Art Activity: Toothbrush Painting

For this art activity, we gave the children toothbrushes, large paper, and various colors of paint.  The children painted beautiful pictures using the toothbrushes.

Health and Safety Activity: Brushing Teeth

For this activity, we wanted to give the kids a unique way to practice brushing their teeth.  We got out the oversized teeth and toothbrush for the kids to practice on.  To make it a little more interesting, we smeared some soggy graham crackers on the teeth to make them appear dirty.

Science Activity: Clean Teeth Experiment

A few days before this science experiment the teachers put a few hard boiled eggs in a container full of cola.  We asked the children to make predictions about what would happen to the eggs after they sat in the cola for a few days.  A few days later we opened the container to find out the eggs were stained brown from the cola.  We explained to the children that this is similar to the effect cola has on their teeth.  We gave them tooth brushes and let them practice washing away the stains from the eggs.

Story Book for February 12, 2009

Our story book for February 13th was Andrew's Loose Tooth by Robert Munsch.  A boy named Andrew has a loose tooth that just won't come out.  He gets help from his parents, his friend, a dentist and finally the tooth fairy to help the tooth come out.

Art Activity: Ice Painting

For this activity we first filled a cup with water, placed a popsicle stick into the water, and then froze the water.  On the day of the activity we gave the children large pieces of paper and had them sprinkle powdered paint on their paper.  They then used the ice as a paintbrush.  As the children rubbed the ice across their paper, the ice melted and the resulting water mixed with the powdered paint allowing the kids to paint their picture.

Story Book for February 11, 2009

Our story book for February 11th was 50 Below Zero by Robert Munsch.  A little boy named Jason has the problem of a sleepwalking father.  He finds his father sleeping on the refrigerator, in the bathtub, and in the garage on top of the car.  When his father sleepwalks outside on the coldest day of the year, Jason comes up with a solution to his father's sleepwalking.

Art Activity: Basket Weaving with Ribbons.

For this activity we placed several baskets and various colors and lengths of ribbons on the art table.  The children used the ribbons to weave through the holes of the baskets.  The kids always love this activity whenever we do it.

Story Book for February 10, 2009

Our story book for February 10th was Ribbon Rescue by Robert Munsch.  This is the story of a little girl who helps the members of a wedding party by giving them the ribbons from her dress.  In the end she is rewarded for her kindness.

Woodworking Activity: Fix the House

On this day we made some repairs on the roof of our wooden doll house.  The roof of the doll house was starting to come apart.  The kids used small, child size hammers to hammer small nails into the roof of the house.  With everyone chipping in, we were able to make the repairs in just an hour or so.  We always wear safety googles when we do woodworking activities.

Art Activity: Playhouse Boxes

We wanted to make some playhouses for the children to play with.  We got some extra large boxes and let the children paint them any way they wanted.  After the paint was dry, we placed the boxes in the gross motor room.  The children used them for houses, secret hideouts, bear caves, and anything else they could imagine.

Story Book for February 9, 2009

Our story book for February 9th was Playhouse by Robert Munsch.    In this story a little girl, named Rene, who convinces her father to build her a playhouse.  She has so much fun pretending in her playhouse that she gets her father to build her a play barn, and play animals.  Finally, Rene wants to have a pretend family also.  Her parents come up with a plan to show her that she doesn't need a pretend family.

Art Activity: Painting with paint brushes

This was a very simple art activity.  We gave the children large paper, various colors of paint, and some paint brushes.  The children used the materials to create their unique piece of artwork.

Story Book for February 6, 2009

Our story book for February 6th was We Share Everything by Robert Munsch.  In this story, two children are having a hard time learning to share when they enter Kindergarten.  After some funny mishaps, they eventually learn to share with their friends.

Cooking Activity: Sugar Cookies

We made sugar cookies with the children after reading the book "Mmm Cookies!" by Robert Munsch.  For this cooking activity we used frozen cookie dough (we didn't make our own cookie dough this time).  We let the children rolling pins to flatten the dough.  Next, they used people shaped cookie cutters to cut out the cookie dough.  After adding some Skittles for eyes, nose, and buttons, we popped them into the oven and ate them later in the day for snack.

Art Activity: Playdough Cookies

For this activity we gave the children red or green playdough, spangles, beads, and other items to use for decoration.  The children flattened out their playdough to shape it into a cookie.  Next, the children decorated their cookie with the spangles and beads.

Story Book for February 5, 2009

Our story book for February 5th was Mmm, Cookies! by Robert Munsch.  In this story a boy named Christopher who makes play dough cookies and tricks his parents into eating them.  Later in the story he gets a taste of his own medicine when he goes to school.

Art Activity: Story Quilt

For this activity we first had the children use fabric crayons to draw a picture.  Next a teacher used an iron to transfer the image on to a sheet.  Next the children dictated a story to the teacher to complete the story quilt.  Each child had their own section on the story quilt.

Story Book for February 4, 2009

Our story book for February 4th was Mortimer by Robert Munsch.  This is the story of a little boy named Mortimer who refuses to go to sleep.  Instead he sings very loud, disturbing everyone in the house.

Language Activity: Band-Aid Baby

For this activity we used a baby doll and some band-aids.  The children were to tell a story about how the baby fell down and got injured, and what part of the body the baby injured.  Along with the story telling aspect of this activity, the children were also naming body parts.

Art Activity: Band-Aid Collage

For this activity we gave the children people shaped paper in various colors, crayons, and a variety of band-aids.  The children used the crayons to draw facial features and "boo-boos" on their people.  They used the band-aids to cover up the "boo-boos" in the making of their collage.  Tearing off the paper from around the band-aid, and opening the band-aid itself was a great fine motor exercise for the children.