Fall

We enjoyed learning about fall this week.  I asked the kids what they knew about fall and their answers were so cute, some of them were, "I falled down and got an owie on my finger, I falled off my big wheel, I falled off a swing, etc."  Then I explained that in addition to falling down, fall is also a season, another name is autumn. We talked a little bit about how leaves fall off trees, then they told me about wearing warmer clothes, leaves turning colors, jumping in leaf piles, seeing pumpkins, etc.  In music Heidi taught the kids a movement song about autumn leaves. 

On Wednesday we took a fall nature walk down to Wildwood Park on First Avenue.  We saw an apple tree, bluebird, trees changing colors, pine cones, and the highlight was finding horse chestnuts on the ground.  We collected treasures along the way and created a collection of "things outside in the fall". 

Thursday we heard the story The Little Red House With No Windows and No Doors and a Star Inside.  It turned out to be an apple!!  Then we cut an apple in half to find the star!  We used our apple corer, peeler, slicer to make applesauce.  While it was cooking Mrs. Willer had set up lots of outdoor stations where we could play.  We had 2 soccer nets, bubbles, balls, hula hoops, sidewalk chalk and jump ropes!  So much fun.  When we went inside the room smelled so good from the cooked apples!!  We were tired from our outdoor activity and ready to enjoy a yummy, fall treat!

Some of our activity centers this week included: farms and farm animals playset, train table, sand table, play dough center, painting with bubble wrap and making apple prints, magna tiles, stencils, and the kitchen area. 

Hearing the lift the flap book,  Where Are You, Pooh?  We used Winnie the Pooh Cups during snack. 

Playing at Wildwood Park on Wednesday. 

The Wednesday bunch. 

Finding the star inside of the Little Red House. 

The kids were amazed to see the star inside the apple! 

Using the apple, corer, peeler, slicer to make applesauce.  Everyone had a turn to help! 

This is what our apple sauce looked like at first. 

This is what it looked like when we came back inside!!

Some of the fun things Mrs. Willer set up for us...thank you Mrs. Willer!!

Butterflies and End of Year

The past two weeks have been filled with activity.  We learned about butterflies and through art created two different types of butterflies

The kids loved hearing The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle.  We listened to a CD  of the author reading the book to us. Then we acted out the story!  The kids might have fun acting it out at home too!! (An egg is on a leaf, out pops a caterpillar, it eats and eats and eats until it forms a cocoon, then out pops a butterfly!!) We had lots of fun pretending to be butterflies and "flying"!

We spent a lot of time outdoors enjoying the weather as well as practicing for our spring sing.  Hard to believe the year is over...it has been wonderful!

Practicing Zippity Do Dah with our kazoos!

Having fun at the park!

One of our butterfly art projects!

We had fun watching our sunflower seeds grow!

Another butterfly art project...this time squish art!!

Gigi sent in a delicious fruit salad for our snack!

Playing at the other area of the park!

Using our "walking ribbon"...it keeps us all together!

Seeds and Plants

We spent the week talking about plants and seeds.  We read several books about seeds and flowers, watched a video about seeds, looked at pictures of many different types of flowers and planted a seed! Each child put 2 seeds in a cup of dirt,  watered them and put them on a ledge in the sun.  Nowe we just have to wait to see what happens.  We are trying to grow giant sunflowers.  They should be 8-12 feet tall when they're done growing!!

Some of the books we enjoyed listening to this week!

 
The kids loved this video...Peep Plants a Seed


Finn was our "Maple Leaf of the Week".  He shared his poster with us on Tuesday. Finn told us that he wants to be an arborist, just like his dad, when he grows up so he can climb trees and help take care of them!  His Mom and Dad came to visit on Thursday and they brought in a super cool book about an Apple Tree.  We turned off the lights and used a flashlight to see what was hiding in the tree... then we had a yummy snack of cinnamon apple crisps, grapes, and doughnuts!  Thanks Finn for helping to make our week so special!

Reading to the kids after snack...

We were captivated with this book...so cool!

The Shine-A-Light book Finn shared with us!

Our ladybug pupa emerged from their shells this week.  We took them outside on Thursday and released them!  We watched them crawl in the dirt, but they weren't flying yet!

Bye-bye ladybugs!

We wanted to release the ladybugs in the church garden but it was raining outside, so we released them under the awning outside of the main entrance.  We put them in a big flower pot and watched them walk around.  Then we each got a piece of sidewalk chalk and had fun drawing on the wet pavement and watching how bright the colors turned!

Dinosaurs

We enjoyed learning about dinosaurs this week!  We sorted dinosaurs into meat eaters and plant eaters.  We learned that dinosaurs that walked on 4 feet were plant eaters and more gentle.  The dinosaurs that stood on two legs were more fierce.  We used dinosaur figurines to work with during activity time and used blocks to create spaces for the dinosaurs to roam. We heard a lot of dinosaur stories, made dinosaur fossils out of play dough, hunted for dinosaurs around our classroom and looked at rocks with fossils in them. We had fun learning the name of some of the dinosaurs, and loved doing the dinosaur dance! dinosaur dance video

Teagan was our Maple Leaf of the Week.  She shared her poster with us on Tuesday.  We enjoyed learning about all her favorite things! Her Mom came to visit on Thursday and read us two books.  One of them was about how to make ice cream.  Teagan and her mom set up an ice cream sundae bar for us...yum!!  We could pick from lots of toppings including blueberries, strawberries, m and m's, cookie crumbles, chocolate sauce and whipped cream!!  Thanks Teagan for helping to make our week so special!

