We don't really know what color they were, how big they were or even if they said anything, but it is always fun to imagine! We did just that this week as we learned so much about dinosaurs! We made dinosaurs with bones (Q-tips), painted with dino feet and even drew our own dinosaurs. We counted, sorted and patterned with dinosaurs. We measured our feet to the LARGE size of a dinosaur footprint. We talked about what paleontologists do and most of us decided that could be a cool job! We researched on the iPad if we had questions that we didn't already know and found out so many interesting facts about those animals that lived so long ago! At the science table, we froze some dinosaurs in a block of ice and we had to be explorers and dig them out! We used several different tools until we found the perfect one! The sensory table was full of brown shredded paper and we went hunting for dinosaurs in the "dirt". Outside, we played and discovered that worms are still out there! We found a few and made sure to bury them deep so they stayed warm for the winter. We had a few super cold days so the Great Room was our fun place to have relay races and get some energy out! We have had a busy week, but not too busy to welcome our class elf for the season...Clark had made his appearance and we could not be more happy!

Monday in art the children painted with dinosaur stampers and in language the children traced letters with dinosaur counters. In math the children matched numbered dinosaurs together. Tuesday in art the children tore paper and constructed a dinosaur on their paper with the torn pieces. In language the children engaged in a dinosaur bingo activity and in math they rolled a die and added the corresponding number of dinosaurs to a grid. Wednesday in art the children did some cutting practice and then glued the pieces to paper. In language the children practiced writing their name to create a dinosaur name and in math the children sorted dinosaur counters by color on a graph. Today in art the children glued dinosaur shapes to a large poster board and in language they dictated what would happen if they took a T-Rex to school. Tomorrow in art the children will marble paint and in language they will come up with a list of D words. In math the children will roll a number die, identify the number and then write the number. This week in the sensory table the children explored water with spoons, cups and bowls. Today we added some big dinosaurs with wash cloths.

Dinosaur Week

We introduced the them with 5 different types of Dinosaurs with colors to practice both. We named the Dinosaurs at group time and I had the children point to the Dinosaurs named.

Art

This week the children have made the following Dinosaur art; marble painted on green paper with orange paint, glued a cracked Dino egg with die cut shaped dinosaurs, glued the letter "D" on Dinosaur pattern with glitter, paint paper plates and glued on long neck and eyes to make own Dinosaur and tomorrow, the children will make hand print Dinosaurs on paper.

Math

The children practiced matching Dinosaur cards by matching by the same colors and type of Dinosaur , counting Dino dots by placing colored pom-poms on top of the dots/making colored patterns by using the same colors or two different colors, Dino bone grid boards- the children placed Q-tips on Dino to match up the bones and count how many Q-tips used. and tomorrow, the children will practice counting with pipe cleaners and number beads by lacing and number recognition.

Motor Development

Dinosaur large cut out with stickers to practice peeling and using fine motor skills, Mini Dinosaurs with buckets and tongs to practice open and close motions with fingers, Dinosaur grid line tracing with markers to practice tracing various lines and tomorrow the children will explore with play dough and dinosaur foot stamps to make impressions on play dough.

Sensory Table

Small Dinosaurs with grass and colored rocks

Social Emotional Activities

Dinosaur Stomp

Dinosaur Egg Roll

T-Rex Says(Simon Says)

Obstacle Course

Safety Review

Holding grown ups hand when crossing the parking lot

This week we learned about families and the children talked about who is in their family. We made a chart by showing who is in our family, and counted how many people are in our family. We talked about how families are similar and different. We also talked about how what makes us happy and what we are thankful for. Most of the children said that they are thankful for their mommy, daddy, and families.

We made a portrait of our family and named the people in our family, we made turkeys, and we finished up our big turkey that is displayed in the window.

We made a list of Kk words, practiced writing Kk, and we did letter patterning with magnetic pattern blocks I read the story, "A Pocket Full of Kisses" and the children had to recall the details in the story verbally and then we read a sight word book together with the words ride and on.

We learned how to subitize different numbers using ten frames and the children had to try not to count the dots using their fingers, we played a Match It! game where they had to count the number of objects and find the number to complete the puzzle, we practiced writing different numbers using a dry erase marker and dry erase board, and we played Family Bingo.

We made applesauce this week by helping me cut up apples using a plastic spoon and then the children learned about different measuring tools that we use to measure the sugar, water, and cinnamon. They were able to take turns measuring and pouring them into the crockpot. When the apples were done cooking, they were able to see me stir and mash the apples so that it looked like applesauce. They certainly had fun making the applesauce and they told me at the Thanksgiving Feast that the applesauce was delicious! Speaking of the Thanksgiving Feast, it was a huge success and the children seemed to like all of the food that was made!

Our theme for next week is: Thanksgiving.

Please make sure that your child has winter jacket, gloves or mittens, and hat to keep them warm for when we play outside. It's definitely cold and even though, the center has extras but we have to be mindful of other classrooms because they may need it as well.

If you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to reach out to me!

