Friday, December 20, 2013

Christmas Tree Counting Activity

Cynthia(Nanny):
I saw an activity on Pinterest for counting and number identification that I liked but wanted to change out using pom pom balls to count. I came across stickers which worked out much better.
So during the activity, I noticed that the girls are continuing to get stronger at pointing and counting objects. Before it was more random counting and they needed me to help them track with their index finger.
After the activity was done, I had the ideas of creating a book by gluing in the trees and adding a sentence.
This book was one they read frequently this week. You can never have too many browsing bag books.

Christmas Tree Painting

Cynthia(Nanny):
A fun and easy way to use cookie cutters is to let kids use them to paint/stamp with them. The girls had lots of fun stamping out Christmas trees this morning.

Christmas Tree Puzzles

Cynthia(Nanny))
I cut out a Christmas tree and decorated it with letter ornaments. The letters spelled the girls names but since they were arranged diagonally they weren't able to recognize it on their own. I did ask them to name the letters, which they did. 
So, I decorated and cut apart the tree into 4 pieces. 
I drew an outline of the tree on another sheet of construction paper to make it a little easier to see. Then, I modeled how to put the tree together and then had the girls try. 
They needed a little help with the direction of the two middle pieces but overall did a great job sticking with it. 
The last step was gluing the pieces in place. 

Guru Moment: Puzzles are such important brain exercises for all kids. They don't always have to be store bought. You can make your own by cutting apart any picture or image. (Fewer pieces for younger kids) 
I need to find time to make laminated puzzles with maybe some Velcro to make them reusable. 


Wednesday, December 18, 2013

Christmas: Sticker Math

Arielle (mommy):  
We had so much fun with Christmas stickers practicing math today.  To set up, it cut up sticker sheets and put all of the stickers into a pile, then I drew 6 sections on the paper.

Sorting: to practice this skill I had Lil sort the stickers onto the paper.  She ended up with 5 groups.

Patterning: the sorting activity got her ready to make patterns.  She used her sorted stickers to create AB and ABC patterns.

Counting:  What to do with that paper with the six boxes?  Use them for counting!  I wrote sentences in each box; ex. "I have ___ candy canes." I had her start with one and go all the way to six, putting the correct number of stickers in each box and writing the correct number on the line.

We also worked on vocabulary for this activity as we talked about the names of Christmas symbols.  "Holly" was a word Lil did not know and now she does!

Tuesday, December 17, 2013

Christmas Tree Ornaments

Cynthia(Nanny):
Here are a few Christmas Tree Ornaments we made this week.

Monday, December 16, 2013

Christmas: Christmas Tree Pancakes

Cynthia(Nanny):
Anytime you can incorporate a theme into your kid's meals do it!
Not only will they make more learning connections, but your reluctant or picky eaters will be more willing to try foods if they are in fun shapes or designed to go with the focus of your lessons.
Today I made the girls pancakes, but in the shape of Christmas trees since that's our theme for the next few days.

Christmas: Gingerbread Houses

Cynthia(Nanny):
Christmas wouldn't be complete without gingerbread houses.
First we created a foam house with stickers. The girls loved decorating their house and were able to stick with the activity for longer than usual. Peeling off the backs of the stickers was also great fine motor practice.
Later this week, we will create a real gingerbread house.

Christmas: Sticker Patterns

Cynthia(Nanny):
Stickers are a great resource to always have on hand. One way I use stickers is to teach patterns.
I'll share some of the Christmas patterns we create here.

Christmas: The Candy Cane story

Cynthia(Nanny):
We started today's lesson by watching The Candymaker's Gift: The Legend of the Candy Cane video. Next, we made a paper candy cane and tasted a real candy cane.
After we were all done, we hung our candy canes on the tree.

Friday, December 13, 2013

5 Senses of Christmas: Sensory Pool

Arielle (mommy): to explore the sense of touch in a festive way I decided to create a sensory experience using wrapping paper, ribbon, and various ornaments.  I admit it's not really pretty, it looks like a bit of a mess, but the kids had a blast in it!

I get a little stressed out by sensory tubs.  Whether they are rice, sand, water beads, Cheerios, it doesn't matter.  They stress me out because of the huge potential for messes.  That's why I decided to use a kiddie pool.  I loved using the kiddie pool so much I think we will use it for painting and other messy projects while it's too cold to go outside.

O had a great time just playing in the paper and touching everything.  Lil had a blast wrapping ornaments in the paper scraps and tying them with ribbon.  Then she put the gifts under the tree.  This kept them both (quietly) busy for almost an hour!  


