This week our theme was monsters! We read a lot of fun books and participated in many exciting activities before finishing off the week with trick-or-treating on Halloween! This week's fun fact is that in some countries, children have to sing, tell a joke, dance or show off any other talent before receiving candy. Here we just say "Trick or Treat!" Learning and DiscoveryOur group activities this week were awesome! On Tuesday we practiced our weaving skills by threading string through holes to create a spiderweb. We even got to add spiders to our creations! Afterwards we got to play outside for a little bit - until we were just TOO COLD. Then we came inside and played some fun games like balancing beanbags on our feet! On Wednesday we had a couple of rotations of cognitive games. We had lots of fun counting candy corns, comparing potions in different containers, and visually tracking a pumpkin under a cup as it was mixed around. We learned a lot of new and exciting things this week! Thursday for our group activity we went trick-or-treating and there are lots of cute pictures later in this blog post! Free TimeWe had tons of cool table activities this week during free time! Tuesday at the Art table we got to make our own unique monster using paper, markers, and popsicle sticks. At the Language table we played Guess-Who where we had to guess our friend's monster before they guessed ours! At the Science table we rolled a dice to create our monster, and for our Gross Motor activity we had a monster obstacle course that was lots of fun! Wednesday at the Science table we sorted different colors of pom-poms to match all the different colored monsters, and at the Art table we made Frankenstein Heads! For our Gross Motor activity we had a bean bag toss, but we had to throw the beanbags into the monster's mouth! At the Language table we had monsters that wanted to eat all the objects that started with their letter. So, we fed the "B" monster a bat, boat, and a broom! We also had spiders hidden all around the room on Wednesday, and we tried to find as many as we could during free time! On Thursday at the Art table we made ghosts using crayons, cotton balls, paper, eyeball stickers, and buttons. At the Science table we practiced our addition by counting how many spiders were in each web. At the Language table we played Tic-Tac-Boo! using spiders, black kittens, and jack-o-lanterns. For our Gross Motor activity we hop, skipped, and jumped onto different obstacles to follow the dragon to its lair! Trick-Or-Treat!Halloween was on Thursday and we got to go trick or treating in the high school! We had the greatest time and we got lots of candy! Candid Moments & Costumes!Teachers of the WeekOur teacher spotlights for this week are Melizza and Gaby!
Hands On Activity- Monster Rocks
*Last week's answer to the question, "Where did the tradition of pumpkin carving come from?" is Ireland. They used to carve turnips, but immigrants to the USA found that it was a lot easier to carve pumpkins, which is why our jack-o-lanterns are pumpkins!
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We spent a lot of time this week learning about pumpkins! We discovered what was inside pumpkins, how pumpkins are grown, and learned the different uses for pumpkins. This week's random fact comes from http://www.pumpkin-patch.com/facts.html which is a site COMPLETELY dedicated to all things pumpkins (This would be a fun website to check out with your preschooler if you are looking for jack-o-lantern patterns, how to grow your own pumpkins, and also just cool jokes and facts about them). It is: "The largest pumpkin pie EVER made was 5 feet in diameter, weighed over 350 pounds, and made 3,000 servings." We wish we could get a slice of that! Learning and DiscoveryWe did so many wonderful group activities this week! On Tuesday we explored the different parts of pumpkin (such as the vine, flowers, seeds, and pulp) and then made a craft to show what we had learned. We cut out the shape of a pumpkin on paper and then glued seeds and yarn (to simulate the pulp) onto it. On Wednesday we learned about different types of emotions by drawing different (sometimes silly) faces onto paper apples. This is a good way to practice recognizing some emotions that we may have. On Thursday we discovered how to "compare" and "contrast". We practiced this with some flashcards with different pictures on them and shared with our high school friends what was similar and what was different about each one. Then, we got to try it on our own! We examined an apple and small pumpkin at our table and drew each of them on our paper. After talking about them for a bit, we decided what was the same about the two objects and what was different while our high school friends wrote it down. Free TimeThis week was a CRAZY one, filled to the brim with all things pumpkin related. On Tuesday, at the Art station, we painted paper plates to look like pumpkins using shaving cream and food coloring. As you can tell, our hands got pretty messy, but it was SO much fun! At the Language Table, we further explored the different aspects of pumpkins. We dug out seeds and pulp from inside, felt its smooth outer shell, and touched the soft leaves from its vine. At the Science table, we did something a little bit different than normal- We got to cook! We made our very own mini pumpkin pies by rolling out dough and scooping pumpkin puree into the shell. We can safely say that we are master chefs now. For our outside Gross Motor activity, we played a clever spin on the classic ring toss. We threw rings on PUMPKINS! It was a big hit, and some preschoolers even played for fifteen minutes straight. On Wednesday, at the Art table we stamped emotions pumpkins and created gates for them to sit on, while at the Language table, we did an upper and lowercase matching game. At the Science station we measured pumpkins using Mathlink Cubes. For our Gross Motor activity, we did PUMPKIN bowling. Congrats to all the preschoolers who knocked down all the pins! On Thursday, for our Art activity, we used sliced apples to stamp pumpkin shapes onto paper. Using unexpected materials to do art projects is one way to make a good craft even better! At the Language station we identified the beginning letter of our name and then outlined it with pumpkin seeds. At the Science Table, we once again measured pumpkins- but this time, by WEIGHT. We weighed both apples and pumpkins on a scale to see how they compared to each other. For our Gross Motor activity, we did pumpkin themed corn hole. We love all the fun twists on regular games we can play using pumpkins! Outside PlayWe LOVE our sunny, mellow Fall days! Candid MomentsMeet the TeachersMeet our teacher spotlights for this week-Sam and Kilyee!
