Oh, Halloween. Happy Halloween!
Halloween was on every student's mind on Monday. Many of the children brought their costumes back to school and eagerly showed them to teachers and friends. Some of the super animals worked on decorating foam masks as something extra special to their costumes. I also showed the children my super giraffe costume that I worked on over the weekend! Sebastian and Avery, who didn't finish their costumes yet, were so excited to get home and complete theirs!
I revealed a great big pumpkin I picked up for our party. We thought that it was best to carve the pumpkin and turn it into a jack-o-lantern. We voted on what shapes the eyes of the jack-o-lantern would be. We represented each vote using a tally mark next to each shape on a dry erase board. The winning shapes were circle and triangle. The 2's class helped decide the shapes for the nose and mouth. During center time, we cleaned and carved the pumpkin. The final step was to add fairy lights inside- all ready for our party!
Halloween Day Parade!
Wow, the children's costumes were so creative this year! Parents, you all did such an amazing job adding details to your child's super animal costume. Thank you for your hard work!
Kai: Super Frog
Arya: Super Tiger
Noah: Super Monkey
Avery: Super Cat
Sebastian: Super Tiger
Gabriel: Super Cheetah
Be sure to check out our flickr account for all Halloween pictures!
Spanish with Mimi
We had a fantastic Spanish class this week. Mimi used a dog puppet, named Lucas to sing "Buenos Dias" to the friends. A highlight from this session was the use of a parachute to promote self-regulation, listening skills, and team work all while teaching the children new words in Spanish. I will send a report from Mimi with the vocabulary she has been using with the kids.
Painting with Hair Combs
Painting is part of our daily activities and is always available for the children to explore. However, there are times when building with manipulatives or magna tiles seem more appealing to the class of all boys--which is okay! I have found that presenting materials in different ways attracts children to investigate further. Instead of partnering paint with brushes, I added hair combs to the painting table. The combs' bristles gave an unexpected sensation with each stroke. The children enjoyed choosing additional paint colors and mixing these colors as they spread them throughout the paper with the combs.
Building and Construction
Another productive day at the block area with all of the friends. With each day building with unit blocks, the children are learning new skills and rules. For example, blocks should not be held over one's head to avoid getting hurt if it falls or passing blocks to a friend to place on a structure. Some of the children built individual structures, while others added to one larger structure. In the midst of building, Gabriel glanced over at what Arya was building and said, "Wow, that's really cool!"
