Jumping off a table, walking in snow, jingling bells and eating snowman noses: MONDAY J WEEK

Our Monday “Red Day” Class had a cozy day back after a week off of school. After the weekend’s snowfall, we arranged our day to spend most of our time inside. In honor of J Week we had jumping animal puzzles, Jumping Land, baby Jesus’ to paint, jingle bells and new books about all of these things. We honored the weekend’s snow storm with a special Snow Time and bringing animals into the Tub Table to be in pretend snow.

Read on to learn more about today:

What part of a snowman did we eat at snack today? 

Did you jump off a table today? 

What did we do with the snow cloud?

Where did you put your jingle bell? 

Why did everyone have to go quickly to Ms Brenda? 

1. What part of a snowman did we eat at snack today? 

The nose (carrots) and the arms (pretzels).

Ms Eliza also served us food that looked like snow…Iced cookies and ranch dip. What a fun and cozy time we had.

2. Did you jump off a table today? 

Maybe! We turned our circle time rug into Jumping Land. There was a lot of teamwork and communication going on to keep this risky play safe. 

3. What did we do with the Snow Cloud?

After unrolling and stretching out cotton balls (did you know you can unroll them?!) to make a snow cloud, Ms Kristin showed how it traveled over our entire town. Ah ha! That is the reason why everyone said that yes, it did snow at their place.

4. Where did you put your jingle bell? 

The plan was on backpacks or jackets or shoes.

They definitely worked as you can see in a spontaneous Jingle Bell Run that began right next to our New Book Rug:

5. Why did everyone have to go quickly to Ms Brenda? 

Ms Kristin noticed a car turning into our parking lot and she wanted all the children to be out of the way. Everyone followed that safety plan immediately and perfectly.

It was beautiful to be out in the snow. We noticed different tracks, areas of melting snow and kept checking in to see how our bodies felt based on skin exposure to the snow.

Eating dog bones, invisible ice cream and pipettes: FRIDAY I WEEK

Our Friday “Purple Day” Class practiced their one-to-one correspondence in adding feathers to their turkeys and then got to take them home just in time for our week off from school.  We worked with real and pretend ice, measured things and got a new record of how tall an inch tower could balance!

Read on to find the answers to these questions:

  1. How did you get water in the ice tunnels today?
  2. What did we eat just like the dog in our book today?
  3. What is your favorite ice cream flavor?
  4. What food do you like to eat?
  5. What did a teacher write for you in your journal today?

1. How did you get water in the ice tunnels today?

Pipettes! 

Along with paint brushes, watercolor paints and water, we infused the ice with paint and water. When we were quiet enough and poured water on it, we could hear the ice cracking.

2. What did we eat just like the dog in our book today?

Bone shaped Scooby snack treats!

Jackson also brought us iceberg lettuce with ranch dip and ice cream cones. Henry R brought us Iced Oatmeal Cookie bars. Thank you, friends!

3. What is your favorite ice cream flavor?

With our ice cream cones, we came up with our favorite ice cream flavors and how we could pretend we had any invisible ice cream we wanted. 

4. What food do you like to eat?

We had a drawing station today to draw any kind of foods. There were books set up around as inspiration.

Outside we had pretend food to play with. An added extra game was finding it in the leaf piles!

5. What did a teacher write for you in your journal today?

After finding our photos and writing our names, we came up with things that are true about us to complete the prompt, “I am…”

Cutting ice cream, dirty toothbrushes, cold paint and a squishy blanket: THURSDAY I WEEK

Our Thursday “Blue Day” Class made their turkeys today! We don’t have school at all next week so these turkeys went home today, where I’m guessing they may take a lot of naps after all the gobbling. The Dirt Pumpkin is still bringing excitement as it grows…we’re up to three seedlings and a third set of leaves on one of them! There was a lot of playing inside, a lot of giggling and finishing our day outside.

Read on to learn five more things about today…

What happened with the ice today? 

What did Grandma Bonnie do with the ice cream today? 

Why were there toothbrushes today? 

What did you need to get to do your journal work today? 

Why was our blanket squishy for story time?

1. What happened with the ice today? 

We added paint and water to it!

This means that we could use paint brushes and our hands to get paint on the ice.

2.What did Grandma Bonnie do with the ice cream today? 

She cut them! 

We had six chocolate ice creams, six vanilla ice creams, and one sweet egg-free dessert. Grandma Bonnie cut the chocolate and vanilla ice creams so that everyone who is eating ice cream could have some of both. The egg-free dessert was ready for those friends. Thank you, Grandma Bonnie! 

3. Why were there toothbrushes today? 

To get our big board clean! These were not mouth toothbrushes, they were only for cleaning the board.

This is the board we use a Circle Time and there was a lot of marker on it. Grandma Bonnie is very good at cleaning and she got a lot of people to help. The board still has a little bit of marker stuck in the wood grain, but most of it is off. Thank you friends. 

