Show Me Your Muscles!

It was so great to have all of the parents in this past Tuesday for Curriculum Night! We just love showing off all of the children's artwork and school work. It was also great to see everyone. Thank you to all who made it!

This week the children were introduced to their muscles. We discussed why muscles are so important and how to keep them healthy! We learned that our bodies have more than 600 muscles and our strongest muscle is our gluteus maximus (aka our bum!).  The children also exercised their muscles during a movement group with Ms. Melissa. We all danced like ghosts and wiggled like worms.

This week also began fall explorations. Our very own SEE-grown pumpkin rests proudly on the manipulatives shelf. We worked so hard this summer to grow him we couldn't bear to carve him so he just hangs out among our jack-o-lanterns! Which brings us to our pumpkin explorations, there were lots of pumpkin guts to go around! The children, somewhat skeptically, scooped out the guts while the teachers and children planned what each jack-o-lantern would look like. This of course led to an experiment with Mrs. M! The children learned that a jack-o-lantern needs air to keep the flame inside alive. Without air, there would be no shining jack-o-lanterns on Halloween night! The children watched a candle inside of a closed jar slowly die out because the air was all used up. Same for the candle inside of the pumpkin with no face - there was no air to keep the candle alive. So, just as we had suspected, by carving a silly face in the pumpkin, air was able to flow through and the light shown bright! 

The children then used tweezers to carefully pick out the seeds from the pumpkin guts. Not only were the children practicing their fine motor skills, they also enjoyed prepping the seeds to cook for afternoon snack. The seeds weren't a big hit but the whole process was fun for all!

What's Up Next:
Halloween is coming and we will continue with pumpkin explorations. We will also continue learning about our muscles with exercise stations in the classroom and a muscle experiment. 

Upcoming Dates and Reminders:

October 29: Halloween Trunk-or-Treat! See Evite for more info!
October 31: Happy Halloween! Costumes will be allowed at school 
November 1: November Tuition is due
November 10 : SEE closed in observance of Veteran's Day
November 22: SEE closing at 3pm 
November 23-24: SEE closed for Thanksgiving

Pictures from the week:

Pumpkin Exercises

Scoopin' out the guts!

Fishing out letters from the oatmeal sensory bin

Look at that perfect grip - separating pumpkin seeds!

The little one in the middle was grown in the SEE garden!

Hope you enjoyed the blog! Have a great weekend!

Joanna

Dem Bones!

These past couple of weeks have certainly been "all about me." The children have been learning all about the bones in their bodies compared to the bones of other creatures! Ms. Tiffany discovered that the New England Aquarium loans animal kits to educators. She excitedly pickup an animal bones kit and the children have been able to see and feel what real animal bones are like. The largest bone that we received is the whale rib bone which measures about 28" long! The children were very curious and were excited to guess what kind of bone it is. Some on the guesses included a snake bone, dinosaur bone and a dog bone. The bones are displayed on the science table for the children to observe - parents will get a chance to see the display at Curriculum Night tomorrow night! 

In addition to seeing lots of interesting bones, the children had many discussions about the bones in our bodies. They learned the names for the arm bones (humorous, radius, ulna) and also why our heads are so hard (to protect our delicate brains). 

Now that fall is officially upon us, we are beginning to use our outdoor environment as inspiration for projects and activities. The children painted with pinecones, practiced their cutting skills to create 3D pumpkins and used marbles and paint to make spooky spider webs! We can't wait for everyone to see all of the art around the room!

Lastly, our artist of the month focus this month is on the ancient cave painting of the Lascaux Cave in France. The cave was discovered by a boy and his dog in 1940. The cave paintings date back to 1500 BC! Our students discussed that today we read books that tell us stories and back before books, people used pictures to tell stories. When shown pictures from the cave, the children observed that the figures in the paintings were mostly of animals including stags, horses, cattle, bulls, birds and bears.  The paleolithic people who created the art used minerals and possibly charcoal to create the paintings and colors they used. The children replicated the cave paintings which are now proudly hanging on the bulletin board in the classroom!

What's Up Next:
On to muscles! How do our muscles helps move and how can we keep our muscles strong?

Upcoming Dates and Reminders:

October 17: Curriculum Night for the pre-K and preschool groups - see Evite for more details and to RSVP!
October 29: Halloween Trunk-or-Treat! See Evite for more info!
October 31: Happy Halloween! Costumes will be allowed at school 
November 1: November Tuition is due
November 10 : SEE closed in observance of Veteran's Day
November 22: SEE closing at 3pm 
November 23-24: SEE closed for Thanksgiving

Pictures from the week:

A whale vertebrae! It's huge!

A collection of bones!

A tusk

Marble painting = cool spider webs!

Cave painting replications

And another!

The beautiful display of our student's cave paintings!

We look forward to seeing everyone at Curriculum Night tomorrow! Have a great week!
Joanna