BEACH DAY!!

Beach day is here!! We have a lot of fun things planned for our special day.

Here are some of the things we do to make this day special for the kiddos and brighten up a dreary winter day!

Have some beach boy music playing as the kids enter the room. We decorate our room with some beach things I borrow from a friend who did a beach themed Bible school at her church. Check out the styrofoam surf board!! We also hang blue crepe paper from the ceiling tiles to give the illusion of under the sea!





Next, here is our day at a glance.
1. Dancing and using bean bags to beach type music.
2. Putting beach balls in the middle of a parachute and doing some parachute play.




3. Having a relay race with flippers, goggles, and a snorkle.




4. Eating octopus, hot dog cut in 1/2 with legs.







5. Making an edible beach~ vanilla pudding cups, crushed vanilla oreos on top, beach umbrella, and fun strips gum.



6. Painting an ocean picture.
7. Sink and Float center~ large tub filled with water and objects that sink and float.





8. Finishing our hand and foot lobster.







9. Having tons of fun!!!

Beach day is always fun in the winter. We just had a snow day, so sort of fun to think about wearing our shorts and flip flops on a cold winter day!

Frosty the Indoor Snowman!

No snow, no problem! ;) Here is Frosty the indoor snowman!!



You'll need polar fleece or felt. I bought 1and 1/2 yards of 60 inch wide Polar Fleece, it was on sale. ;) Then cut 3 circles. A friend of mine gave me a snowman kit. The nose is the pointy part of a turkey baster painted orange. Then glass globs for the eyes and mouth and buttons for the front. He has a polar fleece scarf and mittens. His pipe is a kazoo. ;) You could also use sticks for the arms. At school we have lots of fun dress up things, so we are going to put various things in a large chest for the kiddos to create!


Another snow idea~ use packing peanuts as pretend snow. My coteacher had a lot of these from some packages. So, another cute indoor snowman as a craft! :0) We are going to put out the extra "snow" in a center. :)

Baby it's cold outside!!

Well, not too cold here yet, but we are in for some much colder weather soon, so it's time for some fun indoors!! :) This month our center theme is beach and winter. Wishful thinking, huh?! ;)

Our sand table is filled with seashells. We numbered them 1-50 and the kiddos search for them and put them in order.




Our dress up center is filled with winter hats, mittens, and scarves AND leis! Had to throw some beachy stuff in there too. Table toys are really floor toys, giant ocean puzzles and sea shell sorting. We are going to be introducing some new"special" centers each week.

One special center is going to be an indoor snowman. I got a build a snowman kit from a friend for Christmas. We haven't had any real snow, so I thought why not make one inside!! I'm going to buy felt at Hancocks or Hobby Lobby and cut out some large circles. Then they can use the build a snowman stuff to decorate their snowman. :) I thought about using styrofoam balls, but I was afraid that would get torn up quickly.

Another special weekly center is going to be fishing. We had a ton of plush fish donated to our school. They are little coin purses with a zipper and pouch. We are going to put a blend in the fish and let the kids fish them out of a swimming pool, if I can find one now, and make a word. A magnet on the end of the fishing line will attach to the zipper on the fish. Really hope the little blow up pools are out now!!

On Fridays, we have Fabulous Fridays with all centers. The first Friday of the month we are going to make sweet starfish. We made these last year for our Open House, in Jan., and Beach day celebration. You mix water and sugar with food coloring. Making a sticky paste, you paint on the mixture to a star fish. They turned out cute last year! We are also going to do a following directions page to make an eel.

The second Friday, we are going to get brave! We are going to make Lobsters and crab t-shirts. We made the crab t-shirts last year and they were DARLING!





The Lobster is new. I found it at teachingheart.net. :) Cute site! It's made with hands and feet!!




Yes, we are getting brave because we'll be painting hands and feet.:) We are doing it all together so we can knock out the mess in one day! Check out the Lobster on the website and I'll post pictures when we are done. :)

Beach day is quickly approaching!! I'll post more details and pics soon!!