Thanksgiving Feast

Cornucopia treats

Our Delicious feast. Notice the placemats!

Thanksgiving Feast

First of all, THANK YOU all so much for sending in your part for our feast! Yum!

We started our day with a Thanksgiving Story, which we followed with a game. Ask your kids about cornucopias and blessings :). We finished our pilgrim craft and spent the rest of the day getting ready for our feast.

The kids set their own places, which they hopefully offered to do for you at home! (I'd like to know how many of them actually did if you have time to comment :)).

We talked about manners as well, today. Each child got to choose whether to say "Yes, please" or "No, thank you" for each of the foods they were offered. It took a little getting-used-to, but I think they've got it down.

I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving, and we'll see you next Tuesday! Get ready for lots of Christmas posts :).

Happy "Birthday" Avery!

Happy Birthday Leader Day, Avery!!

(Did you ever start doing something and then realize that you wish you never had? That's how I feel about these birthday pictures with teacher! I wish I could stop, but the kids get SO excited for their turn. Sigh.)

Thanks for the yummy Pilgrim and Native Americans treats! We had pilgrim hat cookies and indian corn rice crispie treats. "This isn't even real corn. It tastes way gooder." --just one of the rave reviews.

We had a fun day learning about Native Americans and Pilgrims. We did a lot of pretending today! "What would it be like if someone told you that you had to go to their church and you couldn't go to yours?" (you should have seen the outrage on their little faces!!) or "What would it feel like to be on a big boat on the water?" (lots of swaying). We talked all about what it would be like to ride on a ship for 2 months without a fridge or a store. We also learned about life for the pilgrims when they arrived. We had fun talking about Native Americans in a teepee and how they introduced corn and other veggies to the Pilgrims. The craft we made is a finger puppet, but can also double as a place holder for Thanksgiving Dinner.

Also today:

Letter J. Ask about Jill and Jasper the Jaguar.

Charades: The kids loved this. They were all so supportive of each other when it was their turn. I wish adults could always be like that! This was a great activity to build problem-solving skills.

"Technical Difficulties"

I'm so sorry that I haven't been updating lately! I'd like to say that it was due to tecnhnical difficulties on the part of my internet, but really it is my fault. After a very frantic week and a half, I believe I'll be able to get back on schedule. Please excuse my tardiness :).

Starting in January, I will not be posting after each class. Look for something more like twice a month. This wonderful "part time" job has morphed into an "overtime" job and I'd rather focus my time and energy on preparation and your children while still retaining my sanity:).

Okay, here's what we've missed:

Tuesday the 11th:
Brown Day--We had lots of fun finding brown things in our clasroom, reading books about brown things, and cooking brownies, of course! Each child got a turn to add something to the pan and help stir. They were very proud of themselves. The only problem we had was trying to get anything done while they cooked because they smelled so very delicious!!
During story time, we had each child "read" a page of Brown Bear, Brown Bear. The kids were so excited that they were "reading" themselves. Any book that a child can memorize to "read" themselves is a great confidence booster and prepares children for early reading.

Thursday the 13th:
Recycling, Triangles and Number 5

We had lots of fun learning about triangles and recycling on this day! I had a bunch of different objects to be sorted in to recyclable or unrecyclable piles (which was a great way to develop pre-math skills). Each child got a turn to pick something out of the bag and then we discussed it.


After we did that, we talked about triangles. We learned a fun song about this shape, but it will take a few reviews for the kids to be able to sing it alone. We took turns looking for the recycling (triangle) symbol on a number of plastic items in the classroom. The kids were so exicted to find them on THEIR VERY OWN PENCIL BOXES! They felt like celebrities :). Each child got to color their own name tag and personalize it with their name and picture to show that they can recycle. They felt empowered to know that they could perform an "adult" task themselves. Look forward to some pestering about recycling in your own home ;).








Finally, we learned about the number 5. We used dice to associate the idea of the number 5 with the physical dots on the dice. Each child got a chance to roll 5 dice, and we took a tally of how many times someone rolled a 5. The kids laughed the whole time, and were super excited every time they counted 5 dots :). What a fun day!




Oh, we also did a flannel-board version of "There was an old woman who swallowed a fly" this day. The kids ate it up and it was a good intro to our recycling theme.

ALBERTSON'S FIELD TRIP

We had a good time learning about what is available at a grocery store, and how to shop for healthy foods. Talk with your kids about "Always foods" and "Sometimes foods."

Online Book Orders

There has been a little "technical error" with our online book orders. If you would like to place an order, please send in a check and the form like we've done in the past, and hopefully we'll have the online version up and running for next month. Thanks!

Stone Soup Day

Stone Soup

What a fun day we had today! We were so busy doing fun activities that we did not even have any papers to send home. I promise we were learning, though :).

