Thanksgiving Week!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! We had such a great week this week. Not only is Thanksgiving almost here but we also have a 4 day weekend ahead of us! Woohoo! Here's what we were up to this week:

Before the thanksgiving festivities began, the pre-k constructed a very tall scarecrow for our playground! Not only did they help collect all of the fallen leaves from around the playground, they worked together to fill his clothes and lift him up on his feet.

This week was all about thankfulness.  We held a few group discussions to talk about what it means to be thankful.  Naturally, we asked all of the children what they were thankful for and here are a few of the responses:

"I am thankful for picking colorful leaves"

"I am thankful for my hair!"

"I am thankful for playing at preschool"

"I am thankful for my mom and dad"

"I am thankful for begin invited to parties!"

Our preschoolers are very grateful kiddos! In keeping with the theme of thanksgiving, the children arrived at school on Tuesday and Wednesday to an (allergy friendly) thanksgiving feast! The children prepared corn muffins, set the tables for their friends and became pilgrims and native americans!  The children created either a native american headdress or a pilgrim hat.  We introduced the children to the story of how thanksgiving came to be and focused on the friendship between the pilgrims and native americans.  

The menu for our thanksgiving feast included homemade cornbread, cranberry sauce, carrots, corn and turkey, of course!

Music and Movement with Mary Beth was all about manners and being a great guest at someone's house! The children were introduced to the poem, "The Turkey is a Funny Bird" and acted out the lines.  To finish the class, the children moved and grooved to the song, "Be Our Guest" from the Beauty and the Beast soundtrack and had a blast!

Important Dates and Reminders:

November 25: SEE will close at 3:00pm

November 26-27: SEE will be closed for Thanksgiving break

December 1: December tuition is due
(stay tuned for more info for the December gathering) 

December 24 - January 3: SEE closed for winter break

January 4: SEE back in session and tuition is due

Pictures from this week:

The making of the scarecrow

The pre-k's 6 foot scarecrow!

Mixing up the corn muffins on Tuesday!

A feast fit for a king!

I hope everyone has a very yummy thanksgiving!

Joanna

Week of November 16-20, 2015!

This week was all about nature's engineer, the beaver! The beaver is quite a fascinating little creature.  To begin our study, the children first looked at the anatomy of the beaver and shared interesting facts that they knew.  The beaver is the second largest animal in the rodent family and they are herbivores. They are especially good at chewing through wood and like to eat it too! Beaver families (also known as colonies) work together to build their lodges. Beavers like to keep themselves busy and they primarily build though the night, that is where the saying, "as busy as a beaver" came from!

To extend out studies into the classroom, the water table was filled with natural materials and the children were encouraged to created a beaver habitat.  From the outdoors, we collected small sticks, rocks, autumn leaves, dirt and added a little water to make the mud beavers need to create a lodge.  Miniature beavers were added and, viola! a beaver habitat.  The children enjoyed the sensory experience as they created dams and lodges for the beavers to live.

At the art table, the children were invited over to create their own version of a beaver lodge using different sized wooden sticks, clay, and grass.  To support their learning about a beaver home, we asked the children what jobs their colony of beavers had to do to help build the lodge.  The lodges will be completed through the first week of December, each child will have an opportunity create their own!  We invite you into the classroom over the next few weeks to see your child's beaver lodge! 

As we continue our study, we will investigate beaver dams and how they help our environment and help other animals in the environment.

Important Dates and Reminders:

November 22: Monthly Gathering at Winchester Gymnastics

November 25: SEE will close at 3:00pm

November 26-27: SEE will be closed for Thanksgiving break

December 1: December tuition is due

December 24 - January 3: SEE closed for winter break

January 4: SEE back in session and tuition is due

And the pictures from this week:

Beaver lodge inspiration and a child-made lodge

The making of a beaver lodge! Of course we need mud, sticks, grass and beavers!

This week's sensory experience, lodge building!

The children worked like busy beavers to create a lodge for their furry friends

Thank you for waiting so patiently for the pictures! 

Have a great weekend!

Joanna

Week of November 9-13, 2015!

November is flying by! The children were introduced to the moose this week and they learned all about it's habitat, anatomy and so much more! Did you know, the moose is the largest land mammal in the United States.  Moose are herbivores, which means they only eat plants.  They also have four, long, skinny legs that are great for swimming and running! Under their chin, moose have a beard called a bell.  Male moose have antlers.  The antlers have points that can be counted to determine the age of the moose. The children discovered that the stuffed moose in our classroom is 9 years old because he has 9 points on his antler.  Each year in the winter, the antlers fall off and grow back in the spring with one more point in it's antler.  Pretty cool, the points are like birthday candles!  During the week, the children created life size moose tracks by rubbing crayons across the prints.  We also read the book, "If you give a moose a muffin" by Laura Joffe Numeroff.  The children have been busy working on their own moose muffins! Check out the pics below! It is always fun to get a little messy and work with clay!

Next week, the children will be introduced to the beaver, nature's engineer!  The beaver is a very unique little critter with so many interesting facts.  Stay tuned for our classroom dam explorations! Get ready to get messy!

