Chinese New Year

Welcome to a couple activities that were available today

to celebrate Chinese New Year.

 We had tea with fortune cookies.

The fortune cookies are made from felt circles with a pipe cleaner

glued inside so they can bend.

 

It was fun to watch the children play with chop sticks.

One little boy came dressed in his finery.

It is beautiful.

At the art table there were materials to make dragon puppets.

Red cups and plates, googly eyes, wooden dowels and crepe streamers.

The children's dragons were creative and unique to themselves.

 It looks like chaos,

 but was very producive

 and cooperative.

Here are a few finished dragons.

 

 

 

 

I was quick to snap a picture as this little one was leaving

making her dragon puppet fly.

Mitten Sensory Play

Our sensory tub this week contained mittens and clothespins.

The children were able to squeeze the clothespins

and hang the mitten on the thick wooden rod.

I was worried that it might be too thick for them to manage.

Sometimes they needed a bit of guidance.

 But with practice,

  they were successful.

Or they preferred to figure out how the clothespin worked

and took them apart to see the spring.

Yesterday we had a lot of snow

so I filled a big tub and added it to our play.

 Now they used the mittens in another way,

a way that was familiar.

 When finished playing in the snow,

the mittens could be hung to dry.

I was pleasantly surprised to see that

this sensory tub was used a lot more than I had expected.

Story - Little Red House

I saw this story on a great blog called Future Librarian Superhero.
The story is easy to make and to tell.
The children love it.
It's great for reviewing colours.
You can watch it here
http://vimeo.com/35409163

Yop Snowmen

Last fall one of our little ones had a birthday party at StrongStart.

The parents brought in wonderful snacks and balloons to share.

They provided a Yop drink for every child.

As soon as I saw them they screamed snowmen to me.

So I saved them till today.

At the same time we emptied our Coffee Mate container so

I made a big snowman.

 I provided milk caps and rice so they could make 

them into shakers.

 The tiny paint brushes work well for the small details

on the small container.

Look at the following picture of two brothers 

and how their approach to painting their snowmen 

is quite different.

One is painting the outside while the other is

painting the inside.

And both are very proud of their work.

I never get tired of watching a child  work.

 Even though I'm sitting right across from him taking pictures, 

it doesn't break his focus.

 His face, to me, reads "What else does it need?"

 He was the only child to paint the lid.

It could have been because his mom glued it on first

before he started painting.

Or that is just how he saw his snowman.

Here are our snowmen looking out at all the snow.

Golf Tee Art

Oh we've found a keeper for our art shelf.

Golf tee window art.

Children love to hammer.

So I put them at the art table.

With golf tees.

We used foam garden kneeling pads, that I found at the dollar store,

to protect the table and dampen the sound.

 Chalk was available if they wished to draw a design first

or after they hammered.

 They all used the hammers

but some moved on to try just pushing the tee in with their hands.

I admired the focus,

 the enjoyment,

 and creativity.

Look at this whole family having fun at the art table.

Here are a few of our new window art pieces.

Beautiful!

Button Box

Do you have a button box at home or at your school?  

We have several.

I found this book The Button Box at our local library.

It proved to be great to go on one our play trays with a box of buttons.

 The children found various ways to play with it.

Matching buttons to the pictures.

 Checking out each page to see what attracts them.

 Making a spiral of buttons.

Or just running their fingers through the buttons.

Many of the grown ups reminisced about their mother's or grandmother's button box.

It was a wonderful opportunity for adult and child to do
together.

Fine Motor Play Tray

I've seen this fine motor idea on a few blogs and loved the simplicity of it.

 The children have been enjoying it too.

They were very focused when poking a pipe cleaner through a hole.

Sometimes trying to poke it through and out the other side.

It was easier to poke both ends on the outside.

As this little one did.

 When she finished I heard her and her mom talk about what it looked like.

Is it a mask?  A hat?

The possibilities are endless.

I added this spool and look what happened.

 It was a bit easier for them to hold.

Is this me?