Happy Lips

Yes, it really did snow a lot in central Virginia last week. We were out of school for 3 1/2 days--YEAH!!! Thought you'd enjoy seeing the snow and my personal "snowman" who kept us warm by faithfully stoking the woodstove several times a day.

Here are some photos of a fun activity we did recently with a group of 3-5 year olds in a class for preschool kids with varying abilities. The adults pre-cut happy lips and provided 2" x 8" strips of sturdy white paper with each student's name written in all caps, each letter separated by vertical lines. The students snipped apart the letters of their names, along with some extra snips for teeth. We provided extra strips of paper for making lottsa teeth.

Once the snipping was done the students glued the paper teeth to the back of the happy lips, turned over the lips and glued them to a black background paper. After this they arranged the letters to spell their names and glued the letters to the same background paper.

This activity was part of community helpers week and the session included reading a book about sleeping fireman, policeman, postman... and then having the students take turns sitting in a "dentist's" chair for an exam. Some of them were a little freaked out at the idea of laying back in the chair and having their friendly OT lady turn into a scary, white-coated medical professional. However, they all ended up asking for a turn when they saw that their braver classmates made it through the ordeal without suffering.