HAPPY VALENTINE'S WEEK . . .

After a couple of weeks of letter-writing, it all paid off in understanding how to deliver our valentines ("hearts" as the children called them) to each other.  Another opportunity to engage in "giving"!

We had some fun, colorful new cups to stack and sort . . .

We used the cups to sort and play with colorful ice, too!

In fact the whole week was colorful and loving!  I even caught the kids giving impromptu hugs to each other, very sweet!

Another sweet thing was receiving a handful of m & m's to count and sort!

Jane brought us all tatoos to wear on Valentine's day . . .

It took us almost a whole class session to roll out our homemade, buttery sugar cookie dough.

We also made colorful icing.

Making the cookies was like working with playdough, but better!

On Valentine's Day each child had a turn to deliver their mail and had a nice bag of Valentine's to take home.

We used our names to make a book about things/people we love.

Thursday I thought it was time to paint a lot, above, Camille sets everything up.

Predictably with our kiddos, hands and other objects in the room become part of the painting process!

Elliott and Camille REALLY got into it!

The awareness of color-mixing was fantastic.

I was going to do the same thing with our MWF group, but we had so much fun cleaning (a different sort of "messiness" - tactile experience) and it took us so long, that we didn't get around to painting.  Perhaps Monday.

Squeezing a sponge is actually good for strengthening hand muscles!

When we went upstairs to put our cookies in the oven, the T/Th group noticed a fun, green sunspot on the floor. They decided they wanted to sit in it!  We discovered the green light was coming from the pretty stained glass in the kitchen window.

The MWF kiddos got scholarly and we identified the first letter of our names after reading an alphabet story.  We then colored the letters.

Camille and Zoe found a quiet moment together.  I love that they love books!

And there is definitely something about fringe . . . !

Letters, letters, letters . . .

Our continued "mail" theme brought about some good exercises in recognizing each other's names and great practice at holding our markers and using symbolic and representational forms to communicate with our letters to each other.  Below, Camille delivers a letter to Elliott.

Kaden stamps his letter . . .

Elliott enjoyed opening his mail and, below, we find that putting a letter in an envelope takes some fine motor skill!

Look how hard the kids worked at creating their mail!

Everyone made their own mail box this week.  Our names also had our pictures on them, to help us learn to recognize our names.

We enjoyed sorting candy hearts and reading a counting book about them.

We made some RED play dough . . .

One day we added glitter.

We did more color exploration as we read a book about the colors in a rainbow and then each child (below) identified a color and we drew our own rainbow.

We certainly had fun in the snow, too!

Jane very sweetly tried to help Kaden put his sock back on . . .

and then he eventually got it on all by himself!

We played "find the pink heart".  A fun and productive week!

What's in your heart?

 Yes, I do like to begin "Valentiney" curriculum as soon as February shows up!  I shared one of my favorite books with the kids, it has all sorts of visual maps, My Map Book, by Sara Fanelli.  Below, she illustrates a map of her heart and what is important to her.  We also explored this idea on paper below.

We also read a cute book called, Love Lola, Lola takes paper hearts and puts them all around the house for her family to find.  We did the same and then sorted the hearts by color and size.

We collected red things from around the room . . .

We spent some time gluing hearts to paper.

And we worked hard writing letters to you!  Below Kaden verbalizes some letters as he "writes" them.

Karsten decided to make lots of "pluses" on his letter.

Jane made a big smiley face.  We talked about what you can say in a letter.  You can say "I love you."  You can ask a question or tell some news.  The children told me what they wanted to say and I wrote if for them.

They enjoyed putting the stamp on - hopefully you have received these in the mail!  (T/TH I put in the mailbox today!)

We enjoyed other substances for painting, such as colored corn syrup.

The children enjoyed watching this sticky substance drip slowly from their brushes.

Pretty, transparent pictures . . .

Zoe enjoyed stacking the jars of pretty paint (above).

The T/TH group got their turn with glue painting.

We had giant paper this week to make drawings on.

 We love to wipe off the blackborad before we talk about our day, thank you Zoe!

For more information about Milestones Preschool, go to www.ready-to-learn.org.