Reindeer OR Caribou?

In honor of the holiday season, why not learn a little more about the very famous Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer.  We all know that Rudolph is a mythical creature but what about real life reindeer? Last week was all about reindeer studies! The children leaned so much about this fascinating creature.  Did you know that reindeer are actually Caribou? Did you also know that it can be hard to tell if a reindeer is a male or female because both male and female reindeer grow antlers? It is, however, still a mystery how Santa's reindeer can fly! During the week, the children made reindeer food to sprinkle on the front lawn, just in case Santa's reindeer need a little snack.  The children also learned how to sign "Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer" using sign language as they sang the classic holiday song.  

Later in the week, the children joined in reindeer games and pretended to be reindeer training for Santa's crew.  The children pulled a sleigh, carefully tossed snowballs in the chimney to warn santa of peeking eyes and leapt over roof tops.  We celebrated the end of the games dancing to our favorite holiday songs.

To wrap up the week, the children created their fourth and final story tree based on the much loved book, "Chicka Chicka Boom Boom" by Bill Martin, Jr. and John Archambault. The children decorated a variety of letters and added them to the coconut tree! Such a fun story!

Home extension activity:

SEE's story trees are inspired by Concord Museum's latest exhibit celebrating children's literature called, "Family Trees." The exhibit will be available to see until January 2, 2017. Try to get over there before the new year, this exhibit is definitely worth checking out! Here is the link for more info: Concord Museum's Family Trees Special Event. 

                 

What's up next?

SEE will be closed from December 26-January 2, 2017.  We will return to our regular schedule on Tuesday, January 3rd! Stay tuned for more info on our upcoming curriculum topics!

                                                                                                                              

Upcoming Dates and Reminders:

December 22 & 23: Pajama Day! 

December 26-January 2: SEE closed for Winter Break

January 3: SEE is back in session and tuition is due
January 16: SEE closed in observance of MLK day
February 1: February Tuition is due

Pictures from the week:     

Our Fourth Story Tree! 

Studying a real deer antler!

Sign Language for "Reindeer"

Have a great week everyone!
Ms. Joanna

Story Tree Number Two

      What a fun week, we had our first sign of snow and we enjoyed it!  Thank you to all the parents for sending in snow gear, we’ve been teaching the children the five steps to putting on and taking off their snow apparel.  When outside we made snow angels, snowballs and we even tried to make a snowman, but the kids only managed to make a giant snowball instead.  It was beautiful out and everyone was happy.

      The SEE story trees have been coming along and are very festive.  We are finishing up The Mitten by Jan Brett, the tree looks amazing with all the snowballs and different mittens on it.  We began our second story tree, the book There Was An Old Lady Who Swallowed A bell, by Lucille Colandro.  This is a rhyming story and is very funny. First, the old lady swallows bell then a bow tie, some gifts, a snack, a sleigh, a reindeer and more.  Of course, we made a beautiful bell for the story tree and a little old lady swallowing all those funny things.  Later in the week, we made decorations for this tree and we made mistletoe, all the children had a turn under the mistletoe and gave each other a hug after learning the meaning of love under its branch. 

      The Pre-K class had a lot of fun learning this week’s word “ICE," burr.  They followed directions when it was time to trace the word and when decorating the ice cubes with light blue paint and salt to give it that shiny wet look.

      Ms. Mary Beth brought the Nutcracker to SEE. The children learned some ballet positions and how to take a proper bow.  Mr. Ed also sang some fun holiday tunes both new and some oldie but goodies.   

Home extension activity:

    SEE's story trees are inspired by Concord Museum's latest exhibit celebrating children's literature called, "Family Trees." The exhibit will be available to see until January 2, 2017. Try to get over there before the new year, this exhibit is definitely worth checking out! Here is the link for more info: Concord Museum's Family Trees Special Event. 

                 

What's up next?

        This week is all about reindeer. Did you know that there is, in fact, a such thing as a reindeer? They are also known as Caribou! The children will learn their body parts, where they live, what they eat and how many toes they have! The children will have a reindeer bootcamp and make reindeer food for their front lawn.

