• The kids painted the back of a paper plate black.
• While those were drying, we worked on the hats.  They used red construction paper to make a pattern of red and white.
• On tag board white paper I cut out circles to use as the cat’s face.  They used googly eyes, pom poms for the nose, and pipe cleaners for the whiskers to make the face.  They glued that to the paper plate.
• I stapled the hat to the paper plate and then the kids added triangle ears.

After our craft was finished we had some fun Dr. Seuss centers.  The discovery table was filled with little Cat in the Hat toys that they loved playing with after hearing the story.

We also worked on patterning using these great styrofoam red and white circles that my friend let me borrow.  The kids had to stack them up using a pattern as high as they could.  They loved this!

We ended the day by reading Green Eggs and Ham.  I couldn’t read that book without making some green eggs and ham.  Almost of my class tried them and loved them.   My daughter Emily ate two plates full and then asked her Daddy if he could make her some for breakfast on Saturday.  It was a fun day!

Check out more fun craft ideas here and here.

Here is a fun, healthy snack I saw a few years ago in Family Fun magazine.  My girls made their own this afternoon in about 5 minutes.  Here is how we made it.

1. Cut 3 thick slices of banana for the body.

2.  Add a triangle piece of apple for his hat with a grape on top.

3.  For his eyes and buttons the magazine said to use mini choc. chips but we used raisins instead.  I had the girls bite them in half  so they would stick better.

4.  We then used 2 pretzel sticks for the arms and a sliver of carrot for the nose.

It was easy to make and healthy to eat!

So my question for you is…

Do you and your husband/significant other have a Valentine’s tradition?

I read them the cutest book called Hi! Pizza Man.  Then we sorted different pizza toppings.

After that, we played a game.  The children had to throw pepperoni’s (red poker chips) into a triangle shaped box.  The kids pretended to work in a pizza shop and take orders and make pizzas.  They loved it!

They also made their own personal pan pizza.  I had to practically beg the owner to give me 10 boxes for my class.  Mr. “Don’t Tell My Boss I Gave You These” wasn’t too happy with me…but I got them. The kids created pizzas with crust, tomato sauce, shredded cheese, pepperoni, and green peppers.   They turned out so cute!

Then we ended the day with real pizza for lunch.  Such a great pizza day!

Check out more fun crafts here and here.

Check out more Wordless Wednesday pictures Sunny Day Today Mama , 7 Clown Circus, Experimental Mommy, and Mom Knows it All.

I hope you are having a great time walking your dog mose in the morning.  I love you to.  How are you doing?

Love,
ashlyn

And here’s his reply.

What a nice surprise to get an email from you. Yes I am having a good time with Mose . He and I walk to the top of Beaver Dam Mountain and back down. We pick up trash from the road and recycle the aluminum cans and throw away the rest. We hike about 5 1/2 miles round trip.

The weather has been cold in the morning but pretty nice in the afternoon. It is supposed to get pretty cold this weekend. I am going to have to wrap Mose’s dog house in a blanket so he will stay warm.I might have to put an extra blanket on my bed.

Say hello to Mom, Dad and Emily for me. Mose said to say hello to Reilly.

Loved hearing from you.

Love,
Popa

I made a pocket chart rhyme to have the kids practice color words.  Plus they loved using the pointer and pretending to read.  I wrote on index cards different color words in that color.  Then I printed six small caps and colored them the same colors.  The kids had to match the color words with the right cap.

Emily played with this pocket chart forever when I brought it home.  Then she made a hat out of paper and decorated it with dot markers.

 Check out more great crafts here and here.

Check out more Wordless Wednesday pictures Sunny Day Today Mama, 5 Minutes for Mom, Angry Julie Monday, Mom Knows It All, Mom Start, 7 Clown Circus, Wordless Wednesday HQ, and Experimental Mommy.

I read the kids a non-fiction book about penguins first and we talked about how the Daddy penguins take care of the eggs while the Mommy fishes for food.  I had the kids try to balance bean bags (eggs) on the top of their feet for a minute.

Then I showed them pictures of ice bergs and we talked about how penguins were playful and loved sliding into the water.  I put a blanket on the ground and told them to pretend they were penguins.  They had to estimate how many would fit on the iceberg.  Then I folded the blanket in half and had them estimate again.  We did this until only one little penguin could fit.

I had a water table with small plastic penguins  from the movie Happy Feet and cut styrofoam blocks to act as icebergs.  They loved playing at this center!

Finally we talked about Emperor penguins and how tall they thought they were (they are about 4 feet tall).  I stuck a piece of masking tape on the wall and had them try to build a tower as tall as an Emperor penguin.

To end the lesson I read the book Tacky to them.  The kids loved pretending and learning fun facts about penguins.

There are some other Penguin activities at Dresses ‘n Messes, & Winter Warms The Soul.  And, Teachers.net Gazette has a lot of Winter themed activities for pre-school & early grades.