Tickle Stick Waiting Your Turn

I posted earlier that I've introduced Yoga stretching into our gym time.
It is so much fun.
The children know when they hear the chime they move into 'seed' (child) pose.

We've created a story of the seed curled in the ground and the rain is gently falling on it.
When the rain stops the tree plants it's roots (our feet) and begins to grow.
The trunk of the tree (our bodies) grow straight and tall.
The branches (our arms) spread out far.
The leaves (our fingers) unfurl and stretch towards the sun.
Then the wind begins to blow us around.
The children may not realize but we have just gone through the life cycle of a tree and what it needs to grow.  This is science happening in our gym time.

I found when we finished our stretching it was a bit of a mad chaos trying to put our mats away at the same time so I was inspired by Vanessa's (from Storyoga) way of finishing her yoga sessions.
She has this beautiful stick, I forget what she calls it, but it is covered with ribbon and fluffy pompoms.  I created one for our group and it has been so well received.

 We refer to it as our Tickle Turn stick.
When we are finished stretching the children can lay anyway they choose on their mat.

They relax and wait for their tickle.
After they have a tickle with the stick, they get up and put their mat away.
When the ribbons pass over them I label the parts of the body that it is touching.
This turn taking is helping them to self-regulate.
Even the parents get into it.
After this little boy had his tickle (mom was my photographer) he insisted mom have her tickle too.

 So I passed the stick for him to tickle momma.

I've noticed that the energy level back in the classroom is a little lower and calmer.
It has been wonderful learning and passing on these techniques.

Dog's Colorful Day

Dog's Colorful Day is a new book for me.

I've seen it referenced on several blogs from Flannel Friday.

 like so tomorrow

The book covers so many areas of learning.

Colours, counting, body parts, literacy

(how many descriptive words start with 'sp'?).

I made this quick felt story to go with it.

 I handed out the coloured spots to the children and as I read 

the story the children added the spots to Dog.

Which makes it a great interactive story, if you have a small group.

At the art table, I copied pictures of Dog and put them out

with bingo daubbers and markers.

The parents picked up the book and read it while the children

matched their art to the telling.

 I love how this grandmother is holding the book and pointing at the words.

The children were so involved in the story.

After making each spot they would count them just like in the book.

Some children just enjoyed using the bingo daubbers.

When I asked them how many spots were on their dog,

they both shouted out numbers, "89" "17".

f

This child was thrilled that he made the colour brown.

I didn't have a brown bingo daubber so we were using a brown marker.

But he told me he mixed the green, orange and red and it made brown.

I recommended this book to our kindergarten teacher and she was taken with it too.

She has ideas for more centre ideas that I'm looking forward to seeing.

Valentine Follow Up

Here are a few Valentine activities that we had fun with this week.

Valentine calendar toss.

Toss the bean bag at the calendar.

Will it land on the heart?

 A growth chart.

How many hearts tall are you?

The chart will stay up for the remainder of the school year.

We'll revisit it to see if we've grown.

Rose petals in the sensory table.

 But buried under the rose petals were....

trolls!

National Flag Day

Today, in Canada, is National Flag Day.

So we made flags at the art table

using the warming tray.

I covered the warming tray with foil

then let red crayons melt in a puddle.

We used a metal leaf cookie cutter, 

dipped it into the melted wax,

 then pressed it onto the paper.

 This boy took a different approach and held the cutter on the paper 

on the tray

then melted the crayon inside.

 It worked well that way.

 The leaf was printed in the middle of the paper

 then we used the crayon to decorate the sides red.

The melted crayon leaves a solid colour

compared to when you just colour without heat.

 Q tips worked well for transferring the melted crayon to the paper.

Although when the paper is off of the warming tray the wax

does cool quickly and doesn't mark well.

 For those that wanted a flag to wave

we stapled the flag to a flat piece of dowel.

Happy Canada Flag Day!

Fruit Salad ABCs

For Valentine's Day the families were asked to bring a piece of fruit to share 

in a fruit salad.

As an extra challenge I asked them to bring a fruit that starts with 

one of their initials.

Here's mine "Wagner's Watermelon"

"McLean's Mango"

"Strussi's Strawberries"

"Riley's Raspberries"

 "Abbi's Apple"

"Mira's Mandarins"

(When she arrived she informed me that they are oranges but

they are called mandarins.)

Some names were harder to match to a fruit.

 So I found this chart through a google search

and left it on the table.

It created great conversation.

Are an avocado and an eggplant really fruit?

And are jujube candies made from Jujube fruit?

With our fruit salad we enjoyed pink heart shaped pancakes.

 

Valentines and More Play Trays

 Magnetic Xs&Os

I was happy to see that families still play this game.

 Button colour sort.

Love these little Nutella bottles.

One for everyday of the week,

and for sharing.

 Wooden peg dolls

 with matching coloured pots.

Great size for little hands and big imaginations.

 Heart hole punch with paint chip cards.

The cards with holes make nice Valentine cards.

Then the little hearts were added to the art table.