Happy Halloween!

As the children arrived at school, we took a few minutes to admire each others costumes.  They were so excited to see each other.  We had to modify our schedule for the day to make room for a few party games and our trip to Senior Star.  We still had a little time for play and time to complete our Math Journals.
For our party, the children could choose to participate in a ghost beanbag throw, a balloon and parachute toss, and bracelet making.  For snacks, they had chosen to have donuts with vampire teeth and candy eye balls.
Our trip to Senior Star was very nice.  I love to watch the residents as the children parade through and sing songs.  Thank you to all of the grown-ups who went with us today!

Getting Ready for Halloween

Group Meeting:  The excitement is beginning.  The children have finished up their plans for tomorrow.   IF the snow storm that is predicted causes school to be delayed or canceled for tomorrow, we will move our Halloween fun to Monday.  A late start means no morning class.  An all day cancellation means no school for either class.

Story:  The story for today was Pumpkin Jack by Will Hubbell.  Tim has carved a Jack-o-Lantern and
has named it Jack.  He enjoys Jack even when Halloween is over.  However, Jack is starting to rot.  Mom tells Tim to take Jack outside.  Tim places Jack in the garden and watches him slowly fade away.  However, in the spring, Tim notices a spout growing in the garden.  Ask your child to tell you what happens next.

Small Groups:  The children used Unifix to measure a picture of a Jack-o-lanturn, a ghost, and a bat.
They recorded their answers in the boxes.

Large Group:  The children played Pumpkin, Pumpkin, Ghost (Duck, Duck, Goose).

Snacks:  The morning snack was oranges, Belvita bars brought by Kinsley.  We also had apples and milk brought by Laurel who was absent yesterday.  The afternoon snack was crackers, blueberries and juice brought by Logan.  Thank you Kinsley, Laurel, and Logan!

Group Meeting:  The children did the Monster Stomp for our opening song.  The children are getting very excited about wearing costumes to school on Thursday.

Story:  The story for today was How Spider Saved Halloween by Robert Kraus.  Spider, Ladybug and Fly are three friends who are getting ready for Halloween.  Spider doesn't know what to wear for a costume.  However, when  three bullies smash Ladybugs pumpkin, he decides to create a pumpkin costume.  That's one way that Spider saves Halloween.  Ask your child to tell you another way that Spider saves Halloween.

Small Groups:  The children were given a paper with a spider and a web printed on it.  All over the web were numbers 1-6.  The children took turns rolling a large dice.  When the number on top was identified, everyone found that numeral on their paper and used a dauber to mark it.

Large Group:  The children practiced three songs that we will be singing at Senior Star.

Snacks:  The morning snack was Wheat Thins and juice provided by the preschool.  The morning snack person was ill today.   The afternoon snack was grapes and crackers brought by Lydia.  Thank you, Lydia. 

Before I begin my post for today, I want to thank everyone for attending Parent/Teacher Conferences on Monday and Tuesday.  I enjoyed meeting with everyone.  I have two more to do next week and am looking forward to those as well.
I also want to explain why I didn't blog yesterday and had to leave the PM class a little early.  The Clinton Fire Department was dedicating a new truck in memory of Eric Hosette.  Eric was my niece's husband.  I wanted to be there with my family for the dedication.  Thank you for understanding why the blog didn't get done.  On to today...

Group Meeting:  We are starting to prepare for Halloween.  Our movement songs have been Halloween oriented as well as some other things we are doing in the classroom.  The children have been making decorations at the Art Table as well.

Story:  The story for today was Big Pumpkin by Erica Silverman.   A witch has planted a seed thaT has sprouted and grown a big pumpkin.  She wants to take it to her house so that she can make pumpkin pie.  However, the pumpkin is too big for her to carry.  A ghost comes to help her, but he can't move it either.  A vampire tries to help as well as a mummy, but no one can pick up the pumpkin.  Then, a little bat appears.  Can he pick up the pumpkin?  Ask your child to tell you how the story ends.

Small Groups:  Following the story, I explained to the children that words are made up of parts called syllables.  To find out how many syllables are in a word, you can clap when you say the word.  I clapped while I said every child's name to figure out how many syllables were in their name.  Then we moved on to Halloween characters.  I had a paper ready for them with Halloween character pictures.  We clapped the characters name and used a dauber to stamp the number of syllables in the name. 

Large Group:  The children went to the Outdoor Classroom.  It was a little chilly, but not bad at all.  We will go out occasionally, so coats are appreciated.

Snacks:  The morning snack was bananas, strawberries, crackers, and milk brought by Lucy.  The afternoon snack was Belvita bars, applesauce, and milk brought by Madelyn.  Thank you, Lucy and Madelyn!

