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!