PeeWees: The Gift From Saint Nicholas (week 2)

[Again, from Julia...]

So, we did a lot of the same things we did last week and it was so fun to see what the kids remembered and what they didn't.

 

Gathering activity: Puzzles. The kids did really well with these. I had a couple puzzles that were above their level (without pictures underneath and pieces that actually fit together). But after I put in most of the pieces they were able to fit in the last few pretty well. Poppy was not as interested in trying to figure this out as the boys were. Jackson is especially interested in puzzles!

 

Circle time: We sang our song and counted snowmen circles (the foam circles on their snowmen they took home). We went to 20 again. I made them repeat after me on 13-20 because each one of them was sort of doing his/her own thing above 12. I think that is a good tactic to take on these "teens" until they get it down. They liked shouting out the numbers all together!

 

We then re-read the book. I asked them a few questions to see if they remembered. Poppy remembered "Nicholas!" and Bodie remembered "teapot" and they all remembered "hot chocolate!" THEN, we acted out the book. I had the back-half of my kitchen full of wadded up newspapers that, miraculously, they had not yet discovered. So we pretended that this was the snow that was covering everything. They loved pretending. I was St. Nicholas and brought the gift. As they "dug paths" through the snow they stuffed two garbage bags full of newspapers-- they were good cleaner-uppers today. Then we unwrapped the present, which I'd put in more/bigger boxes this time. They were still excited to see what was inside the final box and nearly broke the teapot. Thank goodness for my "soft" linoleum floors that absorbed that impact as it tumbled out of the box they overturned. :)

 

Snack: We washed all the newspaper print off our hands and had nuts and hot chocolate with homemade marshmallows. Jackson was not a fan of them, but everyone else was! Then we decorated Christmas cookies, during which much frosting was consumed and smeared around.

 

Art: They assembled their own snowmen/women while I helped each one make their ornament. They really liked seeing the pictures of each other. Then we had a song break with a rousing rendition of "Jingle Bells."

 

When everyone was finished we went outside to jump, re-read the story and do our good-bye chant for the last 10 minutes. What a super-fun day! They are so cute. I hope that Poppy and Bodie's heads are okay from their crash at the end.