Our walk to school is becoming ridiculously beautiful - the fall colors are hard to miss!
Week of October 20, 2014
This will be our last week of focus on the farm as we get ready to transition into our unit on the fall season. This week will be an in-depth exploration of one of the crops of the fall harvest: PUMPKINS! This week has it all! We will engage in science and exploration as we observe characteristics of pumpkins, pick up light pumpkins and heavy pumpkins, float pumpkins in water, try to predict what we will find inside a pumpkin, and open it up and check out what’s inside! Children will have opportunities for integrating new sensations as we feel the outside and inside of a pumpkin (with bare hands or in plastic baggies) and taste pumpkin seeds! We will practice motor skills as we carry pumpkins of different sizes, scoop out a pumpkin, learn how to pick up pumpkin seeds with jumbo tweezers, try to bowl with pumpkins, and hammer plastic nails into hollow pumpkin shells! We will learn new language with a pumpkin song and pumpkin poem and incorporate new sensory vocabulary like slimy, wet, and slippery. Finally, we will have an emphasis on counting and shapes as we discover pumpkins shaped like circles and ovals, count pumpkin seeds, and perform a fingerplay poem about five little pumpkins.
Some of the vocabulary we will introduce and review this week includes farm, field, vegetables, prayer, tractor, harvest, gather, autumn, fall, season, apple, corn, pumpkin, seeds, carve, gourd, circle, oval, and orange.
The finger play and poem we will learn this week is called Five Little Pumpkins. The children will learn it together and have the opportunity to practice retelling with the addition of our felt story center.
Five Little Pumpkins
Five little pumpkins sitting on the gate (hold up five fingers)
The first one said, “Oh my, it’s getting late!” (palms on cheeks in surprise)
The second one said, “There’s a chill in the air.” (hug yourself and shiver)
The third one said, “But we don’t care!” (wave finger side to side and shake head)
The fourth one said, “Let’s run, run, run.” (pump arms like you are running)
The fifth one said, “I’m having so much fun!” (arms out to sides)
Then whooooosh went the wind and out went the light, (wave arms like wind, flip out lightswitch)
And five little pumpkins rolled out of sight. (roll arms around one another)
There is so much to do with pumpkins! You can keep the fun going at home with these fun pumpkin ideas:
- open up and scoop our your own pumpkin
- choose a design and carve the pumpkin together
- pick out all the seeds, clean them, and dry them
- roast the perfect pumpkin seed (click link below) and eat!
- dye some seeds with food coloring and make a mosaic!
- paint a pumpkin, decorate it with a face and hair!
- use pushpins, beads, and ribbons to decorate a pumpkin (for older kids or with supervision). Thread beads onto pins and push directly into pumpkin
- Plant a pumpkin seed. They sprout quickly!
- Cook with pumpkin! Roast the flesh and use as a side dish, on top of pasta, or a salad!
- Paint with pumpkins: pumpkin prints, rolling pumpkin
- Much, much, more!! (see link below)
Week of October 27, 2014
We are transitioning from farm to fall this week! We will learn more about the fall season and its characteristics. We will talk about how the leaves change color and the weather changes that happen in the fall. We will go outside (weather depending!) and look for signs of fall to collect. We will also have a secondary focus on how animals prepare for winter during the fall. We will learn about squirrels and how they gather food and get ready to hibernate during the cold winter. When you are walking through the Common this week, keep your eyes open for squirrels like the one above, as it builds up a stash of food in preparation for the cold weather season!
This week, we also look forward to celebrating Mix n’ Match Day! It is not required to dress up for Mix n’ Match, but if your child would like to join their teachers in this special day to dress in a silly way, they are invited to!
Some of the vocabulary we will introduce and review this week includes fall, autumn, leaves, red, orange, yellow, green, brown, weather, cold, chilly, winter, acorn, squirrel, hibernate, and burrow.
This week, we will pretend to be squirrels gathering nuts for winter, and this is one of the songs we will sing...
Gray Squirrel
Graysquirrel, gray squirrel, shake your busy tail!
Graysquirrel, gray squirrel, shake your busy tail!
Wrinkle up your little nose,
Hide a nut between your toes.
Graysquirrel, gray squirrel, shake your busy tail!
(motions include what each line says to do!)
I thought it would be nice to take the chance to talk in this section of the newsletter about some of the learning that takes place in each of the individual class centers over the next few weeks. First up this week: LIBRARY!
