Friday, October 10

We had some big paper to color/write on at our fine-motor skills table this morning.  It was different from things we've done before!  We were also excited about our new crate of Halloween books. Some of us wanted to sit down and read all of them!  After we cleaned up our morning work, we took our bathroom break (You can see us in line in the hall with one of our friends holding the QUIET sign.) then came back for our Morning Circle.

We had a great time on the playground today. Some of us started playing Hide and Go Seek.  We forgot to pick someone to be IT, but that didn't matter!  We had a bunch of fun counting to 10, running and hiding, and then jumping out to start over again!  We also had our fire hoses out to play fire fighters--we love that!  On the way back inside we saw Paco the lizard near the doorway so we had to stop and say hi and tell him we were going in to have music with Miss Jenna.  (A couple of weeks ago, there was a lizard in the playground house that the class found and called Paco.  Since then we've seen lizards around a few times and every time they're sure it's Paco so they have to stop and talk!)

After music we had our centers.  At Miss Kathleen's center we added eyes to our handprint ghosts so we could bring them home, then we practiced counting (and following directions) with candy corn.  At Miss Paula's center we worked on fine motor skills by putting little pieces of yarn onto our gluey pumpkins.  While we waited for our friends to finish at their centers, we colored a Halloween picture.  At our rug center we got to play with our fire station again, but this time we had our big LEGOS to add buildings!

Wednesday, October 8

Morning Work:  Cutting and coloring at our fine motor skills table--and loading Noah's Ark at dramatic play on the rug!

Playground time:  We had our pool noodle hoses out at the fire truck--and we had some rescues from the house that was on fire!  We also found out that when there was dew on the ground, the mulch stuck to our hands and knees!  As we lined up to come in a military helicopter flew overhead so we stopped to say the Pledge of Allegiance and sing "Salute the Flag."

Centers:  At our rug center we enjoyed another day of dramatic play with the fire station and finger puppets.  Today some of our finger puppets got loaded up in the ambulance to go the hospital!  At Miss Paula's center we put white paint ALL OVER our hand, then pushed it onto black paper to make a ghost shape.  We'll add eyes on Friday, then bring them home.  At Miss Kathleen's center we worked on recognizing/tracing our names, then practiced our grip with big school pencils!

Monday, October 6

It's amazing how much of a difference daily practice in using scissors/writing utensils can make!  Here we are at our Morning Work table, building fine motor skills.

When we went out on the playground today we brought some "hoses" for the fire truck!  It was a lot of fun pretending to put out fires with them. We were also very good at sharing.

When we came back inside we had our Morning Circle then it was time for centers.  At our rug center we had one more day of playing with both our fire safety center and our finger puppets.  On Wednesday, we'll replace the puppets with some blocks.  At Miss Paula's center we mixed red and yellow fingerpaint to make flames on our paper, then we glued on a fire truck.  That was really neat!  At Miss Kathleen's center we read a Clifford magazine about being a firefighter, then colored/traced the word EXIT.  We talked about looking for an exit sign if we were ever in a store or restaurant that had a fire.  We also found the EXIT signs in our school!

Friday, October 3

We went out on the playground before we did anything else today!  It was fun, but it was hot and humid!  Maybe that's why when one of our friends got a boo-boo, we all wanted to use the ice pack!  Some of us also found a cool spot under the equipment!

When we came back inside we had music with Miss Jenna, then had our Morning Circle.  We donated some money for the homeless dogs and cats; said our Pledge of Allegiance and sang "Salute the Flag"; and listened to a book called The Fourth Little Pig!

At centers today we played with our fire station and finger puppets on the rug; had our counting bears and tangrams at one of our tables; and searched for treasures in our sensory bin.  Miss Kathleen and Miss Paula both worked with us to get our pumpkin handprints on our t-shirts for the Pumpkin Patch field trip.  That should be a lot of fun!

We had a delicious healthy snack today: bananas and raisins.  We peeled out banana halves all by ourselves--a lot of us asked for seconds!  We really are healthy eaters!

Wednesday, October 1

We had a silly day today!  We went over to get our pictures taken with Miss Lori as soon as we got to school, then we went right to the playground!  We played restaurant with Miss Paula, ran all around, and climbed on everything.

When we came in to the classroom, we had our snack, then had our Morning Circle.  We spent some time talking about the calendar since today was the first day of October.  It was really easy to do our counting!  We also read Firefighters by Norma Simon.  There weren't any people in the book--just dogs!  All of the firefighters were dalmatians, white dogs with black spots.

Then it was time for centers.  At our rug center we had a new firefighter center that we really loved!  We also had our finger puppets again.  Some of them needed to be rescued by our firefighters!  At Miss Paula's center we put black spots on our dalmatian dogs, then did some coloring and played a fire safety game.  At Miss Kathleen's center we worked with tangrams,  We talked about the different colors and shapes and used some of them to make pictures.

After we cleaned up centers, we lined up with donations for our Be Kind To Animals Week and took them all down to the hall table.