Activities for Monday, Nov. 30

The Willow Room played inside the gym today, and The Maple Room and Oak Room went outdoors today. If it is sunny, dry, and above 40 degrees we go outside, so please send warm coats, hats, and gloves or mittens. Scarves too.

Willow Room: MWF class

We read "The best mouse cookie" by Laura Numeroff and our question today was "Do you like to bake?"

For art we used "prickle" balls to roll paint over paper in a box. It makes an interesting dot design.

We have some holiday shape cookie cutters at the playdough table. We have a dress a bear puzzle, magnetic shapes, stringing alphabet beads, some shape puzzles and a connect shapes to make a picture game.

We have changed our dramatic play into a bakery for December. The children will each have their own "chef" hat and we have fun playing with all of our pretend bakery food.

For music we will be practicing our songs for our holiday party.

We have corn meal in our sensory table.

Maple Room:

We read "Froggy bakes a cake" by Jonathan London

We did marble paint for art today. We had stampers at the easel.

We practiced our songs for our Holiday party and we sang our November song.

We started talking about he letter "F" today.

We changed our dramatic corner into a bakery and the children spent so much time in there having fun with their baker chef hats and all the new fun foods. We also decorated the sign for our bakery.

Oak Room

We red "The little Red Hen". For art today we decorated paper plates with green paint and tissue paper crumpled up. When dry, we will combine them all to make a Christmas tree for our bulletin board.

We practiced songs for our holiday party.

We are talking about he letter "K".

Activities for Wednesday, November 18

All classes played int he gym today- we had trikes, alligator see-saw, bouncy balls, and hoop tunnel

Willow room: MWF class

Our story today was "Thanksgiving is for giving thanks" by Margaret Sutherland
Our question today was "What are you thankful for?"

We painted using Thanksgiving and fall shapes and tempra paint.

We had some wooden shape puzzles, a color flower design game, some create a bear puzzles, and a seasons vocabulary classification board.

for music today we did the turkey hop, cool bear hunt, and skinnamarink.

Maple Room- MWF class

We read "Froggy Eats out" by Jonathan London

we painted with stampers to make our vests for our Thanksgiving feast. We had paint with brushes at the easels.

We sand "Today is Monday", and we did a Tom Turkey number match

We practiced writing letters today.

Oak Room:

We read "Clifford's Thanksgiving visit"

We worked on our journals today with pictures for the letter "J" and we took the children out of the room in small groups to play some small group games.

For music we did "turkey int he brown straw", and a match the letter to the turkey game.

We have had fun taking boxes and gluing various items make them look like igloos, cabins, and other types of buildings. The children enjoyed making them and we have been playing with them with play people.

Activities for Tuesday, November 17

All classes went outside today.

Willow Room- T/TH class

We read "Thanksgiving s for giving Thanks" by Margaret Sutherland

We glued feathers onto turkey shapes for art.

We sang "Turkey feathers" and Turkey Hop"

we had hay and animals in the sensory table.

Oak room:

We read "Jack's house" by Karen Magnuson Beil

We did painting with corn cobbs today.

We sang "Today is Monday", "Shake your sillies out" and "My hand says Hello"

Activities for Monday, November 16

We played in the gym today.

Willow room: MWF Class

We used magnetic farm animals to help us tell our story today. It was "Cat goes Fiddle - i- Fee" by Paul Guldone

Our question today was "Which farm animal do you like?" and at our second circle time- we sang "Turkey in the red barn"

For art today we glued feathers onto turkey shapes.

We had Mr. Potato heads out, magnetic letters, and a color dot game.

We sang "Turkey feathers song", and the turkey hop song

We had Hay and farm animals in our sensory table and pumpkin pie spice added to our playdough today.

Maple room: MWF class

We read "Froggy gets dressed" by Jonathan London

We did spool painting for to make our headbands for our Thanksgiving feast on Friday.
Our class will be the native americans and the other class will be the pilgrims.

We sang "November song", and "Alphabet turkey"

we talked about the first Thanksgiving and about Native Americans and Pilgrims; we looked at a globe to see how far they sailed to get to America.


Oak Room-

We read "In a people house" by Theo LeSieg and "There's no place like home" by Marc Brown


We made part of our outfit for our Thanksgiving feast- our class will be the Pilgrims. We used white paper and stamped them with fall shapes.

