HaPpY OcToBeR!!

We are so excited for the holidays to begin. There are so many fun activities we will be doing!

We started October off by creating a picture bank. We asked the children what things they associated with October or Halloween. These are the things they came up with...

We decided to focus on Spiders today. Our learning box question was whether or not they liked spiders. We were surprised at how many of the children like spiders and even like spiders to crawl on them! :)

Spider Facts

• A fear of spiders is called arachnophobia.
• Most spiders are helpful to us. They are clean and they catch yucky bugs.
• There are 30,000 different kinds.
• Spiders are not insects. They are arachnids.
• They have two parts to their body, eight legs, and up to eight eyes.
• Most spiders spin webs.
• They live all over the world- some in trees, some on the ground, some in your house!
• They are all sizes. The biggest is the tarantula that can grow up to 10 inches! :P
• Some people have spiders as pets!
  

We sang the itsy-bitsy-spider while the kids played with a spider puppet.

We used marbles covered in white paint, to create spider webs and added spiders to them.

We introduced our "fun"damentals for October. We found items around the room that were orange and black. We played our #3 action game. Each child took turns being the leader and wearing a #3 necklace. They did an action 3 times and everyone followed. We also talked about the differences between a circle and a square.

A SQUARE SONG

tune of "You Are My Sunshine"

I am a square, a lovely square.

I have 4 sides, there all the same.

I have 4 corners, 4 lovely corners.

I am a square, that is my name.

We introduced Hh and added another coloring page to our alphabet books.

The Letter Hh

to the tune of Frere Jacques

The letter H. The letter H. (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)

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

Martin's Farm!!!!

Today was the big day, our first field trip this year and we were all so excited. But before we went to the Martin's farm we did some fun activities. We had big barn animal stamps that we put all around our our farm houses. We were able to review some animal noises while we stamped.

We also played I spy using only the colors blue and red. This was a great way to review our two colors we had learned for the month. We sang our ABC's and pointed out the letters and sounds again for A,M,and G.

Kayli and Taylee, our newest pre-school buddies shared their All About Me Bags. This is so fun to watch them share special things about themselves. They have such a smile when they get to show their favorite things.

We wanted to say thank you to all of you for the effort made to go on this field trip. We know that it was a bit hot and perhaps a little crazy, but the kids loved it!!!!!! That is all that matters!!! We enjoyed seeing their excitement and we look forward to another field trip. I kept all of these on here because they are too cute to erase. I am not sure if all of you had a camera but Miss Laura got some great pictures so enjoy!!! They are so cute. :)

Who Is My Mother?

We started our morning matching these animal pieces with the correct mother/baby combo. The kids loved to find the baby and learn its name. They especially enjoyed the baby goat because it's called a kid!!

Thank you for wishing Mrs. Amber a Happy Birthday! What great singing voices all of you have.

We also put pig puzzles together. This was great practice to cut and or find the matching picture for our pieces to fit on. We also colored pictures that matched up our baby animals with their correct mother. Before play time we sang BINGO and they did so good with the clapping and eliminating the letters. They liked BINGO so much we sang again while we waited for snack!!

During circle time we played 'shake the bag' so we could review all of our letters and letter sounds we learned this month. We sang our letter sound song accompanied with our sign and reviewed some words that begin with that letter.

Each month we will learn three new letters with its sound and sign. A new shape will be introduced as well as a number and two colors.

Quack, Quack

Today was "quacky" sort of day!! The learning box question today was, "What does a duck sound like? What does a goose sound like?" The kids really enjoyed this and it gave us a chance to be silly and make funny animal noises. We read Big Red Barn by Margaret Wise Brown and sang 5 little ducks.

We made our own ducks which was great practice cutting and gluing.

We reviewed our ABC's, Color's, and Shape's. The kids are learning to take turns and raise their hand to answer a question. We also practice sitting in our own 'special spots' and keeping our hands in our laps.

Red and blue were reviewed and we colored this worksheet. The kids held up either a red or blue crayon to match the appropriate picture. We had a red apple and barn, and a blue dolphin and blueberries.

Before playtime started we played a game of duck, duck, goose. This was so fun to see how many times they would run the circle before they actually sat down in the spot. This will be a game we can practice and perfect. After all, this is the beginning of learning a game that your kids will undoubtedly play for years to come!!! Practice makes perfect. See you Thursday.

Down on the Farm

Welcome Kayli and Taylee, our newest pre-school pals. We are so happy you are here with us to learn and have fun!

"With a moo moo here, and a moo moo there, here a moo, there a moo, everywhere a moo moo, Old McDonald had a Farm E, I, E, I, O!!!" We have officially started our farm theme. Our learning box question was, "What are some things you can find on a farm?" Lots of answers were horsies, one sheep, a cow, and a duck.

We read Big Red Barn by Margaret Wise Brown and sorted farm animals from zoo animals using a Fisher Price farm set.

Here we are lining up so we can ride our 'train' to snack time. Chug-a-chug-a, choo-choo!!! The kids love to bring snack because then they get to be line leader for the day! It's great when the little things in life mean so much!!

We introduced the letter /m/ /m/ Mm today, the number 2, and also the color blue.

We played Is It Blue? Each child drew something from a box and then told everyone if it was blue.

Kayli and Taylee did great on their first day. We are making alphabet books with these letter sheets, so you may not see these until the end of the year.




WE LOVE TO PLAY!!!!! Playtime is obviously the kids favorite time at pre-school. It is wonderful to watch them interact. Their imaginations are endless, as is their energy. I brought some dress up clothes and Barbies from my house to Miss Laura's. The girls were so excited to have more girlie toys and Corey brought his monster trucks for the boys.
Just love Mater in Cinderella's carriage. The fun of having boys and girls together.

We hope to have some sort of dancing or music time each day. Encouraging kids to move can help improve their motor skills. Plus they look super cute doing it!!!

Our favorites!

Today everyone started by coloring the letter /g/ /g/ Gg.

Our learning box question was "What's your favorite thing to do?" Some of the answers were, *lay by my dog *play with my sister *play with my mom *watch movies *play on the computer

We sang "Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes" to get our hearts going, then we listened to each others heartbeat.

We read Here Are My Hands by Bill Martin Jr. and John Archambault.

And talked about all the special things about us.

Then we made a magazine collage of things we love.

We reviewed the letter Gg and looked at pictures that start with Gg. We played "Is it 1?"

And we made a circle with our...

mouths

our bodies

and our feet.

Playtime! Love the monster trucks by the castle. :)