Happy Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving is one of my favorite times of the year.  Family, friends and food.  The 3 F's is what I call it.
Since it was a short week, we didn't have much time to to accomplish all our activities, but here are a few ideas of what we did accomplish.
The Letter F:

The letter G:

   
All our colors:

 


A Scarecrow and a Corn on the Cob:

 

A Thanksgiving Center Piece:

 

A very nice gift from one of my students, along with cards, gift cards, and a bouquet of flowers.  I feel so thankful and appreciated.  








After a  nature walk and gathering of nature, we completed our center pieces by adding pine cones and leaves to our pieces. 














The kids built an indoor camp-out:

Group activity of leaf stamping:

 Group activities encourage team work and lots of discussion among peers. Group projects never make it to the homes of our preschoolers since they are made to decorate our room.  Great job PattyKakesKidz.  You're awesome. 

These are just a few of the things we did.  Along with park days, library trips and good old playing in our garden, sandbox and yard.  What a great life we have here at PattyKakesKidz.

Happy Holidays!

PVC Play

Toys and Play do not have to be elaborate, expensive or widely advertised. After a day at the local Children's Discovery Museum, we attempted to reinvent the PVC play they had in one of their centers.

IT WAS A HIT!

Overnight, I left these 12 inch and 18 inch PVC pipes on the table, along with misc. connectors. The children arrived in the morning, and they were so excited to engage in these materials. Immediately they began to explore and discover new ideas. At first, each child took a few and explored alone.  Then as time went by, they discovered that working as a team, they could accomplish more.  They engaged in dialogue, decision making, team building, fine motor skills and more. There was shape making, letter making and then how long could they make the connections hold.  The children all decided it would be great if it could follow us outside into the sandbox and then a whole new play began.

 I think this E is backwards.

 Team work.

 M is for mama!

 This is some serious work.

Look how long we  built this together.

Just concentrate!

Put the connector here and it creates a bend.

Now for the exploration we had outdoors in our 10X10 sandbox.

 

As we search the depths to find the most innovative toys for our children, remember they may be right in your very own home.

From our home to yours, PattyKakesKidz

Birthday Strawberry Shortcake

Once upon a time, there was a little boy named Jovani who was turning four years old. He celebrated his birthday with all his preschool friends. He asked to make strawberry shortcake for his birthday and that is just what we did.....

Mixing the batter...

 

 

 

Baked a cake....

Watched demo on how to layer cake....

Layered our own cake....

 

 

 

Just before the blowing of the candle....

and then we eat....

 

 

We had a great day celebrating our friend's birthday.  It was fun going from making traditional cupcakes to making strawberry shortcake.   Happy Birthday Jovani from us all here at PattyKakesKidz