Activities for Monday, November 1, 2010

Today was the perfect fall day, cool, crisp air with the sun shining and no wind! We enjoyed our time on the playground today.

Willow Room- MWF class

We are starting our unit on farms. We asked the children today "Who lives on a farm?"

We read the story "when the leaf blew in" by Steve Metzger

We did Old Mc DOnald at our second circle along with the weather and the days of the week.

We painted with watercolors on coffee filters. We will turn them into turkeys.

We had alphabet letters at the easel.

We sang animal actions, and a good day song using puppets.

We are changing our dramatic play area in to a farm. We had a big farm puzzle out and we brought a lot of new materials in the room that are farm themed.

Maple room:

We read "Thanks for Thanksgiving" by Julie Markers

The children cut out feather shapes for our Thanksgiving turkey that we have posted in the hall. The children told us what they are thankful for and we wrote it on our feathers. They are posted in the hall.

We sang the November song, and the months of the year song.

We did some letter "E" activities.

Oak room

We read "Don't laugh Joe" by Keiko Kasza

We cut feather shapes and wrote on them what the children said htey were thanksful for. We added them to our turkey shape in the hall.
We sang Turkey in the brown straw, Bear hunt, and silly sally.

We are talking about the letter "H" and nocturnal animals.

Activities for Thursday, Oct. 29, 2010

We played outside, it was windy, but fun!

Willow room- T/Th class

We read "Pumpkin Time" by Kathleen Zoenfeld and we sorted our names by color today. Then we compare how many of each we have. This sorting activity helps the children learn to recognize their name and since we use different ways to sort them, it helps them learn about various attributes.
At our second circle we did a "3 little pumpkins" rhyme.

We made pumpkin prints using real pumpkins with orange glitter paint. We had black stamper cat shapes and black glitter paint at the easels.

We sang "pass the pumpkin" where the children passed the pumpkin around in circle and stopped when the music stopped. We also sanf 5 liitle pumpkins.

We made a special snack using orange colored cream cheese, on bagels with raisins for jack-o-lantern eyes.



Oak Room:


We read "Nothing at all" by Denys Cazet
We also read "Flip Flop saves the children"

We made scare crow type masks from paper plates- the children held them up to hide behind when the parents came to pick them up from school.

We had estimated how many pumpkin seeds were in our big pumpkin and today we counted them. Estimates ranged from 1 to 1000. There were 530 in our pumpkin. Then we used the seeds for an activity, we had pumpkin shapes with numbers and the children placed 10 seeds on the pumpkin with the number 10.

We also had out 4 letter word puzzles.

We sang "This old man" for music today.

We practiced writing the letter "G" on our dry erase boards.

Activities for Wednesday, Oct. 27, 2010

We had another very windy day, but some classes went outside and some stayed inside to play.

Willow Room- MWF class

We read "Clifford's 1st Halloween" by Norman Bridwell

Our question was "D you have a pet?"

We made pumpkin prints using a real pumpkin and orange glitter paint.

We had black cats and bats at the easel for making prints.

We played pass the pumpkin- the children passed the pumpkin around the circle and stopped when the music stopped. We also sang On Halloween, On Halloween and 3 little pumpkins on a hill

We turned our snack into pumpkin bagels and ate them....yummy

Maple Room:

We read Froggy's Halloween by Jonathan London

We used leaf shape cookie cutters to make prints with paint and glitter.

We had pumpkin shapes at the easel with orange paint and glue. We added some construction paper face pieces to add to the pumpkins.

We sang the October song, down around the corner at the pumpkin patch, pass the pumpkin and the Month's song.

We did a classroom experiment with a large pumpkin. Will a pumpkin sink or float? We made guesses at what we thought it would do and then we put the pumpkin in a large tub of water to see what would happen. We also put many other things in the water too, to see if they would sink or float. Some were smaller than a pumpkin, some were heavy and some were light weight.

We then carved a face in our pumpkin. The children voted on the features of the face.


Oak Room;We read "The little old lady who was not afraid of anything." By Linda Williams

We did pumpkin prints at the easel and we worked in our journals at the table- letter G words.

We had a graphing activity out today and number pegs. the children did a lot of building with blocks.

We did some spider rhymes and pumpkin rhymes.

we asked the children if they had a letter G' in their name.

Activities for Tuesday, Oct. 26, 2010

We stayed inside on this windy, windy day! We played in the gym with tunnels, trikes, an alligator see saw, and some tossing games.

