October 23rd, 2015

We had a member of the BB family bring her older brother to Blooming Butterflies this week. It was fun to have him!

This week we learned a lot about emotions; what they are, look like, feel like and how we can fill each other’s buckets when someone is feeling a certain way. We are getting better at noticing when we do something that is not so nice to our friends, and turning around to make things right again. The Bucket terminology has become a great way for all of us to understand and communicate our feelings to one another.

There has been an increased curiosity about letters and what they sound like. We continue to use alphabet puzzles to sing and identify the letters. Those who were not able to sing the ABC’s now have almost all of the song memorized! We practice what letters sound like and try to use this to help us listen for the beginning sounds of our days of the week in the song we sing. We have begun using word puzzles to help us to spell out words of everyday objects and people.

There sure is a love of the “Where do you start your letters” song when we do our daily name writing practice. It is quite cute that some days we cannot stop singing until we are done writing! Songs sure do catch on quickly.

Speaking of songs catching on quickly…

The song from Robert Munsch’s story Mortimer has now become a constant every time we walk out the front door, on our way to the park. This week we read Robert Munsch’s “50 Below Zero”.

Halloween is right around the corner! We have started decorating, making crafts and doing science experiments to prepare. We made Witches Brew, using our senses to do so. Boy did it smell funny and it sure was exciting to see all the bubbles it made! We worked on our fine motor skills with all of the crafts we did this week. We made a Trick or Treat paper bag where tape was torn and used to put tiny pieces together, the words had to be written and the paper bag had to be cut. What a great job they did! We reviewed the different parts of the body, where bones are and what they do for us; also creating a Q-Tip Skeleton. Kleenex ghosts were made by squishing Kleenex in to little balls, taped together and faces drawn on them. Jack-O-Lanterns were a bunch of fun to use the shapes we have been learning about to create faces. We are getting really good at remembering basic shapes! We have also been searching for shapes that exist in nature. Who know shapes were everywhere!

Next week on Friday, we will be having a Halloween celebration. Everyone is welcome to dress up in a Halloween costume. No weapons please.

I’m excited to celebrate with everyone next week!

Xoxo Miss Audra

This week was short but sweet.

We learned about positional words and opposites. We used our bodies to show these; over and under was the most fun! We identified opposites in nature; such as over a bridge and under through a tunnel. On our way through Nose Hill Park we practiced up from down by running up the “mountain” and down again; and also our right from left. We used opposites and equals puzzles to help us identify pictures that are opposite. During our writing time we sang and did positional actions to the “Big Line” song, where we had to for the directions. Then we each had a turn to be the leader and show/communicate the direction we wanted our friends to move their big line. The song got faster and faster; we sure has to pay close attention and be quick!

To follow with our opposites theme we practiced identifying capital letters that contain only lines and no curves. Once we identify them we then build them using our Big Lines and Little Lines.

We continue to practice writing our names every day and I have seen some great improvement. Every day we like to sing the song “Where do you start your letters” to help us remember how to begin writing a letter. They sure do love that song and have almost memorized it!

To help us build our names in different ways we decided to make our very own playdough! Although it may not have turned out as squishy as we would have liked; it was still a lot of fun.

To practice our cutting and creativity this week we drew and cut up our own puzzles, as well as participated in “process art” (given tools and supplies they made anything they liked to let their creativity shine). We also used water paints to reveal our names on paper and used our senses to “cinnamon paint” a paper acorn. Some of us almost ate our cinnamon paint because it smelled so good!

“Mortimer” by Robert Munsch was such a hit last week that we decided to continue reading more of his stories. At every story time this week, I had requests to read a story by Robert Munsch. Not only did we read these stories ourselves but we also listened to Robert Munsch read them. He is quite an animated reader. Because “Mortimer” is so popular we decided to create actions to this story using our hands, feet and musical instruments. Good practice listening/following for instructions, following a beat and having some fun!

Oh! And we cannot forget about our much anticipated picnic. They did a wonderful job preparing sandwiches and putting fruits/veggies in containers. What fun!

