How precious are these girlies!!!  So this week we began our study on the letter "Y" and what a great time of year to be discussing yellow.  With all the leaves falling we have plenty of opportunity to lots of "materials" laying all around.  We started the week collecting, sorting, and matching all kinds of yellow, orange, red, green and brown leaves.  Pictured here we were ALL yellow!  We decided that they would display the best on black paper, grabbed the glue and began to CREATE!  Most of our little ones (ages 2 and 3) randomly placed the leaves on the paper.  Some created a pattern of big, small, big, small.  We talked ALL about how leaves change colors and WHY they change.  We learned a new song to the tune of London Bridges...

All the leaves are falling down,
falling down, falling down.
All the leaves are falling down,
In the Autumn.

Yellow leaves are falling down,
falling down, falling down.
Yellow leaves are falling down,
In the Autumn.

Orange leaves are falling down,
falling down, falling down.
Orange leaves are falling down,
In the Autumn.

Golden leaves...
Red leaves...
Brown leaves...
Crunchy leaves...

They really enjoyed this song and it was a fun one to sing outside while leaf color hunting too.  We hunted and collected all the different colors and mixed and matched.  We noticed that when the wind blew the leaves falling looked like golden rain showering down on us.  We got out all the rakes and made piles (little ones) and played in the leaves, throwing them up and watching them fall again.  We also observed that the leaves came from different trees and we matched the tree to it's leaves as we looked at the branches and treetops.  This is such a great time of year for all the children to be able to observe change and growth in the the seasons.  We had a really fun time with our "Yellow" theme...

Another letter "Y" word we studied was "Yak."  This simple word is fun to say and easy for the older children to build words with.  It's a great phonics word since you spell it JUST like it sounds.  Pictured here are a couple of our little fella's preparing their brown bags with yak faces, yellow yak yarn for the hair, yak tails and yak expressions.  When we make puppets around here its a messy process!  The yarn hair requires puddles and puddles of glue (that's the way they like it!) and the children are HAPPY to oblige!!! 

During this day's letter "Y" is for Yellow lesson we made "yellow yarn yo-yo's."  We cut toilet paper rolls in half and then we placed several slits in the upper and lower rim as pictured here.  We made the top and bottom with yellow posterboard circles we cut out and tied a yellow yarn to each roll.  The children flattened out the cut rims as we discussed what "flat" meant.  They then, again, used puddles of glue to secure both the upper and lower circles to their yo-yo tube as we talked about the shapes of the cylindar and the circles.  We then measured the yarn and tied a knot around the tube and helped each child roll the string around the tube.  They unrolled the yarn and we rolled it back again!

ANY week would be incomplete without utilizing our favorite learning tool...playdough!  I totally wish I could have a magical playdough fairy that made all this fun squishy stuff for us!!!  Hey playdough corp.  if you are out there, branch out and make playdough's that are sparkled, colorable, chunky, textured, scented, etc...WE LOVE the stuff!

We studied the letter "X" last week and made off white playdough for all the bones we were forming.  This week we bought a tube of yellow and mixed, mixed, mixed the white playdough with all the fingers at the table and watched in AMAZEMENT as it turned YELLOW!  We then began our word building session with it making every word we could think of that began with the letter "Y," including the letter.  We made "yellow," "yak," "yarn," yo-yo," "Y," and "y"...as you can see here, we also needed to spell the names of our special people in yellow :)). 

We also made yellow balls, snakes, butterflies, pumpkins and spiders.  We compared the sizes of the balls we made and counted the objects as we created. 

This was another of our favorite songs this week as we studies the letter "Y" and yellow.  We used this as a colors lesson as we would go around the room and find things of different colors as we would sing Mr. Sun, Sun, Mr. Yellow Sun...or Mr. Blue Sun...or Mr. Purple Sun...etc.  We also added our own little hand and body motions.  As you sing this with your preschooler you will notice them making a circle with their fingers as they sing, then peeking behind their hands, etc.  Please feel free to ask Ms. Rebecca or myself to demonstrate the song for you if you are missing anything!

Along with our yellow sun song we also made yellow "y's" that glittered with all the colors of the rainbow. 

