Sparkly Snowflakes

I'm still wishing for snow. Big, dry snowflakes would be wonderful to see falling from the sky. But it's not happening, only rain here. So we have to make our own snowflakes.
Materials provided are sparkly pipecleaners, q-tips, string, glue and samples of snow flakes and how snowflakes form.

It was interesting to watch the progression from piling the pipecleaners in a jumble to learning how to criss-cross them.
We also realized we could make them 3D like snowballs versus being flat snowflakes.

We weren't limited to only snowflakes. The opportunity to squeeze out glue is too much to resist for some children. Here's wishing for snow.

Painted Mitten Snack

Today we got to paint our food before eating it.

It's easy to do.

1. Cut your bread. We used a mitten cookie cutter.














2. Use milk mixed with food colouring and paint the bread.



















3. Sprinkle with cinnamon sugar.















4. Put it in the toaster oven.









5. Eat and enjoy.

Turntable Fun

During the holidays I went Thrift store shopping and finally found an old turntable. For set up I placed a paper plate on the centre and poked it on to the spinning post. But when I turned it on the paper plate didn't spin with it. A little tape underneath the plate fixed that.
It really attracted a few of the boys that don't normally go to the art area on their own. Here is dad showing his little one how to turn it on.
I filled squeeze bottles with different coloured paints. The little one held the bottle above the turntable and watched it drip on to the paper plate.
Then we were thinking of what else we could use and tried a paint brush. What a great way to mix the colours.
Then we tried a long coffee stir stick and discovered that it would make marks in the paint.
So using both the paint brush and the stick we could keep starting new pictures.
We learned a couple of things about the turntable. If you pressed down hard with your brush then the table stops spinning or if you used your brush and pushed the turntable you could make it spin in the other direction.
The only thing I wish is that it was an older turntable that included the 78 speed setting. The need for speed.

Sign of the Week - Mitten

Starting this month I'll be introducing a new sign each week. The sign will coordinate with the songs, stories, crafts and happenings of the centre.

This week's sign is 'mitten'

How to sign it?
Hold up your left hand, palm facing away from you.
Using your right index finger outline your left thumb and then up and over all the fingers on your left hand at once.

Here is a video:

Planning

Two weeks off gave me a great opportunity to plan. This year I've tried to plan a month in advance, generally for art and story ideas, keeping in mind that it could change at any given time depending on what is happening around us.
So here are my plans for January thus far;

January 2011 Crafts

Sun	Mon	Tue	Wed	Thu	Fri	Sat
						1
2	3	4	5	6	7	8
	closed	Spin art mittens – hang from tree branch	Animal stamps on a mitten shape	Mitten prints – wear a pair of mittens to make a painted print	‘knit” mittens
9	10	11	12	13	14	15
	Bubble wrap snow painting	Confetti snow art	Cupcake liner snowflakes	Pringle container black and white painting	Screen painting
16	17	18	19	20	21	22
	Potato masher snowmen	Paper plate snowmen	Melting snowmen with puffy paint Potluck	Torn tissue paper collage with shades of whites and blues	White glue blob snowmen
23	24	25	26	27	28	29
	Collage materials to build trees			Family Literacy Day
30	31
	Watercolour and salt painting

January 2011 Stories

Sun	Mon	Tue	Wed	Thu	Fri	Sat
						1
2	3	4	5	6	7	8
Story - 3 Little Kittens Sign of the week – cat Song – A Mitten	Closed	The Missing Mitten Mystery by Steven Kellogg A Kitten Tale by Eric Rohm	The Mitten by Jan Brett Three Little Kittens by Paul Galdone	Jill Colourful Mittens	One Mitten by Kristine O’connell
9	10	11	12	13	14	15
Song – Itsy Bitsy Snowflake Fairytale – The Princess and the Pea Sign of the week - snow	Mouse’s first snow by Lauren Thompson The Princess and the Pea	When Will It Snow By Marty Crisp	Snow Dance By Lezlie Evans	Mama, will it snow tonight? By Nancy White Carlstrom	The Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats
16	17	18	19	20	21	22
Song – I Wish I Was A Snowman Sign of the week – hat Story -	All You Need for a Snowman by Alice Schertle	Snow Friends by M. Christina Butler	Hello, Snow by Hope Vestergaard	Snowballs by Lois Ehlert	The Biggest, Best Snowman by Margery Cuyler
23	24	25	26	27	28	29
Fairytale – Why the Evergreens Never Lose their Leaves Sign of the week – tree Song -	In the Tree by Zoe Sharp	Log Hotel by Anne Schreiber	We planted a tree by Diane Muldrow	The Tree House by Marije Tolman	The Little Green Pea by Alison Barber
30	31
Fairytale – Goldilocks and the 3 Bears

