17 Muscles to Smile

This morning we were happy to see some new toys on the carpet area. There was a big box of wooden blocks with ramps and holes cut in them. Next to the box was a container filled with glass marbles which once we had put the blocks together we were able to see if the marbles were able to run all the way down to the bottom. On the table we saw some paint again with some foam rollers. We used white paper and decided for ourselves which color paint we wanted to use to make a beautiful hand print. The paint felt cold and funny on our hands. We spread our fingers and pushed our hands onto the white paper and counted to ten. When we lifted our hands we saw the beautiful colored prints. After we had finished our hand prints we could use the remaining paint with brushes to make our own paintings. Also on the table we used the colored wooden shapes, corkboards, little hammers and small tacks. We made pictures with the colored blocks and then used the hammers and nails to hold them in place. On the second table several of us made our own wooden puppet bodies. When they are all completed we will be able to use them with our new class puppet theatre. We enjoyed our play and art time so much this morning that we didn’t realize the time until we looked up and saw that it was nearly 10 o’clock. Just before we had our snack we made a circle and sat on the carpet. We reviewed all of the days of the week, the seasons and many of our body parts too. After our yummy snacks we looked at a class body puzzle and reviewed the session we did with Pooja yesterday all about muscles. We discovered that to smile we use 17 muscles in our faces but to frown we need to use 43 muscles. The puzzle showed us all of the rest of the muscles in our bodies too. We headed for the park to play a little late today and it was warm and sunny outside when we left. Several of us played on the big slide and looked for treasure in the sandbox. Many of us headed for the green netted area where we had a big running race. We came back and made sure we drank lots of water. In circle time we looked again at the self-portraits we started last week and noticed the oval shape of the head and the shape of the eyes. Today we drew in the shape of the bottom of our noses and nostrils too. Tomorrow we hope to add the mouth too.

Love,

Flowers Class children