"It's autumntime, it's autumntime, the leaves are falling down!"

This week we learned about leaves!  After learning about fall last week it was fun to study leaves this week!  We learned about what happens to those lush green summer leaves when they are done working for the tree and turn to beautiful fall colors!  As part of our learning, we examined real leaves and saw how leaves are different shapes and sizes and turn different colors in the fall.

We looked at the book "Fall Walk" by Virginia Brimhall Snow to see how different trees have different leaves!  It is a fun book for kids to see how leaves look for a variety of leaves! 

The children loved adding some fall leaves to our school tree!  I love how excited these kids are to participate and get in on the action of learning!

 

We had some fun leaf art projects this week!  We rubbed crayons over real leaves and saw how they magically appeared on our paper! I love hearing that some students loved this activity so much that they have been finding their own leaves and making more leaf art!
 

Then we made our own colorful fall leaf!

All week we have been singing a little song called "It's Autumntime"!  The kids have loved learning this song!  These kids are so smart and learn so quickly!  I hope they continue singing it at home as they observe the autumn colors and leaves for themselves!
 

"Centers" is always an important part of each day when the children can play together and enjoy each others' company.  Children learn so much through play!

Social skills are a big part of preschool.  We are always working on improving those skills by being kind and sharing with one another and having fun together!

This week we focused on the letter "L."  The Pre-K classes practiced their cutting skills as well as their coloring skills (both wonderful fine motor development activities) as we made our own little "Itsy Bitsy Ll Books"! 

 The kids each got a turn to pull something out of our special bag that started with the letter "L"!

 
This week the kids were surprised when Monster Goose came to visit our classroom instead of Mother Goose!  She told us Mother Goose was very busy helping some of the children in Mother Goose land and needed Monster Goose to take her place this month!  It was a fun Halloween visit complete with stories, songs, and rhymes!  It is always such a magical, anticipated time when we get to have a special visitor!

We had a lovely week!  I love these little kids!  They are so sweet and smart!  It is so amazing to see them learn and grow!

Fall!

 What a perfect week weather-wise to start our Fall theme!  This is such an exciting time of year with the leaves changing color, the air getting crisp, and Halloween fast-approaching!  This week we learned all about fall and how it fits in with the other seasons.

We explored patterns this week!  Pattern-making is an important skill for preschoolers to explore and play with as it helps them in their later math development.  Try to point out simple patterns with your child and help them to identify the repeated pattern!  This can be a very fun activity!

The Pre-K classes made their own patterns with candy corn and pumpkins!  Patterns can be made out of anything!  Encourage your kids to continue this activity at home with something you have around the house.

 Not only do patterns help with math, but this activity was a good fine motor skill-builder as well and it was perfect for the season!

 The 3-year-old classes matched up their candy corns on pre-made pattern sheets. 

 They were so excited when they completed their pattern! : )

At centers we continued our pattern exploring with bead stringing!

 These children had an enjoyable time playing, building, and creating together during centers!

 As part of our "fall" week, we made our own scarecrows!  We read "Clifford's Puppy Days: The Silly Scarecrow" and talked about the characters in the story and the sequencing of different parts of the story line.  Retelling stories and identifying the main characters help build reading comprehension skills.

 

 The kids really enjoyed this fun, hands-on project!

 Our assistant teacher, Ms. Ann, had a fun music and movement activity for the kids this week as they pretended to drive a car and go on a fun outing!

 

 We also enjoyed some large-motor movement while learning "It's Autumntime."  Floating fall leaves were so intriguing!  Singing songs is a wonderful way to give children the opportunity to memorize poems, rhymes, and songs!

"F" was the letter of the week!  These fun and fancy letters were a lot fun complete with flowers, feathers, and fish!

 These children were searching for the letter "F" in our story books!

 

And last, but not least, the kids were thrilled when our friend Suzy Safari stopped in for a delightful visit!  She taught us about bugs this time!

Next week we'll learn all about LEAVES!
Enjoy this beautiful time of year with your little ones!

Community Week!

This week we learned that we are a part of a community!  We learned about a lot of different community helpers that we might want to be when we grow up!  The children thoroughly enjoyed dressing up as these helpers! 

 

 Doctors, nurses, and veterinarians giving pets and our assistant teacher check-ups!

 Busy farmers planting and harvesting fresh produce!

 Being community helpers was a lot of fun!

We learned about how mail carriers deliver letters and packages.  We also learned what goes on the outside of the envelope when we want to mail a letter.  It was fun to write our own letters and delivery them to someone special--just like a mail carrier!

 

The highlight of our week...our field trip to the police station and the post office!  It turned out to be a very hot week, but these kids were troopers and did great on our walking field trip!

Sergeant Foster taught us all about the police department and all the important things that happen there!

We were so proud of all the children--they were very quiet during our visit to the police station so the people working there could continue their important work of helping people in our community.

We had the opportunity to see the jail cells!  That was very interesting and somewhat exciting with a "magic" toilet! (No worries, parents--none of the kids wanted to be locked up in the cells!)

The kids were fascinated when we got to see inside the police vehicle!  We saw the computers and other tools the officers use as well as the "cage" in the back seat for those who have to ride in the police car!

Cover your ears!  The lights and sirens were an exciting part of our field trip!

We were very quiet as we went into the dispatch room where the 911 calls are answered.  It was really neat to see all the screens and computers in use to monitor our community and keep it safe!

 

Thank you to all the moms who joined us on our field trip this week!  It was wonderful to have you come with us and help us all along the way!

This little group spotted a police officer in action after we left the police station!

A big thank you to the post office for letting us see behind the scene of their job!  It was pretty cool to see what goes in to getting the mail sorted and where it needs to go!

We learned the letter "M" this week!  

 While each of our classes works on the letter of the week, on Fridays our Pre-K classes focus solely on the letter of the week.  This week we did some "M&M" math as well as gluing letter M's on a big M.

We also enjoyed acting out the story of "Five Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed!"

We had a great week!  Next week we'll be starting a new monthly theme of "Fall"!  Hopefully the weather will cooperate with our theme! : )