Welcome to October!!

This week we experimented with fruits and vegetables. We sampled papaya and starfruit. We also picked apples from our playground apple tree and made applesauce. We used our "wavy chopper" to chop up the apples. I cooked them while they were sleeping and then they used the food mill to make them into sauce. We had so much fun with it, that we did it again on Friday.

Other Fall Fun....

Apple "Stamping"

Dry Erase Pumpkins 

Pumpkin Babies

Introduction to Mandalas

After being introduced, the children have been inspired by the work of an artist named Elspeth McLean. She has beautiful circles in all her intricate artwork. The minute I saw her work months ago, I knew she would be a featured artist this year in our study.  Much of her artwork includes mandalas, made up of tiny dots of paint, which you can see in the video below!

I decided to have the preschoolers try out a more hands on approach to Mandalas, before attempting them on paper.

  

After a friend and fellow teacher heard we were going to be adding mandalas to our study, she sent me this wonderful link from Nurture Store. Thank you!

Such lovely things can be created by children when given a simple shape and natural materials to explore and create with.

We also investigated how flowers can be natural mandalas. 

The Rainbow Wheel Connection

White Rabbit's Color Book and Little Blue and Little Yellow at circle time.  Followed by a great discussion about primary colors, rainbows and the color wheel. The preschoolers then had the chance to use q-tips and paint to make their own pointillism color wheel.

This is one of those activities that went much differently in my head! My expectations were too high and many adjustments were made during the process. It's always a learning process for us ALL at preschool. 

People always attribute "patience" to preschool teachers, but being flexible is just as important. The ability to adjust, rearrange and sometimes move on.

The words of the song The Gambler come to mind:

You've got to know when to hold 'em
Know when to fold 'em
Know when to walk away
Know when to run

-Kenny Rogers

The children enjoyed the process (despite their serious concentrated faces) and the results were beautiful.

Success.

Wild things

That night in Max's room a forest grew.

And grew.

A Wild Rumpus.

Wild Thing Soup.

Wild Thing Face painting.

Circles, Spots and Polka Dots Art Show!

After spending the entire month of May creating, painting, cutting, gluing, drawing, coloring, and dabbing, we finally pulled it all together for the First Annual Inch By Inch Art Show! 

The kids were so excited to show off their art work and their school. Mostly they were just excited about all the amazing circle snacks that were available. :)

Such a great opportunity to see all the families and kids come together. 

Thanks for helping make it a success.