Butterfly News
November Review 2010
Dear Parents,
We have had a lovely month, and hope you enjoyed our St Martin celebration as
much as we did. We did a lot of activities and songs this month, and your little ones
really enjoyed our trip to Perlacher Forst.
We have started the theme penguins, and have talked about them at circle time,
and want to do an art activity in the next two weeks.
We lit the first candle on the advents wreath, and talked to the children, all about
advent, and that the advents wreath is called ' Adventskranz.' in German. Then we
sang the song ' Advent ! Advent ! ' Your children really liked it, especially knowing
that Christmas is very soon.
We also said that one must be very careful with fire, that it is very nice to watch
from a distance, but you should not go to close to it ,or touch it , as it is hot and can
burn you and it hurts a lot. ( * then you go to hospital * said one child )' If it is a
big burn you might have to go to hospital, that's true, ' we answered. Also not to
knock it on a carpet or other materials as that can make a big fire.
It was Simons' birthday this month, he brought delicious cake , which we and the
other children said thank you for , we talked about how old he is and counted the
candles, then he blew them out. He had a birthday crown, we sang ' Happy
Birthday,' and 'Heute kann es regnen'.
.
What have we been up to ?
Topic - ' St Martin, Penguins and Winter.'
Art and Craftwork
• Lanterns - Each child got some an empty yoghurt pot, and we made some
holes in it for them to cover, then they chose the colours they wanted to stick
on, we put the container of paper a bit out of reach, so that your children
could practice saying the colours, in German and English.
• Snip, Snip - We let the children have scissors again to practice holding and
snipping paper.
• Snow drawings – We gave the children black paper, and white crayons and
pencils and they made snow pictures.
• Colourful windows – with help the children cut out a rectangle shape, from a
folded piece of paper, a colour which they chose, then they had fun sticking
transparent colourful paper over it, and when we held it up when it was ready,
each child really liked seeing how the colours lit up. The mini windows are on
our big window, and they look beautiful !
Maths
• Colours – We took out the slotting games and the children named the colours
with us and, counted how many pegs they had put, in one slot.
• We also did animal puzzles with your little ones and helped them do the
puzzle, in pointing out pieces, which were the same colour, and looking at the
shape of the puzzle pieces and matching them. Also finding the rest of the
animals' nose, mouth, legs etc.
• Size – We looked at the size of our miniature animal penguins compared to
* Zwieback* our cuddly toy penguin, using the vocabulary big and small,
smaller and bigger.
We also looked at the size of puddles on our way to, and back from the
playground, saying ' a big one ! ' ' a little one.'
We and the children dressed the baby dolls, and the children guessed if the
item of clothing would fit that baby or not, and trying it on too see.
• Matching – We looked at toys we have, and matched them to ones shown in
books with the children.
Science
• All about penguins:
- How they have wings, but can't fly, but can swim.
- How penguins stay warm in the cold.
• We looked at the weather
How has it changed, is it colder?
How can we keep warm ?
Is snow cold or warm, when you touch it ?
Are there any leaves on the trees?
Nature and environment
• We went to playgrounds in the area, and the children had fun jumping up and
down in the puddles.
• We also went in the garden on dry and wet days, your children had a good
time playing in the rain and now that we have snow, they like throwing it up in
the air, chucking it at each other, and filling buckets and sand forms with
snow.
• Perlacher Forst was also very enjoyable, the children were giggling on the
tram and really liked munching Brezeln, and looking out of the window,
naming objects we could see and colours of buildings.
When we got to Perlacher Forst, there was snow and your little ones liked the
walk we did, we sang ' have you ever seen a penguin,' on the way, and other
songs.
We walked to some huts made of sticks and sat on a log and drank tea or
water. The children found a mini snowman, other children had built, who also
go there.
Also as we walked we told the children they could shout out loud as much as
they want to, which they did.
The wood was also very peaceful, and we listened to what we could hear,
birds etc., and a child said ' Zug,' which she could hear in the distance.
