Valentines and Friendship - A great day!

There is a lot going on this week with friendship and valentines. I always have so much fun getting the things together that the kids will be working with this next couple of weeks!!

Today we had to teach our friend "Rude Rodney" some manners and how to be a good friend!! He doesn't really know how to share or use please, and thank you, plus more!! Believe ME, the kids are GREAT at teaching him what to do to be a nice friend!! They always love Rude Rodney so much, and by the end of the unit, he is a great friend to all because of the kids!

Today we used our senses as we explored in the Messy Table with PINK shaving cream!! It's so fun to explore and discover in something you don't USUALLY get to get so MESSY in!

There was friendship exploding out of our ears as we wrote letters to each other and our families at the Art and Craft Table! It was so fun to see and hear the nice things we really love about each other!!

The children mostly decorated and drew pictures for their friends or families and I would dictate their letters for them. This is a great way for children to see how writing takes place......left to right, forming the letters and watching the words being written down on paper as they say them! What a great learning experience.

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This is how I introduced the activity with everything in hands reach! There were of course crayons, markers, and pencils available. It's so fun to get MAIL!!

I of course don't have a whole Post Office set of cubbies (which would be great one day), but until then I compromise. The kids didn't know any difference and loved it just the same. The box was definitley full by the end of the day!

My "compromising" mail box!!

We also had a great time with "sweetheart" playdough! This activity turned out great!! The kids had such a great time using their imaginations, small motor skills and creativity to make all different sorts of creations!!

For this playdough, I used strawberry koolaid (to of course give it a "sweet" smell) and red glitter. The students absolutley thought it was great!!

Here are some of the things the students came up with when making their creations!!

Aren't they GREAT!! It really was such a fun day and what a way to develop some skills!

Backwards Day!!

we had a lot of fun today with BACKWARDS DAY!! the kids were so excited to wear EVERYTHING they could think of backwards! from clothes, hair, and shoes......it was silly and it made for a great exciting day!!

obviously we are learning about the opposites forward and backward!

this is my little girl showing us her BACKWARDS attire

from backward/forward bowling to back/front puppets......it was a fun day.

for our bowling game, i simply used cups and a beach ball - the kids had a blast

and i think it was a unanimous vote that FRONTWARD bowling is MUCH easier!

you could use any basic items to set this game up....from leftover chip containers, oatmeal containers or anything you have lying around!! I do have to say the beach ball was the PERFECT ball to use for this activity!

what else we've been up to with "Over and Under"

we had a LOT of fun painting OVER and UNDER the entire table. it's funny how if you change one little thing, like the WAY you paint, it gives the children a whole new world to discover!

this was one of the final outcomes - isn't it GREAT!!

for a couple of days this week, we've had water in the messy table. The kids absolutely love exploring in water. i was there to encourage discussion about "over and under", "in and out", "wet and dry", "open and shut" plus much more!! what fun!!