Hands On Activity- Pumpkins!
Weekly SurveyThis week, we have a tricky question for you, but you can find the answer on the site we linked above. Best of luck! *Last week's answer to the question, "What is America's most popular apple to grow?" is the Gala Apple. This tasty apple originated in New Zealand in 1930 but wasn't even brought to the USA until the mid 1970s. Since then it has steadily grown to become one of America's favorite apples.
This week we learned all about Fall, especially Apples! We had tons of fabulous activities each day to help us learn everything from the fall weather, to what types of apples we like. We also went on our field trip to the pumpkin patch! This week's fun fact is: The biggest apple ever picked was three pounds. That is nine times bigger than normal! Learning and DiscoveryOn Tuesday, Emma, a senior doing an internship with our preschool, taught us all about recognizing our different emotions. We learned about our feelings chart and expressing our emotions. She also created a "cozy cave" where children can sit alone to calm down, as well as a variety of sensory items that children can handle while in the cave or elsewhere in the classroom. Wednesday we learned lots of position words- front, behind, on top, under, next to, etc. Then we used our chairs to practice all that we learned. We also got to sing some fun songs like If your happy and you know it, and a song about spiders too! Free TimeOur table activities this week taught us a lot about fall, apples, and lots more! Tuesday at the art table we made fall trees using paper, leaves, and watercolors. At the language table we practiced spelling fall words, and at the science table we had to remember which cup our object was under while it was mixed around with other cups before guessing where our object was. For our gross motor activity we had to keep our paper apple on our plate while running in and out of cones while racing our friends! Wednesday at the science table we tried four different types of apples and then decided if they were sweet, sour, crunchy, or soft, and how much we liked the taste. At the art table we made apple trees using different colors of paper, pompoms, tissue paper, and many other fun supplies. We used different colored of pompoms to show the types of apples growing on our tree. At the language table we matched our letters onto leaves that were all different sizes and colors! Pumpkin PatchOn Thursday we went to the pumpkin patch! We are so glad it didn't rain and we were able to enjoy learning about different types of pumpkins, go on a hayride, see lots of animals, and play with our friends on the slides, hay bails, and doing the pumpkin toss. We even got to pick out our own pumpkin! The pumpkin patch is so much fun! Candid MomentsTeachers of the WeekThis week our teacher spotlights are for Morgaine and Courtney!
Hands- On Activity- Foil Printed Fall Tree
Weekly SurveyThis week's question is one that your preschooler may be able to help you with! They learned all about apples this week and maybe even were told the answer to this question! * The Answer to last week's Question: "How Many bones are in the adult human body?"
