Peace to You

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas. I'm thrilled that the holidays will continue for another week or so with lots of time to continue creating memories. While all the hustle and bustle is fun and exciting, remember that young children are easily overwhelmed - even by fun and excitement. They will need time and space to process all of their new experiences into strong memories. Try to find time for "islands of calm" for children (and for Mommies and Daddies, too). Believe it or not, I'm taking my own advice - our calendar is remarkably clear for the next week.

Our cup runneth over with blessings at the O'Connor house. Wishing the same to you...

From Us To You

Merry, Merry Christmas!

Disappearing Peppermints

Clever Mrs. Magee suggested a festive science experiment - Disappearing Peppermints. Each child put a peppermint in a little cup and Mrs. O'Connor poured water on each one. Right away, the water turned pink. In just a few minutes, little fizzy bubbles began to rise from the peppermints. We left them in the window and when we returned from the playground - surprise! The peppermints had disappeared or "vidolved" as one child said. We were left with red water that smelled soooo good. I think everybody tasted it, too. It was Peppermint Water!

Any scientist knows that it is important to repeat experiments to confirm results. Try it at home!

A Visit to the Church

Today, we had a special visit to the church to hear the nativity story. Mrs. Thompson, who has been part of our school family for many years, likes to come retell this special story. She sat in front of the creche and asked the children questions about the story. She was delighted that the Bunnies knew so much already! The children loved watching Mrs. Thompson place a baby doll in a special manger as she talked about Mary and Joseph and their new little baby boy.

Sorting

Math principles are always around us. For example, last week, the children had fun playing with lots of little dinosaurs. Mrs. Magee told the children that in order for the dinosaurs to "fight" each other, they needed to be separated into groups by color so each person could have one color group.

Here's how it all worked out. Notice the piles of dinosaurs and some extras that didn't seem to fit any other group. Guess what? It's division with remainders!

Now I must confess, this was completely spontaneous on Mrs. Magee's part. She suggested this sorting activity simply to get a sad child engaged in play. Nowhere in my lesson plans did it say that we would work on division. This fantastic opportunity was just a whim!

We plan for many math concepts, but more importantly, we capitalize on the teachable moments.

The Warming Tray Part 2

The warming tray reappeared this week - this time over at the woodworking table. The Bunnies had a great time making ornaments.

The children who make their way over to this activity tend to make MANY ornaments - not just one. I know it sounds odd, but the melty crayons are very soothing.

We've Reached a Good Place

We've officially reached the good place - the place in time within a class when five children can play contently with the same toys, and not even glance up when the adult walks by (with a camera). It's a good place. I'm glad we're here.

You Just Never Know

We've played with this cute park mat many times in the classroom. It's perfect for driving cars and creating zoos. The kids request it!

This week, it turned into a whole other thing!

That's right! Suddenly Mrs. Magee and I noticed a huge blob/parachute on the floor accompanied by wild giggling.

I've said it before and I'll say it again - Three year olds are hilarious!

Gingerbread Playdough

Gingerbread playdough is one of my favorite things in our classroom at Christmas time. It is made by simply adding cinnamon to the flour and salt before mixing in the water when you make your own playdough. The dough turns brown, and it smells sooooo good! As you can see in this photo, the children don't really roll out the dough and press the cookie cutters into it (in spite of the presence of rollers). They do just the opposite! They smash the dough into a cookie cutter and hope for the best. Just like in the picture we get some very thick cookies. Love it!

Looking for a Great Gift?

The View-Master is a hit in our class! This toy has been around for decades and I know why.

Everybody loves it!

Hidden Surprise

Surprise! Our car loving Bunny isn't limited to yellow paper and sparkly pens after all.

Celebrating Christmas

We spent the first week of advent really getting into the spirit of Christmas. We have lots of bunnies who like to draw, so paper and crayons were available to draw our class Christmas tree. We learned the important players in the first Christmas story and had many reenactments with the Fisher Price nativity set. We read Jesus, Me and my Christmas Tree, decorated our tree according to the book, and then we sang and danced! (lyrics below) We also made Christmas cards with stars and tree shapes. More fun to come!!

(to the tune of London Bridges)
Let's clap around the Christmas tree, Christmas tree, Christmas tree.
Let's clap around the Christmas tree; Come along and clap with me.

Then substitute "clap" with other actions such as stomp, march, fly, wave, kick, hop...

Growing by the Minute

Want to see something amazing?

We have a boy in our class who loves (LOVES!) cars. He plays with our millions of cars in the classroom. He brings them from home in his pockets. Fortunately for us, he also draws them. And draws them. And draws them. Always on yellow paper and always with a sparkly pen.

This first photo is from late September. When we asked him to tell us about his drawing, he told us it was a car. That's how we initially learned of love of cars. Of course in this drawing it isn't obvious to the eyes of an adult what he intended. We took his word for it.

The second photo is from early October. It's clearly a car. It has wheels, a roof, exhaust, and he drew it in profile. Cool!
The third photo is from mid November. Now we have two vehicles and terrain. He has differentiated the features of the trucks - one being "big" and one being "old".

This last photo is from this week - early December. Not only is there a detailed car with headlights, but there's a witch driving the car!! He wrote some letter B's for the first letter of his name. (The alphabet on the side is a model written by an adult.) He's progressed from simple shapes to representation drawings in composition in just three months.

Absolutely amazing!!!

I can't wait for him to sit down with his yellow paper and sparkly pens in January.

Truthfully all of the children make progress just like this darling Bunny, but they don't always demonstrate it on paper for us to admire and document. He's just happened to make it very easy for us all to see how much a three year old changes over time.