Thanksgiving friends

Please remember that there is NO toddler class next week due to the Thanksgiving holiday.  We will look forward to seeing you all back on Wednesday, Nov. 28th.

 

This week we talked about the pilgrims and a Thanksgiving feast.  On Wednesday they painted with green sparkly paint:

It wasn't exactly meant to be finger paint, but we love the enthusiasm :)

 and then we did hand painting in art.  Weren't those turkeys adorable?

 Today we made our friendship snack.  Thank you so much for sending in your items.  Each child helped add the ingredient they brought in.  We had plenty of leftovers, so please be sure to check your child's bag for it!  Yum...

 Enjoying the friendship snack with friends!

 Walker didn't want the fun to be over.

I hope you all have a wonderful and safe Thanksgiving holiday.  We are thankful for all of you!

We've turned the corner.

I can tell we've officially turned the corner because we keep getting comments from other teachers around the school about how well our children are doing.  Yay!!

This week we talked about fall leaves and Native Americans.  There is a great collection of big books at the school that we've been enjoying with the class!

 Walker, Will and Caroline are always our eager painters, so they were the first to get to paint their fall leaves on Wednesday!

 The other children played until it was their turn. 

 Here we are walking down the hall with our smocks on for art!

 In art we painted more fall leaves, this time with a roller brush.

 Friday we used stamps to make designs on Native American headbands.

 A little crowded in the kitchen!

 It was spirit day Friday!  We didn't have any crying :) (because we've turned the corner!)

 Oh, they looked so cute in these at the end of the day.

Next Friday will be our Thanksgiving celebration.  I'll be sending out a separate email with that information and a sign-up opportunity.  So be on the lookout.  Enjoy the rest of your weekend!

Noah's ark & a new month

Oh, those little animal costumes.  SO adorable.  Wednesday was so fun and all went well!  We were so glad we had the toddlers join in the parade this year and the bye-bye buggies made it super easy!  Parents, thank you for coming!  Sadly, my camera battery was just about dead, so I didn't get nearly as many pics as I wanted to, but this is the pic I got before the parade:

 For our snack Wednesday, we tried roasted pumpkin seeds (which got a mixed reaction)...and then some special pumpkin cookies (which everyone loved!)

 I love how this group loves to read...

 and be read to...

 We're experimenting with ways to get them to sit still during reading time.  We've tried the mats on the floor and Friday we tried the chairs.  It's a process!

And then we capped off this great week with some bubbles!

Our theme for November is Thankfulness.  We will talk about manners, Indians, Pilgrims and Thanksgiving.  The color of the month is brown.  The number of the month is 3.  The letters of the month are G, H, and I. 

Enjoy the rest of your weekend, don't forget to vote and we'll see you on Wednesday!

The rainbow.

Reminder:  Noah's Ark Parade is WEDNESDAY, October 31st.  Please dress your child in an animal costume.  If it is big and bulky, you can just leave it in their bag and we will put it on them for the parade.  Please plan to meet us in the courtyard at 12:30 with your cameras!  If for some reason you don't see us participating, please just pick them up as usual.  Their emotions can be unpredictable in a new situation like this and we don't want them all upset :)

This week we did letter F (for frogs), painted with red and yellow (mixed together makes orange), and finished our Noah's ark story with the rain and the rainbow.  They all loved the rainbow!

 We had ZERO crying during our transitions today! (Usually there are one or two who aren't sure about where we're going).  It's great that they are all really starting to recognize the patterns of our days and trust that we are taking them someplace good!  ...like music:

 We played with animal puppets today and Vivi did some especially joyful dancing :)

 Then to the gym, a place they've all come to love.

 Play time in the room has also been great.  They play well independently and together!

We really love each of these children and are grateful for the opportunity to spend time with them.  So, thank you for bringing them to TOT Time!  Have a wonderful weekend.  We can't wait to see these little cuties in their animal costumes next week!!!

Big Week.

I meant to have this post up sooner, but it's been a busy weekend for my family :)  I loved looking back through these pictures to do this post today though because it reminded me of all the fun we had last week!

First, check out this adorable class photo we took on Friday:

Not bad for a group of 8 one year olds!

Wednesday was picture day and all of our boys and girls were certainly picture worthy.

 Since they looked so nice, I tried to get pictures of each of the kids when we were outside with the photographer, but a few of them weren't too sure about this picture taking business, so I was mostly on "try to get them to smile" duty: 

E is for elephants! 

 

 We stamped orange cats in art on Wednesday.

 And in the classroom we used orange paint on the sign language letter E!

 Friday was spirit day...Caroline models our lovely TOT Time t-shirts:

We played with scarves in music.  Peek a boo!

Here comes the bride, all dressed in .... green?

 Rocking alligator...a popular toy in the gym.

 another group shot.

 The simplest things can entertain...pipe cleaners in a colander. 

And here we are getting ready for spirit day to begin:

 our point of view...

 See you tomorrow :)