Wet Canvas

We used the puddles of water and wet pavement as a canvas for some fun painting in between raindrops today!

The children noticed how the paint blended on the 'canvas' so nicely to create lovely new colours!

Is it Really December?

We will make our own snow!

Mini Holiday Present Math

The children are very interested in presents and anything sparkly, so we decided to invite them to explore some mini holiday presents today.

 

In addition to the mini presents and number cards, we encouraged the children to practice writing numbers and craft addition sentences using laminated ten frames and dry erase markers.

 

The children counted out the presents, matched the corresponding number card, and then used the dry erase marker to practice writing the number.

 

Many were interested in showing their growing number sense and math abilities by writing addition sentences to match their ten frames.

 

We noticed lots of patterning happening too!

Some children drew their own presents!

 

At circle I placed the presents in a pile in the middle of the carpet and invited the children to estimate how many they thought were in the collection. They had very reasonable guesses, with many children's estimates falling in between 50 and 80.

I asked the children how we could quickly and efficiently count the presents. They suggested placing them in groups. At first groups of 3 was suggested but we decided this wasn't a friendly enough number (because then we'd have to count by threes, which can be challenging) so we decided to group the presents in fives.

We had a total of 50 presents!

 

We wanted to double check our work so the idea of placing the presents in order using a hundreds grid was suggested. Our final count was 50!

Favourite Holiday Activities

Here are some of our favourite holiday activities from years past!

Holiday Carnation Experiment

http://mrsmclennan.blogspot.ca/2012/12/holiday-carnations.html







Seasonal Sensory Bin 
http://mrsmclennan.blogspot.ca/2013/12/seasonal-sensory-bin.html

 
 
Holiday Play Dough
http://mrsmclennan.blogspot.ca/2012/12/holiday-play-dough.html




Christmas Tree Stringing
http://mrsmclennan.blogspot.ca/2012/12/christmas-tree-stringing.html



Scented Candy Cane Paint
http://mrsmclennan.blogspot.ca/2012/12/candy-cane-paint.html



Stamped Wrapping Paper
http://mrsmclennan.blogspot.ca/2014/12/stamped-wrapping-paper.html



Big Floor Holiday Stamping
http://mrsmclennan.blogspot.ca/2012/12/holiday-inspired-stamping.html



Candy Cane Marble Painting
http://mrsmclennan.blogspot.ca/2011/11/candy-cane-inspired-painting.html



Sorting Presents
http://mrsmclennan.blogspot.ca/2013/12/sorting-presents.html



How Many Presents?
http://mrsmclennan.blogspot.ca/2014/12/how-many-presents.html

Irregular Shaped Gems

'Writing' our names and creating beautiful designs with irregular shaped gems on the light table. 

Sidewalk Chalk Painting

Mixing equal parts cornstarch and water with food colouring creates a fun painting medium. 

The children immediately noticed how different the consistency of this was from regular tempra paint. 

They were fascinated by how quickly the mixture dried; sometimes before they had moved onto using a different colour on the same piece of paper. 

The interesting consistency of the paint also meant it could be drizzled and splattered onto the paper. We heard some great verb vocabulary at the table as the children experimented. 

The best part? The leftovers can be brought outdoors for painting the blacktop!

Outdoor Drawing

It is so nice to draw outdoors in the beautiful sun.