Celebrating Fall, Creating Memories . . .
Our M/W group began the week by reviewing the things they remembered about their field trip last week. This activity transitioned into reading one of the books we acquired that day, Wilfrid Gordon McDonald Partridge, by Mem Fox (writer of Where is the Green Sheep, another favorite). Wilfrid befriends an old woman who has "lost" her memory and he helps her find it by bringing her a collection of treasures that sparks stories of her life. This inspired a conversation with the children about memories.
Our discussion began with bit of a lesson on semantics and word origin. We remembered things we did on our field trip and remember has a similar sound to the word, memory. We talked about how memories, as exhibited in the book, could make you laugh, make you sad, make you even angry. We all remembered something and I wrote the children's words down and they drew a picture for it. We then put our memories together as our own book, pictured below, left.
Later, we decorated a box to put items we collect throughout the year to help us remember them. The act of purposefully honoring and facilitating the things we do from week to week supports growing cognitive development in the children.
We made use of some placemats that Jill found - exposure to a map of the world, numbers, letters and...the presidents of the U.S!
The T/Th group explored painting with cars together . . .
And we enjoyed sticking letters on contact paper.
Jill spilled all the counting straws and Molly initiated picking them up and sorting them by color!
We painted a new "Sharing Chair," a chair that the children sit in during meeting time to share news.
Happy 4th Birthday, Noe!
The M/W group took an autumn walk on the Regis Campus. During our walk I called attention to the very old and large trees, as well as some of the architectural features of some of the very old buildings. As we entered, I pointed out the arch of the gate...
We checked out the map!
We found a big clock! (sorry the angle)
Another arch!
We found some numbers on the concrete.
A little waterfall!
Lots of patches of green grass to run upon!
There is a fabulous willow-type tree with branches that flow to the ground that create a big fort!
Our T/Th group continues to learn to play together, with my encouragement and facilitation. We are learning to share the trains and build the track together!
I was very proud of their ability to sit together at meeting last week "criss-cross-applesauce" and sing our good morning song...
After reviewing the book and song "5 Little Pumpkins," we had a surprise of a caldron full of little pumpkins to play act the song with.
We made little gates out of the blocks and counted out 5 pumpkins each...
Later, we enjoyed pretending to "Trick or Treat" by putting items in the little pumpkins.
Lucas wanted to decorate the room with the pumpkins!
The T/Th group had a turn for an autumn walk...
There is nothing like discovering a great little patch of smooth dirt to play with!
"5 Little Pumpkins Sitting on a Gate,
The first one said, 'Oh my! It's getting late!
The second one said, 'There's witches in the air!'
The third one said, 'I don't care!'
The fourth one said, 'Let's Run and Run and Run!'
The fifth one said 'It's Halloween Fun!"
And (their favorite part) CRASH went the thunder and
OUT went the lights and the 5 little pumpkins
Rolled out of site!"