We practiced and practiced this skill builder!  All the children LOVE playdough...I know I have said this one many times!  We used their love for the squishy stuff to practice some math skills by comparing and contrasting sizes  of bones like the ones listed on the "bones" sheet here.  This one took some time to master, but one by one, each one of the children practiced making and then placing their homemade bones onto the sheet.  We also found other objects from around the class to compare in these spaces.  We used our white playdough to make our bones more life like and discussed the shape, texture and color of bones.  We also discussed that we see our bones through an x-ray.  These are special pictures that allow us to see inside our bodies. 

We viewed actual x-rays of the spine, hips and arms (Chance just broke his elbow so this was pretty easy to come by!)  The children REALLY enjoyed the real x-rays and it helped to have these on hand for everyone to refer back to when talking about the letter "x" and x-ray!

On our word wall this week were the words
X-RAY
FOX
BOX
Again, we made these words in to puzzles to allow all of the children to be "word builders!"

We practiced finding the letter "X" on our papers, our books, our wall, and our fingers.  We sang our Dry Bones song and had LOTS of discussions about the parts of our body.

Next week - Y is yellow!

What a GREAT time of year for webs and x-rays!  October is THE perfect time for our letter's W and X and all things spiders, webs, x-rays and bones.  Since the children are seeing ALL of these when out shopping with the family and these items are in abundance for our preschool activities we thought we would make the MOST of it!

We began this week discussing what an x-ray is.  We decided to explain it like this since most 2's and 3's have never experienced an x-ray (that they remember, at least) and also do not quite grasp that we have ANYTHING inside our bodies except for poo!!  (Gross, I know, but if you have a todder or pre-k you can give me an AMEN!)  What I mean is that unless they can actually SEE it in or coming out of their bitty bodies they don't really understand that its inside.  SO, we explained that an x-ray is a picture that makes things look different and helps us to see things on the inside that we wouldn't be able to see.  We cut out friendly skeletons (which you can barely see under the film) and placed them underneath the "picture." We talked about the bones in our body with the "Dry Bones" song, and practiced finding our skull, spine and collarbones. 

We made these x-rays by cutting out frames with black posterboard and attaching colored clear plastic wrapping paper to the backside.  The children took these around the class, inside and outside, viewing things through them. 

Pictured here you can see on of our little students placing her bones under the x-ray. 

We have been discussing that an x-ray is the way we see the bones in our bodies and also decided to make some white playdough so that the children could "make" bones.  We molded, rolled and pounded and shaped bones the size of our fingers and arms.  We talked about big, small and medium sized bones and compared and contrasted the sizes of our playdough bones in comparison to the bones in our bodies!

With our mixed age group we plan activities that span the ages.  For our word wall we made puzzle words with "worm," "web," and "wow!"  These words were cut zig zag, curved and triangular to allow the younger children an opportunity to match the appropriate "W" to each word to also be a word builder. 

Each of our little ones took home a set of word puzzles to practice with at home with the family and from what I heard in response these were a fun family activity that is still being used.  YAY!  I mean "WOW!"

Children LOVE sticky!!!  They LOVE glue, stickers and tape and we try to use something sticky everyday.  This is a great sensory activity and also good for building those itty bitty fine motor skills.  We called these "Abstract Webs."  The children had SO much fun doing this.  First we cut poster board in half and each child received one.  I then circled the table over and over and over handing out strips of long, short and medium length painter's tape for each child to stick anywhere on their board. Then we painted, and painted and painted with white paint ALL over the surface. 

Not much was left that was "unpainted!"  You know how it is around here in pre-k land...we paint the tables, the chairs, arms, legs, bathroom sink... and then we let it all dry :)).

We peeled back the tape very carefully so as to not disturb the paint and we had THIS!!!

Five little spiders jumping on the web.
One fell off and bumped his head!
Momma called the doctor and the doctor said,
"No more spiders jumping on the web!"

Four little spiders jumping on the web.
One fell off and bumped his head!
Momma called the doctor and the doctor said,
"No more spiders jumping on the web!"

Three little spiders jumping on the web.
One fell off and bumped his head!
Momma called the doctor and the doctor said,
"No more spiders jumping on the web!"

Two little spiders jumping on the web.
One fell off and bumped his head!
Momma called the doctor and the doctor said,
"No more spiders jumping on the web!"

One little spider jumping on the web.
One fell off and bumped his head!
Momma called the doctor and the doctor said,
"No more spiders jumping on the bed!"

