January Activities - Week 3

Color: white

Shape: rectangle

Interests: bears, snow

Art:

Both classes had the choice of painting on a rectangle piece of paper or a mitten. I chose smaller brushes with our multiple-color paint set. I like to vary the size brushes I offer, as I find them using them differently. When using our smaller brushes, I notice them spending more time thinking about the stroke  - straight, curved, etc. They have to pay a bit more attention to the grasp when using the smaller brushes as well.

It's the process, not the product. That was very true with one of our art table choices this week. Again, I offered a variety of brushes for different experiences. On this table were egg carton lids and some decorative wood pieces that landed in our recycle stash.

Not only do I like to offer different-sized brushes, but I also plan activities that use other objects with paint. In this case, I put out paper tube rolls. This is a great activity for those who don't like to touch paint, or who might not yet feel comfortable holding a brush. The little boy in this picture does not like to get paint on his hands, but enjoyed the ability to grasp the tubes without getting close to the paint. {On Facebook, someone asked what the black containers are that are used for the paint. Those are from frozen meals that someone donated to us many years ago. They are virtually indestructible!}

Since we had salt in our sensory bin, I decided to add it to our watercolors. I love the sheen it gives when dry! A Facebook reader suggested having them shake the salt on after the paint is applied. I think I'll give that a try next time. The 2s and 3s love to shake small bottles of anything!

Displaying Our Work:

I hung the mittens we painted last week to resemble a clothesline.

Sensory Tub:

I combined rice and epsom salt to resemble snow and added pom poms, foam winter pieces, and paper cones.

Fine Motor:

We covered our writing table and used white crayons, pencils and chalk.

It took great concentration to remove the clothespins that held the paper to the mini plexi-glass easels!

2s and 3s love to pour, so I try to offer activities that encourage this skill. Clear containers work best so they can see the materials through all sides. 

This was a great idea discovered by my co-teacher. She used the insert of a salad spinner for the children to practice pushing and pulling pipe cleaners.

Dramatic Play:

Babies, babies, everywhere! 

I love this picture. One of our boys crawled into the baby bed and pretended to take a nap. A few of the girls gathered around him, covered him up, and read bedtime stories to him. They truly mimic what they experience in real life!

We kept our hot cocoa shoppe in our dramatics area for a second week. Cake anyone?

A little learning in all areas of the classroom! At our play dough table, we displayed various sorting bowls and counting bears. We noticed the bears were sorted by color in the bowls, and then the preschoolers would make separate mounds of play dough and place each color on a separate mound. Some also realized that there were 3 sizes of bears, so instead of grouping by color, they grouped by size.

This is one of my favorites with the 3s! Take a suctioned soap holder and turn it upside down. The preschoolers use their fingers or strawberry hullers to transfer the beads to the suction cups, one by one.

Added later: I've had several readers ask where I found the suction cup soap savers. It took me awhile to find them! I've included links to two that should work for this type of activity at the bottom of this post.

Cooking:

The 3s made these thumbprint cookies to celebrate a birthday. You can read about it here.

Special Days:

The 3s brought their favorite teddy bears to school on Bear Day! We put up a tent that was the bear's den, and we made hot cocoa.

We celebrated another birthday in the 3s class! They love sitting in the birthday chair!

Books We Read and Products Similar to What We Used:

  Teaching 2 and 3 Year Olds on Facebook