Fun thing #1: New toys! The kids were very excited to see that Miss Monique had switched the toys for Choice time out for the new month. I was very excited to see them all cooperating to build something together. It really is amazing the things kids can do when they put their minds to it.

Fun thing #2: Stone Soup! This was the highlight of the day. We read this wonderfully illustrated retelling of a Chinese folk tale. It teaches the importance of sharing and friendship as well as why we reach out to others. After we finished reading the book, we took all the ingredients the kids brought upstairs. We talked about the story as we made our very own stone soup. We stared with just water and stones (also learning about different words for rocks), and each child got a chance to add their own special addition. They had so much fun stirring the concoction. They were enthralled with the idea of how all the ingredients came together to make something that was starting to smell and look yummy. (I wish I had gotten some pictures of this, but I was too busy keeping the kids from sneezing in, or stirring the soup with their arms :)). As a special treat, we got some of Miss Monique's famous homemade french bread.

We made a VERY abbreviated version of this recipe:

RECIPE INGREDIENTS:
3 stones, big enough that they won't get lost in the soup (quartz is a good choice because it won't break down in cooking)
1 TBSP butter
1 medium onion, chopped
2 celery stalks, trimmed and chopped fine
1 large carrot, cut into coins
1 cup baby corn
1/2 cup sliced mushrooms
2 cloves minced garlic
1 tsp. ginger
2 TBSP soy sauce
1 cup pea pods
6 cups chicken broth (or a combination of broth and water)
2 cups cooked tubettini or ditalini, or other soup pasta
Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

1. Scrub and wash the stone thoroughly. Then, for an extra cleaning, drop it in a pot of water to boil while you prepare the rest of the soup together.
2. In another large pot, melt the butter or heat the oil, then sauté the onion on medium-high for 2 to 4 minutes. Stir in the celery, carrot and pea pods sautéeing for 6 to 8 minutes. Add the garlic and sauté for about 30 seconds, then add in the broth. Using a spoon, fish the stone out of the other pot, add it to the soup and bring to a boil. Add the pasta pasta, cooking another 8 minutes.

We just put all the ingredients in the pot at the same time, so the kids would not be around boiling water. The carrots and peas were a little crunchy and the pasta was a little overcooked by the time we were done, but the kids didn't mind :).

THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR BEING WILLING TO SEND IN THE INGREDIENTS! YOU ARE AMAZING PARENTS WITH GREAT KIDS! WE HAVE SO MUCH FUN TOGETHER :).




Fun thing #3: Manners Place mats! We talked about manners and learned how to set a table while the soup cooked. Each child got a chance to decorate their own "plates." This was a good opportunity to teach them to just decorate the edges of the plate. It was a good way to teach small motor control and limits. After they had decorated the plates, we glued silverware, napkins, and circles for where a cup should be placed. We will be laminating these to use for our Thanksgiving Feast, and then sending them home.

Election Day!!

Election Day!

Today we talked about voting: Why we do it, how lucky we are that we can, and what happens when we do. To apply the idea in a classroom setting, we had an election for a class president. Because the kids are a little young to really understand voting for a person, each child was given a paper with a campaign promise such as . . . "If I am elected I promise we will . . . Have 10 minutes in class to Crazy Dance to crazy music" or do a glitter picture, or play with musical instruments, or do puzzles, etc. Each child had a different campaign promise. Each child had an opportunity to vote, and the results were a tie between crazy dancing and musical instruments.

One of our tied winners. The other declined to have his picture taken :).

Here are the results:

MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS:

CRAZY DANCING:

Family Stories Show and Tell

We had a lot of fun seeing pictures and hearing stories about everyone's families for show and tell today. The kids were so proud to tell everyone about their family. We'll be talking more about families throughout the month.

Also today: The letter "Hh." We learned about Happy Hippo and read a book about a Hippo that plays Hide-and-Seek. Ask your kids what sound "H" makes and some words that start with that letter. (Some we talked about are: hay, horse, hippo, hat, house, hamburger and hog). Remember: reviewing what they learned after they get home is a GREAT way to make it stick!

The rain finally stopped just before recess time, so the kids were able to go outside. I was very excited to see this example of cooperative play! They organized this game of Red Rover, which turned into a great game to Tag ALL BY THEMSELVES!

Also, I apologize for any wet shoes and pants, but who can pass up a big rain puddle?

Halloween Party

HALLOWEEN PARTY!!!

We had so much fun at our Halloween Party on Thursday! We played all sorts of funny games, sang scary songs, had SO MANY yummy treats, and even made a Witch's Brew. Here are a few pictures. We were busy and having a lot of fun, so I did not get very many.
I wish I would have taken a picture of all the treats they each got. I was floored! Next year, I'll tone down my bag a bit so its not so overwhelming :).