is 206!!! When you're born, you actually have 300 bones, but over time, the little bones fuse together to create larger ones. By adulthood, you have only 206. Our bodies are amazing! This week was a short one, but we learned so much! Our theme this week focused on... you guessed it... ME! We learned all about ourselves (what we like/dislike), our different body parts, and exploring our 5 senses. Each week we'll be posting a fun fact about our weekly theme. This week's fun fact is: The World's population is expected to reach 8.6 billion people by 2030. Wow! Learning and DiscoveryOn Tuesday, we did a couple of group activities. We started out the day by practicing drawing some of the shapes we learned last week. Our high school friends helped us create circles and squares and triangles on our little white boards, and they turned out great! Afterwards, we used our practice to help us draw our FIRST self portrait of the year. Our self portraits are one skill that we will do a couple of times this year, and it will be so fun to see how much we've grown in our fine motor abilities. Lastly, we worked on our gross motor skills as we tried to balance bean bags on our heads, backs, arms, etc. as we danced to music. On Wednesday, it was such a nice day that we played outside for ALL of group time! We are trying to take advantage of all the sunny days left this year! Ms. Anne even brought out her bubble machine and the kids enjoyed trying to pop the bubbles with different body parts. It was so fun watching them chase bubbles all over the playground! Free TimeThis week, we had so many great table activities! On Tuesday, at the Science Table, we measured some of our body parts (like our head, arms, and legs) and wrote the measurements down on a piece of paper, while at the Language Table, we did a body parts word search with finger paints. At the Art Table, we made a self portrait out of loose parts such as noodles, packing paper, and more. For our Gross Motor activity, we did yoga. Our high school friends would show us a flashcard with a yoga move on it and we would try to replicate it. We learned that yoga is a good way to control stress and stay fit! On Wednesday, we did a sound guessing game (we had to guess the material- like coins, kernels, or marbles- in a closed plastic egg) at the Science Table, and a body parts writing/matching activity at the Language Table. We continued working on our self portraits at the Art Table, while outside, we did hockey for our Gross Motor activity. Outside PlayCandid MomentsMeet the TeachersThis week's teacher spotlights are : Jacqi and Nghi!
Hands On Activity- Fingerprint Craft
SurveyEach week, we'll try to post a survey about this weeks theme to test your knowledge! We will be posting the answer the following week. Good luck! This week, for our first week of preschool, our theme was Shapes and Colors. We have started to get all settled into the new school year and are so excited to get to know all of our preschoolers this year! A Fun Fact about starting school is that children in Russia always start school on Knowledge Day (September 1st), even if it is the weekend! Learning and DiscoveryEach morning, we have a group activity that we all do together. For our group activity on Tuesday we learned all about the rules in our classroom and all about our preschool. Everyone participated in creating and talking about our rules! On Wednesday we went outside and played Red Rover using shapes and colors. It was a lot of fun to skip, jump, and run along with our friends when our shape or color was called. Thursday we read a book called The Dot, which is about a girl whose artwork was all made of dots. We practiced making dots and circles using paint, and then observed what happened when we mixed different colors. Free Time During free time we are able to play outside, paint, spend time at the creation table, play with blocks and animals at the carpet or dress up in the dramatic play center, or do the different table activities. There are art, science, language, and gross motor activities planned for each day that we can choose to do during our free time. This week we had a lot of fun table activities! On Tuesday at the language table we were able to glue different pieces together to make a crayon, and then stamp the letters to spell the color of our crayon. At the science table we practiced our colors by putting our pom-poms in the tube that matched its color. At the art table we were able to use a variety of art supplies to create little shape friends! Wednesday we had a super exciting gross motor activity which was an obstacle course! We loved jumping and balancing through each part. At the art table we used cookie cutters and paint to make a painting full of variety of shapes. At the science table we used a salad tosser and put different colored drops of paint inside, and then we were able to spin it and see the design the pain made on our paper. We loved this activity! Thursday at the art table we got to mix watercolor paints to create our own unique colors, and then we were able to paint a picture with those colors. At the language table we practiced our shapes by picking a shape of our choice, gluing it in the matching spot, and then practiced writing that shape's name underneath by tracing the letters. For our science activity we were given a paper with different colored dots on it, and then we rolled a dice that told us how to fold our strip of paper. We would make big or little bends in our paper and then have to glue down the color strip we chose to connect those two colored dots on our paper. It was a great way to spend our free time! Outside PlayWe are loving our new preschool space because we get to play outside every day! Candid MomentsMeet the TeachersEach week we will be posting a teacher spotlight so that you can get to know the high school students that are teaching your children! Our spotlights this week are for Teacher Bethany and Teacher Ashley! This year, Bethany and Ashley will be updating this blog weekly
Hands-On ActivitySince it is the first week of preschool, a great activity to do is filling out an All About Me chart. You can do one of these at the beginning, and the end of the year to see how your preschooler has grown and developed. You can use the template included below, pick from one of the many found online, or make your own outline! Print it out, and have your preschooler help you fill it out. Have them write their name on their paper so they can see how their writing has improved over the years, see how much they have grown, and how their taste in color and food has changed. It will be fun for them too look back on this when they are older!
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