New Year's Eve

Happy New Year!

 Preschool on Wednesday was full of learning about the what a new year was.

 We sequenced the months of the year.

 We wrote in our journals after talking about New Year's resolutions and how people like to keep track of the important things in their lives.

 We made paper plate noisemakers by coloring on a plate, folding it in half, adding 1/4 cup beans and stapling it closed.  We also made party hats.  I used a cheap blue party hat to trace the outline onto large construction paper and then they colored their own and added glitter.

I love how "I" and "M" hold hands when they go down the stairs.  They are so fun!

 The girls checking out their party hats.

 We talked about how one year is one rotation of the earth around the sun.  We rolled the "Earth" ball around the "Sun" ball and every time it got back to the beginning we yelled, "Happy New Year!" And shook our noisemakers.

Then I had this printable (click on the picture to download it).  I can't believe I didn't get any pictures of the kids using it, but basically cut out both circles and attach the sun to the center of the Earth circle with a brad and then teach them to hold the sun still while they rotate the Earth around the sun.  When the Earth gets back to the beginning they can yell, "Happy New Year!" and make lots of noise!

 During our noisy play with the printable and all out music fest I turned on the CD from the Amazing Action Alphabet.  I sat on the floor with the flip chart and followed along.  "I" was completely adorable and came and snuggled next to me while the other kids ran around continuing their party.  She was tracing the letters with me.

 And doing all the actions (T the tiger taps his tooth).

 We also printed out the large motor Hop Along the Path game from my New Year's Printable.  The kids always love this game, though in my classroom we haven't learned how to associate it with counting a number of spaces to move with a dice, they just jump and count, which is perfectly reasonable - they are just a 3 year old class and have a year and a half before they start kindergarten anyway :)