Monday, December 31, 2012

Ring the Bells

dec 17 001
To me Christmas and bells go hand in hand.
We hear them at this time of year in songs, stories, churches, school
and around town.
  dec 18 027
I thought of buying the set of bells you can get from teacher supply stores
but, one, I didn’t have the extra money and two, I know they can be very noisy.

So off to the thrift stores and it didn’t take me long to find this collection
right here in town.
       dec 17 027
Each little bell makes a slightly different tone from the other.
  dec 19 009 dec 19 010
Then there are different jingle bells, single, clusters, some with fabric
to change the tone.

I posted a few songs on the wall to encourage singing
but the interest lays in experimenting with each bell.

Friday, December 28, 2012

Had An Old Coat Take 2


dec 19 001
I love this story and there are many ways to tell it.

The book “Something From Nothing”,
as a cut and tell called The Blue Coat and
this story song by Bev Bos.
You can find the lyrics at this old post.

This time our grade 7 buddies were involved.
As you watch the video you’ll see that each of the six buddies
that participated held an article of clothing.

Remember I didn’t have to audition for this job but I try my best with my singing.

Hope you enjoy.

Thursday, December 27, 2012

Build a Tree

               IMG_1695
dec 6 050  dec 6 052
dec 6 053 
Roll a Tree
dec 21 034  dec 21 033

Wednesday, December 26, 2012

Gingerbread Fun with our Buddies

      nov 21 027
While focusing on gingerbread we did a couple of activities with our big buddies
this past month.
One of the activities included making a book called
“One Yummy Gingerbread”.
     nov 21 019
Each book came with one gingerbread cut out.
nov 21 022 nov 21 018
As they read the book they would pretend to eat the gingerbread and
rip a part of the body off and glue it into the book.
nov 21 020 Until every part was done.

Then they read it together.
nov 21 023 nov 21 025
I was able to record a few of them reading together.

The following video shows a young child who rarely speaks to me or
others in StrongStart but with her big buddy she was very open.
It so impressed me that her big buddy helped her feel that comfortable.


We also decorated gingerbread people to really eat – yum!
dec 19 020 dec 19 025
An opportunity to talk about body parts,
      dec 19 027
work on math (sharing out and counting the candies),
dec 19 034 dec 19 035
and to chat and get to know each other better.

But the best part?
dec 19 024 dec 19 026
Was the eating, yummy!
dec 19 031 dec 19 028

Tuesday, December 25, 2012

Gifts for the Fairies


           dec 25 222
The whole family is home for Christmas. 
We woke this morning to rain but by the time we finished opening
presents and playing a few games it had begun to snow.
Great big beautiful flakes that just called for us to go out for a walk.
dec 25 227  dec 25 158
Two of my daughters hadn’t visited Fairy Lane since it’s creation
so off we went trekking to the woods.

        dec 25 220
But we didn’t go empty handed. 
My oldest daughter made a gift for the fairies – little stockings to keep
their feet toasty.
dec 25 054 dec 25 055
We carefully strung them on a clothesline and hung them from the bark.
dec 25 061 dec 25 163
Two lines were hung over doors, one at each end of Fairy Lane.
The fairies are sure to find them.
          dec 25 171
    We watched for a while but couldn’t spy any of them.
       dec 25 048
dec 25 212 dec 25 215
But our dog spent a lot of time sniffing around.  Could it be she could sense
the fairies were about?
I don’t know but others were looking too because we saw other gifts
left in the woods.
    dec 25 033
          A red heart hung in a tree.
dec 25 062
And a little green nutcracker keeping guard by one of the doors.
It’s nice to know that others are thinking of the fairies too.

dec 25 162
Goodbye Fairy Lane, we'll visit again soon.

dec 25 155 Merry Christmas from my family to yours.


Monday, December 24, 2012

Gingerbread Play


dec 20 001
We have been having a lot of fun playing with gingerbread this
past month.
Here are a few activities that included gingerbread.
dec 20 006
In the house area we have been baking gingerbread cookies using
these cork cut outs that have magnet on the back of them so they
stick to the pan.
dec 20 002
Someone thought they were real and took a bite, oh oh!
dec 10 031
The cookies were used for picnics with the reindeer.
Love how he has served each reindeer their own cookie on a plate.
Maybe it was one of the reindeer that took a bite.

dec 10 033 dec 10 034
They were used to match to the cookie cutters.
Trying to figure out which cutter was used to make them.
Also these two children worked on their ‘taking turns’ skill and
watched while each other tried to find the match.

dec 10 005
Gingerbread play dough to decorate.

dec 17 040
Sticky easel gingerbread house decorating.
dec 18 032
Thanks to Deborah Stewart at Teach Preschool for the sticky easel idea.
dec 18 036
To make mine I covered the easel with yellow paper then cut out
the house from brown tissue paper and taped it to the yellow.
Finally covered it all with contact paper, sticky side out.
dec 19 017
Provide lace, door and window cut outs and lots of shaped, sparkly sequins.

The great thing about a sticky easel is that you can take everything off at the
 end of the day and they can redecorate it again the next day.

And finally we had many gingerbread story books to share and enjoy.
dec 19 044