Our weather was the topic of our discussion during group time on Tuesday afternoon.  It was a rainy, rainy, rain day.  It seemed to last forever.  We read the book The Rainy Day by Anna Milbourne which told us about how clouds are formed and what happens inside the clouds to make the rain fall.

The children shared their favorite things to do on a rainy day…playing games was the top on the list!  We played all sorts of Rainy Day learning games in small groups including Dominos, Colorama, and Seasonal Science Sorting Game.  Sometimes rainy days can be the best days.

During weather we have learned that Christmas Trees are actually Evergreen Trees until……

Christmas Time!

As we round out our farm month, Ms. Lori took the opportunity to have the children create the letter H using pieces of corn.  With Ms. Lori’s help the children dotted glue along the letter, and used their fine motor skills to place the corn on the dot of glue.  Starting from top to bottom and working from left to right, the children created their own H masterpieces!

As we usher our way back from a restful holiday break, we got back into the swing of things by practicing our rhyming skills and matching upper and lowercase letters.  When rhyming, the children discovered that it does not matter what the first letter is, as long as the ending of the words sound the same.  When we found words that matched, the puzzle pieces fit together.  As the children matched the capital and lowercase letters, they had to find the picture that began with that particular letter.  If the letters match, the puzzle pieces fit!  The children did an excellent job exploring the letters.

We experimented with gelatin today by using a dropper and squeezing a variety different liquid water colors inside the gelatin.  It created an “explosion” of color within the gelatin that looked liked veins of color running throughout the mold.

We read the book, Celebrating Thanksgiving:  Giving Thanks during group time today and shared what we were thankful for…

Ms. Courtney’s sister joined us to make a special Thanksgiving Turkey out of popcorn, tissue paper, and a medical glove.  It’s amazing what little creativity to create!

In preparation for a successful future in writing children must, regularly, be using the small muscles in their hands and fingers to strengthen them.  We used small blocks today during small groups along with shaving cream and wooden spatulas to help build these muscles.  Children are also acquiring knowledge and skills which will provide an important foundation for later learning.  From the wooden shapes, your child solves problems and gains confidence.  Building with blocks helps children learn what numbers stand for, and it encourages children to practice scientific, trial-and-error thinking as well as critical-thinking and decision making skills.  And of course…it was a lot of fun!

The PreK children strengthened their fine motor muscles and had some holiday fun today creating their own turkey treat for snack time.

What is on your Thanksgiving plate?  Mr. Turkey!  Today, Ms. Lori worked on fine motor with the boys and girls as each child painted his/her own turkey.  Using water color paint, the children did an excellent job of dictating where the paint should go with a very tiny brush.  They made quite the array of Thanksgiving masterpieces!

Running Deer and Dancing Moon visited our classroom today to teach us about the Native Americans of the Southwest.  We have been talking about the pilgrims traveling to America and meeting the Native Americans that already lived there.  This was a great connection to what we have been learning about the first Thanksgiving.  We had the opportunity to visit four learning centers during their visit as well as hear a old Native American Cautionary Tale.  We learned about a variety of hunting tools they used to survive and how they made them out of items found in nature in around where they lived.  We also learned about the importance of corn.  We shelled corn and ground it into cornmeal using a mano and matate.  In the jewelry center we discovered the different types of items they used to create their jewelry, then tried our hand at making our own piece of jewelry to take home using duck feathers.  Lastly, we shucked our own corn and ate right off the cob for a snack.