Cookie decoration, crazy hair, and letter C

Hello Purple Room Families,
Last week were on a busy schedule with cookie decoration day, crazy hair day, and crazy dress day. But again, we were excited to enjoy them as they were approaching one by one! On Friday friends were asking if there was another fun day tomorrow :) Being crazy is what runs in our blood ;) and thus, we keep finding moments to hatch out of our regular day for a while to get Kra-Z :)

Cookie decoration...













































Ummmm!!! Scrumptious cookies!!!

Friends couldn't wait after seeing the final product in hand...so politely with permission from parents and teachers, they just inhaled the cookie enjoying it to the last crumb :) Well not to say just children, but even parents ;)









Family cookie time :)









Thank you parents, for being such great and enthusiastic participants.

We also did face and hand painting after we finished decorating and enjoying our cookies...









Crazy hair day was perfectly crazy and it was interesting to see the different hair styles that were done...

L's crazy ribbon hair...









S' Christmas tree hair...









K's multiple pony tails...








G's Elsa style hair...








D's hair, a mixture of braids, pony tails, and bows...









Now this is super cute...I was styling M's hair giving him a mohawk look with some hair gel. The girls saw me and wanted to be like hairstylists too. Somehow they managed to ask a class mate to get ready to be their customer. A agreed and the girls hands were ready to style. A's hair was fully gel massaged! In the end, A had mohawk all around his hair ;) ;) ;)









Other activities during the week...

Finger painting for the classroom theme winter canvas which now sits right above our couch.

Each friend did their part and were awesomely great at using only their pointer finger...dip and paint, dip and paint, was their pattern at work...

A said it is a falling snowflake!









S making the golden sun!









It's getting filled and more scenery is showing up with the blue sky, sun, and winter storm, as well as the green grass under with colorful flowers and butterflies!!!









We also made customized bells for our holiday performance...a good hand eye coordination activity...









Tying the bells...









We enjoyed playing with the created snow throughout the week. The addition of penguins made it more exciting and long lasting. They lined them up saying that penguins always walk in a line, while some made penguin families, snow mountains where the penguins slid down, and narrated their creative stories.









A set of friends one day got super involved with building structures with Popsicle sticks...It was truly incredible to see how they worked to put it together, and the amount of time and persistence they reflected!









For letter C, we made letter C collages using crayons, caps, chalk, and cotton. It was interesting to see their different styles and use of these open ended materials. Some friends collages it one by one, while some friends stacked material one into the other and figured out ways to stick them :)









We also made candy canes ornaments for our tree...









And later hung them on the little tree...









Friends were so busy last week to create a surprise gift for parents. Using their little fingers they made beautiful wreaths as a keepsake forever!!!

Making the wreaths...


















Putting their hand made presents in the parent pockets as a surprise!!!


















Happy holidays!!!








See you all in the New Year!

Hugs,
Teacher Rashida.

Snow and ongoing holiday prep!

Hello Purple Room Families,

Last week we finished our reindeer project and children are so proud of their final product. These reindeers totally reflect the children's personalities. Some friends wanted to keep it with them and talk to it and hug it. It was wonderful to hear their conversations! Additionally, children have been doing great with signing in, writing their names every morning in the purple room sign-in binder. We also have been reading a lot about weather, snow, winter, and holiday stories, along with preparing our carols for the upcoming performance.

Finishing up the reindeers!
L adding the red shiny nose...



S adding fur...



Our reindeers!



Later we made our favorite conditioner/ cornstarch playdough. Some worked on their letters and numbers, while some even enjoyed making different things like snow angels and snow balls...



We then used it as a big snowball during circle time...



Winter is being spoken about a lot these days in our classroom and amongst friends. With winter come conversations about jackets, snow, storm, and cold. It's amazing how much the "white Christmas" image of snow is a part of our culture, even for Bay Area children who have never seen snow! We experimented with making pretend snow with cornstarch and shaving cream and enjoying the snowy feeling...

Shaving cream spouted into the cornstarch powder...



Heaped up cream...looks like a melting snowman, huh? ;)



Mixing it and enjoying the crumbly feel falling down as snow...



Letter W
For letter W we made winter collages and waffles...

Using winter scene for decorating the Ws...

Some friends helped with cutting out the scenery...



We then pasted it onto our W's...



Making waffles...
We combined the preschool classrooms that morning and while Purple Room was catching up with all the holiday projects for both groups, Blue Room was engaged in waffle making.

We definitely enjoyed it to the last morsel...




We are preparing every day for our upcoming holiday performance and friends were really excited this week to make their performance t-shirts.

L painting the hat and hands with stick fingers...



D gluing the buttons...



A working on the face of the snowman...



It's great to see them practicing their fine motor skills and expressing their personal styles through all these projects. Each snowman looks different! Building the out of circles also opened the conversation to the concept of small, medium, and large.

We also made snowman stuffed loveys with socks and beans...
Stuffing the sock...






Decorating hats and adding other accessories...



With all the heavy pouring rain last week, we still enjoyed the environment by going outside but staying within our gates...


Earlier in the week when it was raining less intensely and the weather wasn't as cold, we enjoyed donning out coats and boots and stomping in puddles. It's great to play in the rain!

Magnetic exploration with cylinders and balls...



L's creativity at work...



Turning the flat structure into 3 dimensional...



D wanted to make S the same apron that she had brought from home.
She got super creative and they independently created one for S with paper and tape...



She even cut a pocket just like she had in hers...



Overall, we are getting busier as the holidays are approaching, but we're extracting every bit of happiness and memories together as a team!

Keep seeing y'all around!

Hugs,
Teacher Rashida.