Welcome to Our Week of Seuss

      
          I love celebrating the work of Dr Seuss. 
    His creative characters and wonderful rhyme help
   expand our imaginations to think ‘outside of the box’.
      
       He incorporates so many concepts in his books;
       colours, opposites, patterns, numbers and more.

  Today we started with my favourite Seuss inspired book
         “Put Me in the Zoo” by Robert Lopshire.
       
   I was always drawn to the spots – lots and lots of spots.
          
           A ceramic teapot worked great to add
                a dot on a spot on the pot.
 
      Using coloured stickers worked our knowledge
                of colours and our finger muscles.

And finding a new book for some.

      

Play Trays

        
          An old thread spool holder and beads.
  
        


   
   Feeling eggs that come with their own stands
             and a book on emotions.
 
    


  
         Clothespins to clip as you count the hearts.


 
                  Ice cube tray game for two.
      

Dental Visit

   
Two to three times a year the community dental hygienist
visits StrongStart.  This time before she arrived I set up
a mini dramatic play dental area.
 
Some of the props and posters I’ve had since college,
others I found at the dollar store and some like the plaster teeth
came from a kit I bought from Little Treasures.
 
Brenda, our hygienist, is very good at helping children become
comfortable before looking at their teeth.  She brings her own props,
like the dinosaur with the big teeth and big toothbrush.
 
She allows them to explore the props, to take the lead.
   
She doesn’t rush but uses the dinosaur to demonstrate what she
is going to do before trying it with the child.

Brenda checked about 25 children on this visit and she never
rushed talking with the parents, grandparents and caregivers
about the care of the children’s teeth. 
She talked about healthy snacks; if eating sticky dried fruit
to provide sliced apples or carrots to help clean the teeth.
To provide water instead of juice when thirsty.
    
For each child she had a bag with a toothbrush, mirror
and flossing sticks to take home.

              She makes us smile!
        Thanks Brenda for visiting.

Friends Making Hearts in Nature

              
After reading Penguin and Pinecone we ventured out for a nature walk.
   
Our bags were packed with a clip board and paper for tallying
how many pinecones and sticks we could find. 
It also had a old bread bag to collect them in.
 
Our walk took us into the woods behind our school where
there are lots and lots of pinecones and sticks.
 
Each time we found one we added it to our bag then made
a mark on our paper.
    
        We worked as a team, collecting and tallying.
 
Sometimes we found sticks that were very big.  Was it too big? 
We tested to see if it would fit in our bread bag.
   
     It was too big so we found one that was smaller.
       
    Once we got to the big rock we emptied our bags
 
         and started to build a heart together.
 
       Before leaving we drew a picture of the heart.
     
And took one last picture of the friends that built the heart
                  in the woods today.

Penguin and Pinecone

 One of my new favourite books.
         
Love this friendship book. 
A penguin finds a pinecone and befriends it. 
But the pinecone is always cold and grandpa penguin
explains that pinecone needs to be in the forest, far far away,
if it wants to grow up big and strong. 
So penguin takes it to the forest and sadly says good bye. 

The illustrator used stones and pine needles to make hearts,
                     ~representing love~
              in several places in the book.
        
Since I bought the book so close to Valentines Day it
inspired me to set up a table in the room to build hearts
with natural materials.
   
     I waffled between taping a heart shape on the mats to
         adding heart shaped cookie cutters. 
                 The cutters won.
      
            The cutters didn’t stay long though. 
Instead of building a heart the cookie cutter was filled up. 
   Then when it was removed it was a clump of rocks. 
                           Not a heart.
      
Most times the parents initiated the heart which was wonderful. 
Then they allowed the child to build from their beginnings.
 
Some were able to imagine the heart from the beginning and to create it.
   
       After he finished his heart he left it on the mat.
 
His friend came along and added to it.  We could call it a friendship heart.