There is so much learning that happens before children "learn to read." In the library, children are invited to read independently, with a friend, or with a teacher. They are learning to enjoy the experience of reading, often paired with the comfort of sitting on a lap! They are learning to experience a story and all of its parts, to notice illustrations and predict plot events, to become aware of the flow and lilt of language and poetry, to acquire new vocabulary words, to become aware of print and that it has a purpose and a meaning, to become aware of the letters that make up words, to associate letters with individual sounds, and to begin breaking apart individual sounds through play with rhyming and silly alliterative songs. The links below are to a wonderful website with tips for reading with your child. If you continue to peruse the website, you can find links to a PBS video series on reading called "Launching Young Readers." There are also a wealth of interesting articles related to these early literacy skills under the "Reading Topics A-Z" section. Enjoy!
For Halloween Emma's school did a "mix n' match" day. Emma went to school dressed up in her festive Halloween apparel and was more matched than mixed.
Her teachers were definitely very mixed! Here is Ms. Stephanie
And here is Ms. Katie
Emma's classmates dressing up the bear.
Week of November 3, 2014
This week, we continue learning about the fall season and its other name: autumn. We will talk about the weather and environmental changes of autumn. We will further study leaves by finding them outside (weather permitting), making prints of them in model magic, studying the prints and describing our observations, and then painting them! We will also reinforce the concept of animals preparing for winter with our dramatic play squirrel burrow. The children will pretend to gather acorns, hide them in a tree stump, snuggle under blankets, and read to some forest stuffed animals inside the squirrels’ winter home!
Some of the vocabulary we will introduce and review this week includes autumn, fall, season, acorn, cap, harvest, gather, store/storage, squirrel, hibernate, leaf, red, orange, yellow, green, and brown.
The Sensory Table, or Discovery Table, is one of our most popular centers in the classroom! It’s not just about being fun, however. Engaging in sensory play is important for young children. It helps build connections in the brain, building skills in developmental areas across the board. Children learn to problem-solve as they experience physical properties, build language skills by describing unique sensory experiences, develop fine motor strength and coordination, and much much more! Check out the PBS article below for more of the skills gained by sensory play.
You may also notice that we have playdough at the end of every day. Though several other centers are open at that time, the children always choose the playdough. Think of this as our sensory and fine motor workout for the day, not to mention the positive social interactions of sitting around the table at the end of the day, engaging in conversation together. The children are building strength in their hands necessary for later tasks like writing. They are learning to fine tune coordination efforts, rolling, pinching, poking, marking, and squeezing the dough.
Emma kept us busy the week of Halloween with all the festivities going on. We were able to enjoy some nice weather at the Myrtle Street Playground party. Here is Emma swinging with William.
We tried out trick-or-treating at the mall this year for Boo at the Pru. It was pretty crowded but worth it to see Emma's excitement over wearing her costume and trick-or-treating… something she had been begging to do. She was very happy to be dressed-up like Snow White. She hasn't seen the movie but has a Fisher Price set of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs that she enjoys playing with. She seemed pretty enthralled with her costume - the fact that it came with a crown and a wand! She loved the sparkly skirt, big jewel on the front, and that it came with a "super hero cape". She was definitely happy to be Snow White! Here she is with her friend Emma.
Cannot pass up a photo-op with Mary Poppins.
Grabbing a slice of pizza with William and Leah before the Hill House Halloween party.
Finally the big night! We trick-or-treated our way down Marlborough Street and made our way to the Halloween madness of Beacon Hill.
Emma's friend Debbie had a party with some yummy treats!
Emma and William ended the night in Louisberg Square - it's not a complete Halloween without trick-or-treating at John Kerry's house. Here they are looking at the giant spiders and black cats set-up in the middle of the Square.
It seems like Emma is growing up fast - too fast in my opinion! Her language has really exploded and she loves to hold conversations. She has picked up some of her mom's favorite sayings like "Gezz Louise" and the other day she dropped something and said "Goodness gracious" which is pretty funny to hear. She has made some other big changes these past couple weeks. During the whole moving process Emma ended up bunking up with her mom and dad for awhile - which was actually enjoyed by all. She is quite the cuddler :)
But we knew she couldn't sleep with us forever and she made the change easily - sleeping soundly from the very first night... which is a lot better than her mom and dad did! I got a chuckle out of finding her a nap time like this - all of her friends lined up above her and her blankets folded neatly next to her.
Another thing we couldn't put off forever is potty training! Emma has successfully gone number two on the potty everyday since we have started. We have not taken the drastic step of going without a diaper for the day so we have not had as much luck with going number one... but all in good time!
We are so very proud of Emma!
And I think she is pretty proud of herself too!