                                                                                                                              

Upcoming Dates and Reminders:

December 22 & 23: Pajama Day! 

December 26-January 2: SEE closed for Winter Break

January 3: SEE is back in session and tuition is due
January 16: SEE closed in observance of MLK day
February 1: February Tuition is due

Pictures from the week:                                     

The kids had so much fun outside making a
giant snowball together!

     

 The Mitten Tree is decorated with art work from all the children.

Pre-K spelled, traced and used blue paint to create cold "ICE".

Have a great week, 

Ms. Pauline

December's Story Book Trees

       We hope all of our SEE families had a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday and a restful weekend.  We started our Story Trees this week beginning with "The Mitten" by Jan Brett and the "I Spy Tree" by Jean Marzollo and Walter Wick. Both trees will be on display for the month.  The Mitten is a wonderful story about all of the different animals who trying to fit into one mitten, there is a rabbit, owl, mouse, badger, fox, a bear and more.  The bear tickles the mouse’s whiskers and he sneezes and all the animals scatter after being blown out.  The story takes place in a snowy setting and the first decorations to go up on our story tree were snowballs and the second were mittens decorated with glue, yarn, and cloth pieces. The uniqueness of everyone's mittens make the tree look extra special. The I Spy tree is beginning to collect some fun decorations. Please feel free to bring in something from home to add to our I Spy Tree. One of our preschoolers lent us a snowman she and her dad made. We are looking for families to lend us more items for the tree. If you would like to participate, please send your child with an item 3 inches or smaller.  If you would like your item to be retuned to you at the end of the month, please label you item. Thank you!

       Then week, the children had lots of fun playing outside making a soup brew using rain water and sand.  During social play they had a great time bowling. The children took turns setting up the pins for each other and then bowling away.  Mr. Potato Head gave us lots of laughs as friends gave him three eyes and ears where his nose should be.

      Pre-K had a chance to work on their HWT (Handwriting Without Tears writing book) and did a terrific job on the word of the week,  HAPPY. The children colored a very happy face with crayons.

       On Thursday, we had a special visitor, a former SEE student, Clare, age 8, who read two books to the children, "I Will Take A Nap" and "Waiting Is Not Easy" both by Mo Willems. Clare is a terrific reader the children were laughing and listening attentively to every word!  

Home extension activity:

SEE's story trees are inspired by Concord Museum's latest exhibit celebrating children's literature called, "Family Trees." The exhibit will be available to see until January 2, 2017. Try to get over there before the new year, this exhibit is definitely worth checking out! Here is the link for more info: Concord Museum's Family Trees Special Event. 

                 

What's up next?

             We are very excited and looking forward to the next Story Tree theme, "There was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Bell" by Lucille Colandro.  

                                                                                                                              

Upcoming Dates and Reminders:

December 11: Weekend Gathering at Winchester Gymnastics - see your Evite for more info and to RSVP.
December 22 & 23: Pajama Day! 

December 26-January 2: SEE closed for Winter Break

January 3: SEE is back in session and tuition is due
January 16: SEE closed in observance of MLK day
February 1: February Tuition is due

Pictures from the week:

The children used their engineering and fine motor 

muscles to make an Evergreen tree out of play dough

"The Mitten" story tree decorated with snowballs and mittens.

The children cut yarn and cloth and used different 

materials to make their very own mitten for the story tree!

SEE's very own bowling team and friends cheering everyone on!

Using their hand-eye coordination, the children 

made a beautiful dot painting collage.

See you next week!

Ms. Pauline

Pilgrims, Native Americans and Turkey!

We all had a lovely Thanksgiving week here at SEE. It was a short one but we still had lots of time for Thanksgiving activities and not one, but two Thanksgiving feasts! We began the week talking about why we celebrate Thanksgiving and how the holiday all began. In keeping with the Thanksgiving theme, the children proudly wore their self-made pilgrim hats and native american headdresses to the Thanksgiving feast. 

