Pilgrim Cutie Pies!!!

Today we started our day playing with our file folders. Counting, sorting, matching and recognizing are the main lessons of these file folders. After morning pledge, calendar, and weather, we re-read Twas the Night Before Thanksgiving by Natasha Wing.

Next we made Pilgrim hats and went outside on a Thanksgiving parade so the friendly landscaper's and neighbors could see us marching. After marching we were terribly hungry so good thing snack time was next. Thanks for all the yummy snacks all of you parents are bringing, the kids are loving it.

After snack it was on to fundamentals where we reviewed a few pictures that started with the letter Tt. After ABC's and our review of a triangle, we played Is It 4? After doing a few on the board we then moved back into the kitchen so they could all do their own worksheet.

Native American's and Pilgrim's

This morning after calendar and weather we had a Turkey Finger play and it goes like this.

There was a turkey, very fat(spread hands to make fat turkey)

Who loved to gobble, gobble.

But when he'd make that funny sound.

His head would wobble, wobble!(bob head up and down)

He loves to spread his tail out wide(spread fingers on hands)

His wattle is so bright,(stroke neck)

Between the wobble and the wattle,

He's such a funny sight!

We then all got up and walked around the room like turkeys strutting our stuff and showing off our wattle!!

Next we read The Night Before Thanksgiving http://www.amazon.com/Night-Before-Thanksgiving-Reading-Railroad/dp/0448425297 by Natasha Wing. What a great, great, fun book to have. A few ways to read a book with your child and really intensify the learning are as follow(using this book as a reference)

• Prior Knowledge- What is Thanksgiving? How do you celebrate?
  
• Front cover- what do you think it will be about?
  
• Read title
  
• Quick picture walk through the book before you begin to read
  
• READ
  
• What happened? Favorite Part?


• 
  
  Re-read with actions

Next we learned some facts about Native Americans. When the pilgrims landed in America there were people that lived there already. These people dressed differently, talked differently, and lived differently. They were called Native Americans. A Native American named Squanto became friends with pilgrims and he helped them talk with their Wampanoag neighbors and sign a peace treaty. He also taught the pilgrims how to farm corn, beans, and pumpkin. He taught them how to hunt for bears, deer, and turkey, and how to fish and dig for clams. He also taught them how to gather berries and plant their own crops using the land.

After learning some fun facts we made Native American headpieces and necklaces.

Here are our little Wampanoag's and a fun song we sang together!

1 little, 2 little, 3 Wampanoag

4 little, 5 little, 6 Wampanoag

7 little, 8 little, 9 Wampanoag

10 Wampanoag hunting turkey.

Tyler working so hard on his necklace.




Corey showing his head piece.

Kayli is one cute little Wampanoag!!!

We then had circle time to review our #'s, ABC's, and shapes. We also introduced a new letter today, the letter Tt. We looked at a few pictures that begin with the letter Tt to help for recognition. Then we colored the Tt picture to add to our alphabet folders.

More Fall Fun

Tuesday. November 11, 2008

We started off our day by putting together a simple fall puzzle.



After calendar time we read Fall Colors by Rita Walsh. We acted out parts of the story. We pretended we were leaves falling and the wind blowing. We pretended to rake the leaves and jump in them, then we scooped them all up and put them in a bag! The kids had so much fun, I wish I had taken pictures!!

Then we talked about what animals might do when the season turns cold. We made pictures of squirrels finding acorns to store for winter.



After snack we reviewed our fundamentals and introduced Yy.

The Letter Yy

to the tune of Frere Jacques

The letter Y. The letter Y. (make ASL sign for letter, showing one hand then the other)

Has a sound. Has a sound. (bring 1 hand to ear and then the other hand to the other ear)

What sound do you make? What sound do you make? (palms facing up, shrug shoulders)

/y/ /y/ /y/! /y/ /y/ /y/! (Make ASL sign for letter, move hand forward and backward for each sound)

And colored another page for our alphabet books.

Thursday. November 13, 2008

Today we sang some of our fall songs again and re-read Fall Colors. We hid paper acorns and pretended to be squirrels trying to find food for winter.

We talked about Thanksgiving and why we celebrate then colored a Thanksgiving picture. The picture had modern mistakes that we found and circled.

We reviewed Yy and looked at some pictures the begin with Yy and played "Is it Brown?" Everyone chose something from my brown paper bag and told us if it was brown or another color.

We also reviewed 4 and counted 4 stickers.

Then we went to the park to play!

The leaves on the trees come tumbling down!

Leaves on the Tree

tune of "Wheels on the Bus"

~

The leaves on the trees turn orange and brown,

orange and brown, orange and brown.

The leaves on the trees turn orange and brown.

All over town.

~

The leaves on the ground go swish, swish, swish;

swish, swish, swish; swish, swish, swish.

The leaves on the ground go swish, swish, swish

Down on the ground.

~

The leaves on the trees come tumbling down,

tumbling down, tumbling down.

The leaves on the trees come tumbling down,

Down to the ground.

