Hippo Headlines: 2024-01-07

This week we dove into the winter season! We began the week by asking what things we do in the wintertime (contributing as a member of a group)! Afterwards, we sorted real clothing items into summer and winter piles. We discussed the items and why we would wear them in the summer or winter months (sorting and using language). During center time we painted a ski hill, made a skier, cut out rectangles for out igloo, built a snowman with felt shapes, painted ice with watercolors, traced a snowman with paint and painted the inside, cut out white paper to make a paper chain for our igloo, played a snowball challenge game in which we had to balance paper snowballs on paper towel tubes, making icicles out of pipe cleaners and packaging noodles, played a the roll and cover game with numbered dice, made snowmen out of playdoh and other materials, building igloos with sugar cubes, cut out snowflakes for our bulletin board, practiced positional concepts with using our last names and snowmen, made hockey sticks and practiced making goals, played air hockey, ice skated with carpet slides, made a class snow globe with glitter, placed white balls in snowman containers with tongs, jumped over snowflakes and threw snowballs (cotton balls) at each other in gym class. We also made a guess at which cup of ice would melt faster....one with salt or the one with no salt. (goals-fine and gross motor, cutting with correct grip and helper hand, number recognition, positional concepts, recognizing name, making decisions independently, contributing as a member of a group, recognizing shapes, following directions, safe behaviors)

Our dramatic play area turned into a coffee shop with cups, phones, cash register, lids, order forms, stirrers, aprons, coffee pots, Keurig, etc. The students loved taking peoples orders and making the coffee! (making decisions, taking turns) Our letter of the week was the letter B for Ben and Blair! We go over the sound, letter formation and items that begin with the letter. We also watch Jack Hartman Letter videos. Our 2nd Steps lesson worked on how to calm down when frustrated. We also introduced our character word, GENEROUS with a song and a book.

Books

All You Need Is A Snowman

The Biggest Snowball Ever

There Was An Old Lady Who Swallowed Some Snow

Reminders

No School Monday January 15th-Dr. Martin Luther King Day

Things to do at home-Use shaving cream on a table and pretend it is snow. Have your child use the pointer finger to make letters and shapes.

Enjoy the cute pictures!!

We practiced writing the letter D and P in sand trays.

Everyone enjoyed painting our ski hill.

We cut out ice blocks for our igloo.

Our coffee shop was up and running!

We decorated skis for our skiers.

Would you like some coffee?

Ava's mom read a book for Ava's 4th birthday!

We built snowmen out of a variety of materials.

We made homemade snow to play with in the room.

We matched letters to the words MITTEN and SNOW.

It was fun to have our skier go down the ski hill.

Watercoloring ice was a fan favorite!

We made snowmen by first tracing the outline then painting the inside.

The students used tongs to fill up these snowmen.

We made snowmen with playdoh, buttons, hats and toothpicks.

Some of the students tried the carpet slides
and pretended to ice skate!

After reading the book about the lady who swallowed
some snow, the students built the snowman.

We used sugar cubes to build igloos and other structures.

We made a snowman by rolling the dice to find out
what part to add next.

During art we decorated tubes and cardboard pieces.

It was fun to make goals!!

We colored hockey sticks and practiced making goals
with a penny that served as a puck.

The hipppos sorted winter and summer clothing.

We pasted our ice blocks to the igloo.

Playdoh and winter cookie cutters.

Everyone cut lines to make a snowflake. We then
used a hole puncher to make holes in the it,
then we stapled it to our tree on the bulletin board.

We have begun working on recognizing our last name.
We helped each student find their last name then we used positional concepts
to place their name by the snowmen on the board.

Roll and cover number game.

Can you balance the snowballs on the tubes?

Ice skating during music class.

We made icicles for our arch using packaging noodles
and pipe cleaners.

The hippos made pretty snowflakes with colored rocks.

Show and Tell

Each student was given a sheet with a letter on it and one with a number on it.
The students identified them and .......

then crumbled them and put them in the basket.
These represented snowballs which we later used grabbers to
take out the snowballs and put them in the basket.
Gross and fine motor at work!