Story - The Blue Coat

This past year I've been working on learning more oral stories and improving my telling techniques. I find it interesting what can interfere with the telling of a story. But I've learned to keep going. You'll see a few interruptions in the video below.

Today's story is a Jewish story called "The Blue Coat". I heard this story told different ways, the one most people might know is a book called "Something from Nothing" by Phoebe Gilman. I like "The Blue Coat" because it's nicely suited for children to become involved.

I also added a visual component and cut each piece of clothing from a piece of paper.

The Blue Coat

Once there was a boy name Tom.
Once there was a boy name Tom who had grown too big for his coat.

"Oh dear, oh dear" said his mother. I'll have to make you a new one. So his mother went to the store and bought a length of blue fabric. She brought it home, laid it on the table and set to work.
All day she worked, cutting and shaping, fitting one piece to another until she made Tom a beautiful blue coat.

Tom was so pleased with his coat that he wore it everywhere.
He wore it in the sun and rain, the wind and the snow.
He wore it when he ran and jumped and splashed and rolled.

Till the day his mom looked him up and down and said, "Oh dear, oh dear. That coat is tattered and torn beyond repair."

She laid it on the table and looked at it. "Hmmm" she thought and set to work. She worked all day cutting out the good pieces and shaping them together, fitting one piece to another until she made a vest.

Tom was so pleased with his vest that he wore everywhere.
He wore it in the sun and rain, the wind and the snow.
He wore it when he ran and jumped and splashed and rolled.

Till the day his mom looked him up and down and said, "Oh dear, oh dear. That vest is tattered and torn beyond repair."

She laid it on the table and looked at it. "Hmmm" she thought and set to work. She worked all day cutting out the good pieces and shaping them together, fitting one piece to another until she made a hat.

Tom was so pleased with his hat that he wore everywhere.
He wore it in the sun and rain, the wind and the snow.
He wore it when he ran and jumped and splashed and rolled.

Till the day his mom looked him up and down and said, "Oh dear, oh dear. That hat is tattered and torn beyond repair."

She laid it on the table and looked at it. "Hmmm" she thought and set to work. She worked all day cutting out the good pieces and shaping them together, fitting one piece to another until she made a bow tie.

Tom was so pleased with his bow tie that he wore it everywhere.
He wore it in the sun and rain, the wind and the snow.
He wore it when he ran and jumped and splashed and rolled.

Till the day his mom looked him up and down and said, "Oh dear, oh dear. That bow tie is tattered and torn beyond repair."

She laid it on the table and looked at it. "Hmmm" she thought and set to work. She worked all day cutting out the good pieces and shaping them together, fitting one piece to another until she made a button.

Tom was so please with the button that he wore it everywhere.
He wore it in the sun and rain, the wind and the snow.
He wore it when he ran and jumped and splashed and rolled.

Till the day his mom looked him up and down and said, "Oh dear, oh dear. That button is tattered and torn beyond repair."

She laid it on the table and looked at it. "Hmmm" she thought and set to work. She worked all day cutting out the good pieces and shaping them together, fitting one piece to another until she made a....story.
She made this story of Tom's blue coat.

And I just shared the story of The Blue Coat with you so you can share it with someone else.
And that is the end of that story.

