Learning About Fabulous Fall!

Well, another two weeks have passed and the kids have had a great time learning about the season of fall. Over the past two weeks at school the kids have had hands-on, interactive experiences with crafts, handwriting practice, finger play activities, songs and books.  Take a moment to see your little ones as they created some of those precious crafts and schoolwork that I hope you treasure for years to come!

The children loved creating a fall windsock at the beginning of the unit.  They were totally enamored with the tissue paper and everyone knew where they would hang it up at their homes!

Janelle stops painting with her feather to take a quick picture. On this day, the children learned about birds, specifically owls and they discussed the texture of feathers and learned some fun songs and facts about birds.

Ronnell was especially excited to use a feather, instead of a paintbrush. His creative expression with red and yellow paint was quite a masterpiece! Great job!

Smile Brayden! Brayden took his time painting and covered his entire page with paint!

During "Free Play" Brayden is pretending to be the teacher and is singing/teaching the ABC's to his friends.

Ronnell was so proud of his house that he built out of blocks! He really loves working with the blocks in the mornings.

Here, Janelle is building a city for her Lego friends. She enjoyed having them interact together.

Here, the children are sitting "criss-cross, applesauce" and ready for "Circle Time". Jaren is playing in the back, for the time being! They all do an excellent job paying attention during this time of the day while we go over shapes, calendar, read stories or do our "Morning Message" and "Learning Box".

Show and Tell Time!!! Ronnell brought his stuffed monkey to share with us. He said he loves to hang him from things and he lost the monkey's shirt! :) The monkey represented the letter /Mm/ and he was able to tell his friends the sound that /Mm/ makes too! Great job Ronnell!

Next, Brayden showed his friends his airplane that he made at VBS. He was happy to explain that it began with the letter /Aa/ and its sound too. Everyone wanted to see it fly! :)



Last, Janelle showed her friends her feathered boa! And wow, we were impressed by the glamour! It worked out that every child brought something that covered the 3 letters of the month. (M, A and F).  Janelle said the letter /Ff/ sounds and told us that she likes to put it on and play around the house.  Show and Tell for September was a success! Thanks parents, for taking the time to help find those items!



A LOOK AHEAD:

The units for October are "Community Helpers" and "Plenty of Pumpkins". So the first and third week of October we will learn about people in the community, such as firefighters, police officers, mailmen, dentists, doctors and more. Then toward the end of October we will learn about pumpkins, where they grow, their shapes and sizes and a pumpkin's life cycle.

REMINDERS:

Fall Break: No School October 8-12

During October, I hope to have our kids join up with MOPS for a field trip to a local fire station. More information coming soon!

School Resumes: October 15

HOME-SCHOOL CONNECTION:

When you can, take the time to read some great suggestions and ideas from the "Fun-damental" page that came home today (9/28). It gives us all some fun and creative ways to reinforce concepts taught to the kids during this month. At this age, the children learn best through play!



I Am Special Because I'm Me and I Love My Family!

September has proven to be a fun month for the children.  For the past two weeks they have enjoyed learning more about themselves, what makes them special and discussing their families. Take a peek at a few fun pictures from the last couple of weeks!

We began the month, continuing to  work on name recognition and handwriting. Here Brayden takes a reluctant moment to pose for me as he adds the lentils to his name card.

Ronnell enjoyed this activity very much and was excited to take a picture for me! Thanks Ronnell!

Janelle too! She loved adding the lentils and took her time to do it just right!

This month we will be working with the letter /Mm/. This was a fun activity that supports fine motor skills, letter recognition and phonemic awareness. I teach the students the letter sounds and not just the name of the letter at school, so  don't forget to ask your child what sound an /Mm/ makes and look for opportunities to locate the letter in print and say the sound too!

Janelle and Brayden were so excited to do their hand prints in their "My All About Me" books.  The kids were so happy to work on each page and discover more about themselves. I hope that these books serve as precious memories of these preschool days. I try to allow the children freedom in creating and drawing with pictures and colors, to ensure that this is their own authentic artwork at this particular time in their life.

Every morning we have our morning routine where we count the days and discuss the month, day of the week, pattern for the month, A(red children card)B(yellow leaf card), and sing our Month of the Year and Days of the Week song. Here Janelle was the first one to shout out the correct numerical date so she was invited to add the day to our calendar! Great job Janelle! All the children love the opportunity to be Calendar Helper!

We have just finished a unit on Me and My Family, and the children enjoyed reading books about what makes them special from their name to fun tricks or talents they have. We discussed that there is no one else in the world like them and they all liked that!

So please take a moment to talk to your child about why you think they're special to you and to your family.  Also, the class did discuss what personal information is, such as their name, phone number, birthday and address. It's hard to believe sometimes, but this is important for us to teach our little ones. They'll feel like such big kids!

What's Next?

Beginning Monday, September 17th, we will begin a new unit focused on the season of Fall. So, keep an eye out for fun fall activities. We will also continue to work with the letters, /Mm/, /Ff/ and /Aa/. The shape of the month is a circle and we are working with the numbers 1 and 2.

Wednesday, September 26: Show and Tell (More information will be coming home in the next weeks.)