It's December!

Here's our December song:

Sing it to the tune of "Jingle Bells".

This week we talked about Families. We learned what Mom's do, and what Dad's do. We talked about our brothers and sisters. We shared what we love about our Grandma's and Grandpa's. Instead of reading a traditional Balanced Literacy book, we made our own books about our family members.

Beading was a fun new center this week.

The children loved making necklaces, bracelets, rings, and sorting all the different colors and shapes.

For Therrific Thursday. . .

we had a Christmas Dance Party!

Today the children brought home a Santa advent calendar. With each day, have your child glue a cotton ball on to Santa's beard or hat.

First, have them take out all the cotton balls and count out 25.

Then, help them glue 8 cotton balls on, so we're all caught up!

You can store the rest of the cotton balls in the baggie.

Next week we will continue our unit on Families, focusing on traditions. Please help your child think of a tradition your family has, to share with the class on Thursday the 15th.

Our Thanksgiving Feast

What a fun Thanksgiving feast we had on Tuesday!

Pilgrim friends gathered together . . .

enjoying a delicious feast!

Sure, it's debatable if they, in fact, had chicken nuggets back then : )

We made our own Mayflower and re-enacted the long trip to Plymouth Rock.

We also celebrated Logan's birthday -Happy Birthday Logan!

Pilgrim and Indians

We began the week with a left-over hibernation project from last week.

The children thought about what they would bring with them, into a cave, if they hibernated. Then drew their hibernation caves with a white crayon to stand out against their very dark caves.

I loved asking them all about their pictures - don't worry, I wrote it all down for a cute caption in their Portfolios, where you'll see this masterpiece! Hot Chocolate, pillow pets, iPhones, and siblings were a few of the listed "hibernation must-haves".

Then, of course, we had to add a little softness to our hibernation caves - so we glued some fluffy cotton balls around us for comfort.

We learned how the Pilgrims came across the ocean on the Mayflower, and how the Indians were a great help to them. We talked about how the Indians knew how to use the land for food, housing, and transportation.

Then we made our own canoes . . .

and decorated them like the Indians might.

Make sure to check out the Thanksgiving Feast pictures they brought home today - they turned out so cute - and I REALLY wanted to steal them for their portfolio's once I saw how cute they were. I resisted the urge, however, and now you can have a cute Thanksgiving Feast on your refrigerator! Make sure to ask them what kind of food they drew.

Oh, I forgot to take a picture of our snack on Wednesday. The kids sat at a long table just like the Thanksgiving Feast table in a book we read - and it was a highlight of the week. We'll do the same thing at our Feast on Tuesday though!

So, not only are we well versed in hibernation, pilgrims, indians, and well on our way to mastering numbers 0-5, we also found Connor's true calling in life . . .

Song Leader :)

When I asked him what song we should sing on Tuesday, he said, "Um, I think I'd like some rocker stuff."

Have a great weekend!

Getting Ready for Winter

This week we discussed how living things prepare for winter. We talked about hibernation and migration. We also talked about what animals do if they don't hibernate or migrate.

We began the week by created a KWL chart on "Getting Ready for Winter".

K- what we know, W- what we want to know, and L- what we learned.

We listed all the things we know living things do to prepare for winter, and talked about what we'd like to learn more about. At the end of the week, we listed all the things we had learned throughout the week.

We painted Fall Landscapes and wrote poems to go with them...

We began our pictures using a black crayon to create an outline for us to paint in. The children had a fun time mixing and creating new colors with their paints. At one point, it seemed like we were playing musical chairs, as they called out in excitement - "Wow! Look at the color I just made!" And they all had to come over to see the new color :)

I told the "Story of a Tree" - the cycle of the seasons - and we played a game to enforce this concept. We had four baskets, each labeled with a tree from one of the seasons.

The children took turns choosing an item of clothing from a box . . .

Deciding which season we would most likely wear it . . .

And sorting it into the correct season's basket.

We ended our unit on patterns this week.

For our end of unit test the children had to create their own patterns.

And for Therrific Thursday . . .

We got to play with REAL play money :) The kids loved it!

Next week our theme will be Pilgrims and Indians. We'll also finish up a hibernation project. Our math unit will be a review of numbers 0-5. An important part of this unit is introducing correct number formation.

For Your Enjoyment!

Here's the promised video of your cuties jamming it out with "Hey Diddle, Diddle".

Logan and Connor desperately attempt some break dance moves, while the girls keep it real with air instruments :) Just so you know, Ellie is the song leader for the week, that's why she's sitting in the teacher's chair for the majority of the song.

It's November!

Can you believe it's November already?

And as Connor puts it . . . . . .

Our new month song is revealed!!!

One of our weekly jobs is "Calendar".

Here is Kensington fulfilling her responsibilities as Calendar girl.

The kids love this job! And, this is our calendar flower I mentioned in our last post - it's the official pointer for the job - very professional :)

We continued our unit on patterns this week.

Next week we'll have our unit "test" on patterns.

This week our theme was "Fantastic Fall".

We discussed the signs of fall and then went on a Fall Walk to collect all things pointing to the season fall: berries, pinecones, acorns, fallen leaves, etc.

