F, 9, Simple Machines/toy factory

The kids were Santa's elves today in their very own toy factory.

Book: Press Here, by Herve Tullet

Song: Rudolf the Red-Nosed Reindeer

Literacy activity: Fantastic Fun Factory: I had the kids each draw and cut out something that started with the "F" sound for our fantastic fun factory sign which we later posted on the front door. Ideas include: fingers, flap, fold, fire, fringe, fuzz, feet, five, four, anything "fantastic" or "fabulous." We used phrases like "fit the fingers on our factory" and "fun frillly fish."

Number 9: Lined the kids up from a bin of toys to my Christmas tree, and they passed items down the line to put 9 ornaments and 9 jingle bells on my tree, and 9 stuffed animals and 9 balls under the tree.

Snack: Hot cocoa (or chocolate milk) and orange slices

Science/social studies: simple machines--inclined planes and pulleys.

• For inclined planes I pulled out my marbleworks toy and we built a run for the marble to go down.
• For pulleys, I showed them how to make a pully by having kids sit on 2 buckets and winding a clothesline around them (the buckets, that is). I then gave the kids paper, pens, and clothespins and they "wrote" messages to each other, used clothespins to put the messages on the clothesline, then pulled on the line to send the message to the other side. The kids LOVED this and it was a great writing activity.

Choosing time: continue playing with inclined planes and pulleys.