11-24: Autumn Theme (T is for Turkey)

 We are having so much fun this month!  One of our activities today was to make turkey cupcakes.  I had meant to have candy corn for them to use but found out it is a Halloween candy and couldn't get it.  Oh well, Mike & Ike's worked fine.  :)

 I am so proud of these little guys. They had lots of fun putting these together.

 They had more fun eating them!  The funny thing though is that none of them would eat it until they had removed the eye candy.  lol!

 After the cupcakes we did a coffee filter painting.  The watercolor spreads to make beautiful pictures!

 The boys were bonding over linkin' logs during centers.

 The library is getting utilized more and more and that makes me so happy!

 During individual learning we practiced writing our names.  Some are getting the hang of it more easily than others and that's ok.  Please work with your little ones on holding a writing utensil and tracing their names.

 We had lots of fun in centers and then we played with play dough.  Again, cutting it with the scissors is great practice for their little fingers.

Stone Soup!

Instead of having a Thanksgiving dinner at school, we are going to use the book, "Stone Soup" as our theme.  I think you will find it extremely appropriate for the season.  This is the book I will use.

It is a really sweet story about travelers that come to a city in the winter seeking a hot meal.  The villagers tell the traveler that they are starving and have nothing to give him.  The traveler promises to make them "Stone Soup."  In the end, each villager finds a little something to put in the pot with the stone and they all end up with a marvelous soup and they are happy.  It is basically a story about sharing.  I love it!  

To go along with this theme, I will be giving each child an assignment to bring a vegetable to put in our "stone soup."  We will read the story and then make the soup.  I will provide cheese and fruit to go with it in case someone isn't willing to try it.  Please start prepping your child for this event.  I really would love for everyone to try the soup.  If they do, they get a stone that says, "I tried stone soup!"  

I will send home notices but here are the assignments:

Jaxon: 1 small bag frozen diced carrots (or fresh diced very small)

Kaisley: Beef Bullion (2-3 cubes)

Branson: 1 small bag frozen peas

Sloan: 1 small bag frozen corn

Harper: 1/2 small onion, diced very fine

Everly: 1 small bag of frozen diced potatoes (or fresh diced very small)

Luke: 1 small package of dinner rolls

Kynslee: plastic spoons and napkins (just enough for 10)

Kambree: Small pasta - like alphabets or small shells (something that will cook fast)

This event will be the day before Thanksgiving on Wednesday.  Our letter of the week will be S.  If you can't be there, please let me know in advance.  In this case you can either arrange to have someone else cover your item or you can drop it ahead of time.

Thank for your help!  I think that they will really enjoy it.   

11-12 - Autumn theme

Today was another great day.  We had a lot of fun creating things for the season.  I didn't get very many pictures today because we were just too busy.  We started our day outside.  The weather is getting quite cold so please send your child in a jacket or a coat.  We will be playing outside every day so it is important that they dress for that.  Thanks!
After circle time we read stories about fall and then came over to the table.  We made caramel apples!  If you have never tried caramel apple wraps, you definitely should!  They are so easy and fun.  The main point of the apples is that they were to take them home and share them with you.  This whole month has an underlying "sharing" theme.

 I loved this because they were able to do it almost completely autonomously.  The only thing they really needed help on was the stick and wrapping it in plastic to take home.  I love projects like this that can really build their confidence.

 We had so much fun making them.  If you happened to get a picture of eating it with them, I would love a copy of that for the blog.  Thanksgiving really is about sharing.  I love it!

 While we waited for the caramel to soften in the warm oven we colored Thanksgiving pictures.  Some like to color and others are done in 2 seconds so I always tell them that they can finish at home.

 We had time for centers, played a thanksgiving picnic game, and in individual learning we made turkeys with our hands.  I think they turned out absolutely darling!

We had snack, played outside, created another "hand" craft and had a great time with each other.

We have been having some behavior issues that the picture chart is not solving so I decided to implement some positive reinforcement.  I will be choosing one student each day to celebrate.  The student who demonstrates the best behavior will receive a sticker ribbon.  I understand that this may cause some tears at first but I am hoping that it will be more of an incentive.  I will make sure that every single student is honored by the time school ends.  If you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to contact me privately.  Thanks!

Miss Becca

11/5 - autumn unit: A is for Autumn

We had a great day today.  We are continuing to learn about Autumn.  This week is a study of the letter A.  Today was all things Autumn.  They did really well!

 These are a couple of the books we read today.  The children really enjoyed them.

 I found these adorable autumn colored sixlets in bulk so the kids had fun identifying the colors and eating them of course.

 I am in love!  They have sixlets in holiday themed colors!  These will definitely be making an appearance on my Thanksgiving table!

 We continued discussing Johnny Appleseed and his selflessness

 Centers are always a hit.

 At the end of the day we did an art project.  We made a fall tree on our wall.  The children painted their hands in finger paint and then placed it on the branches of our tree.  I love how it turned out!

P.S.  I have added a page to the side entitled: Preschool Calendar 2015.  Please refer to it for any calendar question.  Thanks!

11-3 Autumn Unit

A is for Apples!!!!
I had so much fun today.  I have to admit, I loved this theme so much that I prepared way too much. We will continue with apples on Thursday.  As soon as everyone arrived we headed to the park to enjoy the day.  This time we took buckets, cups, and spoons so that everyone could play in the sand.  They had so much fun!  Sorry if they came home a little sandy.

 After we played at the park we had our snack.  It's so nice outside now it's just too hard to resist a picnic when we can.  

Then we went back and had circle time where we were introduced to the new theme, shape, color and letter of the week - A.  Our Autumn unit start with a study on apples.  

This is the book we read.  

 We also learned about Johnny Appleseed who was so kind and shared his talents with the pioneers by planting apple seeds.  I really tried to emphasize that he planted the seeds for others - this month is all about sharing and gratitude.  

After circle time we went over and tried three different colored apples - red, green, and yellow.  Then we made a graph!  Each child placed a square on the board according to which apple they liked best and then we discussed it.  I was so proud of them.  The lights definitely went on.  

After we discovered that red was liked by the majority we discussed how apples could be used differently - they can be cooked, squeezed, etc.

We tasted applesauce and then we tasted apple juice and talked about the different consistency.  

We looked in the core of the apples and pulled out the seeds.  

 This was our craft for the day - Johnny Appleseed hats!  

Centers are always fun!

 We have playdough and soft pom poms to play with at the sensory table.

 I put out some different toys in the free play area and they all liked them.  

 We made and served lots of delicious food in the practical living area.  They are so cute!

It was a fun, full day and I hope they enjoyed it as much as I did.  We will continue learning about apples next time.