Can’t wait to see what next week brings here at Blooming Butterflies!

Xoxo Miss Audra

October 9th, 2015

We had two new friends join us at Blooming Butterflies. It is always fun to have new bodies around!

This week was all about Thanksgiving and what it means to be thankful. We learned about how many boys and girls around the world do not have the nice things that we have. I could see the empathy and concern in their eyes when they heard that some people do not even have food to eat. Very proud moment! We learned what it means to be thankful and to appreciate the things that we do have. The BB team did a wonderful job brainstorming all the things that they can be thankful for; anything from the basic necessities of life to toys and going camping with family. They even talked about what sorts of food they might eat on Thanksgiving with their families. Oh and don’t forget all the fun crafts that worked our little fingers!

Pointy the Dinosaur returned this week to discuss and brainstorm with us, how we can fill each others’ buckets. We cut out and decorated our own little buckets that remind us each day how important it is. With Pointy keeping a watchful eye on us I have noticed many more Thank-yous and No Thank-yous from everyone in response to others. Wonderful to hear!

Who knew that beads and pipe cleaners would be such a hit. We stringed beads onto pipe cleaners and counted how many were on each. We also identified which had more or less. These beaded pipe cleaners then turned into Mat-Mans, animals and flowers.

Puzzles have become a major interest at BB this week. Not only do puzzles help build hand eye coordination, the ability to match details together and practice working as a team, but they also have aided us in practicing our number and letter sequencing and recognition.

Everyone has been doing a great job learning to recognize  and build their ABCs! With name building activities such as using buttons  and torn paper to write their names, they are starting to recognize and remember more letters in their names. We have also been using Big Lines and Little Lines to build some uppercase letters. This Handwriting Without Tears terminology helps them to see how parts of a letter are formed. They have been working hard at putting their “helper hand” to work to make writing and cutting a bit easier; sometimes it’s not so easy to have two hands doing two different things. Writing a letter to their families was a fun way to practice using the “helper hand” too. They were so excited that they even got to “mail” them.

Mortimer by Robert Munsch was the story of interest this week. What a great story to vocally animate. The kids sang Mortimer’s song non-stop for two days.

Oh and we learned how to floss too! Corn on the cob is quite messy to eat.

I hope everyone is having a wonderful Thanksgiving weekend!

Xoxo Miss Audra

October 2nd, 2015

We had a very exciting start to our week here at Blooming Butterflies!

It is always an exciting time when we have a new child join our BB family! Welcome!

Not only did we have a new little body, but we also celebrated a very special 4th birthday! We got to sing Happy Birthday, blow up balloons and bake cupcakes. Baking cupcakes is tricky stuff when you’re trying to scoop from one container to the next and count your spoonfuls at the same time. They did a great job making those cupcakes tasty!

This week we focused on Mat Man; practicing the difference between the left and right side of our bodies (the Hokey Pokey has been a fun way to learn this as well!), counting how many of certain body parts we have and taking notice of those small details that we have such as eyebrows and knees. Mat Man  and his song help us to remember not to leave anything out; we made our own Mat Man using things we found on our nature walk.

Pointy the Dinosaur made an appearance this week at BB. Turns out dinosaurs aren’t so scary at all! He is a kind and gentle dinosaur that helps us to make good decisions about the sorts of actions we take and words we use to communicate with our friends. His “bucket” is really big and needs to be filled every day. The only way it gets filled is when he sees us being kind and considerate to those around us. We got to decorate his bucket too!

Every day we have been practicing writing our names and recognizing the letters it contains. It’s tricky when there are capitals and lowercase. To practice recognizing and building our letters we have used play dough and cookie cutters, played a letter stamp game, used the ‘big line’ and ‘little line’ from our Mat Man (Handwriting Without Tears), and sponge painted with foam letters.

And don’t forget our numbers too! We told our friends the fridge magnet numbers we saw, glued pasta and beans to build numbers.

Who knew there were shapes at the park! They found so many.

See everyone next week!

Xoxo Miss Audra