Tracing

I love tracing worksheets.  We have been working on tracing different shapes and angles lately.  It's all just preparation for writing.  We practice holding the crayon correctly, and this little guy has it down perfect. 

We had some squirrel drama this morning.  Chippy has been showing up at regular intervals throughout the day lately.  He was here for his morning nuts.  What a big baby.  Adam and I want to build him a "nest" of sorts to keep him in our yard.  We won't, but it's a fun idea.  He's been pretty spoiled over the past couple of weeks because we are out of peanuts and have been feeding him almonds and chestnuts. The kids never get tired of seeing Chippy. 

"Hey lady, what are you waiting for?  I'm hungry, here."

He's bold.  If I am not fast enough, he  (or she) just comes on in. 

Oh silly Smudge.  Chippy knows you are there and he is not afraid.

♥♥♥Happy Friday!♥♥♥

♫Angels We Have Heard On High by Josh Wilson. Excellent album!♫

Laughter

One of the greatest things about running a childcare center is the laughter that erupts at times.  Sometimes the noise level gets to me, but other times it is joyful welcome noise.  I love to hear a good hearty gut laugh coming from a child.  It is nearly impossible to not smile or laugh in response!  We have this little stuffed animal display up on top of our desk because it has a button.  Once the button is pushed, the characters sing and dance. 

Someone saw this for the first time and was hysterical with laughter! I am so glad my camera was near, look at that genuine smile.  Our day yesterday was pretty crazy and we didn't even start our work.  Crazy day or not, laughter sure saved it.  Happy Thursday!♥♥♥

♫Ding Dong Merrily On High by Celtic Woman. ♫  I am loving Christmas music!

Gloves

Every year when the weather turns cold we have the same problem on any given day- cold hands during outside time and kids who did not bring gloves.  Last year I got smart and purchased a whole bunch of these gloves after Christmas when they went on clearance. We have a drawer in the hallway that is now stuffed full of gloves for kids.  Look how many pairs we needed yesterday?  I'm thankful that we had them.  Now if someone forgets to bring some, we can still keep hands warm.  The kids think it's fun to wear them and they enjoy their outside time more. ♥

We are plugging along with the number six and the triangle shape.  We colored a 6 and glued on 6  triangles. Easy squeezy!

The kids are coming along with table manners as well.  They now know both of our snack and lunch time prayer songs and are great about waiting to eat until we have completed the songs.  Even the little ones participate. 

Because it gets dark so much earlier now, the kids have been enjoying more play room free time. I think now might be a good time for me to swap out some of the toys in storage and take the tired toys out. 

♥♥♥Happy Wednesday!♥♥♥

Christmas Anthem by Landon Smith and The Real Matt Jones. ♫

Ff Is for..

Those of you who read my post yesterday about the difficulty with the blog- I have decided to suck it up and pay.  This blog is not only an outlet for me, but an important advertising tool for Henle House.  So for any of you who blog for your business- the small cost is also a tax write off.  Problem solved.  I am not giving blogger an "Ff" as it would appear above, though... LOL

Ff is for feathers!

This is a great project for the little ones, too.  I just blobbled some glue onto the paper and they did all of the feather sticking.

We ended up with a bunch of feathered F's. :)

Ff is also for frozen.  Look at this little rose.  It's been braving the cold!

It's that time of year that we get excited to go frozen spiderweb hunting.  As gross as spiders are, their webs are things of beauty. 

Inside, things are so cozy and warm!

Baby Jesus has arrived.  Yes, we love Christmas.  Let's not forget why!

The kids had fun noticing the snowmen yesterday. :)

The play room tree is decorated as well!

♥♥♥Happy Tuesday!♥♥♥

Wizards Of Winter by the Tran Siberian Orchestra. ♫

Goodbye?

Well, this might just be my last post!  Blogger will no longer let me upload photos for free to my blog.  I will see if I can learn more about this, but in the meantime, blogging is not fun without photos.