We sang "Shake your sillies out", "bubble gum" and "on the count of 5".

we are talking about the letter "J" this week.

Activities for Friday, Nov. 13

All classes went outside again today.

Willow room: MWF Class

We read "Nothing at all" by Deny's Cazet

Our questions today was "Do you think a scarecrow can talk?"

We had shape magnets at the easel and for art we made animal foot prints on a large piece of paper covering the whole table.

We had our muddy pigs using cornstarch, brown paint and water. We had farm puzzles, alphabet beads and our fun in our farm today.

We sang "Herman the worm"and "Brown Bear"

Maple Room: MWF class

Our stroy today was "The great Turkey race" by Steve Metzger

We made place mats for our Thanksgiving feast next Friday. The children wove paper strips to make the place mats. We had turkey shapes at the easel with dot painters.

We did our November song, Walking shoes song, and turkey feathers song.

We are talking about the letter "E".

Oak Room:

Our story today was "The three little wolves and the Big Bad Pig" by Helen Oxenbury

We made sculptures by dipping packing peanuts in colored glue and making building creations out of them. The children also used colored toothpicks to add another element to their designs. The children were very into this today.

We had some three letter word building puzzles out today. We also put a large box out and glued paper tubes to it to make a cabin. We asked the children if their name had a "letter I" in it.

We sang "Tap your toe and follow me"

Activities for Thursday, Nov. 12

All classes went outside today.

Willow Room:

Our story was "The little red hen" and our question today was "Do you like bread?

We painted with real wheat and with feathers. we had magnets at the easel.

We had some farm puzzles, animal puzzles, bead stringing for fine motor skills, and shape magnet boards.

We sang "animals on the farm" to the tune of wheels on the bus.
We did the "Turkey Hop".

We had our "muddy pigs out today- plastic pigs in a cornstarch, water and brown paint mixture. We had hay and farm animals in our sensory table.

Oak Room:

We read a variation of the 3 little pigs today. We made paper houses- when you open the door we glued pictures of pieces of furniture inside. We had turkey shapes at the easel with glue and colorful feathers.

We did some insect sorting in a tray, we had hammers and golf tees too.

We sang a syllable song- we tapped out syllables using rhythm sticks.

Activities for Wednesday, November 11

All classes went out to the playground today.

Willow Room- MWF

"The little red hen" was our story today. Our question today was :Do you help your mommy bake?

For art today we painted with feathers and with real stalks of wheat.

We had stringing beads and mice shape sorters.

We did bean bag boggie dance and turkey hop

We played with the muddy pigs again, we had fun in our farm, and with our hay and animals in the sensory table.

Maple Room:

"Sometimes it's turkey-sometimes it's feathers" by Lorna Bahan was our story today.

Our art activity today was to use oil pastels on brown paper with a red paint wash. We had turkey stencils with paint.

For music we did "November song", "turkey feathers", and we used jingle belts to sing the "freeze dance" and "Jump Jim Joe".

Oak room:

Each child took a turn acting out the story of the "Three little pigs"

We worked in journals today drawing pictures of words that begin with the letter "I".

We had an "I" puzzle out, magnetic building blocks, small group bingo games, and we had a hammer activity with plastic golf tees.

We sang 5 houses rhyme and cool bear hunt.

We also had a group activity of making an house from a cardboard box- an Igloo.

Activities for Tuesday, November 10

All classes went outside today.

willow room- t/th class

"We read the Farm Book" by Jan Pfloog. It talks about farm ife for children and all the chores they have to do before they go to school.

We did finger painting with chocolate pudding to create a process for our muddy pigs from our farm.

We had mosaic pattern picture boards out, magnetic letters, stringing beads, and a vocabulary classification board on the tables today.

We sang "Pass the bean bag" and "Couch potato pokey".

We have straw in our sensory table with farm animals.

Oak room:

We did the felt board story of the 3 little pigs. We then did our art project using "wind" like the wolf who blew down the houses. We put paint on paper and blew through a straw to move the paint around to create a design.

We have a construction site in our dramatic play corner.

For music we did "5 little pigs" and "Pigs in houses"

Activities for Monday, November 9

All classes went outside today.

Willow Room:MWF class

"The farm book" by Jan P Floog was our story toady. We also checked at circle to see if our pretend hen hatched her eggs.

We finger painted with chocolate pudding!

We had puzzles of various kinds, alphabet beads, vocabulary classification- colors.