The children that stay in the butterfly group have equally a lovely time, as
they have all the toys to themselves and play very intensively with each other.
The first visit the children staying behind had new play mobile toys, to play
with and the second visit they had a big fire engine, tractor and digger to play
with, which will slowly be in the group totally.
Movement and sport
• We sang and moved to action songs, and also with the guitar.
• We waddled around like penguins, it was so cute watching your children do
this.
• The children had fun in the sport room where we practiced throwing and
catching bean bags, and balancing them on our heads, while walking.
• We practiced walking on the gym bench, and showed the children when they
stretch their arms out, it is easier to balance. To encourage this we asked each
child, to try and balance a bean bag on one hand, while walking. It is really
sweet when we first show the children what to do, as they clap and say super
and well done to us, giving praise they recieve :-).
• We put chairs in a row and the children pretended they were frogs, we had a
xylophone and when we played it, each child jumped down. They did so well
taking turns, and waiting for the sound of the xylophone.
• We did a little work out again, stretching, touching our toes, jumping up and
down, crouching on the floor, and jumping up again.
• We sang ' The grand old duke of york,' and each child climbed up on to a
chair and down again, to go with the words of the song.
• We played a game, where the children ran around in a circle until they heard '
stop,' then each child chose an animal, which we then imitated.
Circle time fun
• We talked about sharing – and read a book about a little girl who did not want
her older brother to touch her play food and plates, then when she was
playing alone realized it was not so much fun, as with someone else having a
tea party.
• St. Martin – We read the story of St. Martin and how he shared his cloak by
cutting it in half, with a poor man, who was very cold. The children looked at
the pictures and there was material for them to feel, soft, rough, smooth and
fluffy.
- Then another time we used soft toys, a horse, a teddy, and a frog and did a
little play of St. Martin, your children really liked this.
• Penguins
- What are penguins?
- What colours are they?
- What they eat.
- What sounds penguins make.
- How they move.
• Winter clothes – We put a scarf, gloves and a hat in the middle and named
them with the children, in German and English. Then we asked what part of
the body each item of clothing keeps warm, we also had a book which shows
these clothes and parts of the body they keep warm. The children were very
good at naming the parts of the body and the clothes :-).
We then played the game ' which is missing ? ' covering them with a blanket,
saying abracadabra ! And taking one away, again your little ones did really
well, saying which one was missing.
• ' What colour is missing ' – we played this game again with bean bags, and
your children guessed which colour was missing, we had the colours red,
green and blue( this game is really great in encouraging the children to say
the words and promotes their memory skills).
Music
• With Nikki your children sang:
- A dancing leaves song.
- Si mamaka – shaking egg shakers.
- A penguin song, and your children moved around like penguins.
- A song about chestnuts, then they danced with the chestnuts and tapped
them on the floor and other surfaces.
- ' don, don, diri, diri, song.' with egg shakers.
• Nikki also told the children a story about ' Nikolaus'.
• All the children got little ropes, and held them like reigns of a horse, then
pretended they were riding a horse, slowly then fast to music.
• They also did a chiffon cloth dance.
We sang :
• Songs accompanied by the guitar and your children playing instruments.
• The songs we have been singing are:
- Twinkle star.
- Groß ist die Sonne.
- It’s raining it's pouring.
- Incey wincey spider.
- The happy dance.
- The grand old duke of york.
- Have you ever seen a penguin?
- Bruder Jacob.
- Hickory, Dickory dock.
- 2 Elefanten.
- Ich geh mit meiner Laterne.
- Laterne, Laterne.
- 3 little monkeys jumping on the bed.
We also have started singing Christmas songs :
- Jingle bells.
- We wish you a merry Christmas.
- Advent, Advent.
- Oh Tannenbaum.
Books
• Froggy gets dressed.
• Thomas's big race.
• From head to toe.
• Dig, dig digging.
• The ear book.
• The animal boogies
• I'll share with you.
• Objects found in each room.
• Colours and shapes.
And lots more.
Hope you have enjoyed the review,
all the best the ' Butterfly group.'