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

The Last of the Five Senses: Sight!

This week we explored the last of our five senses: sight. During morning choice, the children discovered the "I Spy" table and magnifying glasses were used to look at silly pictures. In addition to the I Spy table, some friends helped to make a batch of Moon Sand and all of the children enjoyed playing with it. Many moon castles were made and the children were amazed as it turned back to sand. 

This week, the Pre-K children learned to spell and trace the letters in the word APPLE; their pictures are proudly hanging on the wall. They also listened to the story “Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?” by Bill Martin, Jr. and Eric Carle. A calendar style book was made using all of the Pre K children's pictures they had drawn and we read our version titled, “Pre-K, Pre-K, Who Do You See?” Later in the week we read “It Looked Like Spilt Milk,” by Charles Green Shaw. The book describes pictures of spilled milk that look like objects such as a rabbit, an ice cream cone, a bird and more. Afterwards each child had an opportunity to cut out their own spilled milk pictures. Some children had drawn robots, jewels, hearts and pyramids. They had a fun time deciding what they saw in their cut out.

In keeping with the "sight" theme, the preschoolers played an I Spy game and learned about the different part of the eye. They learned that the center of the eye called the “Iris." Each child then had the opportunity to look at their eyes in the mirror and announce what color their own eyes are. They also read the book “It Looks Like Spilt Milk” and made a white painting on blue paper. The children squirted white paint onto a folded piece of blue paper.  They each smooshed the paint around between the folded halves of paper and opened the paper to reveal a neat looking paint splotch.  Each child was was asked what they saw in the paint - as if looking at clouds in the sky to find animals and objects.  

Music and Movement with Ms. Mary Beth was all about exploring our senses. Many themed songs were played that incorporated using our fire senses. They enjoyed dancing to “You Make Me Feel Like Dancing” by Leo Sayer.

On Wednesday, we started the Artist of the Month curriculum. For October, our artist is Paul Cézanne, the French artist and Post-Impressionist painter. The children used Cézanne's "Les Pommes" (1890) as inspiration as they painted a still life of a bowl of apples.  The paintings were presented to the children in eight simple steps using basic shapes (mostly circles!) and bold color.  The paintings turned out beautifully and they will soon be hanging in the classroom. 

The teachers and parents had a nice evening at SEE’s Curriculum Night this past Wednesday. It was so nice to meet the parents in a more relaxed setting and for them to learn about what the preschoolers and Pre-K children have been learning and to see some of the fun projects that they have been doing. We also had an opportunity to share the learning goals that the teachers have for all the children this year.

What's up next?

As the sense unit wraps up, next week we’ll be learning about apples!

Upcoming Dates and Reminders:

October 10: SEE is closed in observance of Columbus Day
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:

Pre-K's self portraits including all of their five senses and more!

Artist of the Month: Paul Cézanne! The children used
his painting, "Les Pommes" (1890) as inspiration

Friends making a train with connecting hula hoops

Enjoy your long, Columbus Day weekend. See you on Tuesday!

Ms. Pauline

The Fourth Sense is Touch

This week we explored the fourth of our five senses, touch. We started out with a mystery bag filled with rocks, pom-poms, macaroni, blocks, ribbons, sand paper, toothbrushes and paint brushes. The children described their mystery findings as soft, hard, smooth, rough, wavy and bumpy. Some of the children liked the toothbrush because it was both soft and hard. During morning choice time the children were invited to use eye droppers and water color paints on hard rocks and soft cotton circles, great for fine motor skills! The children's favorite seemed to have been watching the cotton absorb the colored water. 

To kick off touch week, the pre-k children started making a texture book of their very own on Monday. Starting with the first page, the feeling was "soft" and children added fluffy pom-pons to the page. Tuesday's word, and page two, was "hard" - macaroni was added to the page. Wednesday's texture was "rough/bumpy" - various types of textured paper were added to the page. Thursday's texture was "smooth" - silky ribbon was added. And finally, Friday's textures were "waxy" and "sticky" - wax paper and sticky stickers were added to the pages. What a nice book the children created as they chatted about the way things felt including many silly words to describe the textures. 

For touch week, the preschoolers were introduced to a mystery box with something soft or hard inside. Each child took a turn reaching inside the box to feel the object.  Without using their sense of sight, the children guessed what was inside the box. As the week continued, the children painted with corn. The group discussed  how it felt and all of the children agreed that it felt bumpy and smooth.  The children also liked seeing their pictures come out all bumpy. 

Ms. Mary Beth's movement class was all about apples. They danced around the apple tree to “It’s a brand new day” and recited a poem about apples, too. Everyone had a picture of a red, green or yellow apple and when they heard their color they held it up high and picked the apple off of the pretend tree. 

Mr. Ed came with his guitar to sing and dance the hokey pokey, as well as, shake your silly’s out and they sang about apples. There were lots of smiles, singing and laughter going on during music, its great to be a kid at SEE!

To finish up the week, all of the children enjoyed a felt story called “The Little Old Lady.” This week, the Little Old Lady was trying to find her senses. Colored felt pieces were added to the felt board when the children responded to the questions, “Why do I have ears, mouth, hands, nose, and eyes?”

What's up next?

The children will explore the last of our five senses, “sight.” We have lots of fun things to see next week! 

Upcoming Dates and Reminders:

October 3: October tuition is due
October 5: Curriculum Night - check your Evite for more details and to RSVP!
October 10: SEE closed in observance of Columbus Day
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 closed in observance of Veteran's Day
November 23: SEE closes at 3:00pm
November 24-25: SEE closed in observance of Thanksgiving

Pictures from the week:

SEE's very own artists hard at work!

Texture book pages, "soft" and "hard"

A bumpy picture made with corn

It was another great week at SEE! Have a good weekend!

Ms. Pauline