Clouds

As part of cloud week, we read different books about how clouds are always changing shape.  One of the books we read was "It Looked Like Spilt Milk."  Each page in this book has a white shape that looks like something familiar.  At the end of the book, the kids see that all the shapes were actually clouds in the sky! 

After reading this book, the kids got to paint their own white shape on half of a paper and then fold it in half, rub it, and open it up to see what their "cloud" image looked like.  We had everything from angels to Olaf to cookies!  This was a great creative science project!

We learned that clouds are always moving and changing shape.  We talked about how the wind moves the clouds and then we got to try it out!  This "cloud race" was a hit! 

We also enjoyed a visit from Mother Goose!  We always have a wonderful time with Mother Goose and Goosey!  We love when she sings, plays ring-around-the-rosies, and reads stories!

"R" was our letter for the week.  We worked on rhyming words with the older kids.  We played lots of different games with our rhyming cards!  Rhyming can be a tricky concept for some children.  Exposure to rhymes is important to help children be able to hear the rhyming words and catch on to how to make a rhyme.  Be sure to point out rhymes in stories, poems, and songs!

This is a great picture during centers.  I love seeing what children come up with as they play and explore!

Weather and Wind!

This week we learned the letter "T".  I loved when these kids spontaneously made their own "T's" during centers!

During November we are learning about weather!  We talked about sunny, cloudy, partly cloudy, windy, rainy, and snowy.  Here we were making a sun for sunny weather.

Then we made a weather chart that the kids could take home to share with their family what type of weather they observe each day.  This was a great project for the Pre-K kids to practice their cutting skills.  They did a great job!  All the students were very interested in learning about the weather.  Every time we went out to recess, we looked up at the sky and noticed what the weather was like.  They were so intrigued!  We will continue to notice how the weather changes as we transition into winter!

We talked about how the weather determines what we wear outside.  The children took turns picking an item out of our bag and deciding if we would wear it when it was hot, cold, or rainy outside. 

We also learned about the wind this week.  We learned that the wind is helpful in a lot of ways from spreading seeds to making sailboats move.  For our project we experimented with a variety of objects to see if we could make them move with the "wind" we could produce with our mouth.  The kids loved testing each item and were thrilled when they could make it move!  Then they drew pictures of their findings!

 I just had to add this picture!  It was so fun to watch as more than half of this class came to school dressed in stripes!  What a coincidence!

  Music time with instruments is always exciting!  These kids were learning the different names of the instruments and how to play them.  They did a great job taking turns playing each one!

Happy Halloween!!

Halloween is always so much fun in preschool!!  The kids have been so excited about dressing up and we have all been waiting to see what their costumes would look like!  We did a lot of fun activities earlier in the week as we prepared to celebrate Halloween!  These children really enjoyed singing "5 Little Pumpkins" this week! 

We also enjoyed a visit by Suzy Safari before Halloween!  She taught the kids about squirrels and how they prepare for the upcoming winter during her visit this time!  Suzy Safari is always so passionate about animals and teaching these kids in interactive, fun ways!

We also learned the letter "W" this week.  "W" is for witch!  We read many stories about witches as we got ready for Halloween!  We practiced writing "W's" on the white boards and then the kids had a good time drawing Halloween pictures!

Finally, Halloween came and it was so fun to see all the different costumes!  So many cute kids!

Our Halloween parade! : )

One of the books we read this week was "The Little Witch Sisters" by Stephanie Calmenson.  Afterwards, we pretended to make a magic brew like the little witch sisters and then we played a silly game of casting spells!  The kids got a thrill out of acting out the different animals and Halloween creatures that the spells changed them into!  Thankfully, I remembered to change them back into little children!

Thank you to our wonderfully, supportive preschool parents!  We had yummy Halloween treats and delighted in hearing favorite Halloween stories read by the kids' moms!

We also got to play some great Halloween games for our party! 

We had a terrific Halloween celebration and hope you all did too!

Here are a couple of pictures from centers this week!  The children are all learning so much as they continue to develop their social skills like working and playing together with others!