This week was all about our families! We learned a lot! We talked about who was in our families and who had the biggest family! Not everyone did our chart on the door, but it looks like Abigail has the biggest with so many sisters! We made some pictures of our houses and drew our families in the house. We spelled out family member names like mom, dad, sister, brother. Some of our math games were sorting and patterning with the bear family and "making" a pizza with our favorite toppings. We added some play phones in the drama area again and we heard lots of conversations that may or may have been overheard in real life. Some of the children have "ordered" pizza or take-out, called someone up and told them to get home and our favorite is when they talk on the phone and have lengthy conversations with a friend while they are "cooking" at the stove. They are always listening, so be careful what you say! Our sensory table has been filled with shredded paper and names of family members written on cards. We also added some "people" to play with in the table as well. We have gotten to go outside, but it sure is cold out there! We even got just enough snow to make the tiniest of snowballs. The highlight of the week was our Thanksgiving feast! We all took some time to help shake up our home-made butter for our bread and we happily ate all the good stuff out in the Great Room with the rest of the Center. We are truly grateful this holiday season!

With Thanksgiving approaching this week's theme was a great lead in to discuss how important families are, who is in a family and how thankful we are for family. Monday in art the children did some emotion face stamping and in language the children dictated what they like to do with their family. Tuesday in art the children explored playdough and in math they graphed people counters by color. Wednesday in art the children glued turkeys to a headband for the feast and in language they explored rhyming by matching the rhyming picture card to the same rhyme house. In math the children matched mommy animals to the bay animals. In the afternoon the children helped make the dessert for the feast! Today in art we had turkeys out to glue onto paper and in language the children matched letters to their names. In math the children added beads to pipe cleaner to string and count. We had our yummy feast today too! Tomorrow in art the children will create corn mosaics and in language they will find letters hidden around the room. In the sensory table this week the children have been exploring rice with fruit counters, ice cube trays, tongs, and containers to fill up.

Families Week

No art Tuesday due to picture day

We introduced the theme by naming family members and looking at all of our family photos posted in the quiet corner, and sang "We are Family" song.

Art

The children sponge painted on colored paper pattern houses making rectangle shapes for windows and doors, made our Turkey Hats for Thanksgiving feast tomorrow, make a Family photo frame out of crafts sticks and decorate, and Friday we will make a portrait out of hand prints and glue the word FAMILY on it.

Math

The children explored with finger puppets putting on fingers and counting, colored various size bears to make patterns and compare sizes, made our Pumpkin Mousse for feast, family picture cards for sorting and matching and Friday we will practice shapes with shape wall hunt.

Motor Development

Rainbow people connectors to practice pushing together and pulling a part, Q-tips with colanders to push throw the holes using 2 finger grasp and pulling out, bubble wrap stomping- we used bubble wrap and placed it on the floor to stomp and pop the bubbles,, cork drop, the children will drop corks into plastic bottles and shake them out, Health & Wellness Freeze Hold Up Fruit game.

Activities

Mommy & Daddy Says{Simon Says}

Fruit Dice

Rainbow Volcano

Friday- We will make Guacamole

This week in the infant classroom the theme is Families. We have talked about quite a bit but here are our crowd favorites. Today, we all had such a blast at our Thanksgiving Feast! We loved talking about all the foods we ate today, and which was our favorite. The older infants enjoyed stamping with empty paper towel rolls dipped in orange paint. It was fun to practice standing and making art with friends and teachers. We also enjoyed sticking leaves to clear contact paper, exploring stacking rings and dropping small cars inside a hallow tube! It has been a great week in the infant classroom, but we look forward to our Thanksgiving theme next week! Until next time!

Hello families!

We hope that you had a great week...we sure did! This week was theme week and boy it did not disappoint! We started off this week with our cool sunglasses. The children worked hard at the art table creating their sun! Moving on to Tuesday, we had backwards day and it was fun seeing the children with their clothes backwards especially their jackets! On Wednesday we had crazy hair day...we had mohawks, braids, many pigtails, purple, blue and green hair! Towards the end of the week, we had hat day and Disney day! It was great seeing all the different hats. While we were having fun with dressing to the theme, we worked on name writing, letter recognition and rhyming at the language table. At the math table, we worked on number recognition, sorting and making patterns. With all the fun we had this week with different themes, we did not forget about our letter of the week. This week we learned about the letter Ii. We came up with a small list of words which included: igloo, ice, iguana, indigo and ivy. We hope the children had as much fun as we did...it was great seeing the themes come to life. We hope that everyone has a fun and safe weekend! Enjoy the nice weather....a birdie told me that it was going to s-n-o-w! Stay warm out there.

~Chasity and Tara~

Lots of fun theme days this week. Monday in art the children painted with cups and in language they traced letters with poker chips. In math the children added colored gems to a grid. Tuesday in art the children did some symmetry art, painting with string inside a folded piece of paper., and in math thy added jewels to a crown. Wednesday in art the children wanted to freely color and do playdough, so we did some fine motor explorations with playdough tools. In language the children matched rhyming pebbles and in math they sorted animal counters by color. Today the children explored more playdough and in math they matched hats by number. This afternoon for language they will practice writing letters. Tomorrow in art the children will paint with forks, in math they will do the jewel and crown activity again and in language they will dictate who their favorite Disney character is. This week in the water table the children explored veggie counters with strainers, tongs, funnels and bowls.