Legends, Dreamcatchers, and Harvest.....

It felt like such a quick week for us! We made shakers to shake to a popcorn song, and enjoyed our typical block building and bean table activity times. The children were very engaged in creating dream catchers, and you'll see one child dreaming away (look below) at her dream catcher so it can catch her dreams! You'll notice a sign up at the door, complete with marker, for "dinosaur adventures". I've been told that "they need to know how many are going to be there before they buy materials." The dino sign up looks a lot like the parent sign ups that are above them. Hmmmmm.
We baked yummy oatmeal cookies, with raisins and without, and continued our adventurous play with the large hollow blocks. Rescue heroes seem to be the mainstay of our play.
Until Next Time,
Michele

Safety, Still, and More About Harvest

Our big news this week was an exciting visit to the fire station. The children's play focused on their excitement, as there were many firefighters, rescue heroes in red, vehicles made from large blocks, "hoses" and possibly other rescue tools made from building toys, and loud rescue noises coming from the block rug. At the fire station, we were able to watch a dad get dressed in all the firefighter gear, and then pat him as he crawled around for familiarity and comfort. Exploring the fire trucks and their size was very exciting.
We painted with fall items for paintbrushes (or paintbrushes) and began a project of bowl making for a school-wide "empty bowls" fundraiser. "Magic cutting" was a choice at the table, and the children cut on the lines to make "butterflies" (squash) and other flying objects as well as spirally vines. Our baking project this week was a recipe for pumpkin corn muffins that was shared by a family. "Guess how many children ate a muffin? All of them!!"

Until Next Time,
Michele

Safety First!

We had a busy and successful safety week this week! The children enjoyed painting with fire trucks, making their own badges, and constructing a "helper" pet with collage materials. We wrote a safety book, and each child was able to articulate a safety rule and illustrate it. Somehow on the rug a long line of dinosaurs was cooperatively and quietly draped with jewelry. So decorative!
We had a visit from a father who is a canine police officer, and the children had wonderful questions and comments for him. He brought his canine helper, and we watched him in action! Very Intent!
Thursday was about Peace in our classroom. We made a pizza "pie" for snack, working with peaceful hands, and had a discussion about what makes "peace pie" in the classroom, and what makes "trouble pie" in our classroom. The children noticed that there were more words for the peace pie than the trouble pie (yay). We'll be talking more about this topic as the days go by.
At the end of the week last week a few of the four year olds were invited into the 2/3's classroom to talk about dinosaurs. We shared our dinosaur tales, and made dino art. We are going to visit again soon, as we had a very nice visit and made some new friends.
Until Next Time,
Michele