PS- I didn't let them grab any nut gathering squirrels for their bags :)

Then, we took our collected leaves....

And made a leaf rubbing book.

At first the children were . . . a little less than enthusiastic about the activity -seeing as they all have an internal voice chanting - center time, center time, when is it center time? BUT, once they discovered how magical it seemed - rubbing a piece of paper and a leaf appearing - they couldn't get enough of it!

(It also doubled as a color word activity - sneaky, sneaky, I know)

I'll have these books put together for them to take home on Tuesday - so keep your eye out for them!

Favorite activity of the week:

Reading our Balanced Literacy Book -"Fall"- outside, in a fall setting, sitting in leaves, acorns, and berries!

Each child took a turn, as an independent reading activity, and read to the class. It was too stinkin' cute! I should have video-taped it! Don't you love Reese's pose?

And of course, we always have a fun activity to celebrate our Therrific Thursday's

Duck, Duck, Goose!

Next week we'll continue Fantastic Fall, with "Getting Ready for Winter"!

Happy Halloween!

Bug Week

I thought it would be a perfect topic to discover, with Halloween just around the corner.

We learned the characteristics of an insect and made a giant insect for our classroom with all the right parts!

We took our knowledge out for a Bug Walk and made observational drawings of different insects, spiders, and all types of critters we found. Here the students are carefully observing an ant and drawing the different parts they see on their clipboards.

Later we practiced our Roly Poly skills on the hill.

Nice form!

Our Balanced Literacy book this week was about Spiders - make sure to read it with your child. We also made our own bug books, and snuck in a lesson on color words. We'll be doing more with color words in the next couple of weeks.

Thursday was Show & Teach. All the students did a great job teaching us their skill! Connor helped everyone make their own calendar flower- which the students were so excited about. I"ll have to take a picture of our big calendar flower so you know what they're talking about.

Reese brought her bicycle and taught us how to ride without training wheels! The children were in awe :)

And of course...

our Halloween Party was this week!

What cuties I have in my class!

We had lots of fun treats...

We made our own Halloween cookies and decorated them.

And we played lots of fun games!

Ellie was a pro at throwing those rings on the witches hat.

Monster Musical Chairs was a favorite

Logan was the Supreme Monster - he won every time!

We sure had a fun week!

I hope your children enjoy their Trick-or-Treat bags and the books inside!

Next week continues our Fantastic Fall Unit: Leaves!

Just a heads up:

No preschool the last week in November (29th, 30th, and Dec 1st)

Our Thanksgiving Feast will be Tuesday, November 22nd - and there will be no preschool the rest of that week (Nov 23rd or 24th).

Pumpkin Week

We had a GREAT Pumpkin Week!

Even though we didn't go to a real pumpkin patch - we sure had fun at

Miss Jessica's Preschool Pumpkin Patch!

We had a great variety of pumpkins to observe and explore- all different colors and sizes!

Perhaps you've heard your child talk about what job they have in our classroom? This is our job chart.

Each week we take turns fulfilling a job for our class. The student's love being in charge of something! It's a great opportunity for them to learn responsibility and practice leadership skills.

This week, Reese was the "Good Deed" girl -as she calls herself :). When you have the Good Deed job, it's your responsibility to acknowledge stellar behavior in other students and reward them. I have stamps and stickers they get to use. In this picture she's rewarding Kensington with a stamp for singing our October song so well.

Ask your child what job they had this week!

You have probably heard of "Centers" - it's the children's favorite activity of the day! This week, the children were assigned a group and Center. We had blocks, dress-ups, and story telling. Each day the groups rotated through the three centers.

With the groups small (2-3 children), center time becomes a great tool in social development.

It's fun to see social skills in action as classmates continue to develop friendships.

Here, Ellie and Kensington are working together to re-tell the story of Johnny Appleseed.

Whiteboards! The kids love getting to use dry erase markers and write on their own little whiteboard! Every day we use whiteboards to practice correct letter and number formation. It's a very effective way for me to visually assess each student's knowledge or understanding of the concept we are talking about.

This week, we began our math unit on patterns. I started an AAB pattern on my board, and asked the children to continue the pattern on their whiteboards. In this picture, Logan and Connor correctly continued the pattern. You'll see more pattern work through the next couple of weeks.

We were pumpkin scientists this week. Each student chose a pumpkin to weigh, measure, and make note of other distinguishing characteristics.

Today, they brought home the book in which they recorded their observations. Make sure to take a look!

Therrific Thursday was the day we were all looking forward to! We each got our own pumpkin to bring home AND we got to cut open a huge pumpkin to see what was inside!

Before opening the pumpkin we touched and shook it and guessed what might be inside (I heard a lot of past pumpkin carving experiences involving slime). After I cut it open, we made an observational drawing of both the inside and the outside of the pumpkin. We each picked our own seed out. Let me warn you now - there are great hopes and dreams of a magnificent pumpkin patch growing in each of your backyards :)

We talked about Jack-O-Lanterns - make sure to check out your child's "Jack-O" book they brought home today - they all did a great job on them!!

We had such a fun week! Next week we look forward to more Fantastic Fall as we talk about insects!

Thursday we'll have a Halloween Party . . . Don't forget to have your child wear a costume! AND, it's Show N' Teach!