February 2015 » Love in Mt. Denali
Boy, could we feel the love in the air this February! Ready for some Valentine’s Day fun, the children wasted no time getting their hands dirty in art projects, planning secret surprise gifts for
moms and dads, baking yummy treats, and of course, tracking down those mysterious footprints all over our classroom! Love wasn’t all we brought to the classroom, a mysterious “love bug” seemed to be playing in our classroom, leaving red heart footprints all over our tables, floors, and furniture! We never were able to catch the love bug in action, but it sure prompted questions regarding its identity. While we tried to unravel the mystery, we got to work
spreading our own love by creating “long-distance hugs” to share with friends and family. With moms and dads often leaving on work trips or heading to the office for the day, we realized they must miss us like crazy. To help fill their bucket, we painted our hands and made two red handprints on white paper. Once the paint dried, teachers helped cut them out and use our fine motor skills to tie strings between each hand. Suddenly, hugs were being given out left and right! We hope you all got one of your own!
Afterwards, we began working on our TOP SECRET surprise gifts for moms and dads. Wanting to show them just how much we love them, what better way than to give them our hearts! Figuratively, we mean. Decorating heart shaped keepsake boxes with heart foam stickers and
sequins, we decided a long distance hug just wasn’t enough, we wanted to make something our moms and dads could take with them everywhere, our hearts on a keychain! Using special shrink film, each friend traced a heart shaped stencil and decorated it with sharpie markers. Once their 
drawings were complete, we took each heart and baked it in the oven for approximately two minutes on 350 degrees. To our surprise, the shrink film shrunk to more than half its original size and now our hearts were the size of the palms of our hands! Attached onto keychain rings, we were able to decorate two hearts, one for mom and dad, and place them inside our heart keepsake box as a special surprise. We hope you loved them!
Of course, we couldn’t end the week without baking some
yummy treats and passing out our valentines! Working on recognizing ingredients and identifying measurements, each friend was responsible for one ingredient. Using basic math skills and fine motor skills to handle measuring cups and spoons, we used a basic recipe to make delicious Valentine’s Day sugar cookies. Visualizing cause and effect as 
certain ingredients were added to our mixture, we tested the dough periodically to see if it was ready to be molded. Once “doughy” enough, we took turns rolling the dough into balls and flattening it to be able to use our heart shaped cookie cutter. Once placed onto the
cookie tray and baked, we made our own frosting from scratch and added pink food coloring to turn it pink. With frosting ready to go, we began decorating our cookies, adding sprinkles to add to our sea of frosting, occasionally having to lick the frosting that kept getting on our fingers. Looking too good to pass up, we decided to dive in and “test” our cookies. Just to make sure they were safe. Hopefully you all got to “test” them too! And if you didn’t get to hear all about our Valentine’s Day at school, here are a few pictures to get you caught up!
yummy treats and passing out our valentines! Working on recognizing ingredients and identifying measurements, each friend was responsible for one ingredient. Using basic math skills and fine motor skills to handle measuring cups and spoons, we used a basic recipe to make delicious Valentine’s Day sugar cookies. Visualizing cause and effect as certain ingredients were added to our mixture, we tested the dough periodically to see if it was ready to be molded. Once “doughy” enough, we took turns rolling the dough into balls and flattening it to be able to use our heart shaped cookie cutter. Once placed onto the cookie tray and baked, we made our own frosting from scratch and added pink food coloring to turn it pink. With frosting ready to go, we began decorating our cookies, adding sprinkles to add to our sea of frosting, occasionally having to lick the frosting that kept getting on our fingers. Looking too good to pass up, we decided to dive in and “test” our cookies. Just to make sure they were safe. Hopefully you all got to “test” them too! And if you didn’t get to hear all about our Valentine’s Day at school, here are a few pictures to get you caught up!
For you, Noah!
Who's ready to pass out valentines? Me!
A valentine for you!
And you, too!
Check out this cool valentine!
Look, I made something for you! 
Thank you Taavi!
Whoa, how awesome!
Along with all the love going on in Mt. Denali, we decided to integrate kindness into our curriculum and revamp our kindness heart concept. Creating new kindness heart buckets to resemble heart pouches, we reintroduced kindness hearts and ways we can earn them. Hanging them up in our circle area, we will take a moment each day during morning circle to highlight kind acts our friend have earned, hoping to encourage more kind acts to follow. At the end of each week, our friend will be able to check their buckets and take home all the hearts they earned that week to show moms and dads. For each kindness heart earned, Ms. Keri and I will write what kind act that friend initiated or was a part of. Our goal is to build positivity both inside and outside the classroom and encourage kindness in any way we can. From the simplest acts such as grabbing a pencil for a friend to helping a friend in need. Let the kindness begin!
Happy February!
With Love,
Ms. Lisa and Ms. Keri