I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving!  I was very excited to share the photos of ours with you. Things are pretty exciting around here this morning.  The kids are ooohhing and aaahhing over all of the Christmas decorations.  Happy Monday!♥♥♥

Josh Wilson here, loving his Christmas album. ("Noel") ♫

I've Got Nothin'

Friday we had a birthday party for two boys who share their special day! I failed in the photo department BIG TIME.  So I have nothing to blog about this morning except to tell you that it is pouring torrential and sideways rain here in Snohomish, and you will need a kayak or boat to get across our driveway.   We are tucked away inside with the roaring fire. 

Happy Monday! 

Thanksgiving is approaching fast and I am mapping out my pie baking schedule.  

What are your Thanksgiving plans?

♥♥♥

Mayflower

Do you remember when I told you that the group of kids I have right now were not interested in this topic?  I was so wrong.  We have been going over this book every day in group time and yesterday they were quite animated about it!  We have been looking at the globe of earth to see the route the pilgrims might have taken across the ocean to America.  

Unbeknownst to me, they were listening THE WHOLE TIME.   Yesterday they recanted the entire book to me.  They were rather excited about it, too!  (Insert beaming smile here..) They know that the pilgrims had a tough time on the ship and that they had to work hard to build homes.  They know that there were no grocery stores.

They know that the pilgrims probably prayed to God for help and food. 

They even know about Squanto, the Wompanog  helper who showed them where to fish and hunt and what grew well in gardens. 

We decided to create the Mayflower ship.  First step was to fingerpaint clouds and ocean. 

They remembered from the book that the ocean probably threw the boat around violently.  

The next step was a brown hand print.  This is The Mayflower ship.

We talked about how if a ship does not have an engine, it needs to have sails in order to catch the wind and move.  They kids added sails. :)

We had a fleet of Mayflower ships!  Boy am I glad that they have learned something.  Happy Friday!♥♥♥

Coffee Filter Turkey

Turkeys are funny creatures!  I have several turkey stories from my childhood.  It was my our job as the kids to feed the animals in the mornings.  We had chickens, turkeys, geese and other types of birds.  Growing up in Utah, winters were bone cold.  The water was always frozen in the chicken coop.  One year a giant white turkey sat down and froze it's feathers to the grass.  So it had to sit there until we could rescue it.  Turkeys will gang up on you.  We had a beautiful walk in chicken coop that our dad built.  I was inside gathering eggs and the latch on the outside of the chicken coop door "mysteriously" ... (brother?) locked me in.  Outside the door were four giant white turkeys trying to attack me as I reached out to unlatch the door.  They were bullies!!  Anyway- I love turkeys.  So we created turkeys instead of completing our worksheet.

We gave the kids half of a coffee filter.  They used crayons to make them as colorful as possible.

Everyone was interested in each others designs and color choices.

This one was particularly bright- nice job!

This one is waiting for a hug. :)

Ballet turkey..

I think they all have personality.  SO funny!

This one is clearly taking flight.

I sure love a full art wall. :)

Meanwhile- I'm not sure if I shared one of my favorite sandwich day tools- the pizza cutter.  It allows me to cut up the sandwiches with ease.  

Especially for the little ones. :)  Happy Thursday!♥♥♥

Yellow

We are working on all things yellow! What a nice cheery color for mid November.  We are counting to 5 and trying to recognize the numbers.  A dot to dot activity was perfect. 

Something else I have noticed lately is the improvement with coloring.  The kids are really doing a great job with the crayons.  The things they are coloring are no longer filled with random lines of color, but full complete color!  Yay!

We took a look at the word 'yellow'.  The kids used q-tips and yellow paint to fill in the letters.  This is great for fine motor skills and letter and color recognition.♥

 Beautiful yellow wall!  It made me reminisce about long summer afternoons, reading in the sunshine.  We have plenty of sunshine inside Henle House this morning.  

☼☼Happy Wednesday!☼☼

Ee Is For...

Elephant! It is a miracle that I accomplished anything yesterday with the kids because I was really not feeling well.  Thankfully, I am back to myself this morning and am ready for the busy.

We have been learning the letter E.  

The kids created an elephant paper bag puppet!  They glued on the pieces and then drew their own eyes.  

I love art that can be played with! 

They enjoyed this project, too. :)

Someone was pretty impatient with me.  I wasn't quick enough with the peanuts.  I can't believe he waited long enough for me to grab the camera.  

♥♥♥Happy Tuesday!♥♥♥