Who said "you can't play with your food?"

We discovered Scrabble Cheese Crackers and now playing with our food is fun and a learning experience too! The kids really like helping find the letters to spell each other's names and then eating their words. It is a fun snack to help learn the alphabet.

Wednesday- Music Class

Ms. Kristen came today for Music class. They started out with "Hello Everybody, How are You." They danced to "We can do Anything We Wanna Do"and played Bongo Drums to the Banana Boat Song (Day-O). They played instruments fast and slow with the guitar and pretended they were traveling with the Airplane Song. Following are 3 videos. First-the the kids playing the bongo drums. Second-guessing the instruments by sound. Third-singing and playing guitar at the end of class.

Video of the kids playing Bongo Drums



Video of the kids guessing the instrument by it's sound

Video of the kids singing and playing guitar at the end of class

Cold Weather Fun- Scented Play Dough

A fellow daycare provider gave me a recipe for scented play dough and it sounded like a fun cold weather project. (Thanks Tonia!) The kids had a great time mixing the ingredients together, and then I cooked it for them. We made a batch of lemon-lime green and a batch of strawberry red. The dough smells great, is non-toxic, doesn't stain, but it does not taste good. We had shaping fun with the dough, making snails, flowers, pots, and letters of the alphabet.
Here is the recipe if you are looking for something fun to do:

Scented Play Dough
1 cup Flour
1/2 cup Salt
2 teaspoons Cream of Tartar
1 package of Kool Aid
1 tablespoon Vegetable Oil (Any cooking oil)
1 cup Water
Mix dry ingredients together thoroughly in a medium sauce pan. Add Oil and water. Mix thoroughly again. Cook over medium heat until a soft ball of dough forms and is not sticky. Store in air tight container. Will last many months in container.

Preschool Field Trip to Underwater World

The preschool kids went on a field trip to Underwater World and it was a great experience. The morning and afternoon classes went together. The kids loved riding on a big yellow school bus.

They started out looking at a koi pond and snapping turtles. The "We Bite" sign on the tank was great. The kids understood the warning and no one tried petting the turtles.

Then we were off and running into the tunnel. The kids loved being surrounded by water. It was amazing to watch the sharks and string rays swim right over our heads.

After the tunnel was smaller aquariums filled with starfish and seahorses. Nicole announced that she was going to be a mermaid when she grows up.

The seahorses were a favorite. Elizabeth was telling us which were the mommies, daddies and babies.

The open touch and feel tanks were a lot of fun for our little adventurers. Laura, Mason, Elizabeth and Nicole all touched starfish.

Only Nicole and Mason were brave enough to "pet" the giant crab with it's giant pinchers.

Playing in the Snow

We like to get outside as much as possible when the temperature and wind chill are not below zero. The kids have several different choices in sleds- flying saucers, tubes, plastic toboggans, and roll up slides. The roll up slides can be challenging for the kids to get on but they store so nicely and slide nicely if the kids can get on them. The flying saucers seem to be the favorite and go the fastest on the icy snow.

The little ones have sleds of their very own and the big kids love to help pull them around (under close supervision). No wild rides for the little ones, just nice relaxing spins around the yard.

Why go sledding if you can sit and eat ice? My little princesses enjoying a very cold snack. Does ice count as a snack? I tried asking them not to eat snow and ice but it was a magnetic attraction. They really enjoy it too much. So now I just remind them to make sure it is clean ice or snow. Compromise works.

Celebrating Birthdays

We celebrated Blake's & Preston's December birthdays after the holidays. It is hard to have a birthday so close to Christmas. It was nice to space the birthday celebrations into January. I think the kids enjoyed it more and we had more time to spend celebrating their birthdays.

Blake's Birthday photos:

Movie of the kids singing Happy Birthday to Blake

Preston's Birthday Photos:

Video of the kids singing Happy Birthday to Preston:

Travel Tots- Australia

We learned about Australia this month from Ms Tee. Started out with a little geography lesson with a puzzle map and showing where Australia is and where we are. Then a hopping like kangaroos lesson and on to feeding the baby kangaroo relay race. The kangaroo footprint version of musical chairs was a hit. Everyone had a great time coloring their very own boomerang and a little boomerang throwing practice.