Mitten theme day

       We've come to the stage in our girl's sisterhood where I spend a portion of our days breaking up sister fights and helping them learn how to differentiate between ''big deals'' and ''little deals".  The girls are good at playing together for the most part but sometimes they get into squabbles over their things or over deciding what to play together or if one would rather play alone for a little.  I love to watch them pretend play and sometimes I let them figure their differences out on their own and sometimes they need a little guidance.  If we are having a rough day a theme day can usually turn that around.  

        Our little mini theme days grab and keep the girls attention, even if for only a few minutes.  They don't require too much planning and we use what we have in the house to make them more interesting to the girls.  I use a lot of what I learned from teaching and usually start by finding a book.  Then I try to incorporate a snack, craft and/or activity.  Some theme days we make up as we go and others I prep so on busy days they are all ready to go.  The girls get excited for theme days and even the littlest change to our normal routine is a big deal to them. When they girls are engaged and busy they get along better and the chaos is a little less.  But somehow it always returns very quickly ;)

      I try to choose a variety of topics/subjects and sometimes they are chosen by me and sometimes the girls pick them.  

Some of my favorite sites for preschool ideas are:

www.dltk-kids.com

http://123child.com/

www.pinterest.com

Last week we had a mitten theme day where we read One Mitten.  Kayla liked pointing out each mitten.  Now she asks to read this book everyday.

Then the girls helped me pick out snacks for them to share and put on our mitten shaped plate.

Lastly I helped them each draw a mitten shape and they used stickers and other little objects to decorate their mittens.