Katy and The Big Snow.

Amelie brought in her hamster today.  Pets are a big hit with the kiddos!



Circle Time.  Grant always brings in fun things to show us.  Today he brought in a big octopus so we sang our Slippery Fish song.

Literature.  We read Katie and The Big Snow.  The students had the opportunity to build their own community with different buildings just like in the story.  We got out all different kinds of blocks and made our own beautiful city.



Math.  We counted the number of different items in the story like the horses and bulldozers.

Art.  Today we made a stamp out of the kids' hands. We made a Thanksgiving card but left it blank inside so they could write a note to someone special.
 

Music.  We learned three new songs today

Mr. Turkey

Mr. Turkey's tail is big and wide (spread fingers wide),
He swings it when he walks (move fingers around),
His neck is long (stand on tip toes and stretch neck and head up),
His chin is red (stroke chin),
And he gobbles when he talks(open and close hands while gobbling)

Ted the Turkey (Sung To: I'm A Little Teapot)

I'm a little turkey, my name is Ted.
Here are my feathers, here is my head.
Gobble, gobble, gobble, is what I say
Gobble, gobble, gobble, It's thanksgiving Day!

Five Pilgrims

Five Pilgrims fish in the morn (act like casting and reeling in fish)
Five Indians help them plant corn (bend down and plant corn)
The Indians bring the corn (hold up one hand)
The Pilgrims bring the meat. (hold up the other hand)
Ten new friends sit down to eat. (put hands together)

Act of Service.  Each child made two Thanksgiving place mats for someone special.  They had a blast decorating them!!

 

  

 

 

  I took them to Lakeshore Learning and they gave me a great deal to laminate them.  I can never get my kids outta there...they always have so much fun.

 

 

Parks gave his to our elderly neighbors.  They loved it.  He enjoyed describing the details of his work.  Service is always a win win and makes us feel so good.

Journal.  If it snowed here, I would...

Science Experiment.  We talked about the states of matter...solids, liquids, and gases.  Cornstarch and water mixed can act like a solid and sometimes like a liquid.  The kids had too much fun.  You can tell by the big mess we made outside!

 

 

 

Yoga.  For yoga today, we added in a little workout with it and used our chairs this time to get some dips, pushups, and other workouts in.

Spanish.  I bought a new Spanish calendar and the kids helped me put the months together, the days in, and the weather.  We sang the months in a little Spanish song.  All the kids had different cards to put in and everyone really got involved.

 

 

 Another Celebrated Dancing Bear.


Choice Time.  We added Legos into the mix today.

Literature.  It was fun to talk about Russia and introduce this book.  I even taught them a dance step...they did great!

 Handwriting without Tears.  Today we worked on letter P.

PE.  We took some ribbon and threw it back and forth to make a web.  Some of us held the "spider web" we made while others crawled like little spiders underneath.

Art.  We looked at a landscape in the book and made our own.  The kids did long strokes of water colors on the big paper and cut our trees, houses, and buildings from black paper to make silhouettes.  They were supposed to put their silhouettes on their mountains but something got lost in translation and we all had floating pieces.  All part of the fun.


Game.  I once went to a meeting where a couple had home schooled their children and they ended up going to top notch collages.  They talked about in impact that board games had on their kids and how great they are for them.  I agree!  I was so lucky to have three helpers for an hour the other day.  Each group played a different game and when they were done or ready for a new game, we just fed them through.  They practiced patterns, numbers, etc.  It was fun!  They learned a lot of new games.  We played Old Maid, War, Qwirkle, Candy Land, I Spy, Spot It, and Jenga.

Journal.  When I grow up, I want to be...  Some of the answers were Spiderman, an alien, a mama, a cowgirl, and a fireman.

 

Yoga and Meditation.  We did some yoga moves and listened to a butterfly meditation.  The kids were perfectly quiet for the seven minutes!!  What?!  We have tried it before but I couldn't believe this time.  They loved it.  The meditation talked about butterflies by their feet and afterwards I asked what color their butterflies were and they all could tell me.




It was fun to dress up yet again.  The learning center did pj day and Halloween dress up again.  I didn't have my phone one day and didn't take many pics the other day.  Having too much fun!  The time just flies by for me!

Halloween. 
Here we are getting ready to go to kinder class.


 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 
 
 
Halloween 2.0
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 For our Halloween class, we dipped pretzels into white (that we colored orange) melted chocolate.  We topped them off with green M&Ms.  I handed them out to my kinder class kiddos.
 

Billie made eyeball monster cookies to give to the class.



 
 

During choice time, I work with the kids on their reading.  For those that know their letters and letter sounds, it is amazing to see them venture into reading.  It is amazing to see them grow from week to week!  

Circle Time.  We have added I'm a Witch and 5 Little Pumpkins to our normal circle time.  During the pumpkin poem, the kids take turns turning off the lights.  They LOVE this and beg to take a turn.
 
Art.  We did art stations today.  I am so thankful for my incredible helpers.  I could not have pulled off all that we did without them!!

Bat dots on black paper.  I had cut out bat templates that the kids used to tape to their paper.  They dipped their fingers in paint and dotted everything.  When they took off the template, you could see their bats.
 
 
 

 Pumpkin decorating.  The kids painted, put stickers on, and decorated little pumpkins.

Spiderwebs.  Each child drew a spiderweb with chalk and went over them with glue.  

PE.  We went around the room flying like a witch, walking like a zombie, and other ideas the kids came up with for Halloween.

Act of Service.  Each kiddo got a "We've been Boo'd" and "You've Been Boo'd" sign to give to their neighbors.

Journal.  For Halloween I want to...

Math.  The kids did a little dot-to-dot scarecrow and colored him in for one of the stations.


Science Experiment.  The kids took turns putting baking soda into pumpkins and dumping some vinegar on top to make foaming pumpkins.  We talked about chemical reactions again.