Story Props

Sis was over this weekend.  Last night she made two story props for my classroom.  We use Jan Brett's The Mitten and The Hat as part of our winter curriculum.   Here they are! That's my size 11 foot in the pic for size comparison.  (I really should have made the hat in the shape of a stocking since that's how it goes in the story!)

Here are the hat and mitten with their velcro sections open:

I'm look forward to using these for story telling and re-telling!

The Altos

We do have fun in our family of altos!

Milestones

I noticed a couple of my kids engaging in more symbolic play today.  I wanted to share one of the pictures so I edited out the kids' faces and decided to post it here.  We're about to begin our 2nd cycle of "standardized testing" California preschool style.  Doesn't matter what it's called or that we do it but that we were noticing the kids' development:

Using "rabbit blocks" to create animal pens:

Holiday photos

I had a lovely vacation week with family in the Santa Barbara area with an overnight to Hemet to visit an Aunt.  Here are some of my photos for the week, not quite in order:

Full double rainbow!

 View from Sis' backyard

Ellwood Mesa, just after niece became engaged.

 

Butterfly Preserve

 

In Hemet, getting ready to load up a cart for wood.

 

Gambel's quail

 

Brunch out in SB

Sis' backyard looking like a fairy woodland.

 

Snow, near Gorman

 

A stop to stretch in Ventura