.

On Thursday we continued to learn about the Fall season and about leaves. After we sang our new song, we read Cranberry Thanksgiving by Wende and Harry Devlin.

.

Then we went and made some of our own fall trees.

As we reviewed some of our fundamentals today, we danced around our triangle. This is always one of our favorite things!

.

on the triangle...

.

outside the triangle...

We sang our ABC's and reviewed the letter Ll. We talked about things that started with Ll (lion, Laura, Lowee, lemon) and looked at some pictures (lion, light bulb, lime, licorice).

We played "Is it yellow?" Every child had a turn to choose something from my yellow bowl and and tell the class if it was yellow or a different color.

Then we did a "following directions" worksheet. I told the kids how many leaves to color and what color to color them. As they listened and followed directions.

Welcome November!

October was super fun and now we are so happy to be starting November for more fun!

We had a happy birthday to celebrate today!

Sadie turned 4!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, SADIE!

After we sang a delightful birthday song, we introduced all the new "fun"damentals for this month. Starting with 4.

We played our action game. Everyone got a chance to wear the 4 necklace and choose an action that we all did 4 times.

We also learned our triangle song.

(tune of pop! goes the weasel)

I am a small triangle.

I have three sides you see.

I also have three corners.

They're just right for me.

We talked about yellow and brown and found those colors in the preschool room.

We introduced our new FALL theme.

It's Autumn Time
(from the children's songbook pg. 246)

It's Autumn time. It's Autumn time.
The leaves are falling down.
It's Autumn time. It's Autumn time.
It's Autumn all around.

It's Autumn time. It's Autumn time.
There's yellow, red, and brown.
It's Autumn time. It's Autumn time.
Bright colors can be found.

We talked about leaves and the colors they can change in the Fall. We looked at pictures of trees with changing leaves (since we don't see much of that here!).



We played Ring Around the Autumn Leaves

Ring around the Autumn leaves.

We've got lots of Autumn leaves.

Autumn leaves, Autumn leaves,

They all fall down!

After we ate Sarah's yummy snack, we enjoyed some birthday cupcakes.

We introduced the letter Ll.

The Letter Ll
to the tune of Frere Jacques
The letter L. The letter L. (make ASL sign for letter, showing one hand then the other)
Has a sound. Has a sound. (bring 1 hand to ear and then the other hand to the other ear)
What sound do you make? What sound do you make? (palms facing up, shrug shoulders)
/l/ /l/ /l/! /l/ /l/ /l/! (Make ASL sign for letter, move hand forward and backward for each sound)

We colored a new page to add to our alphabet books.

Then we talked about what an important day today is and how all the adults are voting for a new president and a few other things. We voted too!

The kids all waited in line and took turns voting on whether they liked Halloween or Christmas best.

It was a tie!

Last we went to play in the grassy park around the corner. The kids all needed a good run around the park today! It was the perfect weather, but we enjoyed it so much, we forgot to get any pictures!

p.s. Don't forget to check your child's folder for their work, for important information, or for a tuition envelope.

HaPpY HaLLoWeeN!!!

Today was so fun and we were all ready to celebrate Halloween. We started our morning connecting our dot-to-dot Jolly Pumpkin and then colored him. Next was calendar, weather, and the pledge. After the pledge we sang Five Little Pumpkins.

We then read this book called The Perfect Little Monster by Judy Hindsley. If you have not read it then please do, the kids loved it. In the story the little monster makes these great faces that we all copied. Look at our very own little monsters!!

We had fun trick-or-treat bags that we colored.

And here they are posing with black and orange shirts and new Halloween bags. What a cute class they are!! We also reviewed trick-or-treating rules so we can be safe while out on Halloween. We talked about what candy is good to eat and what candy could be unsafe. We must always ask an adult before we eat any candy, and we do not go into someones house we do not know.

Next we practiced trick-or-treating and everyone got a turn to knock on the door and see Miss Laura's happy face. The kids sure did good and remembered to say thank you.

Snack time was a real tReAt today. Miss Laura had sugar cookies to frost. Everyone got to frost their own cookie with orange frosting and black sprinkles. Apples were a good healthy addition to our sweet tooth!!

After snack we all made Tootsie pop ghosts. These and the treat from knocking on Miss Laura's door were the first treats in our new Halloween bags. Next in circle time we placed the correct number of pumpkin seeds that corresponded to the number on the pumpkin.

We saved the best for last today. We played pass the pumpkin before it was playtime and we had a blast. Miss Amber hit the tambourine and Miss Laura then passed the pumpkin to the beat. It took a few minutes for the kids to see how fast or slow the pumpkin was passed depended on the beat. After a few tries they got it and the fun began. Miss Amber went slow at first and then sped it up. We giggled and giggled while the pumpkin was passed. When the beat stopped and if you had the pumpkin in hand you got the chance to stand and take a bow.

Today was so beautiful and we have been wanting the kids to play outside so it was a great day to start. We hopefully will start having them play outside one day a week during playtime.