September 19th-23rd

This week the children were excited to learn about monkeys, hats and baking all connected to the book, "Caps for Sale!". On Monday we introduced the book "Caps for Sale!", along with Circus Caps for Sale, and Old Hat-New Hat. The children were also reaquainted with the letter sound 'a'. We made monkey bread concentrating on 1/4 cup, 1/2 cup, 3/4 and 1 cup measurements. Half the children did the dry ingredients, the other half the wet. The results were yummy!

Wednesday the children worked on their letter 'a' and Caps for Sale packets- drawing straight lines (putting the cap on the monkey's head, penmanship prep), counting seeds, tracing the letter 'a', and doing a word search for 'a'. We also read Casey's New Hat, Jennie's Hat and acted out "Caps for Sale" while reading it again. The children made monkey face puppets. Puzzles seemed to be the theme of the day, I was impressed with how quickly they could put together 100 piece puzzles together!

On Friday we took our first field trip to Manito Park, on what turned out to be the last nice weekday of summer! The roses were still in bloom, so we forgot our hunt for acorns and other treasure, and toured the rose gardens. The children wanted to see the fish, so we headed to the Japanese gardens, where the children yelled "Nemo!" in their quest to find him... afterwards we went to the park for a snack and some play.

Next week- apples and apple pie!

September 12th-16th

What a fun week getting to know the children at the playschool! Each one is so distinct in personality and creativity. So much fun. We started off the year learning about birds using books such as The Best Nest, Migration, The Roly Poly Egg, Woof-Meow-Tweet Tweet, Wild Birds, Tweedle Dee Dee, Fly High Fly Low and Tree of Birds. We had lively discussions about bird "homes" and built one from various snack foods and jelly beans (which the children "earned" by identifying animal sounds).

Highlights:

Monday the children got to know "Daisy" our class hermit crab, and we discussed what other creatures would be a good addition to our playschool. They explored the classroom and each other, developing the beginnings of friendships.

Wednesday we introduced the children to Mary Cassat the American impressionist artist. They loved looking at the paintings on our wall, and in the book "Mary Cassat", then trying their hand at using warm colors to create a happy painting. The children enjoyed discovering the various ways to use our silk sheets- especially as capes (as birds, butterflies and Superman).

Friday was our first nature walk, we travelled to the little park along Medical Lake with the intention of bird watching. Due to the wind no birds were in sight but the children wore their magnifying bug lockets to capture roly poly beetles, spiders and cotton from the trees. Using magnifying glasses, the children went from tree to bush to tree looking at spider webs and talking about where each "buggy" and spider made their home. After snack time the children colored pictures of their discoveries in their nature journals.

We look forward to exploring "Caps for Sale" this next week, beginning a Letter of the Week, and working on starting the children's geography lapbooks. :o)