Fireplaces in Winter

We finally finished up our winter in the woods theme with Experience Preschool.  We went away for a week at Christmas so have been playing catch up since we got back.  One of the days this week we learned about fireplaces.

Ronan got to look at a picture of a fireplace for inspiration and then paint his own using a sponge.  He loves to paint and even got new paints for Christmas.  Experience Preschool provides all the things you need for the days lessons like paper, sponges, manipulatives, etc.  It does not include some main items that get used every month like paint, playdough, crayons, glue, etc.  These are items that are usually used in most preschool curriculum, so they are pretty standard to have at home if you have little ones.  

Next we played a game where Ronan would roll the pocket cube, that is included in the first box from Experience Early Learning, and used every month.  Today there were cards with different numbers of sticks to go in each side of the cube.  Ronan would count out the same number of wood pieces (all our sticks are buried under snow) and work to build a fire with them.  He really liked playing with the wood and stacking it, and together we worked on counting the pieces out loud.  Lately he has been skipping the number 3 so this game was great to work on counting.   

Ronan helped me build a real fire in our fireplace using the wood pieces when we were done with the game.  

Every monthly box from Experience Preschool comes with an I can read book.  Ronan is not close to being able to find sight words, but these books are good for him to learn and repeat new words.  They are a great addition to the preschool curriculum.  The text is simple which makes it easy for him to learn new words.  He was excited to point to the bed when I said the word, since that is one he knows.  

Ronan loves looking at books, and they are suck a great way to learn language.  The preschool curriculum has recommended books for every day of the month.  Bear Snores On was the recommended book of the day.  We also read Stella, Queen of the Snow.  Next month we start a new theme, baby animals.