This morning was rather cold despite the fact that clouds were hanging around. Luckily I didn’t need to scrap the car windows. When we arrived at the classroom, we were almost the first ones there but Olivia was!
When I went back to pick Isabel up after class, Mrs. W let me come into the classroom instead of standing outside in the cold. The class was just finishing up their snacks and were heading into free-play time. What mayhem!!!!!! I helped pick up trash, push in chairs, got the kids to put things away for circle time, and prayed with the class at the end. Several of the kids seemed glad I was there and were asking me all sorts of questions.
Today, the class read the story “The Mitten” by Jan Brett.
The story is about a Ukrainian boy, who wants his grandmother Baba to knit snow-white mittens for him. However she warns her grandson that a white mitten will be hard to find if he loses it in the snow. Of course he promptly does just that! What happens next is surprising, as a mole takes refuge in the lost mitten, than a rabbit, then a hedgehog, an owl, a badger, and a fox. If your thinking the mitten might be a wee bit stretched out at this point, just wait. A big bear sniffs at the mitten and with all the animals packed in tight, the bear doesn’t care. He crawls in anyway! When a tiny mouse squeezes in, her whiskers tickle the bear’s nose, which causes him to sneeze, “Aaaaaa-aaaaaa-ca-chew!” All the animals fly out of their crocheted cave. As the mitten sails through the air, the boy spots it, reclaims it, and takes it home to show his smiling Baba.
Isabel said that she enjoyed the story of The Mitten. After reading the story, the class worked on a art project making their own “mittens” from the story!
They watercolored the front portion of the mitten and then sewed along the edge.
The animals for Isabel’s mitten. I told her that if she wanted to, she could color them.
The class also worked in their alphabet journal’s today. The letter for this week is “O”. Isabel said that while they were doing their journals, she was the first one to finish at her table. She seemed rather proud of herself, I just hope they look like O’s. The Bible story today was about Adam and Eve, again. Isabel said that they have already read that story. I told her that even though they may have heard it before, maybe today’s story was a bit different then before. When I asked further about it, she said she couldn’t remember what it was about. Today, they played outside in the “plain” playground because the other playground was being occupied. Isabel says, that they ran around and chased each other. She also said that she got a stick and was playing in the mud where the gopher holes were. Mrs. W, later told me that Isabel has sticking her hands in the mud and they scrubbed and scrubbed to get all the dirt off her hands before snack time. Just like my child, to be the one to play in the only dirt/mud available in a grassy field!
The special helper today was Anika. They ran out of time in class, because the clock broke, so Anika will share her show and tell on Wednesday with the class. For snack, Anika brought to share, string cheese, Toy Story 3 fruit snacks, and juice.