Highlights of Our Week !

The plastic cups made a cool wall which the boys named the wall of China.  When we wanted to call it the wall of George, they laughed but stuck to their original name!

As fine motor skills and spatial sense improve,  the children's buildings become more elaborate.  There are cars in almost every slot on all 4 sides, and very precise placement of the blocks so that everything balances.

We  introduced our next theme, the Arctic, with some instant snow in the sensory table. 

No one  even had time to smile for the camera.  They were too busy scooping and pouring and playing!

We're back to Tu B'Shevat with a different type of tree activity.   The children are acting out the parts of a tree.  Lukas is the heart wood (check out his hand!).  Charlie B, Laura,  and Charlie W are the bark which protects the tree (notice their fists!).  Sophia, Jonah, James David and Matthew are the roots which suck up the nutrients from the ground. (Hard to catch everyone's feet in motion but you can get the idea from Matthew.).   Anna, Max, Sammie and Jack are the branches swaying in the breeze. 
Anytime we add movement to an activity it makes it that much easier for the kids to be involved, and more importantly, to remember the information we're trying to teach!

Cheryl made delicious muffins for Tu B'Shevat with us, using dried fruits, many of which come from Israel.  Since some of the fruits were small to begin with, the finger dexterity needed to hold the fruit with one hand  and cut with the other  was a  challenge.  James David is using an ice cream scoop to put the batter in the muffin tins, another great way to work on finger and hand movements.

The head chef even came out of the kitchen to serve the muffins! 

All of the pre-k classes came together for a Tu B'Shevat Seder.  We answered the traditional Seder question, "Why is this night different from all other nights?" with a Tu B'Shevat twist!

We're starting to make the backdrop for an Arctic scene.  When we looked at different Arctic themed books, the children noticed  that the snow is not always pure white.  Much like our Georgia O'Keeffe flowers, the snow is composed of different colors.  We mixed purple, blue and gold into white paint and then used the dish brushes to get a textured effect as we painted.  The paper is very large and you can see how Sammie had to stretch to reach some of the areas...great for gross motor control!

Happy half birthday, Sharon!  It's always fun to celebrate with the Curious George families, and this time we had the added bonus of some  siblings, off from school.  Thank you to Kristina Siegler for her fantastic cooking!  The children and teachers enjoyed delicious and healthy birthday "cake and ice cream".