W is for Wiggly Worms!

Fall, Figures and Fun

Lots of great things have been happening at preschool this week. We have been working on Math, the letter W, and having so much fun enjoying the Fall. Here is a wrap-up of some of our activities this week. 

Music

5 Little Pumpkins 

5 Little Pumpkins sitting on a gate

The 1st one said, "Oh my it's getting late!"

The 2nd one said, "There is a chill in the air."

(or "There is Witches in the air")

The 3rd one said, "But we don't care."

The 4th one said, "We're ready for some FUN!"

The 5th one said, "Let's Run and Run and Run."

Woooooooooo  went the wind

and 

OUT went the lights.

And the 5 little pumpkins rolled out of sight. 

The Ghosts Go Gliding One By One

The ghosts go gliding one by one 

Woooo Woooo

The ghost go gliding one by one

Woooo Wooo

The ghosts go gliding one by one

The little one tripped on a skeleton 

And they all go gliding down the street to trick or treat.

Repeat with...

2.  The little one stopped when I said Boo

3. The little one stopped when she saw ME

4. The little stopped to knock on a door

Dramatic Play

The tomato vines made for a perfect spooky decoration for the playhouse. This has lead to all sorts of ideas on how to make our little house haunted. 

The baby is about as creepy as it gets, but the kids don't seem to care.

Science

We found a crack in one of our pumpkins. We decided we should open it and investigate it. There was only one problem, our knife (or maybe the teacher) wasn't strong enough. So we took turns throwing it on the floor until it broke. :) That was a lot more fun anyway! We also enjoyed talking about "guts," scooping out seeds and later eating them.

Math

For the last couple weeks we have been working on Fall Counting Books. Each page has a certain number of fall related objects. We have drawn them, stamped them and even used stickers on some of the pages. Each child's book is unique, because they are allowed to choose what object they included for each number. They are all at different stages of writing and drawing. We have been extending our Fall Math at circle time with patterns, counting activities and songs.

Fall Counting Plates

ART

These were two opportunities the children had to express their more creative sides. Both activities were available at the table without real instruction on the activity itself.  The results were both creative and inspiring. 

Welcome to October

This month we will be focusing on Fall and Math. Many of the projects and activities we are doing won't really be in photos. Its hard to take pictures of myself doing circle time :) 

Fall Songs:

Acorn

I'm a little acorn round

Lying on the cold cold ground

Everybody steps on me

And that is why I am cracked you see.

I'm a NUT (knock on head while clicking tongue)

I'm a NUT (knock on head while clicking tongue)

Leaves on the Trees

(Wheels on the Bus)

The leaves on the trees turn 

orange and brown, orange and brown, orange and brown

The leaves on the trees turn orange and brown

All around the town.

Fall Activities from this week:

Jewels and Fall Playdough

Lacing

Our new "walking rope" 

Gnomes

Playground Pumpkin

Collecting.

Color by Number

Reduce and Reuse :)

I renewed our membership this year to a local Recycle/Resource Center. This is a non-profit organization for schools and educators to benefit from the stuff business would normally be throwing away.  After paying a yearly membership fee, teachers/schools are able to go collect hands-on items, paper, office supplies, etc, for "free."  It is a bit of drive so I am only able to go about once a month, but there is no limit on your visits. Some items have limits of how many you can take per visit.  Sometimes I grab things knowing exactly what I am going to do with them. Other times they just look interesting and I will let the kids figure it out. Of course there are a few staple items that I make sure to restock each time I go.  Yesterdays "purchases" were quite a hit this morning.

This morning I just laid everything out on the table to sort through and see the kids reactions.

Not sure how to use these cards, but they looks like they could be used for MANY things.

The three colored stress balls are an example of a limited item.
We now have a total of six from my two visits this school year.

These pegs were a tighter fit in our Chinese checkerboard than I had hoped.

Free Labels + Weird Little Black Things = Name Plates

I didn't even realize how much transparent stuff I had collected this visit. Naturally we had to take out the light table.

A Nature Study Kind of Day...

Our new tree blocks have been quite a hit since last week. We have used them in a couple different areas so far. This week they are at the circle table.

Our homemade tree blocks. 

Our new counters from Scholastic Book Order

Who Whooo...

We decided to spend some time on the "big" playground today. We spent the majority of the time investigating in the "woods".We discovered grapevines, mushrooms and seeds. (There may have been a caterpillar squishing incident, too)

I draped the grapevines up over this tree branch. In the Spring I would like
to create a more permanent
space for the vines to climb. In the meantime it makes a fun hideout.

"What's this?"

"Here's another one"

Mushroom of some sort.

Wild Grapes

Back on the little playground... they continued to investigate nature. 

They apparently wanted to find something they could actually eat. 

This was the first time in a couple weeks that they paid any attention to the garden.