This week was very short with only three days at school, however, it was big with the surprises that it held. Some friends already gave us a heads up as to their four day long vacation plan and were excitedly looking forward for it!
The short week did not compromise our fun. We were ready to enjoy the precious three days we had.
Friends are already in the winter mood and talking about snow. This includes talks related to Christmas, winter and snow songs, Christmas trees, snowmen, reindeers, snowballs, gingerbread men, penguins, and Santa Claus. Some activities we did in this regard...
Making winter habitats...
Gingerbread men...
Making winter scenery ornaments to hang on the tree...
S making a lot of falling snow and using a lot of sparkles...
A made a snowman and added jingle bells eyes...
L coloring the background blue as sky...
D using her fingers to smudge the blue sharpie to give it a cloudy look...
We also worked on imprints...
Friends made collages using wooden materials and flowers...
And then using aluminum foil and pressing it down with fingers, they got the imprints of most of the embossed materials on their collages.
While some friends just decorated it like a collage...
Thanksgiving Potluck...
Thank you, everyone, for bringing a wide variety of food. It was such a cultural feast with everyone getting their special delicacies!
Friends also wanted to make something for the potluck as a part of their contribution towards the feast. So we made some cranberry relish to enjoy as a dip. Yum!
Ingredients: Fresh cranberries, oranges and orange zest, and honey!
We had one team crushing the berries...you bet they were crushing it so hard that the hard work could be seen on their crinkled faces ;) S' face in the pic below speaks it all :)
We had the other team working on getting the orange juice out ..we chose to go natural with a manual orange juice squeezer! Good to see their grips and turning styles!
D working to take the orange zest out...
The final step was adding honey and blending all ingredients together into a delicious saucy purée...
Yes, we were now all set to serve our relish at the table :)
While we were setting up for the feast in Blue Room, we were setting up for playtime and games in the Purple Room! You bet all the kids were so helpful in setting up different game centers just with one thought in mind - to quickly be able to play those fun games since they knew about the cause and effect - if we had more helping hands, the faster they will be able to play! Isn't that smart! :) Thank you to R's mom in Blue Room for volunteering to organize this fun, playful time.
We first read books...
Then we played games that children back in those days played...
Rolling pumpkins or squash with sticks...
Tossing dried corn in buckets...
Playing tic tac toe with marbles, pebbles, or rocks...
R's brother D, volunteered to be at the tic tac toe center and helped friends understand and play the game...
Tic tac toe between two competitive players - L from our classroom and R's brother, D :)
While we were setting up the feast table in Blue Room, there was another pretend feast that the children in Purple room were involved in ;) How sweet!
Yes finally after all that play, we were super duper hungry and ready to fill our tummies with the yummy food that was waiting for us! At the same time we were so thankful!
Our thanksgiving feast ambiance...
Nothing is lively without our kiddos...so there it is - a fun filled feast!
Finally, our week ended with lots of good wishes and excitement to be with family and friends over the long weekend! Hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving!
Keep seeing your around!
Hugs,
Teacher Rashida
