Frost Painting

 We have been making the most of the cold, frosty mornings here, the joy of finding frozen cobwebs and various patterns that the frost and ice create.

The children decided that the ice on the slide looked like a little ice forest and would the Snow Queen live there.

 They thought this one looked like the feathers from a bird's wing.

They decided to try and draw patterns in the frost but quickly realised it was way too cold to draw with your fingers but a small bucket with some warm water and a couple of paint brushes was a big hit. They spent ages drawing different patterns and seeing what would happen if they drew on some pieces of ice they found, also seeing how long it would take to melt holes int he ice with the water. They have realised that even the coldest water is warmer than the ice.

 Today we made some gingerbread biscuits, some in the shape of snowflakes for them to decorate and then a mixture of shapes and creatures of their choice.

At the weekend I had my first try and no knead bread, made lots of different types of bread over the years but this was very easy, ok the children missed the fun of the kneading but for quick, very tasty bread for the family it is brilliant. Now just made my third lot of loaves, keeps really well in my bread bag, now just to see how it freezes. I used this recipe for Peasants Bread and baked it in two medium sized pyrex bowls. think this will be replacing my normal loaf that I make.

L has taken to her knitting fork really well, she is pleased that she can sit with me and knit too.

Still slowly working through the knitting of the second panel for my blanket but also making a waistcoat for a wedding, for a friend's child, fabric is testing my patience, usually work with cotton rather than something that is very shiny and slippery but it is coming together ok, now just need to pluck up courage to do the button holes.

Linked with Frontier Dreams Keep calm and craft on.

Sparkly Drawing Tray

We often have a sand tray out for the children to write and draw in, brilliant when they are wanting to practise writing their letters and numbers. Thought I would put together a winter themed one, used salt and some silver glitter, it has been well used, for both writing and drawing.

Most enjoyed the wax resist painting, one wasn't so keen as they struggled to see what they were drawing but all loved the magic of painting over the paper and seeing their pictures appear, I can see them asking to do this again.

Cardigan finished for my friends Granddaughter

and there was more wool than I thought left over and managed to make 3 dish clothes, have been told they would make better face clothes because of the colour but as we have plenty of those, they will be dishcloths but then again!!

The Snowy Day

The Snowy Day by Ezra Keats was one of my favourite winter stories when I was little and a few years ago I found a copy to read to my own children. So thought I would spend some time exploring the story and various snow and ice activities with the children. M will enjoy some of the art and science activities and can add to them as she wishes. We have talked about some of the things she could research - Snow Bentley, how icicles and stalactites form, we also have a lap book we made years ago with O and M and thought it would be nice to bring that out  and look through it together.

My planning linked into all the areas of the EYFS.

Season Sensory Bottles

Our sensory bottles are looking a little worn now and had been thinking about doing some weather ones, after some thought decided to do four bottles each one representing a season instead of weather.

Spring is water, a little green food colouring and foam and sequin lead and flower shapes.

Summer is lots of small blue beads, water and glycerine, a little blue food colouring and a yellow sparkly pom pom for the sun.

Autumn is water and glycerine, autumn sequin leaves and a little brown food colouring.

Winter is lots of silver glitter, some sequin snowflakes and white pom poms for snow balls in a mixture of water and glycerine.

Chinese New Year

We had fun looking at the Chinese New Year celebrations, how Chinese people would spring clean their homes, to brush away bad luck. Watched some clips of the dragon dances. Read about how the Chinese dragon is seen as helpful, friendly creatures, that are linked to good luck, long life and wisdom. I read this lovely book Lanterns and Firecrackers which the preschoolers I care for really enjoyed, it talks through why the Chinese clean their homes, wear new clothes, use firecrackers etc to celebrate the new year and scare away bad luck.

 We then made and decorated some paper lanterns. Then instead of just painting pictures of the Chinese dragons I thought it would be a good idea to use hand prints to make dragon pictures. after discussing with the children the colours they had seen in the pictures and video clips of the dragons, they set to work to create some beautiful pictures.

Then instead of just painting pictures of the Chinese dragons I thought it would be a good idea to use hand prints to make dragon pictures. after discussing with the children the colours they had seen in the pictures and video clips of the dragons, they set to work to create some beautiful pictures.

The stories we enjoyed.

Winter

For our theme for the new year, we'll be looking at winter, winter animals, sports, clothing and of course snow!

The night before I spent time converting my dining room table to an interesting snow cave, I also had some glow sticks for them to use. They loved, spending a fair amount of time in the cave, reading stories and playing games with the soft toys.

We used some puffy paint -  shaving foam and pva glue to make some snow/snowmen pictures.

They used the snowman match up game from the Montessori Print Shop, to play a solo game of  matching pairs

and then we played a group game of matching pairs.

Made some delicious, gingerbread snowflakes which they decorated with white icing.

We painted snow storms, using masking tape and snowflakes we had cut out,

                            

                           

then painted over them

                            
         
                            

once the paint was dry, I removed the masking tape etc to reveal the snow pictures.

                           
                       
                            

                           

Our Winter Display