The Athletic Center, Jack-o-Lanterns and the Halloween Parade

 

Last Friday the Lively Ladybugs attended the dedication of the Shorecrest Athletic Center with pom poms and all! Their eyes were wide as saucers as they entered the beautiful, new facility with the entire Shorecrest community. We listened as Mr. Murphy and Coach Welborne shared all of the special details of the center, as we admired them. We joined the cheerleaders as they performed Shorecrest cheers right in front of us. What an exciting event!

 

We enjoyed singing and dancing to "Here We Go Looby Loo" with Mrs. Gootson this week. She read "The Big, Big Pumpkin" by Joan Lexau about a bear who plants a pumpkin seed and it grows into a HUGE pumpkin blocking the door to his cave. Then he must find a way around it!

Speaking of seeds growing, guess what happened in the garden? We discovered a baby squash on the vine this week as well as some pea pods! We were so excited and have been observing the garden each day looking for new growth. We use our watering cans to give our plant drinks several days a week, especially if it hasn't rained. Maybe we will have vegetables to eat in time for Thanksgiving.

Making Halloween necklaces was an activity that we all enjoyed this week. The children chose different colored beads to thread on to their orange yarn. We talked about color patterns by alternating colors in repetition, as some of us chose to do. Then we took our glittery, orange pumpkin and practiced threading through it's little holes. The children demonstrated patience as they used their fine motor skills to make their necklaces.

 

When reading books to the children, we often recognize the rhyming words. The children find it challenging, but fun, to match the rhyming word and picture cards to their matching puzzle piece.

In the Exploratorium this week the children have had a ball dressing up in hats and tails of kitty cats, tigers, bunnies, Dalmations and so many more! They have fun playing like different animals and interacting with one another as they admire themselves in the mirror.

It was definitely a team effort as we worked to transform our pumpkin into a jack-o-lantern! First we chose the shapes to design our face during Circle Time. Then in the Exploratorium, Mrs. Mundell carved the face and we got to use scoops, spoons or if we chose, OUR HANDS, to clean the ooey, gooey inside of the pumpkin, carefully separating the seeds. Then, when we were finished, we lit our jack-o-lantern and turned out the lights!!

A favorite recently has been singing "The Five Little Jack-O-Lanterns" as we all take turns being being the jack-o-lanterns and then being part of the audience. Not only is it tons of fun, but the children are practicing taking turns.

                                                                              Our week came to a close with the fabulous Halloween Parade and Fall Festival on Friday. The children were so excited as they entered the classroom as that special Halloween character that they have been describing to us at Circle Time. We headed out to watch the other children in costume as they paraded. Then we walked across the stage of the new Athletic Center for the big audience of students, parents and teachers. Finally we joined our families for fun, food and games at the Fall Festival!

Spiders, Halloween and Exploring Fun!

We learned that a spider has a head, an abdomen and eight legs. Spiders are hard workers and build beautiful webs where they catch bugs and flies for their food. The children used a small oval for their spider's head, a large oval for the abdomen and guess how we made the legs? We used both hands in opposition to carefully tear strips of construction paper to make the legs. It was a little tricky at first, but once we had our pincher fingers in place we tore away! As we practiced using little dots of glue to attach our legs to the abdomen, we counted to make sure our spiders had their eight legs.

     Making Halloween scenes with peel and stick foam jack-o-lanterns, bats, fall leaves and trick or treat masks was lots of fun. The children used white crayons and colored pencils to draw fences, moons, spiders and so much more on their black paper. We used our fine motor skills to peel the backing from the stickers before adding them to our scenes. Then each child used their picture to dictate a story to the teacher.

     We discovered corn cob in the sensory table this week. Wooden spoons and of course our hands were used to transfer the wonderful corn cob into tiny jack-o-lanterns and wooden bowls and baskets. There were even some bats and spiders lurking around in there!  
      That is not the only place we found bats and spiders this week. They were also buried deep in this ooey, gooey, slimy stuff called GAK! Wow, it was lots of fun to stretch it and hold it up high and watch it glop, glop, glop down into our tray!

                       Building with "brillo blocks" is so much fun! That is until the tractor trailer had a crash. Fortunately, no one was hurt and there was only minor damage to the tractor. Once the flat tires were fixed we were all set to go!

 

A very special mystery reader visited us this week in the library. The little ladybugs have become really good at listening to the clues and making predictions as to who the mystery reader might be.This week we enjoyed "Bats at the Beach" by Brian Lies. At night the bats came out of their daytime hiding places with their beach bags full of towels, picnic baskets and even moon-tan lotion and headed for the beach! 

 

Under the pumpkin and candy corn lights the children danced and sang Halloween songs with Mrs. McIvor during Exploring. They also enjoyed bean bag toss, and dressing "Chicken Macnugget" Halloween characters into costumes and letting them play in the big house.

 

What a challenge the children faced as they carefully attempted to walk through the spider web that they discovered in Mrs. Mundell's classroom. They did amazingly well, trying not to get tangled up in the web! Some of us even tried moving our bodies like a snake, underneath the web crawling from one end of the web to the other.

Another exciting activity in Exploring this week was making "rock and roll bats." We dipped golf balls into different colors of paint and then placed it in the tub with our bat. Then we turned the tub in all directions as the ball rolled over our bat making it very colorful. Next we sprinkled sparkly glitter on top, making some really cool bats! 

But that is not all..... for snack the children watched as Mrs. Samuel used the blender to make a very special "ghost milk" using orange sherbert, vanilla ice cream and milk! We had orange and black Halloween Oreos too, and it was oh so yummy!!