The children began feast preparations last week by learning about how butter is made and using their muscles to shake a jar full of cream until it turned to butter! On Tuesday and Wednesday, the children chopped potatoes and mashed them into mashed potatoes to share at the feast. 

The Thanksgiving menu included, mini turkey sandwiches, mashed potatoes, Mrs. M's corn bread, peas, corn, cranberry sauce and apple cider. The feast was so much fun and the children really enjoyed creating the feast for all to enjoy.

In addition to all of the feast excitement, PreK made dream catchers and discussed why native americans made them. The dream catchers were created to trap the bad dreams and allowed the good dreams to pass through to ensure a pleasant night's sleep. The children used their fine motor skills to weave the dream catcher's string in and out of the paper plate "frame."

Upcoming Dates and Reminders:

December 1: Tuition is due

December 26-January 2: SEE closed for Winter Break

January 3: SEE is back in session and tuition is due

Pictures from the week:

First the children chopped the potatoes

Then, they used their big muscles to mash the potatoes

A feast fit for a king!

The table is ready for a feast!

The children said Mr. Turkey looked like a
movie star with all of his feathers!

I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving!

Joanna

Pilgrim Hats and Making Butter

This week we made some fun Pilgrim hats and Native American headdresses to wear during our Thanksgiving snack next week.  To prepare for our feast, we all made delicious butter. For the first step we filled a jar half way up with cream, the kids kept telling Mrs. M to put in more cream until they agreed it was half way full.  Step two they took turns shaking the jar and they shook and shook it for a long time, each having a turn. While the children were busy making butter, Mrs. M told them the story, "The Bread King and The Butter King," they were all very attentive to the puppet stick pictures she used while telling the story.  Meanwhile, they listened to the liquid as they shook the jar and some of the children announced, “It’s getting harder to shake" and "I don’t hear the liquid.”  After it was cooled in the fridge we looked in the jar, it was smooth like a cloud, we had a small tasting and how could it have not been anything but delicious!

The Preschoolers finished making their playground scarecrow, there were plenty of leaves around to fill up his pants and shirt and he really looked neat wearing a Batman baseball cap.  They made beautiful clay turkeys with feathers using their fine motor skills, rolling and molding the clay into a ball. They also made some turkey shapes, like his wattle and wings, too.  Continuing with the turkey theme, they had a feather race, first they tried a turkey baster, but that didn’t work as well as blowing the feathers across the finish line.

The Pre-K classroom spent some time learning how to organize their time and energy by spending time at four new table centers, including finger painting at the sensory table, Legos at the manipulative table, using scissors at the fine motor table and creating Pilgrim hats at the art table.  We played a couple of fun turkey games to exercise their gross motor skills including Gobble, Gobble, Gobble Turkey a spinoff of Duck, Duck, Goose and Pin the Wattle on the Turkey which was hysterical. The children each took a turn with a blindfold on and after one spin around they walked towards Mr. Turkey, or so they thought, and placed the wattle on his head, the door, and one wattle ended up in the bathroom, it was so much fun.  This week’s word of the week was GRAPE. The children really enjoy learning a new word each week and I’m so happy they are being academically challenged and I hope that they are showing off their writing and spelling skills at home.   

Lastly, we want to say thank you to our special guest, Mrs. Karen, Hope and Molly’s Mom, who read the book, "From Head to Toe" by Eric Carle and helped the children create their very own book for the classroom. 

What's up next?

SEE will enjoy a Thanksgiving feast during snack time and Mr. Turkey will be thankful for the feathers the children will make for him.

    

Upcoming Dates and Reminders:

November 24-25: SEE is closed for the Thanksgiving holiday

December 1: Tuition is due

December 26-January 2: SEE closed for Winter Break

January 3: SEE is back in session and tuition is due

Pictures from the week:

All the children made a Pilgrim hat for our Thanksgiving feast!

