Autumnal Fun
What a beautiful week to get outside and explore! Even as we ran around and burned off extra energy, each child found time to stop and admire leaves, twigs and acorns they found in the grassy field at Washington Market park. We were able to open up further dialogue about the colors we are observing on the trees and on the ground- and everyone was so excited every time they found a vibrant and bright red leaf! We have continued to use these materials in the classroom in many different ways. We’ve been making glue collages, creating bowls/nests with acorns and leaves inside, and creating leaf rubbings at the light table.
Worldwide penpals
This week we started to receive postcards from all across the world! Our first postcard came from Southern California, and the second was from Belgium. It has been fascinating to learn different facts from schools all over the place. We are eagerly awaiting 8 more pieces of mail, and will start sending ours out next week. Maybe we can even make a trip to the post office to send our mail off!
Quack Quack Adventures
We love reading our Quack Quack book. Antoine and Ericksen have had some really fun adventures and have shared with us so nicely. We can’t wait to see what Quack Quack gets up to next! Thanks so much for signing up to bring him home, and for taking such good care of him!
Woodworking
Last week we built a house for Quack Quack and everyone was so proud after using the screw driver. It was amazing to see how adept and capable everyone is! We had some moments of laughter, too, as the screw would fall out of the hole, or we had trouble lining up the screw driver with the screw head. And we had a chance to try on our safety glasses/goggles for the first time!
If anyone has any ideas for what else we can build, we would love to hear it!
After the house was put together, we have been taking turns painting the different parts of the house. It’s almost complete, and we will find a perfect spot in the classroom to hang it for when Quack Quack is at school.
Ducks, Nests, Eggs
Our interest in ducks is slowly becoming more of an interest in eggs and what hatches out of an egg. We read the book Whose Egg? and it really sparked some fascination. Now we know that more than just birds can hatch out of eggs- it might be a snake, alligator or turtle as well! Even a caterpillar can hatch from an egg.
As we used the clay to make bowls and added acorns inside, a lot of conversation turned toward nests and eggs as well. I wonder where this line of thinking will carry us . . .
Developmental Skills
This week we also worked on some important developmental skills in the classroom, including (but certainly not limited to- it’s hard to write about all of them at once!):
One to one correspondence (realizing that one object is just one, and two is two, etc.)
Object permanence - knowing that an object is still there even if it’s in, say, a tunnel and we can’t see it anymore.
Fine motor - we did a lot of work with squeezing this week, which strengthens all of the muscles in our hands
Socializing and ability to answer questions - we decided what our favorite colors are, brainstormed what we wanted to tell to other children that attend different schools around the globe, asked our own questions about what might hatch out of an egg . . .
Math concepts - we worked on creating a basic pattern (i.e. yellow, green, yellow, green and so on), sorting colors, counting how many we have of different objects, and various sorting projects.
Specialists
We had a “Spooky” Spanish time with Ernestina this week, and everyone was able to try on the Bruja (witch) hat. We also cackled like a witch!
Diane had us compare apple, pear and raspberry. Then we tried them again after squeezing lemon juice on top. We concluded that the lemon was way too sour!
Coach C had us kick a ball through a little cone obstacle course this week
Mr Andrew got us moving and dancing to some great classic songs that he always puts a little twist on- we love it!
Reminders
Thursday, October 31st is our annual Halloween parade at 9:30, followed by our class Harvest festival party (pot luck lunch). Festivities conclude at 12:00.
Monday, November 11th BMS is closed for Veterans Day
Friday, November 15th BMS is closed for students for Parent Teacher Conferences
Thurs & Fri Nov 28-29 BMS is closed for Thanksgiving