What is fluffy, white, and floats up high?

  Clouds, of course! 
  Charle$ $haw's book, It L00ked Like Spi1t Milk, is a great story to share with emergent readers.  Anyone can make their own story book with either of the following activities. First, take a piece of blue construction paper and pour a small amount of white paint into the middle of it.  You can either fold the paper in half, rubbing your hand over the top of the paper OR you can take a straw and blow the paint around the paper. (This is what I do.)  Next, have the artist tell you what their painting looks like to them. You will write "it looked like spi!t milk...but it wasn't spi1t milk" on the first page of your new book.  On each succeeding page you will write the words "it looked like ______(fill in what the child tells you their picture looks like to them)...but it wasn't ______(write the same word)."  Continue this step with each page the children made.  Your final page will say, "it was just a cloud in the sky!"

  Additional activities you can do to support this theme are to: look at clouds and discuss them together; make white felt pieces similar to those in the book and have children sequence and/or match them on a felt board; play with shaving cream (be cautious with this activity); dance around like clouds in the sky on a breezy day; say the following rhyme and riddle. 
  * Clouds
    Clouds in the sky all fluffy and white,
    Hide the sun that shines so bright!
    They float about the sky so blue,
    And form so many great shapes too!

  *Clouds Riddle
    What's fluffy, white, and floats up high?
    Like a pile of cotton in the sky?
    What doesn't seem to make a sound
    As the wind pushes them all around?
    What brings in the rain?
    What brings in the snow?
    And sends it showering on us below?
    When you look up in the sky,
    What are those things you see float by?
               CLOUDS!

It's been awhile

Life has been busy!  It was my intention to update this blog last week while visiting my daughter, however, the camera was left in my car.  Look for many good things to come!

Class Quilt

Last night was the first night in our Creative Activities class.  I always dislike the necessary but BORING step of going over the syllabus - that part is never fun...  Much needed rain prevented us from going outside to break up the night with 'get-to-know-you' activities.  We did complete a class quilt showing alikes and differences.

This semester looks to be quite exciting! A fun group of students!!  - Long live Fred the Moose!

The New Year Begins

I have enjoyed the brief break from school by visting with four of our six children and three of our grandbabies.  (We were fortunate to be able to see another child and our other two grandbabies over the Thanksgiving holiday!)

I leave for an intense weekend in Dallas for the program I am a student in and will hit the ground running when I return home, as Creative Activities begins, this time on a Monday.  Emergent Litracy (lecture and practium courses) begin in Febuary and Active Learning and Play in April.

This is the time of year my husband and I do not get to spend a lot of time together, as he teaches, as well.  We try to make the most of our time off - usually by catching up on shows, renting a movie and being in the same room together as we grade papers.  (At least he is not teaching an online class this semester, that was time consuming, to say the least...)