.png)
Today was the kind of day that you can't make up your mind if you want to stay in or if you want to go out. It was sunny and looked nice, but it was so cold! After our morning routines, we decided that it was worth getting a little chilly so we bundled up and headed out.
The children were captivated by the political signs posted here and there in the neighborhood, and as we walked along I had the kids do a treasure hunt for various letters. The big kids are experts at finding their first name letter and recognize lots of other letters as well. The hardest ones for them to recognize tend to be "E," "F," and "L," but we got lots of practice as we made our way around.
We also noted there was a steady cold wind blowing. We looked for signs of wind besides what we could feel on our faces and found a spinning pinwheel, a flapping flag, windchimes, and some rustling leaves that were still attached to the tree. On the way home, we found some chalk.
When we came back in, we did lots of movement activities to warm up. First we did lots of stomping, jumping, tiptoe walking, dancing, and pretend splashing to our version of Laurie Berkner's B-O-O-T-S song, then we worked on skipping to Skip to My Lou and we warmed up our vocal chords with several animal-themed sing-a-long songs like Old McDonald.
After our music time, we settled in for some deep pretend play. I helped the children extend their imaginary play as we set up a whole world for our trains to visit. First we built tracks, then we set up stations along the tracks for the passengers to visit. Among the stops were the houses of the three little pigs, a haunted forest, the ocean (complete with smooth stone islands), and a large farm with a tractor and lots of animals.
Even the little enjoyed helping her train travel over the tracks while the big kids played out many different scenarios as their trains stopped in different locations.
Later in the afternoon we had a nice time previewing our spring books- The Carrot Seed, The Sun Egg, The Easter Egg, and some non-fiction books about animals. I let the children page through freely and let them ask questions.
See you tomorrow!