During Mary Beth's movement and music class this week, the children became scarecrows.  The children discussed how a scarecrow would act if he were alive.  Would he be strong and stand tall?  Would he be floppy and droopy? Would he be light and airy and float around? We put these movements to music and created a scarecrow dance.  It was adorable to watch the children transform into floppy, flowy, bendy scarecrows.  The children also heard a scarecrow poem and took turns acting it out.  Way to go little scarecrows! 

The pre-k group explored Veteran's Day this week.  The children learned about the vehicles soldiers drive, including humvees, helicopters, ships and planes.  We also talked about how the American flag has 50 stars to represent all 50 states.  The most surprising fact the children learned was that women (including moms!) can be veterans too!  To honor our veterans, the children drew hearts, carefully cut them out and added white strips, a blue square and several stars to make a tribute to the american flag.  Come check them out, they are proudly hanging in the classroom!  We ended the week, exploring the letter C and played an always fun game of pictionary with C words.  Next week we are on to letter D and will begin talking about what we are most thankful for!

Important Dates and Reminders:

November 22: Monthly Gathering at Winchester Gymnastics

November 25: SEE will close at 3:00pm

November 26-27: SEE will be closed for Thanksgiving break
December 1: December tuition is due
December 24 - January 3: SEE closed for winter break
January 4: SEE back in session and tuition is due

Lastly, the children put our old jack-o-lantern pumpkins outside for the critters to enjoy.  The children have been watching the pumpkins closely all week waiting to see some nibbles taken out of the pumpkin, finally today, one of our pre-k kiddos, very excitedly, came running down the hill and announced, "Someone took a bite of the pumpkin's flesh!" What a silly choice of words! These kiddos are always making us laugh!

Some pictures from the week:

American flag hearts by Pre-k!

Our Henri Matisse Bulletin Board

Rolling the clay muffin

Creating the clay muffin

The final product!

I hope everyone has a relaxing weekend before all of the holiday festivities begin!
Joanna

Week of November 2-6, 2015!

Another month has come and gone! Can you believe it's November?! With weather like this it is hard to believe the holidays are approaching.  Here's what the kiddos were up to this week:

We introduced the children to our artist of the month, Henri Matisse!  The children learned that Matisse was a great artist who loved to paint beautiful masterpieces.  However, when he got older, he wasn't able to use his hands to paint anymore.  One day, while he was sick in bed, he picked up a pair of scissors and began cutting shapes out of colored paper.  Matisse called it, "drawing with scissors."  The children LOVE using scissors so this was a very easy way to invite the children to the art table to create artwork with me. Cutting with scissors is new for many children and it was fun to watch the them concentrate while using the scissors.  To make our art more meaningful, we read the books, "Henri's Scissors" by Jeanette Winter and "When Pigasso met Mootisse" by Nina Laden.

As I sat with the children making their Henri Matisse inspired art, I was able to capture some of their language while they created their masterpieces.  Now, many of you may be puzzled by the art your child brings home and you may wonder, "What can this be?"   With  language samples, it all makes more sense! For example, a little girl was making her masterpiece and she said out loud, "So right here is the head and that's the body and these are the legs and I'm doing the hair.  She's going to be Rapunzel so I better make long hair!" My favorite part of the whole process is hearing about their creation.  Many times I can say to myself that, yes, in fact, it does look like Rapunzel!  I invite you all to come into the classroom next week and view your child's Henri Matisse inspired masterpiece.  These works of art will be placed in each child's portfolio after being displayed on the bulletin board this month.  

During morning meeting this week, the children learned a lot about fruits and vegetables and how we categorize them.  We talked about fruit vs. vegetable, grows underground vs. grows above the ground and grows on a vine vs. on a tree.  

To end the week, we discovered that there was a nest inside of our birdhouse out in the playground.  Assuming that the birds have flown south for the winter, I decided to open it up and show the children the nest.  As I carefully pulled it out, I suddenly saw two eyes looking back at me! I don't know who was more frightened to see who, me or the MOUSE! I slowly slid his nest back into the bird house that we now refer to as the mouse house! Sleep tight little mouse! 

What's up next:

Next week the children will be introduced to a novel animal, the moose! They will learn about the types of tracks they make, their habitat and the foods they eat.  

Lastly, don't forget to check out our little free library in the front of our school! The way it works is take a book, leave a book!  Don't forget to donate to the library to keep all of the books rotating!  Also, the library is not just for the kiddos, it is for adults too! 

Important Dates and Reminders:

November 11: SEE will be closed for Veteran's Day
November 22: Monthly Gathering at Winchester Gymnastics

November 25: SEE will close at 3:00pm

November 26-27: SEE will be closed for Thanksgiving break
December 1: December tuition is due
December 24 - January 3: SEE closed for winter break
January 4: SEE back in session and tuition is due

Some pictures from the week:

"I'm making a making a horsey, well actually, it kind of looks like a cow!"

"I'm cutting the lightening"

"So right here is the head and that's the body and these are the legs and I'm doing the hair.  She's going to be Rapunzel so I better make long hair!"

Inside the Mouse House!

I hope everyone has a great weekend!
Joanna