No School on Monday due to Fall Break!

The children have been experimenting with the ramps in the block area.  Next week, we'll add a little more instruction to enhance their explorations.

Story:  Today's story was a re-read of Abiyoyo as told by Pete Seeger.  The children enjoyed this book last week and were happy to see it today.  This time, they helped fill in the words as I read.  When we went outside, many children pretended to be Abiyoyo.

Letter Learning:  The letter for today was Qq.

Large Group:  Because it was such a beautiful day, we used small group time and large group time to go outdoors.  I'm afraid our fair weather days are limited.

Snacks:  The morning snack was cheese sticks and strawberries brought by Sawyer.  The afternoon snack was Teddy Grahams and bananas brought by Ryan.  Thank you, Sawyer and Ryan.

Parent Teacher Conferences are next week.  There will be no PM class on Monday and no AM class on Tuesday.  I look forward to seeing everyone!

Group Meeting: The movement song at the beginning of school today was "Scarecrow" by the Learning Station.

Story:  The story for today was 10 Apples Up on Top by Dr. Seuss.  In this story, a lion, tiger and dog are balancing apples on their heads.  They challenge each other to get up to 10 apples.  However, a bear is chasing the animals.  Ask your child to tell you why the bear is chasing them and if the apples stay on their heads.

Small Groups:  Following the story, the children used daubers to stamp apples on top of animals printed on a paper.  Each animal had a different number of apples.

Large Group:  The children pretended our bean bags were apples and tried to balance them on their head.  They added more bags and did more movements to see if they could stay.

Letter Learning:  The letter for today was Oo.

Snacks:  The snack for the morning class was bananas, crackers, and milk brought by Sophia.  The afternoon snack was apples and cheese sticks brought by Silas.  Thank you, Sophia and Silas!

Group Meeting:  I have changed some things in the block area to incorporate ramp building.  A letter about this will be sent home tomorrow.  Before play time, the children joined me in looking at the new materials that will help them build ramps and tunnels.

Story:  The story for today was Little Mouse and the Big Red Apple by A.H. Benjamin.  Little Mouse has found a big apple.  He wants to roll it home to have it for a feast.  Along the way, the apple falls into a stream, gets caught in a thorn bush and needs help getting around a fallen tree.  With each barrior, an animal friend comes to help mouse.  The animals look longingly at the apple, but mouse does not want to share.  Finally, mouse gets the apple back home.  Does he get to eat the big apple?  Ask your child to tell you how the story ends.

Small Groups:  During small group time, the children thought about what we saw at Stone's during our field trip and drew those things in their Writing Journal.

Large Group:  The children played a game called Squirrels in the Trees.  The children took turns being trees and squirrels.   The squirrels had to run to find a tree without a squirrel so that they would not be left out in the cold.

Snacks:  The snack for the morning class was cheese sticks and strawberries brought by Tristan.  The afternoon snack was yogurt and bananas brought by Tate.  Thank you, Tristan and Tate!

Birthday Day

Group Meeting:  Today was October Birthday Day.  The children made their snack and celebrated at snack time.

Story:  Because we had so much going on, we used our Let's Find Out magazine as our story for the day.

Small Groups:  The children got into  small groups to make Baked Oatmeal Muffins for a snack.  One group mixed the oatmeal, baking soda, egg, and milk into a bowl.  One group mashed bananas and another diced apples that would be added to the oatmeal.  The last group assembled the muffin tins and scooped the mixture into the muffin cups.  I've included the recipe below if you'd like to try it. 

Large Group:  The children watched a video about Autumn, read the pages of the Let's Find Out magazine, and completed the last page in the magazine.

Snack:  The children tried the muffins that we had made.  They also had birthday brownies.  The morning class had milk.  The afternoon class had juice.

Baked Oatmeal Muffins
2 cups of old fashioned oatmeal
2 bananas mashed
1 apple diced
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 cup milk
1 egg
Mix all of the ingredients and put them into muffin cups.  Bake at 350 degrees for 15 minutes or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.

Field Trip on Monday.  Please read the note sent home with your child today.

Story:  The story for today was another re-read from last week.  The children enjoyed Henny Penny, so I read it again today.  I asked them to come up with a different ending to the story.  Some children thought Henny Penny should escape from the fox den and tell the king.  Others like how the story ended.  After all, a fox needs to eat, too!

Small Groups:  The activities for this week are listed in Monday's post.  The schedule for today was:
Activity #1  Green Group
Activity #2 Red Group
Activity #3  Yellow Group

Letter Learning:  The letter for today was Ii.

Large Group:  The children went to the Outdoor Classroom.

