Preschool News!
Miss Amy and Miss Courtney's Class
What we were up to this week...
Tuesday, we were feeling the leftover sugar high for sure!! We were all super excited to talk about trick or treating and what we did for Halloween. Once we caught up with each other and got settled, we began a new study about trees. We read "The Grand Old Tree" and sponge painted a tree trunk. We will be collecting leaves during a nature walk this week and adding them to our trees. We also did an intergrated OT lesson with our Miss Kelly. Kelly is very proud of how your children's scissor skills have improved. We began our lesson by holding our scissors the correct way- thumb on top, fingers in the bottom. Then we made several cuts through strips of paper. We will continue this on Friday to make our own tree and eventually, leaves! At the end of the day we did an intergrated lesson with our PT Miss Kara. The kids all got bean bag animals and everyone got turns to name a body art and balance their bean bag on it. It was hard and a fun challenge.
On Wednesday, we read the story, "Red Leaf, Yellow Leaf" by Lois Elbert and took a nature walk. We all got a brown paper bag to collect our leaves in. We loved throwing the leaves in the air and running through the crunchy piles. When we came inside, we had quiet snack and read some stories. Afterwards, we worked outside since it was so beautiful. We took our leaves that we collected and glued them onto the brown trunks that we painted on Monday. The kids were proud of their work!
On Thursday, we had a relaxing choice time. The kids colored with markers and shared space on huge paper on the floor. They laid on their bellies for an extra challenge. Some kids made unique trees at the tables using brown paper lunch bags, coffee filters, and markers. The kids cut their own bags, colored the filters and glued them to make a tree. We also did playdough which is always a favorite activity. During whole group reading we read the story, "A tree named Steve." The story has predictable artwork that lets the children guess what is happening in the book. We also changed it up by not showing the pictures and had the kids close their eyes to imagine what was happening as we read out loud. After our story, we introduced clipboard artwork. This is something that we will continue during the year...and just wait until you see how good your kiddos get at drawing! They all followed a teacher model to draw thier own tree. We used big kid pencils and clipboards. We had to follow directions, and draw the lines together. We also used fall color crayons to add circles for leaves on our trees. We kept this first artwork as anexample for your children's folders that you will see at the end of the year! These drawings are so special and will always be a " big deal" since there are so many big kid aspects to completeting them. It was a great day today!
Friday was a little crazy but a lot of fun! We used markers and coffee filters and squirt bottles to make leaves for our classroom tree. Some friends drew on a huge piece of butcher paper on the floor to create a fall scene. We also opened a construction interest center for the kids to explore! We were busy and noisy but it was so fun! We had a great dance party listening on GoNoodle.com to Can't Stop This Feeling, Peanut Butter Cup, Gray Squirrel, Apple Tree, Brain Disco, and Tootie Ta. We had art with Mrs. Nice and then enjoyed the beautiful weather outside!
Reminders
November 10th - NO SCHOOL
November 11th - NO SCHOOL
November 13th - Miss Courtney's Birthday!