We had a cold, rainy couple of days at the beginning of the week, but thanks to rain pants, snow pants, and plenty of warm jackets, the kids were able to play outside for the usual couple of hours. We flipped over the picnic table under the carport and this made a nice boat that stayed dry while the rain fell. I also added some big shovels to our sand area. It was time. The strong digging the children are doing helps keep them warm on these chillier days. Some more sweet potatoes were dug up as well.
Inside, we made some jingle bell shakers to use when we sing our jingle bell songs. It was a challenge for the children to figure out where to put the pipe cleaner through to make the jingle bells stay on, but well worth the effort! The children enjoy singing the bell songs which have parts where bells are played and parts where the bells must be still, and they are all excellent at refraining from shaking the bells during those parts. It's a fun lesson in refraining from something and then participating.
Another fun and tasty activity was separating pomegranate seeds from the pith and putting them in a bowl. We had these seeds with our snack. It's nice when a little fine motor skill exercise leads directly to food; some children did not save the pomegranate seeds until snack time! Another inside game, created by the children, is what I call "candy cane delivery cats". This is when the little kitties unexpectedly drop a little candy cane (which the children made) into your lap. The children love doing this back and forth to one another. I've also noticed them making pretend "Stone Soup" based on the story I've been telling about stone soup.
To exercises our bodies while we're inside, we've been playing a little imitative game sung to a song that goes like this; "I traveled over land and sea. I met a man who said to me, I met a man who said to me 'Oh where do you belong to?' I belong to crawling land, crawling land, crawling land, and everyone who can crawl like me, well, that's where they belong to". We go through quite a few movements and then do our little winter circle. We'll have many more games like this that get the children rolling, reaching up high, crawling and jumping.
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