We made these adorable little spider finger puppets to go with our spider webbing and recited our adapted chant while adding and subtracting spiders.  They LOVED this activity and we were able to do this again and again and send home five little spiders along with their webs with each child.  This is a GREAT math and counting activity and they don't even know they are LEARNING!!!

Here is the template...

We made and used the smaller spider by cutting out small paper strips and taping them to the backside of each little spider.  The larger spiders are the template for the spiders we made with our cottonballs to be on top of our spiderweb pix from Monday.

During our "web" discussions we talked about many things.  We discussed that webs are sticky and that the reason why they are sticky is to help the spider catch food. 

To demonstrate how it feels to be a bug on a web we put out our clear contact paper and made webs with strips of colored paper.  We put the strips this way and that way...we observed that it was very difficult to peel the paper up after it had been stuck down.  The stickiness of the contact paper really made it REAL to the children how a bug must feel!  After each child was finished weaving their web, they picked out spiders and placed them at the top, bottom and middle.  We then finished off each web with an additional piece of sticky clear contact paper to seal the web for going home :).

This has NOTHING to do with webs...but everything to do with October, kids, preschool and CANDY :))!!
Thanks to a great chef and friend, Chef Vito Palmietto, we obtained an easy and DELISH recipe for homemade butterfingers that  they all had a little hand in making and eating and eating some more...

First we melted and mixed one bag of candy corn in the microwave...stir, stir, stir.  We then added an equal amount of creamy peanut butter...stir, stir, stir...Then set them on wax paper in a 9x12 pan to cool overnight.  Melted choco almond bark...coat, coat, coat and viola!  The next pic tells it ALL!

The pet rock turtles were such a hit a few weeks ago that we again decided to go on a hunt for the perfect size rocks for our pet spiders. 

We made the following templates and cut these out of felt.  The children glued and glued after they found JUST the right rock. This takes quite a bit of effort and decision making.  Some of the children just picked any 'ole rock, but others are very decisive.  They wandered the play yard picking up a rock, putting it down, picking up another one, putting it down...then FINALLY the RIGHT one :)) Smiles all around!! 

Of course, we HAVE to have the googley eyes!  We again discussed and counted legs, eyes and the purpose of spiders and their webs.  We discussed that spiders LIVE on their webs, they use their webs for hunting, capturing and keeping their food.  We talked about how some webs are HUGE and some are tiny but that spiders make them ALL. 

That leads me to the YouTube videos that were WONDERFUL visuals for our preschoolers to view on how a spider makes a web.

These two YouTube videos AMAZED the children.  They wanted to see them again and again...

They really are incredible.  Of course, this DOES bring about the Itsy, Bitsy Spider song!!!  It's just a natural conclusion :)).

We began our letter "W" unit study last week as we gathered around the table on Friday afternoon.  Each week as we wrap up our previous week of learning, I will introduce the letter for the next week and we will begin discussing ideas of things we might like to study around that letter.  Sometimes, we want to study things that have NOTHING to do with the letter.  That's perfectly fine and usually I can craft the letter to fit into the lesson SOMEHOW :))! 

So, as we began discussing all the things that start with a "W", it was an unanimous decision when I mentioned spiders and their webs.  We ARE in October and the children have been seeing all kinds of fun things in the stores while shopping with parents, so WEBS it is! 

We began our circle time this morning talking about the letter "W", it's sound and words that begin with "W."  Our sweet little Alice exclaimed, "MS. DONNA!  WHEN are you going to talk about WEBS!"  I was saving that for the last word, but she beat me to it...little genious!  I unraveled all the spider webbing I bought at the store, neon green (SO CUTE!)  and began to stretch it and cut it, giving each child a portion of the webbing and asking them to stretch it, squish it and see just how far they could spread it out.  I asked them to feel each strand and imagine that they were little spiders walking on each tiny thread.  We all thought it would be quite a challenge to balance on such a smallish strand, but then again, as one child observed, "spiders do have itty, bitty legs!"  True!  I also began passing out black paper, glue and these purple and pink spider legs.  We counted out loud how many legs each spider has...one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight!  They squealed with excitment as I also pulled out the cotton balls and demonstrated my idea about how we could make a little spider to climb on our neon green spider webbing.

We finished up our lttle spider friends with lots of googly eyes.  The children LOVE anything we can glue googly eyes to!  We discussed that spiders have eyes that can see in every direction to help them find their food and we pretended to be able to see in every direction too.  The children already believe that I can do this :))  (really, what momma can't??!!)