Fantastic Fall: Getting Ready for Winter

 This week we discussed how we use Fall to get ready for winter.

After we discussed what some animals do to prepare for Winter, 

we illustrated a book "Who Needs a Coat".

 Then we learned about animals that hibernate, and animals that migrate.

While Montego held up an animal, the children helped him place it in the correct category on the rug - hibernates, migrates, or grows a thick coat of fur to stay

Our balanced literacy book this week was 

entitled "Fall" - full of signs and colors of the season!

Using our knowledge of the characteristics of fall, we painted a Fall Landscape.

We always make an outline with a black crayon to include detail 

before we add our watercolors.

Grant drew a tree with leaves falling to the ground, acorns, and a pumpkin.

We finished up a Fall book by making a beautiful leaf cover

(those books are in their portfolio folders).

The letter "N" was introduced this week.

We had lots of practice writing letters and numbers on the whiteboards.

(Bailee and Montego are pretty excited to both have blue markers!)

 We practiced blending sounds we have learned the past few weeks into words.

We also worked on an art project we'll finish up next week (to be continued!)

Bugs, bugs, bugs! (& Some Halloween Fun)

This week we introduced the Letter 'S', and the sight word 'this'. 

 In our Ss Book, we underlined every 'this' and highlighted every 's'.  

We learned the 's' song - which sounded very mysterious - perfect for a Halloween Week!

This week our unit was Bugs! Bugs! Bugs!

We learned the characteristics of insects and of spiders.  

We compared how they are alike and how they are different.

 Here the children are counting the legs of a spider and its body parts, 

so we could compare them with an insect.

 For a fun math activity, we used our fingerprints to make the correct number of spiders on each web.

We went outside to observe real bugs.

Even though it was a little cold, the children hunted out a few bugs!

The children then made observational drawings of the bugs they spotted.

(I'm saving these fun papers for our portfolios!)

Then, we came inside and used our knowledge to illustrate our own Bug Books!

The kids did a great job remembering the characteristics we observed on our walk!

We also had our Halloween Party this week!!!

We started with a literacy activity.

After reading, The Little Old Lady Who Wasn't Afraid of Anything . . .

 We made our own jack-o-lantern head, hat, gloves, pants, shoes,

 and shirt so we could act out the story together.

This came home with the kids - hopefully they can use the pieces to retell the story!

Here we all are in our Halloween costumes!

Next we played lots of games, and earned some fun 

halloween prizes to put in our buckets!

 Bucket Toss

 Making Ghost Suckers

 Ring Toss

 Halloween Style "Go Fishing"

We all took a turn manning the game!

 Halloween Concentration

Monster Musical Chairs

Bailee was the Monster Winner!

 Everybody received the Golden Pumpkin Award!

We had an awesome party!

Behind the Scenes:

Here are a few things I don't usually take pictures of, even though we do them everyday!

When the children finish their seat work, they choose books from our library and read until we are ready to meet back at the carpet together.  

This is a great way to smooth out our transitions from one activity to the next.

Snack Time!

The kids LOVE snack time!  Second only to CENTERS, it's their favorite thing about preschool!

Fantastic Fall: Apples!

This week we continued our Fantastic Fall unit, and talked all about Apples!

We practiced our cutting skills . . .

Worked on the letter 'A' . . .

 And had lots of practice at sounding words out and writing them together.

We learned about Johnny Appleseed and all the varieties of apples he planted.

 Then we made our own Coon Hat!

After reading a story about Johnny Appleseed, we took the book apart and 

worked together to put it in the right sequence.

 It's important for emergent readers to understand concepts of print.  This activity helps the children understand how a story has a beginning, middle, and end.

 Got It!

Then we colored our own Johnny Appleseed book,

 Thursday was our Apple Day Celebration.  

The kids had fun reading books and feasting on apples together - all in our jammies!

We learned an Apple Poem:

"Way up high in the apple tree,

Two little apples smiled down on me.

I shook that tree as hard as I could!

Down came those apples,

Mmmm, they were good!"

Then we cut and painted an apple tree, complete with apples, to act out the poem.

 Today was an extra special day, as it was also our first "Show N Teach"!

Ellie taught us how to crack eggs into a bowl - she's a pro!

Montego and Grant showed the girls how to ride bikes

 - those boys are awesome!

Bailee taught everyone how to properly eat candy (according to Bailee) :

 This is NOT the right way

And this IS the right way.

We learned the magic way to cut open an apple where it reveals a STAR in the middle!

After "oooing" and "awwwing" we used the apple as a stamp and painted an apple tree. 

On Tuesday we'll add apples to our trees.

We were able to taste five different apples during our Apple Day Celebration!

 We tried Red Delicious, Fuji, Gala, Granny Smith, and Golden Delicious.

With each apple, we marked a smiley face if we liked the apple, 

and a frowny face if we did not like the  apple.

 Then we made mini apples pies together.  We rolled up the crust, put it in the oven, and watched a movie of the Apple Poem we learned while we waited for them to cook!

They turned out delicious! A perfect ending (complete with apple juice) 

to an Awesome Apple Day Celebration!