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Showing posts from February, 2010

Valentine's day crafts and happenings

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The children made these beautiful hand sewn hearts for their parents. Sewing projects are beneficial for small children. Exercising dexterity especially in the hand muscles, has been shown to stimulate cellular development in the brain which strengthens cognitive function. This was a highly supervised activity that took a great deal of time over a number of weeks. We talked about the needle and how one end was very sharp and pointy. The children understood it could hurt them if they did not handle it carefully. We also determined that it had to be sharp to get through the material. When we were done sewing we filled the heart with stuffing. The children then did the bead work. We painted little cards using water colors. The children made bags for Valentine's day cards. We used red tempera paint, a heart stamp and red glitter. Chris made everyone the most delicious cupcakes for our love day celebration. Red balloons were a special surprise. Parents were invited to come have lunch wi

More fun with M....

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Our marvelous M collage. Writing the letter M. We made maracas with beans, balloons, paper towel tubes, newspaper, flour, water and paint. We counted the beans as we put them in the balloon. We taped the balloon to the paper towel tube, and covered the balloon with newspaper that we soaked in a flour and water mixture. When the maracas were dry we painted them. Our maracas make a magnificent sound.

M is for music!

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We had special musical guests all week. The electric guitar has strings and can play different kinds of music like country and rock. The Glockenspiel is a percussion instrument. We all got to play it. Each piece plays a different "note" and makes a different sound. The cello also has strings. It mostly plays "classical" music. You play the cello with a "bow" It makes a low, sweet sound.