This week we discussed the difference in fiction and non-fiction books. We learned that fiction is an imaginary story and that non-fiction is a true book that tells us important things. We read the non-fiction book, "Bats Are Night Animals" by Joanne Mattern. In the library some of us visited the non-fiction section and found books about topics such as trains and animals.

Some of the other books that we read this week are:
"Pumpkin Eye" by Denise Fleming
"Zoom Broom" by Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler
"The Very Busy Spider" by Eric Carle
""Hide and Squeak" by Heather Frederick

HELP!! Please don't forget that we need oatmeal, coffee and "Pringle" containers (or any container like that) for Exploring on November 4th. The children will be making drums, and so far we only have a few!

Ovals, Spiders and "Animal House" Friends

 

This week we were introduced to the "oval!" The children practiced using "little dots of glue" as they created designs, faces, patterns and so much more by gluing various sizes and colors of ovals on a BIG OVAL! 

                                                                                                                                                                            Our new theme, "Spiders, Bats and Halloween" began this week and the children were engaging in all kinds of exciting transferring, building and dramatic play activities! One of their favorites were the spider and bat finger puppets. We read "It's Pumpkin Time" by Zoe Hall and "The Eensy Weensy Spider" by Mary Ann Hobermann and Nadine Westcot.

In Music we learned a fun new song, "Bats Are Sleeping!" Now we know that bats sleep upside down, are nocturnal and have a special quality called "echolocation." Echolocation is when bats make high pitched sounds that echo. This helps bats locate their food at night and fly around without bumping into anything! The children had so much fun flying around the room like bats, but remembering their "echolocation" which kept them from colliding with their "bat classmates!"

Many new hats were the highlight of our housekeeping area this week! We had pilots, crocodiles, monkeys, elephants and even a few farmers! Wow, some of us boarded a flight taking off to Disney! An experienced pilot got us there right on time and while in flight we were served quite delicious food by our flight attendant!

In P.E. the children were delighted to be outside on the court! (where we often see the big the big kids!) They had fun rolling little colorful plastic balls down the court to see if they could knock down the pins! Some of us had more patience than others, but we will keep trying!                          

Building away with the "city blocks" we were! Skyscrapers, apartment buildings and city parks were going up "like hotcakes!" Details were being shared about plans and special features of the structures.

Now that we have so much experience with the color "orange," we decided to stir up a batch of orange playdoh. Of course we made it as team, measuring, mixing, rolling and kneading.... then when all of the hard work was done, it was time to play! We made spider caves, jack-o-lanterns and the list goes on!

We had a very special visit from our friends at "Animal House!" "Jennie" was the first friend we met! She was a beautiful red-tailed boa constrictor who we learned was cold blooded, eats rats and has 100 teeth. She hisses instead of using her "words!" Next we met a guinea pig who eats veggies and is nocturnal. Then we met a bunny who was just getting his new winter coat, which was growing in thicker to keep him warm. Finally we met the long, skinny and furry ferret. We learned that he could run really fast and had a very flexible body. The children were bubbling over with excitement as each animal was introduced. We learned so much and enjoyed touching and seeing the animals!

We sang "Happy Birthday" to a very special lively Ladybug this week. Not only did we have cake, our sweet parents sent ice cream treats, TOO!

Parents please send in oatmeal, coffee or empty chip "cylinder shaped containers for our upcoming Exploring.

From Cows to Horsetails!

We began our week by reading the book, "It Looks Like Split Milk" by Charles G. Shaw. Each page of this book was a changing white shape against a dark blue background. The children used their imagination to guess what each shape might be. Was it a cloud, a bird, an ice cream cone or just split milk? Then we talked about how a cow gives milk through the udder which we found on our toy cows. NEXT we actually milked the cow using a plastic glove filled with white paint. Then each child was able to tell what their white shape "looked like!"

An activity that the children really enjoy is matching their classmates names to their picture on the people blocks. They line the class up with the "ladybug of the day" in front and the "dessert" in the back! They are so excited as they recognize names and then search for the picture to match. Some of our classmates have the same beginning sound, so it can be tricky!

We had such messy fun designing the paper for our cow. We used horsetails and lots of other neat squishy objects and dipped them in brown, white and black paint. We made predictions of what colors we might make as these colors blended together. Then we all worked as a team to make our beautiful paper.

On the playground we are having some FUN!! The children have taken delight experimenting with the many different musical instruments. Sometimes we even have a little band and sing our favorite songs as we follow the beat! Some of us just enjoy listening.

On Friday we had fun mixing red and yellow to make ORANGE!!! We used potato mashers, horsetails and scrapers to mix yellow and red paint on banner paper. What interesting designs all of these tools made and so many shades of orange. We will use this wonderful creation to decorate our Exploratorium.

     
We used eye droppers to get drops of red and yellow colored water to add to our clear plastic baggies of shaving cream. Then we sealed it shut and used our hands to squeeze the shaving cream together to make beautiful colors of orange. Some looked quite like orange sherbert, almost good enough to eat!
                               

Don't worry, we didn't eat it! We had an even better snack. We added sprinkles of yellow and red sugar crystals to our vanilla yogurt. Before we stirred the yogurt, we could already see blending.

Scientists we were, as we squeezed pipettes taking red and yellow colored water from bowls and combining it in test tubes to see the results. It was interesting to see what happened as we added more yellow or more red to the test tubes.

Working together to solve puzzles is a favorite for all of the children. One of the most challenging puzzles is the four layered sunflower puzzle, from seed to flower. It is so nice to observe the way that the children help each other!