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