http://www.buzzfeed.com/swelldesigner/39-ways-to-decorate-a-glass-ornament-22zb
We are going to be decorating ornaments next week with the kids, and it is handy to see that there are so many different ways! I only really know putting stickers on them, and paint on the inside then shaking it. It will be fun to look at these with my coteacher and decide if we want to use any of them 🙂
This week, our unit is “things that go” – we decided to change our sensory table into sand and vehicles so the children can practice driving and notice the patterns in the tracks. They were loving it when we set it up on Friday. I am excited to see their interactions and discoveries as the unit goes on! 
I posted two today because I ran out of time yesterday 😮
Today, we started some holiday crafts – the families can buy the plate that their child made. I was in the 2 year old class, and they made Christmas trees or snowmen with their feet! It turned out very cute 🙂 I’m surprised we are incorporating the Winter holidays in the curriculum. I am used to trying to avoid it so families don’t feel left out. There was one Jewish girl in the class, and she was the only one to do a snowman (if these go on the wall before families order their plates, it might make her stand out). I really like the idea, but since the children are so young, we wanted to take away the choice element to give them more continuity. 
http://www.teachpreschool.org/2010/02/making-books-with-children/
I looked back at this link recently because I still want to incorporate making books somewhere into the curriculum, but I’m not sure how yet – maybe when Bessie (the traveling teddy bear) comes in mid-December 🙂 We could all come up with mini stories to her, and practice more of our letters. It would maybe be incorporated into small groups or afternoon circle to teach more about writing. 
I like this idea for handprint animals! The sheep and chicken in particular look very good and pretty realistic – the horse is one I probably won’t do because it is more unclear. 
Today, we made cow “masks” out of paper plates 🙂 I worked with the children on how to draw each part of the cow, so they looked pretty realistic. I broke it down into the nose first (a big oval with two little circles), the eyes, and then the black spots. They did a great job following the steps and trying to copy my model. I will post pictures of them at the end of the unit!
I found this great packet of farm activities that I will definitely have the children work on these weeks! It includes many different practices (tracing, numbers, farm animal words, puzzles, cutting, etc). I have attached the document at the bottom of the post. I love that something like this is available out there for free 🙂 
Farm-Pack-PDF
Our next unit is “On the farm” and I have started looking for some activities already to enhance the learning of the kids. The image below could be done every day in the afternoon to let the children practice rhyming as well as learning animals, people, or things on a farm.
At the end of my shift, I collected tissue paper in Fall colors and paper plates. The children are going to make wreaths tomorrow for Thanksgiving or just as decoration – it will help them with motor skills, and precision for ripping and sticking on the tissue wrapping paper. These will look very nice up in our classroom for the Fall season! I really hope the children are as into it as I am 🙂
This is a fun way to let the students practice their letters, and it has to do with Fall! Each child could put on a few letters and name them as they do it. The scarecrow would go on the wall to remind our class of the alphabet 🙂 
