Wednesday, September 29

We had a surprise when we came into the room this morning.  Miss Kathleen had brought in a fish tank.  There aren't any fish in it yet, but we had a good time watching the water and the gravel and the bubbles!

In centers today we worked at our sensory table making apple pies.  The table was filled with oatmeal and apple pie spice mix so it felt and smelled so good!  We poured and patted and sorted and had a great time!

We also had another day of playing with our big blocks and Noah's Ark set.  Some of us have started to use teamwork to build bigger and bigger stacks of blocks.  Then when they fell down, they made a loud bang!

  

We also made our placemats for October.  We used stickers to decorate our papers and to make our jack-o-lantern faces.  It's going to be really fun to eat our snack on these in October.

Monday, September 27

We celebrated Johnny Appleseed's birthday today by reading Johnny Appleseed by Stephen Kellog, singing Happy Birthday, watching a video about Johnny Appleseed, and making a special apple snack!  Just before we went home we sang this song and acted it out.  It was a great day!

HERE COMES JOHNNY APPLESEED

Tune: “Mary Had a Little Lamb”    Liz Ryerson

Here comes Johnny Appleseed,

Appleseed, Appleseed,

Here comes Johnny Appleseed,

Walking all around.

See him plant his apple seeds,

Apple seeds, apple seeds,

See him plant his apple seeds

Deep down in the ground.

When his seeds grow into trees,

Into trees, into trees,

When his seeds grow into trees,

Standing oh, so high,

Watch him pick some apples red,

Apples red, apples red,

Watch him pick some apples red

As he goes walking by.

         
We also had some exciting centers today!  We played with our cardboard blocks and the Noah's Ark set; we worked on our October calendar; and we started putting together some harder puzzles.

Wednesday, September 22

We had some new activities during our morning work today.  Some of us linked unifix cubes and compared sizes of our stacks and talked about the colors we used.  Some of us cut our new brightly colored paper, and some of us spent time working on our good old puzzles!

We had another busy day at centers.  We played with our Little People tubs again--we were so good at sharing!  Mrs. Hennessey helped us string beads into different patterns and Miss Kathleen helped us start practicing our names on paper and on our doodle-pads.

We also started checking books out of our classroom library today.  These are books that we take home, read and share, and then return to the classroom.  Right now we're looking at farm books, next week we'll have some more to pick from.

Monday, September 20

Our room was so quiet today!  We were so busy working on our centers that we were hardly making a sound!  It was the first time we had played with our collection of Little People toys and we loved it!  We're going to play with these again this week--and maybe next week too!

We also used geoboards for the first time.  In addition to working our hand and finger muscles, we talked about the different sizes and colors of the rubber bands.  We made a lot of different shapes and pictures with our bands and boards.  The only thing that we didn't like was that we couldn't take our designs home with us!

Last but not least we painted with watercolors!  This was another first for our classroom and we worked really hard at learning how to use our paints, cleaning off our brushes, and being artists!

 

Friday, September 17

What a busy day!  In centers today we made apple trees, played in housekeeping and worked on some games--including matching up our pictures!

Monday, September 13

As we work our way through some of our farm themed projects this month and next, we're talking about farm animals, farm machines, and what farmers grow.  Today we spent some time at one of our centers tasting and then making peas! 

opening and tasting sugar snap peas

ro

rolling our paper peas

counting our peas in a pod

We also used our housekeeping center for the first time today.  We had our kitchen and our dishes and our chef's apron.  One group even served their food at their own restaurant!  Mrs.  Hennessey worked with us at the playdoh table.  We used cutters and rollers and sea creature shapes to make all kinds of cool things.  It was fun!  Maybe we'll get to do playdoh again soon!

setting the table

creating with playdoh

Friday, September 10

As we finish up the week, I just wanted to give our families a glimpse into our day with some of the developmental reasons behind a couple of our early morning activities.  I'll do this periodically throughout the year.  If you ever have a question about any of the activities we're doing, feel free to ask!




8:50-9:10 Table work: As we wait for everyone to arrive, we work on our fine motor skills. After hanging up their backpacks, the children choose a table to work at. This week we've had out puzzles (These will often be a morning choice because they help with so many pre-school skills!), coloring, and scissors. Learning to use scissors correctly is a big deal for this age! At this time we're not worrying about what our cut-outs look like, we're just working on holding scissors and paper correctly and being able to cut.

9:15-9:30 Rug Time:  We check our calendar each day to practice counting and our days of the week. This also give me the opportunity to talk a little about holidays and birthdays.  This week we've been looking at the little 3X5 photos that I took of the children to practice the names of our classmates. Depending on time and interest, we might have a story to start the day—or we might just get ready for our centers.

Thank you for all you've done to get the year off to a great start!