Shaking and shaking turning cream into butter 

Pre K started working on their HWT books

Painting with a feather at easels was very interesting to the artists

The preschoolers worked hard to give Mr. Scarecrow all his body parts

Thanksgiving manners and Turkey talk

            We began learning about manners and sang the song, Three Nice Mice.  We also met Mr. Turkey who is missing his feathers, later on the kids will make him some, but we did talk about what colors we might see on his feathers and what food he may have eaten to get such beautiful colors.  Later in the week they learned about the turkey’s body parts such as the snood, wattle, beard, caruncles, a male turkey is called a Tom and the female is called a Hen.

                On Tuesday we had SEE’s election, all the children filled out a secret ballot, and they voted for a Donkey, Elephant, or a Pig.  After tallying up the votes the Elephant won by one vote, the donkey was in a close second place and third place went to the Pig.

                Preschooler made a fun Turkey using a hand print and painting some of his features.  Friends worked together to make a Jurassic city using blocks and little dinosaurs to live in it.  They learned about manners and how to be Respectful and Kind to one another.

                 The Pre-K class made an “I voted ribbons” by gluing red , white and blue ribbons onto a big white circle with stars and a picture of the animal they voted for, they were very proud of their work and we chatted about how important their vote was.  This week’s word of the week was FISH and they glued shiny sequins on to their fish after following directions on how to trace the letters.  They also named their fish; some were named Shiny, Rainbow, Butterfly, and more fun names.  A picture below shows the engineering skills of Pre–K friends problem solving how the tubed pipes should be placed so that the ball will successfully make it to the end, what a terrify job they did!

                 Though it was a short week, it was a busy one with Movement with Ms. Marybeth, Music with Mr. Ed and a surprise guess reader a former SEE preschooler named Tess McCann!

What's up next?

                Next week we will hear about Native Americans, the Pilgrims and make our own butter.               

 Upcoming Dates and Reminders:

November 11: SEE is closed in observance of Veteran's Day

November 15: Current student schedule changes and sibling applications for 2017/2018 are due

November 23: SEE closes at 3:00pm

November 24-25: SEE is closed for the Thanksgiving holiday

December 1: Tuition is due

December 26-January 2: SEE closed for Winter Break

January 3: SEE is back in session and tuition is due

Pictures from the week:

SEE students voted with secret ballet. 

Word of the week FISH spell, trace and glued sequins.

Students engineered Rube Goldberg device. 

Dino World!

Enjoy your nice long weekend!

Ms. Pauline

 

Thanksgiving starts with fruits and veggies

               Monday was a very Happy Halloween there were so many fun costumes.  All the friends and teachers waited for the doorbell to ring to see what character had arrived.  We all gathered at morning meeting and some children had requested Go Away Green Monster book, we sang and danced to some Halloween songs and played a game called The Donut Shop, were they each get a pretend penny to pay for a donut with different colored sugar on top and then run away.  We had a very excited group of Trick or Treaters to knock on Mr. George’s office door (down the hall) and they received some delicious candy treats to bring home, what a fun day!

                We began our Thanksgiving theme this week which was all about Fruits and Vegetables.  First we learned about what makes the differences between a fruit and a vegetable.  Fruit starts as seeds, grows into flower and then it becomes a yummy apple, or some type of yummy fruit.  If it is a vegetable you will notice a stem, leaves, and maybe some roots, such as a carrot.  We had a does it sink or float science experiment using, blueberries, pear, carrot, potatoes, banana, apple, celery, and a pumpkin.  Some friends had a chance to pick a fruit or vegetable and make a decision if it will either sink or float, we then charted the results.  The blueberries were fun, some sunk slowly, but the big pumpkin was the most surprising, as big and heavy, as it was it floated! 

   

                Both Preschool and Pre k groups made fruit and vegetable printings with green, yellow, and orange paint, they stamp printed using vegetables: peppers; carrots, artichoke hearts, and some fruits: pear; and, star fruit.  

