Gingerbread Fun

Ah, the almost cool weather is here.  This is my favorite time of year!  I love the slightly cooler temperatures, and the thoughts of winter (we don't really have winter in Florida so it's just the thoughts).  Since it doesn't feel like winter I like to do activities that remind me of winter and Christmas. 

What is more Christmassy than Gingerbread cookies?  One of my favorite Authors, Jan Brett, has a few books about a little Gingerbread Baby, and about Gingerbread Friends.  I love the stories and the illustrations.  We re-read these time and time again every year. We will also include many others gingerbread boy or girl books this month.  Stay tuned for more books.
Books so far this week were:

If anyone is interested, you can go to her page to print out masks, or other coloring pages for your children to use.  Jan Brett's Gingerbread Baby page  She has other resources as well on her page: www.Janbrett.com

We began with our  gingerbread activities this week.  We used gingerbread man upper case and lower case alphabet matching, and gingerbread girl and gingerbread house upper case and lower case alphabet matching.  The gingerbread boy upper/lower case matching was from TPT as well. The Gingerbread Alphabet Freebie house/girl match was from TPT.  Most of the children did pretty well matching all of them, but they were more enthusiastic about it when paired with a friend, divide the cards in half, and GO!  Everything is more fun as a game and with a friend.

We also included some basic dot to dot gingerbread men in sleeves.  One of the dot to dots was lower case alphabet a to u, the other was numbers from 1 to 45.  We included a sheet from Gingerbread Baby story to fill in the first letter - they were all things included in the story. 

One activity I have used for years is from cut out gingerbread men in red and green.  They are to match the feeling faces on the red and green gingerbread men.  They also have numbers on one leg so we can also use them with buttons or something similar to count out the right number of buttons for decoration.  

A fun gingerbread rhyme is a must, so we included Five Yummy Gingerbread in our story time, then had it available for use during centers or play time.  They don't completely know the rhyme yet but they are saying a little bit of it and enjoying working with the gingerbread men stuck on the felt board. The Five Yummy Gingerbread I found on Teacher's Notebook.  The link to the site is: Five Yummy Gingerbread poem and Roll and Graph

To pass our waiting times for bathroom turn, we added Gingerbread Visual Discrimination games.  One is cut apart and on the wall for matching, the other is little cards that they have to find the two that match on each card.

Just now while checking the links I found a fun Gingerbread Gross Motor game we can add to our activities.  I think they will really like this one.  It combines movement and learning about verbs/action words.

The menu for Monday and Tuesday was:
Monday:  Breakfast: Banana, Multigrain Cheerios, Milk
                Lunch:  Cheese Lasagna, Green Beans, Tomato Sauce, Milk
                Snack: Yogurt, Banana
Tuesday: Breakfast: Plums, Multigrain Cheerios, Milk
               Lunch: Cowboy Stew, Carrots, Bread, Milk
               Snack: Banana, Crackers

Fall Leaves - Yellow and brown

In Florida we really don't get those lovely shades of red, yellow, and orange in the trees that our lucky northern states get.  Our trees are shedding their leaves at last.  So today the VPK children and I  went out on a mission to collect bigger leaves than we have.  We only have oak tree leaves and maple leaves.  It is supposed to be a red leaf maple, but here it only turns a yellow then brown. 😞
We found a sweetgum tree on our walk, along with magnolia trees, and a few bushes with larger leaves that were very round.  There are many oaks along the way, but we have quite a few oak leaves from our scrub oaks and live oak.  While we were gone for a leaf collecting walk, the younger children used leaves that I had already collected to make "leaf men/women".

 In addition to learning about the different types of leaves from the different trees, we can learn the basic body parts.  As the VPK children were putting together their leaf men/women with the leaves they had collected, a couple of the children had trouble identifying what type of leaf to use for what body type.  In other words, using a big round leaf for a leg or arm might not work too well.  So as needed just sitting beside them and talking them through which type of leaf they thought they needed for each body part, and what parts does their body have? Body, head, legs (2), arms(2).  Just trying to get the basics.

Just as each child is unique, each leaf man/woman was unique.

We read stories about how to be a Super Friend, then practiced being a Super Friend while we were in circle time, during play, and again later as needed.  We also read stories about leaves falling and being peaceful.

Even though we don't get much color change in Fall, you do have to appreciate that it is December, and we can still play in the water table!

Look at this great block structure built by three and four year old hands. Using planning, cognitive abilities, and a great approach to learning. Of course, they also worked together (Super Friends teamwork!) They love to work with the big blocks and tree cookies, and legos in the afternoon!

Menu for Friday, 12/1/17
Breakfast: Oatmeal, Apples and Bananas, and Milk
Lunch: Cheese Pizza, Apples, Carrots, Milk
Snack:  Whole Grain Goldfish Crackers, Bananas and Apples

Post Thanksgiving

What a fun day!  Everyone was happy to return to school this week after having so many fun days with family.  I think everyone had fun with their family because everyone was so tired at rest time, especially on Monday. We followed our typical routine:  Free play in morning before breakfast, the breakfast is followed by morning circle, some puzzles and free play for the younger group while the VPK group works on learning games, then we had story time together for some of the stories.  That is where we departed from our typical.  Usually the VPK children have a little more time working in educational centers inside, but we headed outside for outside centers. 


The children have decided they like to eat stevia leaves and mint leaves from our tower garden.  Love that they are learning to eat healthy, fresh food.  Even if it is just herbs. 🌿

 They rode the rolling scooters for fun, not knowing it strengthens their core as well. 😃  They worked together to ride the airplane teeter totter, and the younger children rode the alligator teeter totter. They stepped up and down on the stepping logs advancing their gross motor skills. You can check the private page for a video of some of the children doing this while being careful of a younger child at the same time.

