CCLS Little Chargers 2016-2017: WINTER is here!

Winter is here! Our class came back for a short, but exciting winter week. Mrs. Larson started off our week with chapel. We learned about the three wise men and their travels following the bright star to find baby Jesus.

Sequence Board Game

The children are learning to play games without the help of an adult. Social and self-help skills of taking turns, gaining independence, and self-esteem are being developed along with the positive attitudes from doing it by themselves.

Writing Center

Writing skills have grown so much.

The class is exploring with the writing of words and names. One of our favorite phrases to hear is, "How do you spell....?" It shows us the students' interest in writing and putting words with their drawings and the development of the next level of understanding the written language.

This activity can be encouraged at home by having an additional sheet of paper while the children are drawing. On the separate sheet, have them write the letters to the simple words that describe their drawings. For example, if your child draws themselves sledding down a hill, have them write the words, "sled", "snow" and "hill". This is a good parent/child activity to wind down before bed at night.

"This is my walking house for baby Jesus." "That would be a good gift!"

It's 2017!

We are starting to work on writing our names with lower case letters in their sign-in weather journals.

Building a winter town with the Lego.

The last few days we have been watching the baby eagle in Florida. It is fun to learn a little about eagles as questions arise and we look up the answers. We have been able to watch the mom and dad feed the baby along with seeing the fresh fish the parents deliver to the nest.

Marble Mazes

The children have been really interested in building Lego marble mazes to see if the marble can make it from one side to the other. This is a STEM exercise that helps stimulate problem solving skills, math skills, engineering skills along with the social skills of taking turns and working together.

Mirror Drawing

Children love to watch themselves write and draw. This simple activity of drawing on mirrors allows them to watch themselves along with reflecting on what they are doing.

SNOW DAY at SCHOOL!

It was so exciting to hear the JOY and EXCITEMENT the children expressed when we came up from the gym and it was really snowing hard. Not only did we have a sock day, we had an indoor snow day.

Observing and drawing the snow day

These three girls were very excited to sit by the windows and draw all that they were seeing.

Indoor SNOW DAY!

"Wait, what? Mrs. Kiessling we are bringing snow inside?"

"Yes, we are! And we are going to paint it!"

Snow painting was so much fun. Using water color paints the children painted on the snow changing the colors of the snow. I think they had more fun playing in the snow, which was fine also. They explored the texture and temperature and how it changed consistency without knowing they were developing their science observation skills.

Using magnifing glasses they were checking out the different shapes of the snowflakes.

Snow Scenes

Our class started a week long project of making a winter snow scene. Working on the very important fine motor skill of cutting, they cut out different sizes of circles. They will use these circles to form their snowmen for their winter picture. We encourage you to also work on this skill at home. They can cut out coupons or ads from a newspaper. Give them old magazines to cut out their favorite pictures, or draw shapes for them to cut out. This helps build up the muscles in their fingers that will help them with their writing skills.

"My scissors can talk!"

During Jesus time we learned about the wise men following a star to Bethlehem. On Friday the children painted stars as a reminder that Jesus was revealed to all people, even outsiders like the wise men.