                The Pre K class spelling word of the week, with a deep voice, EGG.  Their writing skills while following directions is paying off.  Later in the week we filled a honey teddy bear jar with pompoms and the different colored pompom represented a fruit, a vegetable, or a treat, some examples were green grapes, orange carrots and the brown pompoms were yummy chocolate!  They made a smashing of the fruit and veggie picture using blueberries, peas, and corn.  There was lots of laughter while they were smashing the fruits and veggies with their hand, fist, and thumbs.  

                The Artist of this month is Wessily Kandinsky, a Russian man who is recognized as the first abstract artist.  He was an expressionist who loved shapes and colors.  SEE’s artist made circle prints choosing from six different colors and the works of art will be displayed as a quilt connecting all the art together. 

What's up next?

                Next week we will continue with our Thanksgiving theme, learning proper manners, and SEE will have its own elections on November 8^th voting for one of three different animal representatives.

 Upcoming Dates and Reminders:

November 11: SEE is closed in observance of Veteran's Day

November 15: Current student schedule changes and sibling applications for 2017/2018 are due

November 23: SEE closes at 3:00pm

November 24-25: SEE is closed for the Thanksgiving holiday

December 1: Tuition is due

December 26-January 2: SEE closed for Winter Break

January 3: SEE is back in session and tuition is due

Pictures from the week:

Trick or Treating at Mr. George's office

Printing with fruits and veggies

Hungry Teddies filled with imaginary 

food by the children 

SEE's  Artist interpretation of Wessily Kandinsky

Practicing fine motor skills and numbers

Ms. Pauline

Leaves are falling and Halloween surprises

This week was a combination of studying leaves and Halloween surprises.  In the beginning of the week we learned the fun song “All the Leaves Are Falling.”  We all studied the process that makes a leaf change colors and that the leaf has three parts the stem, blade, and veins.  We discussed how the leaves change color and that the weather plays a big role in that change.  As it becomes colder there is less sunshine and not enough rain to feed the leaves.  The chlorophyll, which gives leaves their green color, begins to breakdown and that is when the reds and yellows of the leaf shine through. We also learned about Chlorophyll, how it makes the leaves green with nourishment and that it feels sticky covering the leaves.  To end the week, the children had a fun time listening to "Go Away Big Green Monster!"  By Ed Emberley and some friends made a green monster mask.

The preschool group read the book, "Leaf Man" by Lois Ehlert and afterwards they made their own Mr. Leaf Man using real leaves.  The children worked together to create his head, body, arms, legs and he even had a little leaf dog! As the week progressed, they made leaf pictures by placing a leaf under a piece of paper and used a crayon to rub across the paper revealing a beautiful leaf shape.   The teacher reviewed the leaf vocabulary words as the picture emerged.  As the week came to an end, the preschoolers made leaf pictures by counting out and gluing ten leaves onto the tree.  Spider webs were also created using a marble painting technique.  Marbles were covered in white paint and dropped onto a black piece of paper.  The children rolled the marbles around on the paper and out came a beautiful spider web!

         
The Pre-K group started the week off listening to the book, "Leaf Jumpers" by Carol Gerber. We learned about all the different shaped leaves including Ginkgo, Sycamore, White Oak, Basswood, Sugar Maple, Willow, Red Maple and Birch.  To review the week's vocabulary words, the children painted a beautiful leaf with a stem and some veins, one side of the leaf was called the blade and was painted all green and the other side of the leaf was painted with fall colors including yellow, orange, red and green.  Some of the children wanted to leave some white on their leaf because all the leaves are very different. Continuing with curriculum, this week’s word was "DOG" and the children proudly spelled it out adding a big RUFF sound in the beginning.  As the week came to an end, the children made a spider web using a string of yarn with dipped into white paint.  The children carefully dragged the yarn along the black paper to create webs.  The final step was gluing the spider to its web.  I couldn't help but listen to the children's chatter about what the spider catches in it's web. Many of the children commented on how spiders catch flies and insects to eat.  And our Pre-Kers are so smart, when asked how many legs a spider has they all answered eight legs.

