough. We talked about where each ingredient came from. Some came from animals, others came from plants, and one came from the ocean. We noticed that two of our ingredients were things we had used in our potpourri: cinnamon and cloves.

Speaking of potpourri, we sent our bag of gifts home on Monday. On Tuesday everyone helped decorate cookies. One person kept yelling, "YAY!" We ate one cookie each and sent home one cookie for each family member. None of our gingerbread men got away, but there was much talk of chasing them around the big room. Some children said we could shut the doors so they wouldn’t get out. We wondered if they would play in the jungle gym.

Our first Power Tots class with Natalie was exciting. The children took turns balancing on a beam, crawling through a tunnel, and tumbling across a mat. It looked active and challenging.

We started our wood sculptures this week. Everyone had a base to build on and used wood glue to assemble their creations. We used some tree stumps from our tree sale. The glue was super hard to squeeze, a good test of hand muscle strength and determination. We will add to them next week.

On Friday we read Iggy Peck, Architect and What It Feels Like to Be a Building. In our building groups, everyone designed different buildings with different purposes: a tower, a hotel with supports, a plane raft boat and ice cream stand, a really cool building to make solar panels, and a building that also had special wires that attracted heat from other buildings. The creativity extended to playing in the snow. Some people thought of things to build, mostly snowmen and tree faces. We loved our first snow day!

Have a warm weekend,

Therese and Alli

Five Tree Potpourri

Dear Parents,
This week we worked on our holiday gifts for our families. We used cut apples to make apple prints on paper bags. We compared the six apples before we cut them. The children noticed they were all different colors, sizes, and shapes. They knew that all the apples came from different trees. We cut the apples in half to see the star inside and then used red paint to make stamps.
On Tuesday we filled little bags with our potpourri. We dried out orange peels collected from many snack times. We compared new peels to old peels. The children noticed the changes in size, shape, color, and texture. We used the Amazing Apple Peeler to slice, peel, and core apples. We observed similar changes in the apples as we left the slices in the oven to dehydrate for an entire day. We ate the apple peels!
We looked at pictures of the cinnamon tree, the clove tree, and the allspice tree, from which all our other spices came. We used three of our five senses to explore the spices before taking turns to fill our own bags. Our last yoga class with Amanda was quiet and focused. While some were in yoga, the rest of us read Two Homes, Heather Has Two Mommies, What Mommies Do Best, What Daddies Do Best, and our own version, What Babas Do Best. We talked about what was the same and what was different in the books. The children said they noticed the number two in all the books, and a few children said they had two homes too. We looked at the last page of each book and saw the word l-o-v-e. A couple of people correctly guessed it spelled love. Yes! Although the homes were different, they all included love.
In the yard there has been running galore. Some friends were racing around shouting, “Batman is dead!” Others were digging away in the sandbox. Many are working on different styles of swinging, all exercising gross motor muscles.
On Thursday we used our senses of sight and touch to bead necklaces for gifts. Some children made patterns. Everyone was pretty focused for a while filling strings with red, gold, silver, and rainbow colored beads. We asked the class who they wanted to give their gifts to: parents, siblings, and babysitters were mentioned.
We read Why Do Grown-Ups Have All The Fun, My Princess Boy, A House Is A Home For Me, and Jamaica Tag-Along.
On Friday we read the Gingerbread Man and acted out the story. We read three versions of the story and talked about similarities and differences. Everyone chose which character they wanted to be. Of course, there was a lot of running! The class did a great job of listening to the story while acting. Some people wanted to play different parts so we switched characters and did it again.
Families are invited to our Cookies and Milk Party on Thursday December 23rd at 11:30 am. The children will serve their parents gingerbread cookies and milk. We will send home the gifts on that day too. We can have it outside as an extra precaution. It’s pretty short and sweet, pun intended.
Have a wonderful weekend,TheresePS Today at the very end of the day, Santa Claus drove by the OF yard, stopped, honked his horn, and yelled to the children. He was driving an Amazon van and blasting disco. The kids were thrilled and scrambled to the fence as fast as they could, all smiles. In case they mention it- this really happened!