Music:- 2 little blackbirds, pas the bean bag, couch potato pokey

Muddy pigs: We made a solution of cornstarch, water and paint and we put little pigs into the "mud pie" which was such messy fun.

We have straw/hay and farm animals in our sensory table.


Maple room:

Our story was"Run turkey run" by Diane Maur

We did corn roll painting- we rolled dried feed corn in a box with paint and made designs on the paper. We had toothbrush painting at the easels.

We did our "November song", "Letter sounds song", and "turkey in the straw" for music today.

We are talking about the letter "E"

Oak room:

We read "the 3 little pigs story" by Paul Galdone
We read the story, we retell the story and the children act out the story this week.

For our art project today, we had the children cut out three houses and glued them onto blue paper. They then added "straw", sticks, and bricks" to make houses like the three pigs made. We used a stamper to add pigs to our picture too.

We are talking abou the letter "I".

Activities for Friday, Nov. 6

All classes went outside today and enjoyed another beautiful fall day raking leaves, jumping in them , and just running around chasing one another too. We had a lot of fun going down the slides today too.

Willow Room- MWF class:

Our story today was "Big Fat Hen" and "Where do chickens come from?" We talked about eggs we eat and eggs on farms that hatch into chickens.

We did a group art picture by painting with corn husks today. We had magnetic letters at the easel.

Some of our table activities were farm animal puzzles, a number puzzle where once you put the numbers in order, you end up with a picture of a farm animal. WE also had out a farm animal sorting board.

For music we sang "Tap your toe and follow me.", "stinky cake", and "cows get up in the morning".

We had feeder corn in the sensory table, we have pretend eggs we are waiting to hatch into chickens. We have new farm puppets and farm animals in our Willow farm int eh dramatic corner.

Maple Room- MWF class

Pooh's Fall Harvest by Isabel Gaines was our story today. We always do our calendar, weather, days of the week, and a counting or patterning activity at circle time.

We painted with rubber bands today- we taped rubber bands to pencils, dipped them in paint and moved them around on paper. We had glitter watercolors at the easels.

For music we sang "Old McDonald had a band using instruments", November song", and "funny fall animals".

Oak Room-

We read "Sam and the firefly" by PD Eastman. It is a story about a firefly who makes words in the sky and gets into trouble.

Then for art, we took black paper and yellow paint and used alphabet stampers to make letters in the sky like the story.

We had magnetic blocks and and ABC magnetic puzzle out today.

The children helped change the dramatic corner materials today.

We did "list of dances" for music.

activities for Thursday, Nov. 6

All classes went out to the playground today. We are having fun raking leaves, jumping in the piles, and using big trucks to move them around.

Willow room-T/th class

We read cocka doodle moo! a Barnyard Hulabaloo by Bernard Most

We have a new dramatic corner set up- "the Willow Farm"- check it out.

We have various farm puzzles, sorting animals, magnetic alphabet, shape sorters, and we have puppets in our farm area too.

We sang "Old McDonald had a farm" and there is a dog in the farm song.

We made corn muffins this morning with the children and home made butter. We shook and shook a jar of cream until it turned into butter. We ate the muffins and butter for snack.

Oak Room:

"Wake up, Oliver" by Sue Hendra was our story. It is about an owl that stays up during the day and discovers the sun, and different animals. It is part of our theme on nocturnal animals.

We did nighttime pictures- dip nighttime shapes- star, moon, etc. in glue and then sprinkle glitter on top.

We had shapes puzzles out, a magnetic color maze, and snap together blocks. Our dramatic corner is changing into a vet office with stuffed animals.

for music, we did a new version of the hokey pokey.

Activities for Wednesday, November 4

All classes went out to the playground today- we had rakes for raking leaves, jumped in leaves, played with the sand and played on the climbers and played with trucks scooping the leaves.

Willow room- MWF class

We read "cock-a-doodle-doo!, A barnyard Hullabaloo" by Giles Andreae

Our question today was "If you could be an animal, which one would you be and why?

For art we made animal prints with tempra paint and stampers.
At free art- we had paper strips for snipping with scissors and for tearing.

We had sorting farm animals by color, puzzles, sorting activities, shape peg boards, and stencils.

We let the children pour their own juice at snack today.