The weather was nice enough to get outside each day.  The kids love to run, play with balls, climb on the equipment, use sidewalk chalk and play make believe.  We're all hoping spring is finally here!!

Looking at a pussywillow tree near our playset.

Holding our tissue paper dragon flies...what a great looking group!

Teagan and her mom sharing a favorite story with us.

Ice Cream Sundae party!!

Thanks Teagan for the great snack!

Observing and sorting rocks.

Joan and I arrived at school early one morning and found a red fox trying to play on our equipment!
Look closely near the play set and there's a red fox running away!

 Some dinosaurs were hiding in the rocks!

Insects

We focused on learning about insects this week.  We learned about the 3 body parts (head, thorax, abdomen) and learned a song to help us remember the names.  We listed all of the insects we could think of on our white board, each child had to come up with an idea.  Ask your child what their favorite bug is!! We used tissue paper and glue to create a beautiful dragonfly during art! We heard several books about insects including The Very Quiet Click Beetle by Eric Carle and Bug Garden by Lisa Moser! Lisa visited our class to read Bug Garden to us and talk to us about what an author does and how she started writing! 

Lisa Moser reading us her latest book, Bug Garden.

Brooke was our Maple Leaf of the Week! We had fun learning about her favorite things when she shared her poster with us! On Tuesday she brought in a special treat...rice krispie treats with sprinkles...yum!! On Thursday her mom visited our classroom.  We heard one of Brooke's favorite stories about Clifford and she showed us her stuffed Clifford and Emily Elizabeth doll.  Brooke wants to be a mermaid when she grows up so she and her mom brought in a special craft for us to make.  We had so much fun putting mermaid stickers and other sea creatures on a blue paper plate...then we used scissors and created seaweed with crepe paper.  Thanks Brooke for making our week so much fun!

Our Maple Leaf of the Week with the yummy homemade treat she shared with us!!

 

Listening to a story about Clifford.

Our "Under the Sea" project...so fun!

We finished turning our ladybugs into clocks!  A good way to practice reading numbers and putting them in order!

 

Making tissue paper dragonflies. 

Ladybugs

We're learning about ladybugs this week.  We  put ladybug larvae into a plastic container and made a butterfly garden.  Each day we watched the larva to see what they were doing.  Eventually they should grow, crack out of their shell, turn into pupa, and emerge as ladybugs!  We watched several songs about ladybugs on our ipad and read several stories about ladybugs including the classic The Grouchy Ladybug by Eric Carle.

Here are the links:

The Grouchy Ladybug

 5 Little Ladybugs

Our ladybug garden arrives!

A delicious spring birthday treat! Yum!

Using our ladybug puppets as we say a rhyme.

Some of our new activities for April include a "construction site" in our sand tub, a fairy garden, mosaic magnets, and a tool kit. During art we're working on turning paper plates in ladybugs!

Lucy and her mom reading us a favorite book!

Lucy was our Maple Leaf of the Week and our birthday girl!  She brought in delicious cupcakes for our snack on Tuesday and on Thursday her Mom came in and read us Aqualicious which is one of Lucy's favorite books.  Lucy brought in her favorite stuffed unicorn to share with the class too. Thanks Lucy for helping make our week so much fun!!  

Happy Birthday, Lucy!! 

Thanks for the delicious birthday cupcakes!

Our construction site!

The fairy garden.

Magnet mosaics

Passing around the ladybug larva.

Chicks and Rabbits

We enjoyed reading Max Counts his Chickens and Max and The Chocolate Chicken, both by Rosemary Wells, on Tuesday.  On Wednesday we heard the classic story of Peter Rabbit by Beatrix Potter. The children were mesmerized by that story.  We acted it out afterward.  Finn and Henry wanted to be Mr. MacGregor, everyone else wanted to be Peter.  I was the mother.  We added a rabbit family to our Calico Critter Collection as well as two rabbit puppets so the kids could play Peter Rabbit during activity time. I've included a link to a video of Peter Rabbit.  We ran out of time at school, so the kids didn't get a chance to see it yet.  I bet they'd really enjoy watching it!! Here's the link...
cute video of Peter rabbit



Mrs. Jenkins came in on Tuesday and taught us a new song about a rainbow...It begins with "red, it's the color of an apple..."

It was warm enough to get outside on Wednesday, the kids enjoyed playing on the equipment, running up and down the hill, using balls and ribbons, and drawing with sidewalk chalk.

We had fun making chick headbands on Tuesday and bunnies coming out of eggs on Wednesday.

Happy Spring Break!!