Saturday, November 6, 2010

Teaching Colours, Washing Floors, and Contingency Plans

Early this week, during morning snack, we read a book about colours. It is a Turn & Learn book in which you must turn a little wheel at the side to match the colour being referred to on the page. We talked about the colour on the particular page, and matched the colour on the wheel to it. Then, I gathered some toys of that colour and grouped them on the table. This little lesson would be virtually impossible without a 'captive audience', as they would tamper with the piles and thus not see the colour groupings. 

We have also been noticing what colour plate, cup or bib each child is using during meal times. At other times, we talk about what colour pants, shirt or socks the children are wearing. On our outings, we have been stopping to notice colours: the red mailbox, orange pumpkins, blue newspaper box, etc. 
After lunch one day, one of the children decided she wanted to help me wipe up the floor. Of course, then all the children wanted their own cloth to help out. It was so sweet, and I was very appreciative of their help. Part of me kept expecting them to belt out "It's a Hard Knock Life", in chorus, though.
We have been having plumbing problems in the apartment, recently. As we were having snack on Thursday, one of the workers in the apartment building came in to fix a leak under our kitchen sink. He said it would be helpful if we would get out of the apartment for a while, since he needed to solder the pipes. So, dirty dishes on the table and all (ugghhhhh) we quickly packed up and walked to Chapters in Bloorwest Village.
The kids had a great time playing at the Thomas the Tank Engine table, and other various activities, as you can gather from the pictures above.
Since I was trying to keep the kids out as long as possible before their naps, I decided to give them lunch 'on the road'. We stopped at Timothy's and got a blueberry muffin, and an egg and ham sandwich. Of course, they downed this quite quickly and were hungry for more. 
So....we stopped at Pizza Hut and ordered Cheese Bread Sticks. To my chagrin, as I was paying, the cashier added, "It'll be about 10 minutes". Oh. Four kids, tired and hungry. The video below is a small taste of what this waiting was like. (All kidding aside, they really were pretty good, considering the fact that it is excruciating to wait 10 minutes for food when you are 2!)

On Friday we got the dress-up bin out. Then we coloured on Bristle Board, using markers and crayons. Of course, we talked again about the colours we were using as we did this activity. The kids are definitely getting more into colouring. The activity lasted far longer than it ever has....possibly a whole 5 minutes!   













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