Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving! It is so fun to spend the week talking about our heritage and our many blessings. We went on a blessing walk where at each stop they got to tell me more things they are thankful for. I was reminded of how it is the simple things in life that most often children recall and express their gratitude for.

Gideon focusing on making some noodle necklaces for our feast.

After a ride on the "Mayflower" we got to have a Thanksgiving feast.

The ever helpful pilgrim girls.

The enthusiastic pilgrim boys.

The chief Indian.

The children loved the sensory bin full of beans. They sorted, measured, counted and just had a great time exploring with many of their senses (not taste though).

Using those beans to make beautiful works of art.

Classic hand print turkeys. They loved doing this so much we repeated the activity in our journals where I also wrote out their blessings.

Porsche is quite the dancer and hardly stopped moving to get this picture quick.

We read the book "Turkey Trouble" where the turkey disguises himself like many farm animals so the farmer won't find him on Thanksgiving (his final costume is a pizza delivery man:) the children loved getting to disguise their own turkeys.

Boston working on building a home just like the pilgrims might have.

Avah built a grand house that I'm sure the pilgrims would have loved to live in.

When I count my blessings this Thanksgiving (and always) I include my preschool kids. They bring such light and life and joy into my home. I am so thankful for each of them.

Furry Friends

We learned about those furry friends we see around our neighborhoods and we heard all about Max, Stella and Minnie Mouse at preschool this week (the children's pets). We watched the rain and made predictions about when it would stop and start. We learned a new game, "Doggy, doggy where's your bone" that just maybe will replace the reigning favorite game "Duck, duck goose". We reviewed the letters Q and R and practiced using one-to-one correspondence when counting as we counted a lot around preschool. We learned the song "Bingo" and danced to the song, "Oh I want to be a dog". What a great week!

Dogs play Frisbee and catch balls, which is exactly what these little "puppies" did.

It takes a lot of bones to feed all the dogs.

The bones were a perfect manipulative for this theme. They counted them, sorted them, graphed them, put the letters written on the bones together to form the words "dog" and "cat" and they also got to toss them into the dog bowl.

Playing veterinarian.

Counting out the whiskers on the cats. .

The cats somehow morphed into aliens and they began counting the number of eyes and noses on their creatures.

The children created this "castle" and wanted to eat snack inside of it. And since it was so nice outside (and those days are few and far between) how could I say no? Their creativity and problem solving skills are amazing!

Working on their cat ears.

Cute cats!

After the cats were all ready we went on a walk and talked about all the dogs we saw - no cats were prowling about though. We discussed how animals communicate without talking and how their bodies do some pretty great things to protect them. I know my little guy keeps asking about getting a real dog now, which is pretty impossible with the allergies this family has. It was fun though to pretend for a week that puppies and kitties were bounding about the house.

Community Helpers

This week we learned their are many people who have jobs to help us in our community. The children also learned that even though they are little they too can be helpers in their homes. We talked a lot about having helping hands and doing kind things for others. We also spent time discussing what they wanted to be when they grew up. I wasn't surprised that all the boys wanted to be fireman after our fire safety day where they got to meet a fireman.

Kyler working on drawing a ladder for the fireman to climb then counting out the rungs and writing the numerals out.

Checking out the neighborhood fire hydrants. It was such a gorgeous day, we stayed outside for playtime and snack time too.

Creating fire and flames with the paints.

We enjoyed a special visitor- a real firefighter. Mike Glynn, a volunteer fireman, came to talk to the kids about fire safety. Their favorite part was trying on all the real fireman gear.

They were so attentive to Mr. Glynn and learned a lot. If you haven't already, talk with your children about your escape plan in the case of emergency. It's also helpful if they know what a fire alarm sounds like (they know what mine sounds like, but yours might be different).

Number, numbers, numbers. We can't seem to get enough of them.

More counting.

Since it was so cold we didn't go outside for our gross motor play. Instead we played a few bowling games and did some extra dancing.

One of my goals as a teacher is to help your children love books. Scenes like this just melt my heart when I see them so engaged in their stories.

Ending the day with a fun letter matching game.

From their journals: What do you want to be when you grow up?

Porsche: a veterinarian, a school bus driver and a chef that makes food when you didn't bring a lunch.

Kyler: a fireman, a garbage man and a cooker.

Gideon: a fireman and a dentist (funny since he HATES going to the dentist)

Boston: a fireman, a garbage man and a bug man.

Charlie: a fireman, a burger cooker and a taco man.

Avah: an x-rayer and a mommy