The Farm

The weather was so great the past few days we made sure to spend a lot  of time outside.  Besides being a lot of fun, outdoor play is such a great way to develop social skills.  It's fun to hear the kids having conversations with one another.  It's also such a great way to practice taking turns, including one another, and getting used to following rules.  The kids have especially been enjoying playing football, kicking and rolling the big round playground balls, using sidewalk chalk and running around with one another!  We've been working on being careful of one another when we're playing outside.  Gaining control of moving our bodies through space is a skill that takes some time to master, but we're working on it!  Another thing we've been working on is controlling the volume of our voices in different situations (inside voices versus outside voices and when to use them).

We heard a lot of great stories about the farm this week.  Several of them are big books which we read together as a class.  

We added a "counting pot" to our morning routine.  So when we get together for circle time we pick our helper, add a date to the calendar, count, figure out the pattern on the calendar, add a straw to our counting pot, count the straws, and add a bead to our abacus and count the beads so that they match the date on the calendar!!  Then we pass around Polly, our "talking stick" and get a chance to share with the class whatever is on our mind.  Then it's time to talk  about our topic for the day and have a storytime.  Then it's off to wash our hands and have snack!!

In science we learned about Indian Corn and popcorn.  We learned that inside each kernal of popcorn is a drop of water and if you put when you heat it up, the water dries up and the kernal pops!  We also learned that popcorn grows on cobs just like the sweet corn we eat and the Indian Corn we saw.  Then we put some popcorn in the microwave and listened to it pop, pop, pop!  Of course we had to eat it for snack!  We had fun looking at the Indian Corn during activity time and seeing if we could get any kernals off the cob!

Speaking of snacks, we celebrated Carter's 3rd birthday on Thursday.  Happy Birthday Carter!!  Thanks for sharing such a yummy snack of wheat thins, yogurt covered raisens, and almond milk!  We also loved the "treat bags" you gave to each of us.  Thank you!!!!