Tuesday, October 18, 2011
Was there a full moon today? Everyone was a little cranky this morning. Lots of wiggling bodies and distracted faces makes for a VERY long day!
Ms. Michelle came today and we finally got to go outside again! First, we took off our shoes and popped bubble wrap with our feet. It was really cool to feel. We took turns walking, running, and jumping down the bubble wrap path. She also brought some really cool things for us to touch and feel with our hands. We divided into groups and half the group found jewels hidden in a tub of beans while the other friends found animals hidden in moon sand. If you've never felt moon sand, I highly recommend it. It's one of those things that you can't stop touching. It's soft and squishy and sticky and.....very difficult to stop touching! Before we left Ms. Michelle, she mixed up a glue/orange paint mixture and the kids made pumpkins. We started out using paint brushes, but everyone really wanted to get their hands involved, so we gave up the fight and finger painted for a while!
Our book today was Growing Vegetable Soup by Lois Ehlert. The kids learned about all the wonderful vegetables we eat that grow in gardens and on farms. They all had comments about the vegetables they liked and didn't like to eat. We even learned about some new vegetables we had never heard of like cabbage and zucchini and onions.
Did I forget to mention that the Touch and Feel pool today was filled with CORN! Each child got an ear of corn to shuck. We talked about the husks and the silk was part of the corn, but we only ate what was on the cob. Important to mention to the children.....you cook the corn first!! We learned that after several of them tried to take a bite!!
We used the corn from the Touch and Feel for our art today. We made corn pictures using all the parts of the corn to paint. The cob became a roller that made neat patterns, the husks made long paintbrushes or pencils, and the silk gave our picture some nice texture. We will send them home tomorrow after they have had time to dry.
I'm glad we got all the wiggles out today.....tomorrow is full of activity! The kids will be too busy to wiggle.....and our day is too exciting to be distracted!
Ms. Michelle came today and we finally got to go outside again! First, we took off our shoes and popped bubble wrap with our feet. It was really cool to feel. We took turns walking, running, and jumping down the bubble wrap path. She also brought some really cool things for us to touch and feel with our hands. We divided into groups and half the group found jewels hidden in a tub of beans while the other friends found animals hidden in moon sand. If you've never felt moon sand, I highly recommend it. It's one of those things that you can't stop touching. It's soft and squishy and sticky and.....very difficult to stop touching! Before we left Ms. Michelle, she mixed up a glue/orange paint mixture and the kids made pumpkins. We started out using paint brushes, but everyone really wanted to get their hands involved, so we gave up the fight and finger painted for a while!
Our book today was Growing Vegetable Soup by Lois Ehlert. The kids learned about all the wonderful vegetables we eat that grow in gardens and on farms. They all had comments about the vegetables they liked and didn't like to eat. We even learned about some new vegetables we had never heard of like cabbage and zucchini and onions.
Did I forget to mention that the Touch and Feel pool today was filled with CORN! Each child got an ear of corn to shuck. We talked about the husks and the silk was part of the corn, but we only ate what was on the cob. Important to mention to the children.....you cook the corn first!! We learned that after several of them tried to take a bite!!
We used the corn from the Touch and Feel for our art today. We made corn pictures using all the parts of the corn to paint. The cob became a roller that made neat patterns, the husks made long paintbrushes or pencils, and the silk gave our picture some nice texture. We will send them home tomorrow after they have had time to dry.
I'm glad we got all the wiggles out today.....tomorrow is full of activity! The kids will be too busy to wiggle.....and our day is too exciting to be distracted!
Thursday, October 13, 2011
Lowe's Out and About!
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!!
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!!
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