We're Going on a Leaf Hunt!

Today we read the story called, We're Going on a Leaf Hunt by Steve Metzger.  After reading the story, our class went outside to look for some real leaves!  While we were hunting for our leaves, we chanted some of the repetitive phrases & rhymes from our book.  We also played follow the leader & imitated Ms. Julie's actions. 

We found a variety of leaves around the school grounds & then brought them back inside to study them closer.  We collected all different colors & types of leaves.  Then, we used a magnifying glass to look at them closer.  We talked about a leaf's "job" and even pointed out the stem & veins on a leaf.  Lastly, we counted our leaves & put them in the Forest Center so that we can play with them tomorrow.   

The preschoolers were very excited to find their very own leaves at school.  However, this activity could easily be continued at home in your own backyard.  For a listening activity, you could tell your child to look for specific leaves.  (e.g.  "Look for a red leaf." or "Find a big, round leaf.")  The possibilities are endless.  

Additionally, you could practice saying the repetitive phrases from the book, "We're going on a leaf hunt.  We're going right away.  Let's find colorful leaves.  It's a beautiful day!" And, to encourage even more talking, tell your child to collect as many leaves as he/she can.  Afterwards, have your child tell you (or someone else) all about the leaves that he/she found.  

If you're feeling really energetic, you could have your child glue the leaves down onto a piece of paper & display them on the refrigerator or research other kinds of leaves on the internet.  

 

 

 

Learning Centers

Each day, the preschoolers are encouraged to make choices for themselves and practice self-care skills through out the day.  Some of these activities are teacher-led or teacher-directed.  However, many of our activities are student-led and teacher facilitated activities.

We accomplish this by carefully preparing multiple learning centers around the classroom.  Each learning center is prepared so that specific language targets and other developmental goals can be developed while the preschoolers play.  We feel that if the child is interested in an a certain area (and can choose when to play there) he or she will be more focused and more attentive to learn the language in that area.  We call this "kid-choice" center time.  We give the students 2 choices at a time in order to encourage more peer interactions as well as the opportunity to develop other social skills.  This also helps the preschoolers to work on their overall communication.  

And, even though I talk a lot about the theme center on this blog, we actually rotate through various centers each day in our classroom.  One of our goals for this activity is to encourage the preschoolers to use their language in a meaningful way.  For example, they can practice using their language to tell us, where they want to go, what they want to play with, etc.  The language opportunities are endless!

Our daily center choices are as follows:   The Kitchen, The Reading Corner (+ fine motor activities), Letters & Numbers, Transportation/House/Blocks, Art & Sensory, and Technology (computer & iPad).   

 

 
 
 

November theme - Bears & Other Forest Animals

   

Goodbye Farm Unit!  Hello Bears!
The month of November will highlight the language of our new unit, Bears & other Forest Animals.  We are excited to see how this change will help the preschoolers gain progress with their language

goals.  Along with the theme change, comes a change in background scenery, new stories, as well as new songs & poems.

During the first week of the theme, we read, Goldilocks and the Three Bears.  We focused on the vocabulary words of big, medium, and small.  We even acted out the Three Bears story with three real beds (of different sizes), three chairs and three bowls of porridge.  We used different voices when talking like the Papa Bear, Mama Bear and Baby Bear.  Be sure to ask your child to tell you about his or her favorite part of the story.  Hopefully, he or she will use the different voices that we practiced in class.  Although we are finished with this story in class, we will continue to learn the "Three Bears Rap" song as the month progresses.

To further extend the our learning from the story, we made real porridge during our language experience time.  Although we weren't able to cook the porridge on the spot, we tasted some porridge that Ms. Julie made for us at home.  It was "just right"...well, maybe with a little bit of sugar added to it.  :)

Here is a Youtube version of the story that the preschoolers enjoyed singing along to this week:

Goldilocks and the Three Bears - Song

 

 

Active Fun

We have had so much fun during our gross motor groups!  Our friend, Ms. Kasey comes each Wednesday to play with us and we know that when Ms. Kasey comes, we will have some active fun.  The month of October had us crawling after spiders, rolling in paper leaves, playing with the parachute and even passing pumpkins over our heads!  What will she think of next?

 

 

 

Pumpkins & Parties

We ended our farm unit by learning about pumpkins and jack-o-lanterns.  We even did an experiment to see if they would sink or float in a container of water.  We were very surprised to see that the big one floated!

We talked about our pumpkins and even cut some different pumpkins open to compare them with each other.  None of the preschoolers seemed to enjoy the slimy insides!  However, they didn't mind eating the cooked pumpkin seeds or rolling them to see how far they could go.

 

 

Lastly, we had a fun fall party to celebrate all that we had learned about the farm.  We even decorated our own pumpkin cupcakes!  Don't they look fabulous?!?