Apples and Leaves

We talked about apples and pears today.  We read a book called Apples and Pumpkins and also heard a story called The Little Red House with No Windows and No Doors and a Star Inside  After we read the story we cut open an apple and found a star inside!  Then we used the apples to make apple prints. We tried to capture the star while we were printing.  We also cut a pear in half and didn't find a star....it looked more like a football inside!  We tried to capture that shape too!

We had our first extended day on Tuesday!  Six kids stayed for lunch and then we walked to Wildwood Park. On the way we stopped and looked at "fall things".  We saw apples on a tree, leaves on the ground and some cats watching us out their front door.  We got back to school just in time to get a drink of water and go home.  Here's a picture of our "lunch bunch"!  We had fun on our extended day and had some very tired Maple Leafers and teachers!!

We started Maple Leaf of the Week.  Brooke was our first "leaf".   She brought in a poster about herself and shared it with the class on Tuesday.  On Wednesday her mom and dad came to visit. They brought in a special train set for us to see.  We also heard two great stories about trains, The Little Engine that Could and Curious George and the Train. Then we were treated to a special cookie in the shape of a train crossing!  After snack it was time to go outside and pretend to be a train!  Everyone had to hold onto a rope with loops to create a train and Brooke's parents set up train crossings for us so we had to stop and go.  When we finished the loop everyone wanted to do it again!  So of course we did!  We even had train whistles that Brooke gave us to blow while we were being the train!  We got a special train treat bag to take home with us too...wow!  Thanks Brooke, John and Jen for creating such a special day for all of us!!

When a child is "Maple Leaf of the Week" they are also the helper for the week.  That means they get to feed the frogs and be the line leader.  They also lead us in the calendar each morning. and get a Maple Leaf crown to wear for the week!

We had an apple tasting party with Golden Delicious, Macintosh and Granny Smith apples first thing in the morning on Wednesday. We discussed what our favorite apple was...Golden Delicious was the class favorite.  We cut up apples to make "Friendship Applesauce".  The apples smelled so good cooking in the background while Brooke's family visited!

We also learned a new art technique during activity time....weaving! 

Thursday was the day of our leaf hunt.  We heard a great story called Going on a Leaf Hunt.  Then we went outside and took a fall walk around the church looking for beautiful fall leaves.  We discovered red leaves, yellow leaves, orange, brown and green leaves!  It was so nice we had extra time to play outside before we went on our walk.  We also discovered that leaves have different shapes, sizes and colors depending on what kind of a tree it is!  Mrs. Gould showed us how to make leaf rubbings with leaf plates that she had.  During activity time we each started making our own fall tree with colorful leaves.  We had a very busy week!!

Pumpkins

We started the week with orange day.  All of the kids looked great dressed in their orange clothings.  They all brought in something orange for show and tell as well.  We had orange trucks, orange bears, an orange leaf, and lots more.  Mrs. Gould brought in orange gourds for all of us and we each got to take one home.  Then it was time to hear our story about an orange pumpkin named Spookley.  We had a CD to go with it so we listened to that as well.

Click on the link below to see the video of Spookley.  My guess is that your kids would love to watch it!!

During art we mixed red and yellow paint on a square piece of white paper to create orange.  We needed to let these dry before we could turn them into our very own Spookleys!

Wednesday was pumpkin science day.  We heard a story called Pumpkin, Pumpkins which tells the story of how pumpkins grow.  It had real pictures as illustrations and took us through all the stages from seed to pumpkin and even to jack o lanterns! (Life science and biology for preschool!) Then it was time for us to cut open our pumpkins and see what was inside.  We all knocked on the pumpkin first and realized it was hollow.  Then we saw all the seeds and pulp when we opened it up.  We broke into partners and we each got a pumpkin to clean out.  

Some of us liked how it felt inside and some of us didn't!  After we cleaned out the insides we put the pumpkins in the oven to bake. Naomi brought in some pumpkin seeds that she helped bake at home so we had them with our snack.  Thanks Naomi....they were delicious!! When we pulled out the pumpkins they were dark orange and the insides were very soft. (States of matter and how matter changes...physical science and chemistry preschool style).  We also baked the seeds!

Here are the seeds after they came out of the pumpkin.  All of the kids had a turn to put a little salt on the seeds before we baked them.

Thursday was pumpkin bread baking day!  The insides of the pumpkin were scooped out and pureed so we could use it in our recipe to bake.  Then we made "Friendship Pumpkin Bread".  We called it friendship bread because all of us had a chance to mix and add ingredients.  

 While the bread was baking we went outside, finished our art project, had activity time and heard another story about a pumpkin who became a jack 'o lantern.  Our classroom smelled so good!

Finally the bread was done and we were able to have our snack.  Chocolate chip pumpkin bread, pumpkin seeds, and chocolate milke!  Yum!!

Last week we made squish art with Mrs. Chyko using red and yellow paint.  The artwork was so beautiful that we decided to display it on our art wall.  Ask your child to show you their project next time you're at school!  The kids are so proud of their work!!

Beautiful!!!

The Farm

We spent the week getting ready for our trip to the pumpkin farm.  On Tuesday we learned the song and game "Old MacDonald Had a Farm".  We read a few books about farms and during activity time we had several different farms, barns and play animals for the kids to use.  We also had pumpkin cookies from Trader Joe's as a snack. We had several new books about farms set out for the kids to "read" when they finished their snack.

During art, the kids mixed red and yellow paint with Mrs. Chyko and made squish paintings.  We also got outside for quite awhile to take advantage of the beautiful weather!  

On Wednesday we heard the book The Little Red Hen. We retold the story using flannel pieces on a flannel board which is a great way to build reading comprehension.  The kids had fun using the voices of the pig, goose and cat as they said "Not, I".  We also had a good discussion about fairness after we finished reading the story.  Should the little red hen have shared her bread even though none of her friends helped her with all of the work?  The kids had some very strong opinions on this!!  During art we used a variety of shapes to create a little red hen. 

Thursday was our trip to the farm.  We were so fortunate with the weather!

We learned how pumpkins grow and saw a white pumpkin! (I think they actually said it was blue but it looks white to me!)

We went through a corn maze and a smaller maze made of hay bales.

We saw ducklings, a rooster, pigs, cows, and goats.

Time for the hay ride to the pumpkin patch...

Playing in the corn...it was a great day at the farm.  Thanks parents for helping to make this happen...it was great seeing everybody!!

Stone Soup

Tuesday we finished our sunprint art.  We traced traced around the areas where the sun didn't fade the paper due to the rocks and then we glued it on red paper.  We wrote R is for rocks and red to remind us of the sound R makes.  We also finished using do a dots to trace over a letter R.  The kids love doing these activities and while they're working on them they are developing their fine motor skills. We've been working on how to hold a glue stick, a paintbrush, a crayon, and dot markers.  We've also been working on how much pressure to use while working with these materials.

On Wednesday we read the book Stone Soup.  It's a folk tale about a village not having much food so they use stones to make soup.   Little by little each villager adds one item to the soup until they have a delicious soup at the end of the story.  We tried our hand at making stone soup!

We added stones to the bottom of the pot.  (Washed of course!!) Then we put in chicken broth, carrots, barley, salt and pepper.  Mrs. Chyko cooked the soup while we went out to play.  It was too hot to eat so we saved it until Thursday so all the kids could try the soup!!

On Thursday we listened to the story again, but this time with a CD version so all the characters had different voices.  Then we tried our soup for snack!  Some of the kids liked it and some didn't want to try it.  Everyone enjoyed the crackers and chocolate milk that we served with the soup!  Yum!!