In case you didn't realize it.....let me be the first to tell you.....Lowe's Home Improvement Store is a VERY large store! I think that it took everyone a while to adjust to being dropped off for preschool at Lowe's. Even with the preparation from yesterday.....it just didn't seem right.
Mr. Ben (the manager) met us outside to welcome us to his store and see if we needed anything. All the store workers were very friendly and talked to the children as we walked around. Making our way to the greenhouse area of the store was probably the most difficult part. It's hard to compete with Halloween directions and Christmas trees, no matter how interesting you are!
Ms. Tiffany had made a scavenger hunt book of things to look for on our trip. We found plants, dirt, gloves, seeds, pumpkins, and a shovel. There were so many things to touch and explore. Wind chimes, bird baths, rakes, bird feeders, hoses, watering cans, and wheel barrows. Well....I'm sure you've all been to Lowe's, but it's different when you are looking around through little people eyes! After a final walk down the "HO HO" aisle, we prepared for our walk back to school.
I thought I had fully prepared myself to walk in the rain, but I definitely wasn't ready for the very hard drizzle (downpour sounds so negative) that happened on the first 10 minutes of the walk. I planned on singing songs to keep the kids engaged, but amidst "Hold the rope", "Keep your hood on, it's raining", "Yes, it is raining", and "We will have lunch when we get back to school", we didn't make it through too many verses. Someone important must have been watching, because as we got to the halfway point, the clouds cleared and the sun started to shine. The walk improved dramatically with the weather! It didn't take nearly as long as we all thought to get back to school. We definitely picked up speed on the downhill stretches....uphill is hard work!
Back at school, we had an early lunch to ease the transition. During lunch, we reviewed our scavenger hunt book and talked about our favorite things from the trip. The gloves and the watering can easily won out, but I think that had something to do with getting to actually try them both out!
Our book today was Planting a Rainbow by Lois Ehlert. The story is about planting a flower garden with all the different colors of the rainbow. We spent center time identifying and naming colors of objects from the classroom. We also tried to get everyone to say a complex phrase of adjective + noun when naming things to build sentence structure.
The kids love Out and About Days. They are long and we don't follow our typical schedule, but it is so much fun to see and touch the things that we learn about each day. It's also neat to give them opportunities to interact with people out in the community. The most important learning we do happens outside of a classroom.....those are things we don't forget!!
Thursday, October 13, 2011
Wednesday, October 12, 2011
And we thought yesterday was messy! Today the mess wasn't exactly planned.....but, it is true that everyone went home in different clothes than they arrived in this morning. The puddles on the playground were irresistable! And once the kids figured out that the adults didn't really mind the splashing or running through the puddles....they got a little carried away! You know the saying about give them an inch.....well.....it's totally true! Regardless of the mess, everyone had so much fun. We took some really great videos that I will try and post later.
Ms. Angela came today and did another lesson on balancing. There were relay races where you had to run down to the other end, get a bean bag, and balance it on your head while you walked back. Not everyone could make it the whole way, but there was some evidence of really good problem solving skills while kids tried to figure it out! Ms. Angela also had this really long, multi-colored balance beam that snaked around the room. In pairs, kids had to use good listening skills and navigate from color to color without falling off the beam. After that, each child took a turn on the dizzy disc. A dizzy disc is a round, spinning disc that turns when you twist your body. Everyone needed to hold Ms. Anglea's hand while on the disc because it turns really fast. After the initial shock wore off, they all loved it and asked to take another turn before we left!
Every activity today incorporated seeds. The touch and feel pool had many different kinds of seeds. We talked about how each kind (corn, sunflower, pumpkin, grass, and pinto beans) all look very different. The book today was Planting Seeds by Amy Jo. It is about a boy and a girl who plant all kinds of vegetable seeds to grow a garden. In art, we made a seed mosiac, where we took the seeds from the touch and feel pool and glued them to our flower picture. For science, we took turns and worked together to plant a seed in a pot. We sang a song to help us remember the things our seed will need to grow into a plant. The song says, "We plant seeds. We plant seeds. The rain, and the sun, and the flowers grow." We will keep giving our seed what it needs, and watch to see what happens!
We had a special treat today that Joseph and his Mommy made to share with our class. It was Dirt Dessert. He kept giving hints all day about his Show and Tell was in the kitchen.....his Show and Tell had worms.....and dirt. Susannah and Garrett enjoyed asking questions and making guessing. Reid, Henry, and Jack enjoyed eating the wonderful dessert, and Gianni like stirring and cleaning up. It was a tasty (and messy) way to celebrate our theme for the week. Thank you so much, Joseph and Jenn!
Ms. Angela came today and did another lesson on balancing. There were relay races where you had to run down to the other end, get a bean bag, and balance it on your head while you walked back. Not everyone could make it the whole way, but there was some evidence of really good problem solving skills while kids tried to figure it out! Ms. Angela also had this really long, multi-colored balance beam that snaked around the room. In pairs, kids had to use good listening skills and navigate from color to color without falling off the beam. After that, each child took a turn on the dizzy disc. A dizzy disc is a round, spinning disc that turns when you twist your body. Everyone needed to hold Ms. Anglea's hand while on the disc because it turns really fast. After the initial shock wore off, they all loved it and asked to take another turn before we left!
Every activity today incorporated seeds. The touch and feel pool had many different kinds of seeds. We talked about how each kind (corn, sunflower, pumpkin, grass, and pinto beans) all look very different. The book today was Planting Seeds by Amy Jo. It is about a boy and a girl who plant all kinds of vegetable seeds to grow a garden. In art, we made a seed mosiac, where we took the seeds from the touch and feel pool and glued them to our flower picture. For science, we took turns and worked together to plant a seed in a pot. We sang a song to help us remember the things our seed will need to grow into a plant. The song says, "We plant seeds. We plant seeds. The rain, and the sun, and the flowers grow." We will keep giving our seed what it needs, and watch to see what happens!
We had a special treat today that Joseph and his Mommy made to share with our class. It was Dirt Dessert. He kept giving hints all day about his Show and Tell was in the kitchen.....his Show and Tell had worms.....and dirt. Susannah and Garrett enjoyed asking questions and making guessing. Reid, Henry, and Jack enjoyed eating the wonderful dessert, and Gianni like stirring and cleaning up. It was a tasty (and messy) way to celebrate our theme for the week. Thank you so much, Joseph and Jenn!
Tuesday, October 11, 2011
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