Feb Fun - what are we doing this month

 

February News Blast

Well, here we are already into February!  The weather is getting colder and we have had a few days of inside recess – which is a nice change for the children.  Inside recess looks different every time sometimes we get to put on music dance, watch a short video or song on what we are learning about, read books, do puzzles, chat with our friends until we go home.  We use the Accuweather app to determine if we are inside or not - Remember if it “Feels Like” 10 or below then we stay in.  On occasion if the playground is too icy or not safe to be on, we have stayed in as well.  

 

This is a short month – just three weeks for us to learn about balls and shapes, but so far, the children have LOVED everything that is out to play with.  We will discuss balls – what are they made of, why do we use them, etc.  We will also talk about basic shapes like circle, square, triangle, and rectangle along with 3D shapes like sphere, cube, cone and more.

Here are a few of the things we have going on in the classroom –

**Reading different books at circle time, watching short videos to go along with our topic – of course Letter City on Thursdays!

** Art projects include painting with cotton balls, creating pictures with different shapes, ball painting, cookie cutter shape stamping, and more.

**Dramatic play area right now is a Bowling Alley – with a concession stand of course!  They love using the bowling shoes and are learning how to set up the pins and roll the ball down the lane.

**Block area is a very exciting place to be with a wrecking ball to knock down stacking cups, foam blocks, or bowling pins – it changes each day.  The rule is you can knock down what you built.  It also has a very fun marble maze on the wall.  I also have a small ramp with a few cars, and of course blocks to build with.

** Exploring the magnetic marble run on the magnet wall.  The children can create their own maze or use the examples on the cards.  This has been a big hit so far!  They love getting ideas from the cards and using some of that along with designing their own runs and watching the marbles for through.  This is great for trial and error – they go back and tweak it and try again until it works!! 

** Working alone or with a partner to hold a box cover and have a ball go through a hole in the middle of the box.

** Sensory – different shape cookie cutters with playdough, packing peanuts and tools, sand with ping pong balls and tubes and funnels, also water beads.  Snow was a big hit so we will probably do that again with all this wonderful new snow that came!

** Science table – Shape magnifying glasses and shape picture cards.  There are two shapes a day and they change often.  They look at the pictures through the magnifying glass to see if it is the same shape.

**Toys on the rug include magnet tiles, k’nex, magic beads, train set, play sticks, small legos, and much more…there are four bins each day that are on a three-day rotation.

** Bean bag toss game – Ms. Tammy created a box with colored tubes to match colored balls.  The children throw the matching-colored bean bag at the colored ball.  They have enjoyed the challenging of knocking off the correct color ball with the same-colored bean bag.

**There are a variety of puzzles for shapes, balls, alphabet and more. Several of the children like to work together to do the accomplish different floor puzzles as well. 

I will post a few pictures this week of some of these activities.