        
Movement with Ms. Mary Beth was halloween themed with three skeleton friends called Mr. Bones.  The kids helped Mr. Bones dance around to the song "D’em Bones" and they sang about how our bones connect to one another.  The children worked on their clapping and snapping skills to the Adams Family theme song.

                
Mr. Ed sang lots of fun halloween songs including "Five Little Witches Jumping on the Bed," "Five little Pumpkins Sitting on the Gate" and so many more.  The kids were laughing, singing along and having a terrific time.

What's up next?

November is quickly approaching and on Tuesday, we begin our Thanksgiving unit that is all about family, manners, fruits, veggies and being thankful for everything we have!

Upcoming Dates and Reminders:

October 31: Costumes are welcome at school! Please no weapons :)
November 1: November tuition is due
November 11: SEE is closed in observance of Veteran's Day
November 15: Current student schedule changes and sibling 
                        applications for 2017/2018 are due
November 23: SEE closes at 3:00pm
November 24-25: SEE is closed for the Thanksgiving holiday
December 1: Tuition is due

December 26-January 2: SEE closed for Winter Break
January 3: SEE is back in session and tuition is due

Pictures from the week:

 Mr. Leaf Man and his dog were made using real leaves

Pre-k painted fall leaves and labeled the parts of the leaf using the vocabulary words we are learning: stem, vein and blade

Mr. Bones dancing to the beat

Making a "Big Green Monster" Mask based on the story, "Go Away Big Green Monster"

The friends worked together to make a race car in the block area

Have a safe and Happy Halloween and just a reminder that on Monday your child is invited to dress up in there halloween costume for the morning hours.

Ms. Pauline

So Many Pumpkins!

This week was all about pumpkins!  The children learned the difference between a pumpkin and a jack-o-lantern: first it’s a pumpkin, then we remove all of the seeds and stringy goo, finally we cut out a face and it’s called a jack-o-lantern.  The children all enjoyed and memorized the poem “Five Little Pumpkins Sitting On The Gate.”  Ask your child to recite it for you. We also turned a pumpkin into a fun gross motor activity, practicing hand-eye coordination. After cleaning out the seeds and goopy insides, everyone took a turn hammering in a golf tee that the kids called a "big nail." At SEE’s Trunk-or-Treat this Saturday, we’ll pull out some tees, put in a light and enjoy the spectacular light show!  

     

This week was full of pumpkin activities! The Pre-K class made "pumpkins in the night" using scissors to cut out their pumpkin, then using eye droppers to drop black water color onto the coffee filter.  Earlier in the week we competed in pumpkin races - what fun the children had racing and jumping inside an oversized pumpkin bag!  We also used our recyclables to make water bottle pumpkins. Orange construction paper was ripped into pieces and stuffed into the bottle, everyone had three triangles, a ½ moon for the face and a green circle for the stem that they glued onto the top.  Lastly, the word of the week was CARROT. The children learned to spell the word while tracing and coloring a carrot orange. 

     

The Preschoolers began the week with a pumpkin counting activity to fill the their pumpkin patch with pumpkins. Each child took a turn rolling the dice and counting out pumpkins.  On Tuesday, the children were asked that was inside the pumpkin, The answers were right on track as well as a little silly! Some of the answers included "seeds," "goop," "a chipmunk," and "a pumpkin pie!" On Thursday, the children had the opportunity to explore the insides of a pumpkin. The children were asked how if felt and they described the texture as pumpkin sauce, goopy, wet, sticky, spooky and yucky.  After collecting the seeds out of the goop, the children planted several seeds in our pumpkin patch for next year!

    

Also on Thursday, Mrs. M created another amazing science  experiment exploring air and jack-o-lanterns. She created an experiment with three candles and three different size jars. The question we asked the children was, "what does a candle need to stay lit?" The experiment showed that the smaller the jar, the less air it had and the quicker the light would burn out. So the children learned that a candle needs air to stay lit which is why a pumpkin needs a jack-o-lantern face in order for the candle to shine bright. 

