Week 3: Fall, Thanksgiving, Animals

The kids played with cloud dough and we made popcorn as a class.  With the warm weather, we've been spending more time inside with the toys and each other.  I loved the cloud dough, and that will be a repeat for December for sure.

Week 2: Fall, Thanksgiving, Animals

I really loved the activities this week.  They were so "fallish" and very appropriate for the season.  The leaf painting and collage both turned out so beautiful.  On Tuesday we made "nature soup" and looked to see what objects floated and what objects sank.  (Only the rocks sank.)  The kids loved collecting things and putting them in the water table.  Then we did a painting craft with watercolors and drawing leaves.  The trees looked very lovely and artsy.

On Thursday we collected the prettiest leaves we could find to make a leaf collage. I thought the leaf collage was so beautiful with real leaves.  We also introduced a new learning center with blocks and pictures of different structures to build.

Week 1: Fall, Thanksgiving, and Animals

This week we talked a little bit about animals, animal sounds, and read an animal book.  We made animal puppets on both days.  One was a tiger, and the other one was a frog.  I like to do our painting craft at the beginning of the month.  For our learning centers, the kids the imaginative play with play dough.  We repeated the build-a-pumpkin learning center, and then I introduced an ice cream play dough center.  I explained the rules about no eating the play dough, sharing, being careful to not drop play dough on the floor, and asking for help when they needed it.  They did marvelously with this group learning center, pretending to play with ice cream.

Next week we're going to explore nature and the fall leaves.

Week 4 - Halloween, Fantasy, and Fall

There weren't any pictures from last week because I wasn't there, but this week we did science experiments with the kids.  We did a pumpkin explosion with a fake pumpkin, and then disolved pumpkins in different liquids.  The kids all took turns mixing the different liquids.  We also had a play dough pumpkin learning center where the kids could build their own pumpkins with stems, and make faces with beans and jewels.  The older kids loved it especially.

Week 2: Halloween, Fantasy, and Fall

This week we did some painting crafts related to animals, a pig snout and a tiger.  We learned a new song called the "Elephant Song," but we used little ghosts and called it the "Ghost Song" instead.  We also did some face painting one day,   I've really enjoyed focusing on crafts one week like this week, and then next week we'll do some science experiments.  Last week we did more sensory activities.

Week 1: Halloween, Fall, and Fantasy

This week was our Halloween party for the month.  We just had some special treats while the kids played outside with their other siblings.  It was fun.  On Tuesday, we discovered the fall season with discovery nature bags, trying to guess what part of the "fall" was in the bag.  We found leaves, sticks, rocks, and pine needles.  The we played in the dark with glow sticks, making different shapes.

On Thursday we got a special message about some hidden magic wands that we found outside in the shed. Then we made some sensory bottle shakers with some fall themed objects, and then just some beans and pasta.  Everyone's costumes all week were wonderful!

Week 5: Transportation Favorites

We had themed snacks this week.

The flying planes.

This week we spent some time focusing on the favorites we had done over the past month, and reviewed some things about airplanes and trains.  Outside we did activities with moving objects, like flying toy planes, or swimming through the backyard water.  We also had a day with the car ramp and used a water table as a car track.  At the end of lunch and stories, I had one more surprise and gave everyone a transportation themed snack to end the month.

It's been a month now, and everyone has been doing so well with the routine.  They all seem to expect an activity, craft, or surprise at some point in the morning. They are all learning better and better each week how to line up against the wall for learning centers, or find their squares for singing/weather time.  The kids are darling, and are all becoming better friends, holding hands, and leading each other to play.