Snacks:  The snack for the morning class was Belvita biscuits and cheese brought by Andy.  The afternoon snack was oranges and cheese brought by Cade.  Thank you, Andy and Cade!

  Story:  The story for today was Abiyoyo retold by Pete Seeger.  This story is an old African-American folk tale.  It is about a man and his son who are asked to leave the city because the son plays his ukulele to much and the father uses his magic wand to play tricks on people.  One day, a giant named Abiyoyo comes to the town.  Everyone is afraid of him except the boy and his father.  The boy plays and sings Abiyoyo's name.  Abiyoyo begins to dance and falls down.  The father steps up with his wand and makes the giant disappear.  The boy and his father are now heroes.  Ask your child to tell you what Abiyoyo looks like.

Small Groups:   The activities for this week are listed in yesterday's post.  The schedule for today was:
Activity #1  Yellow Group
Activity #2  Green Group
Activity #3  Red Group

Letter Learning:  The letter for today was Tt.

Large Group:  The children took their writing journals outside, sat under a tree and drew the parts of the tree.  We will label them tomorrow.

Snacks:  The snack for the morning class was crackers, cheese, and juice brought by Blake.  The afternoon snack was grapes, cheese and juice brought by Caroline.  Thank you, Blake and Caroline!

Group Meeting:  We have been talking about trees for the past few school days.  The children have been interested, so I think we will do a study of trees.  I will be sending home more information about a study this week.

Story:  The story for today was a re-read of Our Tree Named Steve by Alan Zweibel.  I read this book on Wednesday of last week.  The children remembered the story line and could answer questions and fill in missing words as I was reading.

Small Groups:  The activities for this week are listed below as well as the schedule for today.
Activity #1  (Red Group)  The children counted acorns to feed to squirrels that were on a ten frame picture.  We practiced adding a few more and taking a few away.
Activity #2  (Yellow Group)  The children dripped liquid water color onto leaf shaped diffuser paper.  Because they had sprayed the paper with water first, the colors mixed together to make beautiful leaves.  We will be putting these on our classroom windows.
Activity #3  (Green Group)  The children practiced balancing skills with our balance beam.

Letter Learning:  The letter for today was Hh.

Large Group:  The children listened to the song "The Green Grass Grows All Around".  While listening to the song, I drew a tree on the white board.

Snacks:  The morning snack was cottage cheese, crackers, and strawberries brought by Brea.  The afternoon snack was pumpkin Belvita bars and pears brought by Charlotte. Thank you, Brea and Charlotte!

Group Meeting:  I explained to the children that we would not be having class tomorrow.  I told the children that the teachers would be students tomorrow at a teacher's school.  They found that very interesting!

Story:  The story for today was Henny Penny retold by Bonnie Dobkin.  This is the classic story of the chicken named Henny Penny who thinks that the sky is falling.  She convinces her friends Ducky Lucky, Goosey Loosey, Turkey Lurkey, and Cocky Locky that the sky is falling and they must hurry to tell the king.  Along the way, they meet Foxy Loxy.  Foxy Loxy tells them that he knows a secret short cut to get to the palace.  Should they follow Foxy Loxy?  Ask your child to tell you how this story ends.

Large Group:  The children completed a Let's Find Out magazine about trees and leaves.  They watched a video that explained how the trees change with the seasons.

Letter Learning:  The letter for today was Ee.

Snacks:  The snack for the morning class was grapes and Belvita bars brought by Callie.  The afternoon snack was blueberry waffles, strawberries and milk brought by Eleanor.  Thank you, Callie and Eleanor!

Group Meeting:  Before Group Meeting starts and we are waiting for all of the children to arrive,  I have a fine motor activities on the tables for the children to choose.  This week, I have had Play Doh as one of the choices.  Many of the children love Play Doh.  They like squeezing it and molding it which is so good for their finger muscles.

Story:  The story for today was Our Tree Named Steve by Alan Zweibel.  A family wants to build a house on a wooded lot.  The construction people will have to cut down all of the trees to make room for the house.  The children like one of the trees more than the others and ask that they keep that tree in the yard.  They name it Steve.  Steve is good for holding a swing and the end of a jump rope.  He is good at providing shade for a picnic, a camp out, and nap in a hammock.  Steve becomes part of the family until there is a storm.  Ask your child to tell you what happens to Steve and how the family still uses Steve.

Small Groups:  The teachers took the children outside in their small groups to look at trees in the yard.  Each group took pictures of the tree that they found and shared information about that tree when they returned indoors. 

Letter Learning:  The letter for today was Ff. 

Snacks:  The snack for the morning class was cheese, crackers, and juice brought by Charlie.   The afternoon snack was apples and peanut butter brought by Henry.  Thank you, Charlie and Henry!