Willow Room: T/TH class

We read "This is not a pumpkin" by Bob Stoake

Our questions was, "Have you ever carved a pumpkin?"

We made jack-o-lanterns (using paper pumpkins and paper pieces cut from paper to make a face)

We sang 1,2,3,4,5 little pumpkins
If you are happy and you know it
Hands are for clapping

We carved a real pumpkin. It was fun to see the seeds and insides. We got to feel it and smell it too.

Oak Room:

We read The pumpkin Patch by Margaret Mcnmara

We made jack-o-lanterns, we used orange paper and made cuts in it, then we added a black paper handle.

We sand pumpkin in the brown straw( a rhyming song), a jack-o-lantern went out to play, and pass the pumpkin.

We are talking about the letter "G" (and we had grape juice)

Monday, October 25, 2010

We went outside today to enjoy another great day on the playground.

Willow Room- MWF class

We read "This is not a pumpkin" by Bob Stoake

We asked the children if they had ever carved a pumpkin? We also carved a real pumpkin today. We talked about how it the "feel", "smell" and what the insides of a pumpkin look like.

we made paper jack-o-lanterns using pumpkin shapes and cut out face pieces.

We sang 1,2,3,4,5, little pumpkins
If you're happy and you know it
Hands are for clapping

Maple Room

We read "The little old lady who wasn't afraid of anything" by Linda WIlliams

We made prints on paper using real pumpkins cut in half.

At the easel we had pumpkin shapes with stampers

We sang 5 little pumpkins, scarecrow scarecrow can't sit still, we acted out a pumpkin song, and we sang the October song.

We practiced writing the letters we have learned so far, A,B, C, D and we spelled two words we can spell with those letters, Dad and Bad.

Oak Room:
We read "Stellaluna" by Janell Cannon

We made bat prints with blue paper and a bat shaped stamper dipped in black paint.

We sang "Come and buy a pumpkin" and "5 green and speckled frogs".

We are beginning to talk about the letter " G" and we are also starting our unit on Nocturnal animals (which are animals who are awake and active at night instead of the day)

Activities for Thursday, October 21, 2010

We went outside again today and enjoyed the playground.

We had a visit from Fire Man Jim from the Mount Prospect Fire Department. He talked about fire safety, put on all of his fire fighter gear and told the children that fire fighters are there to help them if there is ever a fire. He showed them how his voice sounds different and he looks different, but he is there to help. He let the children feel the material of his suit and gloves and touch his helmet.

Willow Room: TH class

We read about Fire fighters today, our story was "Firefighter Ted" by Andrea Beaty

We asked (before our visitor arrived) Have you ever seen a fire fighter? What does a fire fighter do?

We made paper fire fighter helmets and at the easel we put dots on a dog shape.

We sang "Hurry, hurry drive the fire truck", "The cool bear hunt", and "Brown Bear".

We used small pumpkins and Mr. Potato head pieces to make "Mr. Pumpkin heads".

Oak Room:

We read "The busy tree" by Jennifer Ward

We used water colors to paint on leaves and then pressed a paper on top to make a print of the leaf pattern.

We had snap together number cubes, a magnetic alphabet maze out and bead stringing.

We sang some fall rhymes songs, zip-i-dee- do- dah- a beginning letter sound.

Activities for Wednesday, Oct. 20, 2010

Yea! another beautiful fall day on our playground. All classes went outside.

Willow Room- MWF class

We read "It's pumpkin time!" by Zoe hall and we asked the children if they bought a pumpkin .

We had orange chalk and black paper at the easel. At the art table we painted with orange paint with flour mixed in it to make a puffy paint.

We sang and danced to stomp and clap. We also did a phonics song called "the alphabet sound song" and we sang 5 little pumpkins.

We had pumpkin stampers at the free art table.

Maple Room

We read "The falling leave and the scarecrow" by Steve Metzger

We did marble painting, by placing a paper and marbles dipped in glitter paint in a box. The children rolled hte box back and forth to move the marbles and paint a picture.

We had acorn shapes with paint and corks at the easels.

We did letter "D" activities today.

We sang and danced to "underneath the broomstick" ( A limbo dancing song), and 5 pumpkins on a gate, 5 pumpkins, and the October song.

Oak Room:

We read "Red leaf, Yellow leaf" by Lois Elhert

We wrote in our journals today, we drew something htat begins with the letter "F"

We finger painted at the easels.

We sang "Herman the worm", Hello, My name is Joe" and "Itsy Bisty spider"

We read a book about the letter "F".