It's baking day, but we didn't have enough ingredients to bake bread for our lunch today so instead we did a science project. We are learning about ice and snow this week so we talked about what ice is made of and thought about some words that describe ice and snow. Then we got out a bag of leaves we had collected last fall. The children loved looking at the different colored leaves and remembering the fun walk we took months ago on a beautiful fall day when we decided to collect hundreds of leaves and tried to walk home without all of them blowing away. We arranged the leaves into some different square or circle shaped plastic containers and then filled them with water and put them in the freezer. The children are excited to see what the containers look like once the water has frozen and the leaves become trapped inside the ice! We read the book "Snowshoe Thompson" about a man that carried mail on skis over the Sierra Nevada mountains in the 19th century. The children were quiet amazed at this book. The thought of not receiving any mail all winter long was something they were very surprised at, but that's how life was so long ago when the snow was too hard to travel through. They were very interested to see how one man could make skis himself and ski over the mountains. We talked about different activities we all enjoyed in the ice and snow- ice skating, sledding, skiing, ice fishing, etc.
It was a beautiful fairly warm day outside so the children played outside this morning. Tanmay and Kane enjoy knocking the snow off the play house, trees, and anywhere else that snow has accumulated. The younger kids love to ride on the tire swing, and play with the play house.
When everybody came inside we had our lunch- bologna sandwiches, cheese, green beans, and pear slices.
After lunch we joined again for a short group time. We read the book "I love you with my whole heart", about different animals that live in snow and ice.
We also sang some counting songs, friendship songs, and days of the week. Then we got on our mats for quiet reading time. This time while the children were quietly reading I called the children up one by one to do a special art project- Ice painting!
We put a piece of paper into a plastic container and then squirted a little bit of paint on the middle of the paper. Then we put a few ice cubes into the container and shook it around, moving the paint on the paper. The pictures turned out really neat! The children loved watching the ice cube move the paint around and melt.
Each day while getting ready to go outside we sing our mitten song. I think I have put the words here, but I thought I'd put them on again. The children love this song/

Thumb in the thumb place
fingers all together
this is the song we sing in mitten weather
when it is cold it doesn't matter whether
mittens are wool or made of finest leather
this is the song we sing in mitten weather
thumb in the thumb place
fingers all together

We've had some questions whether children are eating/drinking enough or at all during the day. Yes! They are! If we don't tell you anything about meals than please assume your child is just fine with eating and drinking. We give the children very small portions of food to begin with but once they have eaten every food group if they are still hungry they can have more of something. If your child did not eat anything or ate very little at a meal we will let you know that something is up. We never force children to eat their meals, but we do encourage them to eat at least some of each food group. All of the children here are REALLY good eaters :)