Week of October 24th-28th

Popcorn and the letter O! This week the children enjoyed playing with "knights and damsels" finger puppets, drawing a fall picture (from our visit to the Arboretum last week) in their nature journals, and making "popcorn on the cob". We read some fantastic books about fall and popcorn, learning the science behind the yummy treat, and finished our vowels with O! We also continued with leaf and tree identification, and the changes that Autumn bring to our neighborhood.

Next week will bring a Fall celebration and review of what we've learned this month!

Weeks 10th-14th and 17th-21st October

These past two weeks just flew by, so you're getting two week reviews in one :o).

The week of the 10th we had so much fun working alongside the book, "Fish Out of Water", if you haven't read this book with your child yet- you should! The children learned about fresh and salt water, lakes, rivers and oceans. We talked about the miracles of Jesus- focusing on the miracle of bread loaves- then each of the children made their own fresh loaf of bread! We also covered the letter "E", and played with new fine motor/ sensory games. The children were thrilled to get our very own classroom goldfish, "Otto".

The week of the 17th we studied the letter "U", squirrels, and autumn using the book, "Have You Seen Trees?" (a beautiful book!). On Monday, the children pretended they were squirrels and hunted for (marshmallow) nuts outside, they loved playing the fox and the squirrel tag game as well. We made deliciously fresh pumpkin cookies for snack, so good with hot cocoa! During art the children made "trees", using their arms as the trunk and branches, and ripped colorful tissue paper for the leaves. They had a blast getting paint all over their arms, on purpose, and the trees turned out to be very expressive of personalities... Friday we took the children to the Finch Arboretum, where they spent the entire time climbing trees, throwing leaves, playing alongside the creek, chasing each other, and having a healthy snack- all way better than the lesson we had planned for them there!

This next week, "Popcorn!", in honor of 'Popcorn Poppin' Month'. We look forward to finishing up our vowels, and exploring the fun of popcorn with your children.

Don't forget to check all the fun pictures, on Photobucket, that Kristianna took:

http://s1216.photobucket.com/albums/dd374/blueskiesplayschool/

October 3rd-7th

What a fun week learning about bears! Rawr! Of course, our bears were cuddly and cute. We went on a bear hunt and found a bear cub hiding in the kitchen! The children enjoyed making their own bears to "scare" eachother with, some using buttons for belly buttons and others using ears for feet. Lots of creativity! Books we read and explored together: We're Going on a Bear Hunt, We're Going on a Lion Hunt, Jesse Bear's Family Tree, Mr. Bear Squash-You-All-Flat, The Big Hungry Bear and the Red Ripe Strawberry and a follow up book on Mary Cassat (our American artist). We also continued our letter study with the vowels, adding "U".

On Friday we went to the pumpkin patch at Hidden Acres. The children had so much fun petting the goats and pig "Porkchop", running through the teepees, finding their way out of the haystack maze, picking pumpkins from the patch, going on a hayride, eating HUGE yummy apples and, of course, getting lots of fresh air and sunshine.

Next week: fish and the letter "E"!

*For more pictures visit our Photobucket.