little illuminations: Polar Pals

Showing posts with label Polar Pals. Show all posts

Sunday, January 25, 2015

Polar Bear Ice Cream Cups

I saw the teachers making these fun little ice cream cups for the kids in the toddler room and I had to share them here with you! They took a plain vanilla ice cream cup, added banana slices for ears, chocolate chips (upside down) for eyes and I'm not sure about the nose but I think it is an upside down Hershey's Kiss. Too cute!!! We will definitely be making these with some of our Polar activities next year! Look for some other fun wintery snacks we've had lately to be posted here soon!

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Tuesday, January 1, 2013

TOP 10 of 2012

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!!

It's been a wonderful year! I'd like to thank the readers here for taking time to read, comment, share and pin the posts here. I get so many of my classroom ideas from things other teachers share, and little illuminations provides me with a way for me to pay it forward (just a little) by sharing here. I am so thankful to get to know so many wonderful folks via the blogosphere and social media. I was even lucky enough to meet several bloggy buddies this year in person! (note to self: I still need to finish that post about the meet-ups at NAEYC!)

To start the year off, I thought I'd share some of your favorite posts. These are the Top 10 little illuminations posts from 2012!

10. Perky Penguins In Pre-K
9. Jump Rope For Heart
8. All in A Day's Play
7. Pet Week Play In Pre-K
6. Baby, It's Cold Outside
5. A Gift For Dad, A Book and A Bloghop
4. Discovery Bottle Inspiration
3. Cloudy With A Chance Of Weather
2. Making Literacy Connections With Our Names

And DRUMROLL, please...... the NUMBER 1 post of 2012 is:

1. Signing In And Out Of Pre-K

In all honesty, posts about bulletin boards are year-round hits---the number of visits to those posts far outnumber any others. I didn't include them in the list above for that reason. I thought I'd include a list of the TOP 5 Bulletin Board posts of 2012 here:

5. Back To School Bulletin Boards...Redux
4. Spring Bulletin Boards
3. Dr. Seuss Bulletin Boards
2. Fabulous Fall Bulletin Boards
1. St. Patrick's Day Bulletin Boards

Now, you've seen what was popular on little illuminations. What was YOUR favorite little illuminations post in 2012? Please share it in the comments!

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Wednesday, January 25, 2012

Learning about Penguins in Pre-K

As part of our "Polar Pal" unit, we did a mini unit on penguins. We learned all about the various types of penguins and the lands they inhabit.

We measured out and colored a life sized Emperor Penguin ...

and then measured ourselves against it.

Of course, we had to include "waddling" as part of our movement activities!

We learned quite a bit about penguin rookeries and how the daddy penguins care for the eggs. We practiced having the mommy penguins pass off the penguin egg to the daddy penguins. We had to remember to only use our feet since penguins don't have "hands". We also had to be careful not to let the egg drop to the freezing snow on the ground so the egg wouldn't freeze. This was much trickier than the children expected!

After the mommy penguins slipped off to find food and swim in the sea,

the daddy penguins had to learn how to stay warm, rotating themselves from the outside to the inside of the huddle. We also practiced waddling as a group, so everyone stayed warm. It was quite a challenge to get everyone moving in the same direction!

Our friend Ms. Christie game us this fabulous cardboard penguin cutout from the movie "Happy Feet". It's been a fun decoration and also helped illustrate how different baby penguins look from fully grown penguins!

(It's hard to tell from this, but it's actually about 2 1/2 feet tall!)

Our "Perky Penguins" have been a bit hit in our school lobby. Be sure to check out "Perky Penguins in Pre-K" to read more about them!

Thanks for visiting! Leave a little "comment love" ~ I'd love for you to share your thoughts! :)

Sunday, January 22, 2012

Baby, It's Cold Outside!

Here in Georgia, we occasionally have cool weather in January, but rarely is it cold enough for snow or ice. That doesn't stop us from really enjoying our winter unit and all the fun that that entails. You may have read about our "Faux Snow Day" on Prek and K Sharing. To help get us in the spirit, we decorated a playtent to make it an igloo, and later made a cute paper plate walrus to adorn it (above). We also made igloos with cotton....