Thursday, December 12, 2013

Christmas: Gingerbread Baby Story Map Activity

Cynthia(Nanny): After re-reading the Jan Brett story, The Gingerbread Baby, we completed a story map to help the girls retell the story.
I took pictures of important parts of the story. I labeled their paper with a beginning picture, 4 middle events, and the ending.
I laid the pictures out on the side and as I read the story. I wanted to see if the girls could find the picture that we needed to glue down. In the beginning, they needed more prompts because there were more choices. Towards the end they were finding the right pictures before I got to that page.
I definitely need to do more of these activities and laminate them to make them reusable.
In elementary school, story maps are used to help students build their comprehension and retelling skills. These are not only major components of reading, but all learning.
Many times, kids are expected to demonstrate mastery today by retelling what they learned and what it reminds them of. Story mapping will help build these important skills.

Wednesday, December 11, 2013

Gingerbread Cookies and Gingerbread Playdoh

Arielle (mommy):
We have so many different gingerbread stories including several versions of the Gingerbread Man, The Gingerbread Baby, The Gingerbread Pirates, the list goes on.  This is my first Christmas staying home with the kids and I'm so excited to be the one to get to share these fun stories with them!  

Of course after reading one of these stories the first thing we wanted to do was make our own gingerbread cookies!

We didn't make ours from scratch, we used a Krustease box mix, but we had fun mixing, rolling, and cutting out the doh.  


O was taking a nap, but Lil had such a good time rolling the dough and using the cookie cutters I knew we had to make gingerbread Playdoh.  We used this recipe.  It smells amazing!  


I found a shape gingerbread mat here and some more here (they had tons of other great gingerbread printables), printed them, laminated them, and put the kids to work!  


Christmas: Gingerbread Number Match

Cynthia(Nanny):
I made some cards with gingerbread men and put numbers 1-10 on them to create a number game.
After printing the cards I glued them onto cardstock so they'll last a little longer.

We used them to play a memory match but there are so many to use them. My main objective was to practice identifying numbers. After the game, I used them as flash cards.
What other uses can you think of?


Gingerbread Boy or Girl

Arielle (mommy):

After reading The Gingerbread Boy, I had the kids decorate paper gingerbread people using a variety of craft supplies. 

To make the cutouts I just folded brown paper in half, drew a gingerbread man, and cut the two out at once.

 I really enjoyed seeing how the kids did this on their own and seeing the 2 year old version and the 4 year old version of the same activity.

After I helped O make a face, I let them work completely independently.




Christmas: Gingerbread Graphing

Cynthia(Nanny):
Today I had the girls create a simple graph by sorting out different colored gingerbread men cutouts.
Before I showed them an example of a graph from one of their books.
Then, I modeled how to glue in the first gingerbread man in their pile.
After they glued their gingerbread men on, we talked about how it's easier to count items that we sort on a graph instead of in a pile.

Tuesday, December 10, 2013

Teacher Guru Spotlight: Kathy Landry

Every once in a while you come across that teacher that every parent wants their child to have and every teacher wants to be like. For us, that teacher is Kathy Landry.

For nearly 20 years Kathy Landry has been teaching, mentoring and inspiring children, parents, and other teachers who have worked along side her.
We are excited to feature Kathy Landry in our Teacher Guru Spotlight.

From Arielle: 
I remember when I was a new teacher back in 2006 and Kathy was my mentor teacher.  As a mentor, Kathy was always offering her help and diminishing the stress of a first year kindergarten teacher.  Many teachers look to Kathy as a work mom.  She's that person you can go to after a rough day, and you know she will make it all better.
  A quote by Charles Dickens comes to mind when I think of Kathy and her relationship with not only those she mentors but all teachers in her sphere of influence:
"No one is useless in this world who lightens the burden of another."
For my 6 years teaching down the hall from Kathy I lost count of all the times she offered a word of encouragement, offered to take my class for a bit, or just gave me a great new idea about how to reach a student.
Kathy engages her students everyday through music.  The kids have a wonderful time singing, dancing, and playing instruments to help them learn everything from their letter sounds to the days of the week and months of the year.  These days many private preschools boast of doing yoga in the classroom, Kathy was doing Yoga with her class long before it was cool.   Being a terrific artist, Kathy draws some amazing images on the dry erase board to add as a visual to words for children who have not yet learned to read. 
  Kathy is the ultimate early childhood guru.  Even today I know if I have a question about the development of my kids or need a great idea about how to teach them, she is an amazing resource and encourager!

From Cynthia:
  I was privileged to work with Kathy for nearly 10 years. She was and still is a staple of the school she works at. Kathy is someone who always had her door open to all who needed teaching advice, a place to vent, art supplies, and a microwave!
  Some of my fondest memories of teaching is everyone huddling up in Kathy's room sharing laughs, celebrating baby showers, or the place you ran to for a few minutes of peace at the end of  crazy day. Pretty soon after talking to Kathy and whoever else migrated to her room, you realized you weren't alone and that we were all in it together. Among her many great qualities that Arielle mentioned, I think one of her best qualities is being so diplomatic and the voice of reason when we needed it. Her ability to be a calm spirit was a major reason so many teachers gravitate towards her for guidance.
  Even now, Kathy remains someone I go to when I need good ideas for teaching pre-schoolers or figuring out how to tweak activities to make them better and more effective.
Kathy, thanks for all that you are to us! You're truly an inspiration.
Do you have a special story about how Kathy has influenced you or your family? We'd love to hear from you.

