Gingerbread

This week’s focus was all things gingerbread. The kids decorated felt ginger bread boys and girls on the easel, put paper clips on numbered gingerbread kids, and listened to a silly gingerbread poem. The challenge of the poem was figuring out the color of the “disguised” the gingerbread baby. When Ms. Rappaport disguised the gingerbread baby in ‘lime’ icing, they all shouted “green!” Ms Rappaport was not able to trick anyone! I tired every day.

We started to make ‘candy’ for our gingerbread loft. The kids used an old oatmeal container, tiny koosh balls, small paper plates, and paint. Mrs. Bobrow had each kid place a paper plate in the container, squeeze pink and yellow paint, close the lid, and shake! After a little shaking, the kids checked to see what the plate looked like, discovering that the pink and yellow paint made peach.  If the kids decided they needed more shaking(most did), then Mrs. Bobrow had them play a game of rolling the container back-and-forth with her on the table top. This is process art; where the PROCESS is what we are learning, and the finished project is not the focus. Once they were dry, Ms. Rappaport took them to her candy workshop and wrapped them in cellophane. 

Tuesday we made more candy!!!!  Lollipops! A large tray was covered in shaving cream, the kids used popsicle sticks to swirl droplets of paint around, and then a put a paper plate on top. When the plate was pulled off, it created a beautiful marbling effect. The kids used squeegees to scrape off the extra and, once again, Ms. Rappaport transformed them into lollipops in her candy workshop.

The kids also got to do some free painting using their fingers to make a snowy scene and a gingerbread man sponge painting on the easel. 

The kids had a lot of fun this week exploring their sensory buckets, which were filled with cotton balls and snowman making material. What is so much fun about sensory buckets is that I am always surprised how the kids use the different objects, usually never the way I think! I had a couple friends that skipped the snowman activity and used interesting decorative tubing to do their nails. Who knew? 

We did some fun movement videos. The kids loved doing the dinosaur stamp and the highly requested monster hunt. I will try to send home a packet with some favorite class songs and a list of movement videos from class that the kids love and that you can try with them over winter break. 

I will be sending the kids home with their holiday gifts this Thursday, so be on the lookout.

Ms. Rappaport