Decorating the Christmas Tree

This year, as we celebrated the holidays, we decorated the Christmas tree all by ourselves. We chose every decoration and made sure every space was covered. It was fun for us to work together, as the close, little family that we have become. 

The finished tree. ;0)

A Bunch of Blocks

Every so often we become more interested in something particular in the room. We tend to play with it the most, and find different ways to use it. We let our imaginations run wild with that certain something. This time it was our blocks, and we wanted to use them to build places for our animals. Then, we saw how high we could stack them.

Building blocks teach many fundamental skills, such as: 

• How to follow directions

• How to sort by shape, size, and color

• How to count

• Fine motor skills

• Hand-eye coordination

• Creativity and use of imagination

• Problem-solving skills

• Sharing, and also individual play

Scissors and Tape

One day we were watching our teacher post our artwork on the wall. We noticed that she was using scissors and tape. So of course our curiosity got to us, and we were wondering how those materials worked. At the same time that we were observing our teacher, she was also observing us. 

These observations were shared with the parents of the class, and our class "homework assignment" was to bring in tape for the next week.  Each child brought in tape of different colors and textures!  The teachers arranged the materials on one of our art tables.  It was full of tape and scissors, and we were free to do whatever our hearts desired! Everyday since, we have been learning how to hold the scissors and successfully cut paper and now even tape!  Now we have learned another method of making art. We have started cutting certain colors of tape and placing them on paper to make pictures.

He tends to panic when the tape gets stuck. : )

I'm an expert at this! ; )

So how does this work? : )

White, green, white, green... This is my pattern!

This accessory goes great with my shirt!

Look at the headband I made!

I think he needs a headband too!

I take my work serious!

Mastering New Materials

 We have come to the point where we are using our materials in a new way.  We paint on the paper at the easel and not on the furniture or our friends! ;0)

We have been introduced to water color, and now we paint with it!  We used to put the brush in the paint to change the color of the water in the cup!  Now we use it to make beautiful art pieces.

  But you know, we still can't resist pouring the water out and stacking the cups every now and then! ;0)

  Here we have a watercolor piece created by the class!

We have been exploring with clay, play dough, and salt dough.  We would love for the children to have more experience with clay, so we are providing them with many materials use for exploration.

The boys love the little dinosaurs........

  scooping them up.....

 lining them up and counting them......

We all work together, trading of materials, and helping each other to create with the dough.

Glue is another one of our favorites.............

And next on the children's list is TAPE!  If you haven't heard, Monday is going to be a fun day for us.  We have been using up all of our teachers' tape, so we will have a ball using tape on Monday!  Check with the teachers to get your letter with our "homework assignment"!  ;0)