In the sandbox they scooped, poured, and sifted while they shared the space and worked side by side. There was a lot of soccer this week. Not necessarily good ball control yet, but lots of action. ⚽️  The climber was a great pretend play space, as was the Teepee. I think I saw some bears roaring, and possibly burping like our story The Slurpy Burpy Bear.  Love that they like to act out the stories that we read.  Shows great reading comprehension, right?! 😀

More pictures from our play this week:

Teepee decorating 👀

Look at those great block buildings!

A few more pictures from this week:

The books for Monday were:

So obviously we recapped how Thanksgiving was, and different traditions, and their manners.  After all, it will just be the blink of any eye before Christmas.

I don't have a picture of Tuesday books, but Wednesday's books are:

We read Share Big Bear Share another day.  Today I have heard many different children "reading it" to themselves saying on every page "Share Big Bear Share!"  Such a great early reading story with a sharing concept reinforced at the same time.

We are also talking about sharing and caring.  There are many people just in the Tampa Bay area that children won't get a Christmas gift or have food for a Christmas dinner.  It is so easy and tangible for children to physically go to the store with you, choose a gift for someone else (learning that it isn't all about "me"), and pick up a few non-perishable food items (preferably B1G1) to share with others.  Start checking for sales now to get a little something with your sweet child to share.

I just want to share what great Super Friends we have!  We have been focusing on listening skills, being gentle with friends, caring about friends, sharing, and some basic manners like being quiet when someone is talking (instead of blurting out).  Such hard things to have self-control when you are 1,2,3 or 4, or 20, 30, 40, etc....  So we started up our Super Friend Chain again, with our eye on cookies this time.  I think we will make it today.  We only need one more chain link to have cookies at snack.  Surely I can see someone being a Super Friend while cleaning up.  👀 Our next ideas for the next time the chain reaches the floor are:  Park Day, Watching a movie, Aquarium visit, and still thinking of more.  Really trying to focus on the positive to get positive results.  I believe everyone except the babies have contributed to this Super Friend chain!

Our menu this week has been:
Monday:  Breakfast:  Oranges, Cereal, Milk
                 Lunch:  Turkey and Noodles with Peas, Tomato Slices, Milk
                 Snack:  Fresh Strawberries and Crackers

Tuesday:  Breakfast:  Fresh Strawberries, Waffles, Milk
                 Lunch:  BBQ Chicken, Broccoli, Lettuce/Tomato Salad with dressing, Roll, Milk
                 Snack:  Orange Wheels, Pretzels  

 Wednesday:  Breakfast:  Oranges, Cereal, Milk
                       Lunch:  Turkey Chili, Broccoli, Wheat Bread, Milk
                       Snack:  Apple Slices, Whole Wheat Goldfish Crackers

Cranberry Fun and More

With the last day of child care before a gathering fun holiday, we just had to have some fun.  Also with three afterschoolers we had to come up with something they could enjoy also.  So.... Cranberry building, so much fun!  We have built with marshmallows and toothpicks before, and this is the same idea.  They were so engaged in this activity, it lasted for a long time.  The three and four year olds enjoyed it almost as much as the afterschool agers.  That is a win-win in my thoughts.  It was a great learning experience for all of them.  The three and four year olds were learning about putting them together, and how to make a shape. The older children made more complex structures.  Some of the children saved them, some took them apart, but they all enjoyed it.  The afterschoolers also had a Cranberry Crazy Game that I found on Pinterest with challenging activities for them to do while holding a spoonful of cranberries. They laughed and had a great time.

We of course had to make some cute little turkey prints.  What would Thanksgiving be without turkey handprints?  And to just throw a little educational in there, we made turkeys with name feathers.  The four year old and older children cut out their own turkey, and three and older write their names on the feathers they chose.  The one and two year olds chose their color feathers and glued them on, and Ms. Jenny wrote their names on while saying the letter/spelling the name.  

We still had a few pumpkins laying around, so I hollowed two out quickly, poured in some bubble solution, and tada!  We had pumpkin bubbles!!  They had to blow, not suck in the bubbles.  It was tough for the one and two year olds, but everyone else figured out how to blow and make tons of bubbles very quickly.

I have had a size discrimination game forever called Chef Gobbler's Desserts.  I did this in a small group with just the three and four year olds and they sorted them very quickly and shared which size dessert they would prefer; small, medium, or large.  Not everyone chose large. 😇

Our books today were mostly about Thanksgiving history.  What was the first Thanksgiving feast like? What were the people like? What type of clothes did they wear? What did they eat? The book "Many Nations" was an alphabet book of Native Americans.  It was interesting for the children to be able to see that not all Native Americans lived in the same type environment or home, and the different tribes, or nations, dressed differently as well.  The Littlest Pilgrim was a good book for the children to identify with.  No matter how small they are, they like to help which isn't always possible.  However, they are never too young to make a friend.  The book "10 Turkeys In The Road" is just a terribly silly book about turkeys. Just plain silly fun.

They also had about 45 minutes to play in the play yard today where many worked together in the sandbox, in the mud kitchen, stepping on stepping logs, blowing pumpkin bubbles, riding trikes, or riding teeter totters, or bouncing balls with Papa Joe.  It was a fun, fairly stress less day. 

The menu for today:

Breakfast:  Multigrain Cheerios, Bananas, Milk

Lunch:  Cowboy Stew, Carrots, Whole Wheat Bread, Milk

Snack:  Orange Wheels, Whole Grain Crackers