january slump

it's here- the most difficult stretch of winter. it is nearly impossible to be motivated and excited when we have sub-zero temperatures and the ground is covered in ice. i know that the coldest bit is still to come, and we have a solid eight weeks before we start to round the corner.

well, at least we have lots of fun things happening in the classroom.

we've been building bridges indoors using our giant hollow blocks. if you fall off, the crocodiles will eat you.

there has been an obsession with building houses and people with legos lately. my older, kindergarten-bound girls gather together every day and engage in this play. each evening they put their names on their work and come back to it the next day. i briefly considered bringing a dollhouse and furniture into the classroom for them, but decided against it. they are learning far more by building their own lego houses and furniture and people.

gingerbread fever continues. we've put cinnamon into the sand table and made gingerbread-scented play dough and decorated construction paper gingerbread people. tomorrow we are mixing up real gingerbread cookie dough, and on friday we will roll them out, cute them, and bake them.  next week, in keeping with the theme of winter foods, we will make hot chocolate. i'm wondering if the conversation will naturally turn to soup in the enxt couple of weeks as we continue to talk about seasonally appropriate foods. i would love to spend a bit learning about stone soup and making soup of our own.