Real or Make-Believe?

Today in the touch and feel pool there was lots of money. There were dollars, quarters, dimes, nickels and pennies. We had the kids hunt for different coins, compared how some looked very different while others looked very similar, and talked about using money to count. The kids learned that with pennies we count by 1's and with dimes we count by 10's.

During morning circle, we handed out Mardi Gras beads and told the children about the "holiday" Fat Tuesday.  We explained that Fat Tuesday is the day where we start to get ready for Easter.  41 more sleeps until Easter.  That seems like a really long time away for little people, but any excuse to wear colorful beads and they are ready to celebrate!

Ms. Michelle was here today with lots of Valentine cheer. She is incorporating letter knowledge into her sessions to help us make sure that all the kiddos know all their letters.  First the kids rolled on their bellies on scooters to find a letter of the alphabet. Once they had the letter they had to roll over to puzzles and find the  puzzle picture that started with their alphabet letter. Then they walked and balanced on the zig zag beam. They were all talking about letters and cheering each other through the course.

Next Ms. Michelle had some Valentine's Day finger fun for us. We divided into small groups for more individual attention.  Some kids used heart shaped candy boxes to match the "candy" with the different shapes. The other kids used tongs to pick up heart boxes which had a special letter inside. Once they identified the letter the kids had to think of an animal that started with that letter and act out those animal movements. The kids also used magnetic strips to make the letter they found in the heart box. We wished Ms. Michelle a Happy Valentine's Day (and Happy Fat Tuesday!!) and she give each of us a small treat.

Our story today was "Froggy Plays T-Ball" by Jonathan London. In the story Froggy plays baseball on the Giants team. Froggy really wants to hit a home run,  but he either misses it or strikes out. With encouragement from his team, and lots of practice, he finally hits a home run to help his team win the game. After reading the story the class talked about the things the story that are make believe.  We had a big discussion of some of the things that only animals do, what things only people can do, and what things both animals and people can do. We put all those ideas into a Venn diagram. People can play baseball, talk, write and read. Animals can fly and live under water. Both animals and people can make noise, eat, sleep and run. The story we read today was make believe. Frogs can't really play baseball or talk...we all liked this story a lot, but it is pretend.


For art the kids made baseballs. The baseball was missing its stitching and needed to be sewn back together. The kids used string to sew the seam on the baseball. The needed to pull the string up and down to sew that baseball. It was a great fine motor skills activity and they needed to follow directions and concentrate so they could complete the baseball.  They were all so proud of their projects that after we all finished, we learned a new song that gets played at almost every baseball game!!  Take Me Out To The Ballgame!  One of my all time favorites....too bad it's not baseball season yet.....I'm in the mood for a game!