Happy Valentine's Day!

Today was our Valentine Party! We played ABC heart bingo, made heart pizzas and passed out Valentine's. Earlier this week we made animals out of hearts. This activity was a bit of a challenge for the kids because I showed them some I had made but told them they needed to be creative and make theirs all on their own. They turned out so cute! And full of lots of glue.

Pics from our party! It was a little crazy today so I didn't get a lot.

Reading Valentine stories.

Little toddlers enjoying all the candy!

Passing out Valentine's.

Heart shaped pizzas made from English muffins. 

Heart Art

My examples: 

With the butterfly you can talk about symmetry and making the same hearts on the other wing.

The kids art work!

This is a fish with multiple eyes! I love how all the hearts stacked on top look like scales on the fish. 

He was so proud of his!

Celebrating Groundhog's Day and Chinese New Year!

What a fun week we had! We got to celebrate 2 holidays :) We started out with Groundhog's Day. My camera wasn't charged this day so I didn't get to take any pictures of the kids. We first talked about what a groundhog is. Most of the kids had never heard of one. I showed them some pictures of them. A lot of them thought they were a beaver or a squirrel. (So cute) After telling them about a famous groundhog named Puxatony Phil we watched last years announcement of whether or not he saw his shadow. They got so excited to find out the next day if we would have 6 more weeks of winter or if Spring was on it's way. (I am really hoping that his prediction will be right, I am ready for sandal weather!) Afterwards we talked about what a shadow is and how it is made. We then made shadow puppets on the wall with a flashlight and all the blinds closed. They absolutely loved this part! For art we made a little groundhog that pops out of the grass to see if he can see his shadow or not.

I posted this years CBS announcement for Groundhog's Day in case you didn't get to see it!

Puxatony Phil 2011

For Chinese New Year we were so lucky to have one of the student's mom come talk to us. She is from China and had all sorts of fun pictures to show them. She talked about how long they celebrate, decorations and clothing, the color red is the lucky color and she also shared a fun tradition that all the kids get red envelopes to take with them when they visit family. Instead of getting presents they get money from their relatives. She brought some chocolate coins for them all to have as well as some sweet egg rolls that are more like a dessert. They were so yummy. Thanks again Xiao Xiao it was such a fun day! 

After she talked to them we made Chinese Lanterns for decoration and then practiced eating ramen noodles with chopsticks. This was one of my favorite days we have had. The kids were so happy and it was so much fun to see so much excitement on their faces.