The second week in October is National Fire Prevention Week. Today our 3s kicked it off with a visit from the Wallace Fire Department. Windsor's Daddy and her Uncle Chuck brought over a fire truck and spent some time with us talking about firefighters, their jobs, and the tools they use.

We gathered outside to see the fire truck. We were SO excited!

We learned that firefighters use masks to keep them safe when they are working in smoky conditions. The masks give them oxygen. Some of the children were very excited about trying on the firemen's gear.

This little fellow tried it all on. The gear is very heavy!

Do fire-girls wear hair bows? Of course they do!

We took a tour of the truck and saw lots of neat tools.

Mr. Nate showed us how to spray water!

Everyone got to try, if they wanted to...

Firefighting is hard work!

We got in the fire truck and explored.

Happy Fire Safety Week!

SDS 3s

"C" is for Carrot

Last spring we planted carrots in our vegetable garden. I read that they would last through the fall and into winter, if left in the ground. I decided to give it a try. "C" week came around for our 3s, and I found the perfect opportunity to harvest our carrots.

I told them that they could pick carrots, and they looked at me like I was crazy! Sometimes it is easy to forget that they think carrots come from the grocery store. This is one reason why providing children with experiences like these is so important.

I showed them how to do it once, and they got the hang of it quite quickly!

Each time a carrot was pulled, they had the same look of wonder on their faces. I LOVE it!

Carrot picking started with a small group, and then caught on fast!

It was a great day in the garden for us!

My guess is that this real-life learning experience with the letter "C" will be very memorable!

We also had a little time to look at the different carrots and talk about their sizes and shapes, how dirty they were, and what we would need to do before we could eat them.

By the end of the morning, we had collected quite a lot of carrots!

This last picture is just Mrs. Georgia and Miss Ashley being proud

of our 3s and their awesome line!

Today we took our art outside. It was just one those beautiful fall mornings that could not be ignored! We have been looking and looking for fall leaves around our school, but it just not happening yet. So today we made our own.

First, we clipped our coffee filter leaves on the fence.

Then we stood back and sprayed our watercolor paints on the leaves.

It was interesting for me to see the children learn to gauge how far or how close they needed to be to the leaves to get the desired effect. Too close and the colors did not spread, too far away and the wind would not let the color reach the leaves.

The children had access to 3 colors: red, yellow and violet.

As the colors began to run together, we got to see new colors.

We had a great time working together.

We will not have to look very far to see fall leaves now, they are right there in our classroom!

The children have not seen the finished products yet, as we left them out to dry; but we look forward to revisiting the leaves tomorrow. We will be able to make some conclusions about what happens when these particular colors mix. I was even surprised to see what happened!

"B" is for Bubble Wrap!

On Friday, the 3s class explored the letter "B". I couldn't think of anything more inviting to share with them than "b"ubble wrap. The goal for the bubble wrap was for us to paint with it...

And that is exactly what we did-after a little time of exploration- of course!

I placed the wrap on the floor and let them have at it! They popped the "B"ig Bubbles with their fingers, one at at time, at first... Then they figured out how to do lots at one time, and some even tried with their feet. The boys and girls did a great job sharing and working together. I don't even think they knew that I was putting them through a rigorous fine motor work-out! Shhh don't tell them :)

Once we had used up all the bubbles, it was time to paint. I captured this precious moment of these 2 little boys working together to put the paint smock on. The best part was that I didn't even ask for his help, he just noticed his friend needing assistance, and jumped right in.

Here we are painting the bubble wrap with blue paint. I have seen this done many ways, but found that this worked best for these 3s, so early in the year.

Next, the children pressed their "B"s onto the paint.

Finally, we lifted the papers to see what kind of print we had made! This process from popping to painting, was very memorable for the children. I don't think they will forget our day with bubble wrap anytime soon! Now the Bs have been cut out and are ready to become part of our growing alphabet collection.

Apple Graphing

Today our Rainbow 4s participated in a culminating activity for our Apple Harvest unit of study. Throughout the week, we learned how apples grow and change with the seasons. We talked about the importance of the farmer, who tends the trees, and gave thanks to God for the providing the rain, the sunshine and the bumblebees to help the apples grow. We learned that there are many varieties of apples. Today we tasted 3 types of apples: Red Delicious, Golden Delicious, and Granny Smith.

We tasted each type of apple. The red apples were sweet.

The yellow apples were sweet and sour.

The green apples were very sour!

After we tasted each variety, we thought about which one we liked best!

Each child placed his or her apple on our apple graph.

We watched carefully to see which variety had the most votes. Once we had all voted, we counted to find out which was the class favorite.

As you can see, it was close, but the Granny Smith's won!

The boys and girls did a great job with this fun math lesson!

The Block Center

Today I spent some time in the block center. This is one of my favorite places to work with the children. I joined 3-4 students who were already working there and was delighted that I was "invited" to stay. Sometimes, early in the year, the children need a little help getting started on building structures. I think that there are so many things there to build with that they get overwhelmed; they pull out all of the blocks, and then there is no room to build. I had noticed this happening for a few days, and decided that it was time. The only thing I did was get them started on the foundation. We talked about starting with a big, solid foundation, and building up. Once the foundation was in place, I sat back and watched. Here is what they built...

The architects/construction crew were very proud of their work. The building was so fast and furious, that I was not able to take a lot of pictures, this is definitely a hard hat only zone our classroom!

Once the building was complete, we had a chance to talk about what they had built. I asked them what it was, one little boy said, "Its a skyscraper." First of all, I was a little surprised, because the closest skyscraper to us at least an 1 1/2 hours away. Then they went on to tell me about the workers. One little girl showed me how she had built chairs for them, in their offices. The other little boy showed me the parking garage in the basement, complete with ramp system.

I told them I thought they should make some signs so that everyone would know what they had built. I got them some paper and writing utensils, and we set out to label the building. I helped them make this sign, which says "Skyscraper". For a 4 year old, I think this is great work. He heard 2 sounds in the word, and was able to write them.

Next, we decided the people needed to know where to park. So we made this sign that says "garage". Most people would not get so excited over just a few letters, but this is big stuff. Budding literacy right there in the block center!

Here they are using the ramp to park the cars. I also like that you can see how closely they children were working in proximity to one another. The structure was rather large, and took up most of the space. Yet, with their focused work, there was not one argument or disagreement. They respected each other's work and were very careful not to knock any part over.

This is more of what I love about preschool. I don't know how or why the baby was there, or the book, however I do know that there was some amazing learning, collaborating, cooperating, planning, thinking, and mathematical reasoning happening in this center today.

Check back soon, tomorrow the Rainbow 4s are tasting apples, and graphing their favorites. Can't wait to find out which they liked best!

Celebrating Johnny Appleseed

Today was a special day at SDS. Our 4 year old classes joined together to learn about John Chapman, or as we know him, Johnny Appleseed.

We read a beautiful book about Johnny. We learned that he was a good man, who was kind to all people and animals. He helped the Pioneers learn to grow apple trees. He gave them the gift of applesauce, apple pie, apple cider, and food for the whole year.

Johnny was a simple man who lead a simple life. He traveled around the country sharing with others the word of the Lord and his apple seeds. Legend has it that he wore his cooking pot on his head, because his back pack was full of apple seeds!

Today we honored Johnny Appleseed by wearing our pots on our heads, and spreading "apple" seeds all around our school. Of course, apple trees don't grow very well around here, so we just pretended and spread seeds for the birds. We think Johnny would have liked that we were being kind to the animals.

We had a silly fun time with our friends!