     

This week’s music and movement with Ms. Mary Beth was all about pumpkins. It was also very special day celebrating Mary Beth for being an amazing teacher at SEE for the past FIVE years!  During movement class the children sang the roly poly pumpkin and tapped to the beat of Peter the Pumpkin eater. Using a flashlight while the lights were dimmed they each held the light up to their face and made a Jack-O-Lantern expression, lots of happy faces, a few scary and many funny ones, too.  

What a fun pumpkin and jack-o-lantern week!  We are looking forward to Trunk-or-Treating with all of you on Saturday.  

What's up next?

Next week will explore autumn leaves and a bit of Halloween surprises. 

Upcoming Dates and Reminders:

October 22: Trunk-or-Treat at SEE! See your Evite for more details and for instructions on how to sign up!
October 31: Costumes are welcome at school! Please no weapons :) 
November 1: November tuition is due
November 11: SEE is closed in observance of Veteran's Day
November 23: SEE closes at 3:00pm
November 24-25: SEE is closed for the Thanksgiving holiday

Pictures from the week:

Making jack-o-lanterns in a mini water bottle

Getting ready to explore the pumpkin's insides!

Using our gross motor and hand-eye coordination skills to hammer golf tees into a big pumpkin

Have a great weekend. I'll see you all at Trunk-or-Treat tomorrow!

Ms. Pauline

All About Apples!

I hope everyone enjoyed their Columbus Day weekend.  This week was all about apples.  During morning choice some friends painted apples on trees using Q-tips, dotting red, yellow and green apples on a picture of a tree.  Both groups had an apple tasting and the green apple won for best taste over a red and yellow ones.  Some children shouted out that apples are “delicious and yummy!”  Later in the week we peeled apples with a hand cranked peeler and then cooked the apples to make delicious apple sauce!

The preschoolers read the book "Ten Apples On Top" by Dr. Seuss and the children made a neat mathematical picture, rolling the dice to find out how many apples to put on top of their lion. This activity also incorporated one-to-one correspondence while counting up to ten.  Together with the Pre-K class, Mrs. M did a special apple seed experiment. We explored the question, "What will happen when we put apple seeds in water?"  Will they sink? Will they float? First the seeds sank, then we experimented with baking soda and vinegar. The children were so excited to see the apple seeds float and dance around!

Pre-K sang the song "Farmer Brown Had Five Red Apples Hanging from the Tree" and played pin the apple on the tree.  The  children (and myself!) all took a turn being blind folded and tried to place the big apple on the tree, but the apples ended up in some pretty funny places including Farmer Brown's head, cheeks, and even on the classroom calendar!  We made three dimensional apple trees using green and red tissue paper crunched up and glued to the tree and falling to the ground and finally they used a brown crayon to color the tree's trunk.  We also learned to spell and trace the word "BANANA." Some children said “what a big word,” but they were happy to learn how fun it is to spell.  We got some nice feedback from SEE parents that they really enjoyed listening to and watching their Pre-Ker's spelling. 

In Ms. Marybeth movement class the children transformed into autumn trees and leaves.  Everyone had a leaf and sang a song about leaves twirling and swirling gently to the ground.  They also took turns swirling beautiful rhythmic ribbons.

Mr. Ed came on Thursday, singing and playing his guitar to lots of apple and banana songs.  He also sang about pumpkins, Halloween, and, of course, the children had lots of fun shaking their sillies out. 

It was a short week filled with delicious apple smells, tastes and learning about the whole apple from skin to seeds!  

What's up next?

Next week is all about pumpkin explorations and the color of the week will be orange.

Upcoming Dates and Reminders:

October 22: Trunk-or-Treat at SEE! See your Evite for more details and for instructions on how to sign up!
November 1: November tuition is due
November 11: SEE is closed in observance of Veteran's Day
November 23: SEE closes at 3:00pm
November 24-25: SEE is closed for the Thanksgiving holiday

Pictures from the week:

Peeling apples to make applesauce

Making three dimensional apple trees

Learning to spell, trace and paint the word "banana"

Friends working hard with supervision from Wegman's "foreman"

Have a great weekend!

Ms. Pauline