"M" Week and Home & Family

With Halloween over, we hit the road running on Tuesday as we started talking about our Homes and Family!  Nothing says family like talking about our Moms and talk we did!  I love hearing everyone talk about what makes their Moms special.  It seems I have a lot of Moms who are really good cooks!  We also did a wonderful art project - a house made completely with triangles and squares!!

I wish everyone could hear the children as the recognize the shapes.  My favorite comment was from "H" when he told me the grass was NOT a triangle or a square, it was a rectangle!  I loved it!  Look closely at the grass, the children cut it themselves!  I love working on our fine motor skills!

We spent most of Wednesday talking about the letter "M".  It turned out to be one of the most fun letters!  I found some magnets and little marbles with tiny metal balls inside!  I knew we just HAD to paint with them.   We dropped the marbles into the paint and held the magnet UNDER the plastic tray . . . . 

We wiggled the magnet and the little marbles magically followed along!  

The final results were truly magnificent - a multi-colored "M"! 

The rest of the day was devoted to those lovely magnets!  We tried all day to see what they would stick too!

It was a GREAT DAY!

Thursday was spent talking once again about our wonderful families.  Everyone loved taking turns and telling us who was in their family!  I loved when out of the blue "W" asked ME who was in MY family?  As soon as I finished listing everyone they all started giggling because they already knew about my son, the police officer!

We painted the most wonderful family tree on Thursday.  I didn't really want to JUST PAINT it, I wanted something different.  I found some old make-up brushes and they were a big hit!  

I think the children did an amazing job on their trees.

 

After they dried we added the names of everyone in our families!  Now that is a family tree to be proud of!

Friday was FINALLY here!  I love Fridays!  We really have a lot of fun on Fridays and I was determined NOT to disappoint anyone this week!  As soon as everyone came in the door my sweet friend and fellow teacher, Mrs. Christi traced their foot onto some brown construction paper.  It was really easy and quick for us to cut them out.  Next the children added some eyes, his nostrils and last but not least his hand print antlers!  What a Marvelous Moose!

Of course we had to read the wonderful book, If You Give a Moose a Muffin by Laura Numeroff.  Ms Numeroff writes the most wonderful books.  I love them all!  

One of my student's Dad gave me some LARGE clear plastic tubes that had caps on one end.  The best part was that they unscrewed so I could put stuff in them.  I've had them for a few weeks but I really couldn't decide what to do with them.  Ahhhhhhhhhh. . . . then it hit me!

Look closely at what we put inside - 

Rice, metal marbles, metal clips, gem clips, puzzle pieces, etc.  When put together with our magnets, these long tubes made the most wonderful way to work on our fine motor skills.  I truly believe some of the children would have played with them all day long.  It didn't take long for the boys to realize that the only way the inside pieces would stick to the magnets was to ggggoooooo  vvveerrrryyyy ssssllllllloooooowwwww.  AHHHHH . . .an instant calming effect!  SUCCESS!

But I really couldn't let that calm go on TOO long, now could I????  NOPE!  We headed down to the kitchen for a little (and I do mean little) science experiment.  You know, you stick the marshmallows in the microwave and the blow up!  Okay, that was fun, BUT not fun enough so next I dumped several bags of mini marshmallows on the table and a couple of boxes of toothpicks.  Everyone looked at me and finally "C" said, "what do we do now?".  My response, "what do you want to do?".  OH MY, the most amazing thing happened. . . .

  Instant Art!

Again, several of the children were amazed at their structures.  I truly believe the children were proud of their work.  I could actually see their confidence strengthening!  It was a magical!

We had a few minutes before our playground time and what better way to wait for everyone to put on their jackets then to hold the first annual Marble Run of 2011!  I found some old plain hard cardboard tubes in a supply closet.  Now these look like giant toilet tissue rolls, no caps on them, the perfect thing to see how far a marble could race down the hall!  Everyone got a turn to let the marble fly!

Man, some of those marbles could soar all the way down the hall!

Okay, that was fun, but I had one more surprise . . . . 

As soon as we came in from the playground and everyone finished lunch we headed back to the kitchen for one more marble run!  This time we connect several hard plastic tubes together (again, I raided a seldom used supply closet) and well you can see for yourself . . . 

It was a hit!  We let the marbles fly back and forth.  It was a great way to end our day!  

Throughout our week I took pictures of each child holding our U.S. flag.  I have a very special activity planned for this Thursday in honor of Veteran's Day.  I hope you will stop back by and see what we will be doing.