Snow Men

I forgot to put in a few pictures of an art project that we did last week. We first got some snow and talked about how and where snow comes from. The kids got to watch during the class time and see how the snow started to melt into water. They were really surprised that is wasn't very much water after it had all melted. We also made these fun snowmen.

Getting Ready for Winter

Today we talked about how animals and people get ready for winter. We played a fun little game with my daughter's bear and a bunch of her clothes. I would make up a story of what the weather looked like when Mr. Bear got up in the morning and then they would take turns picking out something that Mr. Bear needed to wear for that day. We discussed how it was fun to do that with a stuffed animal to learn the ways people dress and stay warm in the winter time but how it is very different from what real bears and other animals do to get ready for winter.

The children learned that a lot of animals collect and eat more food before winter comes.
They get more fat and fur on their bodies to keep them warm during the cold months.
And some animals even hibernate during the winter.

I found this really cute video on National Geographic kids that talked about Mother Polar Bears that hibernate. The kids really loved the baby cubs.

Polar Bear VIdeo

After watching the video we did an experiment that we also did last year that shows the kids how extra fat can keep them warm. All you need to do it put Crisco into 2 ziplock bags. Then put both of those bags in another ziplock bag. The kids first touch some ice water with their bare hand and then compare it to putting their hand in the middle of the fat and then touching the water. Their hand stays very warm in the crisco bag.

After doing the experiment we made some trail mix and they got to pretend they were hibernating and then when it was time to wake up they went to find there food. We made the trail mix with the following ingredients: 

1 cup pretzels

1 cup craisins ( I bought the cherry kind)

1 cup Gold fish

1 cup peanut butter chips

1 cup m &m's 

1 cup cheerios (any flavor)

It was really yummy and the kids really seemed to like it. 

Here are some books we read  today as well:

Water Cycle Day/ Yummy treat/ Turkey Hats

We have had a lot of fun learning about the weather and all the different seasons.  This week we talked about the water cycle.  There are some big words like evaporation, condensation and precipitation but we just focused on the process and what is happening. I found this cute little story about Drippy the Raindrop to help the kids understand it a little more and then we did a science experiment with blue water (Oceans, lakes and rivers) and cotton balls ( our clouds). All you do is rest the cloud on top of your river and watch as the cloud fills up with water. Then they got to pick it up and watch the raindrops begin to fall. They really liked doing this.

Drippy the Raindrop


Making our own little rain clouds. It was great when the kids left preschool today to see a bunch of black clouds. They were all talking about how there was going to be rain today.

For cooking this day we made frozen chocolate bananas! They were so yummy :) All you have to do is freeze your bananas before (I cut mine into thirds and stuck a popsicle stick in it). Then melt some chocolate. We used Reeses peanut butter cups and chocolate chips. Also add a little oil so your chocolate is a little more runny.  Dip your banana in the chocolate and then cover with sprinkles or other fun toppings. Amy at Super Healthy Kids has some great tips if you want to look at her site. The kids loved them and so did I. I think I need to make some more, they were so yummy. 

Chocolate Banana Recipe

We also made some turkey hats this week for art. I spent at least an hour prepping most of the stuff so that it would be easier for the kids but it still took a lot of time. It was worth it though to see how cute they looked and how excited they were to wear them. 

Fairy Tales and Seasons

I have to apologize for not getting the last 2 weeks posted sooner. We had a gross sickness going through the family last week and I completely forgot to post the week before. To top it all off when I went to download my pictures they were gone. I think my 2 year old may have got to the camera and deleted them. So I have just taken a quick few pictures to show you some of the fun activities we did.

Fairy Tales: We were able to read a couple of my favorite fairy tales. The Frog Prince was the first one and the kids loved making these frogs out of paper plates. I think there favorite part was gluing on the tongue and then making their frogs ribbit over and over again.  I love how fairy tales teach a life lesson. In The Frog Prince we learned that it is important to keep your promise if you say you will do something.

We also red the story The Little Red Hen. We talked about the importance of helping out with the work if you want the reward at the end. They were then able to help roll out the dough and help me make scones. We did this activity last year and the kids always love the scones. Even though they usually put way too much cinnamon sugar on it. 

Seasons: We have also been talking lots about the seasons and how the weather changes for each season. We have been doing a lot of sorting to practice learning the difference between each season. The kids have been doing really well at the sorting games and seem to be catching on well. We have read some fun books as well to go with each season. We collected leaves one day. We talked about the leaves that were still on the trees and those that had fallen on the ground. They loved to see all the different colors that the leaves were changing. We then practiced tracing our leaves onto paper and then they got to paint their leaves all the different fall colors. 

Happy Halloween!

Thank you so much to all of you helped out with our Halloween party! The kids had so much fun :)

 Ghosts we made earlier in the week.

 Decorating Cookies :) YUM!

 Pin the nose on the Jack o Lantern, it was a ton of fun and the kids loved it.

Here is a poem and a song the kids loved singing this month. 

Original Video - More videos at TinyPic

I meant to get a picture of all the kids in their costumes but of course I forgot with how busy it was.

Field trip, spiders and dinosaurs

What do those three have in common? Not really anything other than the fact I got behind on posting the last 2 weeks and need to update with some pictures. I will try to keep it short and sweet.

We went to Pumpkin Land in Vineyard again this year for our Fall field trip. It is always so much fun and the kids seem to have a great time. This year they had tons of new things. I was so impressed with how much they had added. Everyone had a great time. Thanks to all you that came and helped out.

 Dancing in the gourd house.

 It didn't take us very long to find the exit. Last year was much more difficult.

 They added a bunch of animals this year. The kids really loved seeing them all.

 Going through the "light alley". It was actually much darker than this. My flash on the camera made it look so light.

 We ended the field trip by celebrating a little boy's birthday and having cookies.

For art one day we made these cute little spiders. They were much more work than I expected them to be but the kids loved them and loved making them dance around. So it was all worth it in the end. 

This week we learned all about dinosaurs. I have mostly boys this year and they were so excited to learn all about the dinosaurs. We talked about where and when they lived. What sort of things they ate and we even found a dinosaur egg. We also talked about different ways scientists believe they died and talked about them being extinct. 

 The dinosaur egg they found after a scavenger hunt. They got to smell it, feel it and guess when they thought it would hatch. One little guy said it felt like a watermelon. :)

 We played don't get stuck in the swamp. The swamp kept getting bigger and they had to jump over it without falling in. They loved this game.

 Our egg hatched! They thought I was pretty funny to paint a watermelon. It was a nice little snack too.

 We made a volcano ready to erupt out of play dough. I found a fun recipe that said to mix the vinegar with water and dish soap. It made the volcano really foamy.

 Here is our edible volcano. Chocolate pudding, ice cream cone, frosting for laval and dinosaur fruit snacks. One way scientists think the dinosaurs died was from lots of volcanos erupting. They loved these and almost everyone said they were going to wait to eat it when they got home because they wanted to show it to their moms. I found it funny at the end of the day to see some of them sneaking over to take a lick or a bite. I guess they just couldn't wait any longer.