Our hippos were involved in many fall learning activities throughout the week! Activities included discussing the different types of leaves, noticing the similarities and differences between leaves, learning some facts about leaves, cutting and decorating leaves, making leaf rubbings, using pinecones to practice positional concepts, writing in our journal about what we like to do in the fall and our favorite leaf, spinning like a falling leaf in the wind, using pipettes with red, yellow, orange and green water, and raking leaves. The hippos observed fall items using magnifying glasses during center time. The children also enjoyed mulching the leaves (cutting with scissors) and making fall trees and leaves with a variety of materials! The hippos did a great job of patterning leaves and making a picture with leaf stamps (fine motor, patterning, using language, positional concepts, making decisions independently, participating as a member of a group)
When discussing leaves we examined the veins in our arms and showed the veins in the leaf. Our veins carry blood throughout our body and the veins in a leaf carry water to the leaf. You can point this out again when looking at leaves at home. We also talked about a WOW word called chlorophyll. The the chlorophyll hides the true color of the leaf in the summer and goes away in the fall. In addition, we practiced our ABC letters by adding them to our fall tree on the easel. We also counted candy corn and matched it to the corn. (letter recognition, observations, one to one counting and recognizing numbers)
Our arch turned into a tent that the hippos decorated. We added a tree and cut fall leaves to add to the branches. Everyone enjoyed raking leaves on our fake grass and putting them in a bag. Our sensory table was filled with plastic fall leaves, tongs and cups. In addition, we pretended to have a camp fire and roast marshmallows (making decisions independently, sensory, gross motor, fine motor, dramatic play, building friendships, cutting)
Our letter this week was O. We built this letter with wooden pieces, made the O sound and named different things that begin with the letter O. We also made this letter and others in shaving cream using our pointer finger!
Our new character word for November is RESPONSIBILITY. We read a book about responsibility, sang a song and asked the students how they are responsible at home and at school. We learned that we are the ones to get the job done. We are asking for you to email us 2 ways your child is responsible at home. You can ask your child what he /she does to be responsible. Also, we will be collecting canned food and other items beginning Monday the 13th through Thursday the 16th for a local shelter. We will involve the children in many learning activities with these cans. Thank you very much for your support.
During gym, we played a letter gross motor game. I showed them letters. If the letter was a P, we would pop up and if the letter was a F, we would fall to the ground. All the other letters we named. It was fun a
fun way to practice letter recognition!!
Our 2nd Steps lesson taught us how to recognize feelings by looking at facial expressions and focusing attention on what happened.
Books we read:
We're Going On A Leaf Hunt
Skeleton HIccups
The Little Old Lady Who Was Not Afraid of Anything
There Was An Old Lady Who Swallowed A Leaf
I am Responsible
Reminders:
* No School, Nov. 7th Professional Development Day
*11/13-16 Hippo Class Canned Food Drive
*11/22-23 No School Thanksgiving
*11/27 School Resumes
Questions to ask your child:
What word rhymes with FALL? (fall/tall or fall/cat)
What happens in the fall?
What did the old lady swallow in the book,
There was an Old Lady Who Swallowed Some Leaves?
(shirt, pumpkin, hay, rope, pants, leaves, poll)
What is your favorite colored leaf?
What season are we in?
