Snowy Owls

After reading Owl Moon by Jane Yolen , we made this easy paper plate owl. I used two paper plates per owl. I cut one plate in half and stapled the pieces to the uncut plate like in the picture. We added eyes and a beak (I cut mine from construction paper) and we had a beautiful snowy owl! 

I hung the owls around the classroom while the children were outside. When they came in, I left the lights off and gave them flashlights so that they could go owling just like the child in the book did. They walked around the room making owl noises and shining the flashlights on the paper owls. This activity really brings the story to life!

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Thanks for Thanksgiving

Thanks for Thanksgiving by Julie Markes is my favorite Thanksgiving book. The illustrations are beautiful and it reminds us of all things we have to be thankful for. After reading the book today at circle time, we went around the circle and each child said what he or she is thankful for. I wrote what they said on feathers that we put on our class turkey. 

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Handprint Turkeys

It wouldn't be Thanksgiving without hand print turkeys. 

We smeared ours with glue and added colorful feathers. 

Happy Thanksgiving!

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Painting with Pumpkins

We have some pumpkins left over from Halloween that we decided to use for our painting project today. Instead of stamps, we dipped the mini pumpkins in paint and used them to make prints on paper.

The pumpkins were a fun alternative to paint brushes. 

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Ice Cube Painting

These were a big hit and the pictures they made are very pretty. To make the ice cubes, I filled a regular ice cube tray with water and squeezed a different color of washable tempera paint into each cube. Then I popped them in the freezer. When they were frozen, I gave each child a piece of white paper on a tray and two colored cubes of their choice. 

They really enjoyed mixing the colors and feeling the ice cubes, especially when they got slippery. 

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Ice Play

The children have continued to be interested in arctic animals. We have been watching some great videos of penguins and polar bears on YouTube. Because we live in such a warm area, I was having trouble explaining to these little ones just how cold the snow and ice in the videos is. To help them understand, we created our own arctic area in the sensory tubs. After filling the tubes with water, I added big ice cubes that I had made by freezing water in bowls. 

Then we added our plastic polar animals.

Soon everyone's hands were freezing! Luckily we had several pairs of mittens in the dress up area that helped to warm the children's hands again. 

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Are you taller than a penguin?

I drew a life sized penguin on a large piece of easel paper and hung it up in the classroom. I based its hieght on the Adelie penguin which is about 28 inches tall. 

The children took turns standing next to the penguin to see if they are taller than it. It turns out that everyone in our class is taller than an Adelie penguin!

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Penguin Prints

The children in our class are very interested in polar animals, particularly penguins. We made our own penguins today by dipping potatoes in black paint and pressing them onto white paper. Before beginning this activity, I cut a potato in half lengthwise and cut some circles out of construction paper to use for the penguin's belly. 

After making the potato print with the potato, the children added the construction paper bellies. 

They used orange paint to make fingerprint feet and beaks. 

We then added eyes and we had cute penguin pictures!

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