mittens- preschool style

We did mittens this week at preschool.  I love this theme.  I blogged about it last year, but I added some activities this year.   We of course read The Mitten by Jan Brett (we met her over a year ago) and gathered up the animals in the mitten as I read.  I made a new mitten this year out of an old white sweater.  It's not the one in this photo (which is from last year).  Then we sang the mitten in the snow song (you can find the words here on last years post).

 The art project was painting paper mittens with dot stampers.

Here are the ones Lou brought home today.



I had each of my kiddos bring in a pair of mittens or gloves from home.  We picked our mittens out of a big pile, talked about what they looked like, compared them, etc.  I had the kids finish this sentence...  _____'s mittens are ____.  Then I took their picture with their mittens.  I am working on another class book.  This one is called "Our Silly Mittens."

Here's my picture which will go on my page.  My page reads, "Ms Beth's mittens are falling apart.   They are.  There is a big hole.  They are several years old and I have mended the heck out of them.

 Then we sang Snowy Pokey:
Put your right mitten in, take your right mitten out, put your right mitten in and shake it all about. You do the snowy pokey and you shake it all about. That's what it's all about. (left mitten, hat, right boot, left boot, etc)

We played with the parachuet and put our mittens in and popped them around.  It got a little wild and I had to cut our popping time short and sweet.

I didn't have this cool activity ready for today, but I'll be taking it in later in the week.  It's pictures of real snowflakes big and little.  Kiddos can use a magnifying glass to help them match them.  I made this set, but stole the idea from My Montessori Journey.   All the photos are from this snowflake and snow crystal photo gallery website.   The wax paper thing in the photo was a little envelope for the small pieces but Bee promptly took it away. 

We had some extra time at the end of the day and I read The Jacket I Wear in the Snow by Shirley Nietzel and sang this song about snowflakes.  

During bathroom breaks, I sang Laurie Berkners snowflake song:
(tune of I'm a little teapot)
I'm a little snowflake, icy and round.
I fall from the ground and I don't make a sound.
When it's cold , I stay all day.
When it's warm, I melt away.

You sing snowflake songs in the potty to your friends, right?

I'm linking up to some of these fine link parties.