Fire Fighters

This week has been all about fire fighters! On Wednesday we learned about fire safety. We learned about how we would get out of our preschool if there was a fire. We also talked about stop, drop and roll. On Friday we went to the fire station and learned even more from the fire fighters there! They also gave me a ton of information that I will be sending home with the kids on Monday. 

Make sure you talk about fire safety at home. Help kids practice different ways of getting out of the house and designate a meeting place outside.

Occupations

We've done so much in the past week that I don't even know where to start! The kids are having so much fun learning about occupations.

Our bulletin board for the month is a tool belt that holds tools for each occupation we will be learning about. Each day the kids get to take an envelope out, look at the tools and guess what occupation we will be talking about that day.

On Monday we talked about construction workers. The kids had lots to tell me about that job from all the construction they've seen in our neighborhood! We learned about all the different tools and tractors they use to get their jobs done. We then got to build and paint our own houses.

On Wednesday we learned about pilots. We had a special guest (my dad) come talk to the kids about being a pilot. He brought a bag full of his tools to show the kids, which they loved! We learned about how a plane flies, how the pilot gets where he needs to go and how he keeps his passengers safe. We love guests and are looking forward from hearing from a few more throughout the month. If any other parents want to come talk to us about their occupation (or one they know a lot about) we still have a few times open!

Today we talked about mail carriers. We learned the parts of the letters and wrote some letters of our own. 

And of course, we have spent lots of time learning about the alphabet, numbers and shapes. One activity we did this week was putting the alphabet back in order. The kids did so well! Most of them were about to get to the letter I, which is as far as we've learned and some were able to do a little more!

The Weather

Last week we finished up our weather unit! We learned a little bit about graphing by making a graph of our pets. After that, the kids made their own weather graphs.

One day was spent learning about rainbows. We had tons of fun making a rainbow in a bowl. If you want to try this at home, the instructions can be found here, http://www.kidzone.ws/science/rainbow.htm . It was really easy and super fun! The kids then got to make their own rainbows out of fruit loops.

We have been talking a lot about shapes and numbers, so we pulled out the playdough to help us practice. Anything involving playdough is always a hit! This is another fun thing you can do at home that helps turn playtime into learning time.

We finished off the unit by making a bulletin board of all the things you've learned. In case you haven't noticed, I love to use the bulletin board as another learning opportunity. The kids love to show off what they've learned. In case you can't interpret what you see, we have a tree, clouds, a very small sun, a few rainbows, a little rain and lots of snowflakes! 

I am so excited to start our occupations unit next month. It's always fun to talk about what you want to be when you grow up. Don't forget to meet at the park on Wednesday for some Halloween fun!

Claw-Claw the Kite

While learning about wind yesterday, the kids wrote a story about Claw-Claw the kite. This story is entirely theirs, I merely wrote it down for them!

Hi! My name is Claw-Claw. I'm a kite. One Sunday, my friend Leecy was at the park flying me. Suddenly, a big storm came and blew me away. A big wind named Blower was so scary. He was blowing me away from Leecy and I knew she would be so sad. Blower took me all the way to Mexico. When we got there, I hid behind a fall tree and Blower couldn't find me. Leecy asked her mom to drive her to Mexico to get me. Her mom tried to get me down from the tree, but it was too high. So she asked politely if she could borrow a ladder and she got me down! Then they took me home and locked me in the garage so Blower couldn't get me and they locked all the doors so Blower couldn't get any of the other kites. The End.

We have been working on asking politely when we want something another student has, so I was so glad they put that into the story! They have great imaginations!

Clouds & Rain

This week we have learned about clouds, rain and wind.

One of the favorite activities, of course, was making mud and dirt! We rained milk into a pile of dirt and it turned into mud. While the mud cooled down in the fridge, we crushed some cookies into dirt to go on top! Lots of fun and a super yummy snack!

We also used our time in the kitchen to make rain in a jar. We (I) poured boiling water into a jar and put ice cubes on top to make it 'rain' inside the jar.

After that, we moved back to the preschool room and each student got to make their own rain in a jar, with the help of some shaving cream and colored water. After a little bit, the shaving cream started to dissolve and the kids all decided they had fog in a jar! I was so impressed that they made that comparison.

Today we talked about the wind. The weather cooperated nicely with a great breezy day. We spent centers time talking about patterns and they all did really well!

During our group activity we pretended to be wind, experimented with what things the wind could move and made our own windsocks!

Getting Our Hands Messy

We have been having lots of fun with manipulatives lately! I love finding new ways for the kids to practice the things they know and they love playing with new things. Play really is the best form of learning at this age!

Last week, we talked about the letter F. We first played charades with words that start with F. After we were done, we took some of those words and showed them with playdoh.

Fish

 Fancy

Today, we used shaving cream to practice writing letters and drawing shapes. If you can't pick them out, this picture shows F, T and C. The kids thought I was a little nuts for a minute, but once they got in there, they loved it!

Apparently our fun with shaving cream inspired them, because they continued it through snack time! They made lots of squares and triangles and then made a goose. (Inspired by the song "5 Little Geese". Yes, it is usually ducks, but we're learning about G this week. Plus, honking is so much more fun than quaking.)

Our First Field Trip

Thank you all for coming to the farm with us and making our trip such a success! I think the kids all had a great time learning a little more about cows and getting hands on experience with the things we have been learning. I was so impressed by how polite our kids were and the fabulous job they did listening to Farmer Jason!

Stayed tuned for pictures of some upcoming science experiments! We will be exploring clouds and rain this week! On that note, if it happens to be raining any morning in October, please plan on your preschooler being outside making some observations during class! (Not that it's actually going to rain, but I can hope.)