Ice cold igloos with iguanas inside..."Ii"  was our letter of the week!  It was a super tough one to brainstorm too!  Rory came up with icicles and Luke had Isuzu for us.  Our writing is really coming along and "Ii" is the perfect letter to build confidence with its nice straight lines.

We practiced writing one on one this week with Ms. Stacy and Mac and Addler both did their "Ii"s for the first time alone.  Huge accomplishment!  Saria and Sofia both matched their animal pictures to the appropriate number with no help!  Incredible!

The sensory bin was filled with rice and scoops to practice moving from left to right.  Rice was definitely a favorite place to be this week. 

Earth cycles was the theme this week so we talked alot about the seasons and what to look for in each one.  Aiden  said he loves the snow so Winter was his favorite, Rylee loves jumping on and squishing leaves in the Fall and we all love the Spring and Summer.  We tied this theme together with the cycle of a pumpkin and alot of the children didn't know that pumpkins have flowers.  Parker was amazed!

In art we made letter "I" drawings and filled them with our own writing, created corn counting husks, and made seasonal trees.  We are really working on teaching the children to draw with their glue onto the paper and not onto an item.  It is less messy and much more efficient.  We also cut shapes out then glued them onto the matching shape.  Please feel free to work with your children at home.  Everyone needs practice cutting but we are definitely seeing improvements.

Thank you so much to all of the parents that participated in the Halloween party on Monday!  We all had a blast and the children really enjoy having  you with us.  Thank you Jen (Charlie's mom) for helping Ms. Stacy by reading when her voice was starting to fade.  You're a life (voice) saver!

Spanish (espanol) was all about counting this week.  The kids are getting so comfortable with it that they are now asking how to say specific words in Spanish during the day!            

classroom notes 

This week's theme was Earth Cycles.  We enjoyed talking about the changes happening in the weather and the earth around us.  The kids' are loving talking about their new fall and winter clothing (Ezra is loving his cool new coat) and about the leaves, rain and fog.  We also talked a bit about spring, summer and winter as they are all a part of the earth's cycles too. 

Some of the book's we read this week included Squirrel's Nutty Race, When the Leaf Blew In, and Fall is for Friends.  We also read our favorite Halloween books and then said "good bye" to them until next year.   

In art, we made lots of festive fall art so we could have some beautiful things to decorate our room with as all of the Halloween pictures come down.  We made little leafy fall trees and we worked together to paint brown tree trunks for seasonal trees.  We now have a very nice forest of fall, winter, spring and summer trees.  We made wonderful fall leaf wreaths and made leaf prints and collages with real leaves. 

There seemed to be leaf activities everywhere.  We also practiced our writing on leaf shaped paper this week, used leaves for name recognition practice, sorted leaves by color and size in the science area and learned two new autumn leaves songs.  When we sing "Autumn leaves come falling down" we like to swirl around the room like leaves on the breeze and then fall down fast when that part comes up.   

We learned about what happens to an apple tree in each season.  Then we pretended we were apple seeds that were planted and then grew and grew and grew.  We went through the whole year as a tree.  The kids enjoyed being planted and giggles all through the rain that fell on backs (teachers tickley, tappity fingers) and laughed and laughed when we picked the beautiful apples that grew and ate them.  Laimis said "Don't forget my apple" and Madi shared that her mom grew an apple tree and she helped.  We then sat down and pretended to make apple sauce and ate it all up.  Delish! 

In science, we cut up a wonderfully large and fragrant Cinderella pumpkin.  The kid's enjoyed learning about the parts of a pumpkin and to squealish delight got to touch and play with "the guts."   

Monday was Halloween and it was amazing!  The kids had such a ball at the Halloween party.  They played Halloween BINGO, get the ghost to the haunted house door, did a cute pumpkin craft, got tattoos and had a delicious cookie and juice snack.  The party was beyond amazing and a million thank yous to all of the parents who helped organize, prepare, and make this great party happen.  Elizabeth, Heather, Joe, Amy, and Zie Zie, you all are incredible.  And another great big thanks to all of you who came in and did way more than just party it up with us.  Having your extra hands and smiles in the room for the festivities was so appreciated.  Thank You!!! 

Happy Birthday Ellie F.!  You are sunshine and we love you!

Ms. Angie & Mr. Thomas