All About Me!

We had a great week learning about ourselves, mainly so we can get to know each other. Here's a few of the things we did this week:

Dramatic Play
I kept the housekeeping up from last week. I usually keep anything up for 2 weeks, as most themes do go 2 weeks. As usual, everyone played there day 1, and by day 4, it was much less busy. Getting ready for something new!


Blocks
Tuesday, we played with the doll house. I have random people who can't sit, and a bunch of mismatch furniture, but that never stops them. They seemed to really like it. I had planned to use it during family week, but my son actually got it out this weekend and begged for it to stay out for school.

Thursday, we had out the Duplo Legos. They had a great time building towers. and used a lot of team work and cooperation to build the taller tower they could, together. One of many reasons I love block play!


Art
Tuesday, we had out play dough and blank face mats so they could make faces. In past years, the kids begged for play dough. Each kid played with it for a bit, but they definitely preferred to play elsewhere.

Thursday, we made faces. I had facial features cut out of magazines, plus paper hair, and they could glue them onto paper. Some made faces, others played with glue, and some others just made a collage.


Small Manipulatives
Tuesday, we did lacing cards. I got these at Dollar Tree and the dollar section of Target. Love them! For only $1, they're great sturdy quality, plus I love the strings! And yes, I do get excited about good strings for lacing, with nice tips that make it easy for kids. This was a surprisingly popular center, with lots of sewing all day!


Thursday, we had out the flannel board story of The Little Engine that Could. We told the story Tuesday, so today, they could play with it and retell it.




Large Group
We learned the word "unique" and talked about the things that make us special and unique. plus the things that make us all alike. We learned about each other by sharing our stars. We drew self portraits after admiring our features in the mirror.We read great books and told stories. We learned the song "Growing Up" by Dr. Jean that shares some traits we have at each age from baby-4 years old.

Small Group
I am so excited to have started small groups this week! Your kids are SO super duper lucky this year, I can't even explain. We have my neighbor, Miss Kim, coming each week to volunteer. She approached me before school started and I couldn't pass up a great teacher coming to help out! She has been the church Nursery leader of all 3 of my kids, and is WONDERFUL with children! She has fit right in from day 1, and the kids love her. Anyway, with Kim here to help, I've split the class down the middle by age, so we can do more focused activities.
My group read "I am Confident" and wrote in our journals about things they can do that makes them feel proud of themselves.
Kim's group did a giant floor puzzle of kids from around the world.

Bonus Learning:
One of our students found this cold dragonfly outside before school, not flying, and brought it in. I found a strawberry container to put him in, and he was a HUGE hit! I got down the magnifying glasses, and he was our impromptu science center. He got much more active as he warmed up, and we learned to not shake or hurt him, then released him once we got outside.

Another grandma from our class also brought us some wasp's nests with dead wasps for us to check out too. Please feel free to bring these fun discoveries! I'll admit they're a bit creepy, but absolutely fascinating too!