If You Are Happy And You Know It...

After exploring the Sunflowers' and Daisies' classrooms, we had our Morning Meeting. We sang Old McDonald Had A Band with our instruments, Who's At Buckle My Shoe Today? and counted how many friends were in school and at home. Next, we sang There Are Seven Days In A Week and Today Is Thursday All Long. We talked more about Hanukkah and each child took turns lighting the candle for the eighth day.

Brandon's mom, Trish, joined us for part of the morning. She read Goodnight Moon by Margaret Wise Brown and David Smells by David Shannon. Next, the children made holiday ornaments using cookie cutters and Model Magic. When they were finished, Scarlett went on a bear hunt while Max, Brandon, and Hudson played together in the sandbox. Then we went for a walk. We saw a fire truck, an excavator, and a very big construction drill. On the way back to school, Brandon noticed a police car. We waved to the police officers and they back waved at us. They also beeped their horn. The children were very excited!

When we returned back to the classroom, we sang Old McDonald Had A Farm and A Sailor Went To Sea. During lunch, we read If You Are Happy And You Know It A Sing-Along Action Book by Jane Cabrera. We sang quietly as we ate. After lunch, the children took turns singing in the microphone. Brandon sang Hello to Harry, Hudson sang Gangnam Style, and Max sang Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star. We had such a delightful morning!

Time To Get The Tree!

Harry, Nico, and Lili began their morning cutting with scissors while Brandon and Jamie practiced spinning dreidels. At Morning Meeting, we read Eight Chanukah Lights and each child took turns lighting our class Menorah. During snack, we Poems to Read to the Very Young. The class giggled as we repeated Fuzzy Wuzzy Was A Bear together and thought it was so funny!

Then we sang Dreidel, Dreidel as the children took turns spinning the wooden dreidel and the big blue dreidel. The children painted with dreidels by dipping them into paint and spinning them on white paper. During Free Play, Harry, Jamie, Lili, and Brandon dug in the sandbox while Nico and Scarlett went on a bear hunt. 

After French with Deborah, we went together with the Sunflower and Daisy classes to get our Holiday Tree! We collected branches to transform our Fall tree in the classroom into a Holiday Tree.

 

Look! I See His Shadow!

At Morning Meeting, we sang Old McDonald Had A Band with our instruments and Hudson shared his string instrument cards from his trip to NY Philharmonic Very Young People's Concert. Then we read Eight Chanukah Nights by Annie Auerbach and sang Dreidel, Dreidel and Oh Hanukkah. We looked at the our class Menorah and decided to decorate the shamash, the helper candle, pink. 

At Free Play, the children painted with dreidels by dipping the dreidels in paint and spinning them on white paper. Then Max, Brandon, and Scarlett worked together in the block area while Hudson played in the kitchen. Scarlett went on a bear hunt making sure she packed everything she needed before she left including her camera.

We enjoyed the beautiful day by going for a walk. The children saw lots of trucks, a fire engine, and a cement mixer. Scarlett was especially excited when she noticed Hudson's shadow. When we got back into the classroom we read Bear Shadow by Frank Asch and sang Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star.

Let's Make The Menorah!

We began our morning reading Going On A Bear Hunt by Michael Rosen and Helen Oxenbury to help the children ease into the morning back after Thanksgiving break. Jenny read the story and together the children shouted, "Oh no! We've got to got through it!" Then we sang Who's At Buckle My Shoe Today? and  Dreidel, Dreidel.  Harry was beaming with excitement when we finished singing and shared: 

"I love that song. It's my favorite song. I light the Menorah and then sing a different song. I love the Dreidel song. I want to sing the Dreidel song again?" 

And so we did, but this time each child had a turn spinning the dreidel on the table.

After snack we read, Eight Chanukah Lights by Annie Auerbach. Then we planned how to make our class Menorah using cardboard and eight toilet paper roll for each candle. We  also chose what colors we to paint it: sparkly blue and purple. After Music, the children spent a lot of time painting the Menorah while listening to Hanukkah songs as they worked. When they were all finished, we danced and sang to We Are The Dinosaurs by The Laurie Berkner Band and sang Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star, Shoe Fly, and Bumpin' Up Down In My Little "Blue" Wagon.

Happy Thanksgiving!

During Morning Meeting, we read What's Love by Shelley Rotner and Deborah Carlin. We sang A Turkey Is A Special Bird and  If You Are Happy and You Know It. Then we made mashed potatoes for our Thanksgiving feast. When we were finished cooking, the children went to the dramatic play kitchen and pretended to have their own feast. Nico put the table cloth on the table. Lili then set the table with plates and silverware. Harry got the food ready to make dinner. Brandon took pictures with his camera. "We are getting ready for the big feast!" they said with excitement.

After Free Play, we had French with Deborah. She read us The Little Bears and we sang songs. Then parents and siblings joined us for our annual Buckle My Shoe Thanksgiving feast. Happy Thanksgiving everybody!

"So Happy Together!"

After Hudson's Mommy left, Hudson said "I am so happy to be at Buckle My Shoe today!" Then Brandon and Hudson worked together with play dough each making their own instrument:

Brandon: "I try to make a guitar. I make strings."

Hudson: "I'm making a heart drums set."

At Morning Meeting, The Sweet Peas class sang Happy Birthday to Jenny, If You Are Happy and You know It, and Old McDonald Had a Band with Hudson on guitar (strum, strum), Brandon on cymbals (TSK!, TSK!) and Max on saxophone (doo, doo, doo). We read What's Love by Shelley Rotner and Deborah Carlin. We revisited the comments the children shared with us about what makes them happy.Then we talked about how Thanksgiving is a holiday where we have a BIG feast with our families and friends say "Thank you" and "I love you" to the special people we love.

We celebrated Jenny's birthday with a delicious fruit salad. Then it was straight to the chef's station to make our delicious berry fruit cobbler for the BMS Thanksgiving feast tomorrow. During Free Play, we played in the sandbox and drove to the park in the school bus. We sang The Wheels On the Bus the whole way there . and made sure to take lots of pictures. Before lunch we played instruments along to Happy Together by The Turtles. What a terrific day! Thanks for making Jenny's birthday so special!