Christmas: Gingerbread Story and Puppets

Cynthia(Nanny):
Today we read The Gingerbread Baby by Jan Brett.
After the story I gave the girls foam gingerbread men and a few decorating items (glitter glue, stickers, googly eyes).
Then, I read the story again and let the girls use their puppets to act out the story and say some of the lines.

Sunday, December 8, 2013

Nativity Mosaic Art

To conclude our Nativity unit, we created a beautiful mosaic picture using a silhouette picture, clear contact paper, tissue paper.
I laid the image down on contact paper sticky side up.
Then the girls covered it up with tissue paper squares.
Next, I sealed it with another piece of contact paper and trimmed the excess off.
This was a very easy project for the girls to complete. We will definitely try to do more mosaic projects for our Christmas activities.

Thursday, December 5, 2013

Nativity Free Art

Arielle (mommy):
The kids have a Fisher Price little people Nativity set that we get out every Christmas, and the love to play with it.  Today I decided to use it for Lil and O to make observations (to tie in science and properties of matter: color, shape, size) and to create some free art.  

Lil drew a picture of the scene, and as she did so, she picked up each peice and carefully picked out the correct colors before she began to recreate it on the page.  She also tried to keep shape and size in mind as she was drawing.

O used playdoh to explore.  I helped him desperate the doh into three peices to represent baby Jesus, Mary, and Joseph.



Nativity Handprint Art

Cynthia(Nanny):
This is another idea I found on Pinterest. The girls love handprint art so this was one project I wanted to make sure to do.
After we made the angels, we discussed how the angels told Mary, Joseph, the wise men, and shepherds about Jesus' arrival. The repetition and hands on projects are really helping their understanding of the Nativity story at such a young age.

Tuesday, December 3, 2013

The Meaning of Christmas: Joy to the World craft

Cynthia (Nanny:) We created a Nativity craft I saw on Pinterest using household items.

We watched another  Nativity video and discussed the major events of the event. (The angels messages to Mary and Joseph, traveling to Bethlehem, the Star, and the celebration)
It's a lot of information but the video does a great job of explaining it in terms kids will understand.
Then, we created the manger by adding "straw" with the pieces of the bag I cut out, drawing a face on the baby,  and  gluing the star on top.
After I prompted the girls with questions about the nativCynthia (Naity to see how much they were able to grasp. They did a great job and were excited show their parents their Christmas project.

Nativity Activities

Arielle (mommy) I just discovered the coolest site, 1plus1equals1.com.  It free preschool theme packs to print and they are really well done.  

I printed the Christmas Nativity preschool pack, then cut, glued to construction paper, and laminated so we could use it over and over again.  This will also serve as a great thing to take with us to church or other places I want to keep Lil quietly busy.  This pack included many different activities but kept the nativity story as the central theme. 

Here are just some of the activities included:

Color word tracing cards.  Lil loves any activity that involves a dry erase marker.

Initial sound word cards.  You can also have the kids use clothes pins.

Writing around the room cards and writing paper.

Initial sounds 

A pattern book about the animals with baby Jesus.

Nativity cards to order by size.

Mary, Joseph, and Baby Jesus cards for creating patterns along with a patten board.


I was really impressed with this set and am excited to print more from this site.  The founder of the site offers her printable packs for free as a blessing to others, and it truely is!




The Meaning of Christmas: Cross Art

Cynthia(Nanny): Today we talked about the true meaning of Christmas. We will spend the next few weeks learning about both religious and traditional Christmas stories and customs.

We started by watching the clip of "Merry Christmas Charlie Brown" where Linus tells the story of Jesus' birth.

Then, I gave the girls a construction paper cross to paint and decorate. They are familiar with the cross being a sign for Jesus.
Little sister even tried to convince me to bake a cake for His birthday. ;) I told her it was a great idea and we will put that on our list of things to do.

Monday, December 2, 2013

CHRISTmas: 2D Shape Nativity

Arielle (mommy):

To start off the Christmas season I want to get the kids focused on the true meaning of Christmas, so we will be learning about the story of Jesus' birth.

To get them interested, I showed them a clip from the Veggie Tales Move The Christmas Star, which tells the story well.  After talking about the story, we did a fun art project that incorporated shapes as well.

To prepare I cut a lot of 2D shapes in different colors for both Lil and O, then gave them the shapes and a glue stick to put nativity scenes together.

This is what O did:
I guess he's not ready...I should have used fabric, felt, or at least laminated his shapes.  He had fun anyway and at least this kept him from attacking Lil's work.

As he "worked" Lil did too:


They has fun, it was a good shape review and it makes some cute artwork for the walls.