We sang "Dog in school" ( we sang about farm animals in school) and "Old McDonald had a farm"

Maple room- MWF class-

We read "Clifford's first autumn " by Norman Bridwell

We used bubble wrap to make prints, first we painted on the bubble wrap, then we press paper onto it to make a print.
At the easel we had turkey shape paper and painted with feathers.

We sang our November song, and the months song. We also used instruments to sing "Old McDonald had a band."


Our estimating jar had 30 unifix cubes in it today.

Oak Room:

"The mixed up rooster" by Megan Lloyd was our story today.

We worked in our journals today drawing pictures that start with the letter "H".

For music we did "animal actions", "five green and speckled frogs", and "Herman the worm".

we are talking about the letter H.

Activities for Tuesday, Nov. 3

All classes went to the playground today and enjoyed the great day outside raking leaves and playing on the equipment.

Willow room- t/th

"Spot can count"by Eric Hill was our story today and we sang "Old McDonald Had a Farm". We changed our dramatic corner into a farm today.

Our art project today was to use water colors to paint coffee filters which we will turn into turkeys to decorate our rooms.

We have new orange playdough. We also played with some colorful farm animals which we sorted into color bowls.

We danced with ribbons to the freeze dance music, and we did an animal sounds song called "Good day song".

We have feeder corn in our sensory table.

Today was the first day we used the name tags as place cards at the snack table. The children did an excellent job of finding their place to sit.

Oak room:

"The dog who cried wolf" by Keiko Kasza was our story today.

For art we worked on a fall wreath. The process we used was to put yellow paper in a can with a lid. We added "prickle balls" dipped in paint and shook the can to spread the paint around on the paper.

We did the bean bag boogie, five green and speckled frogs for music today.

We also talked about nocturnal animals and the Letter "H".

Activities for Monday, November 2

Willow Room- MWF class

Our story today was "Spot can count" by Eric Hill and our questions today was "Which animals live on a farm?"

For art today we painted with water colors on coffee filters which we will turn into turkeys to decorate our room. We had markers and paper at the easels.

We had a farm floor puzzle out today, and some farm animal sorting by color. We also had out magnetic letters and alphabet beads for stringing.

We went to the playground and crunched leaves.

We have feeder corn in our sensory table.

We did the freeze dance with ribbons and good day song which is about animal sounds.

Maple room- MWF class

Our story today was :Thanks for Thanksgiving" by Julie Markes which is a story about things we are thankful for. Our art project today was to cut out "thankful" feathers and then dictate something to write on them that we are thankful for. We will put our turkey in the hall. At the easel we had fall colors of paint and tree shapes.

We went to the playground and raked leaves.

Our question of the day was "do you have a Letter "D" in your name?" we are starting to talk about the letter "D".

Our music today was "The November song", "Months of the year", "Pretty leaves" and "Jump Jim Joe. "

Oak Room:

Our story today was "Don't laugh Joe" and we cut out feathers to decorate our Thankful turkey int eh hall. The children dictated what they are thankful for.

We are talking about the letter "H".

We went outside today and we played in the leaves
For music today we did "Turkey in the brown straw", "animal actions", and "Herman the worm"

Activities for Thursday, Oct. 29

Willow Room- T/Th class

Our story was Pumpkin Time by Kathleen Weidner Zoehfeld

We used Halloween stamper prints, bats, cats, and pumpkins and at free art we put stickers onto black paper.

We had a Halloween spider color match game, and animal sorting game and zoo animal puzzle out today. For music we sang "Pumpkin in the red barn" (a rhyme song) and "Over the deep blue sea" and action counting song.

We also played with Mr. Pumpkin Head- real pumpkins with Mr. Potato head pieces. We made a special snack today, mini bagels with orange cream cheese and raisins.

We went to the playground today.

Maple Room- Thursday class

Our story was "The old lady who wasn't afraid of anything" by Linda Williams.

For art we used shape stampers

We went to the playground today

We did kid's pick favorites for music, so we sang 5 little pumpkins, Itsy Bitsy Spider, ABC's , Jump Jim Joe, and Sticky Bubble Gum

The children helped change our calendar board to get ready for November.

Oak Room:

Our story was "Nothing at all" by Denys Cazet

We did an opposites match game at circle too.

We made a mask from paper plates, will it be a scarecrow or something else? We used them at the end of the day to hide our faces while our parents came in to the room.

We did some spider rhymes, and used spider rings as props. We also did a scarecrow rhyme. We played scarecrow bingo at the table to day.

We went to the playground.