4. What did you need to get to do your journal work today? 

Your picture! 

By this time in the school year, we know everybody’s name, so it was easy to talk about whose picture was whose. Then we took them to the table to glue them in and choose things to say about ourselves. Some examples are age, brother or sister, child or adult and writing our names.

5. Why was our blanket squishy for story time?

Because Ms Kristin put it on top of a leaf pile!

Before any of us got to preschool, Grandpa Kelven raked leaves for us into several huge piles.

We also had a pretend food on the playground that reminded us of the family at the end of our book who had a big feast together.

Turkey cups, finding our pictures, a baby turkey in the tree and not sharing toys: WEDNESDAY I WEEK

Our Wednesday “Green Day” Class always has time to work in our journals. We also did a lot of ice work, some with real ice and some with pretend ice. The Dirt Pumpkin keeps changing and some more turkeys were feathered today. We played in the leaves outside and Ms Kristin thought a crow was a chihuahua. At Circle Time we used our pillows to calm our bodies by holding them or laying on them or squeezing them.

Read on to find out more about these things!

What pretend ice things were at preschool?

What did you have to find for your journal?

What special cup did we have at snack today?

Does anyone in our class live in an igloo?

In our book about the turkey family, why wasn’t the baby Turkey scared?

1. What ice things were at preschool?

We had ice cube trays at the play dough table, paper ice blocks for our Alphabet Project and inch blocks that we pretended were ice blocks with tongs. Then we had real ice cubes that were still whole at the end of the day!

2. What did you have to find for your journal?

Your picture! Our journal prompt says, “I am…” so we added our photos and any other information like name and age. Some friends liked looking at a number writing guide. We also practiced putting the glue on the back of the little paper instead of on the journal paper…this also let us feel magical by having the paper stick to the glue stick!

3. What special cup did we have at snack today?

Walter brought turkey cups for us! They were filled with I shaped veggie straws, though some friends emptied them out and put water in their turkey cup instead. Then things went one step further and some friends used a veggie straw to drink water! Incredible! Thank you, Walter!

4. Does anyone in our class live in an igloo?

No. We looked at a graph from a couple of years ago when some older siblings were preschoolers. None of them lived in igloos either. But we do have a pretend igloo in the Tub Table and we can pretend the climbing dome is an igloo.

5. In our book about the turkey family, why wasn’t the baby turkey scared?

He had a hat over his face so he never saw what was happening! The hat over his face came from the scarecrow. There is so much happening in this book…the dog chases them, the horse climbs a snowy hill with a sled, the horse crashes into them, the grandma is angry about the pie being ruined, the baby turkey ends up in a tree…it ends with everyone eating together except for one character…the dog’s owner!

BONUS: Do you have to share your toys from home?

No. At our preschool people can bring things from home and they don’t have to share them. Instead, we all help keep track of things for each other and enjoy seeing what people bring. Today we had a noisy truck, a doggie, sunglasses and a handbag full of things: a sparkly frog, the Eiffel tower, sunglasses, a bracelet/hair tie, 2 butterfly clips, 1 flower clip and a set of keys. You can read more about this part of our program here.

13 pillows, a flour igloo, stacking ice cubes and blue ice cream: TUESDAY I WEEK

Our Tuesday “Yellow Day” Class was all together today…one little sister turned three so she stayed on her own for the first time. Ms Kristin counted 13 pillows so everyone could have one at Circle Time. We honored I Week with instruments, ice, igloos and inches. The Dirt Pumpkin has changed since we were together last as well.

Here are questions to learn more details about our day…

  1. How many blocks of (pretend) ice did you use to make your i shape?
  2. How many seedlings are there in our Dirt Pumpkin?
  3. How can you make an igloo in the Tub Table?
  4. What did we have for inside snack time?
  5. Where did you sit to wait for your ice cream?

1. How many blocks of (pretend) ice did you use to make your i shape?

You can check their backpack to make sure…most used 4 or 5. There was a lot of hand muscle work to get the glue working!

2. How many seedlings are there in our Dirt Pumpkin?

Three! The tallest one is also growing a second set of leaves, so we are well on our way!

3. How can you make an igloo in the Tub Table?

With a colander! Sometimes a little hole was carved out for a door as well.

4. What did we have for inside snack time?

Cheese sticks, rainbow goldfish and Muddy Buddies (some friends know it as Puppy Chow, but we called them Muddy Buddies like the friends who brought them). Thank you, Essie and Sophie! We practiced dumping and stacking our trays today too!

5. Where did you sit to wait for your ice cream?

On a bench! Asher brought ice cream and ice cream cones for a birthday treat today. What a treat for a warm November day! (We also had ice cream shaped rice krispie treats for friends who don’t eat ice cream.)