Story Time

At our StrongStart centre story time always start with the families reading to their own children. Then I join them to start a group circle time.
I use my hand drum and sing a song about putting their books away. The sound of the drum draws the children's attention instantly and they respond wonderfully.

This story time happened at one of our evening sessions (we offer one a month). The theme was pizza and pajama party. Thus the reason I'm wearing my pajamas.

Our hello and goodbye songs are always the same. I love watching even the youngest child learn the actions (which they do long before they say the words). Here are the words...

Hands go up, down
Turn around
Touch the sky
And touch the ground.
Wiggle your fingers
Wiggle your toes.
Wiggle your shoulders
And say Hello.

Hands go up, down
Turn around
Touch the sky
And touch the ground
Tickle your tummy
Blink your eyes
Blow a kiss
And say Goodbye.

I read Sandra Boynton's book Pajama Time. Well I tried to sing it and the children danced.Then I told a story called "The Candle".

The interesting thing about telling a story are the children's possible reactions. This little guy wanted to blow the candle out for me.

The Candle Story

Once upon a time there was a family that lived a long time ago. And in this family there was a mother, father, son, daughter and baby.

This family lived a long time ago before there was electricity. That means that they didn’t use stoves to cook their food, computers, tv, or even lights in their house.

What they used for light was candles and what they used for heat in their house was a fireplace and that what they used to cook their food too.

At night they’d put the fire out then they carry the candle up the stairs (pat-pat on knees slowly) to head to bed. When they’d get to the top of the stairs the mom would say, “Ok someone has to blow out this candle. And this night she said to her little boy – you can blow out this candle –

The only way the little boy could blow was ‘up’ (mock blowing up through lips) No matter how hard he tried he could not blow that candle out.

And she said to the little girl– you can blow the candle out – and the only way the little girl could blow was down – and she went (mock blowing down out of lips) No matter how hard she blew the candle didn’t go out.

So the mother said to her husband – dear you can blow the candle out – and the only way he could blow was out of the left side of his mouth – (mock blowing) No matter how hard he blew the candle did not go out.

So the mother said - ok I’ll blow the candle out tonight – and the only way she could blow was out the right side of her mouth – (mock blowing) But the candle would not go out

Now they could not go to bed with the candle lit because it was too dangerous to have a fire lit all night.

Then they heard footsteps (pat-pat fast on knees) outside the house

Who do you think it is? Fireman – call him (Have families call ‘fireman’ several times) He came running up the stairs ‘yes yes can I help you’

Yes our candles burning and we can’t blow it out

He said I’d be happy to blow it out – and he went whoosh and the candle went out.

Then he said wait it’s too dark – I can’t see to get down the stairs. So they lit the candle again – held it out so he could find his way down the stairs

And here they are again with the candle lit so they all tried to blow it out again

And the little boy blew up (mimic). The little girl blew down (mimic). The father blew to the left (mimic). The mother blew to the right (mimic). They couldn’t get the candle out

They heard some more footsteps outside

Who do you think it is? Cop?? Let’s call him

He came running up the stairs. And said what’s the problem? he said

We can’t blow this candle out

Oh I’d be happy to help and he blew – whoosh – wait it’s too dark, it’ way too dark. I can’t see to get down the stairs. So they lit the candle again – showed him the way down the stairs

They there were with the candle lit again

They didn’t know what to do but to try again. Do you remember how the little boy blew? up. Do you remember how the little girl blew? down. How did the father blow? to the left. And how did the mother blow? to the right. They couldn’t blow the candle out

They didn’t know what to do. They were getting very tired of standing at the top of the stairs - everybody wanted to go to bed

Now do you remember that there was another child in the family? That’s right – the baby. The baby had crawled up the stairs behind everyone. Pulling on his fathers pant leg saying “I can do it” (whisper). Pulling on his mother’s gown saying “I can do it”(louder). But they said ‘you’re too little, you’re too little – we’ll figure this out. But he said “I’ll help, I’ll help’

Finally they said OK maybe you better try it because we’re awfully tired

And they put the candle down in front of him

And the baby went – (big wet blow)

And blew out the candle

And that’s the end of that story.