Happy Halloween!

We dressed in our Halloween costumes today for school (if the children wanted):)

Pumpkin Carving

I bought a pumpkin for the children to carve into a Jack o'Lantern today. Before cutting it open I asked them what they thought would be inside. Here were their responses:

a train

goo

a puzzle

a tangle of things

seeds





Then I cut open the top and we all looked inside. The the children got the magnify glasses so they could examine the pulp and seeds better. They all agreed it was "stinky" inside:)





I stuck my hand inside to pull out more of the strings and seeds. I asked if they wanted to help but they boys thought I was crazy!! Kylie did take a turn going in and pulling out some seeds:)

Then they all took the marker and helped draw a feature on the pumpkin for me to carve. Chase and Kylie drew the eyes and Todd drew the nose. I did the mouth. I think Mr. Jack turned out pretty cute!!

We have done a couple of Halloween art projects this week. I wish I had a picture of the children doing their footprint ghosts from Tuesday but I didn't have enough hands! It was so funny to watch the expression on the children's faces as I painted their feet with the white paint. Some giggled and others wanted to be "tough" and not laugh or wiggle. They turned out really cute.....don't know if you can tell from the picture that they are ghosts or not.....


The other art project was making a candy corn from torn paper. For morning work on Tuesday I had the children tear orange, yellow and white paper into little pieces. Then today they glued the different colors onto the paper to make their candy corn. Chase is using a pair of tweezers to pick up his white paper. This is great exercise for those fine motor skills!

[before Kylie started her project she said the blank candy corn(it was a beige color) looked like a big nose....and it really did:) They say the cutest things!]

Sorting

I attended the GAYC(Georgia Association on Young Children) annual conference this month where I could attend workshops and purchase items for our classroom. There was a science booth with lots of fun things! I found these tiny snakes, frogs and lizards that I knew the children would love. They are using tweezers to sort the creatures which will help build the muscles in there fingers-those fine motor skills needed for writing.

Speaking of schedules.....

The newsletter stated that we would be learning about Sports and Wheels the last 2 weeks in October....but I forgot how much fun it would be to learn about pumpkins and Halloween! So we have been doing lots of activities with pumpkins instead. We have also been learning this poem "Five Little Pumpkins". Todd already knew it!

Today we did a counting activity with pumpkins and also finished the "Pumpkin Study" book where the children measured and drew a picture of their own "Tiger Striped" pumpkin.

Our Schedule

After a few months I have figured out a schedule that fits well with the children. This picture is of the "activities" we have during our preschool day. The leader gets to move the "What's Next?" spaceship during the day when we move from "circle time" to "centers" or from our second "circle time" to the "music/outside/good-bye" activities. Below is a breakdown of our schedule:

9:00-9:30 Welcome to school! The children come in and sit at the table where I have an activity waiting for them to complete as we wait for the other children to arrive.

9:30-9:40 Circle Time: we pick our leader, take attendance, review the letters, read a book, sing a song, check the weather, and discuss what we will be doing that day.

9:40-11:25 Center Time: The chilren are allowed to pick a center to explore. I have a couple learning activities that I will do with a small group or individually while they are at centers.

[Around 10:30 I ask the children if they are ready for snack-which they always are:) so we all go to the bathroom together, wash up, and sit at the table where the leader passes out the plates and cups for snack. They all pick a story for me to read while they eat. This is a fun time for everyone! This will last for about 20-25 minutes]

11:25-11:40 Circle Time: After cleaning up our centers, we gather again for another circle time where we will review what we did that day. We will also review the shapes and numbers and play a learning game.

11:40-12:00 Music/Outdoor/Good-bye: This is where we will do music activities or play outside as we wait to be picked up by our parents.

**although I feel this schedule will work for us it is always subject to change! Some days we may end centers early and play a group game or we may skip another activity if another one is going so well! flexibility is the key here!**

The children brought in some fall leaves for us to investigate and sort. It was their first time with the magnify glasses and they enjoyed seeing everything "bigger":)

Bubbles!!

There is just something about bubbles!!

Puzzles

Puzzles are always a big hit with the preschool children. I pulled them off the shelf today so they would play with them after they finished their morning work(which today was sorting acorns) and that is all they played with the whole day. It always amazes me how something simple as puzzles will intrigue them for a long time. While they are assembling their puzzles I am watching and giving clues as to where a piece might fit. After their puzzle is complete I may ask them a question about the picture. Yesterday Chase put together an airplane puzzle. I asked him where it might be flying. His reply was, "hmmmm......maybe Powers Court". :) Which is the street where his father and uncle have been working for a couple months.

The pictures above is a puzzle that one of the children started and the others came to help. I also helped the children look for clues where a piece might fit, locating the corner pieces, edges, etc. They were very proud when they were finished!

Kylie turned 4 today!! She is so much fun to have at preschool with the boys! She calls them her "brothers":)


She couldn't wait to get to that icing!!

Happy Birthday Kylie!

Making Rain

We talked about weather this week and today the children made clouds (pulling apart cotton balls) and raindrops(glue). Once the glue dries clear it will be a nice texture for their little fingers. We also incorporated a weather graph into our circle time activities in the morning. (Kylie and Todd already finished their picture and are in the background building with blocks and doing puzzles)

Sorting acorns

This morning the children sorted piles of acorns. There were 3 categories: hats on(complete acorn), hats (empty acorn shell), or acorns(without the shell). We even found a couple worms in with the acorns:)