4s Thanksgiving Celebration

Our 4s had a busy, fun morning celebrating Thanksgiving together.  

We used all kids of embellishments to decorate Native American vests.  

The party moms provided us with so many choices!

By far, the glitter was our favorite.  

Then we made some headbands.  

After all of that crafting, it was time for a story. 

Finally, the feast!

We shared a wonderful meal together.

 

There is nothing better than celebrating with friends!

Ours hearts and tummies were full from this great day at preschool!

Thank you to the party moms and volunteers who made it all possible!

Gingerbread

The last week in November is one of my very favorite at preschool.  It is that time between Thanksgiving and  full-blown Christmas.  I have found a way to marry the delicious tastes and smells of Thanksgiving with the joy and excitement of the sweet days of Christmas to come- Gingerbread!

This week our 4s are reading lots of fun Gingerbread stories.  You would be surprised to find out we have over 10 versions of the the tried and true tale.... there is my favorite-The Gingerbread Baby, then there is The Gingerbread Man, The Gingerbread Boy, The Gingerbread Cowboy, The Gingerbread Pirates, The Gingerbread Friends, The Gingerbread Girl, and many more!

Each story is best enjoyed after you have had a chance to make your own gingerbread person.  That is just what we have been doing doing morning choices this week.  We are using the tools that we are reading about in many of our books, a rolling pink, cookie cutters, and bead for pretend candies.  

One of our gingerbread math lessons had children working in pairs.  It was our first partner work of the year and it went pretty well once everyone got over Mrs. Georgia choosing the partnerships!

Each pair got a tray that had several blocks on it and 2 gingerbread men.  

The invitation was to build a house for their gingerbread baby.  

These 2 students build their house with an interesting feature: a slide!

Once everyone had a house, it was time to practice demonstrating directional/proportional vocabulary.  

I gave 1 step directions, "Place your gingerbread man IN the house", "Place your gingerbread man BESIDE the house", "Place your gingerbread man ON the house", and so on.  

After I was done giving instructions, it was time for the boys and girls to give each other instruction.  This part of the lesson challenged them to think in a different way about the directional/positional vocabulary that we had just worked with.  

I had to include this picture because it helps explain what it going on in the next few.  

T observed the other group that had made a slide to enter their house.  He wanted one too.  He decided that the best way to do it was to get advice from the experts   

He visited with them, collaborated and found out how to do it himself   I love the spirit of our young learners who are having so much fun sharing a learning environmental with each other!

Today we painted gingerkids with some delicious smelling paint.  The white paint was scented like peppermint and the red with cinnamon.  Now all we need to add is some candies.

Tomorrow we will be baking the real things!  Wish us luck, sure hope our gingerbread men don't escape!

A Precious Little Thanksgiving!

 We had a wonderful Thanksgiving party at the Savage farm on Friday!  It was such a nice day to be with our friends; celebrating our many blessings.  Thank you to the families who made our party such a fun event, the Savages, Ludlums, and Fredericks.  Thank you also to the mommies and daddies who joined us for a great day on the farm.

We started our day with coloring place-mats.

We completed some terrific turkeys with our hand and footprints!

Time for  hay ride!

We snuggled up with our families and took off for a fun ride in the forest. 

 We even saw a deer!

I think the mommies and daddies had just as much fun as the children. 

What a sweet group of kids!  Can you believe they are 2???

Time for a delicious snack.  We had a darling little fruit turkey with grape and cheese kabobs.  We enjoyed pumpkin cupcakes, turkey cookies, chips and dip, vegetables, and other yummy snacks.  

I think we have some future farmers on our hands...

Mr. Savage offered rides in this cart behind Destiny.  

was such a sweet horse.  She loved the kids!

These fainting goats were a big hit too; so friendly, polite, and on their best behavior.  

If we didn't make them faint, I don't know what will!

We are still smiling after this fun day together.  It was a sweet little thanksgiving~

For the Dogs...

Today we were very busy preparing for our Pet Show tomorrow.  Since most of the participants are dogs, we decided to bake up some fresh dog bones for them.  Mrs. Regina led us in this wonderful baking experience.

Mrs. Regina worked diligently to find a recipe for dog bones that did not include peanut butter.  

It was no easy task.  She printed the recipe on large chart paper and displayed it for discussion. 

I was so impressed with the conversation that ensued.  We discussed that recipes were plans for how to make something.  The directions are also like our school rules, you have to follow them so that everything goes smoothly and we get our desired result.  I don't know about you, but I think that was some pretty deep thinking and a terrific analogy.

Mrs. Regina placed each ingredient out on the table with the proper measuring device.

Each child go to have a turn adding an ingredient to the recipe.  

We learned the importance of measuring accurately.

Then, in a way that was better than we could have planned, we talked about sorting the wet and dry ingredients. Reflecting our recent math work on the subject, the children demonstrated for us that they knew exactly how to do this.  We had discussed sorting by color and size, but had not yet had the opportunity to sort by our own rule.  From this point on, each child evaluated their ingredient and then placed it in the appropriate bowl.  What a great learning experience that we shared!

Then it was time to stir.  We used team work to accomplish this tricky task!

G was a big help in keeping our carpet clean.  We kept getting flour on our shoes and walking on the carpet.  There were little white foot prints all over the rug!

We turned our little classroom into a dog bone bakery!

We rolled, pressed, and baked 3 sheets of bones.  

Hope they like them!

Pet Week

Have I mentioned how much fun Pet Week is at preschool?  Well, it IS!  We kick off November, a thankful month, with a celebration of family.  Some of our favorite family members are our pets, and this week is all about them

It is only Tuesday, and we have already been super busy.  

We started out Monday morning making dog bones and kibble with play-doh.  We gave our small muscles a great workout making lots of little pieces of puppy food.  

The dramatic play center was stokcekd with "pets"  and accessories, including clothes!

This puppy was injured (stuffing falling out) and had to be taped up.  

The puppy was cared for and patched up in our own SDS pet hospital   

Speaking of injuries...this puppy needed a band aid on his paw.

T knew just where to go to find the materials he needed...

in the art center!

We had a fun snack- Scooby Snacks and goldfish!

Today we used a crayon resist technique to paint goldfish in bowls.  

We used crayons to draw the pictures, then went over our drawings with water colors.  

This opened a great discussion on why the wax doesn't absorb the water.  

Finally, we had one of those moments today that make you remember why we do what we do.

I noticed this piece of paper taped to Goldie's tank.  I decided to explore it a little further.

On the underside, where Golide could see it best, was a picture of her.  

Now she has her own portrait hanging on her "wall"!

Might seem simple, but to me it is pretty neat.  A child in our classroom accepted an open invitation to create art with materials we placed out in the classroom.  She was inspired by our theme, and decided to draw a picture of a pet she loves, our class pet.  Once complete, she felt so pleased with her work that she wanted to share it.  She didn't ask us if she could tape something up, she knows that she can.  We keep the tape out at the children's level and encourage them to use it when they need it.  I absolutely love that she is empowered to use the tools in HER classroom and feels free to post her work!