Keeping Our Bodies Moving!

    It's Fitness Fanatics time and the kids are having a blast! During the month of January we focus on ways to encourage a healthy lifestyle! Moving our bodies, enjoying snacks and meals that benefit us, and learning more about healthy habits is our approach to the beginning of a strong foundation for our children. Throughout the month of January our calendar includes a variety of activities that lead us to teachable moments. We are having conversations about the "why" behind taking care ourselves. We are talking about choices and the effects of our choices. We are spending time practicing mindfulness and breathing. We are building each other up during challenges and learning about positive self-talk! Today the children designed and participated in an indoor obstacle course! They did great and had a blast challenging their bodies! Later this month we have winter yoga, healthy hopscotch, MPACT personal trainer visiting, and fitness trivia for our parents! 

Ringing in the New Year

 There is no better way to start 2025 than spending time with these smiling faces! We talked about resolutions, made crafts and noise makers, but mostly spent time together laughing and playing. The holiday season always brings lower attendance in our classrooms, so while we miss our friends who stay home, we enjoy the special bonding time with those that come to school. We wish all our AoCS families a happy, healthy, safe New Year!

Candy Cane Creations

The holiday season is here and what is better to show our holiday spirit than exploring with candy canes!  Our preschool two class used candy canes to help mix paint together to create swirls just like on the candy canes.  They also took their candy canes and mixed them with baking soda and vinegar and watched how fast the candy canes dissolved in the solution. 

 

Growing the Grinch's Heart

Our calendar is full of fun and festive activities this month! We try to incorporate everyone's favorite characters on the calendar; from reindeer and jingle bells to the Grinch and, of course, Santa! The children loved mixing things up and doing a science experiment to 'Grow the Grinches Heart'! We talked about the size of his heart in the beginning and kindness being the real reason Mr. Grinch's heart grew. We learned what a chemical reaction is and then we got to work. Nothing beats a surprise reaction out of child! Their minds were blown when the bubbles starting filling up and the balloon began to inflate! 

       

Painting with Spices

 To welcome the week of Thanksgiving here at AoCS our kids painted with spices! They smelled cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, ginger, and pumpkin. Then they added water and created works of art! 

National Day of Kindness

National Day of Kindness at AoCS!!! 

Each child worked on an "acts of kindness" punch card throughout the day to give them a visual representation of how easy it is to be kind! Small acts of kindness not only warm the hearts of others, but they learned that it makes them feel good, too! As a reminder of the warm and fuzzy feelings felt on this day, each child took home a "warm fuzzy" friend. In a world full of misunderstandings, we hope that we can foster an urgency within our children to choose kindness, even if its tough sometimes. 

A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving!

 

Celebrating the season with Charlie Brown and Friends! Snoopy knew just what kind of feast kids really enjoy, and boy was he right! While I read the book aloud today, the children snacked on "jellybeans", pretzel sticks, and popcorn! While the snack was yummy, it was the message that I was eager for them to understand. We discussed how we have so much to be thankful for and during this time of year, we want to remember how fortunate we are. We linked this lesson to our school wide gratitude chain, as well. Many children made connections between our conversation and those that they have been having at home with Mom and Dad.